Dark Side Of The Ring: 4 Things We Learned From “Ludvig Borga: Hellraiser From Helsinki”

Dark Side of the Ring returned to VICE last week for its sixth season. The first episode, “Mick Foley: Hell in a Cell”, is a story most wrestling fans know well, but the second episode is one you might not be as familiar with. This one, titled “Ludvig Borga: Hellraiser From Helsinki”, is about Tony Halme, who was known as Ludvig Borga in WWE. He was only with the company for less than a year in the 1990s, but he was a very controversial person. Controversy followed Halme everywhere he went, until his life came to a shocking and tragic ending. Here are four things to know from “Ludvig Borga: Hellraiser From Helsinki”.

Ludvig Borga Had A Difficult Life Growing Up

Borga Is From Helsinki, Finland

Ludvig Borga was born as Tony Halme in Helsinki, Finland. He had a rough childhood, with his parents getting divorced when he was just two-years-old. Both of his parents were also alcoholics, which only made things worse. In an old interview, Borga speaks about his mom’s alcoholism getting so bad that she left him and his brother behind when they were still young teenagers.

Borga was an angry young man, often getting into bar fights, but he also found an outlet for his anger in boxing and combat sports. He fell in love with America and swore he’d move there one day.

Ludvig Borga Started His Wrestling Career In UWF

Borga Got Into A Fight With Scott Norton

Halme made his dream come true when he moved to the United States in 1986, landing in Los Angeles. It was there that he met his future wife, Deedee, who was interviewed throughout Dark Side of the Ring. She spoke about not only how she quickly fell deeply in love with him, but how Halme’s dreams included him wanting to be an actor and bodybuilder. He did achieve some of those dreams, using steroids for the first, and actually getting a few small roles as an actor.

This led to him trying his hand at wrestling, where he was called The Viking, working in Herb Abrams’ UWF and in Japan. He even had a match with Vader early in his career. Things quickly went bad for him though, as he not only found himself addicted to painkillers, but he started to show off his racist opinions about white superiority. He ran his mouth to the wrong person, leading to a huge fight with Scott Norton, the last man you’d want to mess with. This ended Halme’s time in Japan. If that wasn’t bad enough, he was also cheating on his wife, who filed for divorce.

Ludvig Borga Had A Short Run In WWE That Didn’t Connect With Fans

Borga Tried UFC After WWE

Tony Halme’s life was spiraling out of control, but then came the biggest moment of his career when he was hired by WWE and turned into Ludvig Borga, another one of Vince McMahon’s foreign heel stereotypes. He was immediately shot to the top and had a feud with Lex Luger. Jim Ross spoke about how Borga couldn’t get over with the crowd, who didn’t connect with his character. Ross added:

“I’m glad he didn’t get hired on my watch.”

WWE knew about his white supremacy views as well, because he shockingly had an SS tattoo that they made him cover up. He also had a tattoo above his butt that said “Exit Only”, leading to a hilarious, expletive-filled rant from Jim Cornette that we can’t reprint here. After getting injured, WWE let him go in early 1994.

Tony Halme then returned to his combat sports roots, making it to the UFC, where his first fight was against Randy Couture! He managed to get a take down on the future legend, but seconds later he was tapping out. That’s as far as he ever went in the UFC.

Ludvig Borga Had A Controversial Political Career

Borga Ended Up Taking His Own Life

Tony Halme had incredible highs and lows after his wrestling career. Possession of illegal firearms and steroid trafficking landed him in prison and got him deported back to Finland. He became famous in his homeland as an actor and singer, even appearing in Die Hard With a Vengeance, where he had a scene with Samuel L. Jackson. With his popularity and beliefs, Halme tried his hand at politics. In a live interview, he called their President a lesbian and railed against immigrants with racist comments, but despite that, he was actually elected to Parliament!

Dark Side of the Ring shows several shocking interview clips from his days in Parliament. They also described how he became an alcoholic just like his parents were. This resulted in a drunken fight with his new wife and a struggle over a gun, resulting in it going off. He also inhaled his own vomit, which left him in a coma and gave him permanent brain damage. After this, Halme’s remaining days spiraled out of control. His second wife left him. He resigned from Parliament. Alcohol and drugs consumed his life, and he was in massive debt. Unable to take it any longer, Halme put a gun to his head and ended his life at the age of 47.

His ex-wife swore there were good things about Halme that she fell in love with, but admitted that he also destroyed every relationship he had. Jim Ross summed it up best, saying:

“He was an a**hole and that is where I will leave it.”