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TSM Profile: Haku

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Let's revitalize this attempt at a running thread. Today, we'll look back at everybody's favorite Tongan hoss and a guy I personally find underrated...Haku

 

 

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Name: Haku

Also known as: Meng and King Tonga

Height: 6'1''

Weight: 313 pounds

Age: 49

Debut: 1978

 

Accomplishments: WWF Tag Team Champion (With Andre The Giant), WCW Hardcore Champion, WWC Tag Team Champion (With Hercules Ayala), two time SWS Tag Team Champion (With Yoshiaki Yatsu), King of WWF

 

Background: Born as Tonga Fifita, he was sent at the age of 14 by The King of Tonga to Japan to train as a sumo wrestler. However, after the death of his stablemaster, he was trained for the sport of professional wrestling by former sumo wrestler, Genichiro Tenyru and Japanese wrestling legend, Giant Baba. He first made a name for himself as King Tonga in the Montreal territory in the early '80s before being signed by the WWF in the midst of their national expansion. Early on, he carved a reputation for himself as one of the legitmately toughest men in professional wrestling. In one notable incident, he popped out the eye of Jimmy Jack Funk during a backstage brawl. He eventually found success there as one half of The Islanders, under the new name of Haku. The team engaged in a memorable feud with The British Bulldogs over The Islanders and their manager, Bobby Heenan's kidnapping of The Bulldogs' beloved...err...bulldog, Matilda.

 

After Tama's departure from the WWF, Haku retained Bobby Heenan as a manager and emerged as a solo star becoming briefly rechristened King Haku after the previous king Harley Race went out with an injury. In the latter half of 1989, he joined forces with fellow Heenan Family member and Eighth Wonder of The World, Andre The Giant to form The Colossal Connection. The two quickly won the WWF Tag Team titles to Demolition. The team would lose the titles to Demolition in a famous rematch at WrestleMania VI and broke up immedietely afterwards. Afterward, he former a tag team with another Heenan Family member and fellow Tongan, The Barbarian. The two would team until Haku departed the WWF in early '92.

 

He would go on to join the stream of '80s WWF superstars to sign with WCW. He debuted in the Fall of '94 as Meng, Colonial Robert Parker's bodyguard. Meng would go on to feud with WCW megababyface Sting for the WCW U.S. title. Later, he would join the infamous Dungeon of Doom and reteam with his old WWF Tag Team partner, The Barbarian as The Faces of Fear for the majority of his WCW run. He occasionally got a glimpse of the upper mid-card and main event; the aforementioned feud with Sting, getting a World title shot against Goldberg in August '98, defeating Lex Luger at Mayhem '99). After the release of The Barbarian in '00, he became a part of WCW's Hardcore division, becoming the last champion at WCW Sin in January '01 before jumping back to the WWF and his old moniker of Haku several days later. This would be one of the final blows in the infamous Monday Night Wars. There, Haku would team up with Rikishi. Unfortunately, Rikishi would be plagued with injuries and Haku was relegated to Sunday Night Heat and Jakked duty before being released in early 2002.

 

Currently, Haku is happy in semi-retirement. Working as a car salesman (!?) in Florida and working the occasional indy show.

 

Points of Discussion: Do you think Haku(/Meng/King Tonga) was underutilized? Overutilized?Utilized the right amount? Would he have had a different career had he debuted ten years later than he did? Who used the big man to the better of his abilities WWF or WCW? Best tag team he was in...Faces of Fear, Colossal Connection, or The Islanders? Favorite matches/moments? Least favorite matches/moments?

 

Now some highlights of Haku's career

King Haku's coronation

King Haku Vs Hulk Hogan (Saturday Night's Main Event, 10-25-88)

Demolition Vs The Colossal Connection (Superstars 12-13-89)

Meng Vs Chris Benoit (Slamboree '97)

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The first live wrestling show I ever went to was a WCW house show. The crowd was small, most of the matches sucked, and the main event was a Flair/Nash debacle that I've ranted about several times here. However, there were some positives. For one, that's when I totally fell in love with Daffney. But more relevant was the shockingly entertaining Meng vs Lex Luger match. Meng was the unstoppable babyface badass and Luger was playing the chickenshit heel, and it was way better than it had any right to be. I'm generally a mark for most of the Samoans in the biz, and Mengku always seemed like he tried hard even when he didn't have much to work with. Also, anyone else remember his late run as the WCW hardcore champion? He did some fun stuff with Crowbar and Terry Funk, iirc. Of course that was right before he showed up at the Royal Rumble, which was a great laff at WCW's dumbass expense.

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I have a vague recollection of a tag match between the Islanders and the Young Stallions from the first Royal Rumble. I remember Haku hitting Paul Roma with a move so vicious that they was an extended intermission between the 1st and 2nd falls of the match. Then to end the next fall Haku delivered a stiff knee off the top rope to Roma's mid-section.

