Post by Stu-E Price on Jul 28, 2007 8:15:06 GMT -5
DEAN & HAWAII
Dean decided to move to Hawaii in the late ‘70s. He was fascinated with the TV show Hawaii Five-0 and slightly resembled the show's star, Jack Lord. Once there, he recruited these big Samoans to come up to Calgary and train to wrestle. He would put them on our Stampede Wrestling TV show and then put our show on the Hawaiian TV stations so that the Samoans would gain celebrity status in Hawaii. It was an excellent idea. In fact, Vince McMahon does that now. He'll run tours in England, Germany, Singapore, India, the Middle East, South Africa, Japan and Hong Kong, capitalizing on wrestlers in his lineup with local appeal.
Dean knew he would be a king over there because there were a lot of Samoans who would be treated like royalty if they were seen on TV, especially since the show was coming from another part of the world.
Many young Samoans were involved in marijuana dealing. Their parents would come to Dean and say, "We want our son to focus on something else." They trusted Dean. They treated him like one of their own, like he was a fellow Hawaiian. He went very far on his looks and personality because initially he didn't have much money.
One of the first guys Dean brought to Calgary was part of a syndicate and his name was Sui. He was a big, hard working, honest guy. But he bought and sold marijuana for a living. Dean brought him to Calgary in the wintertime and the freezing Hawaiian thought he'd moved to the tundra.
When he returned to Hawaii, he actually saved Dean's life. Dean was body surfing on the water and got caught in a vertical whirlpool. Sui grabbed him with one hand and pulled him out. He was that strong. Sui was the first wrestler that Dean used as a vehicle to show what he could do for other Samoans and Hawaiians.
My parents were close with a Hawaiian couple named, Neff and Ola Maiava. When my mom was pregnant with me, Ola was expecting too. My mom said Ola made her own maternity clothes—crisp, cotton gingham dresses—and Ola generously shared them with her. When Ola and Neff's son was born, my parents were honored as his godparents and when I was born, Ola and Neff became mine.
Dean was working closely with Neff's relatives, Peter and Leah Maiava, who happened to be the grandparents of Dwayne Johnson, an ex-college football player turned wrestler. Most people know him better as Rocky Maiava or The Rock. In Dwayne's book, ‘The Rock Says,’ he dedicates a whole chapter to Owen and talks about how Dean set up the ring and venues for his grandparents and sometimes refereed for them. Dwayne also writes about how accessible and friendly Dean was.
Peter Maiava had tribal tattoos appropriate for a high chief. Only the highest-ranked warriors could wear the green tattoos up their legs as he did. His wife, Leah, was a very tough Hawaiian. She was almost as big as Peter and they would often have words. She wouldn't back down from him and he wouldn't back down from her, but they had an obvious love for each other and made for a quite an unusual couple. They were almost mirror images of each other. They ran their wrestling at the Blaze Dale Arena in Honolulu.
My very first trip to Hawaii was in 1980 during spring break. I had been working in the jewelry department at Woolco, diligently saving my money. Owen went with me. I was 16 and he was only 14 when we met up with our brothers Bruce, Keith and Dean. Our brothers were wrestling and because they were foreigners, they were considered the villains. The local Samoans were the heroes, of course.
In one particular match the boys were wrestling Peter Maiava. When Keith and Bruce entered the ring with their black cowboy hats, the fans went wild. They played up their roles by cheating and acting bad. There was a huge Samoan guy in the crowd named Fast Eddie, a gangster. He picked up a bottle and went to clobber Keith on the back of the head with it. Although he was just a kid, Owen didn't hesitate. He grabbed Fast Eddie with a forearm around the neck to stop him.
Fast Eddie turned around in a fury and nailed Owen right in the eye with his brass knuckles. Owen got stitches all around his eye. My dad had been good to a lot of the Hawaiian gangsters' kids. Many of them had come up to Calgary to learn to fight and when they found out what Fast Eddie had done to Owen, well, nobody ever heard from Fast Eddie again.
I remember Dwayne Johnson's grandparents lived in a big hotel apartment building called the Chateau Blu and Dean lived there too. He became really good friends with the owner, Tommy Wong. There were a lot of unusual happenings there. It was there I met Hans Schroeder, this huge Viking wrestler.
Hans was a big German with unsuccessfully bleached hair. It was yellowy-orange and crispy in texture. He had a big nose, large, watery, bulging blue eyes and dry lips. He looked hard, as though he lived a life of partying and drugs. I don't know how tough he really was, but because of what he later did to his wife later, I know he was a big bully.
