Michael Haynes III

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Michael Hayner
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Prince Iaukea The Artist (Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea) The Tongan Prince
Billed height	6 foot (180 cm)
Billed weight	220 lb (100 kg)
Resides	Zephyrhills, Florida
Trained by	Larry Simon Dean Malenko Rico Federico
Debut	1996

Michael Hayner (sometimes known as Mike Haynes, or Mike Haines) was a professional wrestler best known as Prince Iaukea in World Championship Wrestling. By request of the DoD, military information has been deleted. Haynes has also made a career performing and coordinating stunts for major motion pictures.

1 Career
2 Personal life
3 In wrestling
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Military

Haynes was a member of the United States Navy. He served in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Colombia, and the Persian Gulf War.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling

After being trained by the Malenkos and Rico Federico, Haynes debuted on WCW pay-per-view Fall Brawl 1995 as a cadet delivering papers to Cobra for Craig Pittman. Later, Kevin Sullivan brought him to some TV tapings and was so impressed by his professionalism, overall attitude, and respect for the business that Sullivan gave him the Iaukea name taken from Curtis Iaukea, a good friend of Sullivan. Prince Iaukea debuted on WCW TV in 1996 and quickly made a name for himself with his unique Samoan persona and real submission wrestling skills along with solid pro wrestling ability. On February 17, 1997, Iaukea captured the WCW World Television Championship by defeating Lord Steven Regal and would hold it for seven weeks before losing it to Ultimate Dragon. Iaukea then went off to tour New Japan working with established greats such as Shinjiro Ohtani and Koji Kanemoto. Japanese booker Riki Chosu was a huge supporter of Iaukea and would try to bring him back many more tours.

Back in WCW, Iaukea would then float around the lower mid-card for several years, mainly because of an alleged romantic link between Iaukea and the wife of an upper level WCW executive. Iaukea denied the allegations, but the rumor persisted. He was repackaged in 2000 as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea, a comedic gimmick based on singer Prince. As The Artist, Haynes was finally allowed to be a creative heel where he was at his best. He won the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship from Lash LeRoux in February 2000. The Artist would lose the title to Billy Kidman and later reclaim it before being stripped of the title by Vince Russo in April 2000 when Russo and Eric Bischoff "re-launched" WCW. Haynes signed with WWE , but was not used after turning down storylines that conflicted with his Christian values. He asked for his release and it was granted.

[edit] Independent circuit

After WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation in March 2001 he wrestled the independent scene traveling around the country for various promotions. He was briefly The Tongan Prince for Jimmy Hart's XWF, but when that went under he went back into military contracting.

[edit] Stunt work

In addition to his professional wrestling career, Haynes also has considerable experience as a martial artist, stunt performer,and coordinator in motion pictures.