Ain't nobody realer!
The Guerrillas of Destiny (or G.o.D) are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of adoptive brothers* Alipate Aloisio "Pate" Leone (born on October 15, 1982) and Tevita Tu'amoeloa Fetaiakimoeata "T" Fifita (born on May 7, 1983), currently performing for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (and occasionally Ring of Honor) under the ring names Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa. Alipate, along with his little brother Taula, were both adopted by their uncle and Tevita's father, the infamous Tonga Fifita, otherwise known as Meng or King Haku. While Haku tried to dissuade his boys from getting into wrestling, causing both Pate and T to go through secondary education, the two brothers gravitated to the business anyway, receiving training from their father in addition to none other than The Dudley Boys at the Team 3D Wrestling Academy before making their debut as a team under the name "Sons of Tonga", with Pate as Kava and Tevita as Nuku.
Eventually the two separated after gaining the interest of different companies. T was picked up by WWE and sent to its developmental system under the name Donny Marlow, before later emerging on WWE SmackDown as Mexican wrestler Hunico's bodyguard Camacho, in a rather uneventful stint before he left the company. Later, he would join TNA as part of Drew Galloway's revolution faction The Rising under the name Mica, before the stable disbanded and he was left with not much else to do before again being released. Pate, however, was picked up by New Japan and sent to the NJPW dojo as a young boy. As a NJPW wrestler, he took on the name Tama Tonga, eventually becoming the personal young boy of his good friend Karl Anderson, before joining Anderson and others in creating the infamous stable known as Bullet Club.
After several years as one of BC's undercard members, Tama saw an opportunity: around the same time his adopted brother, who's more than capable of getting work done, was cleared from TNA, Anderson and Doc Gallows were about to leave NJPW for WWE, leaving Bullet Club without a heavyweight tag team. Tama brought in his brother, who took on the name of Tanga Loa, recreating their tandem as the Guerrillas of Destiny, playing on the "god" theme of their ring names. Since teaming together, they have become 6-time IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, 1-time Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions, 1-time WrestleCircus Big Top Tag Team Champions, 3-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions (twice with Bad Luck Fale, once with Taiji Ishimori), and increasing cornerstones of Bullet Club as a faction to the point that they were the catalysts of the mutiny and civil war that transitioned BC from the Golden Elite Era to the Cutthroat Era.
After several years as two of BC's most prominent players, they were transitioned out of the group into a babyface role to build a feud with Jay White. The brothers expanded G.O.D. into a full stable, officially inducting their manager Jado as a member as well as adding their younger brother Hikuleo in late 2022 and El Phantasmo in 2023, all former Bullet Club members. During this time, Tama became a 3-time NEVER Openweight Champion, the first singles title runs in his career. After his third title victory at Wrestle Kingdom 18, he announced his departure from NJPW. His final match took place on February 24, 2024 at New Beginning in Sapporo, where he and T lost to their stablemates and IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Hikuleo and Phantasmo, with Jado serving as special guest referee.
Tama Tonga was next seen making his debut in WWE on the April 12, 2024 episode of WWE SmackDown. He currently performs on the brand as a member of The Bloodline.
As usual, a more detailed biography exists here
.
"Guerrilla Trope Tactics":
- Alliterative Name: Tama Tonga.
- Animal Motifs: Gorillas, due to it being a homophone of "guerrilla". T's finisher in New Japan is known as "Apeshit", both he and Tama have occasionally displayed some ape-like mannerisms, and their custom Bullet Club logo features a gorilla skull.
- Arch-Enemy:
- The Young Bucks during the OG vs. Elite portion of the Bullet Club Civil War.
- Los Ingobernables de Japon members EVIL and SANADA seem to be this every turn of the year over the World Tag League and IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships.
- Their main rivals in ROH have been another hard-nosed Sibling Team, The Briscoe Brothers, who are also associated with Bullet Club's main enemies in CHAOS through Toru Yano.
- Bash Brothers: The most dominant tag team in NJPW's Bushiroad era.
