1979 Rax Roast Beef Wrestling Mystery Solved....

[Beansballcardblog]

Thoroughly enjoyed this thread. Congrats on the find!

[Dpeck100]

Originally Posted by wvu_class_of_2001

Thoroughly enjoyed this thread. Congrats on the find!

Thank you very much.

[Dpeck100]

I purchased another 15 card voucher so that I could send the entire set in at the same time and just have them separated into two orders. I used the online submission for the first time and it was amazing. I have really sloppy hand writing so it I am sure made it easier for whomever was processing my order. They are logged and I am awaiting the grades.

On a different note I had the opportunity to have dinner last night with Haku or known in this set as Prince Tonga. He lives in Central Florida and a fellow wrestling card collector organized the dinner as he was up from Miami for a conference. We had a great time! He is such a nice guy and we chatted it up for three and a half hours and closed down the restaurant. Greg is a vendor at many of the wrestling conventions and was trying to secure him for next year when Wrestlemania comes to Orlando and the huge Wrestlecon event takes place.

We talked about a ton of topics and it was really cool to see two of the waiters "mark out" for him. We let them engage in the conversation and here the stories he was telling. I showed him the Rax set from my phone and he did confirm he had never seen the card.

His personal story is amazing and he left the island of Tonga at 14 to pursue rugby and then was selected to join a sumo wrestling organization. Greg was able to get a few of his very rare cards from Japan signed and a Market Scene card that I brought for him. I gave two copies to him to take home and he was very pleased.

We knocked back a number of drinks and it was so much fun to get to talk to him for so long. We talked about some of his infamous altercations outside of the ring and some of his more memorable moments in the ring. From Andre to Brody to Abdullah to Goldberg it was great. It sounded like Greg got him to agree to be able to represent him next year so all parties left very happy.


We took a few pics and here they are.

[Bored5000]

Great pictures, Mr. Peck. On the classic wrestling boards I read, Haku is always listed at or near the top of any list whenever the topic of "legit tough guys" or guys not to be messed with comes up.

I don't know if this is still the case, but I kind of remember it being mentioned online within the past few years that Haku was now selling cars for a living, or at least working at a dealership. I don't know if that is accurate or not.

[Dpeck100]

We had a great discussion and it definitely involved some of his legendary moments.

Tonga is what most call him and he is definitely just skirting by financially. The legendary incident where he bit a man's nose off is not only true but cost him 1.6 million. Apparently he had a few other incidents that cost him dearly too.

The guy Gregg in the pics is an attorney and I think in some ways it made him uneasy and after losing millions in lawsuits I can see why.

Tonga works in the car business and it is my understanding he runs the car wash. There has been a lot of consolidation in that industry and the dealership he worked at in Sanford was sold a few years ago and now he works in New Port Richey and drives four hours a day to and from work.

He has a few sons in the business now and hopefully they find success and can assist him and his wife of 36 years.

One of my favorite parts of the discussion was talking about the bloody finish at the recent Summer Slam with Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton. A fellow former professional wrestler Ricky Santana works at the dealership too and fills him in on the happenings and his thoughts on the booking. He agreed with me that is great for the business to have a headline grabbing finish like that. Brock is by far my favorite and booking him as a mercenary who is legit is a good thing.

Since the dinner I have had a chance to look around on Youtube and there are some great videos of him. This is one of my favorites.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OkdrvojMYc

[Bored5000]

Thank you for the great information, Mr. Peck. I was familiar was nose-biting incident, but never realized it cost him $1.6 million. It was also interesting to read what he is doing for a living now. Like I said, I did kind of remember reading about him working in the car business a few years ago.

[Dpeck100]

Looking good so far! The other sub of 15 should be popping soon.

1 1 26164942 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling Tom Renesto, Jr. Card
2 1 26164943 MINT 9 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling Chief Thundercloud Card
3 1 26164944 MINT 9 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling Ken Lucas Card
4 1 26164945 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling Tom Renesto, Sr. Card
5 1 26164946 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling David Shultz Card
6 1 26164947 NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling Ricky Gibson Card
7 1 26164948 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling Jerry Barber Card
8 1 26164949 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1979 Gulas/Rax Roast Beef Championship Wrestling Prince Tonga Card