Gino Brito
In 1985, Samu joined Gino Brito and Dino Bravo’s Montreal-based Lutte Internationale promotion, which was the first time he worked in the same territory as his cousin Fatu. When the promotion closed up two years later, the two cousins signed with the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico and were packaged as The Samoan SWAT Team: Samu and Fatu. The team adopted the "Samoan savage" gimmick that had made their fathers so well known and feared throughout the wrestling world, working barefoot and never speaking English on camera. The team became the first ever WWC Caribbean Tag-Team Champions on November 7, 1987 when they beat Invader I and Invader III. The duo held the titles for just over a month before dropping them to Mark Youngblood and Chris Youngblood before leaving the promotion.