On December seventeenth in Korakuen Corridor, Konomama Ichikawa will lose to Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Two legendary sons of Gifu, representing the 2 most outstanding males’s Japanese wrestling corporations of this period, will collide to determine who Gifu’s strongest wrestler is, and it’ll most actually be Tanahashi getting his hand raised. Frankly, Ichkiawa will most likely lose twice that evening because the probably referee, Takayuki Yagi, will maintain again snickering to hearken to Ichikawa’s pleas to restart his retirement match after dropping instantly. The sold-out Korakuen will probably be pleading alongside him. For one final evening, Yagi will restart the match for Ichikawa, who will proceed to get his practically 100-pound ass kicked by a legendary wrestler to the laughs and glee of the Dragongate viewers. It’s the final time we see the routine of the weakest wrestler ever and maybe the best comedy wrestler of all time.
Kanji Ichikawa was a 2nd time period pupil of the Ultimo Dragon Gymnasium, along with his contemporaries being Susumu Mochizuki, Genki Horiguchi, and Yasushi Kanda. Uncommon for an early Dragon System trainee, Ichikawa had an beginner wrestling background. On the time in Mexico, Kanji Ichikawa wished to be a black tights, black boots, and a “conventional” robust type wrestler. The artistic pressure of Ultimo Dragon rapidly disabused him on that notion as Ichikawa, even then, was a really shrimpy individual. Robust Model Kanji Ichikawa would have been a colossal failure of a personality and wouldn’t have made sense in Ultimo’s future Lucharesu promotion. Ultimo had his thought for Ichikawa, made him a drawing, and ordered him to make a particular costume if he wished to debut.
I’ve coated or created Dragon System content material for the final decade, and even I’ve points explaining the character of Stalker Ichikawa to a layperson, however right here’s my finest try to explain Ultimo’s thought: Stalker is from the Fuji TV studios, and particularly from the Eighties legendary comedy present “Oretachi Hyokinzoku.” Oretachi was most recognized for launching the solo profession of future NJPW Sumo Corridor Riot starter “Beat” Takeshi Kitano. One of the enduring sketches of Oretachi was Takechanman, the place Takeshi performs a parody of Showa-era superheroes. Takechanman’s commonest villain was Black Satan, and Ultimo thought Ichikawa regarded like an actor on the present. His dimension and skill had him in direction of the underside finish of his class, and it was clear that Ultimo thought he was a minion who can be finest at getting beat up. The Oretachi reference can be the factor that might join new viewers to Ichikawa, after which the comedy comes from him getting beat up each time. What Ultimo didn’t know then was that Ichikawa would make an almost 30-year profession out of being the Weakest Wrestler within the World.
(Black Satan from “Oretachi Hyokinzoku”)
Being the Dragon System’s comedy wrestler, Ichikawa’s profession was much less well-defined than your CIMAs and Dragon Children. For one, the one “Entrance Line” unit he was a member of was Loopy Max from 1999 to 2001. He was one of many many cursed “fifth members” of Loopy Max, together with luminaries comparable to MAKOTO, Jun Ogawuchi, Chocoflake Kobe, and Shingo Takagi. None lasted as CMax was a unit constructed round its core 4 and their reputation. Funnily sufficient, Ichikawa labored higher than most fifths because the scrawny loser mildew engendered a lot help. The important thing to Stalker’s Loopy Max tenure was his love/hate relationship with TARU. They’d staff in a tag staff apuestas match towards M2K’s Susumu Mochizuki and Yasushi Kanda on 12/21/2000, which grew to become certainly one of Stalker’s “legit” classics.
I determine it’s higher to speak now about Ichikawa and his diametrically opposed wrestling types. He’s at all times been the weakest wrestler alive, however that covers solely a portion of what makes Stalker Ichikawa who he’s. It’s the outer layer of the sweet bar: sure, everyone knows {that a} Snickers bar has chocolate; we see it the second we undo the wrapper. The nougat, caramel, and peanuts lie below the shell. That was the gang connection, and the unbelievable babyface Ichikawa was every time the scenario dictated. Ichikawa would possibly as nicely have been Ricky Morton within the Apuestas match, as he had the Korakuen crowd eat out of his palm.