- Beard of Evil: Both have this. Sometimes it stands out more when they use war paint.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Tama, along with Bad Luck Fale, essentially became this as the primary shot-callers and coordinators of BCOG, seeking to take back Bullet Club from the clutches of The Elite and restore the faction to the original violent brotherhood state in which they founded it along with its previous leaders. They later added to this unit by making it a trio with a new frontman for the group in Jay White, later naming him the official new leader. Although they consider themselves more of Co-Dragons than fellow Big Bads, Jay has been more of simply The Ace than a true decision-making commander, meaning the Tongans still hold a lot of sway.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Ironically, before joining with Jay White, Tama and Fale looked like they were pretenders to the throne due to their intentional disqualifications from G1 28, seemingly failing to grasp the point of original Bullet Club which was to cheat to win. Tama outright stated he didn't want to wrestle singles matches, while Fale seemed like he just didn't want to wrestle. Foreshadowing their true role, however, the Tongans were far more successful in the tag team preview matches on the G1 tour than in the actual G1 matches, with G.o.D in particular going undefeated. Even more distinctly, their interference in White vs. Fale saw Fale successfully win despite White's best attempts at cheating to fight them off, showing that they can cheat to win but simply didn't care enough to do so… until it was time for Tama to beat Kota Ibushi and force him and Kenny to go all-out in their B-block match against each other for a small chance at surviving the block.
- Big Little Brother: Baby brother Hikuleo is bigger and taller than both of them.
- The Brute: Both, but especially Loa. In fact T was this to Hunico at one point in WWE under the moniker Camacho.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Whenever these boys get hot and bothered, expect a lot of cuss words.
- Continuity Nod / Shout-Out: Tama constantly exchanges these with the Bullet Club alumni in WWE, as does Bad Luck Fale, with Loa sometimes joining in. Even the Firing Squad shirt holds the color scheme of the original BC shirt from the Shoot Style Era with Fergal Devitt. There's also the obvious too-sweet and suck-it stuff, homages to The Kliq and its sister stables New World Order and D-Generation X, of whom The Club is a
Spiritual Successor. - Cool Mask: Have started rocking this in their entrance since debuting a new theme song at Wrestle Kingdom 13 at the start of 2019.
- Cool Shades: Both will occasionally wear them to events and scenes that don't involve wrestling. Camacho was hardly seen without a pair on WWE television.
- Devil in Plain Sight: Through the Team Kenny vs. Team Cody portion of the Bullet Club Civil War, Tama was constantly lurking in the background and making veiled threats that he was tired of the club's then-ongoing state of affairs. Look no further than the infamous Zero Fucks Given scene on Being the Elite episode 93, where he watched Omega and Cody's pull-apart incident in front of the majority of the Bullet Club, including both OG and Elite members, sitting there looking bored as though the whole thing wasn't even worth bothering with.
- Evil Slinks: Tama has uncannily smooth motions and the gimmick of this duo explicitly emphasizes guerrilla tactics. This comes as no surprise. What is a surprise is how he integrates the trope into his moves, literally sliding around his opponents as they run the ropes, before going from flat on his chest to delivering a dropkick or rana, in a fraction of a second.
- Evil Versus Evil: Their feud with EVIL and SANADA, from another heel New Japan stable, Los Ingobernables de Japon. While this feud outlived the trope due to LIJ turning face (only dying out when EVIL betrayed LIJ to join Bullet Club), they later feuded with Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr.), representing the other long-running heel stable in NJPW, Suzuki-gun.
- Face–Heel Turn: Both brothers had theirs in joining Bullet Club. Tama had been Karl Anderson's corner-man during Anderson's solo babyface run before they both turned heel and joined Devitt and Fale in founding Bullet Club. T's last gimmick before being brought in as Tanga Loa was a standard-fare babyface going by Mica.
- Facial Markings / Tribal Face Paint: Used to cover their faces with paint on a regular basis as an homage to their island heritage, now only do so occasionally.
- Finishing Move: Four, as the situation calls for.
