Returning to Big Japan Pro-Wrestling

A lot had happened since I quit Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, so I would be lying to say I was not scared about getting in the ring ring again. However, the hands of the clock keep moving, and on February 22, 2005, a week after leaving ZERO-ONE, I was supposed to wrestle in the main event of the Korakuen Hall for Big Japan Wrestling. This was the first death match I have had in a few years, and it is the main event of Korakuen Hall. The card was decided to be "Ryuji Ito & Kintaro Kanemura & Men's Teioh vs. Jun Kasai & Hido & Takashi Sasaki". Even before the match, my motivation has been rising. The cheers of the fans at the time of admission sounded like "welcome home", and even after the gong rang and the match started, my body moved obediently. I felt like "This is it!" for Death Matches, and I thought I was a fish that got back in the water.

This was the first time I have wrestled against Ito in a death match. After the match, I grabbed the microphone, "Well, this is it. Ryuji Ito I am back you bastard. I want to challenge for the belt!" when Takashi Sasaki who lost to to Ito in this match stole the microphone and shouted, "You are not the only one challenging for the belt. Ito, let me challenge for it!" The fans in the venue were boo'ing loudly. At that time, I knew the name Takashi Sasaki, but I almost never had any encounter with him. I met him somewhere at a show and greeted him, but I had never talked to him. Shortly before I returned to Big Japan, he quit DDT (DDT Pro-Wrestling) and threw himself into Death Matches to challenge for Ito's Death Match Heavyweight Belt.

However, the fans were completely hoping for a title match between Jun Kasai and Ryuji Ito, "Takashi Sasaki? Who are you?" and "Get rid of this guy!" were being chanted from the fans. I heard later that Masashi Takeda, who hadn't debuted yet, was among the spectators who were screaming at the venue at that time. It seems that Takeda was also heckling at Sasaki, "We don't want you!"

I was convinced that my feelings for death match were second to none, so I wanted to do a single with Ito and let everyone see the difference. After that, I started to continue participating in Big Japan Wrestling, aiming for a single match with Ito. There was support from the customers, and there was a growing voice that they wanted to see the death match between Ryuji Ito and Jun Kasai as soon as possible, so I assumed this would be the next big match. When the card was announced, Ito's title match opponent was Sasaki.

Even though the that's not what the audience was asking for, I don't know anything about the front office in Big Japan. I wondered who I was going to face against, and when I looked at the June 8, 2005 card, it said, "There will be a singles match with Jun Kasai vs. Black Angel Jaki Numazawa." Jaki Numazawa is a two-year junior to me. We had a talked before when I was still in Big Japan, but we were not close, and we never got together in private because of the relationship between ordinary seniors and juniors. However, I had heard that he wanted to be a death match wrestler while I was still in Big Japan, and while I was in ZERO-ONE, he began doing a death matches under the name "Black Angel Jaki Numazawa". So if they were not going to let me have the match with Ito, then a singles match with Numazawa may have shown there was speculation on Big Japan's side. In a way saying, "you have to show us you can do it with Numazawa, before you can have a match with Ito" With that in mind, I decided to use razors for this match. I had been thinking of doing a razor match in my battle with Ryuji Ito for a long time.

Actually, I was thinking of doing it when watching the singles match Ito had with Mr. Hido back in December. No matter how bloody the match between Ito and I will be, the end will be refreshing. Then we'll show you the opposite, muddy, real life or death match...

The day before the show, I went with Kami and my eldest son, who was only a few years old. We went to a home improvement store called "Super Viva Home", bought a board, Styrofoam, and a razor blade, and brought it to the dojo in Big Japan to make a "razor board". When I was driving home with it, Kami said to me, "Is it okay to have such a match? You won't die, but what if you get seriously injured? Anyway, please only do this one time. " So when I got home, I put my son in a stroller and the three family members went shopping for dinner at a local supermarket.

"045 Evil Monkey Madness"

The day of June 8th a singles match between Numazawa and I was the fifth match on the show. The match format was titled "MADNESS OF MASSACRE" which would be a "barbed wire board & razor cross board + alpha death match". Even though I was prepared, the power of the razor board was tremendous, and it became a bloody development for both of us. The fans who were cheering at the beginning became quieter and quieter, and by the end they were creeped out, it was a match that I intended to creep them out, and I thought that it was a win. The audience may have been more excited about the Ito and Sasaki main event, but the match format was "300 Fluorescent Light Tubes" and any death match wrestler can have a match like that to some extent.

