Death Match Debut

Mr. Pogo and Shoji Nakamaki, who were the aces of Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, left after I made my debut. After that, Mr. Honma, Mr. Shadow WX, Mr. Yamakawa and Mr. Winger, were called the "new generation of death match", and emerged and I was in the era of creating a new style of death match, at Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. Since I made my debut, I thought I would do a death match someday. I always had a desire to wrestle a painful match. That feeling did not change when I saw the death match up close about the second night after my debut. Making death match items was a low-end job, and I used to make barbed wire boards and fluorescent light boards with Ito, but I wasn't afraid, and I said, "When will I also do death match?" I wonder if I can handle it. " However, although I made my debut at that time, I just kept losing in the first match.

It was an atmosphere based on the results that would not allow me to say, "Let me do a death match!" When Mr. Honma and Mr. Shadow WX took out for some Meshi (cooked rice), and I was asked "Kasai, do you want to do a death match?" so I answered "I want to do it!". Perhaps it was passed on to the company before I knew it, and I was finally able to make my death match debut. On the contrary, I think Ito clearly said, "I don't want to do a death match." around this time Ito had his debut against me. Ito isn't smart, but his seniors liked him because he learned his job quickly and could do anything he was taught in practice. He's almost in sync, but I thought he was the exact opposite type as me. However, because he was tall and thin, Mr. Yamakawa kept telling him "Don't do that in the ring!" and his debut was delayed, so I was the opponent for his first match. I don't remember much about the match, but it feels like the first chapter of us and our marriage to the death match.

So I think I won normally. Ito didn't even think of me as a rival, partly because he didn't want to do death matches, and he didn't even recognize me as a person standing on the other side of the corner.

My long-awaited death match debut, was a very not so watched match that was organized before the break at Korakuen Hall on October 17, 1999. It was a scheme that I would team up with Winger to challenge Mitsuhiro Matsunaga & Ryuji Yamakawa, but to be clear, when this card was announced, the match format was not clear, and none of the customers I don't think expected it. Everyone expected that a newcomer named Kasai would be killed and lost. I was excited to leave with some scratches, but I wasn't looking forward to the actual start of the match. However, my weapons are only youth and momentum.

I was slaughtered and I was already messed up. It's natural because Mr. Matsunaga and Mr. Yamakawa are the opponents, but it didn't work so much that I wondered if there was such a difference, and I was brilliantly half-killed. However, I wondered if I was good at doing it, the customers at Korakuen Hall got excited in this match. I lost the match, but there was a response that I left the most impact. I was so happy that I cried after the match. From the customer's point of view, I think that Kasai, a newcomer, was smashed, bloody, painful, regrettable, and crying, but I said, "The match I was finally looking forward to." I was crying with the joy of saying "I was able to do it." The feelings I felt at that time have changed a little in the evaluation of the company since this match, which I still haven't forgotten. Besides, Mr. Matsunaga liked me very much. Until then, I hadn't talked about it properly, or I was above the clouds, but from this time going forward I was now married to Death Matches.

Bloody in the K-1 ring

I don't know why that happened, but Matsunaga-san will fight in K-1 on March 19, 2000. The other party is Mr. "Great" Kenji Kusatsu, and the venue is the Yokohama Arena. To practice that fight, Mr. Matsunaga had come to the Kamoi Dojo several times. It seems that he thought he would be a batting practice partner because Ito had boxing experience, and I remember him wearing gloves and sparring in the ring. For some reason, I was also called to second him in the match. Also on the team would be Mr. Kojika, Ito, and Daisuke Sekimoto. At the same time as the gong, Mr. Matsunaga was struck by Mr. Kusatsu, and in about 30 seconds, Mr. Kojika threw in a towel and Matsunaga lost TKO. I'm the second, so as soon as the match was over, I went up to the ring and ran up, but Mr. Matsunaga was confused, and for some reason I was screamed at him with him saying, "Don't stop the match without my permission!" .. I thought he was aware of who threw a towel, but then I noticed, he was bleeding in the ring.

In this case, I and Mr. Matsunaga had a connection, and it was decided that a series of battles would be organized in the ring of Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. As a result, this series of conflicts was a catalyst for a wrestler named Jun Kasai to make a leap forward, but the final battle was to be held in a "fire death match".

