Part of-The Rick Says-Wrestleline-Nov 2,2000 QUESTION #3: Was the old Orient Express comprised of Masato Tanaka and Al Snow wearing a mask? The Rick Says..... Alright, I know a goodly percentage of you are laughing your asses off at the morons who asked these two questions... pat yourself on the back for being smart. But I think these are two at least SORT of reasonable misunderstandings. For starters: no, neither Masato Tanaka nor Snow were ever involved in the WWF's Orient Express tag team of 10 year ago. The original tag team consisted of PAT Tanaka (a shorter, less-muscular Tanaka who could never be confused with Masato) and Akio Sato (an older, bearded, unmasked man who would never be confused with Snow). Tanaka and Sato were the Express for a while, and then Sato was replaced with "Kato" (a pretty well-built and athletic masked wrestler). But Kato was not Al Snow, either; he was Pat Tanaka's former partner from the AWA, Paul Diamond (the two were successful as the team Bad Company, and after the Orient Express gig was over, they stayed together and jumped to ECW). The confusion over the Tanaka issue is obvious, though it shouldn't have taken much to uncover the existance of the two different Tanakas. The confusion with Kato/Snow probably stems from the fact that a lot of newer fans have heard stories about Snow playing the role of "Shinobi" (a masked ninja), and just assumed he must have been part of the tag team. No matter... but let this set the record straight once and for all!(HEAD Webmaster note:Let it be known that as Shinobi in the WWF the WWF did use the Orient Express theme music for Shinobi,as well as other wrestlers from Japan that came in for PPV's ect)