However, the match that Numazawa and I had was a match that only two people had done. So no matter what the fans think, we thought it was a good match, and we decided to form a tag team called the "045 Evil Monkey Madness". Numazawa had seemed to be sluggish in Big Japan at that time, so I thought that it would be better to team him up with me, as we had a similar style and way of thinking about death matches, and Numazawa is a great tag partner for me. It was excellent. We can have a bloody death match, and we can also have a comedy match. We can go to a rural area for the first time to get the audience excited, and of course we can also have a main event style spectacular match. However, there were times when the kindness of Numazawa's personality came out. He had a desire to to establish Jun Kasai more than himself. However, at that time, the first class of Big Japan seniors called "Death Match New Generation" were all gone, so Jun Kasai, Ryuji Ito, Takashi Sasaki, and Jaki Numazawa were the new forefront of the Japanese Death Match. However, I think the quality of the death match had improved steadily.

However, what I was aiming for was a title match with Ito. Around this time, when asked for comment I would state that the title being on the line would be meaningless to me. I'm not so particular about belts and titles. If you have a belt at the time, you may have more voice or it may be interesting for the promotion, but it is only a tool for that. Therefore, I don't understand the feelings of wrestlers, such as taking a belt and taking it to a bar to go drinking, or wanting to use a photo with a belt for a New Year's card.

The day I hugged Kami and cried

The title was secondary, and when the mood was rising and it was about time for a singles match would happen with Ito, something happened to my body. I went to the promotion put on by Mr. Pogo called WWS, and after the match, I ate a meal in Isesaki and came home by train. I was so tired that I went to bed as soon as I got home. In the middle of the night, my stomach hurts so much that I woke up.

When I woke up Kami who was sleeping I was sweating and said, "I have a stomachache," she said, "you can't go to the hospital in the middle of the night, but if you wake up tomorrow morning and it still hurts, you should go to the internal medicine department in the neighborhood." I was thinking, "I'm not at that level ...", I tried to sleep with only stomach medicine, but it hurts and I can't sleep. In the morning, I asked her Kami to take me to the general hospital. When I said to the receptionist, "I have a stomachache so can I be seen right away?" and they said, "You have to wait your turn and as long as you can walk on your own feet, okay? Please wait for a while." I laid down on the reception bench and waited for about an hour. When I finally got to see a doctor and asked, "Lets take some x-ray scans," I was hoping for CT or MRI scan so I had feeling like "That's it?," but I was wondering if I couldn't take them because I didn't have a reservation? While I was thinking about it, the number of doctors and nurses increased steadily during the examination, and the atmosphere was more than just a matter of course. After the examination, I was called by a doctor.

From the results, I was diagnosed with intussusceptions which is intestinal obstruction. I had a baby's fist-sized tumor my his small intestine, and I am also suffering from appendicitis. "Immediate hospitalization and immediate surgery." In general, such swelling often occurs in the large intestine, and it was revealed that the small intestine is a very rare case. "In the worst case, you may have cancer. I don't know if it's benign or malignant unless we do more scans..." As soon as the doctor told me that, I thought, "If I have cancer. It's over." I was taken to the hospital room where I was hospitalized, had the nurse prepare a bed, and when the nurse said, "Take care," I hugged Kami and cried. Shortly after Kami left, I said something like "I may have no future. I want to see my son." when receptionist who responded when I came to the hospital entered and changed my blood and said, " I'm really sorry. Ordinary people don't walk on their feet to come to the hospital in such pain ... " I'm a pain-resistant person, but I thought it wasn't good to get used to it.

While I was in the hospital, I didn't really think about Ito or Death Matches, and my feelings toward professional wrestling disappeared. I was in the mind set of living or dying, and was rather prepared to die. I became a long-shot professional wrestler, had matches in front of fans, and did a lot of things that ordinary people could not experience, so I was convinced that I had a good life if I die now. However, I felt sorry for leaving my family and dying first. It would come out that my tumor was benign and not cancer. However, I has to rest for a while. As a professional wrestler, I was is in the position of "long absence due to visceral disease". Big Japanese wrestlers came to see me out of sympathy, but rarely did Eiji Tosaka come. Mr. Kanemura held a "Jun Kasai Aid show" and said, "Use it for your living expenses while you are absent."

He gave me all the money. I was really grateful. That's about all the money that came in during my absence, and my savings quickly ran out. I couldn't help it, so I sold my Honda STEPWGN that I had just bought and couldn't drive at all to add to my living expenses. This was the least amount of money I ever had. Even when I quit ZERO-ONE and started to wrestle in Big Japan as a freelancer, I was secretly working part-time jobs because I was not making enough money to live off of. I did sorting work in a warehouse and picked strawberry calyx at the bakery and putting them on shortcakes. I thought I wouldn't like it if a professional wrestling fan saw me doing these jobs somewhere, but there is no choice but to live. Still, I never felt like quitting professional wrestling. During my absence, I was even more motivated. I was alive and can still compete in death matches. I am going to bring up the death matches, and become famous, and I'll build a house for my family. Rather than a hungry spirit, I had a goal to aim for and that was having a decisive battle with Ryuji Ito for my return. It was a feeling of "It's going to happen someday."

