내 이름은 입니다.
펠리페 한 리
저는 첫번째 세계적으로 알려진 한국 레슬러였습니다.
And now my daughters and dedicated Korean descendants, many whose ancestors were Freedom Fighters and Patriots 일제강점기 및 기타 전쟁 동안 는 나의 이야기와 나의 이민자 가족의 이야기를 할 것입니다.
Bodybuilding
I started weightlifting as a teenager. I had to become strong in order to be able to fight the constant racial bullying I encountered. I was always very disciplined about things I found interesting: reading, art, sports; so going from a skinny kid to a muscular athlete happened relatively fast and soon, I was pre-selected for the Helsinki Olympic Games for Olympic Wrestling.
I fell in love with bodybuilding and, at the age of 18, I participated in Mr. Mexico competitions, an event that that it is recognized by the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB). It was my first major athletic event and I made it to the finals. Later on, I would place second in several competitions.
Newspaper announcing the results of a Weightlifting Championship where I placed third.
Newspaper announcing the winners in the subdivisions at Mr. Mexico
Military Service
I was also 18 years old when I did my military service as part of the Transportation Air Squadron of the Mexican Air Force, where I had the fortune to participate in an exchange program in which a few of us were sent to the USA for training as aircraft mechanics. There, I learned to speak English, a language that would in the future open many doors for me was a wrestler. Speaking English would allow me to train and become friends with the legendary Karl Gotch from Belgium, Dorrel Dixon from Jamaica, Lou Thesz from the USA, Lord Blears from the UK, Curtis Iaukea from the USA, and Pat Patterson from Canada, to name just a few champions.
Wrestling
Many wrestlers used to train at the gyms where I worked out and they would encourage me to practice wrestling. Valente Pérez gave me my first shot in a tour to La Habana, Cuba. The team consisted of Médico Asesino, Carlos Moreno, Alex Romano, Pedro Bolaños, Huracán Ramírez, "Jarocho" Rojas and Sergio Saucedo.
People started calling me Ham Lee because they didn't know how to pronounce Hahn, so bookers would bill me as Felipe Ham Lee in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
As I became more experienced in this sport, bookers started setting up matches for me with bigger names, bigger stars, like el Santo, Blue Demon, Black Shadow, Gory Guerrero, Karloff Lagarde, René "Copetes" Guajardo, los Hermanos Espanto, el Enfermero, Huracán Ramírez, "Tonina" Jackson, Rayo de Jalisco and many more.
Spreading My Wings
The first time I gave serious thought to a career abroad was when I was hired by promoter Morris Siegel. It meant leaving behind a stable situation in Mexico, where I was a star, to widen my horizons as a professional wrestler.
At the time, the big stars in Texas were Dorrel Dixon, Pepper Gómez, Danny Mcshain, Tony Borne, Bull Curry, Angelo Poffo, and brothers Nick and Jerry Kozak.
I stayed in Houston for six months but realized I was getting nowhere. Tony Borne saw what was happening and, in a gesture of camaraderie that I will never forget, offered to recommend me to promoter Don Owen, the big man in Oregon and Washington. So I left Houston with my wife and daughter, who had been born only a few months earlier.
From that day forward, my family and I moved from one territory to another whenever I got a more attractive offer, a better contract. We went from living in motels, to renting apartments where we would live for a few months or, in the case of Hawaii, for years.
I had the honor of meeting and becoming friends with the great Belgian legend Karl Gotch (who also lived in Hawaii), with Lou Thesz, and Dorrel Dixon. These pros taught me a lot and helped me hone my technique.
Training with Karl Gotch
Wrestling got me hooked on traveling. I worked in most countries in America, from Canada to Brazil. I traveled to Kuwait, Dubai, Pakistan, Morocco and Kenya. I was the first Korean-Mexican to visit the Belgian Congo. But Asian tours were my favorite.
A Korean Wrestler becomes a star in Japan
Hawaii is Wrestling Homebase for 4 Years
One of the most important contracts I signed was for a series of tours organized by the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) in partnership with New Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and other Asian countries. And a few years later with the All Asia Wrestling Alliance.
