Doug Furnas

Doug Furnas
Ring name(s)	Doug Furnas
Billed height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Billed weight	243 lb (110 kg)
Born	December 11, 1961 (1961-12-11) (age 49) Commerce, Oklahoma, United States
Debut	1986
Retired	2000

Doug Furnas (born December 11, 1961) is a former American professional wrestler and powerlifter. Furnas briefly worked for World Championship Wrestling in the early 1990s. Furnas was also a longtime mainstay of All Japan Pro Wrestling with tag team partner Philip Lafond.

Powerlifting

Furnas still holds the men's collegiate national records in the squat (400 kg/881.75 lb) and deadlift (347.5 kg/766 lb) in the 110 kg / 242 lb weight class, which he set on March 26, 1983 while attending the University of Tennessee.^[1] He is also one of the few men to achieve a total of 2400 pounds, with a total of 2403 (1090 kg) on June 28, 1987 in Bloomington, Minnesota while competing in the 125 kg/275 lb weight class.^[2] Furnas also holds the Tennessee state records for the squat (985 lb), deadlift (821 lb), and total.

Professional wrestling career

Doug Furnas began his career in Continental Championship Wrestling in late 1986, a "guest" of the promotion's during a card at the civic center in Knoxville, Tennessee. He watched promoter Bob Polk get assaulted by Kevin Sullivan, then the manager for the New Guinea Headhunters, until he could bear no more, and injected himself into the situation, effectively beginning his pro wrestling career.

In his run in Continental, Furnas would feud with Sullivan, Buddy Landell, and Sid Eudy's version of Lord Humongous, as well as Terry Gordy. Eventually, in late 1989, Continental folded, and by that time, Furnas had left to spend time in All Japan Pro Wrestling and in World Championship Wrestling.

Furnas briefly worked for World Championship Wrestling in 1990. In All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Furnas teamed with Phil Lafon (known as Dan Kroffat) beginning in 1989. Together they formed The Can-Am Express. Furnas and Kroffat would hold the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship five times between June 1989 and September 1993 when they vacated the title so they could focus on the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship.^[3][4] Their title match on May 25, 1992 against Kenta Kobashi and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi received five stars from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and was also named "Match of the Year".

Also in 1992, the duo wrestled for Mexico's Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) as The Can-Am Connection. In Mexico, they held the UWA World Tag Team Championship twice, trading it with Los Villanos (Villano IV and Villano V).

The duo joined Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in mid 1996 where they had a series of matches against Sabu and Rob Van Dam. A few months later, both men made their World Wrestling Federation debuts on November 17, 1996 at the Survivor Series pay-per-view. After not getting over, they returned to ECW in late 1997, and won the ECW World Tag Team Title on December 4 from the F.B.I..^[5] Their reign would not last long, however, as they lost the belts to Chris Candido and Lance Storm the next day. Furnas went on wrestle Masato Tanaka in singles competition at ECW Living Dangerously on March 1, 1998. Furnas came up on the losing end on this particular occasion. He also became one of Rob Van Dam's many unsuccessful challengers, to little fanfare, during Van Dam's record breaking ECW Television Title run.^[5] It was noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, that Furnas, has started to develop an early form of Alzeimer's Disease, which explained him retiring in 2000.

Championships and accomplishments

• All Japan Pro Wrestling

• AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (5 times) with Dan Kroffat^[3]

• Extreme Championship Wrestling

• ECW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Phil Lafond^[5]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 138 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 1997

• Universal Wrestling Association

• UWA World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Dan Kroffat (Philip Lafond)

• USA Wrestling
  • USA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[6]
  • USA Tennessee Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[6]

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

• 5 Star Match (1992) with Dan Kroffat vs. Kenta Kobashi and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Sendai, May 25
• Match of the Year (1992) with Dan Kroffat vs. Kenta Kobashi and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Sendai, May 25

References

Professional wrestling portal

1. ^ "Men’s collegiate National Records" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2006-12-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20061213043255/http://powerliftingca.com/MensCollegiateNationalRecords.pdf. Retrieved 04-05 2007. 
2. ^ Michael Soong. "All time historical power lifting records". Archived from the original on 2007-08-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20070808200136/http://www.kraft.is/ymislegt/Records.htm. Retrieved 04-05 2007. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship official title history" (in Japanese). All-Japan.co.jp. Archived from the original on 2007-08-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20070811175141/http://www.all-japan.co.jp/history/05.html. Retrieved 2007-08-29. 
4. ^ "AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship title history". Wrestling-Titles.com. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/alljapan/asia-t.html. Retrieved 2007-08-29. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} "ECW Tag History". World Wrestling Entertainment. http://www.wwe.com/shows/ecw/history/ecwtaghistory/. Retrieved 2009-11-11. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2000). Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 

Persondata
Name	Furnas, Doug
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 11, 1961
Place of birth	Commerce, Oklahoma, United States
Date of death
Place of death