Joining Apache Pro-Wrestling Army

I was hospitalized for a visceral disease, and at one point I thought I was going to die, but I was able to recover steadily and recover. I had been absent for about five months, so I felt more like working as soon as possible and earning money than waiting to fully recover. I was free, so if I didn't push myself, I would not get paid. At that time, it was the old nest of Big Japan Pro-Wrestling and the Apache Pro-Wrestling Army, which was launched by Mr. Kanemura, who frequently performed death matches, so I was thinking of making these two rings my main battlefield. I have to create a flow from the beginning for the Ito match, which had lost momentum while I was resting. Takashi Sasaki was now the champion. I wanted to challenge Ito, so I have to get Sasaki out of the picture first. Otherwise, he will be involved in Kasai vs. Ito and will be a hindrance.

I often fought Takashi Sasaki while in Apache, but I didn't have much contact with him because he had a heel unit called the "Takashi Army". Around that time, there was an after party after the Apache show, and there was an opportunity for all the participating wrestlers to gather at a bar in Kabuki-cho to drink together. As the night got later and everyone got drunk, Mr. Kanemura said, "Kasai, don't be free anymore. Join Apache." I reflexively replied, "I don't like it." For me, I was thinking of being free, both physically and mentally, so even though I never thought about belonging to any organization at this time, Mr. Kanemura said, "Oh, you belong to me. However, I was persistently telling him, "I'm free," and I was repeating the exchanges with "I think being free is more free." As the night went on and I got drunk, Mr. Kanemura said, "OK! Kasai will belong to me from today!" and I said, "Then I will write the contract myself."

I wrote "Slave until my death" on the back of the contract and gave it to him. Then Mr. Kanemura said with a proud face, "Now you're my slave until you die," so I took that contract, put it in my mouth, and swallowed it. The next day I was a member of the Apache Pro-Wrestling Army. At that time, Apache had Mr. Kanemura on top with Mr. Tetsuhiro Kuroda, Mr. Hido, and Mr. Winger, and there was also Takashi and GENTARO, and later Mammoth Sasaki came in after that, there was also Mr. Shinjuku Shark. As Mr. Kanemura said, the wrestlers were free and everyone could work whatever they wanted, so it was comfortable as it was. Mad Man Pondo, who came to Big Japan from CZW around the August 2006, invited me to come to America for a death match tournament with his group on September 9th.

I decided to accept to go to the "Masters of Pain" tournament sponsored by an organization called IWA East Coast, and this is the first time to commemorate. It is said that they will hold a one-day tournament only for death match. It's been a long time for me to travel to the United States, and I went with a boy who could speak English and we went to the city of South Charleston, West Virginia. I went to the venue to check the ring a little the day before the tournament. The ring wasn't made yet, but the young wrestlers and staff were working hard to make death match items, and there was a peculiar enthusiasm. People were gathering around the back door of the venue and it sounded crazy, so when I went to peep at what they were doing, everyone was smoking marijuana and I thought that I might have come to a dangerous place. However, this tournament was surprisingly high grade, and the famous Death Match fighter who was active in the American indie world at that time was participating. My first match was with Toby Klein, also known as 'Mr. Insanity', in a "No Rope Barbed Wire Pit of Red Lobsters Death Match which I won after hitting a German Suplex on the scattering lobsters in the ring.

The second round, was a fluorescent light death match with the organizer Mad Man Pondo which I also won. My opponent for the final would be against JC Bailey. The ring with had barbed wire and nail board and it was a pretty tough match, but I defeated JC Bailey, and managed to win the tournament. Bailey was a crazy wrestler, and the match was a highlight for me. Bailey died at a young age four years after our match, partly because of matches like we had. The Masters of Pain was a memorable expedition for me. Mad Man Pondo is a lovable idiot, and something like a child, so I got along with him. I don't know what he is doing these days, but I want to go crazy with him again someday.

I returned to Japan with a tag team victory with Tomoaki Honma in a death match rampage for Apache Pro-Wrestling at Korakuen Hall. Around this time The Apache ring was mixed, and Togi Makabe was competing from New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and Apache would compete against him for Riki Pro's LOCK UP. Around that time, Mr. Honma came to Apache. Mr. Honma had been a member of All Japan Pro-Wrestling since he ran away from Big Japan Pro-Wrestling and moved to various promotions. He quit those also and arrived at Apache. There are a lot of things that he thinks "I'm stupid" about in many situations, but the respect he has for me is slightly higher.

