Tony Halme

Tony Christian Halme (January 6, 1963 – January 8, 2010) was a Finnish politician, athlete, author, actor, and singer.

In the mid-1970s, Tony, his mother and brother moved to Soukka, Espoo.

Halme attended kansakoulu and a oppikoulu.

He later attended a Swedish-language school and studied at the electrician line at the Strömberg School of Engineering.

However, he dropped out of the latter after two years.

At the age of 16, Halme left his mother's home and moved in with his uncle.

Athletic from a young age, he actively participated in sports such as handball, football and ice hockey.

He also began power training and weightlifting in his late teens after watching his brothers, who were on the Finnish national team.

Aged 17, he had won a silver medal at the Finnish Bodybuilding Championship.

He also worked a wide variety of jobs, including fishmonger, gatekeeper, glass cutter, singer, page, stuntman, TV and radio presenter, and coach.

He later enlisted in the Finnish army and continued his training with the Finnish military sports team.

After leaving the army, he became involved in boxing and worked as a bouncer in bars.

Halme developed a fascination with the United States after seeing Martin Scorsese’s film Taxi Driver at the age of 12.

He left Finland to live in Los Angeles in the 1980s and lived there for 15 years.

He resumed bodybuilding in the US also and began to take anabolic steroids regularly.

He worked as a bodyguard for the music group Cheap Trick and musician Gene Simmons, and also as an actor, professional wrestler and a boxer.

Halme was trained by Verne Gagne as a powerhouse professional wrestler.

Halme was also known by the pseudonym Viikinki, which he used while appearing in Gladiaattorit, a Finnish version of the TV game show Gladiators, in the 1990s.

He was also a professional wrestler best known for his appearances with Catch Wrestling Association (CWA), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Ludvig Borga; a mixed martial artist and the first fighter from the Nordic countries to ever compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC); and a professional boxer who held the Finnish and the American heavyweight title.

During his time in CWA, he was an accomplished main eventer, who headlined many events for the company including the company's flagship event Euro Catch Festival three times.

Tony Halme spent his childhood in Lauttasaari, Helsinki.

His father left the family when Tony was six months old.

His older brother - who was five years older than Tony - assumed the role of father figure.

Halme only heard from his father a couple of times during his life.

His mother was an alcoholic with a constant revolving door of male partners.

As an adult, Halme considered his brother to be his only true friend.

He made his debut for Herb Abrams's Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) on October 29, 1990 as The Viking.

In his first match, he defeated The Patriot, He then went on to defeat Kevin Benjamin.

On October 25, 1990, Halme made his debut for the Japanese promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), defeating The Soul Taker in what was billed as a "boxer vs. wrestler" match.

Halme was brought in as an outsider and billed as a professional boxing champion with his matches billed as Mixed martial arts matches.

He was instantly pushed as a big deal, scoring wins over the likes of Scott Norton, Vader and most notably Shinya Hashimoto on December 26, 1990.

Halme was main eventing shows regularly as he was pushed as the biggest star of a crew that included the likes of Bobby Eaton, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddy Guerrero and Fit Finlay.

Despite Halme not getting over with NJPW fans, the company was doing strong business during his push.

On April 30, 1991, Halme defeated Masashi Aoyagi in a boxer versus karate match.

He remained undefeated in NJPW until September 23, 1991, when he was defeated by Shinya Hashimoto in their third match against each other in front of 18,000 fans at the Yokohama Arena.

While Halme's matches with Hashimoto were not considered quality matches, he has been credited with helping Hashimoto take his career to another level as the win made Hashimoto look like a "real fighter" as opposed to a professional wrestler.

Halme's "boxer versus wrestler" gimmick was ended on October 18, 1991, when he was defeated by Vader.

In 1992, Halme was teamed in matches with Scott Norton, Bam Bam Bigelow and Barry Windham.

He also competed in the NJPW Super Grade Tag League II teaming with Masahiro Chono, together scoring 8 points and finishing fourth overall.

He was a member of the Finnish Parliament from 2003 to 2007, representing the True Finns party as an independent politician.