Prince Iaukea

The Artist

Iaukea made his first appearance in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) at the 1995 Fall Brawl pay-per-view as a cadet delivering papers to Cobra for Craig Pittman.

He made his next appearance in WCW on the May 18, 1996 episode of *Saturday Night*, where he teamed with Rick Fargo as enhancement talents against Chris Benoit and Kevin Sullivan. He made his official television debut on the June 1 episode of *Saturday Night*, where he defeated The Gambler. Two days later, Iaukea made his *Monday Nitro* debut with a loss to Kevin Sullivan and then remained a jobber to the stars for the remainder of the year. He made his pay-per-view debut at November's World War 3 as a participant in the World War 3 battle royal for a future title shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but failed to win. He quickly made a name for himself with his unique Samoan persona and real submission wrestling skills along with solid pro wrestling ability.

On the February 17, 1997 episode of *Nitro*, Iaukea captured the World Television Championship by defeating Lord Steven Regal after capitalizing on a distraction caused by Regal's scheduled pay-per-view opponent Rey Misterio, Jr.. Iaukea successfully defended the title against Misterio six days later at February's SuperBrawl VII and Uncensored. Iaukea began feuding with Regal and made a successful title defense against Regal at Spring Stampede, but was assaulted by Regal after the match. The following night on *Nitro*, Iaukea attempted to rescue Misterio from an assault by Regal but ended up suffering a *Regal Stretch* and suffered a rib injury, leading him to drop the title to Último Dragón later that night. After his title loss, Iaukea received a title shot against Syxx for the Cruiserweight Championship and unsuccessfully tried to regain the World Television Championship from Lord Steven Regal on the May 19 episode of *Nitro,* and Último Dragón on the July 28 episode of *Nitro*. Iaukea was a participant in the World War 3 at the eponymous pay-per-view on November 23. He would then float around the lower mid-card for several years.

He briefly feuded with Chris Jericho in early 1998 due to Jericho degrading Iaukea's mentor Dean Malenko and Iaukea stepped in to defend Malenko's honor. He unsuccessfully challenged Jericho for the Cruiserweight Championship at Spring Stampede. After the match, Jericho stole Iaukea's Hawaiian dress. He went on a hiatus and returned to the company on the October 8 episode of *Thunder* against Kanyon in a losing effort. He then lost to Norman Smiley at the company's premier pay-per-view Starrcade on December 27, 1998.

After spending most of 1999 as a low-carder and being left off pay-per-view events, Iaukea was repackaged as a villain on the December 6, 1999 episode of *Monday Nitro* as "**The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea**". He was given an extremely beautiful and classy valet, manager and mouthpiece named Paisley and they made their in-ring debut on 09/12/1999 at WCW Thunder in a Match against Vampiro. In 2000, Artist entered a tournament for the vacant Cruiserweight Championship. He defeated Kid Romeo, Kaz Hayashi and Lash LeRoux at SuperBrawl 2000 to win the vacant title. Artist successfully defended the title against Psychosis at the following month's Uncensored pay-per-view, before losing the title to Billy Kidman at a live event on March 30, only to regain it from Kidman on March 31. All the WCW titles were vacated by Vince Russo on April 10 when Russo and Eric Bischoff "re-launched" WCW. The Artist was then placed in a six-way match for the vacant title at Spring Stampede, in which he was pinned by Chris Candido because Tammy Sytch interfered and took the Artist formely known as Prince Iaukea down when he was ready to hit his Jumping DDT for the win.

As a result, Artist began a rivalry with Candido and received a title shot at Slamboree, where he failed to win the title because Tammy Sytch played it really dirty in this Match, interfered and gave The Artist formely known as Prince Iaukea and the Purple Beauty Queen Paisley a chairshot to the head. His ring name was shortened to simply "**The Artist**" at a Press Conference on 12/06/2000 before Nitro by the adorable Purple Beauty Paisley. He feuded with the Misfits in Action afterwards, where the gorgeous Paisley had many catfights with Major Gunns and looked sooo good kicking her ass. The Artist and his beautiful better half Paisley had a big Win in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match against Chavo Guerrero/Major Gunns and Rey Mysterio/Tygress on WCW Thunder 06/21/2000.

This would be Iaukea's last pay-per-view appearance in the company. He was released in August 2000, with his last televised match being a loss to Big Vito on the August 19 episode of *WorldWide.*