Mr. Honma, who is an important senior for me, entered Death Matches for the first time in a while, but he didn't want to do it. He was already a little crushed and boasted, "I took took too many death match bumps when I was in Big Japan, so now I am going to avoid taking them as much as possible!" and he was no longer enthusiastic about death matches. Since I was in Big Japan, I wanted to work with Honma someday, so I didn't expect to be together at this time, and I never thought that we could team up and win the WEW Tag Titles. I was honestly happy.

The end of 2006 was was approaching, when Mr. Go Ito, who was involved in Apache as a office member, said, "Kasai-kun has become popular, so let's do it a Jun Kasai produce show soon!" Lets hold a show called "Jun Kasai Produce STILL CRAZY" on December 25, 2006 at Shin-Kiba 1st RING." "Jun Kasai Produce" at this time is just a name, and in reality I hardly touched the show as far as booking or promoting it, but at this time Apache was a two-top with Mr. Kanemura and Mr. Kuroda, and there were many matches like hardcore matches. Therefore, there was a plan to launch another brand specializing in more intense death matches. Despite the name, the first production box office for me was a death match tournament with eight participants. I won the thumbtacks death match with Mad Man Pondo in the first round and GENTARO who became BENTEN in the second round and advanced to the final. My next opponent was The Winger, who defeated Mr. Honma to advance to the finals.

Mr. Winger always said, "I don't want to do a death match!" when he was first entered into this tournament, but when he participated, he showed great tenacity and climbed up to the final. That's why I can't believe what he says. The final match format is "Barbed Wire Spider Net Glass Crash + alpha Death Match". I remember Honma and Zandig doing the glass death match in Japan, but I haven't done it for a long time, so I put it on here. The match will be terrible, flashy, and the audience will be enthusiastic. Since then, glass death match has become a staple when it comes to Jun Kasai's production. The match is built around trying to plunge the other into the glass board. I laid Winger on the table, climbed up on the signboards at Shin-Kiba and dived off of it. However, at the end, I ate Winger's diving senton, and when I heard a three count, Winger who said "I don't want to do it" kidnapped me for the victory. Although I couldn't win the result, this production box office was well received by the customers, and I decided to continue doing it.

Damage of the Glass Death Match

Immediately after the first show, the second production box office "Anarchy in Crazy Monkey" was held on March 31, 2007. I nominated Numazawa as my opponent and challenged him to "Glass Crash + alpha (mystery item) Death Match". It was a match that embodied the bloody human-like death match that both I and Numazawa wanted, but I felt the damage of the glass board death match again. The fluorescent light cuts off quickly, but the glass is scraped off along with the skin. So it hurts, bleeds a lot, and the wounds heal slowly. The glass system hurts right when you hit it and it breaks, but the damage is greater if you take it passively in a ring that is scattered with debris, and it gets harder as the match comes to an end. That's why glass is an item that you only want to do when it's time for you. Also, there is a cost issue that I do not want to use it so many times in a match. That glass plate costs about 20,000 yen ($200) per sheet, so if you use many, it will cost you a lot of money. By this time, the production box office had began making money. To make a good show, you have to put in a reasonable budget.

The third one I did in the summer was 3 shows at Shin-Kiba 1st RING for 3 consecutive days. Following this is the box office that was scaled up and became the model for the Shin-Kiba Midsummer Death Match Carnival. However, at this time, Mr. Kanemura was injured and missed those shows as did Yuko Miyamoto, who was a hot stock as a new generation death match fighter. It was Takashi Sasaki who faced me on all three three shows because the roster was limited. Although we had a conflict going into the three shows, this series also meant showing our inside and outside because our generation had the same purpose of taking the top position in Apache. The first day is a singles match with Takashi with the match format of "10,000 barefoot thumbtacks death match". I've done barefoot thumbtacks several times, but I can't walk properly and it's hard to have a good match. On this day, both I and Takashi were enthusiastic and had a match with a solid offense and defense, but the result was I lost. On the second day, I teamed up with Numazawa and had a tag team match with Takashi & Ito. The ring had fluorescent lights and barbed wire board and it was a rough development, but at the end I delivered a reverse tiger driver on Takashi and made up for the humiliation from the day before. The final round is "Glass Crash + alpha Death Match" with Takashi and I in a singles again.

I took terrible damage, but I delivered balcony dive and then defeated Takashi with a Pearl Harbor Splash. At the end of the show, I challenged the Mammoth Sasaki who had the WEW Heavyweight Title in Apache.

The stage of the decisive battle would be on October 22, 2007, at Korakuen Hall which was produced by Jun Kasai. Mammoth had been nervous before the match, as six years earlier, on October 22, 2001, Hayabusa suffered a serious injury at the same Korakuen Hall. The opponent at that time was Mammoth. In a strange way, Mammoth seemed to be worried that something might happen again. The match format is "4 Corner Glass Crash Death Match". The damage to the four glasses was tremendous, but I made my first successful Korakuen Hall balcony dive in this match, to be precise, it's not the first time I've flown from the balcony of Korakuen Hall. The first time that I flew, or fell actually, was against Homicide, who did it during the ZERO-ONE era.