Fire Death Match May 3, 2000

The place is a special ring of Akihabara "Showa Doriguchi Square". Akihabara at that time was in the midst of redevelopment, and there were many huge vacant lots, so one of them was made into a venue. However, it is a big match for Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. What's more, it's a fire death match where you don't know what will happen. Fire death match is a difficult match format, although I've had many experiences. Depending on the situation, the fire may burn more than it is expected, and on the contrary, it may not ignite at all. I can't read the movement of the fire if it's fanned by the wind

Also, at this time, I put a lot of pressure on myself, as I was only a little over a year into my career, to wrestle in the the main role of a singles match against Mr. Matsunaga. I was more nervous about that than the fire. I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep for days before the match. Anyway, I challenged the match with the feeling that I had to do it, but the result was a terrible defeat. However, I was happy that the customers enjoyed it, and I could feel the heat of death match on my skin. I thought I wouldn't do a fire death match for a while, but three months later, I'm going to experience an even hotter and crazy sea of ​​fire.

CZW

The first time I saw the CZW (Combat Zone Wrestling) invasion was a rough video. Young wrestlers living in a dojo in Japan practice jointly and then eat chanko.

I'm taking a nap for a while. When everyone was messing around during that nap time, a person from the office came and said, "CZW will be on the next tour, American group wrestlers will come, so watch this promotional video. Please keep it. " I wondered what kind of guys would come, I put the tape in the deck and pressed the play button. Then, on the screen of a small TV in the dojo, an image that overturned the conventional concept of death match in Japan was played. Use an electric mower to crack the opponent's belly. Hit the dollar bill on the forehead with a huge stapler (commercial stapler). There was also an image of chopping the arm and forehead with a utility knife. You can go up to the roof of a tall building and dive head-on. Anyway, even from the perspective of us at that time, we were watching and saying, "What? Are they going to do this?" Mr. Honma was watching it with me, but he frowned, saying, "I can't do this! I'll leave these guys to Kasai!"

I was a little shocked while watching the video. It wasn't about the danger or dangerous of weapons, but the shock that it was very close to what I wanted to do. Until then, Japanese death matches were just like what Atsushi Onita did, and the mainstream image of it was sloppy like what Mr. Matsunaga and Mr. Pogo did. I didn't say this, but it didn't feel sophisticated. However, these CZW wrestlers are visually cool and violent, but somehow they are crisp. It was new and it like felt punk. I had been thinking about it until then, and I thought it was close to the style I wanted to do. A few days later, when the CZW team actually came to Japan, I and Mr. Yamakawa, who first had a match at a gymnasium in Nagoya or somewhere, Mr. Honma teamed up with Nick Gage, Justice Pain, and surely a 6-person tag match with Wifebeater. The Leader was Zandig, who was their manager, and did not wrestle at this time.

The impressions of the CZW wrestlers that I first touched on were...anyway. I was still a newcomer, and I wasn't very good, but even from my own perspective, their professional wrestling was crazy. However, the roughness was fresh on the contrary, and the customers were also impressed. It's rough, but there was momentum, and I didn't know what to do. There was a Fire Death Match that took place on August 6, 2000, that demonstrated the danger of CZW. The place is also a special ring in a vacant lot in Akihabara. It was a match that I teamed up with Mr. Matsunaga to fight against CZW's Zandig & Nick Gage. Zandig and Nick Gage entered the scorching Akihabara Fire Death Match destination. Next time it was our turn, when I was waiting at the entrance with Mr. Matsunaga, the ring was noisy. Zandig and his friends were in the ring made of wood with the canvas (mat) peeled off.

They were sprinkling liquid and igniting a fire. The area around the vacant lot was in the middle of a building construction rush, and construction was being done all over the place. The CZW guys brought cans of paint and organic solvents from a nearby construction site and sprinkled them on the ring. A pillar of fire stood in the ring, and black smoke was already floating. I consulted with Mr. Matsunaga that this was a little straight forward, and decided to enter with the car that Mr. Matsunaga was actually using at that time. Mr. Matsunaga grabbed the steering wheel, and I was riding outside the window of the car with him to the ring. When the gong rings, everything was already messed up. First, I bounced Zandig on the car, then tied him with a rope and dragged him around with the car. In the ring, four ropes were burning, but the momentum was so strong that everything felt like it was on fire. Perhaps Mr. Kojika saw it and thought it was dangerous, he took out a fire extinguisher during the match and extinguished the fire. The fire extinguisher now turns the ring white and almost nothing can be seen.

