I had the honor of participating in my old tag team partner Akira Nogami’s 30th pro wrestling anniversary show in Tokyo this past Friday, October 10. I wrestled the main event of the evening, a triple threat match between myself, Akira and Masakatsu Funaki. It was memorable, let me assure you!
My former Synapse teammates — Syuri congratulates Akira on 30 years in the game.
As anyone out there worth their stock in Puroresu and MMA knowledge knows, Masa Funaki is one of the founders of Pancrase, along with Minoru Suzuki. The man is a fighting sport legend in his own lifetime, and one of the hardest, if not THE single most hardest kicker that I have been in the ring with in the last 20 years.
In our match, I found myself fighting an overwhelming 2-on-1 attack from both Akira and Funaki for the first half of the match, before things between them became strained and they turned their focus on fighting each other.
Something incredible happened during the match that I have never encountered before in all my years: I spike piledrove Funaki to cut off the 2-on-1 assault I was under, and moments later, he just popped back up and began lacing into me with knees and kicks! It was downright scary. The man is almost not human, and most definitely is one of the toughest opponents I have ever been in the ring with.
Finally, after several altercations with both opponents, I was able to capitalize on a fortunate intervention by Akira’s and my former Synapse teammate Syuri, who saved Akira from near-defeat by Funaki. As Masa Funaki’s attention was diverted at ringside on Syuri, I was able to hit my trademark spike piledriver in the ring to score the elusive win.
It was surreal, as the understanding of StarBuck defeating Akira sank in on my esteemed opponent’s 30th anniversary card. I am sure this outcome was also a shock to many in the media on hand, as well as the rabid fans on hand at Shinjuku Face arena that night. As wrestling legend Masahiro Chono got in the ring and raised my hand in victory, I realized once again, these are the grand moments that we live for in this business. Moments that live on vividly in our memories, that one day we tell our grandchildren about.
At the end of it all, everyone that wrestled on the card got into the ring to pay homage to our great brother-in-arms, Akira. All of my respect to the man, who is one of the kindest individuals and kindred warrior spirits that I have gotten to know in this tumultuous game we call professional wrestling.
In closing, I dedicate this video to my brother and friend, Akira Nogami, the Musasabi Warrior! Live long and prosper!
What a noteworthy event Syyskuun Selkäsauna was for FCF Wrestling this past Saturday in Helsinki! First and foremost, the MMA barrier in Finland has been breached and busted now with the arrival of Tuomas “Unbeatable” Simola. For anyone who doesn’t know, this guy has an astounding MMA record of 77-0-1. Now, he has stormed the gates of FCF Wrestling, issuing an open challenge to anyone in the FCF locker room to take him on. Take a look at this video from the event to see it all go down:
We had the new Class of 2014 make their debut at the show. Actually, five out of seven students made their debut, of which only one – Julia Kyy – was able to claim a victory. Nonetheless, this new group of students showed heart and good fighting spirit, which is a good case to build on, heading into the next FCF event upcoming on November 15 in Helsinki.
Syyskuun Selkäsauna also saw the departures of both Aurora Flame and El Excentrico, who are moving out of Finland to try their luck abroad in the wrestling world.
Yet, amidst all of the hulabaloo (as the people in Finland say), the one thing that left a bitter aftertaste was the underhanded chicanery of Ricky Vendetta, who assaulted me with a monkey wrench during my introduction of the Class of 2014 to the live audience, causing a hairline fracture in my ribs. I had to get taped up for my match against Vendetta that night, and I am lucky that my physiotherapist friend Tuija Pelkonen from Lihashuoltamo was on hand in the audience. I had asked her to come, since we were filming some things with my cornerman for the evening, former 7-time Finnish bodybuilding champion, Boogie Mustonen, and I needed Tuija’s expert advice on some of Boogie’s medical operations, since Boogie wants to return to pro wrestling next year.
Ricky Vendetta really did a damned dirty thing, attacking me in his orchestrated manner. There was no way that I was backing out of my match against Vendetta. Not after he has spent all spring and summer this year boasting about pinning me twice in tag team matches, after other opponents have offered him timely assists in making those wins come about over myself. Syyskuun Selkäsauna was supposed to me the moment of retribution for Ricky Vendetta as far as I was concerned, but he managed to thwart my plans by injuring my ribs before the match ever took place.
