Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon
Tag Team
Members Doug Furnas
Phil LaFon/Dan Kroffat
Name(s) Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon
Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat
Can-Am Connection
Heights 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) - Furnas
5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) - LaFon
Combined weight 478 lb (217 kg)
Debut June 5, 1989
Disbanded 1998
Promotions AJPW
ECW
UWA
WWF

Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon were a professional wrestling tag team that wrestled in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF). They teamed up together for nine years from 1989 to 1989 and held success as tag team competitors. In AJPW, they were 2 time World Junior Heavyweight Champion (Dan Kroffat) and a record 5 time All Asia Tag Team Champions,[1] in ECW, they were 1 time Tag Team Champions and in UWA, they were 2 time World Tag Team Champions.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] All Japan Pro Wrestling (First run, 1989-1992)

Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat were long-time mainstays in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). Both men stood 5'11 tall. They teamed for the first time as heels on June 5, 1989 beating Samson Fuyuki and Toshiaki Kawada for the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship.[1] They spent their early beginnings as a tag team and champions, feuding with Fuyuki and Kawada. After four months, they lost the titles back to Kawada and Fuyuki on October 20.[1] Furnas and Kroffat regained the titles from Kawada and Fuyuki on March 2, 1990 winning the titles for a second time.[1] They lost the titles a month later to the popular tag team of Kenta Kobashi and Tiger Mask II.[1] They wrestled many makeshift tag teams and tried to regain their All Asia tag titles. They spent the rest of the year, feuding with tag team champions. On April 20, 1991, they defeated Dynamite Kid and Johnny Smith ending their short reign of just two weeks.[1] As a result of this victory, Furnas and Kroffat became 3-time All Asia Tag Team Champions, a record held by former champions Samson Fuyuki and Toshiaki Kawada. As a result, there were only two teams during that time to hold the All Asia tag titles three times.

On July 8, they would lose the titles to Johnny Ace and Kenta Kobashi.[1] AJPW wanted Furnas and Kroffat to regain the All Asia tag titles, so Joel Deaton and Billy Black were used as champions and defeated Ace and Kobashi for the titles and eight days later, they were defeated by Furnas and Kroffat for the titles. As a result of this victory, this unlikely Canadian-American duo became All Asia Tag Team Champions for a fourth time holding a record for most time as champions.[1] They would hold the titles for 304 days, becoming eleventh longest reigning champions before they eventually lost the titles to Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Kenta Kobashi on May 25, 1992 becoming a dominant team of their era.[1] They left Japan and went to work in Mexico.

[edit] Universal Wrestling Association (1992-1993)

After losing the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship to Kikuchi and Kobashi, Furnas and Kroffat left AJPW and debuted in Universal Wrestling Association (UWA), where they worked as Can-Am Connection (this was also the name of a legendary tag team in WWF consisting of Rick Martel and Tom Zenk in the late 1980s), because Los Cowboys / Los Effectivos (Silver King and El Texano) for their first UWA World Tag Team Championship.[2] They started a historic feud with Cowboys and defended the titles twice against Cowboys in July and retained their titles until they lost the titles to Los Villanos (Villano IV and Villano V) on November 28 of that year.[2] Furnas and Kroffat were entered to a feud with the Villanos but they did not get a title shot for the rest of the year.

They eventually won the titles for a second time on March 7, 1993 by defeating Los Villanos.[2] In the next month of April, their lengthy feud with Los Villanos ended after Los Villanos defeated them for a second time to win the titles. After losing the titles to Los Villanos for a second time, Furnas and Kroffat left UWA and returned to AJPW.

[edit] All Japan Pro Wrestling (Second run, 1993-1994)

Furnas and Kroffat returned to AJPW in May 1993. On May 21, Dan Kroffat surprisingly won the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship from Masanobu Fuchi which culminated in a feud between the two junior heavyweights.[3] Kroffat reigned as champion for the summer of 1993 before eventually losing the title back to Fuchi.[3] However, the next month, on September 9, the duo became a record-breaking 5-time All Asia Tag Team Champions after beating The Eagle and The Patriot for the titles.[1] They continued their domination in the tag team division while Kroffat won the World Junior Heavyweight Championship for a second time on July 12, 1994 becoming a double champion.[4] On December 5, Kroffat and Furnas vacated the All Asia Tag Team Championship to focus on the AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship but became the fifth longest reigning champions in history with a reign of 451 days. Kroffat also reigned as champion for over a year eventually losing the title to Yoshinari Ogawa on September 10, 1995.

[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling (First run, 1996)

Kroffat and Furnas debuted in hardcore wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in 1996.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation (1996-1997)

Dan Kroffat renamed himself "Phil LaFon" and then they were repackaged as Doug Furnas and Phil LaFon. They signed contracts with World Wrestling Federation (WWF). They made their pay-per-view (PPV) debuts at Survivor Series 1996, participating for the first time in a WWF ring in a Survivor Series match where they teamed with The Godwinns (Henry and Phineas) against WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart and British Bulldog and New Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Leif Cassidy). Furnas and LaFon were the survivors, last pinning tag champions.[5] As 1997 began, they began feud with Hart and Bulldog over the tag titles, due to having pinned the champions. They got a title shot at Final Four and won the match by disqualification after Owen hit LaFon with his Slammy as Bulldog had LaFon in the powerslam. Though, Furnas and LaFon won the match but not the titles because a title cannot change hands by a DQ.[6] They left the company shortly after.

[edit] Extreme Championship Wrestling (Second run, 1997-1998)

In late 1997, Furnas and LaFon debuted in hardcore wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).

[edit] References