Haku On WWE Tag Title Run With Andre The Giant Lasting Longer Than Expected, His Favorite Gimmick
Former WWE and WCW Superstar Haku, a.k.a. Meng, recently spoke to Wrestling Inc. president Raj Giri. During the interview, Haku discussed his time working alongside Andre The Giant.
Haku and Andre The Giant were a part of Bobby Heenan's famed stable, The Heenan Family. In 1989, the two of them were paired together to form The Colossal Connection with Heenan as their manager. Haku said he enjoyed working with Heenan because of how friendly he was outside of the ring.
"It was great. Bobby was always a joker. I think in those days we were always running, and was competing for the business today. We run long on business days on the road," Haku said. "Bobby was very good with taking our minds away from the long tours, or whatever. He always told jokes and joke around with us. He was a lot of fun with him in that way. He was a good man."
The Colossal Connection won the WWF Tag Team Championships from Demolition at Survivor Series in December 1989. They lost the titles to Demolition at WrestleMania VI, which was Andre's last televised match in the WWE. The match was unique in the sense that Haku worked the entire match with Andre never tagging in, and this was due to Andre's health issues towards the end of his career. Haku said Andre knew he was on his way out of the company and he wanted to make sure Haku looked strong so he would be in a good position within the WWE when they came up with a new storyline for him without Andre.
"Yes. I believe so. I am the last one to know anything or everything in WWE, or even now, I can show you that I work hard and take it from there. I never cared for the drama, but it is what it is. At the end, I guess it was meant to be a short run, but again, Vince McMahon was in control of everything. I was surprised that we went all the way into WrestleMania VI," Haku said. "Andre never tagged in. It is exactly what Andre had wanted. We were going to be having our last match together. He wanted me to be strong, you know? It was our last match, and he didn't know whether or not I was going to end up being a babyface, but at WrestleMania VI he told me to carry the match and to keep going. That was what he wanted me to do."
Giri also asked Haku about his favorite time from his career in the wrestling business. Haku said he enjoyed working in WCW as Meng because how how dominant his run was with that company.
"I believe my favorite time was being Meng. I was cleaning out everybody, from the ring to the dressing room," he said. "Meng gimmick itself, I believe was good. They let me do that kind of–let me handle things with the fighting and getting to do that around the ring. I really enjoyed being Meng."
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.