Paul Diamond

(The name had been previously used by Toronto-born wrestler Paul Lehman in the 1960s.) His first break came in the Texas All-Star Wrestling promotion in San Antonio, Texas.

He initially formed a tag team called American Breed with Nick Kiniski (son of legendary wrestler Gene Kiniski) in Fred Barend's Texas All-Star Wrestling.

Neither Diamond nor Kiniski were actually American, (Diamond is Croatian/Canadian while Kiniski is Canadian) so the team name was quite ironic.

Thomas Boric (born May 11, 1961) is a Croatian-Canadian retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name Paul Diamond.

He is best known for being one half of the tag team Badd Company with Pat Tanaka and for his time in the World Wrestling Federation as Kato, one half of The Orient Express, also with Tanaka.

Before he was a professional wrestler, Boric was a professional soccer player.

Boric was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1961 and grew up wanting to follow in his father's footsteps and become a soccer player.

When Boric was 13 years old the family emigrated from Croatia to Canada, settling down in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Tom got a full soccer scholarship to Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

After only three semesters at college, Boric was selected as the 6th overall pick of the 1981 NASL draft to play goalkeeper for the recently formed Calgary Boomers of the North American Soccer League.

After the Boomers folded in 1981, Boric moved on to the Tampa Bay Rowdies whom he played for until the NASL closed for good in 1984.

After his professional soccer career ended, Boric began training for a professional wrestling career at a Tampa Bay wrestling school run by Boris Malenko along with his two sons Joe Malenko and Dean Malenko who all had a hand in training him.

After training, Boric began wrestling as "Paul Diamond" in 1985.

The team won the TASW Tag Team Championship from the Maoris (Tudui and Wakahi) on May 25, 1985, and held them until Al Madrill and Chavo Guerrero took the titles from them on June 5, 1985.

The titles would be vacated later that same month when Chavo Guerrero refused to wrestle in a rematch against Diamond and Kiniski because Chavo's father Gory Guerrero was the special referee chosen for the match.

Madrill teamed up with Black Gorman instead but lost the match.

After the match, Madrill attacked Chavo Guerrero splitting the team and forcing the titles to be held up.

When Chavo won the rights to name a new partner he chose to give the titles to "American Breed" instead, only now American Breed consisted of Paul Diamond and a rookie named Shawn Michaels, as Kiniski had left the promotion a few weeks prior.

Diamond and Michaels lost and then regained the titles from the "Masked Hoods" (Ricky Santana and Tony Torres) before being beaten for the titles on January 27, 1986, by Al Madrill and Magnificent Zulu.

Both Michaels and Diamond began to add more to their wrestling skills, thanks in part to fellow wrestler Chris Adams, who split his time between World Class Championship Wrestling and Texas All-Star at the time.

In 1986, Diamond moved on to Memphis, Tennessee, where he worked for Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett's Continental Wrestling Association.

In the fall of 1986 Diamond teamed up with a young Jeff Jarrett to win the CWA/AWA International Tag Team Championship from Tarzan Goto and Akio Sato on November 3, 1986.

The team lost the titles back to Goto and Sato less than 2 weeks later.

In late 1986, the tag team specialist Diamond was teamed up with Pat Tanaka, who was also seen as a tag team specialist, to form Badd Company.

They held the federation's tag team titles four times and the two won the CWA/AWA International Tag Team Championship, beating Tarzan Goto and Akio Sato on December 15, 1986.

The first reign was short lived as The Sheepherders (Luke Williams and Butch Miller) defeated the young duo on January 10, 1987.

Badd Company quickly regained the titles only to lose them to Tarzan Goto and Akio Sato on February 5, 1987.

The third run with the tag team titles came on May 9, 1987, when the team beat Mark Starr in a handicap match, but lost them back to Mark Starr and his new tag team partner Billy Joe Travis.

Badd Company had one last run with the International tag team titles as they won the vacant titles on May 25, 1987 and held them until July 6, 1987, where they lost the titles to Bill Dundee and Rocky Johnson (who were the last International tag team champions).

Badd Company also won the CWA's main tag team titles in Memphis, when they defeated Jeff Jarrett and Billy Joe Travis for the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship on August 8, 1987.

Tanaka and Diamond soon lost them as the Nasty Boys took the gold from them just over a month later.

After working as a team for almost a year, Badd Company moved on from the CWA to the American Wrestling Association.

In the AWA, 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 PPV, SuperClash III.

Both Badd Company's Tag Team Title 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 moving to the WWF, Diamond teamed with The Trooper Del Wilkes for a short run at the AWA Tag Team Titles against The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom).