Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei descendant Te Raukura Hawke is preparing for the match-up of his career so far, taking on his former tag team partner for the Toa Kaimamau Championship at Warrior Wrestling’s biggest showcase this year.
Tee Hawke, as he is better known, is confident this match-up against his former tag-partner will be a match for the ages.
“It’s going to be a spectacle,” he says. “We’ve been waiting for this for so long, it’s just two best bros gunning for it and at the end of the day trying to be the best in the world, and the best in Aotearoa and hold that Toa Kaimamau Championship.”
When Te Ao News last met Te Raukura, he had only just learned that he would be taking on the main event challenge at the Aotearoa Showdown. Now he’s reminiscing on their start together in the squared circle.
“It has been said, that he and I have been best mates in the ring, even on our first day at our trail, we started at the same time. So from that first day right up to now, we’ve always been so close.”
‘Who better than his tag partner?’
His Samoan opponent Jamie Tagataese is a beast by all accounts, weighing over 130 kilograms, and is highly regarded for his strength and power. But, Hawke believes “who better to chop down this mighty tōtara than his tag partner?”.
“I’ve taken the lessons from the past seven years I’ve been with him. I know what gets under his skin, I know the things that he doesn’t like, a couple of his nitty gritty injuries that I might be able to pull off. If there was a guy to finally dethrone this fulla that is so widely regarded as the best in Aotearoa, it would be me.”
Although Hawke believes that he is the underdog in this fight, that doesn’t at all diminish the fire within, to take out the championship next month.
“I’d say that he’s the biggest and strongest in New Zealand but I wouldn’t say without a second thought that I’m not the fastest in New Zealand. It is speed vs power. And, if I play the cards right, hopefully speed comes out with the victory.”
The pair will square off in Takapuna on November 11 for what is said to be the ultimate showdown of the year.