5 Wrestling Matches That Went Way Off Script

How do you wrestle? It was the first question I had as a trainee when I started back in 1999. I still don’t have a definitive answer. Some people call their matches on the fly while some will plan and rehearse their matches meticulously, some people even write detailed scripts of exactly what is meant to happen in a bout. Sometimes, that all goes out of the window.

 

Dirt Bike Kid vs The Great Sasuke

It’s not the first time I’ve written about the Dirt Bike Kid. He was a fascinating figure. Back in the late 90s, he was considered to be the future of British wrestling by some, being the first man from the ‘revival era’ (post-1995) to work a major American promotion in the form of Extreme Championship Wrestling and also was asked by Japanese legend The Great Sasuke to work for him. Easy to see why we thought he might be the future.

This wasn’t the case, back in those days broadband was still fairly slow and this mean that the only way to witness Dirt Bike work was live, meaning we never knew how poor he actually was. Also he’d been running his own promotion, the European Wrestling Alliance and promoted himself as the champion, meaning that along with the adulation that the Kid had given him a bit of a self-inflated opinion of himself.

Sasuke was also a bit of a tool, it has to be said. A legend, yes, but he often refused to remove his mask. He wore it in public, completely negating the point of a mask which hides your identity and allows you to go around undisturbed. He beat a man up on a subway for taking a picture of him dressed in such a way. But together, these two would completely balls-up the opening match of a Michinoku Pro Wrestling masked tournament.

Sasuke hired Dirt Bike to take a place in the Masked Tournament. Whichever wrestler lost, lost his mask. Dirt Bike was given a specially made mask to wear during the tournament, but was angry because he wasn’t a masked wrestler. An understandable point, but Sasuke didn’t want to upset many actual masked wrestlers by making them unmask on the show. Also, Dirt Bike seemed to have taken objection to the fact that he was to fight a squash match, meaning he would lose in a matter of minutes in a one-sided affair.

Word to the wise young wrestling trainees, if one of the most famous wrestlers in the world asks you to take a beating and lost fast, you make that your opponent look like an absolute beast. Dirt Bike had other ideas. Firstly, he took his mask off at the start of the match, meaning the match suddenly had no purpose – the point was to beat and unmask your opponent, how am I going to do that if he is already unmasked?

The match began and Dirt Bike went on the offence, hitting a backdrop and a top rope somersault on Sasuke, all within 10 seconds of the match beginning. Then Sasuke snapped, delivering several legitimate kicks to Dirt Bike who actually looked hurt, shocked and upset. With Dirt Bike down, Sasuke continued the assault, kicking Dirt Bike in the head. This brutal shoot match ended quickly with Sasuke nearly choking out Dirt Bike. Dirt Bike offered a handshake to Sasuke, but the respect had already been tarnished, and Sasuke turned and left the arena.

 

John Tenta vs Koji Kitao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4nlN0mvXCc

Many people are unaware that John Tenta used to be a sumo wrestler. He was only a low level sumo, an amateur if you like, but well known enough to be featured in the Japanese media. A foreign sumo was an interesting curio in Japan, and Tenta earned the nickname ‘The Canadian Comet’. He had the opportunity to progress to be a professional sumo, but in the early 80s it would require a skin graft to remove a large tattoo that Tenta has on his left arm. Tattoos have a murky history in Japan and displaying them in public is often considered offensive, especially back then, ands he had to cover this tattoo in every amateur match he had.

As many people know, Tenta made the jump to pro wrestling and became best known for his WWF run as Earthquake and his battles with Hulk Hogan. But it was this match from Japan which was most interesting. Kitao was also a former sumo, but a disgraced one. He had been expelled from sumo for attacking an 88 year old stable master, he’d also been fired from New Japan Pro Wrestling before signing for Super World of Sports.

In 1991, the WWF and SWS put on a joint show in Japan called Wrestle Dream, which would pit WWF stars against their Japanese counterparts. It seemed perfect that on this event the two former sumos should collide. The match is slightly odd from the start with Kitao resisting Tenta’s attempts to wrestle him. The pair spend much of the match pacing, before getting themselves locked in a Roman Knuckle Lock. This doesn’t last long, Kitao leaves the ring during the bout, throwing the announce table against it. Strange behaviour for a babyface.

