Arda Ocal (@arda_ocal) and Jimmy Korderas (@jimmykorderas) of #AftermathRadio on thescore.com spoke with former WWE talent Tonga Fifita, best known as Haku (WWE) and Meng (WCW). Highlights from the interview are as follows:
Being “King” of the WWE in 1988, taking the title as “King” of the WWE from Harley Race at the 1989 Royal Rumble: “When they gave me the opportunity to take the title as “King” from Harley Race, wow. I know his work, I know his wrestling, but I know my respect for this man. I sit back and took a few deep breaths. That was something in my heart, it was an honor to be the next “King”.
His reputation of being the toughest man in the locker room: “(Wrestlers) just wanna throw my name out for the heck of it. I think we were all tough. You had to make the people believe that in wrestling for us to make some money. For us to have all those angles on TV, and to bring them back for all this good stuff. Everybody was tough those days to make money and protect the business.”
Thoughts on his tag team match at Wrestlemania VI in Toronto, Ontario where he teamed with Andre The Giant against Demolition, why he spent most the time in the match: “That’s how smart Andre was. All he wanted me to do was to go out there and look strong, because obviously I was still young then, and my career was still going, not that he was finishing up but he was past his prime. He told me ‘Boss, go out there, do your thing, and whenever I wanna come in, ill call you (laughs).”
An incident with Jimmy Jack Funk in 1987: “I didn’t take his eyeballs off. I was ready to, my hands were in there, ready to take his eye off, but then I realized how stupid we were. Here we are brothers on the road together. I told Jim after all these things, and he got fired for it, and all these things here, And I feel bad for him Jim. It was something that happened at that moment.”
* Working these days at a Toyota dealership and how he got connected with them.
* Why he decided to retire from professional wrestling
* Driving the roads with Harley Race
* His reputation of being the toughest man in the locker room
* Validating pretty much any altercation story you may have heard about him, whether backstage or after hours
* Comparing his time in WWE and WCW and how Meng was more like the real Tonga Fifita
The podcast can be accessed here.
No comments:
Post a Comment