"BJW Certified Tag Team Championship"
By taking the Best Bout Pro Wrestling Award, not only fans but also wrestlers
from the same and other organizations felt that their views on "Jun Kasai" had
changed. Congratulatory emails were sent from various wrestlers, and more and
more people at the venue said, "It was a great match." At the same time, there
were some seniors and people involved who couldn't even say hello even when they
met me.
Big Japan Pro-Wrestling also thought that Jun Kasai would be treated properly, not just some panda to attract customers, instead I was put in a series of matches where I teamed with Numazawa, as "045 Evil Monkey Madness" where we pushed to become contenders for the Big Japan Tag Team Titles which I decided to challenge for. The champion team, on the other hand, is a muscular combination of Daisuke Sekimoto and Yoshihito Sasaki. Sekimoto is a junior of mine who came in about a year after I started working at Big Japan Pro-Wrestling.
At some local show, when I set up a ring with Mr. Honma and Mr. Fujita and lined up chairs, Mr. Kojika brought a shaved head with a rugged body and said, "This is Sekimoto. He is an acquaintance of mine." That was my introduction to him. Sekimoto didn't seem to know the difference between right or left and just said "Thank you." without making eye contact. So, no matter how much everyone had said Sekimoto is a great wrestler in the strong neighborhood, no matter how much he was respected overseas, Sekimoto to me was still that person that I was introduced to with a shaven head that couldn't make eye contact and had a hard time in Big Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Sekimoto also stepped into the death match world, but his eyes were dead at
that time. He didn't seem to want to do it, and I saw him scared. Even so, it is
admirable that he continued to train and established himself as a strong man,
and I respect his desire to practice and his efforts to keep his condition, even
though he is a junior. His partner Yoshihito Sasaki was with me during my ZERO1
time. Before that, I met him when I wrestled in FMW a couple times, he was still
a newcomer then, and that is where I met him, but we became friends in ZERO1.
I used to go out to spend a lot of time with Sasaki in my private life and we
remained friends after I left ZERO1, but private things happened during Sasaki's
time in ZERO1 that I can't talk about, anyway, the scheme of this title match is
Death Match vs. Strong. You may think that neither I nor Numazawa are going to
be good at fighting such power fighters in normal rules, but in fact I like it.
Wrestlers of that style come with one body after all. Since the attack method is
also straight, it is easy to break the rules. Besides, wrestling is allowed to
foul if it is within 5 seconds even under the normal rule. I make full use of
that 5 seconds. Ah, straight-line wrestlers are strong, but the technique is how
to handle it with inside work and bring it to your own pace. As a result, we won
this match, and 045 Monkey Madness became a tag champions. This was the first
time I had won a title in Big Japan Wrestling.
The Great Sasuke
A tailwind was also blowing for a Death Match, and on May 4th, a match called
"Japan-US Death Match Summit" was organized in Big Japan Wrestling. With the
concept of reviving the former "CZW Japan", I teamed up with Nick Gage and DJ
Hyde, and the opponents are Numazawa, Isami Kodaka and Masashi Takeda. Nick
Gauge came to Japan for the first time in a long time, so when I saw him thought
that he was getting nervous, he had a dark face in the waiting room. When I
talked about how the match would be like for a strategy meeting, I was told,
"Because I'm sleepy, lets just figure it out in the ring." When the match
started, I thought he wasn't motivated at all, but then Nick started, and he was
rushing out and he couldn't be stopped. I won the match, and he seemed to be
feeling better, so I didn't go back to the waiting room to talk to him.
After that, there was a singles match with Necro Butcher on June 21st. For some
reason, I remember picking up Necro who came to Japan at this time. I took my
son, who was still in the first grade of elementary school, to pick up Necro at
Narita Airport by car and sent him to a hotel in Shin-Yokohama. At this time,
this was the only thing that I remember about him. In the Summer Death Match
Tournament, I had a match against The Great Sasuke in the first round. Sasuke is
a wrestler I've seen since I was a fan, and I was impressed with the appearance
of his diving in the "Super J-Cup", so I was excited to see what would happen if
Sasuke did a death match.
