Smack2k Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 I read Kawada worked in Canada getting some "seasoning" early in his career... Who did he work for and what ring name did he go by? Is there video available of him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookeighana Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 I read Kawada worked in Canada getting some "seasoning" early in his career... Who did he work for and what ring name did he go by? Is there video available of him? Have you read Tom Zenk's piece on him? It's speaks a little bit about him in Canada: http://web.archive.org/web/20030415071320/...93/column17.htm Kawada was then sent to North America for a year in November 1985, where he gained experience as a pro wrestler in Fred Behrend's Texas All-Star Wrestling (San Antonio, Texas), Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling (in Calgary) and Frank Valois' International Wrestling (in Montreal); Kawada was billed as "Kio Kawada from Seoul, South Korea" in Stampede Wrestling for a very short time around June 1986. He was also "Mr. Toshiaki" in Montreal according to Masanori Horie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 He showed up on the one Montreal tape I had as Mr. Toshiaki but only as one of about a dozen people that was sent out to break out a brawl. Didn't get to see him work. That was an official comm tape built around an Abdullah the Butcher vs. Steve DiSalvo match (which was actually pretty decent). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 That would be "Wrestling Massacres" wouldn't it? At least that's what it was called over here. I remember renting it from my local library that used to get loads of obscure wrestling VHS tapes in for whatever reason. I think it's the only place I've ever seen a PAL VHS of the UWF Beach Brawl PPV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smack2k Posted September 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 I will have to check my Texas All-Star stuff for him... As for Stampede....is he on video anywhere? Just wanna see what he looked like and how he worked.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 How come Kawada did overseas experience but none of Taue, Misawa or Kobashi did? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mookeighana Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 How come Kawada did overseas experience but none of Taue, Misawa or Kobashi did? Well, Misawa did go to Mexico along with Koshinaka for EMLL as the heel tag team as "Kamikaze Misawa" and "Samurai Shiro." When he returned to Japan as Tiger Mask (8/26/84), it was against La Fiera who had been his trainer in Mexico. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdw Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 Kobashi and Taue came at a time when: * the territories were dead There really weren't as many places to send someone off. New Japan kept sending guys away (like Kojima and Nakanishi), but it got harder to do so. The places Baba would send guys pretty much dried up. * AJPW / SWS split That was April/May 1990. Just over two years into Kobashi and Taue's career. Somewhere between 2-4 years in is when Baba would send guys away (with the exception of Jumbo who went away at the start). When Tenryu & Co left, spots opened up, Taue and Kobashi moved up, then Kabuki jumped too, and they moved up yet again. There never was a time after that for them to leave. Combined, there were fewer places and they became "stars" before the time came to leave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheapshot Posted September 11, 2013 Report Share Posted September 11, 2013 Added to this (but not about Canada) Kawada and Hiromichi Fuyuki, as "Japanese Force" had a feud with "American Force" (Paul Diamond & Shawn Michaels) for the USA Tag Team title in San Antonio,TX according to Masanori Horie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puropotsy Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 According to wrestlingdata.com Kawada wrestled in Stampede as Black Mephisto in 1986. I just checked a list of my Stampede stuff and it looks like I have three matches of his, against Chris Benoit, and two against Robbie Stewart. Here is a list of matches from Stampede: Black Mephisto in Stampded Here is a list of matches of "Toshiaki" from International Wrestling in Montreal Toshiaki in Montreal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puropotsy Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 There is some footage of him from Montreal, I know at least Verne Siebert has footage of a match against The Jackel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheGreatPuma Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 According to wrestlingdata.com Kawada wrestled in Stampede as Black Mephisto in 1986. I just checked a list of my Stampede stuff and it looks like I have three matches of his, against Chris Benoit, and two against Robbie Stewart. Here is a list of matches from Stampede: Black Mephisto in Stampded Here is a list of matches of "Toshiaki" from International Wrestling in Montreal Toshiaki in Montreal Man, I'm trying to remember. I know I heard word about there being 2 Black Mephistos in Stampede and I'm trying to remember what was up with that. I used to know a little more. The Kawada vs Benoit match is joined in progress and is really good fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bix Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 I think we eventually figured out it was always Kawada and the guy at Kayfabed Memories was just some guy grandstanding in a typical "I was X masked guy" carny form. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted September 14, 2013 Report Share Posted September 14, 2013 There's footage of him pinning Shawn Michaels too. He hooked the tights and it was surreal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekcop Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 I just finished reading Kawada's book and he doesn't have much good to say about his experience in Canada (other than his friendship with Rick Martel) and he spent a lot of his time there basically unemployed with no way home. I'm working on a more detailed write-up of the whole thing right now and I'll post the link in here when it's up if anyone's interested. (I just don't want people to think I'm spamming!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smack2k Posted October 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 is the book available in English at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLIK Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 I just finished reading Kawada's book and he doesn't have much good to say about his experience in Canada (other than his friendship with Rick Martel) and he spent a lot of his time there basically unemployed with no way home. I'm working on a more detailed write-up of the whole thing right now and I'll post the link in here when it's up if anyone's interested. (I just don't want people to think I'm spamming!) Yeah, that pretty much jives with what Zenk wrote about him. Is Zenk mentioned at all in the book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanClingman Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 is the book available in English at all? I would also like to know this. Did someone translate it like they did like the Sakuraba books? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekcop Posted October 9, 2013 Report Share Posted October 9, 2013 is the book available in English at all?It's not, but you're honestly not missing out on too much. He really clams up a lot once he hits about '90-'91 so there's not really many good stories from his career. It goes from "I thought about just jumping off the roof of my high school and ending it all there," to "We had a great match and I'm proud that I won," out of no where. I'm not sure if it's just Japanese cultural differences or because he was still in the business when he wrote it (it was published in 2003). I'm not interested in putting in all the work it'd take to translate a 300 page book, but I hope my write-ups will do a decent enough job of plucking the most interesting parts. I'm also planning on getting Kobashi's two books soon (one from 1999 and one from earlier this year), so I'll do write-ups on them, too. Is Zenk mentioned at all in the book?Zenk is brought up once, but mostly as a friend of Martel and not someone Kawada had too much interaction with. He specifically talks about traveling with Martel and hanging out with him and his wife, but never brings up Zenk other than that one time and to admit he took steroid with Martel and Zenk for about 3 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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