Comments that don't warrant a thread - Part 4

[NintendoLogic]

Hager's not that much of a shooter. All of his opponents in Bellator have been tomato cans, and he barely survived his last fight. I mean, he's much better than CM Punk, but he'd get slaughtered by any decent heavyweight. And he had great matches with Christian in ECW, so he's at least carryable. As an aside, it seems like all the guys who had beef with Cena in WWE (Hager, Tyler Reks, Alex Riley) turned out to be MAGA chuds. John Cena confirmed for antifa.

[MoS]

I am firmly convinced that if this had not happened, Becky would have lost to Ronda at Survivor Series and this would have been the end of her run. The organization had to be dragged kicking and screaming into pushing her anyway, this forced their hand even more.

[sek69]

1 hour ago, MoS said:

I am firmly convinced that if this had not happened, Becky would have lost to Ronda at Survivor Series and this would have been the end of her run. The organization had to be dragged kicking and screaming into pushing her anyway, this forced their hand even more.

Absolutely, remember they tried turning her heel and the fans were all "nah" and just kept on cheering her until WWE was forced to change their plans. 

 

Also re: Hager, I feel he can absolutely be a guy who can have a really good wrestling match with the right person, but no way should he be going over someone like Cena.

[The Thread Killer]

Just saw some really sad news.  Sabu's manager/valet/girlfriend Melissa "Super Genie" Coates just had to have part of her leg amputated.  That's terrible.

[Dav'oh]

Yes, I have e-mailed them asking about the provenance of their name

https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/four-pillars-wins-best-gin-distillery-two-years-running-20201119-p56g4y

"Four Pillars has been named the International Gin Producer of the Year for the second year running at the 51st International Wine and Spirits Competition."

 

[Dav'oh]

Matt Jones <[email protected]>	6:27 PM (5 hours ago)
to me

If only it was ! That would be a much cooler story that the real one….Who was your pick? I’m loving the name Kenta Kobashi

 

Matt

 

Matt Jones

Co-Founder & Brand Director

 

 

[Edwin]

Not sure how many of you on here speak Spanish, but La Malicia (Dennis and Noel Rivera) have a podcast and the guests in this weeks episode were Los Fugitivos (Niche and Lynx). They talked about their starts in the business and the Caguas Screwjob. It's a two part podcast. This is the first part. I believe they will be uploading part 2 next week. It's worth noting, Dennis is the brother of Savio Vega who ran IWA and Noel is the son of Victor the Bodyguard who used to be Chicky Starr's bodyguard in WWC and then his tag team partner in Starr Corporation in early 2000's IWA. Dennis, Noel, Niche and Lynx also came through the business together, so they knew each as they worked smaller indy shows together before making it on TV in WWC and IWA.

Before the Caguas Screwjob, IWA and WWC tried to work an invasion angle and they had some invasions occur, but ultimately WWC backed out and didn't want to continue the angle. At the time, Dennis and Noel were the IWA tag team champs. Despite WWC backing out of the invasion angle, Carlos Colón wanted to bring La Malicia in to have a 2 match program with Los Fugitivos. La Malicia agreed to meet with Carlos to talk about the program. They met in Santurce and Carlos made them a good financial offer and they agreed to work the angle. However, given WWC's past of not paying wrestlers or checks bouncing, Dennis and Noel said they would have to get paid before the matches. Once they reached an agreement for the program, Dennis began thinking they should take the opportunity and stick it to WWC for backing out of the angle by shooting on them and stealing the titles.

Despite having reached agreement with Carlos, Dennis and Noel kept it quiet and Dennis opted not to tell Savio. After they reached an agreement to work the angle, Dennis and Noel called Niche and Lynx and they talked about changing whichever finish they would be given and turning into a full blown shoot with Dennis and Noel stealing the titles. Niche and Lynx weren't receptive as they were hot at the time and they didn't want to burn any bridges with WWC, so they turned it down. However, Dennis and Noel had already made up their minds and they were going to steal the titles regardless. Dennis also said he spoke with Moody who does commentary for AAA and who is his friend as they worked together in IWA. Dennis said Moody suggested they shouldn't go through with it as they will end up burning that bridge if they did steal the titles.

A couple of weeks before the match, Carlos contacted Dennis and Noel again and asked them to record some promos for the match. Dennis and Noel reiterated in their promos they would be leaving with the WWC titles one way or another, however no one knows this is their actual plan and not just a line they are dropping in their promos.