This was probably the first fluorescent light death match for Sasuke, but he
didn't seem scared at all, and I thought it was amazing. The match development
was a little uncomfortable me as even if I on the attack, Sasuke would take a
great bump, so even though I am the one who leads the match, the fans would get
excited for Sasuke. I felt like it was a great match and I ended up winning and
moving on. I went on to the finals but I lost to MASADA. Around this time, the
jinx that "Jun Kasai loses at the box office produced by Jun Kasai" has been
ridiculed.
The year-end production "Blood Christmas", in which Sami Callihan did not get
off the plane, was difficult in a different sense. First of all, I had no
opponent. It's nice to have the best bout with Ito, but there are no death match
wrestlers that exceed that. In Japan, I've been working with everyone for a
while, and I've been unable to make fresh new cards. So there is no choice but
to call an overseas death match fighter following Necro and MASADA. Around that
time, referee Nikkan Lee suggested, "I know a young and cool wrestler named Sami
Callihan, so let's call him." He said it would be okay to negotiate. So I
announced a singles match, completed the visa procedure, and then I booked an
airline ticket for Sami Callihan to come to Japan. "Blood Christmas" is December
25th, and Sami Callihan is scheduled to visit Japan on the 23rd. I was told that
the referee Barb Sasaki would pick him up at the airport, and Sami would call me
once he landed, but I never got a call even though I was waiting.
I finally got a call from Barb, but he said, "Sami Callihan still hasn't shown."
It seems that Sami came to Narita by plane, but it seems that there was a defect
in the visa application on Sami's side, so the immigration stopped him and he
was forced to return home. I've already sold tickets, printed posters, and made
a commemorative T-shirt with "Sami Callihan vs. Jun Kasai", but I have to cancel
this card. Then, who will fill that hole, and I thought that FREEDOMS had no
choice but to issue the best card at the moment, and Takashi asked for a singles
match with me, "Hmm ..." I was worried and said, "I can't get excited," but I
knew that this was the only card because Takashi could also bring the
entertainment side to a match. Eventually I broke and had a singles match with
him, but in this "Sami Callihan attempted visit to Japan", that story received
more attention than the match. After that, Sami participated in New Japan
Pro-Wrestling because all the visa application and travel expenses issues were
over, but he never got involved with FREEDOMS.
I ended up having a singles match with Sami in America only once, but we didn't
talk to him about things like "Christmas was a tough time." I don't know if he
didn't remember the other side of things or if I just was awkward and tried not
to bring it up.
The Brahman Brothers
In 2011, early in the year, there was a conflict with the Brahman Brothers over
the BJW Tag Team Championship titles. On January 30th, at Diamond Hall in
Nagoya, the titles were lost by having a match in which Brahmans used capto
beetle larvae and cockroaches. I'm not very good at seeing insects, so I don't
hesitate to call Kami when I see a cockroach at home, but even if I get a
cockroach on me in the ring, it's all right. After all, the ring changes people.
The Brahman Brothers look like idiots, but they're actually very dexterous, and
the basics of Lucha are also good. They ended up putting the larvae of
Caterpillar in my mouth and I spit it out into the audience.
There was a time when I was practicing Lucha's advanced moonsault in the ring
before this tag mtch, and I wonder if I will show it today, but did not end up
showing it at all during the match and Brahman Shu ended up pinning me. I didn't
expect to lose, but sometimes these two make me sick.
Abdullah Kobayashi
I wrestled Kobayashi on February 6th, outside at the Osaka Tsurumi Park in the
middle of winter, we had a match called "K-1 Grand Prix Death Match" in which K
was used as an acronym for the items (Kenzan, Karibbean barbed wire, and Kracked
ice). It was the first match of the "Ikkitousen" tournament of Big Japan
Wrestling. Kobayashi as a death match fighter is weak. However, he weighs very
much, and is unusually tough, and if you eat one shot from him, you can not
return the shot with the same force.