It was a singles match and I laid Homicide on the table, ran upstairs, reached the balcony, and when I thought about flying off, I looked down and there was no Homicide. When I thought, "What?", Homicide escaped from the table and was approaching me from behind, and attacked me and pushed me off. That's why I was attempted to dive, as I was knocked down from the balcony by myself. In this Mammoth match, I was able to make a solid dive, but the mammoth showed a strange toughness, and soon I got up he grabbed my neck and slammed me with a chokeslam. At the end of the match, I was bleeding with a ring of broken glass and tried my best, but at the end he hit me with the 29 years old and got the three count. The jinx that I couldn't win at my own production box office might have started around this time. By the way, the balcony dive is now forbidden at Korakuen Hall and Shin-Kiba 1stRING. I can't taste that fear and excitement anymore. Even if it looked like it, I'm not good at high places.

Speaking on the balcony since the scaffolding is narrow, it's pretty scary just to climb up and go to the point of flight. I don't think there are many people who can compare Korakuen Hall and Shin-Kiba 1st RING, which one is scarier, but I think Shin-Kiba 1st RING was scarier, and I think it's more difficult.

It's normal to have a laceration on your back or to need many stitches, but a big injury that makes you unable to wrestle is something that you wouldn't expect to see. November 26, 2007, Korakuen Hall for Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. I teamed up with Naoki Tanizaki and challenged Takashi Sasaki & Yuko Miyamoto to a barbed wire board tag death match. At the end of the match, I was fighting with Takashi outside the ring, and my left knee made a squeaking noise in the shadow of stepping on my left foot to hit a chop. I had a severe pain, but the fans were paying attention to Yuko and Tanizaki in the ring, so they are not aware of my incident. The conclusion was settled between Yuko and Tanizaki, and I came back while dragging my leg to the waiting room.

When I went to the hospital immediately and had a medical examination, the meniscus of my left knee was injured. It must be removed with the meniscus turned up and pinched between the joints. I can be discharged from the hospital in about a week after the operation, but I was told that it would take two months before I could walk normally and about half a year to wrestle a match. I have just recovered from a visceral disease, but now I have to rest for half a year. I have to wait to rehabilitate before I can wrestle and make money again.

I consulted with Kami, the company she was working for at that time was a company for wholesales amenity goods to various hotels, and she introduced me to a love hotel cleaning job at that point. I've been working part-time since I became a professional wrestler, but I didn't want anyone to see me doing it. However, cleaning a love hotel means I am invisible, and on the contrary, you have to avoid meeting customers as much as possible. I thought this might be a good idea, and when I went to the interview, the manager of the hotel was a professional wrestling fan, and during the interview I just talked about professional wrestling and he said, "Please start tomorrow."

A psychic experience at a love hotel

It was a huge hotel with more than 50 rooms, and cleaning kept me quite busy because the customers also entered with prostitutes. Still, this night cleaning seemed to suit me, and I worked on a moped on rainy, snowy, and windy days. I got a glimpse of the humanity of the people who come and go in the hotel, and the people who work helped me a lot, and I learned a lot in my life. Besides that, I also encountered something like a psychic phenomenon that is common in hotels. Well, I don't bother to write it, and I don't know if it really happened now. As a general premise, I was tired at that time, I was always short of sleep, and I was not in a normal mental state anyway. The job of cleaning the hotel is done by a pair of people. When the customer checks out, the front desk instructs them to enter the room in pairs and start cleaning. After that, there is a person in charge called "inspection confirmer" who goes into the room by himself, makes a final check, and when it is OK, the room is vacant and put up for sale.

Was it about 2 or 3 in the middle of the night one day? Since I was the inspector on that day, I was asked to check in the room that had been cleaned, and I understood and entered the room. I was checking if I had forgotten to remove the trash and if I had left the amenities, but I had to check that the room which had had a bedrock was clean. So when I go into the bedrock bath room and look for dirt, I feel someone's gaze diagonally behind me. At that time, I usually wondered if one of the staff came to speed up the work, but I looked around the room, but no one was there. When I went back to the bedrock bath room and checked the floor, I could feel the line of sight again. So, when I gently turned my face back a little, there was a huge black shadow between the TV and the bed. This is dangerous, I realized that I had seen something that should not be seen, so I immediately stopped the inspection, left the room without seeing the shadow, and contacted the front desk "No abnormality. Sell the room I told him, "Please," and continued the inspection work in a different room. About a month later, I was in charge of the inspection again.

