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Tuesday, May 25 2002
Still recovering from our trip to
Japan...four days later! More on that eventful trip
in a bit... As many of you know, UPW began
its "International Junior Heavyweight Tournament"
this past Saturday at Ultimate University's weekly
"Lite Show." Definitely our largest----and
most enthusiastic--- Lite show crowd ever witnessed seven stellar
under-210 lbs. athletes move on to the quarterfinals.
They are B-Boy, Devon Willis, Frankie Kazarian, Lil' Nate,
Ricky Reyes, Rocky Romero and Scott Young, all of
whom advance to the quarter-finals, which will be held June
14 at The Anaheim Marketplace. In the meantime, UPW
will host the second part of Round 1, this Saturday at 7pm
at Ultimate University. Amongst the MANY already
confirmed are Silver Tyger, Lil' Cholo, Jason Allgood,
Mikey Henderson and Funky Billy Kim. Should
be a heck of a night and I hope to see you all there. By
the way, since everyone knows I'm a big-guy mark, or as
Steve Corino is fond of saying ("Midget
Slave-Trader"), it was nice to see Samoa Joe,
Horshu, Al Katrazz, Jack Bull and Keiji Sakoda
(who I'm glad to say has returned to the UPW fold) in
attendance at various times throughout the evening.
Oh, and of course, Smelly, who is trying desperately
to get down to 210 lbs. Here are some random
notes before getting on to Japan..... --Mike
"Kid Vicious" Balasis is nursing a cracked
sternum and separated shoulder. It's a shame, as Mike
seemed prime to be a finalist in the Jr. Tourney.
Mike's a hard worker and one of the toughest, and nicest,
guys I've met in this business. I wish him a speedy
recovery and have to believe that we'll see him in Japan
--and maybe even WWE! -- before too long. --Greg
"Jack Bull" Groothuis suffered a badly twisted
knee, just as we were preparing to put him and Televise
"Sculu" Masalosalo on tape for screening by
several decision-makers in the industry. Both of these
talents are in my opinion ready for their next step up the
ladder and we will take another shot at this shortly. --Congratulations
to Robert "Ghostwalker" Gallo, who gets
married next weekend in Arizona, and to "Big"
Jon Heidenreich who tied the knot last weekend in
Louisiana. I wish them and their families nothing but
success and happiness. --I know that John
"Rocky Romero" Rivera and Reyes "Ricky
Reyes" Nunez, aka Los Cubanitos get
frustrated and in some ways may think that they're at a
crossroads in their careers. I see it
oppositely. They're young guys, and although already
mat veterans, have many opportunities in front of them to
"make it". I'm excited about the new gimmick
we're working on together and feel that it will afford them
a greater chance to make their mark in pro wrestling. --Frankie
Kazarian has done an excellent job of filling Nova's
shoes as the new resident "agent" here at UPW and
Ultimate University. And speaking of Nova, congrats on
winning the OVW Title in his first appearance there, against
none other than John "Prototype" Cena! And
speaking even further of Nova, he's now a "legend"
in Japan. Or in other words, he's getting killed in
the ultimate rib. We mean it all affectionately, of
course! --Best of luck to UPW Tag Team Champs
Shane & Shannon Ballard and to former UPW-ite
Brett "Big Schwag" Wagner as they prepare
to participate in The Road Warrior's pay-per-view in
Atlantic City. --Nathan Jones
continues to develop his talents in Australia, while he
awaits word on his work Visa application to the US, where I
think he'd immediately make a contribution to WWE. In
the interim, Nathan continues to work for both Zero-One in
Japan and for WWA. Japan. Okay,
Japan was......great! Yoshiyuki Nakamura and Shinya
Hashimoto are no doubt the greatest hosts on
earth. They make us feel more and more welcome each
time, and although this may sound naive --particularly in
this business-- I feel more like part of a big, extended
family each time I visit. The UPW crew this
time out consisted of myself, "Green Beret" Tom
Howard, Sylvester "Predator" Terkay and
Native Blood -- Steve "Navajo Warrior" Islas
and Robert "Ghostwalker" Gallo. By
the way, if you ever want to pull a rib on one of the boys,
Ghostwalker is your man. Anyway, we arrived at Narita
Airport after a curiously tiring trip and were greeted upon
our arrival by the usual media contingent, who immediately
got across just how hugely over The Green Beret and Predator
are. This is particularly gratifying, as both are
great guys and have been good friends for a long time
now...and have worked for it! JAPAN
& ZER0-ONE. Now, without recounting
ALL the details of our trip, which would take forever and
frankly, wouldn't be very interesting, here are some general
impressions, as well as what I consider
"highlights" of our trip there: Highlight