From the top of the confused ring, I tried to get rid of Nick Gage who escaped to the outside, and I thought I'd go for a suicide dive. I asked Matsunaga to step on his back and jump over the rope. I dashed and jumped on Mr. Matsunaga's back, but Matsunaga's body was also surrounded by fire, so he was sweating a lot. I slipped as hard as I could, and I slammed my stomach into a burning rope. It was so hot that I fluttered around. After that, I was lifted up by Zandig on the truck, pushed down from a height of about 5 meters (16 feet) off a truck, beaten with a burning bat, and so on. It was a hot topic, but the evaluation was divided into two. There was a voice saying that this was not professional wrestling, but I'm still often told that it was a great match. For me, my body was tattered after it.

I was supposed to appear live as a guest on the Cable Station broadcast "FIGHTING TV SAMURAI" that night. I don't know why such a schedule was set up after such a match, but I remember getting on the train to Kudanshita with blood bleeding from my head and having to go live. Around this time, I was asked to comment on highlights and magazine pictures they showed, they often said, "do you want to have a match with that guy?" I had a desire to have matches that goes beyond the image of death match so far. Right now, I'm just being beaten by my seniors and CZW, but I want to go beyond the outcome and the impact of the game content. I want to make a death match that exceeds the imagination of the customer.

Among the Big Japan Pro-Wrestling at the time of joining CZW, Mr. Honma, Mr. Yamakawa, Mr. Shadow WX, and Mr. Winger were the four heavenly kings of the Death Match Front, and compared to them, I was ahead of them physique-wise. Even though that's how I saw it, I felt that it was still a long way off. Not only did I have strength but also the glamour and sex appeal over all of them, so I was looking on how to surpass these four people and how to move up as a death match fighter. At that time, at the end of the year, the "Big Japan Pro-Wrestling Tag League Match" was about to begin. Zandig and Nick Gage were scheduled to fight as a tag team for CZW, but Nick Gage was unable to come to Japan due to visa problems. When I was wondering what to do with Zandig's partner in the company, I thought it would be interesting if I went there. I got along with the CZW guys, and I thought that if I, who did not belong to any unit, would simply stand out if I joined the Gaijin corps.

So, I appealed towards Big Japan and for the start of the tournament in Sapporo, I joined CZW even though I am Japanese and became Zandig's partner. In this tournament, we fought Shadow WX & Abdullah the Butcher in the semi-finals on October 30th I pinned Butcher. I had a chance to wrestle against Butcher before that, but I was deeply moved to beat Butcher, who I had watched since I was a kid. Butcher was a merciless person in this match and was always bumpy, but when he got out of the the ring he was a gentleman and he loved me so much. I had a meal, and he said, "I bought shoes for a young boy," and I got sneakers as gifts twice. If my hair was a little stretched, I once got money saying, "Go to the barber shop with this money." He was a good person to take care of young people. Zandig, who became my tag partner, was a man with a mysterious charm.

Zandig

I didn't have any part to learn about professional wrestling techniques and practice methods, but it was very helpful to see the self-produced method as a professional wrestler and how to show individuality. Zandig was always thinking about what kind of performance he could sell himself in and out of the ring, and how he could improve in the industry, and his philosophy for death match was also unique. I think that the way of thinking is different depending on the death match fighter, but Zandig says that in order to do something different from the ordinary professional wrestling called death match, you have to make the audience expect a lot, please them, and leave an impact that exceeds that expectation.

Even though it's a death match, it doesn't make sense to do something sober and have a match for self-satisfaction that isn't communicated to the customers. I think I was influenced by that attitude. Compared to Zandig, the other CZW members seemed to be quieter or not thinking about anything. Other than the match, I didn't go wild so much, and when I think about it, everyone was a young kid. Among them, Zandig was a big boss who stood out, and had a mysterious charisma.

It just so happened that the "monkey character" was born during the tag team tournament where I teamed up with Zandig, and would keep doing it while apart of CZW Japan. I was struggling to establish my own character somehow. One day, Zandig and I were offered to appear on the news program of "Samurai TV" as guests. So when I went to the studio with Zandig, it seems that Kickboxing Chairman Shinichi Ihara, who happened to be involved in another program, put a lot of bananas into the Samurai staff, saying, "The staff can have them. Please eat as much as you like", with a lot of bananas on the table in the waiting room. I've always been told that I have a monkey-like face, and I'm proud that bananas look good on me. I couldn't say anything nifty in the news as it was, so I thought I wouldn't have to say anything if I just ate bananas during the show.

