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Life in Japan / Osaka Pro Wrestling


Gordi the former AEW fan

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  • 3 months later...

I'm going for my first trip to Japan next week primarily to meet my fiancées father, but she's been nice enough to get us tickets for the Champion Carnival final too, despite not really getting wrestling herself. Looking on the site they list the four final tournament matches. Other than these and the final match, do they normally have additional matches on the last day. Would love her to experience a juniors match or a multi man match on that show

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I'm going for my first trip to Japan next week primarily to meet my fiancées father, but she's been nice enough to get us tickets for the Champion Carnival final too, despite not really getting wrestling herself. Looking on the site they list the four final tournament matches. Other than these and the final match, do they normally have additional matches on the last day. Would love her to experience a juniors match or a multi man match on that show

Last year the final card had 14 matches including dark matches.  While I doubt it will be that many there are always more matches to give the wrestlers a breather before the main event.  I'd assume there will be a least 8 matches total with at least one Jr. Heavyweight match.

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They've added three matches now.  None of them look terribly appealing at first glance, to be honest.  But hey, they're there, so there will in fact be some variety on the card...which, I certainly agree, is a good thing.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi guys,

I remember reading about the experiences that people had with life in Japan and have always been enamored with it myself. I mean, it sounds like one of the best and most-rewarding experiences that one can have.

 

What I am curious about is a few things, does it feel like home to you, at this point? If one were to go over for three months, how much money do you think is a reasonable amount to have saved up? I am thinking of going at some point in the fall of 2016 because flights seem to be much cheaper, around that time of the year. It also doesn't help that my head sensei for professional wrestling is Yuki Ishikawa of Battlarts fame.

 

Does anyone have the link to the first post that you guys had about this, way back when?

 

Thanks everyone for your help and if I do go to Japan, I do hope to see some of you guys there, at some point.

 

- Kyle

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hey Kyle, where in Canada are you from? 

 

It definitely feels like home to me at this point! My hometown of Vancouver seems a little strange to me now, when I visit.

 

It's been an amazing experience so far, and I hope it will be for you, too. 

 

It's hard for me to give an accurate guess about how much money you'd need. I have a job and an apartment... it's a lot different from being a visitor. For three months you'd need at least $5000 CDN, probably more. It depends on how you wanna live and what you wanna do over here, I guess. It's easy to blow  LOT of money in one night in Japan if you're not careful, but it isn't necessary... A night out for me is usually 20-30 bucks, around 50 if I go to a wrestling show... Accommodation isn't cheap, I usually spend about 50 a night for a tiny room. I guess someone who has visited here recently could be of more help with that question. 

 

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge those early posts are all gone forever. I wish I could read the again, myself. 

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  • 1 month later...

Looking for some help for international travel to Japan. I will be flying out of Baltimore and I see Priceline is asking for 1800 with United Airlines. I have NO idea what is a good deal or not but someone with some experience with INT travel, give me some pointers. What have you used before to book flights etc.

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When we went we found that simply by switching the outgoing or return date from a Monday or Saturday to a Sunday dropped the price by a massive £1100. Worth moving a day or two to the left or right to see what might happen to the price!

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  • 1 month later...

I saw that DEAN posted a review of Kotoge vs. Harada  (Pro Wrestling NOAH Global Junior Heavyweight League finals) and I had to reply to that... figured I might as well update this thread as well.  :)

 

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First time I went drinking with Asian Cooger and Ebessan (III) was back in 2009!!

 

Though Kuuga (as he is now known) and I have remained in touch, I hadn't seen either of them for a year. I've got a second kid now, so that really cuts into my spare money and free time. Not that I'm complaining. 

 

But, really, it was time to check in on my pro wrestling friends again. It had been way, way too long. I went to the 7/20 Doutonbori Pro Wrestling tournament show. 

 

https://youtu.be/YAd9Ud6qS_o

 

Neither of my long-time partners in crime Kenji and Kae were going to be there. Very few of the faces people might remember from this thread on the previous board were going to be there. I hoped I'd see some friendly faces. I hoped a few people might remember me. 

 

11896262_10153403870380358_6631169942404

 

Well... of course they did. Everyone was just as happy to see me as I was to see them. Mihara actually cracked up laughing in happy surprise when we bumped into each other outside the arena. It was, as you might imagine, a very warm feeling to be welcomed back like I'd never been away. 

 

And it was great to see some live wrestling again after all that time. 

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So, it was clearly time to go drinking again! On Wednesday, I met up with Kuuga and Ebessan at A-Toys Cafe and Bar in Shinsaibashi. A-Toys' Master is the MMA fighter and promoter Tetsuo Kondo.

 

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Man, I am really glad I went there. It was so great to have drinks with my boys again!

