Tama Tonga came to WWE and was immediately respected. As the right hand man of Solo Sikoa’s newly formed Bloodline, Tonga has been fast tracked to greatness, being one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions just over three months since his debut. Regardless of your thoughts on Sikoa’s Bloodline it is hard to argue that Tonga isn’t one of the most pushed talents on the roster.
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Tonga may be pushed like a beast, but he doesn’t have to talk like one!
For the record, I’m unfamiliar with Tonga’s work pre-WWE. I have no idea if he was barking like a dog during his days in NJPW. Even if he was barking in his pre-WWE career, we can certainly leave things like that behind once we start appearing in a main event-caliber capacity on the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, right?
As a self-proclaimed connoisseur of absurd humor, I was absolutely dying when Tonga came on the mic during Friday’s episode of “WWE SmackDown” and started barking. Like, actually barking. One half of the WWE Tag Team Champions was on the microphone, snarling and growling like he was Taz from Looney Tunes, in front of Sacramento and everybody. It absolutely did not help that Tonga was walking with a squat, like he was Bigfoot. As Sacramento drowned out Tonga’s garbled speech with their boos, Kevin Owens stood in the middle of the ring, hands folded over his body, unimpressed. The entire scene was just so unnatural — not even in a derogatory way. Tonga on the mic feels like something out a fever dream.
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I do sort of love the unhinged energy that Tonga’s animalistic yapping and overexaggerated speech patterns bring to the table, and I would honestly prefer a promo style that is over the top and ridiculous than one that is flat and boring. However, that doesn’t change the fact that it seems very unbecoming for somebody who is part of one of the most dominant factions in WWE, and who is a tag team champion. You would think that once Tonga got put into this heightened position — Sikoa’s right hand man, title holder, one of the first of Sikoa’s new Bloodline to emerge on the scene — he would learn to sober up the promo style a bit. It also doesn’t quite fit with how he has been represented within the social ecosystem of the Bloodline. Sure, he’s ruthless, but aren’t they all? If there is someone to give the wild, gibberish-style speech pattern to, wouldn’t it be Jacob Fatu, the “Samoan Werewolf?” Why is Tonga — not an animalistic nickname or gimmick in sight — slobbering all over the mic like he is a rabid chihuahua?
If this were literally any other promotion than WWE (namely, a Jacksonville-based promotion that I applaud for its use of camp), I would be all over this speech choice. However, WWE is not known for its wide use of ridiculous campiness, and allowing Tonga to perform in this way feels out of place.
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Written by Angeline Phu