The Orient Express
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The Orient Express
The Orient Express was a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation in the early 1990s composed of Pat Tanaka and Akio Sato, who was later replaced by Kato. History American Wrestling Association After Badd Company lost the AWA World Tag Team Championship, they split up and feuded with each other. Tanaka took on Sato as his partner and adopted a more martial arts based ring style. The two feuded with Diamond before together moving to the WWF in 1990. World Wrestling Federation In early 1990, manager Mr. Fuji split up the team known as The Powers of Pain ( The Warlord and The Barbarian) as he sold their individual contracts to Slick who got the former and Bobby Heenan who received the latter, respectively. Fuji then brought in The Orient Express (Sato & Tanaka) as his latest threat to the WWF tag team division. While the Orient Express was supposed to represent Japan, Pat Tanaka was born in Hawaii. The Orient Express kicked off a prolonged feud wit ...
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Akio Sato (wrestler)
is a retired professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation as Sato, a member of The Orient Express. Career Early career (19701979) Akio Sato made his professional wrestling debut in 1970 in the old Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance, but left that promotion in 1972 to co-found (with Giant Baba) All Japan Pro Wrestling. During the middle of the 70s Sato went to the US and competed in various territories. He first attracted the attention of the US fans when he competed for the NWA Central States territory run by Bob Geigel as a face teaming with people like Jerry Oates and the Viking. On February 19, 1976 Sato teamed up with promoter Bob Geigel to win the "Central States" version of the NWA World Tag-Team Titles. The team vacated the titles by July, most likely so that Geigel could focus on booking the territory. Sato and new partner Pat O’Connor were unable to win the vacant titles. Sato next attracted the spotlight in the NWA Western State ...
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The Road Warriors
The Road Warriors, also known as the Legion of Doom, were a professional wrestling tag team composed of Road Warrior Hawk (Michael Hegstrand) and Road Warrior Animal (Joseph Laurinaitis).. They performed under the name "The Road Warriors" in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the name "Legion of Doom" (LOD) in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Under either name, their gimmick was the same – two imposing wrestlers in face paint. For brief periods, other wrestlers were added as stand-in partners for both men. In Japan in the 1990s, Kensuke "Power Warrior" Sasaki often teamed with Hawk and Animal, separately and together, while in WWE were joined by Ahmed Johnson and Droz in the 1990s and Heidenreich in the 2000s. The team also had three managers: Sunny in the 1990s, Christy Hemme in the 2000s, and Paul Ellering, the manager associated with the original team. Hawk and Animal were kno ...
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Jim Barrell
James Kirk Harrell (born December 13, 1959) is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Boris Zhukov, as well as his appearances with Jim Crockett Promotions as Private Jim Nelson. Professional wrestling career Early career (1978–1980) Inspired by his Northside High School football coach and hope to become a pro wrestler, 160-pound wide receiver and defensive halfback Harrell became interested in gaining mass in his senior year, 1977. While exercising at a YMCA, he met Ric McCord, who introduced him to Don Hogan and Steve Savage, two wrestlers from Salem, Virginia who trained him. After wrestling in Virginia in a tag team, Harrell moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In his first big match, the 210-pound Harrell (now called Jim Nelson) teamed with Mike Stallings to lose to Ivan Koloff and Ole Anderson. Jim Crockett Promotions (1980–198 ...
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Nikolai Volkoff
Josip Hrvoje Peruzović (October 14, 1947 – July 29, 2018), better known by his ring name Nikolai Volkoff, was a Yugoslav-American professional wrestler best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Although Volkoff often portrayed a villainous Russian, he was actually a Croatian from Yugoslavia. In the 1970s, he was Bepo of the Mongols tag team, one of the masked Executioners and feuded with Bruno Sammartino over the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship as Volkoff. In the 1980s, he was known for his tag team with the Iron Sheik, with whom he won the WWF Tag Team Championship at the inaugural WrestleMania event. In 1990, he turned face and became a supporter of America, briefly feuding with former partner Zhukov and newly-turned Iraqi sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter. In 1994, after a hiatus, he returned as a destitute and desperate character, exploited by Ted DiBiase as the first member of his Million Dollar Corporation. He continued to wrestle in various promo ...
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Jim Duggan
James Edward Duggan Jr. (born January 14, 1954), better known by his ring name "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE on a Legends contract. His best-known character is that of an American patriot, which sees him use a 2x4 length of wood as a weapon, the battle cry "Hooo!" and the U-S-A! cheer. In the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE), Duggan was the winner of the first ever Royal Rumble match in 1988 and in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), he was a one time United States Heavyweight Champion and a one time (and the final) World Television Champion. In wrestling, he is a one time world champion having won the IWA World Heavyweight Championship. Duggan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011. Early life and career Duggan grew up in Glens Falls, New York, where he became a star athlete in high school. Duggan is of English and Scottish ancestry. He was raised Presbyterian. His father was the Chief of poli ...
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SummerSlam (1990)
The 1990 SummerSlam was the third annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on August 27, 1990, at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The card consisted of ten televised matches, including two main events. The Ultimate Warrior successfully defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against Rick Rude in a steel cage match, and Hulk Hogan defeated Earthquake by countout. The pay-per-view also included two other title matches. Mr. Perfect lost his WWF Intercontinental Championship to the Texas Tornado, who was a substitute for Brutus Beefcake, who had been injured in a real-life parasailing accident. In the other title match, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) won the WWF Tag Team Championship from Demolition ( Smash and Crush) in a two out of three falls match. Production Background SummerSlam is an annual pay-per-view (PPV), produced every summer by the World W ...
