1 00:00:12,670 --> 00:00:15,810 The look and the presence he had was world class. 2 00:00:18,730 --> 00:00:22,830 He was big, he was tall, he was muscular, he was a real life badass. 3 00:00:23,890 --> 00:00:27,970 But the reason why we're doing this television program now is not because he 4 00:00:27,970 --> 00:00:31,890 a great wrestler that was a standout for years, but because he was in wrestling 5 00:00:31,890 --> 00:00:34,810 and then did some other batshit stuff. 6 00:00:41,449 --> 00:00:47,530 He made people around him uncomfortable, but not in a good way. 7 00:00:48,110 --> 00:00:49,530 You don't know that story? 8 00:00:49,750 --> 00:00:53,290 He got deported from this country for weapons. 9 00:00:59,070 --> 00:01:04,450 Driven by a desire for fame, Tony took his strongman persona to the extreme. 10 00:01:07,820 --> 00:01:11,560 He wanted to be the person that people would, could you believe he said that? 11 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:13,000 Could you believe he did that? 12 00:01:13,380 --> 00:01:16,040 And into the corridors of political power. 13 00:01:16,340 --> 00:01:18,500 That guy's going to be an elected official? 14 00:01:18,860 --> 00:01:22,020 He wanted to be famous, so that's how he was going to do that in Finland. 15 00:01:25,259 --> 00:01:30,320 Until his relentless pursuit of the spotlight led to infamy and ended in 16 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:31,320 tragedy. 17 00:01:36,140 --> 00:01:43,140 What more did he have to live for? The 18 00:01:43,140 --> 00:01:44,140 dream was over. 19 00:01:44,570 --> 00:01:48,650 The image he had created for himself became impossible to maintain. 20 00:01:49,070 --> 00:01:53,190 He looked like a villain, he sounded like a villain, but unfortunately in 21 00:01:53,190 --> 00:01:54,750 life, he was a villain. 22 00:02:03,950 --> 00:02:10,110 In the summer of 1993, 23 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,360 Wrestling fans witnessed the debut of Ludwig Borga, an arrogant new villain 24 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:17,360 Finland. 25 00:02:18,260 --> 00:02:20,800 This guy's a tough dude. 26 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:26,120 The foreign heel in professional wrestling has been a standby since the 27 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:30,580 the 20th century. They were exotic. They were mysterious. They were not like us. 28 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:33,880 You ain't from around here, are you, boy? 29 00:02:35,180 --> 00:02:40,520 I'm Jim Cornette, and I was working for the WWF when Tony Holm, a .k .a. Ludwig 30 00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:43,240 Borga, made his brief but spectacular run. 31 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:49,360 The fans could take their animosity out by booing the anti -American. 32 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:53,360 Maybe you sang that Russian national anthem just one time too many. Vince 33 00:02:53,360 --> 00:03:00,300 McMahon loved the foreign heel concept so much that if we didn't have a problem 34 00:03:00,300 --> 00:03:02,460 with a country, he would figure one out. 35 00:03:03,100 --> 00:03:06,740 From Helsinki, Ludwig Borga. 36 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:15,120 So suddenly, you get this guy named Ludwig Borga from Finland, and because 37 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:18,500 he had an accent, that was close enough for Vince McMahon. 38 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:19,940 I can do something with this guy. 39 00:03:20,340 --> 00:03:22,900 USA stand for it, my continent. 40 00:03:23,280 --> 00:03:25,780 You stink a lot. 41 00:03:27,180 --> 00:03:30,980 He was going to get a great push because it was easy to position him as a 42 00:03:30,980 --> 00:03:31,980 villain. 43 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:37,280 I'm Jim Ross, and I was an on -air talent in 1993 for the WWE. 44 00:03:38,540 --> 00:03:44,300 One way you get a villain notice is you have them break a streak, and Tatanka 45 00:03:44,300 --> 00:03:45,300 had a winning streak. 46 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:51,640 Tatanka wins the 40th! Being the Native American, representing America, the fans 47 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:53,500 just connected right to me. 48 00:03:54,580 --> 00:03:58,040 I'm Tatanka, an official legend of WWE. 49 00:04:00,650 --> 00:04:03,510 I was running on an undefeated streak for two years. 50 00:04:04,870 --> 00:04:09,870 When the office came to me, they said, we're really looking to do something big 51 00:04:09,870 --> 00:04:10,950 with Ludwig Borga. 52 00:04:12,790 --> 00:04:16,630 In our business, it's called rubbing. 53 00:04:18,390 --> 00:04:23,150 You get out there and you rub shoulders with Hulk Hogan, that stardom rubs off 54 00:04:23,150 --> 00:04:24,150 on you. 55 00:04:27,010 --> 00:04:29,150 Ludwig had a tremendous opportunity. 56 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:35,440 The best thing for you to do is sell it. And he wanted me to sell it. 57 00:04:35,940 --> 00:04:39,580 So Ludwig threw me in the ring and then pinned me with one finger. 58 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:48,980 By beating me, it instantly puts 59 00:04:48,980 --> 00:04:51,620 Ludwig right at the top of the ladder. 60 00:04:55,280 --> 00:04:56,280 Uh, 61 00:04:58,000 --> 00:04:59,960 now looking at it, no. 62 00:05:03,410 --> 00:05:06,750 The power of that WWF TV is tremendous. 