So I brought the bananas to the studio, and when the production started, I was just eating bananas while Zandig was barking and I was impersonating Mr. Shunma Matsuzaki (currently Kazuhiko Matsuzaki). That was more fun than I expected. Fans who watched the broadcast said, "It was insanely interesting," or "Is Kasai really crazy?" on the contrary, people in the same professional wrestling industry said, "That was good." as I was praised. Until then, the death match was murderous and bloody in the world of killing or being killed.

I thought it would be a good idea to mix in some comical parts, such as eating bananas during the match, scratching and running away, while doing more intense things. The motive of movement is a monkey, but the image is that you don't know what to do because I am not a human being. In short, I wanted to make it something that fans could see in my matches and think, "I think Kasai is really crazy." The character "Crazy Monkey" was created by gradually embodying it. I also changed my entrance song to Skidrow's "Monkey Business".

This was decided by Zandig, "If you're a crazy monkey, this is the only song to use." Zandig liked Skid Row. Nowadays, there are a lot of character wrestlers, and comedy matches have become commonplace, but at that time, not only for death matches but also the whole professional wrestling world, "comedy" was illegal, and the fans could turn on you. So I thought this was a gamble. Some serious fans would say "You're not really crazy!" or they would say "Kasai is really crazy!" As a result, I was so crazy that Crazy Monkey became synonymous with Jun Kasai. This is the reason why I started using goggles, which are still indispensable items for my matches. It's why I continue to do the Pearl Harbor Splash. Mad Man Pondo, who came to Japan as a member of CZW, used goggles as a costume at the time of his entrance. One day, Pondo said, "Will you wear them?"

"I'll do it," and he gave me the goggles. I'm glad I got it, but since Pondo was just wearing them for his entrance, I wondered if I could use this during the match. At that time, in WWF (now WWE), a wrestler named Grandmaster Sexy, who had teamed up with Scotty II Hotty, went up to the top of the corner, put on goggles, and then did a diving guillotine. I was doing the technique of "drop" and I can't do diving guillotine, so I thought I should do this with a splash. So I went up to the corner, put on my goggles, salute with the image of a special attack, and then the "Pearl Harbor Splash" was born. I was asked why I would salute and fly with goggles, so when I answered, "This goggles is a keepsake of my grandpa who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor, so I salute and fly," and that is the official origin. But I wasn't thinking of using this "Pearl Harbor Splash" as a finisher. I'm not so good at diving with a body press in the first place.

However, I was just using the goggles for small local matches. Then one day, Daikokubo Benkei, who was watching the match, said, "Kasai, that technique, good." "Is that so? I'm just wearing goggles, salute, and doing a splash it isn't that neat." He said, "No, that's fine. Don't stop doing that trick, no matter what." I was told. For some reason, it remained in my mind, and I'm still doing the "Pearl Harbor Splash". Since I became a member of CZW, I made a gimmick that I was from "Philadelphia staying at Wifebeater's house", but in fact I have never been to the United States, but Zandig said that he would like to take Kasai to the CZW box office in the United States on April 2001, and I felt that it would be okay if he made an offer to Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. The first overseas expedition was decided because Big Japan said it was okay.

Just because I'm teaming up with a foreigner in USA doesn't mean I can speak English, and I didn't know right or left in America for the first time. At first I was talking about staying at Zandig's house and staying at Justice Pain's house for the last two days, but I was just thinking about wrestling in matches anyway. After arriving at the site, I asked Zandig, "Who am I going to wrestle against?" and he said "You are going to team up with Nick Mondo in the semifinals and wrestle with Justice Pain and Johnny Kashmere." Well, it's pretty much like what we are doing in Japan. So when I asked what the death match format was, he was like, "I'm going to Mexico with Wifebeater tomorrow, so I'm not sure. Please consult with the other guys." I also went to the venue on this day.

