Joseph Afamasaga (2 January 1949 - 9 July 2015), better known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name or nickname used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons ...

Samoan Joe, was a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

who competed in the

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

n and South Pacific region during the 1970s and early 1980s. He was a popular fan favourite while wrestling for

Steve Rickard Sydney Mervin "Merv" Batt (3 September 1929 – 5 April 2015), best known by his ring name Steve Rickard, was a New Zealand professional wrestler, trainer and promoter. As a wrestler, he traveled throughout the world during the 1960s and 1970 ...

's All Star-Pro Wrestling and frequently appeared on the long-running wrestling television programme ''

On the Mat ''On the Mat'' was a professional wrestling television programme for the National Wrestling Alliance-affiliated All Star Pro Wrestling (ASPW), or simply NWA New Zealand, that aired on Television New Zealand's TV2 from 1975 to 1984. One of the m ...

''. He later travelled to the

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where he had a brief stint in the

American Wrestling Association The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The promotion was born out of the Minneapolis ...

before his retirement in 1989. In 2009, Afamasaga was ranked #10 by ''

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation in New Zealand ...

sports columnist Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism has its roots in coverage of horse racing and boxing in the early 1800s, mainly targeted towards elites, and into t ...

Chris Rattue as one of his "Top 10" favourite wrestlers of all-time.

Professional wrestling career

Joe Afamasaga began wrestling in New Zealand during the mid-1970s and soon joined All Star-Pro Wrestling, then on the rise, under

. He quickly became very well known throughout the country while accompanying the promotion on its national tours as far north as

Whangārei Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the largest settlement of the Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, created in 1989 from the former Whangarei City, Whangarei County and Hikurangi Town councils to admi ...

as well as his regular appearances on the wrestling programme ''

''. By 1977, he had established himself as one of New Zealand's most popular "fan favourites" often appearing on the

undercard In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

or in

main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

s against native and foreign "heel" wrestlers alike. That year, he teamed with

Mark Lewin Mark Lewin (born March 16, 1937) is an American retired professional wrestler. He worked for various promotions throughout his 35-year career, including Big Time Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, and the World Wide Wrestling Fede ...

and Siva Afi in a losing effort against

Bruiser Brody Frank Donald Goodish (June 18, 1946 – July 17, 1988) was an American professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the ring name Bruiser Brody. He also worked as King Kong Brody, the Masked Marauder, and Red River Jack. Over the year ...

Bruno Bekkar Bryan Ashby is a retired New Zealand professional wrestler and Athletic trainer, trainer, known by his ring name Bruno Bekkar, who competed for Steve Rickard's All Star-Pro Wrestling and for other promoters in New Zealand and Australia from the e ...

and

King Curtis Iaukea Curtis Piehau Iaukea III (September 15, 1937 – December 4, 2010) was an American professional wrestler better known as King Curtis Iaukea. Iaukea won championships in several of the major regional U.S. promotions, both as a single and in vari ...

Wellington, New Zealand Wellington is Capital of New Zealand, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the List of cities in New Zealand, third-largest city ...

on 12 September 1977. Other opponents included Merv Fortune, "Cowboy" Billy Wright, Lars Anderson and

Larry O'Day Larry Davies (1944 – 30 June 1997) was an Australian professional wrestler best known as Larry O'Dea. He was one half of the tag team known as "The Australians" with Ron Miller. Larry made his professional wrestling debut in the 1960s fo ...

as well as forming a successful

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establis ...

with fellow Samoan Lu Leota. He and Fortune also had a memorable

mixed tag team match Much like the singles match, tag team professional wrestling matches can and have taken many forms. Just about any singles or melee match type can be adapted to tag teams; for example, hardcore tag team matches are commonplace. Tag team ladder ...

with midget wrestlers Coconut Willie and Little Kevin respectively. He was among the top New Zealand stars to appear at the Gay World Stadium, as did American wrestlers Killer Karl Krupp, The Masked Assassin and King Kamaka, during ASPW's tour of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

in May 1982, along with wrestlers from the United States, West Germany, Australia, Samoa and South America. When the NWA New Zealand Heavyweight Championship was vacated the following year, Afamasaga entered a championship tournament and lost to