63 00:05:08,170 --> 00:05:11,930 Having a fan base that buys your action figures and sells them out. 64 00:05:12,990 --> 00:05:15,430 But remember, we're on there 300 days a year. 65 00:05:16,210 --> 00:05:19,410 So you're in the locker room a lot. You know, they want guys who are going to be 66 00:05:19,410 --> 00:05:22,330 in there friendly with everybody. Because now you can do business 67 00:05:23,570 --> 00:05:25,930 But Ludwig was never that guy. 68 00:05:26,950 --> 00:05:30,890 Not that the guys had anything against him. He just never allowed the guys to 69 00:05:30,890 --> 00:05:32,750 get close to him. Let's put it that way. 70 00:05:34,370 --> 00:05:39,130 Morgan had a great look, but he was a miserable human being. 71 00:05:39,910 --> 00:05:43,770 People didn't want to work with him. He made people around him uncomfortable. 72 00:05:44,010 --> 00:05:49,310 And then when we finally realized he had the SS tattoo on his calf, things 73 00:05:49,310 --> 00:05:50,650 started going downhill from there. 74 00:05:51,430 --> 00:05:58,250 For the kids out there who weren't around, the SS was Hitler's private army 75 00:05:58,250 --> 00:06:02,810 committed many of the atrocities at Hitler's behest in Nazi Germany. 76 00:06:03,470 --> 00:06:08,470 You can't show something like that on television in 1990 -something in 77 00:06:08,650 --> 00:06:10,510 So they said, cover that shit up. 78 00:06:12,510 --> 00:06:15,830 One of the boys, if they would have seen that, I guarantee you someone would 79 00:06:15,830 --> 00:06:16,589 have said something. 80 00:06:16,590 --> 00:06:18,610 So, obviously, it was kept undercover. 81 00:06:20,150 --> 00:06:21,850 We made a mistake in hiring him. 82 00:06:22,410 --> 00:06:23,690 He slipped by us. 83 00:06:25,190 --> 00:06:26,370 Tremendous strength and agility. 84 00:06:26,670 --> 00:06:29,570 It wasn't done on purpose. 85 00:06:32,190 --> 00:06:35,110 We just didn't do a good job of vetting him. 86 00:06:35,850 --> 00:06:39,970 You can imagine how some of the Jewish talents in the locker room reacted to 87 00:06:39,970 --> 00:06:43,390 him. It's not right to impose upon them such negativity. 88 00:06:44,130 --> 00:06:45,530 We needed to get rid of him. 89 00:06:45,850 --> 00:06:49,730 The fact that he had it to begin with indicated that probably something was 90 00:06:49,730 --> 00:06:54,230 going on up there that maybe we didn't want to delve into much deep. 91 00:06:54,670 --> 00:06:56,290 Drop it! Come on, Ralph! 92 00:06:57,910 --> 00:07:03,680 Tony Hallne's childhood was defined by bitterness, brawls and resentment. 93 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:08,240 One thing to know about Tony is that he came from a broken home. 94 00:07:09,780 --> 00:07:14,620 His parents divorced when Tony was just two years old. His father had a problem 95 00:07:14,620 --> 00:07:17,520 with alcohol and it seems like his mother did too. 96 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:23,400 I'm Mikko Marttinen, a journalist and a writer of Tony Halme's biography. 97 00:07:25,230 --> 00:07:29,230 The other important thing to know about Tony is that he kind of struggled 98 00:07:29,230 --> 00:07:30,990 between two language communities. 99 00:07:32,330 --> 00:07:38,290 His mother was originally a Swedish speaker and decided to put the boys into 100 00:07:38,290 --> 00:07:39,290 Swedish -speaking school. 101 00:07:40,670 --> 00:07:47,150 This made Tony feel like an outsider from very early on in his life. 102 00:07:54,500 --> 00:07:59,380 . . . . 103 00:07:59,380 --> 00:08:04,860 . . . . 104 00:08:36,339 --> 00:08:38,020 He yearned for respect. 105 00:08:38,419 --> 00:08:43,059 He felt that he was looked down upon because of his poverty. 106 00:08:45,260 --> 00:08:50,600 Years before he ever stepped into a wrestling ring, Tony constructed a new 107 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:55,000 -masculine persona for himself, which he referred to as the Viking. 108 00:08:55,340 --> 00:08:59,580 As soon as Tony stepped out to the street, he became the Viking. 109 00:09:04,020 --> 00:09:08,160 He had the word Viking with a helmet tattooed on his arm. 110 00:09:09,300 --> 00:09:13,440 He started to talk to Robert B. Paul. 111 00:09:14,220 --> 00:09:16,100 And getting into street fights. 112 00:09:18,220 --> 00:09:21,760 In the newspaper archives I found a very old item. 113 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:27,840 It says that two karate guys were just beating up everybody in a bar. 114 00:09:28,780 --> 00:09:33,720 Turns out those karate guys were Tony and his best friend Krister. 115 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:41,540 Tony was fascinated with movies. 116 00:09:42,030 --> 00:09:46,210 The one movie that really made an influence on him was Taxi Driver. 117 00:09:47,530 --> 00:09:51,710 Maybe Tony saw him as the same kind of outsider as Robert De Niro. 118 00:09:52,190 --> 00:09:57,530 And when he saw that movie, he decided that he will move to the United States 119 00:09:57,530 --> 00:09:58,530 someday. 120 00:09:59,090 --> 00:10:05,950 In 1986, Tony heads to Los Angeles searching for fame, fortune, and a 121 00:10:05,950 --> 00:10:06,909 new direction. 122 00:10:06,910 --> 00:10:10,370 They wanted people to like him. People like you because you're famous. 123 00:10:11,150 --> 00:10:16,130 And I think that was a shield for a lot of insecurities that he had. 124 00:10:18,110 --> 00:10:21,610 My name is Dee Dee, and I was once married to Tony Hollomay. 125 00:10:23,590 --> 00:10:28,130 Size -wise and personality -wise, Tony was larger than life. 126 00:10:28,390 --> 00:10:30,210 Fell in love with him pretty quickly. 