When I wrestle Kobayashi it's always a strange match. It's more about which one
brings our best, rather than whether you win or lose. However, both I and
Kobayashi are the type who like simplicity in our matches rather than using
skill and physical ability, so our hands fit mysteriously. Fans often say "I
didn't expect much between Kasai and Kobayashi, but it was fun." Kobayashi was a
senior of mine at Big Japan Pro-Wrestling as he started about two or three years
before I did, but he was always happy to be around his juniors.
I think he has an young personality, but when he started working at Big Japan
Wrestling, he felt lonely because there were only seniors and no one that synced
up in the same dojo class with him. That's why when juniors like me finally came
in, he was happy because felt like there he had more playmates, and he started
spending his time with us as if we were in sync with him. In a good way, he's a
frank senior who was the ringleader in breaking the hierarchical relationship.
On February 12th, Numazawa and I had a return match with the Brahman Brothers
set up. It was the main event of Korakuen Hall, but probably only because Big
Japan didn't want the canvas to get dirty with the items brought in by Brahmans,
it became a no canvas match. At the end of the match, the Brahmans also stripped
the boards, made a big hole in the ring, and I was dropped into the abyss. In
the ring, Numazawa is attacked 2 on 1 by the Brahman Brothers.
At that time, I was able to survive from the abyss and save Numazawa while
using the board as a weapon. Death matches are an extraordinary world, I was
thinking this match resembled a crazy scene that would appear in an old manga or
anime, such as "Tiger Mask" or "Kinnikuman", I was very happy thinking I was
close to portraying those that I grew up watching and reading.
Then, Takashi Shimada, the original author of "Kinnikuman" (MUSCLE), happened to
come to see this match and was later praised it saying "That match was really
interesting!". It happened by chance, but I was very happy because I love "Kinnikuman".
Yuko Miyamoto In the sense of an extraordinary spectacle, I had a glass board
death match that was held on March 22nd with Yuko and his CZW Ultraviolent
Underground Belt on the line. I was a challenger, and it was a very deadly
match. Yuko has excellent physical ability and has a professional wrestling
sense. Maybe he doesn't think much about it, but he does what he thinks is a
smooth move during the match. Also, he also grew up apart of the Yankee
rebellion like I did, so I am really enthusiastic. I see him trying many
different spectacular moves during various big matches, but he's nervous before
our match.
I have never seen him nervous before and I have to calm him down. Such
extensiveness is a characteristic of Yuko, but at the end of this match, I ate a
Fire Thunder from the turnbuckle through the glass board, and my neck pierced
the mat head-on. At that moment, a bolt of lightning ran from my neck to my left
half of my body, and I couldn't move at all. I've been injured a lot, but it was
the first time I could not move during a match, so I intuitively felt that my
professional wrestling career was over. As time went by, I started to move, so
if I continued this crazy match, I could win. Immediately after the match, I
went to the hospital and found that I had a pain in my left shoulder and neck. I
was struggling to be able to raise up my arms.
I had started going to Gold's Gym in Machida, doing weights and bench pressing
over 140 kilograms (309 pounds), but after I hurt my shoulder, I couldn't even
bench press 20 kilograms (44 pounds). I was introduced to a hospital in Odawara
as they had a well known doctor and I would drove there a couple of days later,
but I was told there was nothing they could without me going under the scalpel
to fix my injuries. I decided to not have surgery, but my body was tight, so I
took the CZW Ultra Violent belt that I won in this match, and went to FREEDOMS
and defended it against GENTARO at a show in Hakata. After that, I went to the
United States and lost to CZW's Danny Havoc to take the belt away from me. Even
though I hurt my shoulder, the Death Match Tournament on August 24th was a
crucial moment for me. I lost to MASADA in the finals the previous year, so I
felt like I needed to get rid of the most annoying thing to me, so I had a match
against MASADA in the first round, but I lost this match.
