Discuss here.

Which one?

Which one?

World of Sport.

I think it was me who nominated him. I mainly just wanted a comment from our resident WoS expert OJ.

 

I saw one match where I thought his character work stood out, even if he wasn't the greatest worker. Kendo Nagasaki is one guy -- other than Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks etc. -- that your average non-wrestling British person over a certain age might know. A bit like how those younger than a certain age might know the Undertaker.

I think Nagasaki's a decent worker both on the mat and as a brawler. His matches in the 70s got a tremendous amount of heat and he had an awesome finisher. But there's guys who haven''t been nominated whom I think are better.

With the likes of Breaks, Cortez, Grey, Jones I could reel off a handful of matches that I would recommend should people want to get into WOS and give these guys a look. Whilst not as extensive, I could do it to a lesser degree with Saint, Haward, Sarjeant and Boscik. I wouldn't know where to start with Nagasaki and can't recall one match I've thought was good.

I liked his mid-to-late 70s stuff that was on TWC. Both of his bouts against Pete Roberts are good.

Just attended Kendo Nagasaki's coming out of retirement/retirement/breaking Guinness World Record match at Croydon Fairfield Halls.

I cannot say the match added to his case. 

I dunno how legit that world record is. I think it’s pretty likely some grimey indie lucha shows have had an older masked wrestler working them. I don’t know for sure but neither do the Guinness record people 

As far as I am aware an adjudicator from Guinness has to witness the record for it to count. 

Nothing I could see indicated that anyone from Guinness was in attendance 

On 11/25/2024 at 8:29 AM, El McKell said:

I dunno how legit that world record is. I think it’s pretty likely some grimey indie lucha shows have had an older masked wrestler working them. I don’t know for sure but neither do the Guinness record people 

Is the record supposed to be that he was the oldest wrestler to have a match? If you don't count Mae Young's last "matches", Dory Funk Jr. has Nagasaki beat by a couple of months and I am sure Kojika will surpass both in 2025 or 2026. Also who knows how old Gypsy Joe really was when he had his last match.

8 hours ago, Robert S said:

Is the record supposed to be that he was the oldest wrestler to have a match? 

Oldest masked wrestler to have a match

great gimmick, eccentric guy, super memorable...and totally ass in the ring. You hate to see it!

 

 

 

 

Some old thoughts of mine about Naggers from the Introduction To British Wrestling thread:

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Kendo's best 1970s matches were a game of two halves. Usually a first half where he was a gifted technical wrestler and a second half where he went wildly and crazily violent. Often these were too violent for the small screen.

Kendo was a bit of a Terry Funk figure, not just because he kept going into middle ages and ripened in his autumn years but also as someone who came from a scientific background and later specialised in wild violence.

He did have quite a few signature moves - his particularly graceful rolling escape from a headscirro on the mat often into a sideheadlock, his sliding conversion of a side headlock into a cross press on the mat like points on a railway switching from one track to another (often these two moves were performed as one long sequence) the slow, majestic cross buttock throw.

My ideal pic would be Kendo without the mask vs Pete Roberts from 1978. Two rounds of great technical wrestling and two rounds of utter viciousness that it's a wonder it made it to TV uncensored

Another good bout for showing what Kendo could do (despite the earlier, scaled down version of the 1988 hypnosis angle) is his round 2 win over Rex Strong. Kendo is very much the blue-eye here.

Also it seems to get a bad review later but I've always liked his 1977 match against Lee Bronson, mainly for the technical work in round 1. One nice little moment in here when Lee manages to pop his head out of a Kendo headscissor and Kendo quietly and furtively shakes his hand.

 

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Kendo's late 80s/early 90s period as lead heel of All Star, particularly his tag matches with "Blondie" Bob Barrett were a different kettle of fish - all about deep heat and provoking a crowd to riot. South London with its psychotic crew of wrestling fans, was always a good venue for this.

I know this bout has been criticised on here but it catches the atmosphere of one of these Kendo matches. I once had someone on a forum tell me these people were plants. I could, back in the day, personally introduce you to half of 'em!

Something to watch out for at the start is a few seconds of Kendo vs Pete Roberts. I think they could still do a couple of rounds of good technical wrestling at this point in '88.

I'm also a fan of Nagasaki & Rocco vs Myers and Yamada, not just because of Rocco vs Yamada's "Black Tiger vs Jushn Liger" routine but also because of some great moments re-establishing Kendo as a heel When first tagged in against Yamada, Kendo tags Rocco back in, when the crowd jeers this "cowardice" Kendo dismisses them with a lofty wave and later makes his point by tagging back in and demolising the future Liger to get the eqyalising fall. Later Yamada takes over and a ringside struggle for the mask ensues with Kendo in danger of having it stolen by a crafty audience member. This was broadcast in place of a WWF special featuring Hogan vs Kamala, Outback Jack and Tom McGree - astonishingly people wrote into TVTimes to complain about getting Jushin Liger vs Black Tiger instead of Hulk vs The Mongolian Mauler.

 

 

On 11/26/2024 at 10:42 PM, Robert S said:

Is the record supposed to be that he was the oldest wrestler to have a match? If you don't count Mae Young's last "matches", Dory Funk Jr. has Nagasaki beat by a couple of months and I am sure Kojika will surpass both in 2025 or 2026. Also who knows how old Gypsy Joe really was when he had his last match.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_surviving_professional_wrestlers#Oldest_wrestlers_to_ever_perform_70_and_over