Mr. Fuji was notorious for his ribs on people in the wrestling business, and two of the men he managed were witness to one of his best pranks—or worst—depending on how you look at it.
WrestleZone recently spoke with Paul Diamond, aka ‘Kato’ in the Orient Express, ahead of his appearance at ’80s Wrestling Con’s VirtualMania. Diamond was asked if he had any notable stories about Fuji ‘ribbing’ anyone, and he told a story about Fuji urinating in a beer that someone had left on the bar.
“I witnessed me some crazy stuff but I don’t know, I guess probably sort of the worst, or the best, depending on the way you want to look at it. There was a guy from Japan—I think we were in Rochester, New York, or somewhere—but after the matches, we were at the hotel bar. This guy was sitting with us,” Diamond explained, “and he went to the bathroom and while he was gone, Fuji wound up pissing in his beer. Yeah, and the guy came back and actually drank it. And then after that, Fuji proceeded to tell him what had happened, and I’ve never seen anything—the guy started crying. I mean I get—he was probably, he had a few beers, a little buzzed—but yeah he started crying after he found out what happened. Fuji was notorious [for that.] That’d be about the best or the worst, whichever way you want to look at it.”
“He liked to rib people,” Diamond explained, “but he certainly didn’t like to be ribbed. I remember people messing with his top hat and he didn’t like that too much. [He would get] really upset.”
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In a separate interview, Diamond’s partner, Pat Tanaka, talked about Fuji’s reputation for ribs and said that he’s someone that doesn’t get easily shocked but Fuji “shocked the shit outta me.”
“Fuji was different. A lot of people had different opinions but to me, we were fine. We had a great relationship and everything,” Tanaka explained, “but he did some pretty crazy things and things don’t shock me very much, you know? And he fuckin’ shocked the shit outta me. I’ve seen some heavy ribs, man. I mean, I’ve seen it all man, and my God, that man…is one sick individual (laughs).
Noting that Diamond had already told the story about the beer on the bar, Tanaka confirmed the bar incident, explaining that the man was a Japanese photographer for WWE.
“Man, I can’t believe he did it. Oh my Lord, brother. The guy drank it and I almost fell off of my chair, man. I was just about to say ‘He’s not going to do that. He’s not going to be stupid enough to drink anything left on the table’, but sure enough, that guy took a big gulp of it,” Tanaka explained. “I said, ‘Are you kidding? You’re sitting at a table with Fuji, and you drank something [left out]?’ I was like man, he’s just waiting to get ribbed.”
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