- Guerrilla Warfare, a double-arm DDT by Tama with Loa elevating the opponent by the legs
- Killshot, their version of the Dudley Death Drop
- Magic Killer, inherited as the main "Bullet Club tag finisher" from Gallows and Anderson
- Super Powerbomb, bestowed upon them by Jado and Gedo, once that pair joined the Bullet Club
- Foreign Wrestling Heel: Aside from it being Bullet Club's stock and trade, Tonga does not host a major promotion, so pre-2022 they would come off as this in a sense whether in Japan or America.
- Fun with Acronyms: G.o.D, Guerrillas of Destiny.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Parodied. On a whim of a New Year's Resolution for 2019, "Bad Boy" Tama Tonga decided to become "Good Guy" Tama Tonga, to the confusion and annoyance of his teammates, and amusement of the crowd. He would not only refuse to allow cheating, he'd be unwilling to do even morally neutral tag maneuvers. His Twitter presence also got weirdly saccharine. He was eventually snapped out of this Good Is Dumb phase, and became "The Good Bad Guy", choosing to be more effective in "Do Wrong, Right".
- They later were forced into a genuine face turn in 2022 after Jay White kicked them out of Bullet Club for intimating that their roles as the kingmakers that seated him at the front in place of Kenny Omega might be repeated at his expense because he wasn't there for the group in Japan. This time the turn is played much more logically. Both are still undeniably tough and gritty; Tama has adjusted to partnering with the likes of Tanahashi and Taguchi much easier than T due to having been a young lion in the NJPW system in the past; yet they both readily make remarks regarding the moral turpitude of their former comrades as something to be opposed.note
- I Have Many Names:
- Tama: Alipate Leone, Pate Fifita, Tama Tonga, King Tonga Jr., Tonga Strong Machine, Kava.
- Loa: Tevita Fifita, (Agent) T, Tanga Loa, Tanga Roa, Mica, Camacho, Donny Marlow, Nuku.
- Lightning Bruiser: While Tama emphasizes the "Lightning" part more while T favors the "Bruiser" side, both are quite capable of showing speed, agility, and strength.
- Meaningful Name / Theme Naming: Everything involving their names references Polynesian gods and homage to heritage.
- The first Tama Tonga is actually Haku himself from back in his days wrestling in Hawaii, and his Islanders tag team partner Sam Fatu was known as Tama Samoa. Furthermore, the name itself is an allusion to Tūmatauenga, the Māori god of war.
- Likewise, Tanga Loa's name also comes from one of the oldest Polynesian gods, whose legend depends on location. In Tongan myth, Tangaloa is actually the progenitor and namesake to an entire family of sky gods who were the ancestors of the first Tongan kings.
- In light of the above, the Guerrillas of Destiny become more significant when you remember both Fun with Acronyms and who their father is.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Their specialty.
- One-Letter Name: Haku's biological son is often simply called "T", per his request. This actually comes from his real name of Tevita, though also it fits with Tanga Loa.
- Power Stable: A not-insignificant part of the power of Bullet Club. Well, at least until they got the boot. But that just allowed them to turn G.O.D. into their own stable. While affiliated with all the Hontai guys, with Tanahashi, Taguchi, and Master Wato serving as frequent tag partners, their actual stable members for the first year have kept strictly to fellow babyface Bullet Club exiles; manager Jado, younger brother Hikuleo, and eventually El Phantasmo.
- Power Trio:
- During their tenure in Bullet Club they could frequently be seen alongside another BC member. Most of the time it would be their cousin Bad Luck Fale or their tall younger brother Hikuleo, though sometimes post-Elite recruits such as Jay White and Taiji Ishimori got this treatment as well. In fact Jay took advantage of this to bring them to Impact just so he could kick them off the team.
- Before T joined Bullet Club, he was part of The Rising with Drew Galloway and Eli Drake in Impact Wrestling. Ironically, the stable The Rising fought against, The Beat Down Clan, had taken shots at Bullet Club in their entrance theme as part of their expressed interest in perhaps working a feud with them someday.
