Signed Trading Cards: Jim Steele

James Rocha began wrestling in the 1990's debuting in WCW in 1993 as "Jungle" Jim Steele in World Championship Wrestling.  I remember seeing him on WCW Saturday Night but his biggest match of that WCW run was at the SuperBrawl IV pay-per-view where he defeated The Equalizer.

Leaving WCW in 1994 he traveled to All Japan Pro Wrestling teaming with Danny Spivey in the 1994 Real World Tag League they finished with two points.  In 1995 he had a dark match in WWE, and was defeated by 911 in ECW.

Steele being chokeslammed by 911

In All Japan he wrestled under the mask as The Lacrosse until 1998.  From late 1995 through 1997 he wrestled occasionally as Jim Steele in World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico holding their version of the World Television Championship for 28 days.

In late 1997 he removed the mask becoming Wolf Hawkfield, based on the Virtua Fighter character, teaming with Johnny Smith for the 1997 Real World Tag League finishing in 5th place with ten points.  On January 9, 1998 in Kagoshima, Japan teaming with Johnny Smith they defeated Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori for the All Asia Tag Team Championships.  They held the championships for 270 days losing the titles to Tamon Honda & Jun Izumida on October 6, 1998 in Niigata.

As Hawkfield he made two appearances in November 1998 in ECW defeated Tommy Rogers.  His last appearance in All Japan as Hawkfield was October 28, 2000.  Less than a month later as Jim Steele he teamed with Mike Barton in the 2000 Real World Tag League finishing with ten points. 

November 3, 2001 Steele defeated Invader 1 to win the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship holding the title until November 24th losing it back to Invader 1.

With Mike Barton after winning Stan Hansen Cup

The following year Steele and Barton traveled to New Japan to compete in the G1 Tag League losing in the finals to Kojima & Tenzan.  On July 7, 2002 he and Barton won the Stan Hansen Cup.  They remained with  All Japan until November 2002 when he and Barton returned to New Japan where he would stay until early 2004.  In December 2003 he and Barton had a couple tag matches in the WWE.

Steele returned to All Japan for a short run at the end of 2004 as Love Machine Steele.  This would he his last run in Japan.  In 2005 he had a few matches in WWC and his final match came on April 26, 2008 losing to Orlando Colon in the WWC Universal Title Tournament in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. 

Left to Right: The Lacrosse, Wolf Hawkfield, & Jim Steele all released by BBM Magazine in 1996, 2000, & 2004 respectively.

I mailed these cards to Mr. Rocha after reaching out to him on Facebook.  I'm very appreciative that he signed all three cards for me as the name of each person he portrayed on the cards.  I sent him an extra The Lacrosse & Wolf Hawkfield that I had and I am actively looking for a Jim Steele 2004 BBM to send him as well if anyone has one. 

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast The Wrestling Insomniac on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

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DDT Pro Judgment 2018 the 21st Anniversary Show

I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered a couple hours before bell time that DDT Pro Wrestling was live streaming their 21st Anniversary show for free on their DDT Universe streaming service.  I lost my shit when during the match announcements I was reminded that The Great Muta was wrestling his final match on the show.  He had previously wrestled his final match as Keiji Mutoh on Wrestle-1's March 14th.  He is having double knee replacement surgery at the end of the month that will most likely end his in ring career.

I have never watched and entire DDT Pro show before and I can not claim to be familiar with any of the current storylines or even who their main Japanese talents are.  They are known as a promotion that heavily features comedic elements in most all matches, however their roster has featured some of the most athletically gifted wrestlers including Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega.

Some of their most well known viral clips including:

Kenny Omega wresting an 8 year old little girl

The Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship that Joey Ryan defended 24/7 around the world

This is where Joey Ryan first flipped someone with his dick

Yoshihiko a blow up doll and 10 time Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion that even defeated Kota Ibushi for a reign

Kota Ibushi has had so many unique and unbelievable matches in DDT Pro, feuding with Yoshihiko, wrestling a matches in the woods or on the street, and just plain bizarre stuff

Lets get to the matches!

