The Orient Express

[The Idiot]

Discuss, debate, questions, favorite memories....everything is welcomed. An old school tag team with an old school feel. I liked everything about them....their style, their calm/arrogant attitude walking to the ring, their wardrobe/music...and most importantly their manager Mr. Fuji.

The original team was Pat Tanaka and Akio Sato who was brought in to the WWF by Mr. Fuji to represent Japan. They won't go down as Hall of Famers, they weren't known for putting on 5 star matches mainly because I don't think they were ever really given the right guys to work with, except the Rockers.(Which I believe this feud was the highlight of their careers). I think if Vince would have invested more time into them they could have been bigger than they were. You have to remember that they were around during the tag team boom....so many great teams which brings so much competition. They were never in any serious title matches that I can recall.

Later on Sato decided to leave (for whatever reason - if anyone knows I would like to hear) and Vince brought in Tanaka's old partner from the Indies, Paul Diamond. As most people know Paul was white so they put a mask on him to disguise him as Asian and was known as Kato. The Tanaka/Kato version of the Orient Express had one of the greatest tag team matches in wrestling history when they went up against old nemesis, the Rockers, at the 1991 Royal Rumble. If you haven't seen it I highly suggest you check it out - should be on youtube. This match was proof that given the right guys to work with, the Orient Express could put on a hell of a show.

Not much happened with them after that. I believe they went on to feud with a couple teams and then they were pretty much phased out. Kato went on to become Max Moon which was a bust.

So tell us your favorite memories of the Orient Express (although they may be limited) or tell us what you would have done differently with the tag team to have them reach higher success.

 

[The Brain]

First of all, I love the random thread. I always enjoy a thread dedicated to wrestlers who are hardly ever discussed here.

The Orient Express was always kind of an afterthought team to me. Some good teams from that era, such as the British Bulldogs and Brain Busters, had already left the WWF by the time the Orient Express arrived but it was still a very strong time for the tag division. With teams like the Hart Foundation, Demolition, the Rockers, Power & Glory, the Nasty Boys, and LOD around it was hard for the Orient Express to make it to the top. They were still a great team and capable of having good matches. That match against the Rockers at the Royal Rumble was awesome. I think they were meant to be a Killer Bees type team. They could go out on any given night and have a good match with any given team but they were usually used to put over other teams.

I do have one personal memory of the Orient Express which was actually a bit of a turning point for me as a fan. They entered the WWF right before WrestleMania 6 when I was ten years old. The prior year my brother created a mania confidence pool for WM5. At age nine I picked my favorites and was too young to understand the booking. For example I picked Blue Blazer over Mr. Perfect. I think anyone with a little more age and experience would tell you Perfect was obviously going to win. When I was filling out my WM6 picks I decided to pick the Orient Express over my beloved Rockers. Remembering my mistake from the previous year I figured Vince (I don't think I knew it was Vince at the time) would want his new team to get a win on the big stage. It was then that I started thinking about who would win from a booking standpoint instead of as a fan.

One more thing; Sato was the first person a saw that used a powerbomb. I thought that was awesome. FYI he became Hakushi's manager years later.

 

[enviousdominous]

I think they have a decent chance of being in the HOF some year. I don't know about the backstage politics of that idea, perhaps one of them upset Vince in some way.

Seeing as Mr. Fuji was already inducted back in '07, it would be cool to have him induct them. Speaking of which, the WWE has had some very underappreciated tag teams from back then. Not trying to go too far off subject, but The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers deserve to be recognized (especially Jacques).

My favorite memory of them was seeing them in a 20 man battle royal on Saturday Night. They got some team moves off, and I think Kato had replaced Akio by that time.

There were so many elements to their game that kept it interesting for the fans. I remember a match they had with LOD, they were using sneaky tactics to get the upper hand in a match where I thought LOD would squash them. At one point, with the camera perfectly placed on the action, Mr. Fuji opened his palm in front of Animal's face and green dust apparently went into Animal's eyes giving The Orient Express the upper hand for a while. LOD won of course, but it was interesting that they were willing to put a heel tag team over so much.

 

[byrnside]

Definitely predicted The Brain would be the first to respond to this thread as I figured it was right up his alley.. Also very cool to read that Sato was Hakushi's manager [Senji?] in the mid 90s.

I really just wanted to say those two things but since that's probably too close to the fine line that is spam, I'll elaborate further..

Seeing as most if not all of my 80s and 90s experience with wrestling is due to Blockbuster Video, I don't really know too much about The Orient Express other than some of their matches with The Rockers. Their match from the 1991 Royal Rumble really stood out and if memory serves it was a fantastic curtain jerk that is actually on the "Heartbreak and Triumph" Shawn Michaels DVD.

I have never really understood why Vince never really did much else with these guys as they could've continued to further boost the tag division in the early 90s. Maybe it was because teams like LOD, The Rockers, The Hart Foundation, Demolition, The Natural Disasters and the Nasty's "clogged" the scene. If they could've successfully managed to switch them to faces they could've had some awesome tag matches with any number of teams.

 

[GameOver]

I loved the fued between the Orient Express and The Rockers, that was some amazing tag team wrestling.

and the adding of Mr Fuji as manager only sweatened there presence if only the fact he could talk for them

I don't think they'd ever be HOF bound atleast strictly in the WWE, then again if they can't get legit HOF worthy people they will throw in anyone. ie Koko B Ware.

 

[bowlah]

Good team, I also liked them in the AWA as Bad Company with DDP managing. They were Vince's only "express" Other leagues had plenty of Expresses (midnight, lightning, rocknroll, zambuie, etc). Vince was more about Foundations and Connections if you think about it.