- Meeting two nice ladies from Spain on the bus from the
airport and attempting to converse with them in
"Spanish",
which got me endless grief from Sylvester for the rest of
the trip. Highlight - Exploring with
Sylvester, Navajo and Gallo in depth the giant temple right
in middle of Tokyo, where Presidents from Ulysses S. Grant
to George Bush have planted "trees of
peace." Witnessing a Buddha prayer ceremony. Highlight
- "Dinner" on the set of Samurai TV studio,
with the NWA table on one side of the set and UPW on the
other. Steve Corino propping up a napkin, with
"Nova is a ______ (something or other)" in full
view of the main camera for the entire show. Highlight
- Five girls asking about Smelly and Lil' Nate in the
lobby of our hotel the first morning there. Impression
- Navajo joins my list of guys --including Tom Howard,
Nova, Corino, Mike Modest and Chris Daniels-- that have been
in this business for a long time now and maintain a real
sense of humor and humility. Straight up -- a good
guy, who "gets it." Kanazawa - Highlight or
impression? Strange, I don't remember much at all
about Kanazawa, other than trying out my new
"gimmick" (i.e. wearing one item pertinent to each
UPW wrestler as I corner for them). For Native Blood -
a wolf skin headdress (damn, is that thing hot!); for
Predator - a smaller version of his chain and The Green Beret, why...a green
beret of course. Other memory -- great Korean
Barbecue, which we enjoyed with Corino and his fellow NWAers
CW Anderson, Pres Jim Miller, Referree Mike (awesome
guy!) and Hot Stuff Sean Hernandez, and the two
gracious ladies from the Zero-One office, without whom we
never would've found the darn barbeque in the first place. May
19th rally in Kanazawa at Ishikawa Prefectural Building #2.
3,000 paid.
Native Blood (Ghostwalker & Navajo) defeated Naohiro
Hoshikawa & Kohei Sato in 13 minutes, 43 seconds when
Navajo pinned Hoshikawa for the win.
Naoya Ogawa, Shin'ya Hashimoto, & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
defeated Steve Corino, The Predator, & Tom Howard in 20
minutes, 39 seconds when Ogawa pinned Howard. Impression
- Why the hell is there a Jim Miller
T-shirt.....and why is it such a hot seller (more later)? Fukushima
- Neat town. Very small, very quiet. Highlight
- Traveling on a nice tour bus with the entire American
and Japanese contingents. Ohtani playing ribs
on and generally taking advantage of the Japanese group,
as he is always apt to do. At the behest of
Hashimoto-san, Sylvester absolutely beating the heck out of
one of the young boys in a rest stop parking lot. One
of Predator's best matches to date! Can't imagine what
on-lookers must have been thinking. Highlight
- Waking up jet-lagged pre-dawn and taking a very long
run through town (in my case, "jog"), which
included happening upon a sunrise religious ceremony at a
small temple nestled in the foothills. Highlight
- Later on, walking with Tom for hours until we found
the local internet cafe. Turned about to be amazing,
with espresso, ice cream and DVD all included in the low
membership price (don't know where I'll use that card
again!). Returned there that evening with the whole
crew and discovered the high-tech massage chairs too. May
21st rally at Fukushima City Gym, 1,600 paid.
Tom Howard defeated Kohei Sato in 5 minutes, 28 seconds with
the No. 66 submission.
Shinjiro Ohtani & Masato Tanaka defeated Native Blood
(Navajo & Ghostwalker) in 13 minutes, 20 seconds when
Ohtani pinned Navajo for the win.
Shin'ya Hashimoto & Tatsuhito Takaiwa defeated The
Predator & C.W. Anderson in 15 minutes, 55 seconds when
Hashimoto pinned Anderson. Oh
yeah, thanks to Tom Howard for the inspired, and inspiring,
reading material. Sendai
- Big, monster city, in many ways as impressive -- and
if possible, even cleaner-- than Tokyo! Also, the
first time we saw the sun on this tour. Highlight
- Sitting with Sylvester and watching the final battle
scene of "Saving Private Ryan" on a truly
impressive big screen in the mother of all electronics
stores. Highlight
- Watching our own "sensei" Tom Howard,
participate in the pre-show practice with the Japanese
contingent. Lending some wisdom to Sean Hernandez, Tom
never ceases to amaze me with his ability to articulate and
teach in the pro wrestling ring.
May
22nd rally in Miyagi at Zepp Sendai, 640 paid.
Native Blood (Navajo & Ghostwalker) defeated Masato
Tanaka & Tatsuhito Takaiwa in 12 minutes, 27 seconds
when Ghostwalker pinned Takaiwa. Shawn
Hernandez, Tom Howard, & The Predator defeated Tatsuhito
Takaiwa, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, & Shin'ya Hashimoto in 14
minutes, 48 seconds when Hernandez pinned Takaiwa. And
on to Tokyo and back to our "home away from
home," the Hotel Ibis. "Highlight?"