In the match, Vendetta assaulted me straight from the opening bell, blindsiding me and laying it on heavy. I had to literally fight for my life, looking for every opportunity and small opening to make a comeback, and finally, I was able to catch him out at one critical moment of the match, turning the tide for a short spell. Vendetta however assaulted my ribs with knees and kicks again and again, and soon, I was back down trying to find air. I managed to trap Vendetta in a crossface submission, which I will now purpose to take as my hold of choice in my quest to make Ricky boy tap out, as I have promised to do. Heck, I’ll even christen my version of the hold and call it the Canadian Crossface, or the Rebel Lock! How about that, Ricky Vendetta? Put that in your pipe and smoke it, as you think of the inevitable hour when StarBuck clamps that Rebel Lock on you and makes you wish you were back in your mother’s arms, nursing like a baby!
Vendetta’s cornerman and tag partner Stark Adder ran interference at the most crucial moment of the match, just when I had Vendetta tapping out to the crossface! Luckily, my cornerman, Boogie Mustonen, saw to it that Adder was eliminated from the equasion, but not before Vendetta was able to jab me with a shoulderblock to my damaged ribs and sneak in an illegal leverage pin, which, for the life of me, I cannot understand how the referee did not see. Even the fans at Hotel Presidentti were howling disparagingly at the official for the crappy call, and rightfully so. How the ref could have been so ignorant of Vendetta’s feet on the ropes as illegal leverage in making the pinfall is beyond me!
I have to admit that Vendetta is determined, at any cost, to try and make me a stepping stone in his wrestling career. Yet, after this past weekend, he is going to have hell to pay for choosing this latest route of indiscretion. I will not stop until I have beaten this young, belligerent bald-headed punk within an inch of his life. It’s one thing to aspire to greatness. It’s another thing altogether to miscalculate the cost of getting there.
Ricky Vendetta has now posted a check that his body cannot afford to cash.
It’s been brewing for quite awhile now. Since April of this year, a young, brash (albeit beligerant) wrestler by the name of Ricky Vendetta here in Finland has been boasting high and mighty about how he managed to pin a 3-time European wrestling champion in myself.
Vendetta’s hunger to rise to the top in his chosen field cannot be slighted. I was once his age, in the same situation as he finds himself now: hungry and determined, willing to take any risk, regardless of its price tag, to achieve greatness. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m actually honored. Honored to have this young doberman pup come after me, as the oldest dog in the yard, looking to take my mantle. I welcome his challenge, and I will take great personal pride in ripping him apart, as I re-establish to Ricky boy who exactly he has chosen to meddle with.
The thing about young men is this: they become blinded by their ambition. Life has not yet taught them the hardest lessons of all. They are in the learning phase, the educational phase of what it takes to really be called a Man. During this rite of passage, from youth to full adulthood, a young man takes unwitting risks, the kind that will ultimately cost him dearly. I should know. At 41-years of age, I can look back on my own life and see these same lessons scattered about. In hindsight, I can clearly assess what each and every step cost me, what battle scars they left on my being in their wake.
Ricky Vendetta has a world of talent. He has the kind of burning heart for the pro wrestling business that I have seen few exhibit here in Finland, where I am the founding father and pioneer of our grappling game. Over the past 11 years, all the way back to 2003, I can count on one hand the other Finnish contemporaries that have tunnelvisioned and set themselves to succeed and achieve like young Mr. Vendetta. That’s saying alot.
I believe it becomes a literal obligation for mature men to pass down the life lessons that they have learned along this path of mortality to those who are following behind them. It’s called mentorship, and the lack of such in today’s self-serving society is all too obvious. All too many young men, and even grown men, don’t have a damn clue. They wander about aimlessly, not sure of their masculinity, their power, their calling or their talents. It’s sad, really. In this light, those who “have it” are morally obligated to pass it on and educate those who are still searching for their personal pot of gold, potential, or what have you.
Ricky Vendetta is going to learn the hard way what it is like to earn your stripes in this game of life. That lesson will be afforded to him inside of our sacred squared circle, the testing ground of guts and intenstinal fortitude. It’s a place where men are broken, where boys find themselves missing their mothers. It’s a ruthless stage, where the wheat is mercilessly separated from the chaff.