Back in the ring, Kitao attempts to kick Tenta for real, and to his credit Tenta dodges and even catches the kick. Infuriated, Kitao muscles Tenta back into the corner, attempting to choke him. Tenta holds Kitao back, preventing him from taking hold, and then the referee has to physically put himself between the two men to break the hold. Kitao takes another tactic, holding an arm out in defence while he attempts to gouge Tenta’s eyes. Tenta is now vocally chastising Kitao, at one point he visibly mouths “this is pro wrestling!”.

By this point, the crowd know Kitao isn’t playing ball and are chanting ‘Tenta! Tenta!’, which we can only annoy the babyface Kitao. Eventually, after an age of staring at one another, Kitao kicks the referee full force, knocking him down to the canvas. As he painfully stumbles to his knees he calls for the bell. Tenta raises his hands as the winner right in front of Kitao, annoying him further. The broadcast quickly cut away from the match but following the contest, Kitao grabbed the microphone and proceeded to shout words to the effect of “wrestling is fake” before leaving the arena, never to be seen in pro wrestling again.

To this day, we don’t know why Kitao snapped. Popular belief is that Kitao was unhappy about being booked to lose to a fellow former sumo, especially as Kitao had worked his way up to becoming a Yokozuna. In the honour bound world of sumo, losing to such a foe could be considered a disgrace. But so is the nature of pro wrestling, and it was Kitao’s temper which proved to be his downfall both in sumo and wrestling.

 

New Jack vs Gypsy Joe

This is one match that needs no introduction, thanks to the widely circulated video that it spawned. New Jack was a (possibly legitimately) crazy star of the late ECW thanks to his extreme use of weapons and insane balcony dives. Gypsy Joe’s career began way back in 1951, where he worked in Puerto Rico and helped build a number of Southern American independent promotions, but by the 1980’s independent wrestling had begun to dwindle, as did Joe’s career.

Joe returned to the United States in 2000 aged 66, and his bout against New Jack took place three years later. New Jack was informed that Joe was ‘as tough as leather’, and that he shouldn’t be worried about hurting him in the ring. While many look at this as a reckless piece of booking to book a pensioner against one of the most violent wrestlers of modern times, Joe really carried a reputation of being as hard as nails. Joe had performed in a number of Japanese deathmatches, and according to legend, was the first man to ever dive off the top of a cage.

Still, looking at the aged Joe standing in his trunks opposite New Jack, this can be seen as nothing more than a mismatch. The match is exactly how you’d imagine, a bit of slow brawling, some weapons, not much more. Joe is an old school tough guy, who would take a few shots, not really sell them, then fight on. New Jack is, well, kinda similar. This would prove the downfall for this bout. Joe began no selling like usual, and New Jack being New Jack, wasn’t overly impressed.

After a stiff headbutt, New Jack was now no longer playing games, and this hardcore match goes off the rails. The pair brawl to the back of the arena, Joe, who potentially sees the dangerous New Jack losing control, grabs a chain. Bad move. New Jack grabs a bigger chain, and begins whipping Joe with it. Forcing Joe to the floor, he picks up the chairs that the audience had vacated, and begins to throw them down on Joe. But worse was yet to come.

Jack grabs an aluminium baseball bat wrapped in barbwire, swings it, and connects with the 69-year-olds head. The barbed wire becomes wrapped around Joe’s head, and Jack continues to assault his head with the bat. Joe can simply no longer no-sell, he’s being beaten in a dangerous fashion. The promoter appears and stops the match as the crowd turn on Jack, hurling racial abuse at him and the situation is in danger of turning into an all out riot. Joe, to his credit, is standing at the end of the bout.

This match is what happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object, something’s gonna give, and in this case it was New Jack’s temper. Joe has come out better long term, in 2007 he was named the ‘world’s oldest wrestler’ by WWE Magazine, appeared as a special guest referee at CZW’s Tournament of Death IV and was the mentor of Eddie Kingston and Necro Butcher at the No Rules tag team match in RoH.

 

Antonio Inoki vs The Great Antonio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lXAGZtMxU8

The Great Antonio was a Croatian strongman turned wrestler who lived in his adopted home of Montreal, Canada. To my mind he is the star of not one, but two Japanese matches that went totally out of control. The Great Antonio found fame with his feats of strength, but due to him going to work at the age of 6, then later becoming displaced due to World War 2, Great Antonio never received a formal education, which left him illiterate during his lifetime.

