While working with Lia Maivia and Lars Anderson, I kept finding myself in the middle of their conflicts.  Lars wanted to run the show his way, while Lia had her own ideas.  After much arguing, some sort of compromise would be reached.

When Lars was out of the office, Lia would tell me all sorts of stories, most of them not good, about him.  She kept telling me I should challenge Lars to a shoot.  Lia was fed up with some of the things he had going on, and would wonder if the work Lars was doing had anything at all to do with the office.  I learned to keep my mouth shut and not to take sides.

Another problem was with the local wrestlers.  None of them liked Lars.  They put up with him, because they loved the business.  Fue Manea once asked me to start my own promotion, and said the boys would go with me.  Fue claimed they were tired of excuses and little or no payouts.  There was no way I was going to buck Lia or Lars.  Later on, Lia’s son-in-law, Rocky Johnson, teamed with Jimmy Snuka and ran their own promotion on Oahu.  Lia was not happy about that.

Before we joined with New Japan Pro Wrestling, a wrestler came to us from Oklahoma, or somewhere around there.  He called himself JR Hogg, after the sheriff on Dukes of Hazard.  He was bearded and weighed around 300 pounds.  His first match was with Robert Toronto, the Vietnam vet from Western Samoa.  As I have said previously, the Samoans are warriors and do not like to keep putting over the new talent, especially if they are haole, (white).

The match started all right, and the two locked up.  They went through a series of moves, with Robert taking the brunt of it.  His temper got the better of him, and he hit JR on the side of the face, with a closed fist.  I saw, and heard, the punch connect.  JR rocked back, and I heard Robert say, “Oh, sh*t!”  JR then took control of the match and proceeded to pay Robert back, by hitting him with a powerful bodyslam.  After that, the match went on, as scheduled, and Robert put over JR for the win.  I don’t know what happened, later, in the dressing room, and neither Lars nor Lia ever mentioned it.

A few weeks later, JR and Robert were scheduled to meet again.  Robert and Fue Manea had gone out for drinks before the match.  They came in late, and went to the dressing room.  There, they took turns kicking Lars in the nads and put him down for the count.  Both men went to the ring, where JR was waiting.  Fue put a gym bag by the exit door, as they came in.  Robert put on brass knuckles, jumped in the ring, and knocked out JR.  Both men then left the area, picking up the gym bag on the way out.  Later, we heard Fue had a gun in the bag.  Lia was livid with rage.  Robert Toronto was sent back to Western Samoa, for a year, and Fue Manea was barred from wrestling.  Fue later helped referee and train new people.