It was very easy to hurt me in this match because of how much pain I was in.
With this development I felt I was going to start needing to winning more soon.
Retire if you can't win the Death Match tournament.
This year's Bloody Christmas was held at Korakuen Hall, and the main event was
Jun Kasai vs. Shuji Ishikawa. There was a singles match of MASADA vs. Masashi
Takeda in the 4th match on the show. Two years before this when Takeda had just
started, MASADA would fight against him while he was a green boy, and Takeda
would continue to fight him even though he was about to be killed. As a
producer, you have to calculate the timing of everything correctly. I calculated
the MASADA and Takada would go a little over 10 minutes when making the card,
but MASADA was so cruel to Takeda and the match went for almost 30 minutes. When
I looked at the clock after the next semi-final hardcore match, the time we had
to be out of Korakuen Hall was approaching. If I don't finish the main event of
Shuji in about 15 minutes, the withdrawal time will hit while we are still
competing. If we don't get out on time, there will be a considerable of money
spent for an extension fee.
When I entered the venue, the calculations as a producer got over my head, and I
decided that I had to go into the match with haste. When the gong rang, I jumped
out and smashed Shuji into the glass board after just about a minute. After
about 5 minutes, I dived from the balcony and attacked hard without thinking
about resting, and as a result, I lost in 17 minutes and 14 seconds. Shuji says
that if you go up against such a big guy like him head-on without using any
inside work on the body like I did, he's going to just bounce back and win.
That's why I blame MASADA for this loss (laughs). After the match, I got on the
mic, and the withdrawal time was approaching, so even though I was still
talking, the seconds began taking the ropes down and started to disassemble the
ring. When I saw it, I became very frustrated. I produced the show, booked it to
the wrestlers, and did match making while thinking about the time allocation,
but why was it still ending like this? I myself had a match that I felt rush
through, and I lost also. Such thoughts swirled and I instinctively said, "If I
can't win the Death Match tournament next year, I will retire."
Immediately after making this "declaration of retirement if I couldn't win", I
focused on the summer death match tournament. At the beginning of the year,
Takeda, Fukimoto, and I formed a new unit "UNCHAIN". As the name implies, this
unit has nothing to bind. There is no binding between members. We do what we
like so that we can move more freely. UNCHAIN will soon get on track, and the
moment when we were getting stronger, an accident took place.
At the Big Japan Pro Wrestling show in Takaoka on April 23rd, I heard right knee make a snapping noise, and I was seriously injured this time. It was 6-person tag consisting of me, Numazawa, and Kobayashi vs. Isami Kodaka, Masashi Takeda, and Masato Inaba. I went up to the corner and flew to attack Takeda in the ring, but Takeda was farther than I could see, and I noticed it the moment I flew. I was wondering do I do and landed with a feeling that the timing was off, and at that moment my right knee made a snapping noise. I couldn't stand anymore and escaped to the outside. The match ended without me. When I went to the doctor, I found that I had a anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) ruptured, posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injury, medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury, medial knee edema (swelling), medial / lateral meniscus rupture, joint fluid retention, and lumbar bone contusion.
The Death Match tournament was to start in three months. Far away from winning the tournament, my right knee is broken and my participation is in jeopardy. I was impatient, but I was most impatient that the summer death match tournament box office might not be established as it was suppose to be. Anyway, I have to heal in 3 months before the tournament starts. So I lost weight so as not to put any strain on my knees. My weight was about 92 kilograms (202 pounds) before the injury, was reduced to 78 kilograms (172 pounds). I'm still not in the right position, but I managed to recover to a level where I could participate and compete in the tournament. The first round was in Sapporo on August 5th against Takashi Sasaki. The second round will be against Takeda in Osaka on August 19th. It was pretty tough to do death matches on such a bad knee, but I managed to advance to the semi-finals at Korakuen Hall.
