LONG POST AHEAD: I found a bunch of Mr. Fuji rib stories. Thought I would just CTRL+V it in here because there are some great ones.
DOMINIC DENUCCI:
“Fred Blassie, he always kept his suitcase with everything lined up, the towels, the shower shoes in the plastic, all nice and neat. Blassie was in the ring, and Fuji took some of his stuff — underpants, whatever, and he nailed it to the ceiling. Blassie got hot because he couldn’t find it. Then somebody said, ‘Why don’t you look up?'”
FREDDIE BLASSIE:
“Fuji’s [ribs] were nonstop: in the arena, in hotels, in airports, in restaurants. And Fuji was an instigator. He’d find weak-minded wrestlers and have them do ribs for him, just to wreak more havoc. The man was incorrigible.
If you were sitting across from Fuji, drinking a cup of coffee, he was liable to slip in some laxatives when you weren’t looking. It would be time to go to the ring, and you’d be on the toilet, shitting your guts out. If he heard you on the phone, making airplane reservations, he’d call up the airline after you hung up, and cancel your trip. You’d miss a booking, lose money, and Fuji would think it was funny.”
JULES STRONGBOW:
“Fuji tried to get silly in the ring with me one night. I let him get away with it because I figured somewhere down the line, I’m going to find out something about Fuji and I’m going to use it against him in a rib.
Well, I found out that he had very ticklish feet. So one night we were in, I think it was Baltimore, and I grapevined his legs, and I started tickling him. I kept it up for about 10 minutes. To the crowd, it looked like he was in pain, absolute miserable pain. But he wasn’t, and I just kept it up, and kept it up. And after that, he never did anything to me. He never pulled a rib on me outside the ring.”
WARLORD:
“I like Lex [Luger]. A lot of guys don’t like Lex. When I first came into the business, Lex had kind of an attitude. Ya know…he’d just kind of come in the room and wouldn’t talk to anyone, wouldn’t come up and say hi and that stuff at first…”
BARBARIAN:
“He don’t speak to anyone.”
WARLORD:
“It was Philadelphia…we went to eat, and Fuji heard about Lex’s attitude; the way he was. And so Fuji goes and sits across from him, starts talking to him…then he starts pissing on Lex’s boot. Lex didn’t move his boot because he heard about the way Fuji is. He just let him piss all over his boot. This was in a restaurant.
Fuji was funny. One time we were in Miami. We did a pay-per-view show – Barbarian and me – and afterward we went back to the [hotel] and downstairs in the lounge, the place was packed. Fuji was sitting there…and he started talking to the manager. I go over to Fuji and look down….Fuji’s pissing in the plant! Talking to the manager the whole time. He didn’t care.”
SUNNY:
“The very first rib that was pulled on me in the WWF was by the master of ribs, Mr. Fuji. Fuji was well-known and feared for his ribs because his weren’t always just fun and games. It wasn’t uncommon for him to cause harm to someone.
I had just begun on the road as Sunny, and I made sure I was cordial and respectful to everyone in the locker room, especially the old-timers.
Mr. Fuji had the nightly job of braiding Yokozuna’s hair. But this one night, as I was walking by them, he stopped me and asked me to braid Yoko’s hair, because Fuji had a promo to shoot. Of course I wasn’t going to say no to Mr. Fuji, so I walked behind Yoko and started combing and braiding. The seamstresses, who were right next to me, started laughing, but I didn’t know why. Then Mr. Fuji walked by us, and laughed. Again, I had no idea why.
Then I smelled something foul, but I didn’t know what it was.
I realized what it was: YOKO’S HAIR!
His hair reeked like **** and sewage! He was so obese that he couldn’t raise his hands over his head to wash his hair, and it was pungent!
When I was done, I ran to my locker room to wash my hands, but I couldn’t get the stink off of them. It took three days for my hands to finally be Yoko-free. That’s why everyone was laughing.
Mr. Fuji 1 — Sunny 0.”
RODDY PIPER:
“It was vicious back then [in the territory days].
I’ve got a story for you, alright? Here’s one. It’s a true story, it’s unbelievable. There was a guy named Mr. Fuji, master Fuji, and there was another oriental gentleman named Tanaka who was in James Bond who threw the hat. You remember, et cetera.
So back in the day, in the territory, they would have the boys and they would have usually an African American gentleman and, especially because of the war, they would have a Japanese gentleman, but only one of each in the territory. Well, in this territory at the time they had Tanaka and Mr. Fuji.
Tanaka, the way the story goes, had been going behind Mr. Fuji’s back to the office trying to gain position, and Mr. Fuji found out.
So time went on and Mr. Fuji was with Tanaka and they were going back and forth. It was Saturday and they had a day off and Mr. Fuji says, “Hey brudda, come on over, let’s get together. Bring the family. You like spaghetti? We’ll cook up some spaghetti and whatever you want. Just come on, brudda. Let’s get together!”
Tanaka comes over with his family and they sure as heck had all this spaghetti. He serves it up and he goes, “Oh brudda, I’m not feeling that well, just go ahead and eat!” And they ate the spaghetti and all the stuff. [Fuji] then goes, “I’ve got a special surprise for you!” And he had a silver platter and a silver thing over the silver platter and he brought it and he put it on the table, lifted it up and it was their dog’s head. They just ate their dog."