Gauntlet Tag Team Match:
Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata defeated Lilico & Makoto Oishi vs. Reika Saiki & Lady Beard vs. Akito & Shunma Katsumata vs. Antonio Honda & Ethan Page vs. Naomi Yoshimura & Keisuke Okuda

This match was tornado style with two teams starting and the next team joining once one was eliminated.  Elimination was by pinfall, submission, or throwing one of your opponents over the top rope and both feet touching the floor. The only person I was familiar with in the match was Ethan Page.  One team was a girl and guy, Reika Saiki & Lady Beard, both dressed as J-Pop singers and they did a song and dance number before entering the ring that was actually pretty entertaining and catchy.

Lady Beard - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

The match itself varied from over the top comedy at the beginning to serious wrestling at the end.  Nothing really stood out to me in the match and I'd rate it as fair.  Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata last eliminated LiLiCo & Makoto Oishi when Hirata pinned LiLiCo

Colt Cabana defeated Joey Ryan

The premise of this match was Joey trying to get Colt to grab his dick or forcing blow pops in Colt's mouth.  In the end Colt forced Joey to grab his own dick with his left hand and using his right forced Joey to flip himself leading to the Billy Goat's Curse submission.

Colt Cabana & Joey Ryan - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

Tokyo Joshi Pro Six Woman Tag
Saki-sama, Yoshiko-sama, & Azusa Christie defeated Miyu Yamashita, Maki Ito, & Mizuki

The stream cut out at the beginning of the match so I only got to see the last few minutes.  From what I saw although there was some comedic elements that match was more akin to the hard hitting joshi style match where these girls let it all hang out and beat the crap out of each other.  What I saw was excellent.  Saki-sama pinned Mizuki

Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion: Super Sasadango Machine pinned Jiro Kuroshio

Super Sasadango Machine gave some sort of power point presentation after is introduction that went several minutes that I think outlines his plan for winning his match tonight which included a comically large iron leg trap and handing out fans to the crowd that featured his opponent so when he walked over to their section he would get caught in the trap.

When Jiro came out he spent several minutes dancing around the building narrowly missing the giant trap twice and then landing directly on it when he made his rolling dive into the ring.  After a few minutes of action Jiro had Sasadango pinned and after a count of two music kicked on and everyone seemed to freeze, then the lights dimmed and a video came on the big screen.  I have no friggin clue what is going on.  They then wrestled in slow motion while the music and video continued.  Jiro cut an impassioned promo while someone placed a large golden trap on Sasadango's prone body, the music cut out, Jiro moonsaulted onto the trap and was then promptly pinned with a school boy for Sasadango to retain.  Yup

Kota Umeda, Yuki Ueno, & Koji Takeda defeated KO-D Six Man Tag Team Champions: KUDO, Yukio Sakaguchi, & Masahiro Takanashi to win the championships 

This match was fantastic.  Very serious, hard hitting, fast paced with some hard hitting action.  This match exemplifies the fact that even when the commentary is in another language if the match is good you can follow along, enjoy, and appreciate it.  Yukio Sakaguchi took the fall costing his team the titles.

Your NEW KO-D Six Man Tag Team Champions - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

Weapon Rumble 5 Way Tag Loser Gets Anal Blast Match
"Speed Ball" Mike Bailey & MAO defeated Sanshiro Takagi & Ippanjin Munenori Sawa vs. Yuko Miyamoto & Soma Takao vs. Isami Kodaka & Fuminori Abe vs. Michael Nakazawa & Chinsuke Nakamura

Chinsuke dresses like, has his hair cut like, and acts like Shinsuke Nakamura complete with violin styled music that a black guy came out pretending to play a violin during his entrance.  So the match starts and we got a 8 man head scissors with a 9th guy putting the first guy in a boston crab that forced everyone to roll over.  We got an eight man overhead suplex.  In between the comedy spots we did get some good high flying wrestling.  The finish came when Mike Bailey dropped the double knees on Michael Nakazawa and MAO landed a 450 splash for the pin.  Nakazawa was supposed to take the Anal Blast but ran to the back.

Then I think everyone and the referee played some elaborate game of not it.  The last guy, Sanshiro Takagi then "took one for the team" I guess, he removed his boots, knee pads, and trunks as he walked down the walkway laying down with his ass exposed near the entrance while a knock off instrumental version of "we can be heroes" played.  At the last moment he couldn't do it, so Munenori Sawa laid on top of him with his ass exposed and lacing their fingers together then pressed the red button setting off an explosion that apparently anal blasted them.

Every minute a new weapon or competitors come to the ring.

