Tony Halme
Tony Christian Halme was a Finnish politician, athlete, author, actor, and singer. He was a member of the Finnish Parliament from 2003 to 2007 as an independent elected on the True Finns party list. Halme was also known by the pseudonym Viikinki, which he used while appearing in Gladiaattorit, a Finnish version of the TV game show Gladiators, in the 1990s.
He was also a professional wrestler best known for his appearances with Catch Wrestling Association, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation under the ring name Ludvig Borga; a mixed martial artist and the first fighter from the Nordic countries to ever compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship ; and a professional boxer.
During his time in CWA, he was an accomplished main eventer, who headlined many events for the company including the company's flagship event Euro Catch Festival three times.
Early life
Tony Halme spent his childhood in Lauttasaari, Helsinki. His father left the family when Tony was six months old. His older brother – who was five years older than Tony – assumed the role of father figure. Halme only heard from his father a couple of times during his life. His mother was an alcoholic with a constant revolving door of male partners. As an adult, Halme considered his brother to be his only true friend. In the mid-1970s, Tony, his mother and brother moved to Soukka, Espoo. Halme attended and a oppikoulu. He later attended a Swedish-language school and studied at the electrician line at the Strömberg School of Engineering. However, he dropped out of the latter after two years. At the age of 16, Halme left his mother's home and moved in with his uncle to Kannelmäki.Athletic from a young age, he actively participated in sports such as handball, football and ice hockey. He also began power training and weightlifting in his late teens after watching his brothers, who were on the Finnish national team. Aged 17, he had won a silver medal at the Finnish Bodybuilding Championship. He also worked a wide variety of jobs, including fishmonger, gatekeeper, glass cutter, singer, page, stuntman, TV and radio presenter, and coach. He later enlisted in the Finnish army and continued his training with the Finnish military sports team. After leaving the army, he became involved in boxing and worked as a bouncer in bars.
Halme developed a fascination with the United States after seeing Martin Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver at the age of 12, Halme also had a dream to get to the Gold's Gym and see it. He left Finland to live in Los Angeles in the 1980s and lived there for 15 years. He resumed bodybuilding in the US also and began to take anabolic steroids regularly. He worked as a bodyguard for the music group Cheap Trick and musician Gene Simmons, and also as an actor, professional wrestler and a boxer.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1989–1990)
Halme was trained by Verne Gagne as a powerhouse professional wrestler. In 1990, he wrestled in New Zealand losing to Tom Magee.Universal Wrestling Federation (1990)
He made his debut for Herb Abrams's Universal Wrestling Federation on October 29, 1990 as The Viking. In his first match, he defeated The Patriot, not to be confused with Del Wilkes, but a no name wrestler with a mask. He then went on to defeat Kevin Benjamin.New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1990–1993)
On October 25, 1990, Halme made his debut for the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling, defeating The Soul Taker in what was billed as a "boxer vs. wrestler" match. Halme was brought in as an outsider and billed as a professional boxing champion with his matches billed as Mixed martial arts matches. He was instantly pushed as a big deal, scoring wins over the likes of Scott Norton, Vader and most notably Shinya Hashimoto on December 26, 1990. Halme was main eventing shows regularly as he was pushed as the biggest star of a crew that included the likes of Bobby Eaton, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddy Guerrero and Fit Finlay. Despite Halme not getting over with NJPW fans, the company was doing strong business during his push.On April 30, 1991, Halme defeated Masashi Aoyagi in a boxer versus karate match. He remained undefeated in NJPW until September 23, 1991, when he was defeated by Shinya Hashimoto in their third match against each other in front of 18,000 fans at the Yokohama Arena. While Halme's matches with Hashimoto were not considered quality matches, he has been credited with helping Hashimoto take his career to another level as the win made Hashimoto look like a "real fighter" as opposed to a professional wrestler. Halme's "boxer versus wrestler" gimmick was ended on October 18, 1991, when he was defeated by Vader.
In 1992, Halme was teamed in matches with Scott Norton, Bam Bam Bigelow and Barry Windham. He also competed in the NJPW Super Grade Tag League II teaming with Masahiro Chono, together scoring 8 points and finishing fourth overall. The tournament was won by Shinya Hashimoto and Riki Choshu. On November 22, 1992, Halme and Norton won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from The Steiner Brothers. However, the next night, Halme and Norton were forced to face each other with separate tag team partners with Halme and Ron Powers losing to Norton and TNT.
On December 14, Halme and Norton lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to the Hell Raisers. On January 4, 1993, at Fantastic Story in Tokyo Dome, Halme was pinned by Ron Simmons. On February 16, 1993, Halme teamed up with Monsieur Rambo for the IWGP Tag Team Championship against the Hell Raisers, but lost.
