Max Moon

Paul Diamond

Haito

Nagoya, Japan

In 1988, Moon debuted in the American Wrestling Association as **Paul Diamond**. In the AWA, he formed a team called Badd Company alongside Pat Tanaka, and 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 (Ricky Rice and Derrick Dukes). They teamed with Madusa Miceli to face the team of the Top Guns and Wendi Richter at the first AWA pay-per-view, SuperClash III. Both Badd Company's Tag Team Titles 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" (Brad Rheingans and Ken Patera). 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 leaving the AWA, Diamond teamed with The Trooper for a short run at the AWA Tag Team Titles against The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom). Diamond and Trooper actually defeated The Destruction Crew, but were not awarded the titles when it was determined that Diamond pinned the wrong person.

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. Around this time, Orient Express member Sato decided to leave the company following the 1990 Survivor Series. Following Survivor Series, 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 faced the Rockers at the 1991 Royal Rumble, and another match against the New Foundation at the 1992 Royal Rumble, which were the only pay-per-view 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 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.

In the fall of 1992, Diamond got a brand new gimmick in **Max Moon**. 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 (as Max Moon) 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 (Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware) 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 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 pay-per-view, participating in the 30-man elimination match at the 1993 Royal Rumble, where he was in the ring less than two minutes. In late February, Paul Diamond's contract with the WWF expired and was not renewed.

Diamond and Pat Tanaka reunited as Badd Company to work for Extreme Championship Wrestling in late 1993. The team made their debut at *Bloodfest: Part 1* on October 1, 1993, where they beat the Bad Breed (Ian and Axl Rotten). Tanaka and Diamond got a shot at the ECW Tag Team Champions Tony Stetson and Johnny Hotbody later in the night, which Badd Company lost.

The next night at *Bloodfest: Part 2*, Badd Company fought against Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) in one of their very early matches. Later in the show, Badd Company and the Public Enemy would clash again, this time in a three-way steel cage match that also included Bad Breed. This time, Public Enemy was victorious. At *Terror at Tabor* on November 12, 1993, Badd Company beat the makeshift team of Don E. Allen and Mr. Hughes. After the match, Badd Company called out Public Enemy resulting in an impromptu match between Paul Diamond and Rocco Rock which Diamond won. Public Enemy quickly got very brutal revenge on Badd Company as they defeated the duo in a "South Philly hood" match the very next day at November to Remember. At Holiday Hell 1993 on December 26, Pat Tanaka defeated Rocco Rock in a "Body Count" match.

As 1993 turned to 1994, Badd Company set their sights on ECW Tag Team Champions Kevin Sullivan and The Tasmaniac; they defeated them twice in non-title matches. At *The Night the Line was Crossed* on February 5, 1994, Tanaka and his one night only partner The Sheik defeated Sullivan and The Tasmaniac. Unfortunately, the team had been stripped of the titles the night before. When Tanaka was rejoined by Diamond, the team lost to the (once again) Tag Team Champions when the gold was finally on the line. On March 27, 1994, Badd Company wrestled its last match for ECW, a house show victory over Rockin' Rebel and Pitbull #1.

By the time Badd Company wrestled its last match for ECW, Tanaka and Diamond had already signed with World Championship Wrestling; Tanaka had even made his on screen debut as "Tanaka-San". Paul Diamond showed up with the Kato mask on using the name "**Haito**" (sometimes spelled "Hyeeto") only days after their last ECW match. The two men wrestled a couple of matches together, but they never achieved any notoriety in WCW. Badd Company finally split up for good by the end of 1994.

Diamond made his return to Extreme Championship Wrestling in September 1997. His role was more of a jobber losing to Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, Spike Dudley and Justin Credible. He had a feud with Al Snow. Diamond defeated Snow at the *Fright Fight* event. A week later he lost to Snow at Ultimate Jeopardy. The feud continued into 1998.