Michael Haynes III
| Birth name | Michael Laauli Hayner |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 1, 1964 Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | The Artist The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea Mike Hayner Prince Iaukea The Tongan Prince |
| Billed height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Billed weight | 219 lb (99 kg) |
| Billed from | Honolulu, Hawaii "The Kingdom of Tonga" |
| Trained by |
Boris Malenko Dean Malenko Rico Federico |
| Debut | 1995 |
Michael Laauli "Mike" Hayner (born August 1, 1964) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2000 under the ring name Prince Iaukea and later The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea or simply The Artist.
Hayner made his WCW debut in 1996 and mainly competed as a fan favorite underdog. He was utilized as an enhancement talent during the early months of his career before winning the World Television Championship in 1997 and holding the title for nearly two months. Hayner then fell into the ranks due to some issues with management before being repackaged as "The Artist". He dominated the cruiserweight division during the first half of 2000, winning the company's Cruiserweight Championship twice before departing the company later that year.
After being trained by Dean Malenko and Rico Federico, Hayner made his first appearance in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) at the 1995 Fall Brawl pay-per-view as a cadet delivering papers to Cobra for Craig Pittman. Later, Kevin Sullivan brought him to some television tapings and was so impressed by his professionalism, overall attitude, and respect for the business that Sullivan gave him the "Iaukea" name taken from King Curtis Iaukea, a good friend of Sullivan. Hayner was thus given the ring name "Prince Iaukea".
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