Paul Diamond
Thomas Boric is a Croatian-Canadian retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Paul Diamond. He is best known for being one half of the tag team Badd Company with Pat Tanaka and for his time in the World Wrestling Federation as Kato, one half of The Orient Express, also with Tanaka, and later Max Moon. Before he was a professional wrestler, Boric was a professional Association Football player.
Early life
Boric was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1961 and grew up wanting to follow in his father's footsteps and become a soccer player. When Boric was 13 years old the family emigrated from Croatia to Canada, settling down in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Tom got a full soccer scholarship to Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.Professional soccer career
After only three semesters at college, Boric was selected as the 6th overall pick of the 1981 NASL draft to play goalkeeper for the recently formed Calgary Boomers of the North American Soccer League. After the Boomers folded in 1981, Boric moved on to the Tampa Bay Rowdies whom he played for until the NASL closed for good in 1984.After his professional soccer career ended, Boric began training for a professional wrestling career at a Tampa Bay wrestling school run by Boris Malenko along with his two sons Joe Malenko and Dean Malenko who all had a hand in training him.
Professional wrestling career
Texas-All Star Wrestling (1985–1986)
After training, Boric began wrestling as "Paul Diamond" in 1985. His first break came in the Texas All-Star Wrestling promotion in San Antonio, Texas. He initially formed a tag team called American Breed with Nick Kiniski in Fred Barend's Texas All-Star Wrestling. Neither Diamond nor Kiniski were actually American, so the team name was quite ironic.The team won the TASW Tag Team Championship from the Maoris on May 25, 1985, and held them until Al Madrill and Chavo Guerrero took the titles from them on June 5, 1985. The titles would be vacated later that same month when Chavo Guerrero refused to wrestle in a rematch against Diamond and Kiniski because Chavo's father Gory Guerrero was the special referee chosen for the match. Madrill teamed up with Black Gorman instead but lost the match. After the match, Madrill attacked Chavo Guerrero splitting the team and forcing the titles to be held up.
When Chavo won the rights to name a new partner he chose to give the titles to American Breed instead, only now American Breed consisted of Paul Diamond and a rookie named Shawn Michaels, as Kiniski had left the promotion a few weeks prior. They feuded for a short time with Toshiaki Kawada and Hiromichi Fuyuki, who were called The Japanese Force.
Diamond and Michaels lost and then regained the titles from the "Masked Hoods" before being beaten for the titles on January 27, 1986, by Al Madrill and Magnificent Zulu. Both Michaels and Diamond began to add more to their wrestling skills, thanks in part to fellow wrestler Chris Adams, who split his time between World Class Championship Wrestling and Texas All-Star at the time.
Continental Wrestling Association (1986–1988)
In 1986, Diamond moved on to Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked for Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett's Continental Wrestling Association. In the fall of 1986 Diamond teamed up with a young Jeff Jarrett to win the CWA/AWA International Tag Team Championship from Tarzan Goto and Akio Sato on November 3, 1986. The team lost the titles back to Goto and Sato less than 2 weeks later. In late 1986, the tag team specialist Diamond was teamed up with Pat Tanaka, who was also seen as a tag team specialist, to form Badd Company. They held the federation's tag team titles four times and the two won the CWA/AWA International Tag Team Championship, beating Tarzan Goto and Akio Sato on December 15, 1986. The first reign was short lived as The Sheepherders defeated the young duo on January 10, 1987. Badd Company quickly regained the titles only to lose them to Tarzan Goto and Akio Sato on February 5, 1987. The third run with the tag team titles came on May 9, 1987, when the team beat Mark Starr in a handicap match, but lost them back to Mark Starr and his new tag team partner Billy Joe Travis. Badd Company had one last run with the International tag team titles as they won the vacant titles on May 25, 1987 and held them until July 6, 1987, where they lost the titles to Bill Dundee and Rocky Johnson.Badd Company also won the CWA's main tag team titles in Memphis, when they defeated Jeff Jarrett and Billy Joe Travis for the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship on August 8, 1987. Tanaka and Diamond soon lost them as the Nasty Boys took the gold from them just over a month later.
