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. Tanaka had a long successful run with the
WWF in 1967, including being #1 contender to champion
Bruno Sammartino. Sammartino was the one who requested Tanaka (who was working in Australia) to the WWF's owner at the time, Vince McMahon Sr. In their first Madison Square Garden meeting, Tanaka was disqualified for throwing salt. He was pinned by Sammartino in a rematch six months later, and Tanaka occasionally teamed with
Gorilla Monsoon. Tanaka also main evented the Garden in tag matches, twice with
Gorilla Monsoon vs. Sammartino and Spyros Arion (Tanaka and his partner winning the first via disqualification; losing the second in a Texas Death Match); a year later with Monsoon against Sammartino and Victor Rivera. Monsoon & Tanaka had other Garden matches, including victories over
Al Costello & Dr.
Bill Miller; and
Bobo Brazil and
Earl Maynard. Tanaka subsequently teamed with
Mitsu Arakawa in the WWF in 1969, acquiring the International Tag Team Championship; losing it at Madison Square Garden to Tony Marino and Victor Rivera. He left the WWWF in 1970 and worked in Texas. In 1971, he returned to the WWWF. The team of Tanaka and Mr. Fuji won three
WWF World Tag Team Championships, with Blassie as manager for the third reign and
The Grand Wizard as manager for the first two. They first won the belts from
Sonny King and
Chief Jay Strongbow on June 27, 1972, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at a
House show. They lost the belts to
Haystacks Calhoun and
Tony Garea on May 30, 1973, again at a Hamburg house show, but regained them on September 11, 1973, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before losing them again to
Tony Garea and
Dean Ho on November 14, 1973, again in Hamburg. Their third win came on September 27, 1977, at a Philadelphia house show when they defeated
Tony Garea and
Larry Zbyszko in a tournament final for the vacant belts, holding them until March 14, 1978, when they lost the titles to
Dino Bravo and
Dominic DeNucci in Philadelphia. This third reign set a record for number of championship reigns which would not be bettered until
The New Age Outlaws won a fourth reign in 1999. After WWWF, Tanaka returned to Japan, Hawaii and other territories until retiring in 1986. ==Other media==