On September 13 in Helsinki at FCF Wrestling’s Syyskuun Selkäsauna event, Ricky Vendetta’s shallow boasts about going over not once, but twice, on the patriarch of Finnish professional wrestling, “The Rebel” StarBuck, will come to an abrupt end. I will not only punish young Ricky, as a father would his son, I will make him submit and scream for his life. This is a personal vendetta.
Me personally, I’m really waiting for this coming September 13th in Helsinki, when I finally get my hands on one Ricky Vendetta, mano y mano.
Since April of this year, young, brash Vendetta has been boasting about gaining a couple of tainted victories over Yours Truly. Victories that were afforded him by third parties. Firstly, his initial pinfall team win over me came at the assist of Heimo Ukonselkä back in April in a six-man main event at FCF Wrestling’s Jatkosota 2014. Then, at Snacky Slam! this past July in another six-man encounter, Vendetta scored another pin on my via the timely interference of his partner, Stark Adder.
Now, were I Ricky Vendetta, I would probably be pretty stoked after gaining the biggest pinfall wins of my three-year career so far. I’d also be an excited young pup, reveling in the feeling of getting the upper hand on a time-tested veteran and multi-time pro wrestling champion around the world. Yeah, it would be a big ego boost.
But were I Ricky Vendetta, I would also consider the truth that I never actually defeated my esteemed opponent by my own merits. No, I’d consider that I had a huge helping hand, one that saved my hide at the most critical moment of the match, just as I was about to go down. Someone else afforded me a break. I’d be thankful, were I Ricky Vendetta. I’d also be very concerned.
Ricky Vendetta would like to believe he’s going to have the upper hand again come September 13.
At FCF Wrestling’s Syyskuun Selkäsauna on September 13th at Hotel Presidentti in downtown Helsinki, Ricky Vendetta is going be in for a reality check. He is going to hurt. Oh yes, Ricky Vendetta will be facing the grim face of reality, the cold hand of truth. This will be his reckoning day, when the bells will toll. Plus, this time, to ensure that Ricky Vendetta doesn’t have any of his pals like Stark Adder messing with our match, I will have former Finnish and European bodybuilding champion and legend, Boogie Mustonen, in my corner. Oh yes, Ricky Vendetta, prepare to pay the piper on September 13th!
Bodybuilding legend Boogie Mustonen will be my cornerman at Syyskuun Selkäsauna
Syyskuun Selkäsauna start time 18:00 on Saturday, September 13 at Hotel Presidentti in Helsinki — DON’T MISS IT!
On October 10, my good friend Akira Nogami celebrates 30 years of active competition in the wrestling business with a special card dedicated to his imprint on our grappling industry, to be held in Tokyo at Shinjuku Face Arena. A literal plethora of who’s who from the world of Japanese Puroresu will be on hand to honor our brother-in-arms, and I am stoked to be taking a part in this special evening of in-ring combat, by direct invitation of Akira himself.
Akira Nogami in 2010 (photo: SMASH)
Akira and I have a storied history together, both as adversaries and as tag team partners in our business. If I could hand-pick my opponents, Akira would easily make the top five of that list on any given day. He is smooth, flowing like water and moving like a panther inside of that ring. I have often likened him to the legendary former NWA World and WWF Intercontinental champion, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, in terms of his fluid wrestling style.
Some of my best memories from Japan have been shared with my brother, Akira. We have fought some amazing battles. We melded like clockwork in a team called Synapse, alongside female standout, Syuri Kondou (a multi-time women’s wrestling and kickboxing champion). Upon our inception in the summer of 2012, our trio was passionately compared to the classic 1996 nWo unit with Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall in the belated World Championship Wrestling (WCW) organization. We were cool baddies. We kicked ass and took names, downing the competition all across Japan for much of 2012-2013. In February of this year, on the same card where I won the WNC (Wrestling New Classic) championship from “The Japanese Buzzsaw” Tajiri, we disbanded our Synapse team, all going our separate ways.
Akira, StarBuck, Syuri (photo: Kazuhiko Kato)
Akira started his legendary career in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), famous for hosting and organizing the world-famous 1976 wrestler vs. boxer match-up between Antonio Inoki and Muhammed Ali. Akira was part of the same class of ’84 that saw the launch of Keiji Muto (aka The Great Muta), Shinya Hashimoto, Masahiro Chono and Masakatsu Funaki. Nowadays, Akira grapples for Keiji Muto’s Wrestle-1 office in Japan.
