How Did You First Find Out About Wrestling in Japan?

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

I don't mean just that there was wrestling in Japan, but rather the extent of wrestling in Japan.

As for me I used to read a lot of wrestling magazines when I was really young (or at least skim through them), but I can't remember them ever featuring much if anything about wrestling in Japan. I was able to learn about things like the USWA through them, but I didn't really find out about Japanese wrestling until getting on the Internet in the late 1990s. I remember for a while I used to see all these different Japanese names brought up and remember the WWF had some Japanese guys like Hakushi, Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao and figured whenever one got mentioned it was one of these guys. Then I finally thought WWF only had like three young Japanese wrestlers who had passed through the company in like 10 years and I was seeing a heck of a lot more than three names being mentioned. That got me to search around and read up on puro workers all over. I just wish YouTube was around back then as at the time the only way I could see any of there matches was by buying from tape rings online (which I did).

[Apricots And A Pear Tree]

Wikipedia probably.It's also how I learned all the insider terms.

[rapidfire187]

I knew about it, but didn't really learn about it's significance until 2004 or 2005. I think it was the Fire Pro games that really sparked my interest and it was also around the same time ROH did Joe vs Kobashi.

[rybackrulez]

1990 liger, chono, and muta in wcw

In 95 there were new japan videos in this store in little tokyo that i forced my dad to buy because i was 10 and liger was on the cover. Was the super j cup 95.

In 98 i was on the internet as a 13 year old trying to watch and dl wrestling in 99 there was one site that posted tons of wrestling videos in real movie format and that site is how i watched puro. Mostly through dl's

My video folders were split with porn and wrestling

Then youtube came in 2004

I like puro. I love lucha. And i will never stop watching wwe and the indies.

[________ has left the building]

From the Apter mags. Got my first taste of real puroresu from WCW back in the late 80's/early 90's.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Nov 9, 2013 12:55:04 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

From the Apter mags. Got my first taste of real puroresu from WCW back in the late 80's/early 90's.

I was curious how much did they actually cover it in the Apter mags? I used to go through wrestling magazines a lot (at least some of which were Apter mags), but can't recall them covering Japan all that much. Then again this was about 15+ years ago and wrestling in a distant area that I probably never expected to see probably wouldn't catch my attention as much as "HBK spotted wearing an NWO shirt."

[Deleted]

First when Liger/Muta showed up in WCW back in the day. PWI used to have a page or two detailing the goings on in the Puro and lucha worlds. The first time that I actually saw it I sent away for a compilation tape that had some really good matches and some really bad matches. I remember it starting with a Misawa/Kobashi match where Misawa gave Kobashi a release Tiger Suplex from the ramp to the floor. Then it went to a a really bad garbage match from either IWA or W*ING

[________ has left the building]

Nov 9, 2013 12:59:15 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

Nov 9, 2013 12:55:04 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

From the Apter mags. Got my first taste of real puroresu from WCW back in the late 80's/early 90's.

I was curious how much did they actually cover it in the Apter mags? I used to go through wrestling magazines a lot (at least some of which were Apter mags), but can't recall them covering Japan all that much. Then again this was about 15+ years ago and wrestling in a distant area that I probably never expected to see probably wouldn't catch my attention as much as "HBK spotted wearing an NWO shirt."

They would talk about Japanese wrestlers if they showed up in the indies and a supershow connected to WWF or WCW. Not as in depth as it is nowadays. Guys like the Great Kabuki were talked about. People in the early stage in their careers like Chono and Muta as the Black Ninja got minor press.

[SOR]

I became a wrestling fan later then most (2003) but I imagine it would of been in 2005 when I watched Bound For Glory 2005 (On tape, it didn't air here then)

I remember being impressed by Liger so I assume I must of googled and found some NJPW. I don't really like NJPW but early on I was attracted to promotions that had names I recognized which would of lead to AJPW or something which would of lead to TAKA Michinoku which would of lead to me becoming a fan of Kaientai Dojo.

[JTG Fan]

Vince Russo told me it's where the lucha libres are.

[Deleted]

Nov 9, 2013 12:59:15 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

Nov 9, 2013 12:55:04 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

From the Apter mags. Got my first taste of real puroresu from WCW back in the late 80's/early 90's.

