Triple H says WWE is going to Hawaii looking for the next generation of Pacific Island talent, and that the company’s history there is the reason.
WWE returns to the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu on October 16 for the first time in seven years, and is holding tryouts at the same venue with recruiters, coaches and executives on site. Speaking to KHON2, Triple H put the trip in the context of who came before.
“Hawaii has such a rich tradition for us. Our roots are firmly planted there, from The Rock to his grandfather, Peter Maivia, all the way through Don Muraco coming from there,” he said.
He said the talent pool is the draw.
“The history of WWE runs through Hawaii, and there are so many amazing athletes in the Pacific Islands. There are so many big personalities in the Pacific Islands,” Triple H said. “We are thrilled to be coming there and trying to find the next WWE superstar.”
His case for it was the current roster.
“You see it today all over everything we do, from Nia Jax to Roman Reigns to The Usos. You see the imprint of the Pacific Islands,” he said. “We want to go look for that next generation. We believe that they’re there. Everybody just has to be willing to come and show out for us, and we’ll take it from there.”
The names Triple H reached for all run back to the same place. Maivia was Samoan, born Fanene Pita Anderson in 1937, and ran Polynesian Pro Wrestling out of Hawaii as an NWA member promotion until his death in Honolulu in 1982 at 45. He was The Rock’s grandfather by blood, through his mother Ata. The Anoa’i family, which Roman Reigns, The Usos, Jacob Fatu and Nia Jax all come from, is joined to the Maivias by a blood brother pact between Peter Maivia and Amituana’i Anoa’i rather than by descent, which is why the two families are treated as one. Muraco is from Sunset Beach on Oahu and held the Intercontinental Championship twice in the 1980s.
The trip has grown since it was announced. WWE put the October 16 show on sale in August, and added a second night on October 17 within a fortnight after the first went nearly sold out. Both are advertised with Seth Rollins, The Usos, Jacob Fatu, Oba Femi and Liv Morgan. WWE last ran the Blaisdell on September 22, 2019.
Three of those five names are the point Triple H was making. The Usos and Fatu are Anoa’i, and the company is running two nights in Honolulu with them on top of the card while holding a tryout in the same building.
The Hawaii tryout comes after a year in which WWE has widened where it looks, including a recruitment booth at the Hawaii Fit Expo in June, held in the exhibition hall next door to the arena. Two visits to the same complex inside four months, the second with coaches and executives attached, is a deliberate look rather than a stop on a tour.
The most recent major tryout, held in Nashville over SummerSlam weekend in July, drew around 50 athletes from 47 colleges and produced 14 contracts. Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter afterwards that nobody stood out as an obvious future star, that the session produced an unusual number of injuries because most of those taking part had never been in a ring, and that WWE may move away from college-only tryouts and back towards recruiting wrestlers with experience alongside athletes.
Hawaii would be the first test of that. A tryout in Honolulu aimed at Pacific Island talent is not a college combine, and the pool Triple HÂ is describing includes people who have been in a ring before.
WWE has not announced a date for the tryout itself or how people apply. It said further details would follow.