My first encounter against AKIRA, from SMASH.8 in September 2010 in Tokyo (photo: SMASH)
Akira first notable title win was the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight championship, defeating Jushin Liger in August 1991. Since then, he has been a journeyman wrestler, both in Europe, the USA and Japan. Akira took part in the NWA world tag team tournament in 1992, held under the Bill Watts regime as the head of WCW, teaming with Hiroshi Hase in the opening round. Akira was injured, and could not compete a month later in the second round alongside Hase, so he was replaced by Shinya Hashimoto (Hase and Hashimoto would lose to Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes in the semi-finals of the tournament). Akira is also a former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight tag team champion, alongside old foe Jushin Liger, and the first ever WNC champion from 2012, defeating Tajiri in the WNC title tournament finals.
I am proud to be taking part in this big card on October 10 in Tokyo to pay tribute to the career of Akira Nogami, a real friend and brother in this hard, dog-eat-dog business called professional wrestling. He is someone who has always had my back, whether we have been against each other, or if we have teamed together. We share a mutual respect and a bond of friendship, a warrior’s bond. This is truly rare in any walk of life.
I just received an email from Finland’s #1 newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, yesterday, regarding my announced involvement in pro wrestling legend Antonio Inoki‘s groundbreaking IGF fight cards in North Korea at the end of this month on August 30 & 31. This information is, however, untrue.
It is true that I was in negotiations with IGF about appearing and participating at these events, but we never reached a suitable deal and contractual settlement. I am not aware of how the news of my negotiations with IGF bled through and became public, as a top western consultant out of North Korea and China had also posted infos about my involvement at these events, along with my photo and a short biography about me, which has since been removed from his website.
Japanese wrestling legend and IGF boss, Antonio Inoki (middle)
Regardless, I must inform everyone, that any and all information about my involvement and participation at the IGF events in North Korea on August 30 & 31 are false. I will not be appearing and I will not be there.
Several people have already asked me about this, and I felt a need to publicly clarify before this story spreads further.
I have an inspirational story, one which will both enamor and enthrall a lot of readers. As everyone knows by now, I am the pioneer of professional wrestling in Finland, dating back to 2003, when I became the first person ever in Finland to take the grappling game to a learning level. I’ve coached pretty everyone and anyone who has ever come onto the scene out of Finland. Back before we started domestic Finnish pro wrestling, it bears to be mentioned that there were a few strongmen and bodybuilders, who, being daring showmen as well, dallied in what very well may be considered as backyard wrestling to a large degree in the late 1990s.
There was a circle of four guys: strongman and former amateur champion Jouni Morsky (who wrestled as Normann the Viking), Tony Halme (who wrestled to international fame as WWF’s Ludvig Borga from 1994), bodybuilder Jyrki Savolainen (nicknamed “Indian” RIP; was trained for pro wrestling in Australia in the mid-’90s) and a guy called Boogie “Commando” Mustonen (who was a Finnish and European bodybuilding champion). Out of the four, I got to know every one of them at some stage during 1997 through their “promoter”, a shyster-kind of fellow who had a few dealings with the Russian mafia. His name was Jussi, and he was actually put down by the Russians after a deal of some sort went bad. But it was Jussi who introduced me to Mörsky and to Boogie during the spring of 1997.
Boogie Commando from around 1996-1997
When I first met him, I thought Boogie “Commando” Mustonen was a big-headed bastard, who thought he knew everything there was to know about the wrestling business. He had been trained by a bald-headed Andy-something-or-other in Australia in 1993. I have no idea what this Andy fellow taught Boogie, because he didn’t know anything about the business, period. The “matches” that the four various Finnish guys were having amongst themselves were far from professional wrestling. They pretty much consisted of three moves, done to overkill: a bodyslam, a clothesline and an elbow smash. Everything else was ramshackle brawling. I was going to the referee between Mustonen and Mörsky in a 2/3 falls match that they’d have in Äänekoski, Finland that summer. Boogie came across as proud, a real peacock, someone who just let you understand that you were beneath them. That was 17-years ago, and now, after I met the man again this past week, I am glad to say that he has changed for the better. Really, there has been a complete turn-around in the person of one Boogie Mustonen.