 

It means a lot to me that I've been drinking friends with these guys for almost seven years now... but what surprised me was that it also means a lot to them. Kuuga was showing people pictures from that first drinking party and telling them how long ago it was and how many good times we've shared... As much as I tell Kuuga stories, he also tells Gordi stories. The people at A-Toys were mostly good friends with each other, but I only knew a couple of them. However, pretty much everyone there knew OF me. "OH. so you're THAT guy... Go-di! Hey, this white guy is Go-di!" kind of stuff. An incredibly warm feeling, as I've said. 

 

11836708_10153403846550358_4428515418603

 

That's Taiyoto Kamen. We've had drinks before, but this was my first time drinking with him in this persona. It's a crazy thing having drinking friends who wear colorful masks when you go out for a few. I sometimes suspect (correctly, as it turns out) that other people at the party might even be wrestlers who normally wear a mask but have shown up to drink incognito-by-unmasking, if you get my drift.

 

You often attract a LOT of attention as well. A-Toys is kind of an exception. I think it's mainly wrestlers,. fighters, fans, friends, and hangers-on who go there. It's in a complex of bars in the crazy-busy Shinsaibashi area. The complex is awesome, but in the early stages of decay. There's an 80s hair-metal theme bar on the fourth floor, for example. A-Toys is one of a handful of smaller bars on the fifth floor. The walls are covered with wrestling and MMA show posters. You'd probably love it. I sure do.

 

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This unmasked man is Ebessan. Not Kikutaro, but the guy to whom Kikutaro officially passed the mantel. Maybe gaijin puroresu fans are more comfortable calling him Third-Gen Ebessan or Ebessan III... but I was there when Kikutaro passed the torch, so he's Ebessan to me... except now he's Osamu... So I guess it's OK to post this pic...

 

It was an adjustment, getting used to seeing him like that in public. So, to adjust, we did a LOT of drinking:

 

11892039_10153403846545358_5958992792358

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11885353_10153403846610358_4238186937533

 

11898926_10153403846605358_6899643342983

 

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It was a "Bring Food OK" party. One nice couple brought the famous 551 pork buns, gyoza, and shumai. These nice young ladies brought chicken wings. I love chicken wings: 

 

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There were tequila shots, chugging contests, much challenging and chanting... 

 

Things got even warmer and nicer. Ebessan almost cried as he talked about how he wished he and I could have had one fight. I don't talk about it much, but back in 2011 I made a real attempt to get back in the ring for that mythical One Last Match with my friends. But even just basic training had me limping around with a bruised tailbone, sore Achilles, and other minor damage. It just wasn't in the cards. Kind of broke my heart. Can't really express how much it means that Ebessan kinda felt that, too, and made the effort to let me know about it. There were a few moments like that.

 

The greatest thing, though, was when the crowd thinned out near the end and it was down to just the wrestlers and their close friends and Kondo and me. Kuuga stripped off his mask to wipe his face, then put the mask down on a table and went back to drinking with us as... 

 

11902357_10153403846685358_1695111030243

 

After seven years of drinking together...

 

... any kind of attempt at a metaphor would be way too on the nose. But that was a great moment for me, to not just be drinking friends with Ebessan and Kuuga, but also with the guys behind the masks.

 

God, I love life in Japan.  

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  • 1 month later...

Does any one know what ever happened to Diao Quallt, watched some 2002 Osaka Pro today and him tagging with Kishiwada as MA-G-MA made for a fine tag team.

 

Really want to see more early Osaka Pro, luckily I do have a few original older tapes from them. That I need to convert and that should be a lot of fun to do over the weekend.

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  • 3 years later...

A lot of fun! One of my drinking buddies promoted the show, so I got in for free.

The Main Event was Kyoko Inoue and Takumi Iroha vs Kaoru Ito and Sareee. Kyoko vs Ito was like a local joshi version of Vader vs Hansen or something, just a nasty, stiff, hoss fight. Kyoko vs Sareee or Ito vs Takumi Iroha were both really good David vs Goliath match-ups, and the two young girls worked really fast with a lot of counters and dodges when they were in there together. Ito's double foot stomps on Kyoko were sick. Sareee looks like someone who could be a star with more exposure, she is obviously talented and charismatic. Takumi Iroha was my favourite, though, she looked to be having the time of her life in there and she has a very kicky style. Just an excellent back and forth all-action match. 

 

Other matches were:

Ayako Sato vs Rina Yamashita

Jaguar Yokota and Megumi Kinoshita vs Tomoko Watanabe and Mei Hoshizuki 

Madeleine vs Fairy Nihonbashi

Haruka Umezaki vs Sho Sekiguchi (which I missed because I had a hard time finding the venue).

 

It was my second time seeing Kyoko and Yokota live in person. I really got a kick out of meeting them. Fairy Nihonbashi is part of Kuuga's drinking-buddy crew, so it was cool to finally see her in the ring. She works a comedy style. 

 

 

Edited by gordi
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Nice. Takumi is a former Stardom wrestler who left to be mentored by Chigusa in Marvelous five years ago. She was already more or less a super rookie with the talent she showed back then. She has only gotten better. Sareee has been getting a good push this year among the promotions she works. She is a double champion holding Diana and Sendai's main titles.

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