 

He was a tough guy.

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I used to mark out a lot whenever he would go berserk as Meng and Tongan Death Grip refs and everyone. Considering all of the crappy WCW Tag Teams, the Faces should have had it once.

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And oh yeah, Brian Lee once told me a story about Haku killing a police dog with his bare hands. Probably bullshit... but... you could almost believe he could actually do that, couldn't you?

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Didn't it seem like they would build Meng up every 6-12 months, having him squash JTTS and mid-card guys, only to eventually get squashed by the guy they really wanted to push? I seem to remember this scenario happening multiple times, but it could be my mind playing tricks on me.

 

I never had much interest in Meng/Haku. I can't think of one time where I was really that interested in what he was doing, and that started from a young age when I just wanted Demolition to beat the shit out of him and have him go away.

 

Meng's a good example of the fact that you need a strong character to get over in modern wrestling. Having a rep as a real life tough guy doesn't always translate on screen.

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I'm a big fan of WWF era Haku as a worker, even if he didn't get the chance to really shine. Aside from the match with Hogan and the feud with Duggan, his main role was tagging with a past his prime Andre. It's a shame he never really got more of a run solo. Plenty of guys from that era I'd loved to have seen him paired up with, guys like Bret, Perfect, Jake, Savage. I know he had the King moniker and that was almost a secondary title, but he would have fit into the IC Title scene at any time really, discounting the fact you had Honky as Champ for so long and he wouldn't have been seen as a threat to Warrior.

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I remember being semi-excited when he first showed up in WCW as Parker's bodyguard. That didn't last very long, though.

 

I was really into him for a little while when he first returned to the WWF in '01. Probably because I never thought that I would see him in that company again. Wasn't he the reigning WCW Hardcore Champion when he jumped back to the Federation?

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I remember in early 2000 being excited when it seems they were building up Meng for a match with Tank Abbott, where Meng would come out and have to be held back by security during Tank's matches. Knowing both guys' reputations as major tough guys, I was looking forward to a good stiff brawl. In typical WCW fashion though, I don't think they even ended up doing the match.

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If it wasn't for the Invasion and the WCW purchase, I'm sure Haku would've gotten a better push. Maybe destroying Jericho/Benoit for the IC title would've been great.

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Didn't it seem like they would build Meng up every 6-12 months, having him squash JTTS and mid-card guys, only to eventually get squashed by the guy they really wanted to push? I seem to remember this scenario happening multiple times, but it could be my mind playing tricks on me.

 

I never had much interest in Meng/Haku. I can't think of one time where I was really that interested in what he was doing, and that started from a young age when I just wanted Demolition to beat the shit out of him and have him go away.

 

Meng's a good example of the fact that you need a strong character to get over in modern wrestling. Having a rep as a real life tough guy doesn't always translate on screen.

 

The problem, I think, was that casual fans didn't really know Meng/Haku was such a bad-ass in real life. Yeah, his character was tough, but if you didn't read or listen to the stories from other wrestlers... you didn't really know what he was capable of doing.

 

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I think I may be in a distinct minority here but I think Meng/Haku was one of the most underutilized guys of his era. Now he wasn't a super great worker and his mic work was...well...non-existent but he had something that you can't create for a monster heel (see Zeus, Giant Gonzalez, virtually any of The Undertaker's opponents from '92 to '96)---the appearance of being legitimately tough. Now- as Cheech pointed out being legitimately tough alone isn't going to get you over but it sure can help. While he did have some of the best mouth pieces in the business managing him (Heenan in the WWF, Colonial Robert Parker and later Jimmy Hart in the WCW), he was always second banana to another one of his manager's clients.

 

And while I don't think his reputation as a superbadass was completely ignored, it wasn't emphasized nearly enough. I mean the dude ripped another dude's eye out. He shouldn't have been the guy the huge babyface beats on his way to facing the monster heel, he should have been the monster heel. For some reason, I think his hard-hitting, superstiff style may have been better utilized in today's wrestling than in cartoony '80s WWF and mid '90s WCW.

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If he'd debuted 10 years later, or even debuted in the NWA, I'm sure he'd have had a more memorable career. He could kick, he could chop, nowadays that constitutes a world class wrestler. He wasn't really big enough or had a dynamic enough character to make a splash in the late 80s WWF. Late 80s NWA would have been a different story.

 

I'd loved to have seen Haku/Flair in the late 80s.

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I remember reading an interview where Ricky Steamboat just raved about how great Haku was to work with, and during house shows they would keep asking the ref for more time because they enjoyed working with each other.

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I know they were used to emphasize his "Polynesian/Islander" gimmick, but the multi-colored tights he wore in his first WWE run also didn't help his status as a total bad-ass.