This past Thursday, I played a leading role in a television commercial shoot for a Sport & Spa hotel named Vesileppis, in Leppävirta, Finland. It’s really an amazing complex, complete with a 1.4 km ski-track deep underground that you can use even in the summertime, a year-round ice hockey rink, full-blown pool and spa area and tons of outside sports activities and possibilities. It’s like a nexus, a center for sports in the eastern Finnish province and area in which it is located. In the commercial, I play myself, complete in wrestling gear, alongside the Vesileppis mascot, which is a ladybug.
The Vesileppis mascot named Spa and me, as I play Sport
Well, Boogie Mustonen literally lives across the road from Vesileppis Hotel, where the wife and I were stationed during my commercial shoot. The owner of Vesileppis Hotel, a nice guy named Kimmo, wanted to organize a meeting between me and Boogie. Kimmo told me that Boogie had changed a lot, that he had an entirely new lease on life, after going through some horrendously hard times in his personal life in recent years. Mustonen has endured bowel cancer, he has had a kidney replaced, and he has gone through a blood poisoning episode, which led in turn to partial paralysis from the waist down for a period of six weeks. In addition, he has a faithful, old English Bulldog named Möykky, who is on his last legs now.
Boogie’s old, faithful buddy Möykky is on his last legs
Now at age 50, the shit hit the proverbial fan for Boogie this past year, when after going through kidney replacement surgery, he still wanted to compete in bodybuilding one more time at the upcoming annual Fitness Expo in Lahti, Finland. That is when his wife, Marjo-Nina, served him with an ultimatum, that she would file for divorce if he decided to risk his new, replacement kidney through bodybuilding competition anymore. The bottom line is, that the worst thing you can do to a kidney is to deplete it of hydration, which is exactly what happens when competitive bodybuilders diet down to the bone, draining their bodies dry to be as cut and lean as possible. Boogie saw the writing on the wall: game over.
Boogie poses with multi-time Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates of the UK
Yesterday, as I was visiting Boogie at his home gym, he told me that he tried getting excited about discus throwing after his last bodybuilding aspirations went down the drain. Discus didn’t do it for him, Mustonen knew it wasn’t his game. Deep down, Boogie Mustonen knew who and what he was: a showman. He was an entertainer, who loved being in the spotlight. And something still ate at him, like acid on the soul. It was his last match, a July 1997 bout against Tony Halme in Joensuu, Finland. I was referee for their match, which can be seen in the three links below. It’s not a good match by any stretch of the imagination. It’s really quite terrible, a complete mess. It also happened to be, unbeknowst to Mustonen, his try-out match for Otto Wanz’s gigantic CWA (Catch Wrestling Association, in operation 1973-1999) promotion out of Austria. Had Boogie made good in the match against Halme, he very well might have gotten signed with Wanz, and he could have ended up making money in our business, but it was not to be.
Halme cursed underneath his breath to me after the outing, “Have you ever seen such a shit match?!”
He was right. It was downright drivel. Not the way a man wants his career in any field to be remembered. No, everyone out their wants their last standout memory from whatever etaph along the road of life to be a proud one. A tale that you tell excitedly about to your grandchildren one day. That is the marker that you want to leave behind.
Boogie Mustonen never got to clear the table, nor to give his soul rest in this matter. He never got to wrestle another match, a better match. A good, final memory.
Tony Halme vs. Boogie Mustonen in Joensuu 1997, with me officiating
So here we are, in the year 2014, 17-years after the fact, and Boogie tells me that he wants it now. He wants to come back and clear his name and wash clean his memory of the flop against Halme. I am astounded as I listen to him. He has passion in his voice, a determination. He really wants this. At 50, he’s not going to be denied.
So I tell him, “I will train you.” I have the track record to make him take me seriously. Boogie understands, that StarBuck IS professional wrestling here in Finland. If you want to go to the top, you have to learn from the best. And today, even at age 41, I can still say that with the knowledge that I have, I am the best here in this game. So we did a trade: being a former bodybuilding champion, Boogie coaches me in fine-tuning my body, my chassis, with which I ply my trade. In turn, I coach him in making a comeback match in Finnish professional wrestling.
Fine-tuning muscle-building techique with bent-over rows
I hope that Boogie Mustonen has the heart and drive to pull this one through. Bygones are bygones. The big-headed bastard from yesteryear has disappeared. In his place stands a humble, ambitious, grown man, who wants to do his soul and pride right. I want to support him every step of the way.