Dennis and Noel planned this out entirely as they knew the heat between the two companies was legit. They knew if they stole the titles, WWC would not air the match on TV, so they organized with someone secretly who would come to the arena and record the match so they could later share the footage of occurred. They also knew they wouldn't have much time to abandon the venue once they had the titles, so Dennis told Noel to bring as little things possible so they could grab them and rush out as soon as possible. Since the heat was legitimate between the companies, Dennis and Noel knew they needed to have backup in case someone pulled a gun on them before they got to leave the venue, so they had two people with them armed with guns just in case. Given they knew they would be tight on time, they had someone drive to the venue and wait for them outside, so they could leave the venue as quick as possible.

The day of the event Dennis and Noel arrived early at the arena and met with Carlos and they got paid. Orlando Colón also known as Epico Colón on WWE gave them the finish and it was supposed to be a double pin draw and a representative from the athletic commission would come out declare the match a draw which would vacate the titles and lead to the rematch. Before the match, Dennis and Noel cut another promo and again reiterate they will be leaving the venue with the titles one way or another. In the closing moments of the match, they call for the finish, but La Malicia decide to go with their own finish and the end up hitting a shoot sunset flip and the referee counts to three and Dennis and Noel win the match and win the titles. After the match they storm out of the venue and WWC has a locally well know security guard who they call Carlos Bocachula. He is standing in front of Noel and Dennis, but he's out of the loop of what's happening so he doesn't try to stop Dennis or Noel as they are leaving. Meanwhile Niche and Lynx chase behind them and Niche said he was legit mad at them and they were going to get into a fight if they could catch them.

That's where the podcast ends. Next week they should be uploading the second episode and I will be posting it on here and I will also be posting cliff notes along with it.

[Dale Wolfe]

Fucking hell is there footage of this? 

[Edwin]

2 hours ago, Dale Wolfe said:

Fucking hell is there footage of this? 

Online footage I can find on YouTube is from someone's phone and the quality is pretty bad.

Was listening to Rico Suave and Dennis Rivera on a separate podcast. Rico told a story from a personal experience of his with Abdullah the Butcher. Abdullah was working some dates in Puerto Rico and he asked Rico for some photos of his to send to bookers in Japan to try and get him booked over there. Rico gave them to him, but didn't make much of it. The following Monday morning Rico gets a call from Atlanta and it's Abdullah, but Rico thinks it's a prank call and he hangs up on him. He receives another call from Atlanta and again he hangs up. Then Carlos calls Rico and tells him to call Abdullah back at the number that was calling him from Atlanta that he kept hanging up on. Rico calls Abdullah back and Abdullah tells him Mad Man Pondo was scheduled to do a tour of Big Japan along with him, but he had to cancel the tour and Abdullah had suggested Rico as a replacement and that he needed to send his passport express mail so Abdullah could have that same afternoon to get the paperwork started with the Big Japan office. Abdullah also told Rico to go buy a plane ticket to Japan and that the office would reimburse him for it once they arrived in Japan. Rico calls Carlos back and tells him about the offer and Carlos directs him to a traveling agency in Puerto Rico. Rico arrives at the traveling agency and the agent tells him it's $1,982 for a two way plane ticket. Rico leaves and calls Carlos and tells him how much it is and that he doesn't have the money to pay for it as he was working undercard matches and managing so he wasn't making that much money at the time. Carlos tells him to call Abdullah and to talk with Abdullah. Rico calls and Abdullah tells him to go back to the traveling agency and to call him once he was there. Rico returns and calls Abdullah and Abdullah puts his wife on the phone and she organizes the flight and Abdullah pays for Rico's ticket. The agent hands Rico the receipt for the reimbursement and it's $2,700. A couple of days pass and Rico flies to Japan. Upon arriving he meets Abdullah and they both meet with Kojika at the Big Japan office and Kojika reimburses Abdullah for plane ticket. When they leave the office, Abdullah tells Rico he knew the travel agent and he told him to make the receipt for $2,700. Abdullah gave the extra $700 to Rico so he could spend the early part of the tour without having to ask for a payment in advance as Rico only had $138 to spend for the early part of the tour until he got paid. Rico worked several Big Japan tours as Crazy Sheik.

