Might seem kind of random but I was thinking about old school WCW last night and for some reason I stumbled upon Prince Iaukea's TV title reign. If I remember correctly (and I'm going from memory here) it all started when Lord Steven (William) Regal was the TV champ defending his title against Iaukea on an episode of Monday Nitro. For whatever reason Rey Mysterio Jr. ran down to ringside during the match and distracted Regal, which led to Iaukea rolling up Regal for the upset victory and the title. The next week Iaukea defended his newly won title against none other than Rey Mysterio Jr., which resulted in victory when Regal interfered in the match by attacking Mysterio while both Iaukea and the ref were distracted, allowing the face champion Iaukea to retain his title.

Subsequenty Iaukea again defended his title against Mysterio at the World War III pay-per-view. Iaukea went over clean against Mysterio that time, with Regal noticeably absent. From that point forward Iaukea's reign was fairly undistinguished and ended rather abruptly with a loss to Ultimo Dragon on Nitro. My question is why did WCW make Iaukea the TV Champ? Did they recognize some sort of potential in him or was he friends with the booker? By the way who was booking WCW at the point, was it Eric Bischoff? I just find it strange that Iaukea was given a title push because he seemed like a prototypical jobber. He was boring looking, nothing more than an average worker, and he never talked so far as I can recall. Plus I think he used the flying cross body as a finisher which is pretty lame.

It was a total hotshot "Monday Night Wars" thing. If I remember correctly, Iaukea won the TV title in a big upset on Nitro shortly after Rocky Maivia won the IC title in a big upset on "Thursday RAW Thursday".

Maivia was a rookie "Polynesian" wrestler, just as Iaukea was a rookie "Polynesian" wrestler. I think Maivia won his belt as champ Hunter Hearst Helmsley was acting all cocky and gloating. Iaukea won his belt as champ Steven Regal was acting all cocky and gloating.

Maivia's win was pretty big news, at the time. I always figured that WCW tried to fire back and immediately steal the upset spotlight from the WWF (or at least minimize the spotlight). Sorta' crazy, because Nitro was already killing RAW at the time. But just shows you how paranoid and nuts the Monday Night Wars were.

Hard to say if WCW's tactic worked, as fans pooped all over both guys' reigns. This was well before Rocky became "The Rock", so his IC reign ended up being a heatless snooze fest and his upset was soon forgotten. Iaukea's TV reign had an identical fate. Would Rocky have had a decent reign if Iaukea hadn't won? But it's pretty much a definite that Iaukea would not have won the TV title were it not for Maivia winning the IC title.

I know it's a little off topic but I remember Iaukea having some good matches with Ultimo Dragon and Mysterio around this time.

Don't you all mean TAFKAPI ?