Then around at 2 o'clock in the middle of the night again, I was told "Please inspect room", I went to the bedrock bath room again. Well, I started the inspection, even though I was a little nervous, and when I checked the bathroom, I felt the line of sight from behind. When I look back at what it is, I feel uncomfortable when I check it, and I feel the line of sight again, so if I gently look back with just my eyes, it's on the door at the entrance of the bath. I turned around and there was a girl in a red kimono with a bob-head hair cut and a flat face, and her neck stretched out silently. I thought "wow" and I finished my work promptly, left the room, and wirelessly reported to the front desk, "The inspection is over. Please sell." When I went to the waiting room during the break of the day, there was an older woman who was working the same part-time job as me. When I casually said, "I saw a huge black shadow a while ago, and today I saw a girl with a bob-head in a red kimono," she said, "That's the bedrock bath room." "I'm really uncomfortable when I enter that room lately, and I see a lot of things ..." she said, it's not like a person died in that room, it's a love hotel.

It was a place where men and women with various circumstances met, so only the negative thoughts of those people remained, and they were floating in the room all the time. Well, what I want to say is that I had been doing night cleaning so much that I had such an experience. After I had my return match for the first time in half a year, I have stopped working this part-time job, but from the night before the match to the morning. It was common for me to work until 5 am, come home, sleep for a while, and then head to the wrestling venue. I did it for 5 or 6 years in total, so I managed to recover from the injury on my left knee while working part-time, which may have been suitable for me, and on June 13, 2008, I returned for the first time in half a year. The big change during my break was that Mr. Kanemura had disappeared from Apache Pro, which happened during my absence, so I don't know the details. That's why I went a different path without talking to him.

This return battle was also the front line of resumption of activities for Apache Pro, and I fought with Winger in a death match. I then started participating for various groups as well as Apache. DDT, 666, Asagaya Pro. I also participated in the Shinjuku 2-chome professional debut show. At Big Japan Pro Wrestling, I also challenged for a title match with Shadow WX, who was the Death Match Heavyweight Champion. It was a crazy match with a fluorescent board, an iron cage, and a spicy death sauce, but I didn't win the belt. It is also impressive that I fought a razor match with MASADA at the Kasai-produced show at the end of the year. MASADA wanted to be awaken in this match because he had been in Big Japan Wrestling for some time but thought he wasn't able to show his full potential. As you might expect, MASADA began to show his personality after this match, and he became known as Death Match King in the United States.

Injury during my part-time job

At beginning of 2009, Apache Pro-Wrestling will restart with a new system. There are seven wrestlers, Jun Kasai, Takashi, Mammoth, Mr. Kuroda, GENTARO, Mr. Winger, and Kamui. On January 16th, the first show under the new system was held at Shin-Kiba 1st RING, and I fought with Takashi in a "Apache Death Match". In February, the tag team tournament in Big Japan Wrestling started, and I teamed with Numazawa. Then on March 12th, Big Japan Wrestling held their first show at Shin-Kiba 1st RING.

I decided to do this show and be in the first main event, and I wanted an impact, so I decided to do a singles match with Numazawa who I was teaming with in the tag team tournament The match format was named "Madness of Massacre", and with a scaffold of 3 meters (10 feet) in height, it became a hard development with fluorescent lights scattered inside and outside the ring. I climbed the wall of Shin-Kiba 1st RING and dived from the top off the signboard, and won the match.

Two days after this match, it was announced I would be absent due to damage to my right knee meniscus during practice. The injury at this time was not inflicted during a match or practice. The day after the match with Numazawa, I went to do my part-time job at the love hotel as usual and worked from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am. I was in charge of cleaning the bath, and when I crouched down in the tub, I hit my waist on it and slipped, I got out and had to finish wiping the floor in a lying position. I thought I was okay, so I got up and just twisted my upper body a little behind and tried to walk to make sure I cleaned everything on the floor, and my right knee made a squeaking noise.

I've experienced it many times, so I instantly realized, "I can't move anymore." The cleaning was done in pairs, and my partner at that time was a Filipino woman named Linda, so I managed to reach out and open the bathroom door and said, "Ms. Linda! I'm sorry, I'm seriously injured. Linda rushed to me when I shouted, "I've done it," but I couldn't get her to understand what I was saying "Mr. Kasai, are you saying you are hurt?" so I had to do a wireless report to the front desk to bring a simple crutch to me, and I managed to stand up and left early. I went to the hospital the next day, they told me that my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptured and the medial collateral ligament (MCL) was diagnosed as non-ruptured, and the truth is that I should retire. At this time, I really thought about it.

