Tama Tonga Addresses WWE Fine for Leaking Rehearsal Footage in Trending Video After Rumors

WWE Superstar Tama Tonga confirmed this week that he received a fine for recently posting a video of pre-show rehearsals on social media.

Fightful's Andrew Zarian first reported the news last week in a post on X, writing, "Word going around at SmackDown is that Tama Tonga was fined by WWE for posting a video of rehearsals last week. Was told it was significant of a fine. WWE has an unwritten rule about not recording/posting during rehearsal."

Tonga was asked about the fine Wednesday when he went live on TikTok (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), and he chose to look at it from a positive perspective.

"It's all good, it's all good," Tonga said. "It was worth it. I had to go to my happy place after that shenanigans. I had to go to the world's happiest place to get myself smiling again. I think that's the biggest thing is—when we get hit with something, we need to take the hit and keep moving. You can't let that bring you down, you know?"

Tonga was then asked if he was "in the doghouse," to which he responded, "Am I in the doghouse? I've been in the doghouse my whole life—no getting out of the doghouse. I move in life like I'm in the doghouse always."

Following his TikTok Live, Tonga took to X and removed all doubt about what he was referencing, as he confirmed the fine and took responsibility for his actions, calling the fine "deserved."

Tonga, 43, signed with WWE in 2024 following a lengthy and successful career in Japan, and he immediately aligned himself with Solo Sikoa.

He has remained alongside Sikoa ever since as a member of the MFTs, winning the WWE Tag Team Championships twice along the way.

Tonga has found some individual success in recent weeks with wins over Shinsuke Nakamura and Ilja Dragunov on SmackDown, and he has started to call Sikoa's actions into question.

That would suggest WWE may be moving toward a MFT breakup with Tonga going off on his own, or with Tonga supplanting Sikoa as the leader of the group.