Professor Tanaka

Charles J. Kalani Jr. (January 6, 1930 – August 22, 2000), known by the ring names Professor Toru Tanaka or simply Professor Tanaka, was an American professional wrestler, professional boxer, martial artist and actor. He was best known for his work with the World Wide Wrestling Federation from 1967 to 1978, and was a 3-time Tag Team Championship (with partner Mr. Fuji) and one-time International Tag Team Champion (with Mitsu Arakawa). In 2019, he was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a Legacy Member.

Kalani was born in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, the son of Charles J. Kalani and Christina Leong Kalani. His father was Native Hawaiian, and his mother was of Chinese descent. Kalani began studying judo in 1939, and earned a black belt in Danzan-ryu Jujitsu from Seishiro Okazaki.

Kalani graduated from Iolani School in 1949. His wife, Doris Kalani, later credited Kalani's time on the football team and Kenneth A. Bray's influence with keeping him away from trouble. After graduating from high school, Kalani attended Weber Junior College (now Weber State University), where he met his wife in 1952. He also played college football at the University of Utah, as a guard.

In 1955, Kalani was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he rose to the rank of sergeant. Kalani left the military in 1966 and moved to Monterey, California. He ran a Judo and Danzan-ryu academy with John Chow-Hoon.

Kalani was also a heavyweight boxer. He advanced to the finals of the 1950 NCAA Junior College Boxing Championships, but was defeated by Ed Sanders. He fought professionally from March 1953 to February 1954, retiring with a record of 3–2–0, with one win by knockout.

Kalani got into professional wrestling in 1958, making his debut in his home state of Hawaii during his service with the military. In 1966 after retiring from the military, Kalani began wrestling full time. San Francisco promoter Roy Shire approached Kalani in 1967, launching his career in earnest. He also worked for World Championship Wrestling in Australia.

Kalani adopted the heel gimmick of Professor Toru Tanaka (or simply Professor Tanaka), a Japanese villain from Hiroshima (though Kalani was actually of Hawaiian and Chinese origin). One of the characteristics of his gimmick was that he threw ceremonial salt in his opponents' eyes after "blessing" each corner of the ring, a tactic that is most commonly associated with Japanese villain wrestlers. Tanaka did play the stereotypical Japanese villain with the requisite knowledge of martial arts. He employed a combination of power skills, martial arts, and his feared Japanese sleeper submission hold. Tanaka's most famous tag team partner was Harry Fujiwara (better known as Mr. Fuji), whom he knew from high school in Hawaii. In his book, Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks, Freddie Blassie explored the relationship between the two "Japanese" heels.

From Tanaka's point of view, he was passing time with Fuji because it made sense to team up with another Japanese villain. The two certainly had no great admiration for one another. Tanaka was a by-the-book guy, who looked at wrestling as a means to make a living. He wanted to work his match, shake hands with everyone afterwards, and save some money. He was a professional.

If you wanted to talk about an angle beforehand, you always went to Tanaka. He was the ring general, who'd lead everyone else in the match. Fuji was certainly a good performer, but you couldn't control him. So, in addition to worrying about their opponents, Tanaka had the responsibility of making sure that Fuji didn't get out of hand. I guess he did a pretty good job because, years later, when Tanaka was relegated to working these tiny independent shows to earn a few extra bucks, Fuji himself had become a manager.