It’s like the past never happened, Boogie is a great guy!
On Tuesday, July 29 in Helsinki, FCF Wrestling is going to see their biggest media coverage to date in the past 11 years that the game has been a domestic staple in the country of Finland. This stems from the fact that the biggest, #1-selling magazine in all the land, 7 Päivää (aka Seiska), is acting as the main media sponsor for an event entitled SNACKY SLAM! in the Pukinmäki suburb of Helsinki on that very day. SNACKY SLAM! is named after Helsinki’s famous hamburger fast food classic restaurant Snacky, who is hosting the event. For this special occasion, Snacky will be launching a new burger based on an idea that I pitched to them, called the Slamburger at SNACKY SLAM!. This will be a huge showcase for the entire sport here in Finland, and everyone is stoked about the media hype leading into the event. Best of all, especially for the public and the fans, this event will be 100% free admission, a matinee starting at 13:00 in the afternoon!
At SNACKY SLAM!, it’s six-man warfare as StarBuck’s team meets Ricky Vendetta’s team
At SNACKY SLAM!, I finally get my mitts on “Finnish Doberman” Ricky Vendetta, who has been shooting his mouth off over the past few months, making a big deal about the tainted win over Yours Truly that FCF champion Heimo Ukonselkä literally handed to him in a six-man match back at FCF’s Jatkosota 2014 in April. Ricky refuses to understand and come to grips with the fact that he never earned that victory the hard way. He didn’t actually beat me fair and square in the middle of the ring, based on his own talents or offensive attack. No, Ricky Vendetta was handed a win.
Jatkosota 2014 earlier this year and a tainted victory over me (photo: Marko Simonen)
Now, at SNACKY SLAM! on July 29, Ricky Vendetta gets the chance to make good – when his team with Stark Adder and the monsterous executioner-like Petrov meets my team with Sly Sebastian and Mikko Maestro – and show that he can put this old dog down the hard way. That is, if he can. Now me, I seriously doubt that. I have serious doubts over whether a 20-something upstart in the wrestling business with three years of experience under his belt can honestly best a 3-time European champion and time-tested, 20-year veteran of the ring wars in “The Rebel” StarBuck. Many before Young Mr. Vendetta have tried, and oh so many of them have failed miserably.
Ricky Vendetta has tested my ire before in Jan. 2013, and he ended up not so well (photo: Marko Simonen)
I might not be a young lad anymore, not able to play spider man with the other big dreamers on the school grounds or in the sandbox, but that has no bearing on anything. I have ring smarts. I have experience. And no amount of money or personal investment is going to get you what experience can only bring. That is my greatest asset, and the sooner that Ricky Vendetta understands that, the more tolerable — or perhaps intolerable — the hiding that I dish out to him will be this coming Tuesday, July 29 in Helsinki in our six-man tag team match showdown.
Below you can check out several media pieces and profile videos that entertainment juggernaut 7 Päivää has done on both myself and the SNACKY SLAM! event in general. Make plans to be there in person on July 29, right in the middle of vacation season here in Finland, at 13:00 in the afternoon, as I lay an ass-whopping on Ricky Vendetta and his team like has rarely been seen:
Also at SNACKY SLAM! on July 29, it’s going to be media favorite Johnny McMetal vs. FCF champion “Wildman” Heimo Ukonselkä for the title, the massive 125kg King Kong Karhula vs. flying punker Vili Luupää and a celebrity girls’ bikini match between Finnish Viidakon Tähtöset TV hit series star Marianne Kallio and Miss XL Finland Johanna Salminen, following Viidakon Tähtöset co-star and hated rival Tia Kiuru pulling out of the event.
Marianne Kallio (left) will have to find a new opponent, as Tia Kiuru (right) has pulled out.
7 Päivää magazine has announced Miss XL Finland Johanna Salminen as Tia Kiuru’s replacement against Marianne Kallio in the celebrity bikini match at SNACKY SLAM!, where the objective will be for one competitor to strip her opponent of all her clothes, ripping them off her body, until her adversary is left standing in only her bikini!
When you look back on the best times and highlights of your life, one tends to wax emotional.