Three months after this match, Loopy Max booted Ichikawa for not being robust sufficient (they have been going by means of certainly one of their many heel-ish revivals). He wouldn’t be in a unit till the proto-unit Waku Waku Fujii Land stuffed the hole between Loopy Max and Blood Era in late 2004. Fittingly, Stalker was given the boot in the course of the Blood Era formation angle in January 2005 as a result of there was no method he was robust sufficient to staff with CIMA and Don Fujii in an idealized “physique man” steady.
It’s fairly magical to me that Ichikawa is that this determine who had this very brief relevance to the general unit panorama in his “prime,” as a substitute, what connects individuals with him are the matches afterward. Positive, Ichikawa has been technically a member of each “veteran” unit save the latest one in Paradox, however his story grew to become extra important than the usual Dragon System warfare. His actual story would begin on June 4, 2000, at Kobe World Memorial Corridor as part of the Dragon Storm 2000 tour as he confronted Joshi legend Aja Kong.
Nobody ever anticipated Ichikawa to win these matches, however the draw of Ichikawa versus a Large Title X For eleven minutes, Aja Kong beat the ever-living soul out of Ichikawa. The gang cackled at every try of Ichikawa to try to beat the legend and extra at her destroying him.
This technique was an exceptionally good promotional second for Ultimo Dragon right here. For the eighteen months earlier, Toryumon Japan grew to become recognized for attracting a non-traditional viewers. With trendy and good-looking younger stars like Magnum Tokyo and Shiima Nobunaga, the concept was that Toryumon introduced the dance membership to professional wrestling. Just like the Magnificence Pair and Crush Gals increase within the 70s and 80s, Toryumon Japan focused younger girls who weren’t “conventional” professional wrestling followers. That was profitable; the corporate bought out Korakuen Corridor commonly after its debut in January 1999. Drawing the normal fan can be important for bigger exhibits and as a lifeline.
(Stalker Ichikawa cosplaying a Gracie brother versus Masakatsu Funaki)
For nearly the subsequent half century, Dragon System “huge” exhibits typically featured “Hollywood” Stalker Ichikawa versus a big-name outsider. This idea would rapidly broaden to the Stalker Ichikawa Bosou collection later in 2000, the place as a substitute of simply basing the matches round Toryumon’s most important occasions, they introduced the Ichikawa vs A Well-known X components to their touring schedule. It started within the Dragon System religious residence of Kobe Rooster George towards famed karateka and Heisei Ishigun member Masao Aoyagi on August 15, 2000. The varied Ichikawa Bosou collection have resulted in Stalker going through a proverbial Who’s Who of Japanese professional wrestling. If we put a listing of Ichikawa’s opponents up towards a relative star of the final twenty years, Ichikawa’s resume would find yourself extra spectacular with names like Takayama, Mutoh, Suzuki, Hokuto, Fujinami, Fujiwara, Nagata, Akiyama, and at last, Tanahashi filling out the Bosou Collection. Though it wasn’t part of a “collection,” his match with Naomichi Marufuji from Remaining Gate 2019 deserves mentioning. It grew to become a Masks vs Hair Apuestas match instantly proper earlier than the match because of a boisterous Stalker promo. Marufuji put down Ichikawa briefly order, and the corporate held a complete unmasking ceremony, as is Lucha custom. To start out 2020, he took Konomama Ichikawa as his new ring identify, making yet one more Beat Takeshi reference as Ichikawa was recognized for wanting like Takeshi Gundam member Sonomamna Ichikawa. (The masks would return later, and everybody, Marufuji included, has considerably been non-plussed by the event).
Actual Title: Kanji Ichikawa
Birthdate: 10/12/1974
Hometown: Gifu, Japan
Divorcee#dragongate#TheFinalGate2019 pic.twitter.com/0oWcGzLxkq— Dragongate Japan Professional-Wrestling (Official English) (@DragonGateEN) December 15, 2019
The sheer quantity of legendary names within the Bosou collection considerably overwhelms the work Ichikawa did with Dragon System roster members. The MocchyIchi match that includes Ichikawa vs. Masaaki Mochizuki grew to become probably the most widespread matchups in Dragon System historical past with over 130 singles matches (NOTE: the extra actual quantity is nearer to 80 when one combines the restarts with the promoted matches). Stalker confirmed his creativity by cosplaying Stan Hansen and Ric Aptitude in matches towards Mochizuki and TARU. Though I discover his “Stalker” work higher, Ichikawa acquired the gang to cackle at his impressions.