He went into wrestling and soon drew attention due to his strongman status. In 1961, he took on an early Japanese legend in Rikidōzan. The match went off the rails as The Great Antonio, who it would appear had little wrestling training, just came out of the corner swinging wildly at Rikidōzan, before Rikidōzan deposited The Great Antonio out of the ring and continued to beat on him, something unheard of in those days. The match was stopped and Rikidōzan was announced as winner.

Antonio Inoki was becoming a legend in his own right. Trained by Rikidōzan himself, he was working for New Japan Pro Wrestling and a year before the fight in 1976, he had fought Muhammad Ali to a draw in a bizarre MMA bout. It would seem fitting that this was the man to take on The Great Antonio in his return to Japan. It was a trip that the Great Antonio never should’ve made.

The Great Antonio, who seemed to have learned nothing in the years since his last bout and begins this new match against Inoki in similar fashion to his last, walks directly toward Inoki flailing his arms like the maniac he is. He no sells all of Inoki’s offence, but Inoki, being the professional that he is, is aware that this is all part of Antonio’s strongman shtick. So it’s all cool, until The Great Antonio works Inoki into the ropes, and begins to club him on the back of his head and neck. This only happens three times, the fourth he blocks.

Then Inoki loses his shit, hammering The Great Antonio with open handed slaps. One takedown later and Antonio is taking kicks directly to his face. An attempt to get to the ropes proves fruitless, The Great Antonio is now having his head stomped on in the ropes. The match is quickly ended, The Great Antonio is a bloodied mess, it’s a brutal and unpleasant shoot, but it’s hard to feel sorry for Antonio; wrestlers are fully expected to be professional, and more to the point, safe. Antonio was definitely not safe, as for professional, well it’s hard to know whether Antonio knew any better.

As The Great Antonio grew old, his story became a sad one. Living in a small apartment, he was cripplingly poor, his hair matted. He sold brochures detailing his career in a local metro station. After his death in 2003, it was discovered that he had been carrying newspaper clippings regarding his life with him. It was also discovered that he had a number of photos of himself with a number huge stars from yesteryear including Sophia Loren and Lee Majors. A children’s book was written about him in 2014.

 

Act Yasukawa vs Yoshiko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j3_jZPazLQ

Japanese wrestling has always been of a higher standard than our western variant. Only in the last ten years or so has American women’s wrestling actually focussed on the talent and not on the female wrestler’s physiques, thanks largely to the work of promotions such as Shimmer, as well as TNA and latterly, WWE’s women’s divisions. But the women of Japanese wrestling have always been more professional and harder hitting than what we’re used to.

But this is a match that went well beyond that. I am unaware of what led to this situation, but I had read that Yoshiko’s role in the promotion was to be reduced and fan favourite Yasukawa was going to pushed as the promotions lead baby face. Yasukawa was apparently due to win the title from Yoshiko, and the whole incident occurred due to Yoshiko’s jealousy.

The match began with an uncomfortable stare. Then the match goes awry quickly, with Yoshiko focussing her attack on Yasukawa’s right eye. Yasukawa suffers from Grave’s disease which can affect her eyesight and had recent surgery to correct blindness. During the bout, the larger Yoshiko prevented Yasukawa from forcing her into the ropes and down to the mat, punching her as she goes. Yasukawa is left bloodied by the exchange. After being stomped in the head by Yoshiko, Yasukawa rolls outside. The towel is thrown in and the match stopped.

Yasukawa heads immediately to the hospital following the match, her eyes swollen shut. Her cheek, nasal and orbital bones were all broken. Her face was swollen and badly disfigured and required surgery to return it to normal. The incident was so shocking that all management of wrestling promotion Stardom took 30% pay cuts in reaction to it. Yoshiko issued a public apology and it was announced that she would be retiring from wrestling.

This retirement would be seemingly enforced as during her retirement ceremony, Yoshiko walked out. Yasukawa recovered from her injuries but retired after only a few months. There have been many calls for promoters to blacklist Yoshiko, but she returned to work in 2016 and continues to do so.