127 00:10:31,530 --> 00:10:37,190 When we got married, he wanted the music to be God Bless America. 128 00:10:37,830 --> 00:10:40,550 He wanted to be famous in America. 129 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:45,440 He wanted to be a movie star in America, and he heard about Gold's Gym in Venice 130 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:46,440 Beach. 131 00:10:47,180 --> 00:10:50,840 He attempted to be a bodybuilder, but he just didn't have the shape of a 132 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:54,900 bodybuilder. He had a big belly. He was a big guy everywhere. 133 00:10:55,740 --> 00:11:01,480 It became almost like an obsession for him to be as big as possible, and 134 00:11:01,480 --> 00:11:02,480 steroids helped. 135 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:08,720 He had a shoebox, and it had steroids from Russia. 136 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:12,280 It was clearly nefarious. 137 00:11:13,120 --> 00:11:18,680 I'll never forget one of the packages was for horses. 138 00:11:21,540 --> 00:11:25,460 His ambitions were to be a star, whatever way that came to him. 139 00:11:25,740 --> 00:11:31,200 He got some small roles for Little Caesars. Tip. He was in a national ad, 140 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:32,200 some beer commercials. 141 00:11:32,580 --> 00:11:33,660 Get back to work! 142 00:11:34,160 --> 00:11:37,860 And eventually some small roles on TV as well. 143 00:11:38,250 --> 00:11:40,250 No one argues with Curly. 144 00:11:43,750 --> 00:11:47,830 Hanging in the Gold's Gym, a lot of people told him that you should go into 145 00:11:47,830 --> 00:11:50,890 wrestling. You could really earn some money with this, and they got Tony 146 00:11:50,890 --> 00:11:51,890 interested. 147 00:11:53,050 --> 00:11:57,130 He did some wrestling shows with Herb Abrams, UWF. 148 00:12:00,430 --> 00:12:04,230 He had a costume made, and it was Tony as the Viking. 149 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:09,360 I told you I'm going to hurt every pencil neck, every pipsqueak who steps 150 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:12,460 way. And there's only one way they're going to leave the ring. It's on the 151 00:12:12,460 --> 00:12:16,920 stretcher. Hurt. I think UWF should start to sell life insurance too. 152 00:12:17,820 --> 00:12:19,780 It was silly. Very silly. 153 00:12:21,340 --> 00:12:24,680 Japan was probably his first big wrestling shows that he did. 154 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:31,380 Tony told everybody that he was a successful boxer in Finland. 155 00:12:31,620 --> 00:12:34,620 None of this was true. He had never had a boxing fight in Finland. 156 00:12:35,820 --> 00:12:38,640 But New Japan made his gimmick about that. 157 00:12:40,660 --> 00:12:47,400 Tony Holm had become a star in wrestling in Japan, where they 158 00:12:47,400 --> 00:12:52,360 liked big guys, giant monsters battling it out. King Kong and Godzilla. 159 00:12:54,260 --> 00:12:56,760 The Japanese wrestling circuit is really tough. 160 00:12:57,450 --> 00:13:01,990 It was very punishing for the wrestler's body, and Tony was very candid about 161 00:13:01,990 --> 00:13:06,290 starting to use strong painkillers during his time in Japan. 162 00:13:06,510 --> 00:13:08,690 It really became a habit for him. 163 00:13:10,110 --> 00:13:15,390 Somewhere along the line, Tony's opportunities in Japan started to 164 00:13:15,390 --> 00:13:17,730 little bit. His attitude was not great. 165 00:13:18,250 --> 00:13:24,670 When I met Tony, the way that he spoke to you made you understand that he 166 00:13:24,670 --> 00:13:26,030 held himself to be somebody. 167 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:30,740 But you have to know who else is in the room. 168 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:35,060 My name is Michael Maggiolotti, alias The Rebel Starbuck. 169 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:37,720 I'm the pioneer of Finnish professional wrestling. 170 00:13:39,100 --> 00:13:43,100 Tony and I wrestle tags alongside guys like Scott Norton against the Japanese 171 00:13:43,100 --> 00:13:48,640 contingents. From what I've heard, Tony Hall may rub some people the wrong way 172 00:13:48,640 --> 00:13:54,100 ethnically. He had sympathies towards the White Brotherhood. 173 00:13:54,640 --> 00:13:57,380 He had a lot of friends who were skinheads and whatever else. 174 00:13:58,140 --> 00:14:02,200 And the wrong thing came out of his mouth. And a fight broke up between 175 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:04,220 Norton and Tony Hallmeyer at the bar. 176 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:07,900 I think that enough was enough. 177 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:10,340 And now it was judgment day. 178 00:14:17,820 --> 00:14:22,640 Tony had a very famous incident with Scott Norton, an American wrestler. 179 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,540 Some people say that Tony kind of sacrificed Scott Norton. 180 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:30,800 Then again, Scott Norton says that he cleaned Tony Halme's clock. 181 00:14:31,580 --> 00:14:33,360 This was a problem for New Japan. 182 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:36,500 Two of their foreign guards were not getting along. 183 00:14:40,460 --> 00:14:44,520 And that 184 00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:51,340 was the end of Tony in Japan. 185 00:14:53,770 --> 00:14:59,170 With Tony back in California, his wife rethinks their three -year marriage. 