I never gave him much thought. But back then, I just thought he was a big wrestler and he was marrying this girl named Jane. Jane was your typical biker girl, quite raunchy. Bleached blonde hair, a lot of it, about shoulder length. Big pores in the skin from drinking a lot, black eyeliner, overly suntanned skin, kind of chubby, but full breasted. She must have figured she looked pretty good, because she didn't hesitate to prance around in a bikini.
There was also little magician living at the Chateau Blu who made his living doing small shows at the hotels. He'd do tricks with a ball or a deck of cards or a coin for Owen and me. He was a nice guy.
The night Hans and Jane got married, the magician came down to Dean's crowded room on the 17th floor where we were all staying. He said, "I know a trick, a magic trick, and it will show if there is true love between two people." It was just a silly little trick, like swearing by your horoscope in the paper. But that was the kind of logic that Hans Schroeder used.
The magician held this pendulum watch on a long gold chain, over Jane's stomach. Then he instructed Hans to hold his hands over her belly. If the watch swung north/south it meant she loved him and they would be happy forever. But if it swung east/west it meant the marriage was doomed and she didn't love him. Well, the watch moved east/west and Hans just went berserk. He grabbed the magician by the collar and dragged him out over the balcony and dangled him by his feet. Jane was crying and begging Hans to put the poor guy down. She was from the American Deep South and had a thick accent.
“Hans, honey, pull ’em up. Y'all are gonna drop him."
I saw Dean take his glasses off, which always meant there was going to be a fight. Meanwhile Hans was demanding to know if this was just a trick or if it was real. The magician knew that if he admitted it was a trick Hans would kill him. If he said it was real Hans would kill Jane. So he tried to convince Hans to let him try the trick again. But Hans would have none of it. Finally, Dean persuaded Hans to bring the magician up and we all left, except my brother Keith's future wife, Leslie, who got so scared she hid in the bedroom closet.
The closet had one of those slatted doors so she could see what was going on and she sat in there for about five hours watching Hans and Jane beat the hell out of each other. It was mostly Hans beating the hell out of Jane. He threw her hard into the pullout bed and smashed her face into the steel frame. Her nose was squashed flat as if he had whacked it with a small ax. She wound up with a permanent divot on the bridge of her nose, about half an inch thick. The next day, her eyes were black and blue and bloodshot and there were lumps all over her face. Her toes were broken while trying to defend herself and as a result she couldn't even walk.
When I saw Jane by the pool the next morning, I felt bad for her. And I didn't understand. I thought, "Oh, maybe she's just a rough biker type who likes fighting." But now I realize she didn't deserve that at all, nobody deserves that. Poor Jane, in an attempt to be hopeful, turned to me. “Well, my momma always told me that the best marriages are the ones that start out fightin', so Hans and I should be married forever now."
Another thing Hans did which really bothered me was to stick his whole head in Tommy Wong's fish tank and snap fish in his mouth, then swallow them. Or he would catch them with his hands and squeeze them until their eyes popped out.
I don't know what it was that caused Dean's kidney failure, but one time he was almost beaten to death in Hawaii by mobsters. Ronnie Ching spent time in jail for murder and drugs and while he was there, he stored a lot of his things including rubber bullets at an apartment in the Chateau Blu. It was all on a hidden floor that the elevator slid past unless you had a key. When I went to visit Dean a second time, he got me to help move these boxes for Ronnie. We had no idea what was in them but our fingerprints got all over them.
The Honolulu city prosecutor Charles Marsland felt his son had been murdered by Ronnie in 1975, but couldn't prove it. He was out to get Ronnie. It was 1981 and the chief of police called a wrestler named King Curtis Ikea, who had played college football with him. He told King Curtis, "Get hold of Dean's father and tell him to get his son off the island because I'm taking no prisoners."
The police found the boxes we'd moved and they traced the fingerprints back to Dean and brought him in for questioning. Ronnie Ching was convinced the police coerced Dean into giving them information on him. In his mind's eye he was sure the police had threatened Dean, "Dean, if you don't give us something on Ronnie Ching, we'll hold you responsible because your prints are on these boxes." Nothing like that happened, but it was Ronnie's perception. It looked even fishier because on King Curtis Ikea's advice, Dean suddenly left town. In March 1981, Ronnie was indicted on 11 counts. The police said those boxes contained 11 handguns, a silencer, a shotgun and a third of a pound of military C4 plastic explosive.
Dean waited until things cooled off, then returned to Hawaii. Ronnie got wind of this and he and his people found Dean and beat him until he was almost dead.
