Phil Lafon Recalls Severe Car Accident With Sid Vicious During His WWE Run
Canadian wrestler Phil Lafon was one of many talents who passed through the Hart Dungeon, and he wrestled all over the world in the 80s and 90s. He's best known for being one half of the Can-Am Express tag team alongside Doug Furnas, and the two wrestled for All Japan, ECW, and WWE.
It was in All Japan where Lafon and Furnas first formed their tag team, but Lafon had plenty of other options as a partner. He talked about those in an interview with JOB'd Out Wrestling.
"It was Doug Furnas, Tom Zenk, Dustin [Rhodes], and myself, so we were four– and we were trying the whole month. We were pairing up together and doing four-man tags," recalled Lafon. "? At the end of that tournament, [Giant] Baba asked Doug and I, 'Do you want to sign a big contract?'"
Lafon and Furnas won a record five All Asia Tag Team Championships while in All Japan and they were also selected by The Wrestling Observer for having taken part in the Match of the Year in 1992.
The duo then headed to the United States where they worked in ECW in the mid-90s and won the ECW Tag Team Titles. The pair then joined WWF and made their debuts at the 1996 Survivor Series, although, their appearances were overshadowed by the debut of Rocky Maivia aka The Rock.
However, a few months later, Lafon was involved in a car accident, and he recalled who he was riding with and what happened.
"It was Sid Vicious driving, and I was sitting in the back with Flash Funk. We were travelling a lot, so we were tired and we were driving on the highway. [Sid] was just doing something – we had just smoked a joint, but whatever. And he lost control," recalled Lafon. "It was a brand new Lincoln and we flipped it I don't know how many times. It was pretty bad – rolled it three or four times."
Afterwards, Lafon became addicted to medication and drugs, which ultimately shortened his in-ring career. But he has no regrets of the results as it actually ended up straightening out his life.
"Even though [the crash] cost my career, I was pretty much over after that. It saved my life and made me realize– when I broke my neck, I was in [the hospital] for six months and I was on so many [painkillers], and I played it out to the max. Something snapped in me and I said, 'I don't want this life anymore,'" stated Lafon.
Lafon would continue to wrestle for a few more years after the crash, and finished his career back in All Japan. His longtime partner Doug Furnas died in 2012 after battling heart disease and Parkinson's.