186 00:14:59,770 --> 00:15:03,270 There were a lot of things going on at the time that I overlooked. 187 00:15:04,610 --> 00:15:10,470 But it wasn't until he cheated on me that I knew 188 00:15:10,470 --> 00:15:13,590 what kind of person I was married to. 189 00:15:14,890 --> 00:15:18,930 As much as I didn't want to be with him anymore, you know, I still loved him. 190 00:15:19,050 --> 00:15:21,610 And at the point that... 191 00:15:22,140 --> 00:15:24,380 I decided I needed to divorce him. 192 00:15:24,620 --> 00:15:30,280 He got very emotional and, oh my God, I'm so sorry I did this to you. And I'm 193 00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:32,340 going to take my truck and drive off the pier. 194 00:15:32,620 --> 00:15:34,360 And I just said, I can't do this anymore. 195 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:41,140 I woke up to a lot of things that he lied about. 196 00:15:41,980 --> 00:15:47,220 But I never imagined that he would turn into the person he turned into. 197 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:52,190 As soon as we split up, That's when he became Ludwig Borga. 198 00:15:54,390 --> 00:15:56,050 We're back, ladies and gentlemen. 199 00:15:59,270 --> 00:16:05,390 In 1993, Tony joins the World Wrestling Federation as a main event villain, but 200 00:16:05,390 --> 00:16:08,310 his run with the company lasts less than a year. 201 00:16:08,650 --> 00:16:13,070 After they gave him that push of defeating me, they were building him up 202 00:16:13,070 --> 00:16:14,070 Luger. 203 00:16:14,470 --> 00:16:17,270 But the fans never got behind it. 204 00:16:19,850 --> 00:16:23,550 They were giving him all the vignettes and all those interviews and bringing 205 00:16:23,550 --> 00:16:27,310 into TV, but his interviews were just like, blah. 206 00:16:27,930 --> 00:16:32,530 This time it's going to be hard and tough, and I'm going to finish this 207 00:16:32,530 --> 00:16:35,230 so -called hero once and for all. 208 00:16:35,850 --> 00:16:42,510 Sometimes he's speaking Finnish to the camera. He says things like, which is 209 00:16:42,510 --> 00:16:46,210 Finnish for like, I'll rip your ass off or something like that. 210 00:16:48,940 --> 00:16:49,859 Whatever you say. 211 00:16:49,860 --> 00:16:53,640 Most people in the U .S. don't even know where Finland resides on the world map. 212 00:16:53,860 --> 00:16:57,060 So why should anybody feel threatened by who you are? 213 00:16:57,860 --> 00:17:00,780 Americans think Lex Luger thinks. 214 00:17:01,500 --> 00:17:05,599 So Americans choke on this. 215 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:11,880 He lacked the ability to connect with the audience, the nuances of being a pro 216 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:13,680 wrestler he did not possess. 217 00:17:14,599 --> 00:17:19,720 And then we saw the SS tattoos on his calf and understood his philosophies. 218 00:17:20,099 --> 00:17:21,599 They were not very healthy. 219 00:17:23,579 --> 00:17:29,580 How do you justify it? How do you justify an SS tattoo based on what that 220 00:17:29,580 --> 00:17:31,300 for and still to this day? 221 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:37,460 I think the reason he got the tattoo on his leg was because he got attention for 222 00:17:37,460 --> 00:17:39,760 being fascinated by the Nazi thing. 223 00:17:41,390 --> 00:17:47,870 I remember he spent some time in Russia and he came back with all kinds 224 00:17:47,870 --> 00:17:54,730 of military memorabilia that was used by, I guess, Nazis or I 225 00:17:54,730 --> 00:18:00,710 don't know. But one of the things was this creamer pitcher and on the bottom 226 00:18:00,710 --> 00:18:04,050 had a swastika on it. And it was dated like 1941. 227 00:18:04,710 --> 00:18:08,410 And I had used it as a flower pot in our house. 228 00:18:09,130 --> 00:18:11,810 I didn't know that they were Nazi material. 229 00:18:12,630 --> 00:18:15,090 I was just a young, naive person. 230 00:18:15,330 --> 00:18:18,170 I didn't know shit from Shinole at that age. 231 00:18:21,530 --> 00:18:26,490 But why would somebody get an exit -only tattoo on their rear end? 232 00:18:27,370 --> 00:18:28,370 Why? 233 00:18:30,370 --> 00:18:37,350 What the fuck would propel a man to tattoo exit -only above his asshole? 234 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:42,500 Especially when you're the size he is and look like that, do you really need 235 00:18:42,500 --> 00:18:45,500 have written instructions for people not to fuck you in the ass? 236 00:18:46,060 --> 00:18:48,000 Does there have to be a written warning? 237 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,300 What the fuck's going on with that? 238 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:54,120 And who are you making that statement to when you're walking down the street? 239 00:18:54,300 --> 00:18:59,540 You're so anti -homosexual that you have exit only tattooed above your asshole. 240 00:18:59,700 --> 00:19:00,700 Who's going to know? 241 00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:02,360 Ah, nope. Him in the ass. 242 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:12,760 While wrestling at Madison Square Garden, Tony injures his ankle in a 243 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:20,840 With Tony being injured, he was unceremoniously dropped, and I don't 244 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:22,700 any of the audience really missed him either. 245 00:19:24,380 --> 00:19:29,580 Whatever the reason became was good to get rid of him. 246 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:33,060 I'm glad he didn't get hurt on my watch. 