Dean decided to move to Hawaii in the late ‘70s. He was fascinated with the TV show Hawaii Five-0 and slightly resembled the show's star, Jack Lord. Once there, he recruited these big Samoans to come up to Calgary and train to wrestle. He would put them on our Stampede Wrestling TV show and then put our show on the Hawaiian TV stations so that the Samoans would gain celebrity status in Hawaii. It was an excellent idea. In fact, Vince McMahon does that now. He'll run tours in England, Germany, Singapore, India, the Middle East, South Africa, Japan and Hong Kong, capitalizing on wrestlers in his lineup with local appeal.
Dean knew he would be a king over there because there were a lot of Samoans who would be treated like royalty if they were seen on TV, especially since the show was coming from another part of the world.
Many young Samoans were involved in marijuana dealing. Their parents would come to Dean and say, "We want our son to focus on something else." They trusted Dean. They treated him like one of their own, like he was a fellow Hawaiian. He went very far on his looks and personality because initially he didn't have much money.
One of the first guys Dean brought to Calgary was part of a syndicate and his name was Sui. He was a big, hard working, honest guy. But he bought and sold marijuana for a living. Dean brought him to Calgary in the wintertime and the freezing Hawaiian thought he'd moved to the tundra.
When he returned to Hawaii, he actually saved Dean's life. Dean was body surfing on the water and got caught in a vertical whirlpool. Sui grabbed him with one hand and pulled him out. He was that strong. Sui was the first wrestler that Dean used as a vehicle to show what he could do for other Samoans and Hawaiians.
My parents were close with a Hawaiian couple named, Neff and Ola Maiava. When my mom was pregnant with me, Ola was expecting too. My mom said Ola made her own maternity clothes—crisp, cotton gingham dresses—and Ola generously shared them with her. When Ola and Neff's son was born, my parents were honored as his godparents and when I was born, Ola and Neff became mine.
Dean was working closely with Neff's relatives, Peter and Leah Maiava, who happened to be the grandparents of Dwayne Johnson, an ex-college football player turned wrestler. Most people know him better as Rocky Maiava or The Rock. In Dwayne's book, ‘The Rock Says,’ he dedicates a whole chapter to Owen and talks about how Dean set up the ring and venues for his grandparents and sometimes refereed for them. Dwayne also writes about how accessible and friendly Dean was.
Peter Maiava had tribal tattoos appropriate for a high chief. Only the highest-ranked warriors could wear the green tattoos up their legs as he did. His wife, Leah, was a very tough Hawaiian. She was almost as big as Peter and they would often have words. She wouldn't back down from him and he wouldn't back down from her, but they had an obvious love for each other and made for a quite an unusual couple. They were almost mirror images of each other. They ran their wrestling at the Blaze Dale Arena in Honolulu.
My very first trip to Hawaii was in 1980 during spring break. I had been working in the jewelry department at Woolco, diligently saving my money. Owen went with me. I was 16 and he was only 14 when we met up with our brothers Bruce, Keith and Dean. Our brothers were wrestling and because they were foreigners, they were considered the villains. The local Samoans were the heroes, of course.
In one particular match the boys were wrestling Peter Maiava. When Keith and Bruce entered the ring with their black cowboy hats, the fans went wild. They played up their roles by cheating and acting bad. There was a huge Samoan guy in the crowd named Fast Eddie, a gangster. He picked up a bottle and went to clobber Keith on the back of the head with it. Although he was just a kid, Owen didn't hesitate. He grabbed Fast Eddie with a forearm around the neck to stop him.
Fast Eddie turned around in a fury and nailed Owen right in the eye with his brass knuckles. Owen got stitches all around his eye. My dad had been good to a lot of the Hawaiian gangsters' kids. Many of them had come up to Calgary to learn to fight and when they found out what Fast Eddie had done to Owen, well, nobody ever heard from Fast Eddie again.
I remember Dwayne Johnson's grandparents lived in a big hotel apartment building called the Chateau Blu and Dean lived there too. He became really good friends with the owner, Tommy Wong. There were a lot of unusual happenings there. It was there I met Hans Schroeder, this huge Viking wrestler.
Hans was a big German with unsuccessfully bleached hair. It was yellowy-orange and crispy in texture. He had a big nose, large, watery, bulging blue eyes and dry lips. He looked hard, as though he lived a life of partying and drugs. I don't know how tough he really was, but because of what he later did to his wife later, I know he was a big bully.
