Returning from a grueling and very hot trip to Japan this past week, I carried my battle scars proudly after a major upset in defeating Japanese all-time ring legend Genichiro Tenryu clean with my spike piledriver at SMASH.20 this past Thursday in Tokyo.
The fact that this was not only the main event, but also before a sold-out Korakuen Hall audience that was as equally hot as the weather, only made this victory that much sweeter for Yours Truly.
The capacity crowd on hand could not believe their eyes when I hoisted the legend Tenryu up for my famous piledriver and drilled him head-first into the canvas for the resounding victory. The noise that erupted from the audience after the pinfall was deafening in that single moment of time.
I must admit that this match was a surreal experience for me through and through. Tenryu’s chops felt like they flayed the skin off of my chest and his punches rocked my jaw and blackened my left eye. I indeed earned my victory over the legend Tenryu in the classic pro wrestling sense of the term.
Next up will be the semi-finals of the SMASH Title tournament on September 8th in Tokyo, after which I fly to Austria to defend my TopCatch European Championship against Michael Kovac on August 10th. Before that however, I will be wrestling in Finland next weekend at the Häme Medieval Fair in Hämeenlinna on Saturday and Sunday, August 20-21 against FCF Champion Heimo Ukonselkä.
For photos of my huge match against Tenryu, click here.
Right now I am just one week shy of arguably the biggest match of my storied professional wrestling career, which dates back to 1994 as far as in-ring action goes. On Thursday, August 11 in Tokyo, Japan, I will be nose to nose with one of the greatest legends ever to grace a professional wrestling ring. That opponent is Genichiro Tenryu.
I have done everything in my power to ready myself for this monumental main match at SMASH.20, to be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo next week. Admittedly, coming back from a torn right rotator cuff has not been an easy road leading up to this huge match. It has been five weeks since my injury in Germany, and I am still not at 100% physically, but as the old saying in our business goes, “Everyone goes in hurt”.
Nonetheless, I firmly believe that the favor of my Great God in Heaven has me covered on all bases, and once I step into the ring at SMASH.20 and look Genichiro Tenryu in the eye, all the pieces will fall into place.
Austria’s Michael Kovac is scheduled to get his due rematch for my TopCatch European Wrestling Championship on September 10 at Stadthalle in Hollabrunn, Austria.
I defeated Kovac in Wismar, Germany for the honors on May 14, pinning my opponent with a surprise backslide in a very close call in the seventh round of the match (which was fought in 3 minute rounds – an old European title match tradition in pro wrestling).
In absolutely one of the biggest match-ups in my career to date, I will be facing Japanese living puroresu legend Genichiro Tenryu at SMASH.20 on August 11 in the second round of the SMASH Championship Title Tournament at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.
Tenryu is without question the most esteemed opponent that I have ever been billed against. His career stemming back to 1976 is one that very few mortal men could hope to equal, much less surpass.
Tenryu has also been a promoter in the wrestling industry, and my old friends Lance Storm and Chris Jericho have both wrestled extensively for Tenryu’s early 1990’s company WAR.
To say that I am anticipating this match against Tenryu would be the understatement of the decade: I am gearing up for this showdown like no other in the past, and I will do my best to make a big impression on August 11 when the bell sounds in Tokyo.
The newest issue of The Wrestling Press has a 6-page full-length article where I detail my start in the pro wrestling business, with all the ups and downs of the road of trial.
Starting on page 84, find out all about how I was helped by well-known wrestlers such as Lance Storm and Chris Jericho, how I was sabotaged early on, hard training under former Stampede Wrestling great Jason The Terrible and much, much more!
On Friday, July 1 at FCF Wrestling’s DOMination II in Helsinki, Sweden’s #1 wrestler Killer Karlsson and I battled it out for Baltic supremacy in the ring.
Karlsson spited Finland with as much condescendence as he could muster before Yours Truly arrived to shut his big mouth. The match immediately degenerated into a brawl and the intensity didn’t let up for a second over the duration.
Karlsson managed to mangle my left knee as the match wore on, which left me at less than 100% as I rallied back on offence. My superkick attempts were thwarted three times over the course of the altercation, which is a first-time thing as far as my matches go.
In the end, Karlsson not only gave me a horrendous shot below the belt, but he also assaulted FCF timekeeper Sara when she refused to give him his Swedish flagpole after the referee had been incapacitated in the line of fire. Karlsson proceeded to use his flagpole to beat me with it, and as the accompanying photos show, choking me out with the prop in addition.