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Jack Tunney
John "Jack" Tunney Jr. (January 21, 1935 – January 24, 2004) was a Canadian professional wrestling promoter. He was known worldwide for his appearances on WWE, World Wrestling Federation television as the promotion's figurehead president. Tunney's tenure was during the company's initial worldwide popularity boom in the 1980s, the peak days of "Hulk Hogan, Hulkamania". Queensbury Athletic Club/Maple Leaf Wrestling Early life In 1930, Jack Corcoran set up Toronto's Queensbury Athletic Club (QAC, later known by the unofficial name of Maple Leaf Wrestling), along with Jack's father, John Tunney Sr., his uncle, Frank Tunney, and Toots Mondt. Working for his uncle In 1952, Jack entered into employment with the promotion, first as a referee and later in the booking office working alongside Frank, Norm Kimber, Frank Ayerst, Ed Noonan, and wrestlers Whipper Billy Watson and Pat Flanagan, as they promoted all over southern Ontario. The offices were in Maple Leaf Gardens for many years. ...
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The Ultimate Warrior
Warrior (born James Brian Hellwig; June 16, 1959 – April 8, 2014) was an American professional wrestler and bodybuilder. Best known by his ring name The Ultimate Warrior, he wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1987 to 1992, as well as a short stint in 1996. He also notably spent a few months in 1998 for World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he was known as The Warrior. After a career in bodybuilding, Warrior turned to professional wrestling. From 1985 to 1986, he would tag with fellow former bodybuilder Steve Borden as the Blade Runners, and split when Warrior left to pursue a singles career in World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). Under the ring name Dingo Warrior, he was a one-time WCWA Texas Heavyweight Champion. In 1987, he joined the World Wrestling Federation, and became a two-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion within two years. At WrestleMania VI, Warrior won the WWF Championship in a title vs. title match over Hulk ...
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Heel (professional Wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a ''rudo'' in '' lucha libre'') is a wrestler who portrays a villain, "bad guy", or "rulebreaker", and acts as an antagonist to the faces, who are the heroic protagonist or "good guy" characters. Not everything a heel wrestler does must be villainous: heels need only to be booed or jeered by the audience to be effective characters, although most truly successful heels embrace other aspects of their devious personalities, such as cheating to win or using foreign objects. "The role of a heel is to get 'heat,' which means spurring the crowd to obstreperous hatred, and generally involves cheating and pretty much any other manner of socially unacceptable behavior that will get the job done." To gain heat (with boos and jeers from the audience), heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner by breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the standards of the match. Others do not (or ...
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Brian Adams (wrestler)
Brian Keith Adams (April 14, 1964 – August 13, 2007) was an American professional wrestler. Adams is known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), under the name Crush, and for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under his real name Brian Adams. Trained in Japan by Antonio Inoki, he was a two-time WCW World Tag Team Champion, a one-time WWF Tag Team Champion and a one-time AJPW World Tag Team Champion, among other accomplishments. He was a challenger for various singles titles in the WWF and WCW, including the WWF Championship. In 2002, he briefly tried a career in boxing until retiring due to back and shoulder injuries. Early life Brian Adams was born in Kona, Hawaii and was raised in Kealakekua, Hawaii and attended Konawaena High School. After graduating from high school, Adams joined the US Air Force, where he began boxing. It was during his time in the USAF, while stationed in Japan, that he was also exposed to wrestling. Adams was trained in wrestling ...
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Barry Darsow
Barry Allen Darsow (born October 6, 1959) is an American retired professional wrestler who performed as Smash, one half of the tag team Demolition. He also wrestled as Krusher Kruschev, Repo Man, The Blacktop Bully and "Mr. Hole in One" Barry Darsow. Throughout his career, he worked for Jim Crockett Promotions, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and several regional promotions in the 1980s and 1990s. He is a four-time former world tag team champion, winning three WWF World Tag Team Championships as part of Demolition and one NWA World Tag Team Championship as part of a three-man team with Ivan and Nikita Koloff (although the NWA no longer recognizes any former tag team champions prior to 1992, Darsow's championship is considered part of the WCW World tag team championship lineage), and a one-time NWA United States Tag Team Champion. Early life Darsow attended high school in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, with six other future wrestlers: Curt H ...
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Bill Eadie
William Reid "Bill" Eadie (born December 27, 1947) is an American retired professional wrestler who has competed under the names of Ax as part of Demolition and The Masked Superstar. He was a high school teacher and coach at Cambridge High School in Cambridge, Ohio, and at East Liverpool, Ohio. Professional wrestling career National Wrestling Alliance and World Wide / World Wrestling Federation (1973–1986) Eadie's first match was on December 15, 1972, under the name "the Paramedic". Throughout 1973, he wrestled under a mask as the tag team "Para-Medics" in the Sheik's Detroit territory. He then wrestled in Pittsburgh, Detroit, the WWWF, and the IWA as "Bolo Mongol", the new partner of his trainer, Geeto Mongol. He soon entered the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling territory under the management of Boris Malenko and donned a mask as "the Masked Superstar", given the character at the advice of matchmaker George Scott. It was stated that he was an Olympic champion by vario ...
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