Notoriety and Incidents
Fifita made a name for himself outside the ring as one of the toughest wrestlers of his era and is known for allegedly biting off noses, and knocking people out with one punch, slap, or headbutt. Though he had an easygoing, friendly personality outside of wrestling, he had very little tolerance for people who tested him. Even renowned hardman Bad News Allen said in interviews that Fifita was without a doubt the toughest. His one time manager, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan said in a shoot interview that Haku was "the toughest man I've ever met in my life", but noted that he was also a good hearted family man. In 1987, Haku had a backstage fight with Jesse Barr (who wrestled at the WWF as Jimmy Jack Funk) which allegedly resulted in Fifita gouging one of Barr's eyeballs out, causing Barr to later wear a glass eye. After this fight, Fifita had a reputation that steered wrestlers away from backstage confrontations.
Read more about this topic: Tonga Fifita
Famous quotes containing the words notoriety and/or incidents:
“Our books are false by being fragmentary: their sentences are bon mots, and not parts of natural discourse; childish expressions of surprise or pleasure in nature; or, worse, owing a brief notoriety to their petulance, or aversion from the order of nature,—being some curiosity or oddity, designedly not in harmony with nature, and purposely framed to excite surprise, as jugglers do by concealing their means.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“An element of exaggeration clings to the popular judgment: great vices are made greater, great virtues greater also; interesting incidents are made more interesting, softer legends more soft.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)