The venue was a big garage of the fire department, when I asked my partner Nick Mondo "What is the match format today?", He said something like "Maybe it's a fluorescent light death match?". I thought it was such a sloppy idea to some extent, but everyone was sloppy so it was appropriate. When the match time was approaching and the entrance song began, I headed to the ring thinking it was a Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match.

There was nothing that looked like a light tube in the ring. I started thinking that it wasn't a normal match, and I don't know the English that Ring Announcer started to speak on the microphone, so I did not know what he was saying. Fans all over the venue suddenly started to move and threw the junk they brought from their house, like a baseball bat, and a big broken mirror into the ring.

When I think about it now, it was a "Spectators' bring the Weapons Death Match", but at that time, when the match started, I had a feeling that I had not been listening, and the customers handed over their weapons that I didn't understand. There was a board with fluorescent lights in it, and when I thrust it into it, my left elbow was cut off so much that I could see the bones. My back is also chopped with fluorescent light tube and glass and my back is full of blood. This was crazy, but the enthusiasm of the audience was amazing.

I managed to get a big injury with 150 stitches, and when I was about to go back to the waiting room, when a girl who came to see me who was already excited, and she took off her bra and danced half-naked, while I was hurt. The pain was blown away and I instinctively stared at her. When I got back to the waiting room, other wrestlers called me saying "That was great!”. There was a sense of accomplishment that I left a claw mark in the United States. In the waiting room, there was an woman who was called a self-proclaimed doctor who told me she would "sew here", and she got me elbow treatment on the spot and sewed 150 stitches on my back.

As a result, there were more scars than claw marks. I didn't go to the hospital as it was, but I got in the car of Justice Pain and went home, but on the way my back hurts and I can't help but say something, Justice Pain would say, "Drink this." He gave me a pain reliever. When I drank it, the pain stopped, but this time the medicine was too strong and I felt uncomfortable, so I asked him to stop the car and jumped out on the highway and threw up.

Eventually, I finally got home. The next day I boarded a plane and flew to Japan for 16 hours. My back still hurts, so I couldn't lean on my seat and I spent 16 hours in a forward leaning position. It was a hell flight. It's a full-blown scar, but for the time being, I came back to Japan safely. I went to the dojo in Big Japan to say hello, but I was told, "Tomorrow we will be sending wrestlers to the Battlarts Sapporo show, so go to Sapporo and wrestle." My back was full of wounds and blood was still bleeding, but I did as I was told, so I flew to Sapporo the next day, attended the Battlarts show, and fought against Katsumi Usuda.

It would have been better to have the week off to rest, fortunately or unfortunately, because the business destination was close to Obihiro, I was able to go home after a long time. So of course I took a bath, but at that time, my mother saw my body full of scratches and started crying, "What are you doing?!" She was angry while crying, "Don't you go to Tokyo for professional wrestling?" and I said, "No, this is proof that I am in professional wrestling." My family didn't know what I was doing as a wrestler because they only watched the matches when I was a newcomer, but that's before I started doing death matches. I didn't even think about it. My parents cried and told me to stop doing professional wrestling, but I didn't even think about it.

I naturally lived in the dormitory of the second floor of the Big Japan Pro-Wrestling Dojo, but in reality I left the dorm relatively early. That was because I got married to Kami very soon after meeting her.

The story of meeting Kami

The story of my encounter with Kami goes back and forth, but I think it was about a year and a half after my debut. At that time, there was a newcomer named Urban Ken in Battlarts, he was injured and couldn't wrestle, so an offer came to Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, "Send someone young." Since Battlarts is a Battlarts style, I was talking that Ito about training in boxing for a suitable style, but I thought that it would be more interesting for me to compete in the middle of Battarts style and death match style, so I went to wrestle at the Battlarts Nagano show. I like Battlarts, as I had sent my resume to join the group, so I didn't think I would participate for them in this way. The match was a single with Katsumi Usuda, but at that time I couldn't kick or work the joints at all, so I used missile drop kicks, German Suplex, and diving head butt in pure professional wrestling style. At the end of the match, a Battlarts person invited me to to the shows after drinking party with fans. I went there and that's where I met Kami.

