Published: Jul 5, 2025 by Sanchez Taylor | Last Updated: Jul 5, 2025 by Sanchez Taylor
Sanchez has over six years of pro-wrestling news writing experience, covering the biggest news stories in WWE, NXT, AEW, TNA Wrestling and more. He has personally interviewed a number of top stars, producing exclusive content with the likes of AEW's Swerve Strickland and WWE's Nick Aldis.
WWE
An update has emerged on a name change for a WWE star, with clarification emerging on the new name following SmackDown.
Following several WWE dark matches where he performed under his pre-WWE name, Hikuleo made his televised debut at Night of Champions, helping Solo Sikoa to win the US Championship from Jacob Fatu.
A name change was seemingly confirmed during the Night of Champions post-show, with Hikuleo listed ad “Tala Tonga.”
There has been a slight change to Hikuleo’s new name since its announcement, with the official name now confirmed.
Hikuleo’s updated Instagram page uses the username “talla_tonga”, and the WWE.com recap of SmackDown lists him as “Talla Tonga” indicating that this version is actually his WWE name, and that “Tala Tonga” was a mistake.
The website recap from SmackDown reads:
Days after winning the United States Championship from Jacob Fatu in controversial fashion at WWE Night of Champions, Solo Sikoa teamed with JC Mateo to take on The Samoan Werewolf and Jimmy Uso.
In the explosive final moments, Fatu gained a small amount of retribution on Sikoa by pinning the new titleholder with a moonsault from the top rope.
When Fatu looked to take out Sikoa with an announce table splash after the match, however, Talla Tonga and Tonga Loa suddenly emerged to take out Fatu and Uso.
Sikoa’s new group then performed an epic powerbomb on Fatu through the announce table
A currently absent WWE Bloodline member recently reacted to Talla Tonga’s WWE debut, which you can read more about right here.
For the latest WWE updates and news stories, click here.
WWE's website recap of last night's SmackDown refers to Hikuleo's new name as Talla Tonga – with two l's – which is also his updated social media name
On the Night of Champions post-show last weekend, it had been spelled Tala Tonga, with one l, so it seems that was an error… pic.twitter.com/IxQdEOZcHR
— WrestleTalk (@WrestleTalk_TV) July 5, 2025
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