Michael Laauli Hayner (born August 1, 1964) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling from 1995 to 2000 under the ring name Prince Iaukea and later The Artist Formerly Known as Prince Iaukea or simply The Artist. Hayner made his WCW debut in 1996 and mainly competed as a fan favorite underdog. He was utilized as an enhancement talent during the early months of his career before winning the World Television Championship in 1997 and holding the title for nearly two months. Hayner then fell in the ranks due to some issues with management before being repackaged as "The Artist". He dominated the cruiserweight division during the first half of 2000, winning the company's Cruiserweight Championship twice before departing the company later that year. Professional wrestling career World Championship Wrestling Training and debut (1995–1996) After being trained by Dean Malenko and Rico Federico, Hayner made his first appearance in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) at the 1995 Fall Brawl pay-per-view as a cadet delivering papers to Cobra for Craig Pittman. Later, Kevin Sullivan brought him to some television tapings and was so impressed by his professionalism, overall attitude, and respect for the business that Sullivan gave him the "Iaukea" name taken from King Curtis Iaukea, a good friend of Sullivan. Hayner was thus given the ring name "Prince Iaukea". Hayner made his first appearance in WCW on the May 18, 1996 episode of Saturday Night, where he teamed with Rick Fargo as enhancement talents against Chris Benoit and Kevin Sullivan. He made his official television debut as the fan favorite "Prince Iaukea" on the June 1 episode of Saturday Night, where he defeated The Gambler. Two days later, Iaukea made his Monday Nitro debut with a loss to Kevin Sullivan and then remained a jobber to the stars for the remainder of the year. He made his pay-per-view debut at November's World War 3 as a participant in the World War 3 battle royal for a future title shot at the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but failed to win. He quickly made a name for himself with his unique Samoan persona and real submission wrestling skills along with solid pro wrestling ability. The common pronunciation of his ring name came about by the mispronunciation from WCW announcer Tony Schiavone. Prince Iaukea also received blessing from King Curtis Iaukea during a phone