Pat Tanaka was supposed to spend the weekend wrestling for Absolute Intense Wrestling. Instead, the promotion spent much of it trying to figure out where he was after giving him travel money and calling him around 15 times.
AIW laid out the bizarre situation on Twitter, saying Tanaka’s original travel arrangements fell through Wednesday night. The promotion stepped in with the necessary funds to get him there, but Tanaka never showed up for his scheduled seminar on Friday.
“To be fully transparent we made an agreement with Pat Tanaka and gave him the necessary funds to get here after his travel arrangements fell through Wednesday night, he did not arrive for his scheduled seminar Friday night and had not been in any communication with us since Thursday evening after attempting to call him around 15 times until about 3:30PM yesterday.”
Tanaka eventually answered, and that didn’t exactly clear things up. According to AIW, the former WWF star said he had been in a car wreck, ended up in a ditch and admitted he should have contacted them sooner. Then came the flight.
“At that time Pat called and claimed to have been in a car wreck and had been in a ditch and said he should’ve called sooner but was trying to figure out how to get here and was booking a flight with his miles that left at 7PM and landed at 7PM somehow (time zones?) and asked for us to move his match to a little later on the card.”
AIW was apparently willing to move Tanaka’s match later on the card and wait for him. Sunday morning eventually arrived before Tanaka did. At that point, the promotion could only laugh at what it had signed itself up for.
“It is Sunday morning and Pat Tanaka has still not arrived and we have not heard from him since. We wanted the Pat Tanaka experience and it seems we got it.”
AIW even admitted that gambling on unpredictable wrestling veterans is part of the fun for them, so this probably won’t stop them from trying something similar again.
“We love to gamble on these wild card old timers so I’m sure we will be in this situation again with one of these guys down the road. As for Pat’s flight and when it is landing that is to be continued but he’s allegedly been up in the air for quite some time at this point……….he is a very nice guy on the telephone though when he does answer and we wish him the best.”
The whole story may sound familiar to MVP. Back in 2023, he publicly accused Tanaka of trying to get $300 out of him when MVP was still a young independent wrestler, claiming the money was needed for a wrestling license in Japan. MVP went much further by alleging Tanaka actually wanted the money for drugs.
“True story. Pat Tanaka tried to rip me off for crack money when I was a young indie wrestler. He called me & told me to wire him 300$ ASAP for a ‘wrestling license’ in Japan & I would be making 2,500$ a wk + a 50$ a day per diem. He didn’t get the money but he DID gain an enemy.”
MVP never sent the money in his story. AIW says it did, and this time the weekend ended with no Tanaka, no match and a flight that the promotion joked seemed to have been in the air for quite some time.
What do you make of AIW’s story about Pat Tanaka’s no-show? Let us know in the comments.