Behind the scenes, Halme started having problems with Hawk Warrior and Scott Norton. It also came out that Halme had knocked out Norton in a legitimate street fight, though some claimed this was the result of a sucker punch by Halme. Fearing that Norton would be looking for retribution on Halme, NJPW officials took a secret vote on what to do with the two. Afterwards, Halme started losing matches more regularly and eventually left the promotion in June 1993. His last match took place on June 17, when he and The Barbarian lost to John Tenta and Haku.
World Wrestling Federation (1993–1994)
On Superstars aired on July 24, Halme debuted in the World Wrestling Federation as Ludvig Borga, a heel Finn who appeared in a series of vignettes castigating Americans for their perceived deficiencies in issues such as environmental laws and their educational system. His singlet was adorned with the Finnish flag, and his entrance music was Maamme, the country's national anthem. After an initial streak of squash victories over jobbers, Borga defeated former Intercontinental Champion Marty Jannetty at SummerSlam.Borga was immediately pushed to main event status as he entered a feud with the federation's top babyface, "Made in the USA" Lex Luger. On the October 30, 1993 edition of Superstars, Borga had the biggest win of his career when he ended Tatanka's undefeated streak of nearly two years, dominating him throughout their match and ultimately knocking him out with a steel chair while the referee was distracted by Mr. Fuji at ringside. In a mockery of Luger's past "Narcissist" gimmick, Borga pinned Tatanka with one finger. At Survivor Series, Borga participated in the main event, teaming up with Yokozuna, Quebecer Jacques and Crush as the "Foreign Fanatics" against "All-Americans" Lex Luger, The Undertaker and The Steiner Brothers. Borga and Luger were the final two remaining participants and Borga was eliminated by Luger after a running forearm smash. On December 14, Borga pinned Intercontinental Champion Razor Ramon at a house show, but the win was overturned and the match resumed because Razor's foot was on the bottom rope. Borga pinned Razor again after Shawn Michaels hit Razor with a title belt, but the decision was reversed and Borga disqualified.
On January 17, 1994, Halme injured his ankle in a match with Rick Steiner, forcing the WWF to cancel future plans for the Borga character that included a scheduled appearance at the 1994 Royal Rumble and a proposed WrestleMania X match against Earthquake, Borga was replaced by Adam Bomb who was defeated in seconds. Halme left the company soon after.
Return to Universal Wrestling Federation (1994)
After leaving the WWF, Halme returned to UWF for Blackjack Brawl as the Finland Hellraiser Thor against Bob Orton Jr. in a double disqualification.Fighting Network Rings (1994–1997)
Halme returned to Japan in August 1994, this time working for Fighting Network Rings. During his debut, he defeated Thomas Lurosi by knockout. That Fall, he participated in a Mega Battle Tournament where he defeated Dimitri Petkov and Tarial Bitsadze before losing to Akira Maeda in the third round.In 1995, lost twice to Dick Vrij and once to Volk Han.
He would lose to Mitsuya Nagai on January 24, 1996.
His final match with RINGS was a loss to Dick Vrij on April 22, 1997.
Catch Wrestling Association (1995–1997)
Halme wrestled as Ludvig Borga for Catch Wrestling Association in 1995. On December 20, Borga won the World Heavyweight Championship, his first and only singles championship, by defeating Rambo at the 1995 Euro Catch Festival. Borga held the title for over a year, including a major title defense against August Smisl at the Euro Catch Festival in July. He then lost the title back to Rambo at Euro Catch Festival on December 21. His final match for the CWA was a boxing match against Tony Richardson, which he won by knocking out Richardson in the fourth round.Mixed martial arts
After retiring from professional wrestling in 1997, Halme went on to fight in the RINGS and Ultimate Fighting Championship, though without appreciable success, notably a 56-second submission loss to Randy Couture atUFC XIII.
Political career
Early 2000s Tony Halme met Veikko Vallin, who conceived the idea that Halme should run for Finnish parliament. Vallin became Halme's campaign manager and edited a book called Viikingin voimaopas, which was used to finance the election campaign. Halme became a member of the Finns Party and entered parliament in the 2003 parliamentary elections and during his parliamentary career, Halme raised controversies. The day after the elections, Halme referred to President Tarja Halonen as a lesbian in a radio interview. Halme stated that if a lesbian can be president of Finland and he can be a member of Parliament, anything seems possible. A huge uproar ensued as much of the Finnish media treated the statement as a personal attack on Halonen; Halonen herself made no comment. Halme later apologized, stating that he was sorry that the statement had been interpreted as an insult and that he had been under the genuine impression that Halonen was a lesbian. Halme opted not to run for re-election in 2007 due to health issues.Halme was also elected to the City Council of Helsinki in the 2004 municipal elections, but announced he would not participate in the council's activities. His term officially ended in 2008.