The Orient Express was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

tag team in the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

in the early 1990s composed of

Pat Tanaka Patrick Tanaka (born August 5, 1963) is an American professional wrestler best known for his work in the American Wrestling Association as one half of Badd Company and the World Wrestling Federation as one half of The Orient Express. He is the so ...

and Akio Sato, who was later replaced by Kato.

History

American Wrestling Association

After

Badd Company Badd Company was a professional wrestling tag team in the American Wrestling Association in the late 1980s, which later went by the name the Orient Express. They used the song "Bad Company", by the band of the same name as their theme song. His ...

lost the

AWA World Tag Team Championship The American Wrestling Association (AWA) World Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling world tag team championship in the American Wrestling Association from 1960 until the promotion folded in 1991. History When the NWA Minneapolis ...

, 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 Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara (May 4, 1934 – August 28, 2016) was an American professional wrestler and manager, known professionally by his ring name Mr. Fuji (or Master Fuji to his protégés). He was famous for often throwing salt in the ey ...

split up the team known as

The Powers of Pain The Powers of Pain are a professional wrestling tag team. History Paul Jones had previously managed The Barbarian (Sione Vailahi) in National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) territories during 1985–1987, while The Warlord (Terry Szopinski) and jo ...

( The Warlord and The Barbarian) as he sold their individual contracts to Slick who got the former and

Bobby Heenan Raymond Louis Heenan (November 1, 1944 – September 17, 2017) was an American professional wrestling manager, color commentator, wrestler, and comedian. He performed with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation ...

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 with

The Rockers The Rockers were an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty who teamed from 1985 to 1992. The team worked for NWA Central States Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, Continental Wrestli ...

(

Shawn Michaels Michael Shawn Hickenbottom (born July 22, 1965), better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE as Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative. Widely regarded as one of ...

and

Marty Jannetty Fredrick Martin Jannetty (born February 3, 1960) is an American professional wrestler who has worked for promotions including the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/E), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), World Championship Wres ...

) that started at

WrestleMania VI WrestleMania VI was the sixth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on April 1, 1990, at SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario in Canada, marking the f ...

, where Sato and Tanaka were victorious via countout after Sato threw salt in Jannetty's eyes while they were outside of the ring, and continued off and on for well over a year. The Orient Express got involved in the feud between

Legion of Doom The Legion of Doom is a group of supervillains who originated in ''Challenge of the Super Friends'', an animated series from Hanna-Barbera based on DC Comics' Justice League. The Legion of Doom has since been incorporated into the main DC Univers ...

(

Animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

and

Hawk Hawks are bird of prey, birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. Th ...

) and

Demolition Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...

( Ax, Smash and later Crush) as Fuji reconciled with former protegés Demolition and resumed managing them. The angle was also intended to phase out founder Demolition member Ax and refresh Demolition's edge as

villains A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

after a series of house show losses to the Legion of Doom and the Ultimate Warrior. Following an incident in which all three Demolition members ran in on an Express vs LOD match and the manager and both his teams beat down Hawk and Animal six-on-two, WWF President

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. Tunn ...

ordered that one Demolition member leave the WWF (this would be Ax) and the remaining two be placed under probation. Tunney additionally ordered the Orient Express, along with Fuji as an active wrestler, to take on the Legion of Doom in five man handicap tag matches in Demolition's place. The feud between the Legion of Doom and the Orient Express and Fuji was extremely one-sided despite the three on two advantage, due to the Legion of Doom’s massive size advantage. After WrestleMania VI, Tanaka and Sato only made two pay-per-view appearances while in the WWF. Firstly at SummerSlam 1990 where the team were defeated by "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan and

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 p ...

. They were then a part of the

Sgt. Slaughter Robert Rudolph Remus (born August 27, 1948), best known by his ring name Sgt. Slaughter, is a voice actor and retired American professional wrestler who is currently signed to WWE in the ambassador program. From the late 1970s to the early 198 ...

led team "The Mercenaries" (that also included

Boris Zhukov 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 ...

. Sato was pinned by

Bushwhacker Butch Robert Miller (born 21 October 1944) is a New Zealand retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Bushwhacker Butch, where he teamed with Bushwhacker Luke as The Bushw ...

1:46 into the match and Tanaka was pinned by

Tito Santana Merced Solis (born May 10, 1953), better known by the ring name Tito Santana, is a retired American professional wrestler and middle school teacher. Santana has stayed a babyface his entire career and he is best known for his appearances with ...

only moments later, 2:13 into the match. When Akio Sato decided to leave the US wrestling scene in the latter days of 1990, the WWF decided to reunite Badd Company, only this time with Paul Diamond wearing a mask to conceal his ethnicity and using the name Kato. During this time the team had a very well received match with their old enemies the Rockers at the 1991 Royal Rumble and another well received match against The New Foundation ( Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and "The Rocket" Owen Hart) at the 1992 Royal Rumble – which were the only two PPV appearances for the New Orient Express. Sato briefly rejoined the team in 1991 to team with Tanaka and Kato for a series of 6-man tag-team matches on WWF house shows, but Sato left the WWF after only a handful of matches together. Tanaka would leave the WWF in February 1992. Diamond went on to wrestle as a singles competitor in the WWF, first as Kato, then later as Max Moon, replacing the departed

Konnan Charles Ashenoff (born Carlos Santiago Espada Moises; January 6, 1964),''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'', Dave Meltzer, ed., May 10, 2010, issue.Sims, Steve"Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame/Founded by Dave Meltzer - Konnan". Accessed August 1, 2016. O ...

, neither gimmick meeting with very much success.

Post-WWF and split

After Kato also left the WWF, the two reunited as

, working for

Eastern Championship Wrestling HHG Corporation, doing business as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), was a professional wrestling promotion and media company that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wrest ...

from late 1993 to early 1994, wrestling against the likes of

The Bad Breed The Bad Breed was the professional wrestling tag team of Axl Rotten with his storyline brother/real life protégé Ian Rotten. The team achieved their greatest fame in the Philadelphia professional wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestlin ...

(

Ian Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...

and

Axl Rotten Brian Knighton (April 21, 1971 – February 4, 2016), better known by the ring name Axl Rotten, was an American professional wrestler. In the early 1990s, he was a part of the tag team The Bad Breed with Ian Rotten. He had a short stint with Worl ...

) and

The Public Enemy ''The Public Enemy'' (''Enemies of the Public'' in the UK) is a 1931 American all-talking pre-Code gangster film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The film was directed by William A. Wellman and stars James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward ...

, but never won the tag team titles. Pat Tanaka resurfaced in WCW during 1994 as a singles wrestler billed as "Tanaka-San". Paul Diamond showed up with the Kato mask on using the name "Haito" shortly afterwards. The two men even wrestled a couple of matches together, but they never achieved any notoriety in WCW and finally split up for good by the end of 1994. Pat Tanaka showed up in singles matches during 1996 in WCW. The two reunited in 2006 as the Orient Express on the

independent circuit In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective noun, collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor lea ...

until 2008.

Championships and accomplishments

American Wrestling Association The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The territory was originally part o ...

AWA Southern Tag Team Championship The AWA Southern Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling tag team title in the Tennessee area from the 1940s through the late 1980s. It was originally named the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship ''(Mid-America version)'' from its ince ...

( 1 time) **

( 1 time) *

Continental Wrestling Association Continental Wrestling Association (later the Championship Wrestling Association) was a wrestling promotion managed by Jerry Jarrett. The CWA was the name of the "governing body" for the Championship Wrestling, Inc. promotion which was usually ref ...

** CWA/AWA International Tag Team Championship ( 4 times)

References