Rip Morgan Michael Morgan (born August 20, 1957) is a former professional wrestler from New Zealand who competed in the National Wrestling Alliance, World Championship Wrestling and World Class Championship Wrestling as Rip Morgan. He is perhaps best known ...

in the finals held in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

on 8 September 1983. In his final New Zealand TV appearance, Afamasaga wrestled with Larry O'Day, Mel Fortuna, Tony Rickard and Rip Morgan in the final episode of ''On the Mat'' which aired on 23 July 1984. After the cancellation of ''On the Mat'', Afamasaga moved on to Australia where he found some success before heading to the United States. He spent the last year of his career in the

, mainly used as a preliminary wrestler against opponents such as Brian Knobs and

The Rock 'n' Roll Express The Rock 'n' Roll Express is a professional wrestling tag team consisting of professional wrestlers Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton. The duo began teaming together in Memphis in the early 1980s, followed by Mid-South Wrestling (later to be known a ...

(

Ricky Morton Richard Wendell Morton (born September 21, 1956) is an American professional wrestler, currently performing on the independent circuit. For most of his career, Morton has performed with Robert Gibson (wrestler), Robert Gibson as the Rock 'n' Roll ...

and Robert Gibson), before retiring around 1989. Afamasaga subsequently relocated to Australia where he joined

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

and later completed a Mormon mission. He later settled in Victoria where he served on the high council of a Stake presidency. During the 2009 Samoa tsunami, he used

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

to report on conditions in his homeland and, according to his

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, claimed that "the body count is in the hundreds" but that his family had escaped danger by reaching higher ground. Afamasaga appeared in both episodes of ''On the Mat'' were chosen to be shown on NZ On Screen in early-2010; the first was a tag team match between him and Lu Leota against

Sweet William Sweet William may refer to: * '' Dianthus barbatus'', a species of flowering plant * '' Mustelus antarcticus,'' a species of shark * ''Sweet William'' (novel), a 1975 novel by Beryl Bainbridge * ''Sweet William'' (film), a 1980 British drama fil ...

and Brute Miller (29 July 1980) and the second against Johnny Garcia (17 March 1981). On 9 April 2010, Scoop.co.nz reported that ''On the Mat'' ranked #3 among the top 10 most watched videos on NZ On Screen. A number of New Zealand media personalities have referred to Afamasaga as their favourite wrestlers while watching "On the Mat" as children.

Wallace Chapman Wallace Leslie Chapman (born 1969) is a New Zealand radio and television host. Early life Chapman attended Nelson College from 1982 to 1986.''Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006'', 6th edition Career He began his broadcasting career ...

, co-host of the political interview show ''

Back Benches ''Back Benches'' was a New Zealand political interview show, presented by Wallace Chapman and Damian Christie. It was primarily filmed at the Backbencher pub, across the street from Parliament Buildings in Wellington. The show was cancelle ...

'', claimed that his "favourite TV moment" was watching Afamasaga among other "On the Mat" stars as a child.

Jason Conlan Jason Conlan (born 1971) is a New Zealand cartoonist, best known under the pseudonym Mister J, who is the creator of Pro Wrestling Illustrated's monthly cartoon strip "On the Mat". He has also contributed to the similar Australian wrestling publi ...

, longtime cartoonist for ''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishing Group. The maga ...

'', has also claimed that Afamasaga was his favourite wrestler. In March 2009,

Chris Rattue of the ''

'' named several former "On the Mat" stars including Afamasaga as among his "Top 10" favourite wrestlers of all-time.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Samoan Joe 1949 births 2015 deaths Australian male professional wrestlers New Zealand male professional wrestlers New Zealand sportspeople of Samoan descent Sportsmen from Victoria (state) 20th-century Australian sportsmen