Haku’s WWE return looked like a huge family moment on television, but behind the scenes, the whole thing came together pretty damn late — and WWE actually changed the plan before fans ever saw him.
Talla Tonga opened up on Cheap Heat Live about how his father wound up joining the MFTs, revealing that the idea first came through Tama Tonga before eventually reaching him.
“So, it came through Tama first. They had the idea. It passed on to Tama, and then [he] passed it on to me.”
But hearing an idea and believing WWE is actually going to pull the trigger are two very different things. Talla said there had already been chatter about bringing Haku in after the MFTs split from Solo Sikoa, but nobody was exactly booking the celebration dinner yet. They had seen enough in wrestling to know plans can disappear overnight.
“There had been word of it before, maybe a week or two after we split from Solo. There was probably word of it, but you know how it is. You hear a word, you don’t really trust it.”
So Talla and Tama did what wrestlers do when creative is still floating around backstage — they waited.
“You just go week by week. You see what happens week by week.”
Then Haku’s phone started ringing. That was the point where Talla realized this wasn’t just another idea somebody threw around backstage. WWE was actually booking his father’s travel.
“Then that’s when my dad started calling like, ‘Hey, I just got hit up. I got a flight coming out.’ I was like, ‘Oh shoot, so it’s serious then.’”
Talla initially pegged the timing around SummerSlam, but quickly corrected himself because Haku had already appeared alongside the family going into the event.
“No, no, before SummerSlam. Sorry, because he came out with us. It was like a week before that. A week or two before that. That’s when we were like, ‘Oh, okay. It’s happening. All right.’”
And here’s the part fans never saw coming — Haku was actually supposed to show up sooner. According to Talla, WWE originally had Haku lined up to debut while the crew was in San Francisco. That plan got tossed, and the company moved the return to SummerSlam week instead.
“Even then, we were in San Francisco and he was supposed to debut then, but they pushed it back to the week of SummerSlam.”
That meant Haku wasn’t just flown in at the last second for one television appearance. Talla said his father had already been around the group for roughly two weeks while WWE figured out exactly when to pull the trigger.
“So he was with us for two weeks, those first two weeks before SummerSlam. It was all just — you know how it is. Everything comes last minute and you just go with it.”
That pretty much sums up WWE creative in one sentence. Haku’s return wound up becoming a major piece of the MFT presentation, but even the family involved didn’t know exactly when it was going down until WWE started sending flight information and changing dates.
Do you think WWE made the right call by saving Haku’s return for SummerSlam week instead of debuting him earlier in San Francisco? Drop your thoughts and leave your feedback in the comments.
