[5] In 1982, when he was seventeen years old, Fatu was wounded in a drive-by shooting that left him with a scar on his abdomen; he claimed in a 2021 interview that he had died for three minutes in the emergency room before being revived.

[4] He spent two months in the hospital, after which his mother, fearing for his safety, sent him out of state to live with her brothers Afa and Sika Anoaʻi, with whom he trained to become a professional wrestler.

[4] Fatu began his wrestling career in 1985, working for Gino Brito and Dino Bravo's Lutte Internationale promotion in Montreal as Prince Alofa, a high-flying babyface.

The SST were given a big push right away; presented as an unstoppable force, they beat hometown heroes Kerry and Kevin Von Erich for the WCWA World Tag Team Championship on August 12, 1988.

[10] The SST teamed with former rival Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Jimmy Garvin at the 1989 Great American Bash, losing a WarGames match to The Road Warriors, The Midnight Express, and Steve Williams.

[citation needed] After leaving WCW in the summer of 1990, Fatu and Savage worked for several independent promotions in the US, Europe, Puerto Rico and Japan, often teaming with cousin Kokina Maximus.

Kokina Maximus also joined the WWF, but was repackaged as Japanese sumo wrestler Yokozuna, and his relation to The Headshrinkers was not acknowledged.

The Headshrinker's first notable angle came when they interfered to help Money Inc. beat The Natural Disasters for the WWF World Tag Team Championship.

[17] Between 1992 and early 1994, The Headshrinkers occasionally challenged for the tag title and made sporadic PPV appearances, feuding with The Smoking Gunns[18] and Men on a Mission.

The New Headshrinkers made only two PPV appearances, at the 1994 Survivor Series, where they were eliminated from their ten-man tag match, but helped their team win[25] and at the 1995 Royal Rumble; Sione lasted about seven minutes early on and Fatu over five nearer the end.

Their final match was a loss to Men on a Mission at a June 22 house show in London, England, after which Sione left for WCW and Fatu was removed from WWF television.

[27] After a brief hiatus, Fatu reappeared as a singles wrestler in July 1995 repackaged as a streetwise positive role model, for which he filmed several vignettes in his old San Francisco neighborhood touching on his real-life upbringing in the ghetto and preaching the messages of staying in school and saying no to drugs,[28] all while he spoke fluent English.

Fatu made his in-ring return on July 29 by pinning Rad Radford on WWF Superstars, and then enjoyed a run of victories over enhancement talent for the remainder of the year.

[1] However, the character did not get over with fans, and in 1996 Fatu was regularly booked to lose to stars such as Steve Austin, Vader, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

[1] Two men known as "The Samoan Gangster Party" (Fatu's cousins Samu and Matthew Anoaʻi) additionally began showing up in the audience during his matches, but no storylines were ever developed.

[1] In August 1996, Fatu was repackaged as a heel known as The Sultan, a red masked wrestler with curved shoes who never spoke, ostensibly because his tongue was cut out.

On April 28, 1999, Fatu teamed with his cousin Yokozuna to defeat Skull Murphy Jr., Danny Collins and Blondie Barratt in a handicap match in London, England.

After training at Funk's and working in the independents, Fatu returned on October 5, 1999, for a dark match for Sunday Night Heat defeating Crash Holly.

Rikishi briefly feuded with Viscera before forming a wildly popular alliance with the duo Too Cool (Grand Master Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty).

"[37] The Stink Face also served as a finishing move at times, as wrestlers became physically ill from the maneuver, forcing them to leave the ring and thereby losing via count out.

[38] In May 2000, fan favorites Rikishi and Too Cool feuded with Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle, culminating in a victory at Judgment Day.

[39] After winning the Intercontinental Championship from Chris Benoit on the June 22 episode of SmackDown!,[40] Rikishi qualified for the 2000 King of the Ring tournament.

Rikishi then said he attacked Austin in order to allow his cousin The Rock an opportunity for stardom, insisting that Buddy Rogers, Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan and Austin – "The Great White Hope" – had always been pushed, at the expense of Samoan wrestlers like Peter Maivia, Jimmy Snuka, Samu, Yokozuna and The Rock.

On May 20, at Judgment Day, he injured his shoulder in the opening bout with William Regal, which caused him to miss much of the year and the entire Invasion angle.

[53] On February 17, 2007, Fatu competed as SUMO RIKISHI in a tag team contest at an All Japan Pro Wrestling event, as he was brought in by Keiji Mutoh to feud with Akebono.

On August 23, Fatu competed in a Triple Threat match against Samoa Joe and Sterling James Keenan at Ballpark Brawl VIII in Buffalo, New York.

On the October 4 episode of Impact!, Fatu, Samoa Joe and The Latin American Xchange defeated Christian, Styles, Senshi and Christopher Daniels.

On the October 25 episode of Impact!, Fatu defeated Robert Roode in a Fight for the Right Tournament match after interference by Samoa Joe.

During the match, he used the Samoan Spike and the Banzai Drop (the latter having been used as a finishing move since his 1999 repackaging as Rikishi) as a tribute to his deceased brother Umaga and cousin Yokozuna, respectively.

[61][62] Fatu and his wife Talisua Fuavai-Fatu have eight children, seven sons and one daughter including Joseph Yokozuna and twins Joshua Samuel and Jonathan Solofa.