Toa Liona, originally from San Jose, spent his first two years at City College of San Francisco and De Anza College before transferring to SDSU for his junior year in 2011.
“I went the junior college route, obviously wanting to play Division I football and after looking at all my offers, I realized you can’t beat San Diego,” Liona said.
However, his dream of playing Division I football as a defensive tackle for the Scarlet and Black would be cut short when he ruptured a disk in his back during the second week of fall football camp.
Despite being given a medical redshirt for his injury, Liona would never get the chance to suit up and appear in a game for the Aztecs. After graduating, he took up powerlifting and became a personal trainer. But even with his newfound profession, Liona found himself struggling financially, trying to find any way to provide for his newly formed family.
It was at his lowest point when his wife suggested the idea of trying out professional wrestling.
“I realized that lifting 700 pounds wasn’t going to pay the bills and it was my wife, who had just finished watching a wrestling mini documentary, who gave me the idea to try out professional wrestling,” Liona recalled.
Liona began his journey soon after, enrolling in KnokX Pro Wrestling Academy in Los Angeles, where he would be trained by WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi.
“Some of the best advice he ever gave me was to keep my ears open and mouth shut,” Liona explained.
During the pandemic in 2020, he finally got the chance to prove himself, debuting on the independent wrestling circuit, wrestling primarily in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
“The hardest part of starting out in a time like that was actually getting used to wrestling just in front of a camera, and performing in front of arenas with no crowd,” Liona said.
However, he finally got his big break after attending a tryout for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which he set up with current WWE superstar Rusev and officially signed in 2021. Liona’s debut happened later in the year on Oct. 21 in a match against the FTR, an AEW tag team, where he teamed up with Mike Reed on AEW Dark: Elevation.
Liona’s career took off after his debut, partnering up with Bishop Kaun to form the Gates Of Agony, who are former two-time Ring of Honor World Six-Man Tag Champions, alongside former member Brian Cage. Since then, the Gates of Agony have combined with former AEW National Champion Ricochet in order to form the faction, The Demand.
“Ricochet is great, he makes sure that me and Kaun get equal attention and also makes sure that everything isn’t just about him,” Liona said about the group.
Liona, who was a part of AEW’s first-ever San Diego live event in 2023 at Viejas Arena, expressed his excitement for the company’s return to San Diego.
“San Diego kinda feels like a home away from [home] and almost like a second home for me, because this is where everything started for me,” he said.
AEW returns to San Diego this Saturday in Oceanside for AEW Collision, with Liona and the rest of The Demand set to possibly make an appearance.
