Snake Amami

[KinchStalker]

Snake Amami (スネーク奄美)

Real name: Isamu Sakae (栄勇)
Professional names: Isamu Sakae, Snake Amami
Life: 5/25/1951-4/30/1981
Born: Hioki District (present-day Minamisatsuma), Kagoshima, Japan
Career: 1972-1981
Height/Weight: 174cm/92kg (5’8”/202 lbs.)
Signature moves: Diving crossbody
Promotions: International Wrestling Enterprise
Titles: none

Summary: Snake Amami wrestled for the International Wrestling Enterprise for seven years as an undercarder, before a brain tumor led to retirement and an early death.

After graduating from junior high, Isamu Sakae entered the Isutzu sumo stable, debuting in January 1967 at the age of 15. He reached sandanme (third rank) before retiring after the first tournament of 1970. Sakae decided to go back to school after this, enrolling in the Kagoshima High School of Commerce and Industry (now Shonan High School). Here, he devoted his athletic pursuits to amateur wrestling, and in 1970, he won both interhigh and nationals in the freestyle 75kg division. He would travel to the United States in a Japan-US competition, where he notched eleven wins and one draw.

Upon his graduation, Sakae joined the IWE sales department in 1972. However, he would train to wrestle with the company, debuting in the new year. Sakae served as Rusher Kimura’s valet, and the two became very close. Kimura's stepson Hiroshi would remember Sakae as the best person he ever met in the business. Rechristened Snake Amami in 1974, he was an undercarder whose combination of wrestling technique and aerial attacks was an appealing combination. At the 1979 Tokyo Sports show, Amami put over NJPW's Makoto Arakawa in the second match. Shortly into the new decade, though, Amami was forced to leave when a brain tumor was discovered. Despite a brief attempt to return that September, he never wrestled again, and died the following spring. At his wake, Kimura spent the night to sleep with his departed friend, and after the IWE’s final show in August, the roster stopped by Amami’s home on their way back to Tokyo to light incense. For the rest of his career, Kimura would decline all offers to take on another valet.