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I enjoyed Haku's WWF run up until the CC split. After that, he kind of just languished as a bland JTTS putting over the likes of the British Bulldog while squashing the Koko B Wares of the WWF. I always dug the random noises he'd make during a match. A match between him and Iron Mike Sharpe would have been classic.

 

I thought his initial run as the unflinchable bodyguard of Col Parker was excellent. WCW did a great job building him up as someone you didn't even want to make eye contact with let alone engage in combat. His DoD run was whatever. I did enjoy his bi-yearly push as he got to make rip through a hearty portion of the WCW roster before getting dispatched by Giant/Goldberg/ect.

 

In a random memory, I remember ordering Fall Brawl 97 w/ a friend and being shocked that Mortis/Wrath defeated Meng/Barbarian. Though IIRC, it was Barbarian that ate the fall.

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Faces of Fear 96 run through the Fantastics, RnR Xpress etc etc leading to Nash/Hall was AWESOME and I was a huge mark

 

What?

 

Yes, both the Rock N' Rolls and the Fantastics were getting work in WCW at that time.

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More videos!

 

The Faces of Fear Vs The Fantastics (Nitro 10-21-96) Gotta love Heenan saying that they're cannibals. I remembered The Rock 'N' Roll Express being around the time the nWo debuted but not The Fantastics. Guess I was wrong. And babyface Bischoff was such a dweeb.

 

The Outsiders Vs The Faces of Fear (Nitro 12-16-96)- And I thought Ray Traylor was WCW 4 Life :(

 

King Haku Vs Harley Race (Royal Rumble '89) You have to love Monsoon railing against Heenan for not buying Haku a new robe.

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I bought my Yaris from him. Very nice guy. It was funny when he got in with me for the test drive!

Wow, it took 4.5 years, but 4EVERDELAYED found a thread worth commenting in.

 

You both have the same join date. What gives?

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WWE @ Fayetteville, NC - Crown Coliseum - June 29, 2004

Shannon Moore pinned Carly Colon

Velocity:

Nunzio & Johnny Stamboli defeated Doug & Danny Basham at 6:26 when Stamboli pinned Danny following the Sicilian Slice double team

Charlie Haas (w/ Jackie Gayda) pinned Mark Jindrak (w/ Teddy Long) with a German suplex at 3:47 after avoiding a springboard crossbody; after the bout, Jindrak argued with Long over the loss

Paul London & Billy Kidman defeated WWE Smackdown! Tag Team Champions the Dudley Boyz in a non-title match via disqualification at 9:15 when Bubba Ray pulled the referee out of the ring after Kidman hit the Shooting Star Press on D-Von; after the bout, the champions attacked London & Kidman

Smackdown! - included John Cena interrupting an in-ring promo by Kenzo Suzuki:

Booker T defeated Rob Van Dam and Rene Dupree at 13:07 by pinning Dupree after RVD hit the Five Star Frog Splash but was pulled out of the ring; due to pre-match stipulations, Booker earned a US title shot for the following week

Rey Mysterio Jr. pinned Mordecai at 4:19 by reversing the crucifix powerbomb into a hurricanrana (Mordecai's last match before going back to OVW)

Torrie Wilson pinned Sable with a DDT at 3:14

WWE World Champion John Bradshaw Layfield pinned Spike Dudley at 7:28 with a powerbomb after hitting two short-arm clotheslines; after the bout, Eddie Guerrero

came out to make the save and announced that a steel cage rematch between he and Bradshaw would take place in two weeks' time

 

 

 

 

The lure of the Smackdown! spoilers that evening were all too alluring for lurkers is my best hypothesis.

 

 

 

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I bought my Yaris from him. Very nice guy. It was funny when he got in with me for the test drive!

Wow, it took 4.5 years, but 4EVERDELAYED found a thread worth commenting in.

 

I just liked reading about wrestling and dumb shit! Also my computer is really slow.

 

Another wrestling note: I was driving home, and John Tenta was right by me in traffic. He was obviously in his wife's car, since there was a Betty Boop bumper sticker. It was quite an amusing scene...

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TDG > Crippler Crossface.

But could the the Tongan Death Grip kill a retarded child? We may never know.

 

Another wrestling note: I was driving home, and John Tenta was right by me in traffic. He was obviously in his wife's car, since there was a Betty Boop bumper sticker. It was quite an amusing scene...

 

Isn't John Tenta dead?

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TDG > Crippler Crossface.

But could the the Tongan Death Grip kill a retarded child? We may never know.

 

Another wrestling note: I was driving home, and John Tenta was right by me in traffic. He was obviously in his wife's car, since there was a Betty Boop bumper sticker. It was quite an amusing scene...

 

Isn't John Tenta dead?

 

 

VERY dead. But this was I'd say, a year or two before he passed. I was just getting a cigarette and I look over at the car next to me, and BAM! SHARK ATTACK!

 

Apparently where I live is old wrestler paradise.

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