He also told a story he had on one of his tours of Big Japan with the young lions. He said he saw them building the ring and he was going to help them and Abdullah told him not to because he was a main eventing foreigner. Rico insisted in helping them. A couple of days later they have a day off and he is training and after the training he showers and when he gets out of the shower, his ring gear was missing and he asked around and no one knew where it was. Before the next show on the tour, one of the young lions comes up to Rico and he hands him his ring gear all washed up and folded and told him they were thankful and they respected Rico because despite being in the main event, he still set time aside to help them put the ring together and after that he grew closer to them and that opened the door for him to do several other tours with Big Japan.

He also said he met Stan Hansen on one of his tours and Hansen asked who he was and he said José Estrada's son. Hansen said he was a friend of his father and he took him drinking that day with him and Rico said it was the biggest mistake he made on tour as Hansen could drink like crazy.

[Rah]

Was the referee in on it? Because the sunset flip happens after the referee superkicks the pinned Fujitivos member. Here's the final part of the match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRPHWBK4tQ

 

[Edwin]

9 hours ago, Rah said:

Was the referee in on it? Because the sunset flip happens after the referee superkicks the pinned Fujitivos member. Here's the final part of the match:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRPHWBK4tQ

 

They haven't covered it entirely yet. I am guessing they will go more in detail in the next episode. I know they mentioned previously working with the ref., Pelayo Vazquez beforehand as he worked a ton of smaller non televised shows with them and he was a former IWA ref.

[Rah]

1 hour ago, Edwin said:

They haven't covered it entirely yet. I am guessing they will go more in detail in the next episode. I know they mentioned previously working with the ref., Pelayo Vazquez beforehand as he worked a ton of smaller non televised shows with them and he was a former IWA ref.

Thanks for the share, btw, and of course for the run-down translation. My Spanish is passable but I know I'd have missed a few details without your post.

Looking forward to part 2! Puerto Rico is something else.

[clintthecrippler]

On 11/19/2020 at 1:57 AM, Dav'oh said:

Yes, I have e-mailed them asking about the provenance of their name

https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/four-pillars-wins-best-gin-distillery-two-years-running-20201119-p56g4y

"Four Pillars has been named the International Gin Producer of the Year for the second year running at the 51st International Wine and Spirits Competition."

 

I saw the response you posted and loved that he gravitated to Kenta Kobashi based on name alone, but now I'm sitting here shocked that no enterprising brewer has cribbed the "Strong Style" name yet for a 10-12% alcohol content beer or 100+-proof liquor.

EDIT: come to think of it, a lot of Japanese wrestling terms would make great beer names: Strong Style, King's Road, Four Pillars, FUCK YOU We Are Jadoh & Gedoh...

[Dav'oh]

 

10 hours ago, clintthecrippler said:

a lot of Japanese wrestling terms would make great beer names

 

Holy Demon Lager, for mine.

He was "mesmerised" by the Kobashi/Sasaki chop exchange I linked him to (I know it gets grief, but I had my reasons) and he loved how "understated" they were compared to the "WWF drama queens" of his youth, so an Orange Crush gin might not be too far away.

[TheDuke]

Asai Moonshine

Miracle Violence Whiskey

I like the sound of Holy Demon Run better.

[Edwin]

Was listening to a podcast with El Profe. He sounded like the nicest guy.

He talked about a first blood match he had with Rico Suave. He said they wanted to bleed hardway, so they were working stiff and throwing bombs at each other and he was scheduled to go over so it took about 18 right hands to crack Rico's skull open.

He talked about Chicky Starr and Bronco #1 having so much heat that Bronco's car got set on fire in Loiza and Chicky's car got set on fire in Vega Baja. Chicky was born, raised and lived in Vega Baja, so folks saw him grow up there and he was still able to generate enough heat that they still set his car on fire.

He shared a story of when Su Yung met him. He says she gave him a hug and thanked him because thanks to his feud with Monster Ripper she was now able to participate in intergender matches.

He got paid $35 for his first week managing Savio Vega as TNT and he felt he got lowballed so he complained and the office told him to take it easy as things would get better. The following week he got paid around the same amount. The third week he was so paid so much he was able to pay all his bills and he still had $1,500 leftover.

He said he got so much heat when he was a heel manager, he would have to leave his car parked far from the arena and cops would have to pick him up and drop him off at the venues and then they would have to give him rides back. He said there were times when he would have so much heat, they wouldn't let him walk out to be seen in public and he would get paid $300 just for arriving at the venues.