Weapons: metal wash tub, surf board, locker style metal cabinet, cardboard and paper mache steamroller, giant barbed wire board, it took up a third of the ring! a ten foot ladder,

Competitors: Cross dressed trio, a trio of monks that brought a dead wrestler back to life, two guys in black body suits with plastic bats that hit everyone in the ass, a guy on a pedal bike that rode around the ring clotheslining people, another guy in a black body suit with a plastic bat and he took struck everyone in the ass because they lined up for him.  Each of these people would leave right after they did their gimmick.

The big take away for me in this match was that Speed Ball and MAO are a great tag team and I would like to see them in some serious matches.

Dramatic Dream Match
The Great Muta, Daisuke Sasaki, & Tetsuya Endo defeated Danshoku Dino, Keisuke Ishii, & Ken Ohka when Great Muta pinned Ishiii

I marked out big time for Muta's entrance and his awesome costume.  Muta always moved oddly in the ring, but you could tell that his knees are giving him trouble.  Whenever Danshoku Dino was in the ring it was all sexual comedy spots, that's his gimmick, but when he wasn't it was a very good match.  We saw green and red mist in this match.  The finish came when Muta gave Ishii his patented fast backbreaker and landed one last moonsault for the three count.

The Great Muta's final entranace - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

At fifty five I truly believe that this will be his final match and I'm ecstatic that I got to see it.  When he was walking to the back with the classic Muta music playing I couldn't help but get a little emotional.

I later read in post match comments Danshoku Dino challenged Muta to a singles match.

The Great Muta - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

Daisuke Sekimoto & Kazusada Higuchi defeated KO-D Tag Team Champions: HARASHIMA & Naomichi Marufuji to win the championships 

Work interfered with me paying close attention to this match.  From what I saw it was a strong style heavy striking tag team affair .  From what I could gather the story was watch how hard we can hit each other and he who hits the hardest wins.  I enjoyed the match though.

KO-D Openweight Champion: Konosuke Takeshita pinned Shuji Ishikawa

At 42 Ishikawa is a serious contender even though he is 20 years older than the champion Takeshita. He is a four time KO-D Openweight champion, former AJPW Triple Crown Champion, and his back shows the scars from his wars in Big Japan.

Konosuke Takeshita - photo courtesy of @puroresueikaiwa

This was an excellent match, hard hitting, good story of the veteran putting over the younger guy but making him work hard for it.  Takeshita got the pin with a straight jacket german suplex.

Match of the night for me is a toss up between the The Six Man Tag and Takeshita vs. Ishikawa.

Michelle @puroresueikaiwa on twitter resides in Japan and graciously allowed me to use some of the photos she took at the event.  You can see more photos including a video of Great Muta's final moonsault on her twitter and be sure to check out her blog as well it is in both Japanese and English - http://ameblo.jp/catbearmouse

Again this is my first complete DDT Pro show and even though I was completely confused a couple times I must say overall I was thoroughly entertained.  

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast Podcast of 1,000 Holds on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. 

Later Readers!

The Amarillo Territory: Japanese Invasion

Dan Black is a wrestling fan who grew up in Amarillo, Texas attending the matches at the Amarillo Sports Arena from 1969 - 1979.  Here are some of his memories;

Japanese Invasion 

On December 7, 1971, Terry and Dory Funk, Jr won the NWA International Tag Team Championship from Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki in Sapporo Japan. However, on May 18, 1972 Giant Baba brought the feared Seiji Sakaguchi to Amarillo to escort the belts back home. This title match was promoted several months out. 

Seiji Sakaguchi

It would be Baba's first appearance in Amarillo, however, "Big Saka" had given Junior a scare in the Amarillo Territory in the fall of 1970 and he was no stranger to the area. Japanese wrestlers had terrorized the local boys for years as the feared team of Pak Song and Al Kim nearly "killed" Terry Funk and Ricky Romero something the fans had not forgotten. This was about more than defending a championship.

A sold out historic Amarillo Sports Arena was nervous and buzzing at bell time. The Funks struggled with there bigger opponents early, both had attempted the dreaded double arm suplex but couldn't get either off the mat. Finally about 20 minutes in, Terry and Dory double teamed Baba with the suplex and Junior got the first fall. Big Saka used a knee drop to the throat to get the pin in the second. Around 40 minutes it appeared Dory was about to falter, he finally got the tag with Terry and suddenly the ring was full. 