Logistically, it was impossible for my family to travel with me so we settled down in Honolulu, Hawaii, where I wrestled for most of the year and from where I travelled to Japan for grueling 1 or 2-month tours, at a time when there was no internet and the only way I could keep in touch with my family was through letters and brief phone calls.
These are two examples of my regular matches in 1971:
June 5, 1971 - Civic Auditorium: Bearcat Wright and Don Muraco over Rocky Montero and the Masked Gladiator. Billy Robinson over The Skull. Maddog Mayne drew Sam Steamboat. Masked Avenger and Ripper Collins went to a draw. After the match, Collins and Maddog Mayne unmasked the Masked Avenger, who turned out to be Hahn Lee.
June 16, 1971 - Honolulu International Center: Lord Little Brook and Cowboy Lang over Little Bruiser and the Mighty Atom. Billy Robinson drew The Masked Gladiator. The Skull defeated Don Muraco, Sam Steamboat over Hahn Lee and Tony Borne drew Rocky Montero. Suni War Cloud and Little Bear defeated Maddog Mayne and Ripper Collins to win the Hawaiian Tag Team titles. Bearcat Wright over Gene Kiniski in a Sicilian Stretcher Match.
The sacrifice of having to constantly leave my family in Hawaii paid off when I became World Champion in Japan, where the following is an example of a typical tour:
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo - July 9, 1976
Haruka Eigen & Masashi Ozawa VS Hahn Lee & Ali Baba
Fujisawa, Kanagawa - July 10
Kantaro Hoshino & Osamu Kido VS Ali Baba & Hahn Lee
Chiba - July 13
Strong Kobayashi VS Hahn Lee
Shibata, Niigata - July 14
Asia Heavyweight League Qualification Match: Kantaro Hoshino VS Hahn Lee
Takamatsu, Kagawa - July 23
Karuka Eigen VS Hahn Lee
Fukuoka - July 27
Karuka Eigen & Masashi Ozawa VS Ali Baba & Hahn Lee
Kumamoto - July 28
Hahn Lee VS Masashi Ozawa
Shimizu, Shizuoka - July 30
Seiji Sakaguchi & Kantaro Hoshino VS Ali Baba & Hahn Lee
Kakegawa, Shizuoka - July 21
Majid Ackra & Hahn Lee VS Haruka Eigen & Masashi Ozawa
Kofu - Yamanashi Gakuin U - August 1
Hahn Lee & Ali Baba VS Katsuhisa Shibata & Takashi Kimura
Furudono, Fukushima - August 2
Hahn Lee VS Katsuhisa Shibata
Aomori - August 3
Ali Baba & Hahn Lee VS Haruka Eigen & Masashi Ozawa
Miyagi Sport Center - August 4
Haruka Eigen & Osamu Kido VS Ali Baba & Hahn Lee
Tokyo - Kuramae Kokugikan - August 5
Hahn Lee & Gurdaye Singh VS Makoto Arakawa & Seiei Kimura
What does a tour like this do to a wrestler's body? I will let my daughters tell that story. But after years of this pace of travel and matches, I decided that we should return to Mexico, where I would set up my own gym and let my children live a normal life.
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Transcription and translation of interview above:
HAHN LEE: Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming to Mexico.
INTERPRETER: Are you well?
HAHN LEE: A little...I was operated recently.
KOREAN INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much.
HAHN LEE: No, no, it's my pleasure.
HAHN LEE: Well, mainly because it was a way of improving my economic situation. I come from a very humble family. So, Professional Wrestling took me all over the world. And it provided the opportunity to meet other people, other, hmm, other ways of thinking.
HAHN LEE: And really, I felt sad when I retired. I had always said that I would never stop wrestling.
HAHN LEE: Well, most of the people know who I am in Mexico, because I am continuously in magazines and they say, "The Korean-Mexican". But when I was a star here in Mexico, Korea was not very famous. So, they thought that being Korean or Chinese was the same thing. So, they thought it was the same to be Chinese or Korean. So, many times, I would explain, "No, Korea is a different country." But well, it has been a problem all my life.
HAHN LEE: Very happy, because I'm glad that people from MY COUNTRY, from the country of my grandparents and my parents, wanted to interview me. I feel very proud, VERY, very proud. I wish I had been in better health for the interview.
My gymnasium
Club Atlético Ham Lee
My Online Game Character