I've been injured many times in such a short time, and I'm no longer physically fit. Actually, I was advised to have surgery at this time as well, but I would have to miss another year if I was put under the scalpel, so I decided to just get medical treatment. However, my body is tattered, my part-time job is like my main source of income, and my life is hard. It may be time to give up on professional wrestling. However, I have something left to do. Motivation to have the singles match with Ito I was particular about the title match, but I can't wait for that situation to be settled. I don't need a belt anymore, so I decided to do a single with Ito and quit professional wrestling. On May 22, 2009, I returned to the new Apache Wrestling Shin-Kiba 1st RING. My knees weren't in perfect condition yet, but I can't rest forever.

On this day, Mr. Kanemura came up to the ring without an appointment immediately after the show, and the atmosphere became disturbing. On June 8th, I teamed up with Numazawa and Kankuro Hoshino in a "Death Cake of Fear". 32,000 Thumbtacks, 200 fluorescent lights 3.2.1 Birthday Death Cake 6 person Death Match ", then on July 12th the style was a "Fluorescent Lights & Iron Barbed wire Double Board 6 person tag Death Match ", then at Korakuen Hall on July 27th is a singles match with Kobayashi in a Kenzan "KKK Death Match" with a large amount of fluorescent lights. I also participated in the DDT Ryogoku Sumo Hall show on August 23rd, and I teamed up with MIKAMI in a KO-D Tag Championship 4 Way match with Kenny Omega & Mike Angels. However, my motivation still was not going up. Meanwhile, Apache Wrestling, which I belonged to, has decided to restart as "Pro-Wrestling FREEDOMS" in order to get rid of the Kintaro Kanemura incident.

In the debut show on September 2nd, I teamed up with Takashi and Kojika to face against the Brahman Brothers. At the Korakuen Hall tournament on September 28th, it was a "Street Fight Dress up 6-person Tag" Because of the match, I wore a rabbit costume and wearing a happi coat.

I fought against Ito in this match. To be honest, Ito has gotten stronger and that is not the case for me! I got on the mic afterwards "Hey Ito! We don't have much time left." On October 1st, a show called "Romeo vs. Juliet Love of Deep Blood" will be held as the second part of the Shakespeare drama series aimed at "fusion of drama and professional wrestling" by Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. I'm Romeo, and Juliet was Numazawa for some reason. I was nervous because I had not gotten permission to use poison mist from The Great Kabuki which I was told to do it because of the "poisonous drug" that appears in the play. This event was part of a play and I have to remember lines, but at the end it was the intention to have a normal single confrontation with Numazawa. The director told me, "When the match is over, please ad lip and speak what you think needs to be said", so when the match was over after defeating Numazawa, I was impressed with the match so after it was over I started talking with Ryuji Ito.

I was crying and said, "Honestly, I don't know how many years I'll be able to keep doing this." I've been doing a cleaning part-time job at a love hotel, and I'm always sleep deprived, I can't do what I want to do in professional wrestling, and my body is tattered. I couldn't help but request for the match, so I decided to work with Ito at the end of the year and retire. After that, on October 26th, at the Korakuen Hall show of Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, I did a "200 Fluorescent Light Tubes 3 Way tag death match", and even though I didn't win, I think this is my last chance. I appealed after the match. "Hey Ito! We don't have much time. We'll be doing a singles match damnit, at the next Korakuen show!" For Big Japan Pro-Wrestling, the next challenger, Takashi Sasaki, will challenge for the championship in December. It was a place to appeal the flow of doing, but I broke it and commented in the waiting room. "The battle with him is not something for a title. It's a battle between a wrestler named Jun Kasai and a wrestler named Ryuji Ito."

The battle between me and Ito is not a drama or anything like that. It's life vs. life. It might have been a bit abrupt for the people involved. However, with this appeal, one month later, on November 20th, the singles match with Ito was decided for Korakuen Hall. The match format is a "Razor Cross Board + alpha Death Match". It doesn't matter if I win or lose, and I don't care if it's a good match. I just had to do a match Ito this one time. The events on the day of the match I remember well before the match on this day. My son was attending a nursery school around this time, but for some reason I took a break from the nursery school on that day, and we took my son to a nearby park and played with him. On my way home, I stopped by a nearby supermarket, bought some sushi, and ate with my son at home, before Kami came back from work. Kami and I went out with a couple I knew who wanted to see this match, so we got in my car and headed to Korakuen Hall.

I didn't tell Kami clearly that I would retire after the match, but she seemed to feel it. I wasn't nervous when I decided to "retire today" after the match, whether I won or lost. It may be the least tense match I've ever had. Anyway, let's get out what we have now. I was thinking only about that. When I arrived at the venue and walked down the aisle toward the waiting room, I happened to pass by Ito. Of course, I didn't exchange words, but just by looking at him, I knew that Ito was nervous. Ito, who is usually crazy, is nervous today, so he looked like someone else. After getting dressed in the waiting room, Takashi who had just wrestled came back to waiting room. So when I asked him, "How is the attendance today?", he answered with a light feeling, "Good." I thought "good" meant as the usual for Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. Now that the ring is ready, it's time for the main event. My entrance song was playing, I took my breath, opened the iron door, and popped out to the venue, and I heard cheers that I had never felt before. When I squinted, the number of fans I had seen filled up all the seats which I had never seen before. I headed to the ring thinking, "What's wrong with Takashi?" If I think about it Takashi was just being careful and lightly saying it to me, to not put any strange pressure on me.

