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"Wild Samoan" Raising Relief Money

Posted: Oct 3rd 2009 By: CMBurnham

This week's Samoa earthquake and tsunami have hit at least one local person.

Minneola resident Afa Anoa'i, better known as half of the sibling tag wrestling team Wild Samoans, has relatives who are missing.

And two cousins are dead: a school principal and a resort owner. Anoa'i said his cousin Tui Annendale, the resort owner, is one of the island's richest women and made national news after she was swept away trying to save some children.

Anoa'i, an native of the Island of American Samoa, plans to hold a luau or some entertainment fundraiser in Minneola within the next week or so to help benefit his native land.

"The islands were hit pretty hard," said Anoa'i on Thursday afternoon, at which time about 150 people had been reported killed. "I want to reach out to the community."

Anoa'i said he planned to talk with Minneola Mayor Dave Yeager by today to discuss the event. He added he hopes to get a lot of area residents from the South Pacific involved.

He's asking local people interested in helping to make cash donations to the American Red Cross for the victims.

It wasn't clear whether Anoa'i intends on paying a visit to his homeland, but he said travel there now is practically impossible.

Anoa'i hasn't had problems keeping up with the aftermath of the magnitude 8.0-plus quake that struck off Samoa just before 2 p.m. Tuesday, EDT, before the islands were engulfed by four tsunami waves.

He's been staying in contact with family members and friends there.

"Unfortunately we are still waiting to hear more news on missing family members, hopefully good news," he said.

He said his home was especially vulnerable to tsunami waves because many of the roads are just off the ocean.

"I just can't image what happened when waves hit the islands," he said.

Anoa'i almost was in the middle of it himself. He was scheduled to return to his village in Leone a few days ago for a name ceremony with his high chief. But the ceremony got postponed to November.

Anoa'i, 66, who retired from the World Wrestling Federation in 1984, has been heavily involved in his community and continues to be active in wrestling circles. He said he hopes to put together a large, national event involving wrestlers as well as football, boxing and baseball athletes from the South Pacific to raise funds from his native land.

His nephew, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who made a surprise appearance at a WXW Wrestling event in Minneola this past weekend, also could be one of the guests.

Anoa'i, along with his brother Sika, were known for their unorthodox behavior in and around the ring, which included communicating in unintelligible grunts and eating raw fish during interviews.

They were later joined by Anoa'i's son, Samu. The Wild Samoans were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.

Tags: Afa, WWF, Sika, Samu, Wild Samoans, WWE