I was curious how much did they actually cover it in the Apter mags? I used to go through wrestling magazines a lot (at least some of which were Apter mags), but can't recall them covering Japan all that much. Then again this was about 15+ years ago and wrestling in a distant area that I probably never expected to see probably wouldn't catch my attention as much as "HBK spotted wearing an NWO shirt."

The magazines here too (I started buying them in 1985), but mostly reading about which of "our guys" were going overseas for short tours in the "recent news" section. The Inside Wrestling "Comprehensive Roll Call Of Champions" would list a lot of titles, quite a few from Japan. Then you'd read names like: Bruiser Brody. Stan Hansen. Ted DiBiase. Dory Funk Jr. These are some of "our" toughest guys winning "their" titles. And they didn't just beat anybody, they defeated their biggest stars/legends: Giant Baba, Tatsumi Fujinami & Antonio Inoki.
Around that same time, I don't know exactly how (probably one of the columnists), but I picked up on this high-flyer that goes by the name of Tiger Mask (the original one) and how he was light-years ahead of the typical American ground game.

But as far as first Japanese wrestlers I've seen, probably Jumbo Tsuruta (he was AWA champion in 1984), and Tatsumi Fujinami & The Cobra (both were light heavyweights in the WWF). It's possible I've seen them on Prime Time Wrestling back in 1984, where pretty much the entire show was a card from Philly's Spectrum or MSG. (I've watched some YouTube vids that were from Prime Time around that era and I swore I remembered seeing that Cobra vs. Dynamite Kid match before.)

[gladstone]

WOW Magazine, around 2000. I knew there were guys like Muta that came to the states, but I hadn't really grasped the concept that there were entire federations in Japan. I remember mostly being intrigued by the FMW/deathmatch stuff at the time, for a while I thought Japanese wrestling was all deathmatches. Thankfully I learned a lot more when I started going on the internet, and also playing games like Fire Pro and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2.

[Long A, Short A]

A random magazine about Japanese pop culture in my high school library.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Caught a few episodes of NOAH while channel surfing.

[TCM]

Taka and Great Muta. I always loved Kaientai, but when I first saw Great Muta be a badass, I ate it up.

[Joe Neglia]

Nov 9, 2013 12:59:15 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

Nov 9, 2013 12:55:04 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

From the Apter mags. Got my first taste of real puroresu from WCW back in the late 80's/early 90's.

I was curious how much did they actually cover it in the Apter mags? I used to go through wrestling magazines a lot (at least some of which were Apter mags), but can't recall them covering Japan all that much. Then again this was about 15+ years ago and wrestling in a distant area that I probably never expected to see probably wouldn't catch my attention as much as "HBK spotted wearing an NWO shirt."

Apter Mags were weird about Japan. They certainly acknowledged it, and you were almost guaranteed to find at least one result, one news note and one random image of a big star from there somewhere in just about every magazine, but they rarely went in-depth or got into the angles or goings on. Reading the mags in the 80s, you knew who Jumbo, Inoki and Baba were, Riki Chosu as well, but they never really got into WHY they were big. This changed during the mid 90s or so, and by the end of the 90s (especially thanks to not only a lot of crossover work with WCW and WWF, but the ability via internet/email for Apter reporters to deliver stuff in a timely and inexpensive manner), it saw more coverage.

[Ultimo Gallos]

Read about them in the Apter mags for years. Then friends uncle was living over there. So he would bring back tapes. This would be the late 80s.

[rnrk supports BLM]

During Yokozuna's world title reign, I remember WWF briefly bringing in guys they said were hired by Fuji like Great Kabuki, Genichiro Tenryu... and KWANG.

Kwang was the coolest one.

[EyeofTyr]

Growing up in a household that was born and raised fans of the NWA, and later WCW, I was exposed pretty early on. My grandfather used to tell me stories about Inoki and Rikidozan, and Choshu.

Watching NWA programming and seeing Muta, and then later in WCW with Chono & Liger and so on, I was aware of it for a very long time. It wasn't really till the tape trading boom happened that I got any real tastes of it though.

[Dang!]

We had satellite TV and they showed shows from Japan I only watched because of the guys I knew from WWF and WCW. Furthermore there were many wrestling games from Japan and I figured out that wrestling must be a big deal over there.