247 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:36,600 And he pretty much self -destructed once he left WWE. 248 00:19:41,260 --> 00:19:44,740 So if WWE is no longer an option, where do you go from here? 249 00:19:46,540 --> 00:19:51,740 So Tony is looking for work, and he gets signed to fight in UFC. 250 00:19:52,060 --> 00:19:57,440 And Tony doesn't take the training very seriously. 251 00:20:00,980 --> 00:20:07,900 His opponent ends up being Randy Couture, who 252 00:20:07,900 --> 00:20:09,680 will become a legend of the sport. 253 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:20,160 Prior to the fight, he had said, I will never tap out. 254 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:22,320 I would rather get out of there dead. 255 00:20:23,140 --> 00:20:30,080 But, you know, as soon as the choke is on, he ends 256 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:31,240 up losing in one minute. 257 00:20:31,900 --> 00:20:34,360 That's the end of his MMA career. 258 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:38,560 Tony went back to L .A. 259 00:20:38,990 --> 00:20:41,990 He was getting married again, this time with a Finnish woman. 260 00:20:42,270 --> 00:20:44,410 The police came and raided their house. 261 00:20:45,850 --> 00:20:50,330 The SWAT team and guns and bulletproof vests and shield. 262 00:20:54,010 --> 00:20:59,330 Tony was charged with trafficking controlled substances, which were 263 00:20:59,610 --> 00:21:03,850 and possession of a legal firearm, an Uzi. 264 00:21:04,650 --> 00:21:08,750 When we were together, Tony liked to shoot gun because they gave him power. 265 00:21:09,610 --> 00:21:15,110 I never imagined that he would become a guy that got in trouble with gun. 266 00:21:33,740 --> 00:21:34,840 Not defense industry. 267 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:40,700 The laws were very clear. If you had been convicted of a firearm felony in 268 00:21:40,700 --> 00:21:44,000 United States, you should be deported. And that's what they did. 269 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,520 And he could never go back to the United States again. 270 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,720 He went back to Finland to chase the big and famous dream. 271 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,820 Tony's quest for fame in America is cut short. 272 00:22:03,420 --> 00:22:06,600 forcing him back to Finland to pursue his dream once more. 273 00:22:07,620 --> 00:22:12,640 I think it was a really hard blow for Tony to be forced to leave the United 274 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:18,480 States. He wants to be famous, he's a showman, so he's ready to try 275 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:24,800 He was the Finnish heavyweight professional boxing champion, and all of 276 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:26,100 loved his character. 277 00:22:26,300 --> 00:22:29,740 In the Finnish version of TV show Gladiators... 278 00:22:46,169 --> 00:22:52,530 He was in his element. Tony's 279 00:22:52,530 --> 00:22:58,690 this viking myth was completely one hundred percent what Toni wanted 280 00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:07,260 And then Toni gets his segment in a Finnish talk show where he records a 281 00:23:07,900 --> 00:23:13,040 Where he, in a very comical way, brags about how manly he is. 282 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:20,600 It sells very well, and eventually they do will record a whole record. 283 00:23:25,900 --> 00:23:30,080 At this point, Tony Hallme is one of the most famous people in Finland, in fact. 284 00:23:30,180 --> 00:23:37,100 Everything Tony touches is gold. To the Finnish people, they really 285 00:23:37,100 --> 00:23:38,100 was superhuman. 286 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,720 He achieved something. He was in Hollywood. 287 00:23:42,700 --> 00:23:44,380 He went to do Die Hard 3. 288 00:23:44,620 --> 00:23:46,460 Wait, wait, Jesus, don't open it. It's a bomb. 289 00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:51,060 Even though it was a side role, he was a goon. That broke the news barrier as 290 00:23:51,060 --> 00:23:53,080 far as making Tony Hallme a household name. 291 00:23:55,180 --> 00:24:00,840 He had learned in wrestling how to sell his character, and he decides to write 292 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:02,240 another biographical book. 293 00:24:03,300 --> 00:24:05,060 Almost like a political manifest. 294 00:24:05,420 --> 00:24:11,740 It's Tony's life story with a lot of violence, a lot of sex, but a lot of it 295 00:24:11,740 --> 00:24:14,020 made up and embellished. 296 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:18,620 A lot of those stories are offensive to many people. 297 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,140 He uses the N -word a lot. 298 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:25,320 He's very traditional when it comes to roles of men and women. 299 00:24:25,540 --> 00:24:30,560 There's a lot of people who hate him, but there's certainly a big segment of 300 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:32,860 Finnish population that really looks up to him. 301 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:38,720 Tony's polarizing infamy attracts Finnish power brokers eager to cash in 302 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,700 natural charisma and headline -grabbing antics. 