Prince Iaukea
| Prince Iaukea | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Michael Laauli Hayner |
| Born |
August 1, 1964 Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Residence | Zephyrhills, Florida |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Prince Iaukea The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea The Artist Mike Hayner 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 best known as Prince Iaukea in World Championship Wrestling. He earned a black belt in Judo right after high school and is well trained in amateur and submission wrestling. He has trained with former USMC champions Greg Gibson and Craig Pittman, and submission wrestlers Gordon Nelson, Ron Hill, and Karl Gotch.
After being trained by Dean Malenko and Rico Federico, Hayner debuted on World Championship Wrestling (WCW) pay-per-view Fall Brawl 1995 as a cadet delivering papers to Cobra for Craig Pittman. Later, Kevin Sullivan brought him to some TV 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. Prince Iaukea debuted on WCW TV in 1996 and quickly made a name for himself with his unique Samoan persona and real submission wrestling skills along with solid pro wrestling ability. The common pronunciation of his ring name came about by the mispronunciation from WCW Announcer Tony Schiavone. Prince Iaukea also received blessing from King Curtis Iaukea during a phone conversation with King Curtis telling him that "he was family" and that he enjoyed the work that Prince was doing.
On February 17, 1997, Iaukea captured the WCW World Television Championship by defeating Lord Steven Regal and would hold it for 2 months before losing it to Ultimate Dragon. Iaukea then went off to tour New Japan working with established greats such as Shinjiro Otani and Koji Kanemoto. On the tour he was kicked severely by Koji Kanemoto and badly injured. Japanese booker Riki Choshu was a huge supporter of Iaukea.
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