A Great Match I Don't Remember
The show on August 27th at Korakuen Hall, I would have to win two matches in
one day to win the tournament. My opponent in the semi-finals is Isami Kodaka.
This was the first time I'd had a match with Isami in a singles Death Match.
Isami launched a tall attack with a ladder with his knees and took me to the
limit, but I managed to win. The opponent of the final match was MASADA, who had
won the semi-final against Brahman Kei. The match format is "Special Glass Board
Death Match". Just before this match, I suddenly thought. The other person is
MASADA who I have lost the last two years to. There is no choice but to shake
things up. I gave the instruction to "make it a no-canvas match". The boards
will come off just by walking around the ring or running and doing rope work. I
get caught. This may cause my knee to fall out and get stuck under the ring. But
I thought I could win if I left my luck to heaven, or if my knees could still
move towards the end. MASADA also agreed to no canvas, and the ring was exposed.
When the gong rings I threw MASADA into the glass board as pieces of glass are
now scattered. When I took a passive role in this state, I was hurt by the
out-of-field battle where the glass digs into my back, and even the ring hurt
more than when I was in a normal ring. Before I noticed, MASADA removed the
wooden plates of the ring and placed the other the glass board through the hole.
MASADA picked me up and threw me at the glass board with a power bomb. I broke
through the glass and fell into the abyss at once, where my memory flew away.
This was the only match that I do not remember anything during the match.
After the show, I was driving my car with my son and Kami in it. We were
driving on the Metropolitan Expressway. I asked Kami, who was in the passenger
seat, "What happened in the match?", Kami turned pale and got worried, "You won.
Don't you remember?" I did not remember, so I had to see content and result of
the match later by watching it on video.
Looking at the video, something is wrong with my movement after I got out from
under the abyss. I beat MASADA with a strange knee kick and I just was different
through out the rest of the match. After the match, I made a tearful microphone
appeal, rushed into the audience and gave high fives in the crowd, and held my
son in the audience and cried even more. I don't even remember this series of
actions at all. In retrospect, I was very nervous before this tournament, and my
son, who was watching it up close, had a dark face. I knew that if I couldn't
win, I would retire, and just before the match he knew all about my injuries and
rehabilitation, he was always asking, "Daddy, what if you can't win?". When I
answered, "Well, I have no choice but to quit professional wrestling," he said,
"If my dad quits professional wrestling, I'll start working as a newspaper
delivery boy." Even though he was still in the first or second grade of
elementary school, my son was worried about me losing my job. Because of that
feeling, I think I ran to the audience seats even if my memory flew away and I
picked up my son. Many people said that this match, which managed to avoid
retirement, was good.
It became known as one my best bouts. It has a good reputation overseas, and the
stock of MASADA has risen, making him one of the reasons why he is called "Death
Match King". Besides, there was a wrestler who became interested in me when he
saw the video of this match in a surprising place. The annual "Blood Christmas
2012" at the end of the year. It has become customary to wonder who the opponent
should be. At this time, when I consulted with Mr. 296, who has been involved in
this industry for a long time, he told me, "It seems that there are some people
in Mexico who are doing death matches. Why don't you call them?" I didn't think
there were any wrestlers in Mexico doing such a full-fledged death matches, so
when I contacted them immediately, I was told it was Violento Jack and Aero Boy
that were doing them. Violento Jack had just seen the final match of MASADA with
me and wanted to do that type of match with me. The story went smoothly, and two
Mexican Death Match fighters were to come to Japan for the first time at Blood
Christmas this year.
I and Takeda will face you two. We met Jack and Aero Boy for the first time that
day in the ring, but the match swinged and it was quite exciting. With this,
FREEDOMS was able to find a vein called Violento Jack, and Jack's wrestler life
began to go crazy little by little by getting involved with me.