American Wrestling Association (1988–1990)
After working as a team for almost a year, Badd Company moved on from the CWA to the American Wrestling Association. In the AWA, they were given identical ring gear and were accompanied by flamboyant manager Diamond Dallas Page, who always had a number of valets, known as the Diamond Dolls, with him.The team's first feud was against The Midnight Rockers, whom they defeated for the AWA World Tag Team Championship on March 19, 1988. During their year long title reign, Badd Company would feud heavily with Chavo and Mando Guerrero and the team known as the Top Guns. They teamed with Madusa Miceli to face the team of the Top Guns and Wendi Richter at the first AWA PPV, SuperClash III. Both Badd Company's Tag Team Title and Wendi Richter's AWA World Women's Championship were on the line, but since Richter pinned Miceli, Badd Company remained the champions. Diamond and Tanaka's reign ended on March 25, 1989, as they lost to "the Olympians". Shortly after losing their titles they split from Page, and had a short feud against each other before wrestling in singles competition until early 1990. Just before moving to the WWF, Diamond teamed with The Trooper Del Wilkes for a short run at the AWA Tag Team Titles against The Destruction Crew. Diamond and Trooper actually defeated The Destruction Crew, but were not awarded the titles when it was determined that Diamond pinned the wrong person. AWA folded in August 1990.
World Wrestling Federation (1990–1993)
Debut and The Orient Express (1990–1992)
Diamond signed with the World Wrestling Federation in 1990, working mainly on the lower card against Dustin Rhodes, Hillbilly Jim, and Al Perez, usually in a losing role. Orient Express member Akio Sato decided to take a position in the Titan front office, focusing on the WWF television rights sold to Japan TV networks following the 1990 Survivor Series. Following Survivor Series 1990, the "C-team" house shows were no longer taking place and many wrestlers left television following the event. The move left Pat Tanaka without a partner in The Orient Express. The WWF decided to reunite the team known as Badd Company, only this time with Paul Diamond wearing a mask to hide the fact that he was not Asian and using the name of Kato. During this time, the team had a very well received match with their old enemies the Rockers at the 1991 Royal Rumble, and match against the New Foundation at the 1992 Royal Rumble, which were the only PPV appearances for the New Orient Express. Kato spent a great deal of the 1992 campaign flying solo, posting a notable victory over The Brooklyn Brawler at Maple Leaf Gardens on February 9, 1992, in addition to collecting wins against the likes of grinders such as Jim Powers, Phil Apollo, JW Storm, Kid Collins, and Dale Wolfe. He also would serve as the first opponent for the re-debut of Crush under his "Kona Crush" persona.Sato briefly rejoined the team in 1991 to team with Tanaka and Kato for a series of 6-man tag-team matches on WWF house shows, but left the WWF after only a handful of matches. Tanaka would leave the WWF in early 1992. Diamond continued to wrestle as Kato until that October, primarily being used as an enhancement talent.
Max Moon (1992–1993)
In the fall of 1992, Diamond got a brand new gimmick in "Maximillian Moon". Diamond wasn't originally intended to play Max Moon. The gimmick, then called Relampago, was created for Konnan, but Konnan left the WWF after a backstage disagreement. Since Diamond fit the costume, he was chosen to take over the character. The suit was a very elaborate powder blue bodysuit with markings that were supposed to look like a circuit board and white protruding rings around his arms making him look rather "outlandish". The elaborate outfit also came with two wrist devices that shot out fireworks and a jet pack that was supposed to make Max Moon look like a man of the future.Diamond debuted as the Komet Kid and then would change his name to Max Moon. He would wrestle and defeat Terry Taylor in a series of house show matches during the rest of 1992, but otherwise, his biggest victories came against Rick Martel and Repo Man, both by disqualification. On the December 7, 1992, episode of WWF Prime Time Wrestling, Max Moon teamed with High Energy in a six-man tag team match against The Beverly Brothers and The Genius. Max Moon and High Energy won the match when Moon pinned The Genius.
On January 11, 1993, Max Moon wrestled and lost an Intercontinental Championship match to former tag team partner/longtime rival Shawn Michaels on the very first Monday Night Raw. The loss to Michaels was a sign of things to come for the Max Moon gimmick as he began losing to midcarders such as Skinner. The Max Moon gimmick only appeared at one PPV, participating in the 30 Man Elimination match at the 1993 Royal Rumble, where he was in the ring less than 2 minutes. In late February, Paul Diamond's contract with the WWF expired and was not renewed.