303 00:24:49,070 --> 00:24:52,450 My name is Veikko Vallin and I got to know Toni in the early 2000s. 304 00:24:52,990 --> 00:24:58,650 The first time I met Toni personally was when my company started developing 305 00:24:58,650 --> 00:25:01,770 protein drinks for big men. 306 00:25:03,250 --> 00:25:07,690 We had to find a suitable person to promote it. 307 00:25:09,690 --> 00:25:14,770 The idea that Toni would leave politics was initially a joke. 308 00:25:25,300 --> 00:25:31,000 They contact Timo Soini, who is the leader of the very small true Finns 309 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:33,400 which is really struggling at that time. 310 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:38,140 He joined the political party in Finland that were the troublemaker. 311 00:25:38,580 --> 00:25:40,260 And he was a troublemaker. 312 00:25:51,090 --> 00:25:52,930 But let's say the SS tattoo. 313 00:25:53,370 --> 00:25:59,210 How it didn't play into his political career is, I think it's a question of 314 00:25:59,210 --> 00:26:00,210 timing. 315 00:26:00,410 --> 00:26:04,070 During that time, Finland changed in a number of ways. 316 00:26:04,310 --> 00:26:09,390 The Cold War ended, we joined the European Union, the immigration began 317 00:26:10,030 --> 00:26:12,550 And this coincided with an economic recession. 318 00:26:14,150 --> 00:26:18,450 As you can guess, a lot of these immigrants became scapegoats for 319 00:26:18,450 --> 00:26:19,450 people had. 320 00:26:21,490 --> 00:26:25,170 I think that a lot of Finns were very proud of being Finnish. 321 00:26:26,310 --> 00:26:31,070 So when you do away with national identity, a lot of people saw it as a 322 00:26:31,510 --> 00:26:33,610 So that's why I believe that he was forgiven. 323 00:26:34,150 --> 00:26:36,510 Let's take care of our own before we take care of anybody else. 324 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,480 We weren't as liberal then as a nation as we are now. 325 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:44,480 And he had charisma, especially for the Finnish people, for the Finnish 326 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:45,640 audience. They understood him. 327 00:26:46,340 --> 00:26:49,920 The closest equivalent to Tony Halme as a politician is Donald Trump. 328 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:55,740 The feelings they evoke in their audience are much more important than 329 00:26:56,940 --> 00:27:01,880 And if you look at it, so many parallels in pro -wrestling and politics. 330 00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:04,660 It's all about how to manipulate people's emotions. 331 00:27:05,669 --> 00:27:09,990 Toni said what he thought, and he didn't have any regard for political 332 00:27:09,990 --> 00:27:10,990 correctness. 333 00:27:12,410 --> 00:27:17,770 He also didn't care if the things that he said were true or not. 334 00:27:17,970 --> 00:27:21,230 Didn't he say that Tarja Halonen, our president at the time, didn't he say 335 00:27:21,230 --> 00:27:22,230 she was a lesbian? 336 00:27:42,940 --> 00:27:49,920 He talks about immigration in a way that is actually extremely offensive 337 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:50,920 and racist. 338 00:28:03,740 --> 00:28:04,740 to his audience. 339 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:06,340 And he thought, well, let's do it. 340 00:28:06,540 --> 00:28:09,820 But he had ping -pong and apu -papu again. 341 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:11,200 Something like that. 342 00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,160 What is halventava? 343 00:28:14,830 --> 00:28:19,930 I don't remember the name of the pavilion that challenged me, but that's 344 00:28:20,210 --> 00:28:22,490 But still, I believe in democracy. 345 00:28:23,050 --> 00:28:27,410 I'm not a sultan, because people called Toni Wigin's a whore. 346 00:28:28,010 --> 00:28:33,070 The officials discussed whether Toni should write anything at all. Should it 347 00:28:33,070 --> 00:28:34,390 changed entirely? 348 00:28:34,750 --> 00:28:37,370 Is it a dangerous person for Finnish society? 349 00:28:37,930 --> 00:28:39,850 Can she be on television at all? 350 00:28:41,470 --> 00:28:42,870 Are these opinions too radical? 351 00:28:45,580 --> 00:28:48,920 Then, on election day, it will be seen that I people trust. 352 00:29:00,500 --> 00:29:03,680 Everything was going well until then Toni complained to the parliament. 353 00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:05,460 Then the downhill started. 354 00:29:13,290 --> 00:29:19,450 Following a campaign fueled by nationalist pride, Tony Hallmay stunned 355 00:29:19,450 --> 00:29:22,470 political establishment with a landslide victory. 356 00:29:24,270 --> 00:29:28,870 Incredibly good numbers. It was gangbusters. People just voted for this 357 00:29:28,870 --> 00:29:29,870 masse. 358 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:45,640 If you had said in the locker room at the time, see that guy over there? He's 359 00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:47,840 going to be elected to political office. 360 00:29:48,060 --> 00:29:50,360 Somebody needs to treat this guy. 361 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:54,620 If you'd have said he's going to be a nationalist right -wing lunatic, I'd 362 00:29:54,620 --> 00:29:57,600 said, okay, I'll buy that. But politician, I wouldn't have got that 363 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:02,280 Now in office, Tony escalates his divisive rhetoric. 