Needless to say, the match was thrown out and I believe the official call was a no-contest after the referee could not continue officiating the match following the hit he took.
Karlsson started a wrestling war between Sweden and Finland on July 1st and lit a fire under my keister in the process, and I’ll damn sure not let this issue rest until I have gotten my comeuppance.
For wrestling news out of Finland, go HERE for more! (Photos by Esa Kemppainen)
This coming Friday, July 1 in Helsinki, I will face Sweden’s #1 wrestler Killer Karlsson in a Finland vs. Sweden battle at DOMination 2.
I’ve heard rumblings that Karlsson has long waited to face me in the ring and now this Friday he gets his big chance to make a lasting impression. Truth be told, I vaguely recall training Karlsson as part of a group of Swedish students in Gothenburg back in 2005. I don’t remember anything about him to be honest, other than he was one tall fella with a boxing background.
Finland and Sweden have waged a long and bitter rivalry dating back hundreds of years when Sweden ruled over Finland, and the bad blood still resides to this day. I was on a flight back to Helsinki from Germany in mid-May this year when Finland defeated Sweden in the world hockey championships, and the noise on the airplane was deafening when news arrived before takeoff of Finland’s crushing 6-1 victory. This defeat was indeed a bitter pill to swallow for the Swedes and Killer Karlsson is no exception to that fact.
Karlsson better bring his A-game, because he is not only facing the pioneer and legend of Finnish professional wrestling, he is facing the Lord of FCF on his own turf.
If Karlsson wants a war, he’ll get his war on July 1. This old dog has seen nearly every battlefield there is to see out there and I have lived to tell the story…victoriously.
There is an age-old saying in the pro wrestling business that says “everyone goes in hurt”, and the measure of a worker (aka pro wrestler) is whether he competes when he is sick or hurt.
Wrestling legend “Dr. Death” Steve Williams once aptly quoted “hey, this ain’t ballet”, and that said the good doctor was right on the money. Besides, it was Doc who took over a hundred stitches in his eye from a stray elbow from Brad Armstrong in a match one night, and showed up the next night to wrestle anyway.
Whether the public perceives pro wrestling to be a choreographed exhibition really isn’t the point, because the fact of the matter remains that at the core of it all, what we as professional wrestlers are doing in that ring is a physical altercation. There IS contact, there is stress, there is wear and tear, and yes, we DO get hurt from time to time.
Such was the case this past Friday night in Osterholz-Scharmbeck, Germany when I faced Italy’s Chris Colen in a match. Colen trapped me in a very basic hold called the abdominal stretch. In the process, as he torqued on the pressure and leaned back with the hold, I felt the front deltoid of my captured arm “crunch” and tear. The muscle was taken to it’s limit and it could take no more, so it gave way.
What did I do – – quit?
Hell, NO!
I crumbled to the mat, took stock of the situation and tried to shield my bad wing the best I could. At the opportune moment I rallied back and used as much technique as possible to protect my delt from further injury and duress and finished the match.
That, my dear public, is the mark of a true professional. And I hate to toot my own horn, but “toot, toot!” to quote Arn Anderson of the Four Horsemen.
Now in all seriousness this recent example from my own professional life does stand as a shining example to anyone out there of what is expected of us as professional wrestlers, and of the prerequisites it requires to be able to duly carry the “pro” tag. Not only did I fight through that injury on the said night, I also fulfilled my consequent booking the next night, regardless of the fact that I was risking further injury to myself. You could say that because I know my craft, I am able to navigate through certain sticky situations of the like.
This past November 2010 in Tokyo, Japan when I lost the FCF Championship to “The Japanese Buzzsaw” Tajiri, I suffered a hard concussion from a sunset flip powerbomb off the ropes late in the match. The back of my head hammered into the canvas and knocked me loopy, yet I continued the fight to the bitter end, pulling off an incredibly dramatic finish to the match that will long be remembered in the annals of puroresu and SMASH wrestling history. Regardless of the injury, I fought on.
I have seen so many cases of workers in the pro wrestling industry skip matches due to relationship troubles, the flu, being hurt to some degree yet being able to perform but opting not to, and just plain not wanting to do what is right for the business that they are in. I personally seriously question whether talents such as those should be allowed to carry a “pro” moniker. Me personally, I believe many such individuals would be best served to exit stage left.
My own dear Mother suffered a stroke the day after she saw me wrestle live for the first time ever in December 2005. I was driving in my car to the next show the following day when I got the news of my Mom’s condition.