She was there with her sister, and as I learned later, she was known among New Japan wrestlers as "Nagano's most enthusiastic New Japan Pro-Wrestling fan sister". I heard this later, but she got acquainted with the owner of the store that put together the show, and he said, "If you buy 10 tickets for the Battlarts show, I will let you attend in the after party." It seems that she bought 10 of them and participated in the drinking party. Well, I guess I thought she thought it was a rare opportunity to drink with a professional wrestler. She is a New Japan Pro-Wrestling fan, so she hasn't seen any other promotions, and it seems she didn't know who anyone was other than Minoru Tanaka in Battlarts. I'm not a Battlarts wrestler, and it's been about a year and a half year since my debut, so of course she doesn't know who Jun Kasai is. Besides, I am blonde, have no front teeth, so my first impression was scary. However, even though I looked like that, it was normal when we talked, so we had a good connection, and she didn't even know the character of Jun Kasai until a few minutes ago.

We talked all night, and I hadn't gotten sick of it, so that made me feel good, she took pictures with me, and I said if she saw that I was wrestling somewhere, please come and see me. A few weeks later, a letter came from her to the Dojo in Big Japan, and the picture I took with her was enclosed, with a note saying "There seems to be a Nagano show for Big Japan Pro-Wrestling coming soon, so I'll support you." her phone number and e-mail address were written on the letter. When I consulted with Mr. Honma, "I'm getting this letter," he said, "Oh, you have to go see her", and something like "report the results!" I told her the hotel we were staying at, met her outside of it, and we took a walk while holding hands at Lake Suwa at night. Then, when I asked "Do you have a boyfriend?", She said "I do." Then, when I said that we couldn't go out then, she said, "No, it's okay because I'm going to break up with him."

It became a daily routine to talk to her on the phone for about half a year. She then told me she would be coming by her for her work vacation, so when I met her, she started saying, "I want to move here." She was a clerk in Nagano, so when I said, "What are you going to do about your job?" She said, "I'm going to quit and move here." No, even if you move here, I'm still living in the dojo, and when I will get in trouble and we will have to break up. She rented an apartment in Sagamihara and started living alone. Well, now that we can meet, I thought it would be okay, and I wondered if I had a life like meeting and dating somewhere almost every day for about two months, and then she said, "I wonder if we can live together." "No, I haven't been able to make my mark in professional wrestling since I made my debut, and I can't tell the company I am leave the dormitory to live with a woman," she said. "Then we will break up."

It's all the same pattern ... For the time being, I decided to persuade the people in the company, and when I talked to Mr. Yamakawa about the situation, he gave me a light answer like "Oh, is that so?" I decided to leave the dormitory smoothly with a feeling like "More trainees will come in again, and nothing will change when I leave the dormitory." I already lived with her in her Sagamihara apartment and went to the Kamoi Dojo to practice, but one day she ate dinner and said, "My grandma is old and not going to live much longer and I want her to see me get married." I don't have a desire to get married yet, I want to concentrate on professional wrestling, and it's hard to say to the tell the company. I already knew her answer, as usual, would be "I will break up and go back to Nagano then", so I said "I understand." So when I had to tell the company that I was going to get married, it was a great time.

There was a story about a certain wrestler and a certain staff getting married in-house. It's an in-house romance for Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, so that was a big incident, and I thought it would be easier to tell them my situation, so I took advantage of it and told the company. I was able to get married smoothly.

Withdrawal from Big Japan

There is a difference between the reaction of the customer and the reaction of the company.

I didn't want to slow down just because I had a family, and I was still thinking about having great matches games and becoming the top guy in Big Japan. In fact, at that time, every match I had was exciting, even if I came away from them thinking they were sloppy, my matches were a big hit for the audience. For example, February 22, 2001 Korakuen Hall a "CZW Style Philadelphia Banana Match". Personally, this was a sloppy match, but the audience was pleased and "Weekly Pro" magazine featured it on page 3 in color. I felt a little uncomfortable, but I was trying to do more, and I started to set up new death matches. "Barefoot & CZW Caribbean Style Barbed Wire Death Match" on May 27, 2001 with Mr. Matsunaga, and "Glass & Barbed wire Board CZW Style King Banana Match" on June 25, 2001 with Zandig.