364 00:30:09,300 --> 00:30:12,720 I've never seen a man who beats a woman without a hand. 365 00:30:13,220 --> 00:30:17,620 And we, of course, around us, we were like, Toni, can you calm down a little 366 00:30:17,620 --> 00:30:19,680 bit? This is a bit like Nolo. 367 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:21,280 But it's okay, Toni. 368 00:30:21,540 --> 00:30:23,400 He couldn't hold it in. 369 00:30:23,860 --> 00:30:30,020 Toni was the kind of man who said the things that many men do. 370 00:30:30,340 --> 00:30:34,880 I can tell you that the people who live in the neighbors of foreigners sleep 371 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:37,940 very badly, if at all. 372 00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:43,980 A lot of people hold Tony Halme to be, I guess, a white supremacist would be the 373 00:30:43,980 --> 00:30:44,980 correct term. 374 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:04,040 It's a bit different when I want to do something. 375 00:31:04,620 --> 00:31:10,520 I'm absolutely sure that never in the 90s the Jews would have had their asses 376 00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:11,499 kicked. 377 00:31:11,500 --> 00:31:18,480 I noticed when I was in the same room with him in the municipality, that the 378 00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:19,640 stories changed every week. 379 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,200 I said, well, I don't always remember what has been said. 380 00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:27,760 It was always the fact and fiction that went with him. 381 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:37,800 Her husband and wife were doing things economically well. 382 00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:44,260 There shouldn't have been anything that would have led her to the destruction. 383 00:31:45,060 --> 00:31:50,160 I see that the biggest reason is the trauma that she had. 384 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:55,220 Then the cycle of destruction is very powerful. 385 00:31:57,260 --> 00:32:01,840 At this point he had already developed a serious alcoholism problem on top of 386 00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:03,000 his drug addiction. 387 00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:29,980 Tony's increasing substance abuse becomes impossible to ignore. 388 00:32:56,590 --> 00:33:02,570 Tony had promised to have an exhibition match against his old friend and 389 00:33:02,570 --> 00:33:03,529 sparring partner. 390 00:33:03,530 --> 00:33:09,190 The fight became quite brutal, especially for Tony, who really got a 391 00:33:09,190 --> 00:33:10,190 that fight. 392 00:33:11,170 --> 00:33:13,630 After the fight, Tony starts drinking. 393 00:33:15,190 --> 00:33:19,070 He goes to Tampere, where he has some friends, and keeps on drinking. 394 00:33:20,070 --> 00:33:25,410 After about two weeks of these spins, he finally returns home to his wife. 395 00:33:27,020 --> 00:33:28,320 They develop an argument. 396 00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,260 The wife says, we are true. I've had enough of your drinking. 397 00:33:33,380 --> 00:33:37,820 Tony grabs a handful of medicine, swallows them. 398 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:41,620 The wife, of course, wants to call the 911. 399 00:33:42,620 --> 00:33:45,440 At some point, Tony gets hold of a gun. 400 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:49,360 The wife tries to grab the gun away from Tony. 401 00:33:49,980 --> 00:33:52,620 And during the struggle, the gun goes off. 402 00:34:02,410 --> 00:34:04,950 To this day, we're not sure whose finger was on the trigger. 403 00:34:06,450 --> 00:34:10,050 But the wife flees the apartment, calls 911. 404 00:34:11,790 --> 00:34:15,590 She goes back inside the apartment and she finds that Toni is unconscious. 405 00:34:17,150 --> 00:34:23,730 He has swallowed some of his own clothes and doesn't really show any signs of 406 00:34:23,730 --> 00:34:24,730 life, really. 407 00:34:30,409 --> 00:34:33,389 According to the police, no one was injured in the scene. 408 00:34:33,670 --> 00:34:37,710 However, eyewitnesses say that Halme was taken away after the incident 409 00:34:37,710 --> 00:34:39,250 from the scene by ambulance. 410 00:34:51,050 --> 00:34:55,570 The police have been in touch today To doctors treating Halmet, whose 411 00:34:55,570 --> 00:34:57,190 Halme is still as weak as. 412 00:34:58,090 --> 00:35:01,670 He really struggles for his life for the first couple of weeks. 413 00:35:03,150 --> 00:35:05,310 Eventually, they manage to revive him. 414 00:35:06,490 --> 00:35:10,730 But by this point, it's clear that he has suffered some serious brain damage. 415 00:35:12,270 --> 00:35:18,910 He can only talk like one word at a time, and he starts the slow process of 416 00:35:18,910 --> 00:35:19,910 recuperating. 417 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:39,160 But he's never back to his old, colorful, quick -thinking self. 418 00:35:39,780 --> 00:35:44,120 People could see that he was not the old Tony at all. 419 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,960 His marriage ended. That made things only worse. 420 00:35:48,420 --> 00:35:49,540 He was depressed. 421 00:35:50,770 --> 00:35:57,710 The citizen Tony Halme is accused of several crimes related to the shooting 422 00:35:57,710 --> 00:35:59,730 the summer. So it's exactly the same, what action will come, if the court will 423 00:35:59,730 --> 00:36:01,170 judge you, then you will be fired. 