When Dragon Gate expanded to the West with Dragon Gate USA and different worldwide appearances, Stalker Ichikawa was featured. These appearances and Bosou matches towards Necro Butcher in 2008 and Brodie Lee in 2010 kind a thesis for a way I now view Stalker Ichikawa on the eve of his retirement. Ichikawa had nice comedy wrestlers contemporaries in Ebessan I/Kikutaro and Kuishinbo Kamen of Osaka Professional Wrestling fame, a Three Musketeers of Owarai (comedy) Matches. Ebisu, a Japanese god of fortune and luck, impressed Ebessan. Kamen’s character of a clown in Osaka Professional was very a lot reacting to Ebessan as a wanted foil for him. Plopping Ebessan down on a world wrestling crowd wouldn’t have the identical impression as Ebessan had in Osaka Professional; there’s an excessive amount of cultural comedy and commentary being made that doesn’t essentially translate out. Kamen’s relationship with Ebessan makes that comedy depending on having an Ebessan foil. Stalker’s character and “Bit” have been translated internationally within the Necro Butcher and Brodie Lee matches. Though you don’t have the required Beat Takeshi trappings and cultural information, it’s pointless. It’s a minion going through off towards a behemoth. That doesn’t require any cultural translation and is a degree of timelessness that the COVID-era “Meme Wrestlers” wished they might faucet into. The one factor that ever held again Ichikawa was how damaging and strenuous these matches have been. Time has run out for him; the try to get by means of one final Bosou collection led to a compacted schedule that had a remaining singles match with Mochizuki, a giant present match towards Dump Matsumoto, piggybacking off of the recognition of “Queen of Villians,” and a shock Kenoh beat down.
There are two later moments of Ichikawa’s profession I need to contact on earlier than concluding this column. Hakata Star Lanes, probably the most excellent professional wrestling venue in western Japan, was about to close down in 2019, and Dragon Gate would maintain one final present within the former bowling alley. Most individuals keep in mind that present on February 10, 2019, for the unbelievable PAC vs. Kzy Open The Dream Gate match and PAC tombstone piledriving Kzy off the second rope. I take into consideration the second match on the present: Stalker Ichikawa vs Don Fujii. Fujii and Stalker had a full comedy plunder match with ladders that left Hakata and referee Takayuki Yagi gasping for breath. That’s my final match ever in Hakata Star Lanes, and I apologize to PAC and Kzy for disregarding them.
Maybe the second that finest embodied the Stalker Ichikawa expertise was at Remaining Gate 2020. All year long, Dragongate fell right into a three-way unit struggle with the older Toryumon Era, the youthful Dragongate Era, and the rudo R.E.D. group, and at Remaining Gate was a Loser Disbands match between R.E.D. and Toryumon Era. Because it was a “veteran” unit, Ichikawa was naturally a member, however he was removed from the entrance traces and didn’t defend his era’s honor within the match. Within the match itself, R.E.D. nearly ran by means of the complete Toryumon facet briefly order, leaving Dragon Child defending his era’s honor. A second earlier than the closing stretch, a pure Dragon System referee bump led to assaults from outdoors wrestlers. The ultimate moments of this stretch had Konomama Ichikawa sprint into the ring and landed a picture-perfect Ina Bauer German Suplex for the largest pop of the evening. Ichikawa at all times had flash victory potential, and right here he acquired a COVID clap crowd to interrupt noise restrictions due to a run-in assault!
Through the years, I’ve written and talked extensively in regards to the Dragon System’s existential risk, getting their viewers to take care of curiosity because the Toryumon originals wind down their careers. Through the years, the promotion tried to introduce different comedy wrestlers. The Florida Brothers have been maybe probably the most well-known non-Stalker comedy act, and even that was a two-year run earlier than Daniel Mishima left the corporate and Michael Iwasa discovered higher success going “legit.” Lupin Matsutani was an early DG NEX (the corporate’s branding for the 2006-09 dojo college students) member primarily based on the well-known Lupin The Third anime that hardly lasted a European tour. The corporate has shied away from comedy acts even additional in fashionable occasions: Kung Fu Masters solely appeared in Kobe all through its existence and, by the tip, simply grew to become a reputation for Jason Lee and Jacky Kamei’s tag staff. Merely put, this period of the Dragon System will finish with both the second or third time Hiroshi Tanahashi defeats Ichikawa on the seventeenth. I feel we must always simply be grateful that we witnessed greatness by one other identify over the previous quarter century and acknowledge that nobody did comedy wrestling in addition to “Hollywood” Stalker Ichikawa.
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