[5] Originally from Appleton, Rheingans was an NCAA Division II[7] champion in 1975 for North Dakota State University and wrestled in the 1976 Olympics, placing fourth.

[16] He worked for the AWA again in 1989 where he and Ken Patera formed The Olympians tag team and beat Badd Company for the AWA World Tag Team Championship but were forced to vacate the belts when Patera was kayfabe injured in a strongman contest by The Destruction Crew who subsequently won the vacant title.

[citation needed] In 1989, Rheingans began touring Japan with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), allying himself with his former trainee Leon White, now known as Big Van Vader, and Buzz Sawyer in battling Antonio Inoki, Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu and Kengo Kimura, but later, he would aid New Japan in their battle against USSR amateur wrestlers such as Salman Hashimikov, Victor Zangiev, Vladimir Berkovich, Timur Zalasov and Wahka Evloev for the remainder of the year.

In 1990, he started to help training young wrestlers on the NJPW Dojo, most notably Koji Kitao and Osamu Nishimura.

In that time his most notable match was against another decorated amateur wrestler in Victor Zangiev from the Soviet Union on February 10 at the Tokyo Dome, in a winning effort.

[17] After recovering, he began working as a trainer and as the American booker for NJPW, hiring wrestlers to tour Japan with the promotion.