- The Quiet One: T used to be one to let his allies do most of the talking. Then he got comfortable around Bullet Club.
- Red Baron: Tama was originally The Bad Boy, then had a phase where he tried to be The Good Guy, only to blow his top at a convenient time and become The Good Bad Guy. Loa, meanwhile, has consistently been The Silverback, a play on the same type of "guerrilla/gorilla" pun as the name and logo of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Tanga Loa is the Red Oni, Tama Tonga is the Blue Oni. That said, both are clear Red Onis next to Fale and Jay White.
- Sibling Team: Adopted, but still counts. Sometimes includes a third sibling in Hikuleo.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Much like Anderson and Gallows, G.o.D are capable of speech without swearing but enjoy cutting loose on a non-English-TV product to the point that a Swear Jar would probably kill their paychecks.
- Spell My Name With An S: Companies such as NJPW and ROH had a habit of spelling T's name as Tanga Roa, before he eventually corrected it and said it's Loa. Actually, despite this, it still happens every now and again.
- The Starscream: Tama, backed by Loa and Fale, was one of several potential usurpers that had risen up towards Kenny Omega in 2017 and 2018 out of frustration for his discordant behavior and emphasis on The Elite. Their coup turned out to be the successful one, restoring Bullet Club to its violent brotherhood credos, with Tama, Fale, and Jay White becoming the stable's three unofficial heads before Tama himself officially named White as the leader.
- Take Up My Sword:
- Subverted in the sense that they used an inverted version of the Magic Killer, the finishing move of Anderson and Gallows, in the form of Loa-assisted Tongan Twist by Tama which they treated as a Signature Move rather than as their finisher, as though acknowledging that they can't carry it over because neither of them was part of the previous team in the chain of duos that used the move. And then EVIL and Sanada from LIJ started using the Magic Killer, forcing them to take it up as well and heating up their tag team championship rivalry even more than it already had been.
- Being graduated students of the Team 3D Wrestling Academy, they also use The Dudley Boys' trademark finisher, calling it Killshot, which used to be Anderson's ring name in Wrestling Revolution Project.
- Singles-wise, Tama has taken up the Gun Stun, Anderson's old singles finisher, while T's Apeshit move, the Fire Thunder Driver, is known to WWF fans as the Rikishi Driver.
- Trash the Set: Helped the Young Bucks and Adam Cole do this in Cole's memorable Bullet Club debut in May 2016 at the joint NJPW/ROH show Global Wars. Interfering in the main event match between Colt Cabana and Jay Lethal, hardly anyone inside of the ring barricades was spared being superkicked. Both competitors, referee Todd Sinclair, Lethal's manager Taeler Hendrix, Kevin Kelly and even Steve Corino were laid out along with security, the Young Bucks' own father, and one heroic cameraman who stepped in front of another to save the "$40,000 camera".
- True Companions: With their Bullet Club brothers outside The Elite, including the "OC" alumni in WWE. Notably, no Tongans were ever involved in the exodus of either Devitt or Styles, and Tama and Fale backed up Anderson and Gallows in their exit, as if to ensure it would be a peaceful one, before bringing in T.
- Tama, Fale, Gallows, and Anderson all share matching tattoos acknowledging each other as the "Core Four".
- Undying Loyalty: To each other, their family, and Bullet Club itself. This caused them to act as a primary force powering Bullet Club in NJPW's midcard. This did not make them beneath calling a fight with their leader if they thinks said leader is damaging The Club. Just ask Kenny.Tama: "You wanna be the leader, of the Bullet Club? Huh? Then you gotta represent the Bullet Club! Who the FUCK is The Elite, huh!? Huh!? Or the Dream Team!? Huh, the Superkliq!?* Huh? You wanna be in Bullet Club, then you BE one of us!"