Yesterday, the Japanese sporting press announced the end of WNC (Wrestling New Classic) and its merger with Keiji Mutoh’s Wrestle-1 organization. From WNC’s roster, Tajiri, Akira Nogami, Rionne Fujiwara, Yusuke Kodama, Koji Doi and Jiro Kuroshio join the Wrestle-1 roster. Everyone else becomes a free agent. I was the second last champion for WNC (Bernard Vandamme of Belgium is the current and final titleholder), and was with the company since its inception in April 2012.
Yours Truly as WNC champion (photo by Marko Simonen)
Time for a reality check. We are living in hard times, and it honestly doesn’t look like it’s going to get any easier, globally speaking. The rich keep getting richer, those with less are losing even that which they have, and the the big are eating up the small. Mergers are the business word of the day, be it Time-Warner or Microsoft swallowing up Nokia. At the end of it all, it all boils down to money; those who have it and those who don’t. The financial crunch that has burdened much of the world over the past several years certainly isn’t helping.
When I look back on my time with WNC, I reminisce with fondness. I made a friend, a great friend, in Akira Nogami. Along with Akira and Japanese kickboxing and multiple-time women’s pro wrestling champion Syuri Kondou, I was part of the coolest rebel unit to hit Japan in ages in Synapse. We wrecked havoc, took names and kicked volumes of ass. I still fondly recall my first teaming with Akira and Syuri against Tajiri, Hajime Ohara and Kana back in on August 2, 2012 in Tokyo. It was a hard-hitting, feisty brawl from start to finish, and during the melee, Tajiri kicked one of my front teeth out. Battle scars, medals of honor. No hard feelings, of course, just business as usual in the modern day arena of the gladiators. It was Tajiri’s sister’s dental office in southern Kagoshima, that even fixed my missing lego at the end of that tour. I remember the barbed wire matches that Synapse had with Tajiri, Kana and Mikey Whipwreck … matches that definitely had you on the edge of your seat, as everyone tried their damndest to keep from being mangled by the barbed wire sticking out of the boards in the corners of the ring. I recall the outings against various three-opponent trifectas around Japan, all of whom we put down and convincingly so. Then, as my last, great memory from my time with WNC, I remember February 27 of this year, when I beat Tajiri himself for the WNC championship title in Tokyo in one of the hardest slobberknocking matches of my career.
The first ever teaming of Synapse (all photos by WNC)
I want to publicly thank WNC and especially main man Tajiri himself for giving me the golden opportunity to wrestle for their company over the past couple of years that they were in existence. It has been a hell of a ride. Thank you Akira, my brother, for your friendship. Thank you Syuri, for your warm smiles. Thank you Yusuke Kodama, Rionne Fujiwara, Nozomu Matsuzawa and all of the young boys and girls of the WNC roster.
Once again, the words of King Solomon from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 come to pass:
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
Well, I didn’t manage to claim my third Eurostars European wrestling championship this past Sunday night in Holland. I came oh, so close, but alas, no cigar. I had Belgium’s Bernard Vandamme on defense for the bulk of the 21:10 of the title match that we wrestled at Dutch Pro Wrestling‘s biggest event of the years, Grand Slam 2014, but in the end, I got caught out with a crossbody dive out of the corner that Vandamme just barely managed to keep me down with for the final three-count.
Telling Vandamme that he’s got it coming to him.
I have an outstanding issue with Vandamme, over the fact that he managed to upset me for the WNC (Wrestling New Classic in Japan) championship back in March this year, and I have not even gotten my rematch for that title. Vandamme is a double champion right now, holding both the WNC and Eurostars European championships, and as I am a two-time titleholder of the Eurostars title, the Eurostars championship committee decided that I was up for their title this time in Holland, and the WNC title was not part of the picture.
Looking to make Vandamme tap … he didn’t.
Vandamme and I have a long and storied history against one another, dating all the way back to the latter half of 2006, when we first grappled. We’ve fought in many countries and had some classic battles, and somehow, the issue is still there between our parties. This past Sunday night in Poeldijk, Holland, was another chapter in our rivalry, which will go down in the history books with Vandamme retaining his gold, which brings to mind what former WWF commentator Gorilla Monsoon stated back in the day, “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
Butterfly double-underhook suplex plants Vandamme for a nearfall.
Holland was my 19th country in professional wrestling to date over the past 20-years, and I would like to extend a huge thank you to the entire DPW organization, who were all incredible folks and a true pleasure to work with!
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