The other night I just landed back home after my latest tour of the “Land of the Rising Sun” this past week, wrestling in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. The Wrestling New Classic (WNC) cards that I fought on with my team Synapse (StarBuck, AKIRA, Syuri) also featured some interesting new acquaintances: 62-year old legend Gran Hamada, Zero-1/ECW star Masato Tanaka, MMA star Koichiro Kimura, former NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Samurai and current WNC Champion Osamu Nishimura.
At 62-years of age, Gran Hamada is a legend in his own time (especially in Mexico)!
On May 24 in Tokyo, I teamed with AKIRA and Syuri to defeat the trio of WNC Champion Nishimura, TAJIRI and WNC Women’s Champion Lin Byron. AKIRA pinned TAJIRI after a Musabi Press off the top rope, right after I hit the spike-piledriver on “The Japanese Buzzsaw”. I have to say that Osamu Nishimura is a heck of a wrestler, and I thoroughly enjoyed wrestling against him, as our styles meshed very well. Nishimura expressed interest in joining our Synapse contingent after the match, after some miscommunication in the six-man match, after TAJIRI mistakenly thrust-kicked Nishimura late in the bout. We didn’t commit to his wish as of yet, but Nishimura did say that he is bringing my old arch-nemesis Michael Kovac of Austria to Japan next month. Kovac beat me for the TopCatch European Championship back in September 2011, and there’s still a good deal of heat between our parties, so I am not too excited about the developments that Nishimura is looking to push with his personal agenda now…
A show of respect between WNC Champ Nishimura and myself after our match.
We hit the road for Osaka on May 25, where AKIRA and I lost a heated match-up against The Big Guns (Zeus and The Bodyguard), who are almost like Japan’s version of The Road Warriors. The Bodyguard pinned AKIRA after the opposition hit a double-chokeslam on my tag team partner and I was unable to break up the pin.
On the WNC tour bus, AKIRA awaits arrival in Osaka, where we have our next match.
Former WNC Women’s Champion Syuri washes some midnight laundry in Osaka.
May 26 saw us land in Nagoya, where I teamed with Syuri in a mixed tag encounter, against rookie Masaya Takahashi and Makoto. I pinned Takahashi with my spike-piledriver in about nine-minutes to bring our team to victory once again.
Having a good time at Rikidozan’s former chef’s restaurant in Tokyo.
I also had the pleasure of dining at the famous Hong Kong restaurant, headed up by the former chef of Rikidozan, Japan’s pro wrestling pioneer from the 1950s. The photos on the establishment’s wall tell of the famous Antonio Inoki vs. Mohammed Ali match from 1976. The real catch in that tale was the astronomous amount that New Japan Pro Wrestling, under whose banner the match was held, had to pay to Ali, to the tune of 10 billion Yen. That equates to about 10 million USD. New Japan paid off their debt a couple of years back, after over 35-years of carrying that financial monkey on their backs. Talk about someone leveraging themselves into a huge personal win situation!
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My greatest arch-nemesis
Posted: February 11, 2014 in Life, Professional Wrestling, Social commentaryTags: Bernard Vandamme, Chris Raaber, FCF, feud, Finland, Japan, Michael Kovac, Pro Wrestling, puroresu, StarBuck, Stark Adder, Steve Corino, Tajiri, WNC, Wrestling New Classic
Looking back on my extensive wrestling career, I can say I’ve had a lot of great opponents. Some of those opponents have offered me feuds to remember for a lifetime, matches that I will one day tell my grandchildren about.
Many notable foes come to mind over the years, whom I have had the pleasure of doing battle with: former ECW world champion Steve Corino, ex-GSW champ Michael Kovac, EWA world champion Chris Raaber, my former FCF teammate Hajime Ohara, multi-time Eurostars European champion Bernard Vandamme, former FCF champion Stark Adder, just to name a few. Yet, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most notorious feud of my wrestling career has been with one “Japanese Buzzsaw” Yoshihiro Tajiri.
Tajiri is, without question, the most persistent adversary I have ever fought. We have duked it out over the FCF championship – putting that title on the map globally as one of the top trophies in our industry today – on a couple of memorable occasions; we have fought over the SMASH championship, which I won in a tournament final in Tokyo, defeating Tajiri in 2011; and now, on February 27 in Tokyo once again, I will face Tajiri for the WNC championship, should he retain his title after a defense against Hiro Tonai on February 23, just days before our showdown.
There’s something to be said for Tajiri as a trailblazer and main mover in the wrestling industry. The man is undoubtedly the most prominent Japanese star in WWE history, being well-featured for nearly six-years and Smackdown and Raw broadcasts, having held the WWE US, WWE Cruiserweight and WWE tag team championships. Tajiri’s trademark kicks have become the stuff of legend, and his famous Buzzsaw Kick has given me more headaches than I care to remember. The man has a brilliant mind, and is one of the smartest people that I have come across in our industry. I have a lot of respect for Yoshihiro Tajiri, and I believe the feeling is mutual.
Now, on February 27 at Shinjuku Face arena in Tokyo, once again, it will be another chapter in the ongoing war between Tajiri and myself. I still clearly remember a couple of concussions that this man gave to me in the heat of battle, in 2010 and 2013. Tajiri kicked one of my front teeth out of my mouth in 2012, which is something that is hard to forget. We have beat each other from pillar to post, from Europe to Asia, and we are still at it, four years after it all began at FCF Wresting’s Talvisota IV event back on February 20, 2010 in Helsinki.
The night that it all began in Helsinki, Talvisota VI (photo by Kari Helenius)
I personally highly look forward to this next encounter with “The Japanese Buzzaw”. I sincerely hope he retains his WNC title against Hiro Tonai on February 23, because I need to pay Tajiri back for some of the damage that he did to me previously, as aforementioned.
This feud is one for the ages.