The Barbarian

Sione Havea Vailahi (born 6 September 1958) is a Tongan professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, The Barbarian.

He is best known for his various stints with National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and for being a part of tag teams The Powers of Pain with The Warlord and Faces of Fear with Meng.

Born and raised in Tonga, Sione was one of six teenagers and young men sent by the King of Tonga to Japan to study Sumo wrestling in the mid-1970s.

Tonga Fifita was also part of the group.

Sione was known in sumo circles as Sachinoshima.

After migrating to the United States, he trained in professional wrestling under the tutelage of Rolland 'Red' Bastien.

In 1980, he made his debut, wrestling Killer Karl Krupp in Modesto, California.

He wrestled as King Konga in several National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) regional territories in 1981.

He soon went to the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions, where he teamed up with Ron Garvin as a fan favorite.

He had a short term in World Class Championship Wrestling as a villain named Tonga John.

Seeing the monster villain potential in a huge, intimidating man with surprising agility,

now back in Crockett's territory Jim Crockett, Jr. changed Vailahi into Konga the Barbarian.

He debuted in JCP on 29 December 1984 episode of WorldWide after a match between Assassin #1 and Kareem Mohammad as a member of Paul Jones' Army.

He defeated Sam Houston in his first match later in the night.

Vailahi was brought into the company to aid Jones in his rivalry with Jimmy Valiant.

He was paired with Superstar Billy Graham under the management of Jones.

At the inaugural The Great American Bash, Barbarian teamed with Graham and Abdullah the Butcher in a loss to Sam Houston, Manny Fernandez and Buzz Tyler in a six-man tag team match.

Following the event, Barbarian occasionally teamed with Abdullah and turned on Graham by the end of the year.

Barbarian lost to Graham in an arm wrestling contest and then in a singles match at Starrcade.

At the NWA/AWA Star Wars, Vailahi lost to Capitol Sports Promotions star Carlos Colón.

Vailahi frequently teamed with Black Bart, Shaska Whatley, Teijho Khan, as well as Baron von Raschke throughout 1986.

Vailahi teamed with Raschke to participate in the 1986 Crockett Cup, losing to Jimmy Valiant and Manny Fernandez in the opening round.

It was during this time that "Konga" was dropped from his name and he became simply The Barbarian.

Raschke left Jones' team and became a rival of the group.

At Starrcade, Whatley and Barbarian lost to Hector Guerrero and Raschke in a tag team match.

Vailahi entered the 1987 Crockett Cup with Bill Dundee, beating Tim Horner and Mike Rotunda in the opening round and lost to The Super Powers (Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff) in the second round.

Vailahi teamed with the likes of Manny Fernandez and Vladimir Petrov throughout 1987.

In 1987, he appeared in the movie Body Slam, as Axe, of the tag team called The Cannibals.

In late 1987, he formed a team with Ivan Koloff, who was also his coach.

During this time, he formed The Powers of Pain with The Warlord and the team began feuding heavily with another team of big men, The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk).

His first national exposure was in the NWA territory Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), where Powers of Pain held the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship until they departed the company in 1988 and joined WWF, where they competed in the tag team division until the team was quietly split in 1990.

Vailahi made his pay-per-view debut at the Bunkhouse Stampede Finals pay-per-view on 24 January 1988, as a participant in a Steel cage Bunkhouse Stampede.

He was the runner-up, being eliminated by Dusty Rhodes.

They injured Animal's eye in storyline during a weightlifting contest and soon after teamed with Ivan Koloff to beat Rhodes and Road Warriors to win the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship at a live event on 12 February.

Koloff and Powers of Pain would lose to Rhodes and Road Warriors in a barbed wire match at Clash of the Champions I on 27 March.

Barbarian then competed as a singles wrestler until departing in 1992 and returning to WCW, where he became one half of the final United States Tag Team Champions with Dick Slater.

During this time, Barbarian challenged Ron Simmons for the World Heavyweight Championship at Halloween Havoc.

He left WCW in 1993 and returned to the WWF in 1994 as Headshrinker Sione to form The New Headshrinkers with Fatu.

He left the company in 1995 and made a second return to WCW, where he briefly reunited with The Warlord as The Super Assassins.

Barbarian would then join Meng to form Faces of Fear and become a part of factions Dungeon of Doom and The First Family.