I never gave him much thought. But back then, I just thought he was a big wrestler and he was marrying this girl named Jane. Jane was your typical biker girl, quite raunchy. Bleached blonde hair, a lot of it, about shoulder length. Big pores in the skin from drinking a lot, black eyeliner, overly suntanned skin, kind of chubby, but full breasted. She must have figured she looked pretty good, because she didn't hesitate to prance around in a bikini.
There was also little magician living at the Chateau Blu who made his living doing small shows at the hotels. He'd do tricks with a ball or a deck of cards or a coin for Owen and me. He was a nice guy.
The night Hans and Jane got married, the magician came down to Dean's crowded room on the 17th floor where we were all staying. He said, "I know a trick, a magic trick, and it will show if there is true love between two people." It was just a silly little trick, like swearing by your horoscope in the paper. But that was the kind of logic that Hans Schroeder used.
The magician held this pendulum watch on a long gold chain, over Jane's stomach. Then he instructed Hans to hold his hands over her belly. If the watch swung north/south it meant she loved him and they would be happy forever. But if it swung east/west it meant the marriage was doomed and she didn't love him. Well, the watch moved east/west and Hans just went berserk. He grabbed the magician by the collar and dragged him out over the balcony and dangled him by his feet. Jane was crying and begging Hans to put the poor guy down. She was from the American Deep South and had a thick accent.
“Hans, honey, pull ’em up. Y'all are gonna drop him."
I saw Dean take his glasses off, which always meant there was going to be a fight. Meanwhile Hans was demanding to know if this was just a trick or if it was real. The magician knew that if he admitted it was a trick Hans would kill him. If he said it was real Hans would kill Jane. So he tried to convince Hans to let him try the trick again. But Hans would have none of it. Finally, Dean persuaded Hans to bring the magician up and we all left, except my brother Keith's future wife, Leslie, who got so scared she hid in the bedroom closet.
The closet had one of those slatted doors so she could see what was going on and she sat in there for about five hours watching Hans and Jane beat the hell out of each other. It was mostly Hans beating the hell out of Jane. He threw her hard into the pullout bed and smashed her face into the steel frame. Her nose was squashed flat as if he had whacked it with a small ax. She wound up with a permanent divot on the bridge of her nose, about half an inch thick. The next day, her eyes were black and blue and bloodshot and there were lumps all over her face. Her toes were broken while trying to defend herself and as a result she couldn't even walk.
When I saw Jane by the pool the next morning, I felt bad for her. And I didn't understand. I thought, "Oh, maybe she's just a rough biker type who likes fighting." But now I realize she didn't deserve that at all, nobody deserves that. Poor Jane, in an attempt to be hopeful, turned to me. “Well, my momma always told me that the best marriages are the ones that start out fightin', so Hans and I should be married forever now."
Another thing Hans did which really bothered me was to stick his whole head in Tommy Wong's fish tank and snap fish in his mouth, then swallow them. Or he would catch them with his hands and squeeze them until their eyes popped out.
I don't know what it was that caused Dean's kidney failure, but one time he was almost beaten to death in Hawaii by mobsters. Ronnie Ching spent time in jail for murder and drugs and while he was there, he stored a lot of his things including rubber bullets at an apartment in the Chateau Blu. It was all on a hidden floor that the elevator slid past unless you had a key. When I went to visit Dean a second time, he got me to help move these boxes for Ronnie. We had no idea what was in them but our fingerprints got all over them.
The Honolulu city prosecutor Charles Marsland felt his son had been murdered by Ronnie in 1975, but couldn't prove it. He was out to get Ronnie. It was 1981 and the chief of police called a wrestler named King Curtis Ikea, who had played college football with him. He told King Curtis, "Get hold of Dean's father and tell him to get his son off the island because I'm taking no prisoners."
The police found the boxes we'd moved and they traced the fingerprints back to Dean and brought him in for questioning. Ronnie Ching was convinced the police coerced Dean into giving them information on him. In his mind's eye he was sure the police had threatened Dean, "Dean, if you don't give us something on Ronnie Ching, we'll hold you responsible because your prints are on these boxes." Nothing like that happened, but it was Ronnie's perception. It looked even fishier because on King Curtis Ikea's advice, Dean suddenly left town. In March 1981, Ronnie was indicted on 11 counts. The police said those boxes contained 11 handguns, a silencer, a shotgun and a third of a pound of military C4 plastic explosive.
Dean waited until things cooled off, then returned to Hawaii. Ronnie got wind of this and he and his people found Dean and beat him until he was almost dead.