By Joe Saunders
First off, I want to send out a big thank you to Dan Taylor, Shaun Apps, and Nate Holynski for giving me this chance to write a column on what is sure to be a great website.
Well, I guess since this is my first column an introduction is in order. My name is Joe Saunders and I am a new independent wrestler in the Brisbane area, currently working for TWC/CCWF/WFF (when they make up their mind, I’ll let you know.) I’ve been a wrestling fan for twelve years now, and have been completely immersed in the business for the last six. Wrestling is my passion and, quite frankly, takes up an unhealthy amount of my life. Wrestling, no matter what style from American sports entertainment, Mexican lucha libre, Japanese puroresu, deathmatches, garbage wrestling or even comedy… I love it all.
Like most people these days, I started out on the WWF back in 1990. I was drawn in by the pageantry and, as young boy, these huge men were better than any superhero I had ever seen. I was your typical mark; I hated the bad guys and loved the good guys. I loved Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior (yes I was one of the few feeling the goose bumps when Hogan returned). And while I now look at these two, and Warrior in particular, as the anti-worker, back then they were my idols. I would cheer when Hogan would come back from getting beat down (resting) and beat (squash) the other guy in 7 seconds. I would mark out when Warrior shook the ropes like a lunatic… these guys were larger than life, and right then I knew I wanted to do this.
I continued watching the WWF with only occasional viewing of the NWA (we had no cable television, so my only access to wrestling was through video stores) for the next seven years. Then, in January 1997, my best friend got cable TV. And guess what was on there? None other than WCW SATURDAY NIGHT! To me, this was the greatest thing to ever happen. I had read about WCW in the Apter mags over the years, but had no clue what it was. I soon picked up on the storylines and got drawn into the exciting time that 1997 was for WCW. But it wasn’t the great nWo angles or the chilling 20-minute Hogan interviews (yawn) that got me into the product. It was a man by the name of Ultimo Dragon. Since 1994, I’d been a big fan of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. I loved the wrestling in their matches. And here was Ultimo, in all his glory burning down the house night after night. His matches with Rey Mysterio Jnr, Psychosis, Yuji Nagata and Juventude Guerrera still send shivers down my spine. Much like The Great Muta in the old NWA (whom I am also a mark for), Ultimo was unique, talented and mysterious. I had finally become hooked on wrestling.
My infatuation hit a hurdle in early 1998 though, when my family rudely moved me 600km south, out of the hick town of Gladstone and into Redcliffe, just north of Brisbane. I was disappointed that my access to wrestling had been cut off (oh yeah… and my friend) but I persevered. I was delighted to find that my new school was full of wrestling-marks. Wrestling had just hit its Australian boom and it was suddenly “cool” to like it. For years I’d been the only kid in school who knew what the hell it was, and now everybody loved it. Even though most of my friends now had Pay TV, my parents weren’t in a position to afford such a luxury, so once again I leached off my friends to gain access to Nitros and PPVs. I was still buying three magazines per month and hiring every wrestling video as it came out. I truly was addicted.
In mid-1998, my family invested in some technology that would change my life and how I looked at wrestling. We got the Internet connected to our computer. I couldn’t believe how many other wrestling fans there were all over the world. I loved the dirt sheets and the trashy newsboards which were 95% bulls**t. It was through one of these dirt sheets named Big Oren’s Newsletter that wrestling’s legitimacy was finally confirmed to me. I had always had it in the back of my mind that maybe it was fake. Maybe all those doubters were right. Maybe it was just a load of baloney. And right there, in plain text on my computer screen, was my confirmation: wrestling wasn’t real. I must admit, my heart sank. Deep down I’d known this all along, but it was still a bitter pill to swallow. My disenchantment lasted all over 24 hours. I suddenly started appreciating wrestling on an entirely new level. It was now more than a surreal fight, it was an art form. To this day, I still see wrestling more as art than as entertainment or sport.
I soon started spreading the word at school. Not that wrestling was a sham, but that it was an art form. I think I turned off more people than I converted, but it wasn’t my fault. It was now 1999 and wrestling’s popularity was waning and more and more people were tuning out because it simply wasn’t “cool” anymore. I led a band of “hardcores” who dared to remain wrestling fans while all the “cool” kids turned their back on it. But what they wanted was of no interest to me, I was more in love with wrestling than I had ever been before.
I stuck with the WWF, WCW and occasionally ECW for the next two years. From about mid 2000, I had started hearing great things about Japanese wrestling. I started doing some shopping around and researching, and come December, I was made the decision that would forever change my viewing habits. I made my first order to Stuart Max, Australia’s leading Puroresu tape trader. I ordered a compilation called The Best of Misawa vs Kawada and the NJPW Super J-Cup 1994. The first tape documented the fantastic battles between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada in the All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, and boy, they’ve had some great ones. The second tape was arguably the greatest night of men’s wrestling ever. Needless to say, I was hooked.
After being exposed to the elite nature of the Japanese style(s) of wrestling, I soon lost interest in most American promotions. I watched only the matches of the elite workers such as Benoit, Storm, Lynn, TAKA Michinoku, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and a few WCW luchadores. While I admit that I do still have a soft spot for some of the unfortunately souls working for WWE, I’ve barely watched a full WWF/E show since June 2000. When WCW died, so did most of my interest in the American wrestling scene. Only recently have promotions such as APW and workers like American Dragon, Samoa Joe, Mike Modest and Chris Daniels reawakened my interest.
Right now, my interest still lies in Japanese wrestling, and I don’t see it going anywhere. With stars like Yuji Nagata, Kensuke Sasaki, Masa Chono, Manabu Nakanishi, Osamu Nishimura, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Liger, Koji Kanemoto, Minoru Tanaka and El Samurai, New Japan Pro Wrestling is my favourite promotion. But with such great diversity amongst the Japanese scene, no matter what your taste, if you are looking for wrestling, look for your closest puroresu trader (me!).
In March, I finally found the opportunity I’d been looking for. I stumbled upon a wrestling school in Brendale, just half an hour away from my home. Now as a grizzled 12-match pro (LOL), I hope to give you my view on the wrestling scene as I see it and hopefully provide you with some fun opinionated commentaries along with some news along the way.
I hope I didn’t bore you all too much this time around, and I hope you managed to make it this far through the commentary without falling asleep. I promise my next commentary (if I get another one, LOL) will be about something other than myself, but I figured you could all suffer and at least get a view of where I’m coming from so you can better understand my future ramblings.
Once again, a big thank you to Shaun, Dan and Nate for giving me this chance to express myself and I wish you all a great day/night/afternoon/weekend and I’ll catch you all next time (maybe…)
Thanks for reading!
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