Arriving in Tokyo at 4am after a 5 hour bus ride from
Sendai. Having to walk the last half-mile with all of
our bags due to a massive traffic jam (at 4am!). Being
too wired to go to sleep so heading to the now-infamous
Donner Kabob (for some "real" food) and doing
laundry until the sun came up. Special massageee,
anyone? Highlights
- Taking photos outside of Korakuen with the UPW and NWA
guys. Heading straight to the crepe stand, which I'd
been looking forward to all trip. Nothing like a tuna
fish, (yellow) cream cheese and pizza sauce crepe, washed
down by a banana, vanilla ice cream strawberries and
chocolate sauce crepe! Finding
out that I was going to a do an angle that night with a
not-quite-shapely 6'6", 355 lbs. Jim Miller. I
was instructed that it was to get heat between NWA and UPW
and that Jim and I would be doing two spots during the
evening, starting with a promo. I quickly
memorized a couple of Japanese lines (thanks to translator
Steve) that sounded something like this. Konichiwa.
Ohmanaykee......eedieataday......ko...ay....des. It
means (I think) "Hello, thank you for having me here in
Japan, I'm very honored to be here." Amazingly,
it actually got a big pop (something that rarely happens for
me here at home!). But then, gradually turning the heat onto
both NWA and Zero-One, I joined Jim in his role as
heel. I then complimented Jim on the NWA being the
oldest and most-respected company in the US but then asked
him what the hell he's accomplished in Japan other than
getting his big, fat, hamburger-eating ass on a
T-shirt. Jim shoved me, I kicked him in the leg and
the spot ended with a pull apart, between what one pundit
called "a giant, fat Homer Simpson look-alike and a
smart, bald midget who's been around the fitness industry
for a long time." Gee, uh, thanks for the
compliment. Anyway,
the long and short of it (definitely, no pun intended!) is
that we ended up back in the ring after Hashi destroyed NWA
North American Champ Hernandez. Miller was
saying something silly like Hashimoto's next
challenger was some Candian guy named "The
Spiderman" or something. I countered that the
only real challengers are UPW standouts Green Beret
and Predator. Makes sense to me, don't you
think? For my trouble, I got the powder in the eyes
from Miller, a clothesline and a organ-splitting giant
splash (that's if you don't count him "breaking his
fall" by planting his knee squarely into my
quad). So, with a 215 pound difference between us, I
hope I get to go back and kick his a$$ soon, and if not,
that part was fun and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do
even this little bit. Also
makes me admire even more (if that's possible) the bumps and
bruises all workers everywhere sustain on a nearly daily
basis. Geez, one splash and I'm ready to call it a
day!
May
23rd at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, 1,800 paid.
C.W.
Anderson & Steve Corino defeated Native Blood
(Ghostwalker & Navajo) in 23 minutes when Corino pinned
Ghostwalker after a low-blow.
The Predator & Tom Howard defeated Masato Tanaka &
Shinjiro Ohtani in 15 minutes, 27 seconds when Predator
pinned Ohtani after the Muscle Buster.
Highlight
- The after-party with Nakamura and friends at our other
home away from home, The Grapple Bar. Learning some very
choice words in Japanese. Unfortunately, The Grapple
Bar, an institution amongst the Pro Wrestling and NHB
communities (much like the famed Ribera Steak House) is
closing this Saturday. So, until we meet again Ricky-san,
and thanks for all the great times and memories. Some
parting impressions - Zero-One is getting very, very
good at what they do. In addition to now drawing bigger
houses and garnering more media attention, they're
establishing longer-term programs and are creating titles
that mean something. I very much look forward to their
continued growth and success. Tom
Howard is at last getting some of the success that he
deserves! Kampai to Tom, who is truly the best guy I
know in this business. For Sylvester Terkay, the
"lightbulb has gone on." We knew that this day
was coming and I'm happy to say...it's
arrived. Navajo, Ghostwalker and Corino are
great traveling companions and class guys. I look
forward to doing a lot more work with each. And CW,
you're finer than frog's hair and I look forward to seeing
you at the premier of "Deliverance, Part 2." Oh
yeah, and one final highlight - In Sylvester's
interview with a BIG Japanese magazine at Narita Airport
just before heading back to L.A., when listing his Film
and TV credits, managing to work in "Nova Loves The
_____ (something or other!)" All
in all, a great trip and I look forward to soon returning to
the land of the rising sun. In
next week's Ultimate Update, we'll recap the latest
happenings in the International Junior Heavyweight
Championship tournament and update you on where you can see
UPW live! Rick
Just because I like this picture!
(l-r: with ORIGINAL UPW girls
Carnidge, Savvy, Looney & Miss Delicious)
 Me
and Antonio Inoki - Cauliflower Alley Club 2000
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