The British Beat – Kendo Nagasaki
While I had apparently seen some broadcasts before, my first memory of
professional wrestling is of seeing a listing in the TV Times magazine billing a
tag match involving Big Daddy and a masked opponent, with the explicit promise
that a Daddy victory would lead to an unmasking. Assured by my parents that such
stories were pure promotional hype, I was astounded when the villain did indeed
have his identity revealed, running to the dressing room with his head in his
hands.
Masked grapplers were relatively common in British wrestling, with
it being a well-known convention (if not always a reality) that a hooded
wrestler was bound to unmask after any defeat.
By far the most famous
British wrestler to wear a mask was Kendo Nagasaki, who wrestled more than 50
televised matches and is a shoe-in for a slot among the five biggest UK stars of
all time. Nagasaki debuted in 1964 and made his name with a shock victory over
fellow masked man Count Bartelli in Hanley two years later. Bartelli, who’d been
a regular under the gimmick since the 40s, survived without the mask, including
thirteen years as a TV regular.
Despite his success, Nagasaki did not
appear on television until 1971. The first appearance of a masked man on
television is uncertain (George ‘Zebra Kid’ Bollas was billed for a 1963 show
and long-time fans recall seeing him, though results records don’t show the
match being broadcast), but the first on-screen regular under a hood was The
Outlaw. This was Canadian Gordon Nelson, a legitimately skilled grappler who
would accept challenges from particularly foolish members of the audience.
Nagasaki, however, became a genuinely legendary performer thanks to a
particularly strong character. Dressed in a simple black and red mask, he rarely
spoke or showed any sign of emotion. The stories were rife that he kept his
character backstage and even showered with his mask on; if such claims are
untrue, even the most hardcore British wrestling fan would prefer not to have
this particular illusion shattered. Nagasaki created an intricate back-story,
which he maintains on his official website to this day, with a partially missing
finger often explained as a punishment from the Yakuza.
Nagasaki briefly
quit Joint Promotions in the mid-70s, working several independent dates. The
‘opposition’ groups tended to use masked grapplers more often, possibly to
overcome the handicap of lacking television publicity. Indeed, the leading
independent promoter, Paul Lincoln, was his own biggest star as the masked
Doctor Death.
Upon his return to Joint, Nagasaki took the mask of ‘Kung
Fu’ Eddie Hamill at the Royal Albert Hall. However, Hammil continued under the
hood for a short while before losing it permanently after a defeat to Mick
McManus on television.
Meanwhile, Nagasaki clashed with Big Daddy in a
famous televised bout where he was briefly unmasked for the second time (a 1971
match with Billy Howes being the first). So strong was the Nagasaki character
that some older casual fans will, even today, argue over whether or not he was
ever seen without his mask, with some even claiming the Daddy incident is merely
an urban myth. What makes this ‘memory’ particularly bizarre is that Nagasaki
voluntarily unmasked in an elaborate televised ceremony two years later. After a
brief spell working without the mask, he retired, with many later speculating
he’d proven unwilling to go down for the loss to Big Daddy which was inevitable
for many leading villains of the era.
Nearly a decade passed before
Nagasaki returned to small-screen action, taking star billing in the first
televised All Star show in 1987, defeating Clive Myers in the infamous disco
ladder match. The bout at London’s Hippodrome nightclub followed the
now-familiar format (a gold disc being the object hung from the ceiling), but at
seemingly random points the house lights dimmed to be replaced by flashing disco
lights, while commentator Kent Walton fell silent as synthesizer versions of
orchestral classics played.
Nagasaki also played a role in another All
Star match remembered for all the wrong reasons: he used his ‘hypnotic’ powers
to persuade Rob Brookside to turn against his tag partner Steve Regal (now
William Regal). However, there were some critical successes in his All-Star run,
most notably a feud with fellow heel Mark Rocco who heard rare cheers during
several ultra-heated encounters; at one stage Nagasaki was banned from Fairfield
Halls in Croydon, a leading All Star venue, after striking a venue employee
during a wild brawl with Rocco which spilled into the arena entrance hall. He
also became the first and only masked wrestler to hold a major title in the TV
era, winning the World heavyweight crown from Wayne Bridges; the storyline had
it that masked men were not allowed to compete for British titles because they
were unable to prove their nationality.
After the television era,
Nagasaki’s most notable match came with Giant Haystacks in 1991, the Croydon
bout being filmed for a national TV arts documentary about the Nagasaki
character. The Haystacks feud continued, in a form, with the adoption of King
Kendo, a character who proved that merely copying a costume was not enough to
duplicate the Nagasaki aura. Promoter Brian Dixon tasted more success with the
‘Rasslin Power Rangers, a shameless piece of copyright infringement which scored
well with young children but met an inevitable end after intervention by legal
representatives of the television show.
In recent years, masked wrestlers
have become relatively rare in the UK, possibly because promoters in today’s
less secretive era consider it difficult to maintain an air of mystery. Probably
the most significant hooded grappler is Tagori, an All Star character who is
usually portrayed by James Mason pulling double-duty, his appearances being a
one-note joke in which he is revealed to be wearing lingerie beneath his
wrestling gear. However, the most notable match with a masked performer in the
21st century came in the LDN promotion earlier this year, featuring yet another
return from retirement from none other than Nagasaki.
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