Weeks after making their on-camera WWE debuts and aligning with The Bloodline, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa finally made their in-ring debut as a tag team on Friday’s “WWE SmackDown.” Tonga tagged with Sikoa at Backlash France — defeating Kevin Owens and Randy Orton in a Street Fight — and then wrestled three matches in the 2024 King of Ring tournament, defeating Angelo Dawkins and LA Knight before coming up short against Orton in the semifinal. Friday night was Loa’s first time competing in a WWE match. 

The brothers’ WWE debut as a duo came following a segment in which “Wise Man” Paul Heyman attempted to appeal to Owens and convince him not to take on The Bloodline. When Owens refused, Heyman became irate, gesturing wildly and accidentally making contract with Owens. Before the eternally angry Owens could get his hands on Heyman, however, The Bloodline appeared. Luckily for “KO,” the Street Profits came to his aide; Owens took care of Sikoa, as they fought into the crowd. That left Tonga and Loa to face the multi-time tag team champions, and they ended up pulling out the victory — not a huge surprise when you recall, as Corey Graves did on commentary, that they are multi-time tag team champions themselves.

Formerly known as the Guerrillas of Destiny (GoD), Tonga and Loa were members of Bullet Club in NJPW from 2016 to 2022. During their time in Japan, they were IWGP Tag Team Champions together seven times and still hold the record for most tag title reigns in NJPW history (they’re third place in combined days as champions). They also won the World Tag League in 2020 and are former Ring of Honor World Tag Team Champions, as well.

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