My push in Big Japan wasn't perfect, and it was a time when I thought about how to stand out by taking advantage of the match format that my opponent had in mind, and I was able to improve with my own production ability. By this time, Mr. Honma had already runaway, and Mr. Yamakawa had been absent due to a serious injury with a skull fracture in Hakata, so I would said to myself, that I would get it to where fans would think that Big Japan was Jun Kasai. I think it had a strong presence. However, it was not evaluated so much by the company. At that time, Big Japan Pro-Wrestling had a strong opinion from Men's Teioh, but Teioh just thought I was "comical and appealing to customers, but not for actual wrestling." My ally this was Zandig, and he told the company that "Kasai is too low in evaluation when fans are so into his matches" and Zandig himself felt that CZW was not being handled well. It seems that from the fall of 2001, there was a disagreement between Big Japan Pro-Wrestling and Zandig.

Even if Zandig appealed to let me do more, I think the company just thought he was just a foreigner being rude.

The Yokohama Arena show was a decisive hit.

The Yokohama Arena show, a big show where Big Japan Pro-Wrestling literally hung up on company luck, will be held on December 2, 2001, while various waves are rising outside and inside and there is a disturbing atmosphere. It's a big venue that I've never experienced before, so I was eager to wrestle a death match that no one had ever seen before. However, the card was decided was that it would be me, Mad Man Pondo, Wifebeater, and the "X" announced on the day and "200 Fluorescent Light Tubes 4 Way Death Match" in the 5th match before the break. I was disappointed that it wouldn't change. The identity of the "X" was Zandig, and although I won the match, I felt incomplete.

Mr. Kojika and Mr. Teioh seemed to call Terry Funk and Mil Máscaras to do what they wanted, and Sekimoto had a singles match with Shinjiro Otani. Mr. Yamakawa, who was resting due to injury, is doing a moving return battle, and what is my treatment? After all, I may have been hated by someone in the group. At the main event of this Yokohama Arena tournament, I was at ringside for Matsunaga-san in his singles match, I think that I felt like I shouldn't get in the way for this match as I did what I liked and that's what made me popular. Zandig raised the CZW team to the ring after the match and declared that he would leave Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, but I didn't know that would happen, but when I saw that scene, I was convinced CZW wouldn't come back anymore. . After this main, there was a return match for Mr. Yamakawa, and at the end most of the Big Japan Wrestling wrestlers went up to the ring and wept, but I was not in that circle.

Red Mamushi

"Red Mamushi" (pit viper) formed after the disappearance of "CZW Japan" I was not informed that CZW would leave Big Japan Pro-Wrestling at the end of the Yokohama Arena show, and it was assumed by Mr. Kojika and Eiji Tosaka they were not returning. Even if CZW doesn't come back, there was not much sense crisis among the wrestlers. On the contrary, "It's a chance to show something of higher quality without CZW. I had a strong feeling that "CZW Japan" disappeared naturally because Zandig and others disappeared, so I decided to form a new unit with Mr. Hido and Mr. Winger. .. In this unit, it's not that the three people agreed on what they wanted to do in the Big Japan ring, but that the we just matched, or that us three often went out drinking together in private outside of the ring. It was born in a flow like a group.

So I was wondering what to do with the name of the unit, but I remembered when Mr. Honma and Mr. Yamakawa formed a tag and recruited a tag team name. One of the candidates was the name "Mamushi no Kyodai" (Viper Brothers) and even though it wasn't adopted as the actual tag name, it had a huge impact on me and I wanted to use it for something someday. However, there is no art to say "Mamushi no Kyodai" as it is. Speaking of "mamushi", there is a nutritional drink called "red pit viper". Everyone knows this, and I thought it would be easier to remember, so I changed the name of pit viper to "red pit viper". For me, both Mr. Hido and Mr. Winger are seniors, but "Red Mamushi" has a careless atmosphere and I really enjoyed it. We went to a local tour, and went wild in the matches, and after that, all three of us went out together and drank until morning. Nowadays, I'm a drinker who drinks every day, but until then I had never thought that drinking was particularly delicious. It was Mr. Hido who taught me the taste and enjoyment of sake. Drink, drink, drink all the time. Mr. Hido is a person who really likes alcohol and has a strange way of drinking.

One day he was drunk and angry, and yelled "Kasai, you apologize to the sake! Thank you for drinking!" I was so influenced by the sake I felt like my life was getting out of control. There was also another reason to this. My salary was being delayed. Red Mamushi was attracting the support of the customers who came to the venue, and T-shirts were selling well, but the fans who came for CZW were now gone. Because they had completely separated, Big Japan Wrestling itself was struggling to attract customers, but thinking about various new things on how to attract new customers.

