King Tonga/Haku/Meng is the toughest wrestler to never have been a singles world champion. He did team with Andre the Giant to swap the WWF tag titles with Demolition in 1990 though. Too bad one of the companies didn't see the potential to book him (with the right manager to do the talking) as an unstoppable monster heel World Champion.
Thanks for posting this. Slaughter was very smart. He was bigtime over, and worked it constantly as a babyface and a heal. One of the all time great workers.
It still boggles my mind as to why Verne didn't put the World title on Slaughter a few months later. I don’t know if it's because Sarge had a busy schedule that would have not allowed him to make house shows, or if it's because Verne didn’t trust him (since he came from New York), or if he was too much of a character for Verne's old fashioned taste....who knows, but I think it would have been a smart move to make him the face of the promotion after Rick's run was over.
It's 70's-80's wrestling 101. If you have a menacing heel capable of doing kicks and martial arts, then say he's from the mysterious Orient where no American has ever step foot! The guy could be white like a ghost and talk with a strong Boston accent it doesn’t matter, if he can do karate then he's automatically from the Orient.
