Three-times IWGP Heavyweight, six-times IWGP tag team, and the current Triple Crown Heavyweight champion, Keiji Muto has jumped to All Japan Pro Wrestling from New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he had belonged for 18 years. Satoshi Kojima and current IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Kendo Kashin (Tokimitsu Ishizawa) followed Muto with five front office employees.
Muto debuted as a pro wrestler on a New Japan show in October 1984, then he was sent to the NWA Florida territory, where he was trained by Hiro Matsuda and established himself as a future international star, in November 1985. From 1986 to 1990, he had wrestled in Japan, Carlos Colon's WWC in Puerto Rico, where he, as "Black Ninja," created the original form of "The Great Muta," and the Von Erich Family's WCCW in Texas. Thus, he has always adapted himself well for American style wrestling, and he is a natural for entertaining us.
Muto, as one of the symbols of traditional style pro wrestlers, will have to confront the current Japanese trend towards K-1 and PRIDE, whose popularity has grown rapidly since the end of the 1990's, and whose competitors were from such "kakutogi" (so-called shoot combat), as wrestling, judo, karate, boxing, sumo, NHB, and MMA, etc., in 2002.
September 11, 2000---Knight Errantry (Keiji Muto, Masa Chono, Shinya Hashimoto & Kensuke Sasaki)
WWF's Tajiri, Torrie Wilson, and Chris Benoit were in Tokyo, Japan January 17-19 for the official launch of the WWF SmackDown! Tour of Asia, which will be in Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia from March 1-4. They were present at the launch Press Conference in Tokyo on January 18 and announced that the main event would be the Undisputed World Championship between The Rock and Chris Jericho at the Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa on March 1. The show has been sold out already.
Tajiri debuted as a pro wrestler in the infamous IWA in September 1994. Since then, his career with IWA, Big Japan and Mexico had never been smooth at all, but he was the man who had a firm resolution and could arrive in ECW and the WWF by his efforts. On March 1, Tajiri will defend his WCW Cruiserweight title against Kidman and show his gallant figure to his family, friends and fans that have supported him for years.
Torrie Wilson and Kidman got engaged a couple of months ago, and they will be getting married soon.
August 9, 1999---Yoshihiro Tajiri
Chris Jericho's first tour to Japan was for Atsushi Onita's FMW in October 1991, teaming with Lance Storm as "Sudden Impact." And, he became a regular for Genichiro Tenryu's WAR as "Lion Heart" in 1994 and had 24 tours in 3 years, then he debuted in New Japan Pro Wresling as "Super Liger" in 1997 and had four tours until September 1998.
Calgary, FMW, Mexico, SMW, WAR, ECW, WCW, New Japan, and WWF … Jericho's motivation and adaptability made him a Super Star / Super Estrella all over the world. His heart will be full in facing The Rock in the Undisputed World title match in front of 17,000 fans at Yokohama Arena on March 1, 2002.
November 8, 1999---Sudden ImpactFul Thrillseekers' Record Book (Chris Jericho & Lance Storm)
Six months have passed since the original Freebird, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, passed away at the age of 40 at his home in Tennessee due to a heart failure. His son Ray Gordy (Terry Ray Gordy Jr.) is now training in Mitsuharu Misawa's Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan. He has to not only learn Japanese wrestling style but also has to break barriers of language, lifestyle, and human relations. But, he looks very lively here in Japan, where his father had big success for years.
July 23, 2001---Flashback Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy
Yumi Fukawa and New Japan Pro Wrestling's Minoru Tanaka have just gotten engaged, and they will have their wedding ceremony on June 8, 2002. Fukawa had her retirement match on March 20, 2001 after having 817 matches in eight years. She, at 5'1", 121 lbs., wasn't one of the best woman wrestlers, but she was really loved by fans.
Fukawa met Tanaka for the first time at the Battlarts Dojo, where she had learned submission style wrestling every Friday about four years ago. When she spent three weeks in the hospital after taking a face first powerbomb off of the second rope in July 2000, he had gained all feeling of affection for her. Tanaka is one of the best junior heavyweight wrestlers in Japan and a very sincere man. Just writing to say ... Congratulations on Happy Engagement!
"King of Old School" Steve Corino has been a regular gaijin for Shinya Hashimoto's ZERO-ONE in Japan. Steve was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on March 21, 1973. His family moved to Philadelphia, PA when he was five years old. He was a big wrestling fan from the time he discovered it when he was eight years old. Tully Blanchard, Tommy Rich, Eddie Gilbert, and The Midnight Express & Jim Cornette were his favorites. Tom Brandi trained him at a wrestling school in Reading, PA in 1994, and he debuted as a pro wrestler in Reading on April 6, 1995. After he had just gotten out of Dory Funk Jr.'s WWF Funkin' Dojo in November 1998, he debuted in ECW on December 19, 1998. He won the ECW World Heavyweight title on November 5, 2000 and the NWA World Heavyweight title on April 24, 2001.
"I always wanted to be the NWA World heavyweight champion. I was always a huge mark for the title belt that guys like Harley Race, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and Tommy Rich held."
"I'm traveling the world and seeing things that I probably would never get the chance to see if I wasn't a professional wrestler, having fun, picking, and choosing what I want to do and what I don't."
January 25, 1999---WWF Funking Dojo
Eleven times IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion, Jushin "Thunder" Liger is always a key person who has made a lot of effort to hype the "Junior" scene of New Japan Pro Wrestling, where there are a great many good junior heavyweight wrestlers, including Jado & Gedo, Koji Kanemoto, AKIRA, Minoru Tanaka, Masayoshi Naruse, Masahito Kakihara, El Samurai, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Silver King, Chris Candido, and Michinoku Pro Wrestling's Great Sasuke and Tiger Mask. Liger will be expected to face NOAH's Junior Heavyweight champion, Naomichi Marufuji, later in this year.
July 26, 1999---Jushin "Thunder" Liger
Zandig and the CZW have taken over the ECW Arena in South Philadelphia since this past December. On the December 15th show, The Sandman, wearing a CZW shirt and having a beer with Zandig, cleaned up house against bad guys including former ECW Commissioner Todd Gordon, along with Blue Meanie, Pitbull #1, Public Enemy Rocco Rock and Rockin' Rebel.
CZW was founded by Zandig in Mantua, New Jersey in 1999. They have held some of the most insane and hardcore shows with chairs, barbed wire, barbed wire bats, thumbtacks, mousetraps, and even staple guns and weed whackers. CZW and BJW's relationship started in April 2000, and Zandig and his boys had become hot drawing cards for BJW for two years.
However, Zandig did a shoot interview from the ring during Big Japan Pro Wrestling's biggest show at Yokohama Arena on December 2, 2001, announcing that CZW would withdraw from BJW to concentrate on the United States. Then, he got big heat from the BJW office, but a great many fans supported Zandig and his boys, because fans knew they were unhappy, because BJW treated them like "a piece of shit."
Their hungry motivation and their bloody hard efforts should be much more appreciated. CZW's next ECW show will be on February 9, 2002.
May 1, 2000---Part 4 (Combat Zone Wrestling)
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