On March 8, 2002, at Korakuen Hall, I did a "Red Mamushi-sponsored box office". .. I'm came to the the ring in my normal attire, but for some reason my opponent, Teioh, wrestled the match in a rabbit costume, which was called a "handicap costume match", and even though the building was not full, many red pit viper fans enjoyed it.

Nonetheless, the slump of Big Japan Wrestling continued, and the delay in delivery of guarantees began to occur around this time. At first, I would say, "My salary will just be a little late," but I liked wrestling with "Red Mamushi," which has been working for free for months. I also enjoyed the tours. However, I really didn't have the money. Without money, my motivation would drop, and even though I liked what I was doing, I sometimes thought, "It doesn't make sense to do it if I'm so poor," and I came back to the Kamoi Dojo in the middle of the night from the end of a tour. When the bus arrived, Nikkan Lee, who lived in the same direction as me, sometimes would drive me to back to my house by car.

At that time, Nikkan told me something like "Mr. Kasai you have not gotten your salary for months, is that okay?" and I said "I'm only doing it because Kami is working, but I don't like it. If I don't get any money, I'd like to get paid even if I'm injured.” I was complaining that I could be really injured at the WEW Kawasaki show on May 5, 2002, just after that. I was reminded that an accident would actually occur if I went to the ring with such feelings.

My anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) ruptured as I have never been seriously injured since my debut, some professional wrestlers often say, "I have a bomb in my knee", but what kind of feeling is that? I couldn't imagine it. On that day, I participated at the WEW Kawasaki show without much tension in terms of money. I think it was a relatively comical tag match with Poison Sawada and the opponents were Biomonster DNA and Mr. Onryo. During the match, Mr. Onryo's low-altitude drop kick happened to hit my knee at a strange angle. At that moment, I heard a squeak and a terrible pain, but I had never been injured so much, so I felt like I was just a little twisted. The match went on as it was, and I think that the customers didn't notice it because I still did a German Suplex and a Pearl Harbor Splash. When the match was over and I returned to the waiting room while dragging one leg, the person who was the director of "Samurai TV" at the time said, "Kasai-kun, are you okay? The way you walk is a little strange." "It's okay. There will be a Big Japan match in Shin-Kawasaki tomorrow, so I will go to bed and wake up and it will be cured for tomorrow."

But the person said, "No, this isn't normal. You should go to the hospital." So I went to the hospital with the feeling that I would be okay. When I was examined I was just thinking that I would get a proper ship and go home, but the doctor said, "The anterior cruciate band ruptured and the medial collateral ligament ruptured. You have to take a rest for about a year because surgery is required. I was told. When I returned to the venue with shock because of such a serious injury, Kodo Fuyuki, the owner of WEW, waited and asked me, "Are you okay?" when I said, "I have to have surgery and miss about a year," Fuyuki said, "You were injured at my show, so I'll take care of the treatment costs." However, I thought it would be a mistake to ask Mr. Fuyuki to pay for the treatment, and said, "I belong to Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, so I have ask them take care of that. Please understand accept my feelings."

When I went back and consulted with Mr. Kojika, he said, "Oh yeah. I'll pay for medical treatment, surgery, and hospitalization, so you should take a rest." But I didn't get anything. That's right. There is no way that an organization that does not pay the athletes properly can pay the hospitalization fee and medical treatment fee to the person who is going to take a rest. I decided to be hospitalized and undergo surgery, thinking that I had no choice but to accept Kami paying for it. On the hospital bed, Kami said, "It may be time to reset various things. You should reconsider the situation you are in with Big Japan," and I thought for a moment. The surgery went well, and the days of rehabilitation began while I was discharged from the hospital and treated at home. My doctor told me that I couldn't wrestle a match for about a year, so when I was wondering, "I'm still not getting paid by Big Japan, this is wrong." I decided to go and talk with Eiji Tosaka. I was very with him straight and said, "I haven't been paid while wrestling, and now I can't wrestle and I am still not going to get paid."

Tosaka also had a tone of "That's right, I'm sorry", and he just said "I can't help you", and after that I decided to leave Big Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Since the promotion was close to collapsing, they may have felt that it was good that the number of wrestlers decreased by one. However, whether I was injured or left Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, my passion for professional wrestling did not diminish.

Click here for Jun Kasai's Autobiography Part 3