[Edwin]

Was listening to Bronco #1.

I had no idea he had a background in freestyle wrestling and judo.

He talked about Dominican wrestling for a bit which I'm not too familiar with aside from the big names that appeared on Dominicana de Espectaculos and in WWC which were Bronco, Astroman, Jack Veneno and Relámpago Hernández. He shared a story of Relámpago Hernández. Relámpago had suffered a broken leg and he had a crutch with him. He had so much heat, the captain of the PD slapped in the face at a show and they got into a fight and Relámpago ended up breaking the crutch over him.

He also mentioned he found Puerto Rican wrestling boring at first as the Dominican style was faster paced and violent compared to the Puerto Rican style which was much more psychology based with a slower pace and build. He rarely watched any of the matches, but he said a 30 minute match between Greg Valentine and Invader #1 was the one that made him appreciate the style.

He received an offer from WWE when the steroids scandal broke out, but at the same time WWC was struggling due to AWF being formed and almost everyone except for Carlos Colón and Invader #1 jumping ship, so he came up with a business plan and he presented it to Victor Jovica and Carlos Colón and they accepted it and he turned down the offer from the WWE in favor of working for WWC. A lot of folks jumped shipped because they weren't getting paid on time or getting paid at all. Hercules Ayala, Huracán Castillo Jr., Miguel Pérez Jr., Ray González, TNT aka Savio Vega, etc. all jumped ship to AWF.

When this occurred, Jovica and Carlos closed up Capitol Sports Promotion and then from the ashes of CSP arose the World Wrestling Council. Bronco's plan was to book himself, Carlos and Invader as the top 3 faces and to bring in foreigners as heels to face them. Among them were Abdullah the Butcher, Dick Murdoch, Dutch Mantel, Greg Valentine, etc. Bronco then saw things began to change and they began to draw again and he turned heel on Invader and Carlos.

Bronco lost his mask to Carlos in an apuestas match after he defeated Carlos for the title and in an apuestas match for Carlos hair. The remaining stipulation was an apuestas match with Bronco putting up his mask against Carlos' career which of course Carlos won. When he got unmasked a lot of folks began telling him his run as a top guy was pretty much done but he knew he had to reinvent himself. What he did to reinvent himself was cut promos in TV with his back turned to the camera. By having his back turned to the camera, the fans would be intrigued to see his face, so the simplicity of seeing his was a draw. He mentioned a lot is lost behind a mask as fans can't see facial expressions through them. He also worked with an actor who worked for the office on how to convey storytelling through facial expressions.

He talks about being attacked by fans in Puerto Rico. He talked about a fan cracking him with a hammer in the stands and him getting tired of having to fight fans on his way to the ring, so he talked to Jovica and told him they had to close a section off of the stands for their safety, but Jovica told him if fans keep paying, they had to keep up opening up the stands.

Bronco says he never liked working recklessly and he enjoyed putting together simplistic matches, more is less, basically. Dennis Rivera who's interviewing Bronco puts him over as one of the top 2 heels in Puerto Rican wrestling history along with Chicky Starr and he talks about a match they had a few years ago and Dennis said it was one of the easiest matches he's ever had as Bronco told Dennis he would lead the match and they could get the match over with as little as possible which they did.

[sek69]

So they just released DLC for Mortal Kombat 11 that added character models/voices for the actors who played Sonya, Johnny Cage, and Raiden from the iconic 1995 movie. Tons of people in the comments were stating how it's an instant buy for them because it will allow them to replace Ronda Rousey's original Sonya VO.. 

[Dav'oh]

In a nice dovetailing of my most recent posts, I couldn't go past Beers on Brody in the 12th at Cranbourne (he saluted). Further winning bets on Rousey (beating home Weasel) and Francesca's Lola (I maintain that the New Day were still dying in the arse before the introduction of Francesca), for the usual amount

covered my losing bets on Dandy Place, Dusty Monelli and Windy Winston (I thought the British Bulldogs were the duck's guts as a young 'un).

[Edwin]

Listened to part 2 of the Caguas Screwjob.

Someone had asked if Pelayo Vazquez who was the ref. knew about it beforehand and they all said no. Dennis and Noel also were screaming at him to bring them the titles after the match so they could rush out of the arena.