I've never had so much fun in my life

From the time my name was called, the cheers from the fans were so loud and exciting, and when this happened, the match started, and the cheers became even more exciting. It got louder if you move, and the crowd would scream loudly even if you do a basic move. Anyway, this was fun and it felt good. Ito seems to be having fun, and he smiles unintentionally. While we fought, I thought it's okay to quit professional wrestling today, but when I am gone, I'm starting to wonder what I am going to encourage myself while alive. In fighting outside, I tied Ito with gum tape, and while I was climbing the stairs toward the balcony, I thought, "I've never had so much fun in my life. What would happen to me if I quit doing this? With that same momentum, I dived towards Ito, 6 meters (20 feet) below. Flying from this height, I could come up short and badly hurt my knees, but I never thought about that.

The match was so much fun that the voices of the fans gradually became less of a concern, and when I felt like it, the match time was running out. Ito raised his shoulders many times, and at the end I stabbed him with a barbed wire cactus with a reverse tiger driver and the referee counted 3.° with 15 seconds remaining, and the time was "29 minutes 45 seconds, by pinfall". After the match, I got on the mic and said, "I was thinking about retiring this year, but I'll do it until my knees are broken because of you fans!" Even in the waiting room, I was filled with words to the reporters, "If you look from the side, you may think that it is difficult to get this blood flow going, but you may not understand it. Hey, that ring, that death match ring is my livelihood. It's the only place where I can shine."

Winning the Best Bout of the Pro Wrestling Awards

I picked up my son at the nursery in the evening and then drove my way home after shopping at a commercial facility called "Apita". When I was waiting for the traffic light, my stomach suddenly hurt, and I just wanted to scream. I wonder if this place has a toilet, and when I was driving while thinking about it, my cell phone rang. I wondered what it was like at this time, but I stopped the car for a while and went out to my cell phone. The phone call was from Nikkan Lee, who was at Big Japan Pro-Wrestling at the time, and suddenly she said, "Do you know Mr. Kasai?" I answered, "I don't know. I don't know what you mean." Then Nikkan said, "The match between Kasai and Ito won the best bout of the Tokyo Sports Puroresu Award." Hmmm! I was so surprised that I went straight home from there and left my son with my wife, and this time I went to the dojo in Big Japan and was interviewed by Tokyo Sports there. I thought I had nothing to do with the Pro Wrestling Awards, and I never aimed for it. However, when I took it, the eyes around me changed. Ito, me, and Death Match wrestling itself had foil. Until then, in Big Japan Pro Wrestling, I had been facing Ito in tag matches like always, but after winning the award, the building would get excited just by having Ito and I in the same match. I always wondered what it was like to win an award.

However, when I look back at the "2009 best match of the year" on the video, I simply think "I could do more." The content of the match is normal, or not doing much differently. However, that match is still different. For example, it's the only match that won the best bout in the past and it raised evaluation of the match itself. However, at that time, there was a connection between Ito and I as well as the match. I think that everything we've accumulated in the six years leading up to the match, everything we've been bleeding, and the comments in the microphone and waiting room after the match were all evaluated. However, just because the "Pro Wrestling Award" has been decided does not mean that the year is over. After that, on December 16th, I wrestled in a a Falls Count Anywhere match in the Osaka Tsurumi Memorial Park Hall, and on the 25th, there was the annual "Blood Christmas" produced by Jun Kasai. Here, I fought in a glass death match with Masashi Takeda, who was on the rise, aiming at my neck. At times like this, professional wrestling reporters and fans often say, "I was raising Takeda," but I have never had the desire to raise the next generation of death match fighters. I used to do "School Of Death" matches with Numazawa, but that was a company decision and I just went with the flow and did what I was told.

I don't want my juniors to grow up. Whether it's a new generation of wrestlers or seniors, I'm purely jealous if they wrestle a good match elsewhere. There is no doubt there. So, I think that if Jun Kasai quits, then death match wrestling would be boring. After all, wouldn't it be regrettable if something you loved and devoted your life to got really exciting after you quit? If I retire, I want everyone to feel that the death match genre is over and done. The phrase "Jun Kasai = Death Match, Death Match = Jun Kasai" is the phrase that expresses such feelings. From around this time, I started to face my matches was with such a preparedness.

Click here for Jun Kasai's Autobiography Part 5