424 00:36:01,410 --> 00:36:02,410 Yes. 425 00:36:03,850 --> 00:36:08,050 Then he started to make objections to the judge. 426 00:36:08,710 --> 00:36:10,210 He practiced roles. 427 00:36:10,670 --> 00:36:14,850 He is a prison guard at SSL in Porvoo. 428 00:36:15,550 --> 00:36:17,830 He had to be the lawyer. 429 00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:29,580 Tony resigns from parliament and receives a four -month suspended 430 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,280 Now on disability, his health struggles push him deeper into isolation. 431 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:46,780 Things were getting 432 00:36:46,780 --> 00:36:49,280 bleaker all the time. 433 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:55,220 He was seriously addicted to painkillers, used a lot of alcohol. 434 00:36:55,700 --> 00:37:00,680 He continued to do steroids as well, but obviously they don't help you if you 435 00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:02,240 cannot do the training. 436 00:37:27,050 --> 00:37:33,750 He kept doing these appearances in little 437 00:37:33,750 --> 00:37:38,870 bars around Finland, and that was the only really thing that got him out of 438 00:37:38,870 --> 00:37:39,870 house at that point. 439 00:37:54,630 --> 00:38:01,250 It appears that he got in debt also because of the drugs that he had to buy 440 00:38:01,250 --> 00:38:02,250 the black market. 441 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:22,100 You've been to the mountaintop and you have to come down because there's 442 00:38:22,100 --> 00:38:23,100 else to go. 443 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,100 For a lot of people, I think it's too much. 444 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:30,200 You'd rather end it than become nobody again. 445 00:38:51,790 --> 00:38:53,910 Call now. The phone is ringing inside. 446 00:38:56,150 --> 00:38:57,570 Call the police. 447 00:39:02,430 --> 00:39:04,770 It was dark all night. 448 00:39:08,250 --> 00:39:12,170 I thought Toni was sleeping, but she wasn't. 449 00:39:36,759 --> 00:39:42,740 On January 10, 2010, Tony Halme is found dead by suicide, 450 00:39:43,180 --> 00:39:45,960 bringing a sudden end to his turbulent life. 451 00:39:50,300 --> 00:39:53,520 Why did he arrive to that decision? 452 00:39:54,140 --> 00:39:59,780 Obviously, we can only speculate, but... It must have been very hard for him to 453 00:39:59,780 --> 00:40:04,420 see himself in the condition that he was, which was so far removed from the 454 00:40:04,420 --> 00:40:09,200 ideal that he always held of a big, strong man. 455 00:40:18,580 --> 00:40:23,380 Not surprised. 456 00:40:24,580 --> 00:40:25,580 Didn't shed a tear. 457 00:40:27,080 --> 00:40:32,880 What does a person do to another person where you don't even get emotional about 458 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:33,880 that? 459 00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,380 Because he was a piece of shit and he burned the bridges. 460 00:40:39,660 --> 00:40:43,080 You know, they treated people horribly. 461 00:40:57,670 --> 00:41:02,510 And then when we start going there for the very reason that Toni said that 462 00:41:02,510 --> 00:41:09,290 he has been bitter about life, what it has happened to him that the mother does not 463 00:41:09,290 --> 00:41:10,290 cared about. 464 00:41:12,370 --> 00:41:17,630 I saw it in that big guy of mine of a little boy who craved that attention and 465 00:41:17,630 --> 00:41:18,790 love. 466 00:41:19,950 --> 00:41:23,090 Maybe a bit of that disdain and then hate it. 467 00:41:39,980 --> 00:41:44,500 When the man hates like this man, you're not going to beat this man. 468 00:41:45,580 --> 00:41:48,260 So, what is his legacy? 469 00:41:56,090 --> 00:41:58,770 He was best known as Ludwig Borga. 470 00:41:59,250 --> 00:42:06,250 A nondescript heel from Finland who never really connected with 471 00:42:06,250 --> 00:42:07,250 the audience. 472 00:42:08,150 --> 00:42:11,850 I was ringside. Can't remember a Ludwig Borga match. 473 00:42:12,870 --> 00:42:16,670 Because they just didn't stand out in that environment. 474 00:42:17,630 --> 00:42:18,950 He was an asshole. 475 00:42:20,230 --> 00:42:22,430 And that's where I leave it. 476 00:42:25,610 --> 00:42:29,250 Tony brought everything that he had learned in the American show business 477 00:42:29,250 --> 00:42:33,930 wrestling to Finland at the right time and really revolutionized Finnish 478 00:42:33,930 --> 00:42:38,470 politics in a lot of the same ways that Donald Trump changed politics in the 479 00:42:38,470 --> 00:42:39,470 United States. 480 00:42:39,510 --> 00:42:45,330 And this really paved the way for a lot of politicians that ran on anti 481 00:42:45,330 --> 00:42:50,250 -immigration themes everywhere in Europe during the next couple of decades. 482 00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:02,500 This was just the result. At the end of the book you say that success is the 483 00:43:02,500 --> 00:43:03,500 best cost. 484 00:43:03,540 --> 00:43:09,520 Those who I had to endure in my life, and I think it's the same for others, 485 00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:11,260 failure is perhaps good. 486 00:43:26,190 --> 00:43:30,810 I want people to know that there was a good side to this person, you know, and 487 00:43:30,810 --> 00:43:34,510 wouldn't have fallen in love with somebody that was a complete monster the 488 00:43:34,510 --> 00:43:35,810 that we know of him now. 489 00:43:39,370 --> 00:43:45,510 But I think he destroyed himself 490 00:43:45,510 --> 00:43:48,430 in every way that a person could do that.