After the match, Dennis and Noel left the arena and Niche and Lynx went backstage and they were heated as they got double crossed by people they grew up in the business with and they began flipping tables and throwing stuff in the locker room. They said Carlos Colón and Invader #1 were calm backstage and telling them to take it easy as it was just wrestling and they would get the titles back somehow.

Dennis and Noel mention they were going to call Niche and Lynx after a few weeks and they were going to continue this angle and turn into a work by having Niche and Lynx face them at an IWA show and they were going to put them over and allow them to win the IWA tag titles so they could further the angle and try to force the two companies into working the invasion angle they had previously agreed to, but dropped.

Dennis and Noel got a ton of attention with the angle and even the municipal police department were huge fans and reached out to them and had them stop by the municipal police department and Dennis and Noel were able to record a promo in a jail cell there and they were also loaned a police vehicle to ride into one of the shows with all of the titles hanging from the front of it.

They said they got a ton of indy bookings that week and on Saturday they worked an indy show in Ciales I believe it was and then they headed out to work an IWA show in Levittown. Niche and Lynx knew IWA was running Levittown that night, so they planned on showing up to get the titles back. Their plan was to arrive at the arena and storm into the arena and grab the titles from the ring announcers table. Niche and Lynx arrive with Cuervo and 2 other people. Niche and Lynx stay in the car and they make a conference call with Cuervo and the other two people that where with them. They send Cuervo to walk around the arena and see if the backdoor entrance is open and they send the other two people to buy tickets and get into the venue so they could see what the setup for the show is. IWA spot the people at the venue and they order the titles get taken back to the locker room as they were suspicious. After their match, Dennis tells Noel he's going to shower and then they could leave together as the IWA staff was already suspicious something would happen and Dennis had two people he brought with him to all his booking who were armed and were his backup in case something would happen as there was real heat between the IWA and WWC offices. Noel decides to blow off Dennis and he leaves with his ex-wife. The two people who came to the arena with Niche and Lynx spot Noel walking out the arena and they tell Niche and Lynx and they head off running to the entrance and they confront Noel. They all start arguing and in the middle of the argument, Niche and Lynx try to snatch Noel's suitcase where he had the titles and they fall on the ground and Niche and Lynx grab the titles, so Niche and Lynx leave the arena with 1 IWA tag title and 1 WWC tag title. Noel goes back in the venue and he tells Dennis what happened and Dennis got pissed and told him he should've stayed and waited as that's why he had backup for them because he knew something could happen.

Miguel Pérez Jr. called the police and opened a report about the confrontation. The police are now searching for Niche and Lynx all over the north of Puerto Rico. People from the IWA staff that knew Niche and Lynx call them and tell them to protect their families and homes as Dennis and Noel were out for them and they were armed which wasn't true as Dennis went out to have a drink with his friends after show and Noel went home, plus they weren't armed themselves, their backup was. On Monday morning, Niche and Lynx come to the WWC offices with the IWA tag title and WWC tag title and the police arrive to speak with Carlos and Victor Jovica who are the heads of the office and Carlos calls in Niche and Lynx. Carlos tells the police it's nothing major and just wrestling and the police close the report. Niche and Lynx are blown away as they just saw how being a pro-wrestler could help them manipulate the police in their favor.

Both companies offices spoke and eventually all of the titles were returned and the entire thing came to an end.

Unfortunately the only real good video of this hasn't been posted anywhere that I am aware of and what's out there is bad video quality, but they did put clips of their higher quality video on the podcast, but it's just the promo and Dennis and Noel leaving the arena in their ring gear with the titles.

Dennis has heat in real life with Invader #1 as he's Savio Vega's little brother. Niche said he should try to get Invader to record an episode of the podcast with him and Dennis said he would if Invader agreed to it and he said it would be a good idea to stream it live for episode 100 as they are currently on episode 94. Dennis said he would record with metal detectors just to play it safe and make sure no has any foreign objects on them.

I saw a clip of a separate interview with Chicky Starr and Chicky mentioned the Japanese yakuza flew to Puerto Rico and they arrived at the arena in Caguas for a show and they were looking for Invader and luckily Victor Quiñones was there and he was able to speak to them.

[Edwin]

Listened to an Invader #3 interview last night.

He's in his 70s and doesn't really go into detail too much about his wrestling career.

He said he teamed up with Andre the Giant when he worked for WWE in the 70s and 80s and that Andre loved Puerto Ricans and he showed a photo of Andre with his wife and kids he has in his house.

