Michael Haynes III

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Michael Haynes III
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)
Born	Kona, Hawaii
Resides	Maui, Hawaii
Billed from	Kona, Hawaii
Trained by	Larry Simon Dean Malenko Rico Federico
Debut	1996

Michael Haynes (sometimes known as Michael Hayner, Mike Haynes, or Mike Haines) is a professional wrestler best known as Prince Iaukea in World Championship Wrestling. By request 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

Career

Military

Haynes was a member of the US Navy UDT and SEAL Teams 2 and 4. He served in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Colombia, and the Persian Gulf War. He is currently a consultant for a private military security company, either Blackwater or KBR.

World Championship Wrestling

After being trained by the Malenko's 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. In February 1997, Iaukea captured the WCW World Television Championship by defeating Lord Steven Regal and would hold it for four months 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 a upper level WCW star. 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.

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.

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. His resume includes such movies such as Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Scream 2, and 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up, as well as Warner Brothers film Ready To Rumble.