What did I do?
I went to the show and wrestled a 30-minute match and did my job.
Everyone is tested through the fire and on the bad days. No one is truly tested when they are at their best.
The mark of a true professional is the ability to shut out everything that is not conductive to you going out there and doing your job. Easier said than done, but case in point, coming from someone who has walked the walk in addition to talking the talk over the years.
Even if you have to carry that head of yours in a sling, you get your ass to your booking and make it to the ring and earn your stripes for being called a “pro”.
For those who are seething at the bit from reading this, I can offer you one case where I failed to continue. My left ankle was snapped in two back in August 2003 in a match in Oslo, Norway, and although I valiantly tried to stand and get back in the ring, my legs wouldn’t hold me. Yes, the professional in me TRIED to stand, even though I knew it was in vain.
That, folks, is dedication and also the proof that is in the proverbial pudding.
Japan’s fastest-rising pro wrestling promotion SMASH started their inaugural championship tournament on June 9th to crown both the first Men’s and Women’s Champion in company history.
In first round matches held at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall on June 9th, Shinya Ishikawa of Big Japan Wrestling beat Yusuke Kodama, Akira Nogami beat Takashi Iizuka, “Japanese Buzzsaw” Tajiri beat Funaki, FCF representative Hajime Ohara bested his former sensei Ultimo Dragon and Japanese ring legend Genichiro Tenryu handed Michael Kovac his first defeat in The Land of the Rising Sun.
On July 15 SMASH will hold the continuation of their first round match-ups, and due to circumstances beyond our control, no one from Finland at FCF will be able to travel to SMASH.19 on July 15th to partake in the first round of competition. To remedy this we at FCF have agreed with SMASH to hold an internal private tournament in Finland to determine FCF’s first round winner and representative who will go on directly to round two at SMASH.20 in August at Korakuen Hall.
Stay tuned for details, as the summer is just heating up at this point!
Just this past week, FCF Wrestling in Finland released the news of Finnish ring veteran Stark Adder calling it quits after losing heart after not being able to procure the FCF Championship during his time with the promotion. It was actually in Kotka, Finland on May 21 that Adder informed me that he was quitting and moving on to new challenges and ventures, so I already knew of Adder’s intentions before the public got to hear about it.
Stark Adder and myself are the cornerstones on which Finnish professional wrestling was built, without exception. It was Adder’s coaching throughout the years that spawned many of Finland’s finest wrestling talents, and although I was the head instructor at FCF’s wrestling school Adder was the workhorse and main trainer. Think of me in the Steve Austin role on Tough Enough and Adder as Bill Demott and you get the picture.
Stark Adder began his career in Finnish pro wrestling first as a part of my inaugural class of 2003, debuting in Pro Wrestling Finlandia, which preceded FCF, in early 2004. Adder was a gifted student from day one, perhaps the best of my initial class in Finland, and he honed his skills to become an excellent ring technician.
On September 1, 2005 in Järvenpää, Finland, Stark Adder and myself were the last two men in a tournament to determine a new Finnish Wrestling Champion under PWF auspices. That match was fought as a 2/3 falls affair and after splitting one fall apiece, I took the third in about 40 minutes of grueling action to become the new titleholder. Adder would not give up his dream and quest at become the champion however, and on May 25, 2006 in Helsinki, Finland, Adder finally defeated me in the first-ever 30 minute Iron Man match in Finland to become the PWF Finnish Wrestling Champion.
In the fall of 2006 PWF ceased operations and was bought out by Fight Club Finland (FCF) and Adder carried over as Finnish Wrestling Champion to FCF before finally losing the belt to Erik Isaksen of Norway on May 26, 2007 in Vantaa, Finland. Adder would contend for the FCF Championship many times between 2007 – 2011, but would be unsuccessful in his attempts to regain the title that he once held so proudly.
Come May 21 in the city of Kotka, Adder would once again contend for the FCF Championship held by Heimo Ukonselkä in a Triple Threat match also involving Ibo Ten. Ukonselkä would go on to pin Adder in that contest, pounding in the final nail of Stark Adder’s quest for the gold. Thus, Adder lost heart and decided to move on in his life.
During his celebrated career, Stark Adder fought in countries such as Sweden, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Germany and Japan in addition to his native Finland between 2004 – 2011. Adder was a solid hand in the ring and a soldier of high morale. He will be missed in Finnish wrestling but his contributions will live on.
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