He talked briefly about his All Japan tours. He said Giant Baba saw him work an MSG show and enquired about booking him. His first tour was unmasked as Johnny Rodriguez. He also worked in the US without the mask as Johnny Rodriguez.

He puts over Vince Sr. and Carlos Colón are the two top promoters he worked for.

He was one of the top trainers in Puerto Rico. He trained Mecha Wolf/Hammet/Mr. 450/whatever he's called these days, Amazona, Tavu, Sir William de la Vega, etc.

Out of the 4 Invaders, he's the only one who's wrestled as Invader #1, Invader #2 and Invader #3 across the world. However in Puerto Rico he only wrestled as Invader #3, though.

The highlight of the interview was the famous Manny Fernandez diving knee blood vomiting angle. He claims it was 100% a shoot. He was really injured and vomiting blood which adds to Manny Fernandez' also claiming it was a shoot.

Aside from that, the other highlight was seeing him unmask. It's been 25+ years I believe since he's been unmasked on any wrestling show. 

[ohtani's jacket]

On 11/8/2020 at 4:43 PM, joeg said:

Rikidozan and Kimura vs Sharpe Brothers is taught in school. It came up in a couple of different college courses I took. Globalization of Sporting Cultures and History of World Sports. I took some interesting electives in college. Anyways my understanding from those classes is that Rikidozan and Kimura are taught in school in Japan similar to how Muhamed Ali vs Joe Fraiser is mentioned in a US history class as a reflection of the civil unrest and turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s and the waning popularity of the Veitnam War etc. In that same way Rikidozan and Kimura vs the Sharpe Brothers is discussed in a Japan History class as a reflection of post WWII era Japan and the effects of the American occupation and rise of television, etc. Somebody who actually lives in Japan (looking at you Gordi) feel free to correct me or elaborate.  So I don't think Meltzer is off based at all. But I could be wrong.   

I live in Japan and I have a daughter in grade school. I don't think she has begun studying history, but I could be wrong about that. Rikidozan was a cultural icon from the 50s and early 60s who is largely forgotten today. He is not a significant cultural figure in Japan in the year 2020. His legacy is not as important as Meltzer makes out even within the pro-wrestling business. If you look at Japan through the lens of Pro Wrestling Only (zing!) then of course he seems like a huge deal, but even when he was drawing all those street crowds, he wasn't the only thing attracting the attention of Japanese people. There were other cultural phenomenon and other important events during that era. Some of which are more enduring, to be perfectly honest. I get where pro-wrestling fans are coming from. If you're a wrestling fan, and you see Japan through the lens of pro-wrestling, then the first time you come to Japan you mark out when you see a wrestler doing some kind of random shitty advertising. Little do you know that every two-bit celebrity does random shitty advertising in Japan. I'm not denying what Rikidozan meant in the 50s and early 60s, but Japan is a country that is constantly moving forwards, is constantly attracted by the latest boom and the newest trends, loves to tear down the old and build something new, and has little interest in the past unless it is aesthetically pleasing. The war isn't even taught properly in this country, and the younger generation aren't interested in it anyway. Western fans with an interest in Japanese pro-wrestling get excited that there was a movie made about Rikidozan, but the movie bombed at the box office. Why would it bomb at the box office if Rikidozan was a cultural icon the likes of JFK? If you listen to Meltzer, Rikidozan is such a big deal he should be on the thousand yen note. Maybe if you're a pro-wrestling fan with a deep interest in its history. 

[NintendoLogic]

31 minutes ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Western fans with an interest in Japanese pro-wrestling get excited that there was a movie made about Rikidozan, but the movie bombed at the box office. Why would it bomb at the box office if Rikidozan was a cultural icon the likes of JFK?

The fact that it was a Korean production probably had a lot to do with it.

[ohtani's jacket]

Not really given how crazy Japanese people are for K-Pop and Korean Drama. 

[joeg]

Thanks OJ. Thats why I love this board, I'm always learning. I knew the Rikidozan movie didn't do well at the box office but I just assumed that's because it was poorly reviewed and not very good. Its interesting because I always thought Rikidozan and Kimura were the cultural equivalent of Jessie Owens, Babe Didrickson, Jackie Robinson, Lou Gerhig, Joe Louis, or Muhammed Ali in the states. Athletes who are still house hold names over a half century later because of their contribution not just to their sport but to American society as a whole. Which Japanese professional athletes are on that level of cultural and historical signifigance?