- Even the Tongans' actions about a year later, attacking Omega, The Elite, and their various supporters within Bullet Club, was motivated by a desire for BC to go back to a being united vicious heel group that would dominate NJPW and collect titles like hotcakes as a brotherhood. They never saw what they did as betraying The Club, but as properly ousting Omega's team from it, claiming outright that they're the real Bullet Clubnote and Omega's team are just The Elite. NJPW differentiated between the two groups by calling them Bullet Club OG and Bullet Club Elite, not officially declaring which side was true… until The Elite voluntarily announced they were giving up Bullet Club at the Chris Jericho cruise.
- Camacho had this with Hunico, with the backstory being that Hunico saved Camacho's life during a knife fight in Juarez.
- The brothers' loyalty to Bullet Club would be subverted and then obliterated in 2022, but their loyalty to one another along with mentor Jado only became more entrenched. From the autumn of 2021 into 2022, Tama was one of several members who became frustrated with Jay White's utter lack of presence in Japan compared to the rest of the group's foreigners, so much so that after beating Kazuchika Okada one-on-one in the G1 Climax, he began to suggest that he would be the captain going forward if Jay didn't start showing up. Come February 2022, G.O.D. joining Jay White and his new recruit Chris Bey on a tour of Impact Wrestling turned out to be Jay's opportunity to strike at Tama, costing them a chance to defeat The Good Brothers for the Impact World Tag Team Championship and trading out the Tongan duo to bring Anderson and Gallows back to BC. Upon returning to Japan in the New Japan Cup tournament the following month, everyone except Jado and T chose to attack Tama during his match with EVIL, excommunicating G.O.D. on Jay's orders.
- While KENTA and Big Little Brother Hikuleo were not involved in this attack, Tama has outright rejected KENTA as disloyal due to his teasing of both sides on social media, making it no surprise when KENTA returned on Jay's side in Bullet Club. Tama has since rekindled his prior bond with Hiroshi Tanahashi from back when he was Tana's young boy, with Jado and T both adjusting to becoming good guys alongside him. Hikuleo initially swore allegiance to Jay after a failed challenge in April on the condition that he not be asked to attack his brothers, but Jay broke that agreement a few months later, leading to Hikuleo reuniting with his brothers and joining G.O.D. as a stable.
- Verbal Tic: Tama tends to end his sentences with "Huh?"
- Wild Samoan: Distinctly averted here. Don't let the face paint or Tama's pre-BC animal print/shoeless ring attire fool you, the Fifita clan are among if not the most thoughtful and articulate members of their club. Shown best in their breakout of BCOG from Kenny Omega and BC Elite; when they became frustrated with the antics of The Elite, they spent almost a year surveying the territory, deciding whether they would call their own shot regarding the future of Bullet Club, and planning out how to do so, before they finally did it.
- Wrestling Family: Sons of King Haku, cousins of Bad Luck Fale, big brothers to Hikuleo. And then this family established itself as the most powerful clan in NJPW by heading up the "Firing Squad" crusade which successfully took back the direction of Bullet Club from The Elite. The Fifitas are also one of the interconnected island families inducted by the Samoan Anoa'i clan as part of their dynasty, making Tama Tonga's social media rivalry with Roman Reigns even funnier.
- You Have Failed Me: Their rationale for kicking out the Elite. Letting Kenny and Cody settle their differences in the ring was a test, that both failed. They state that a Bullet Club "Leader" does not ask, they take, and they must be acknowledged by the entire Club.* By not only failing to be upfront in their plots against each other (Cody) and playing a clean Face (Kenny), both of them had betrayed Bullet Club ideals.
- The test was then extended to anyone who tried to stop their attack. Of those, only Chase and Yujiro passed the test of Bullet Club loyalty, never dropping their Bullet Club attire, Yujiro's dancers, or any of their heel mannerisms the entire time they were associated with The Elite. This made it easy for Bullet Club to take them back on January 6, 2019.
- Ironically, their attempt to test Jay White by questioning his whereabouts publicly resulted in them getting the boot due to Tama being perceived as a threat to White's leadership and, as it turned out, his vision to expand The Club into the West and establish a global army.
