Today I Learned (Wrestling Edition)

[SuperBacon]

41 minutes ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

BBC showed a 'wrestling' film last night called 'Peanut Butter Falcon'. Jake Roberts and Mick Foley have small parts in it, but it's a sweet gentle film but not outstanding 

A lovely film that is. Shia Lebouef may be a shit, but he's great in that. 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Kendo Nagasaki has a mansion for sale.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146264330

 

I don't know why it surprised me that he had a mansion.

[theringmaster]

41 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:

Kendo Nagasaki has a mansion for sale.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146264330

 

I don't know why it surprised me that he had a mansion.

He's in a load of financial difficulty last i heard. He did stuff with Lee Rigby foundation and promised them loads then left them hung and dry, few of the tabloids ran with it a while back.

[BomberPat]

The Lee Rigby Foundation stuff is interesting; he was a director of the Foundation, allowed them to operate from his estate, and provided homes for Lee Rigby's family, and homes and counselling for families of servicemen, but there was some legal issue with rent and he lost it. I don't think it's fair to say that he promised them loads and left them high and dry, as he did a lot for them for a few years, and the charity and Kendo both seemed to have fallen on (comparatively) hard times. I don't think either party came out of it particularly well.

He's always been minted, and has a ton of other businesses - as far as I know, he still owns Trades gay hotel in Blackpool, though the gay bar he owned closed last year. He's still on Companies House as director of a few companies, though interestingly no longer as director of the Kendo Nagasaki Foundation (though his partner and long-time assistant are still on there).

The most telling thing - aside from the mansion being on sale (though I'm not sure how much of the mansion and grounds he actually owns) - is that he's making noise about actually wrestling again, most likely for LDN in November.

[Carbomb]

The most frequent thing I ever heard from any British wrestlers or wrestling industry figures I got the chance to meet was that Kendo was the one guy from the World of Sport era who got rich, and it wasn't through wrestling. Even Big Daddy didn't make as much.

[davertfnewman]

I recall in the late nineties or just past 2000, in the days where you couldn't pause and rewind what was on the TV, my mom coming into another room to tell me that the guy who's Kendo Nagasaki has just been on Central News in a story about a land dispute, so missed what he looked or sounded like then. I'm sure in business you're constantly in wrangles, but it seems like he's been on the sour end and not looked great a few times.

[BomberPat]

15 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

The most frequent thing I ever heard from any British wrestlers or wrestling industry figures I got the chance to meet was that Kendo was the one guy from the World of Sport era who got rich, and it wasn't through wrestling. Even Big Daddy didn't make as much.

Yeah, nobody was making money in those days. When the '90s video diary documentary with Regal and Brookside came out, a lot of the old-timers were less annoyed about them breaking kayfabe than they were about them showing how little money there was in the game.

[davertfnewman]

29 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Yeah, nobody was making money in those days. When the '90s video diary documentary with Regal and Brookside came out, a lot of the old-timers were less annoyed about them breaking kayfabe than they were about them showing how little money there was in the game.

Again, citing local TV news and local papers, I can remember back then that you'd get a few "By day, he does this, but in the evening he's a wrestler". Pretty sure while they were being accidental tag champs Task Force One, Steve Prince worked for local authority in Stoke and Vic Powers was a gym owner.

[BomberPat]

A lot of the older wrestlers were publicans or club owners; easy places to invest a lot of tax-free earnings, and to give yourself flexible hours to still make all your dates. There's bits in Scrubber Daly's book that make it sound absolutely horrible, the amount of travelling he was doing up and down the country while still trying to hold down a day job. 

It was never really kept secret, though, Kent Walton would often talk about what a wrestler's day job was on commentary, and usually plug their pub if they owned one.

You basically worked your arse off in the UK, and then hoped to get picked up for one of the big international tours once or twice a year that paid a lot better. Not too different from today, in some respects!

[davertfnewman]

Seem to recall Scrubber similarly making the news as a wrestling milkman.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

I hope for Kendo's sake he's cleared out all the hidden compartments in the floorboards, so he leaves no secrets for the new owner to find.

[Scratch]

Picture 7 on the RightMove listing looks like the start of Home Alone. I’ve always been oddly fascinated by Kendo, and have a soft spot for the effort he’s put in over the years to keep the secret alive - long after he ever needed to. But good god the LDN videos that almost nobody saw a few months back were amongst the worst things I’ve ever seen.

As for another run, I’ve “retired” from 6-a-side football 3 times now because of dodgy knees, so I know only too well how something you love can pull you back in, but the man’s 82!

[BomberPat]

48 minutes ago, Scratch said:

But good god the LDN videos that almost nobody saw a few months back were amongst the worst things I’ve ever seen.

He's still doing them! 

[BigJag]

Netflix will be releasing a Dump Matsumoto series on September 19th. I had no idea that this was in the works. I've definitely watched the odd Dump Matsumoto match, but don't have an extensive knowledge of her career.

This thread will help with fleshing out knowledge of what was an interesting and influential career.

 

[BomberPat]

I met and spent most of a day with Chigusa Nagayo of the Crush Gals last year, one of the biggest mark-out moments of my life, and at one point she was just going through photos on her phone, telling me about all her dogs and cats, then occasionally there would be a photo of a wrestler and she'd say something about them, usually a nice little story.

She got to a photo of her with Dump Matsumoto, frowned, and said, "problem, she only win", which has become my favourite way of describing wrestlers who don't want to put anyone over.