Terry was flipped out the ring and Dory and Saka collided. Baba was covering Dory and Terry snuck in behind to drape Saka. Ref counts 1..2,Terry screams and referee Ken Farber, he's the legal man and Farber leaps over Baba/Junior and hits the mat for the three count on Saka. Titles secured!!! 

Hometown Boys prevail and National honor defended. It was a crazy night. Probably the most exciting tag match I ever seen in person. Of course, the next night the Funks lost the straps in Los Angeles, as I found out decades later. That match in LA is on YouTube in it's entirety. 

Dan Black

Random Wrestling: Women's Edition

June Byers vs. Cora Combs

Other than the 50’s I’m not sure when this match was.   It’s actually a pretty solid match that was enjoyable to watch, the crowd was into it, which is more than you can see for the current WWE non NXT product.

 Mildred Burke vs. Mae Weston

So that last match made me look for a Mildred Burke match the pioneer woman’s wrestler.  Again this match is from the 1950’s and this has a newsreel feel to it with the background music and commentary.  Burke was pretty damn vicious and dirty in the ring. 

Vivian Vachon vs. Kay Noble

From the early 70’s Vivian is the sister of Maurice and Paul Vachon and the namesake of my cat.  She was also the featured subject in the documentary Wrestling Queen that I own and it is a very good documentary on her and wrestling at that time.  Both Vachon and her opponent Kay Noble stopped wrestling full time in the early 80’s because they had children and only appeared sporadically after that.  

My cat Vivian Vachon

The Crush Girls: Lioness Asuka & Chigusa Nagoya vs. Leilani Kai & Penny Mitchell

March 16, 1986 Madison Square Garden

The Crush Girls were hugely popular in Japan as both Asuka and Chigusa reached megastar status in Japan.  When they came to the States they brought a ladies style that was unseen over here and it blew the fans away.  Most people know who Leilani Kai is.  Penny Mitchell I had never heard of until recently but have watched several of her matches and am a big fan of her work. 

 Jumping Bomb Angels: Itsuki Yamazaki & Noriyo Tateno vs. Devil Masami & Jaguar Yokota

August 10, 2008 from LLPW in Japan

Parts 1 & 2

The Jumping Bomb Angels were popular and successful tag team in the mid 80’s to early 90’s both in Japan and the states, they famously defeated the Glamour Girls for the WWF Women’s Tag Team Championships at the first Royal Rumble in 1988.  Yamazaki had retired in 1991, moved to New York and opened a restaurant with her husband.  This match in 2008 is her return to wrestling.  Noriyo had stated active in wrestling until her retirement in 2010. 

Masami debuted in 1978 and had a very successful career in Japan until her retirement at the end of 2008.  In 1997 Masami became the second and last WCW Women’s Champion winning the vacant title in a tournament final a couple months before the title was abandoned by WCW.

Jaguar Yokota debuted in 1977 a month before her 16^th birthday and considered one of the greatest women wrestlers of all time, she is still actively wrestling in Japan. 

Me with Itsuki Yamazaki at Legends of the Ring June 2, 2012 in Monroe, NJ

 

Sara Del Rey vs. Mia Yim

April 23, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland

RCW presents “The Supremacy”

Sara Del Rey is probably the greatest American Women’s Wrestler of all time. Since September 2012 she has been working as a trainer in the WWE for NXT, even recently being promoted to assistant head trainer.  Good for her that she found a way to live to not travel and make a living wrestling, crappy for us that she isn’t wrestling any longer.  She is only 35 so potentially she could still return to wrestling showing the world how good she is.

Mia Yim was early in her career at this point but it was clear from this match just how good she was going to become, and is.

I had the pleasure of seeing Del Rey wrestle twice in person, both for Chikara.  First time on December 3, 2011 in Everett, MA for JoshiMania where she defeated Tsubasa Kuragaki in a hard hitting match.  Then on July 28, 2012 in Portland for in a losing effort to Grand Champion: Eddie Kingston in an awesome match. 

Myself with Sara Del Rey Chikara in Portland, yup that's the Young Bucks in the background

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Later Readers!

Bonus!

Here are the photo galleries to JoshiMania and Chiakara

JoshiMania Part 1

JoshiMania Part 2

Chikara: The Great Escape