I just found out this guy is buried in an unmarked grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Wtf kind of bullshit is that? This dude wasn't exactly Rikidozan but he was the first EVER Japanese professional wrestler and even staged the first ever puroresu event in Japan in the 1880s. The shows flopped so he came back over here only to die in poverty as a destitute a few years later. I'm thinking of starting a campaign to get him a memorial or something up there so he at least gets some sort of recognition as a pioneer for puroresu
I doubt you'll get much traction posting about this here anon. In fact I was about to do some>no yen?type posting before deciding on a real response. You'd have better luck posing this on Wrestling Classics or something. The admin Crimson Mask is a fag and one of the guys who would have known about this, Ken Viewer, is dead I'd have to assume, and it's not too popular these days, but there are probably posts about this guy already from over the years if you search there.
>>21031583Based?
There's loads of "important" wrestlers who just die unknown. There's no known date of death for Tsunagorô Rashômon, for instance, who was a mega-draw in Japan in the 50s (and the guy who Giant Baba based his gimmick on). The guy just vanishes from history and nobody knows when he died.
KWABOTM?
>>21031609I used to post there as a teen like a decade ago. I wasn't aware it was still that active. I just posted this here since I figured there were SOME anons with enough historical knowledge to at least have heard about this guy
>>21031626don't go there anymore myself and actually just tried to go and see if there was anything on this guythe board may not be around anymore actually, it makes you login to even look at it and I can't login.
>>21031639That's gay as hell. Oh well, I might still consider creating one and visiting from time to time for research purposes. Don't seem to be many wrestling forums these days that want to actually discuss the really old stuff
>>21031617hey this guy was in Yojimbo
>>21031583rip
>>21031583>nickname was "The Jap"based. thanks for giving me someone to look up
>Duncan C. Ross Vs. Sorakichi Matsada on April 18, 1884 at the Armory Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. Sorakichi was recognised by the Police Gazette as their Japanese wrestling champion. Ross was the holder of a couple of different Police Gazette medals for mixed style wrestling. This particular contest was the best three out of five falls, with the winner taking two-thirds of the gate receipts. Andre Christol was in Ross's corner and the sporting editor of the PG, William E. Harding, was in Sorakichi's. >Ross won the coin toss to decide the first style of catch-as-catch-can. He won it in just 3 minutes. Japanese style was the second round, Ross went to shake Sorakichi's hand at the opening, but Sorakichi rushed across the stage to butt Ross in the ribs. Christol declared one of Ross's ribs broken. Ross declared, "Thats funny wrestling. But I shake hands no more with that feller." >They reappeared for the third bout, Ross with a cut head and a bruised forehead on top of his broken rib. The style was not stated, but Ross won after 5 minutes, and it was likely catch-as-catch-can. The fourth round saw Sorakichi a bit worse for wear also, nonetheless, they came back out for more Japanese style wrestling. Learning from earlier Ross bowed his head to charge at Sorakichi, Sorakichi copied, the two clashed in the middle with Ross's head imploding Sorakichi's nose sending blood splattering. The Japanese Cyclone eventually won after a series of headbutts being thrown by both men. >The final bout did not come off as Sorakichi was too injured. He was very unhappy with Ross being declared the winner, however, there was little he could do in his current condition. The whole event was reportedly well received. Based strong style OG
>>21031626Me too. I stopped posting because Crimson Mask was a cunt.
>>21031583I love stuff like this. So much history.
>>21031583I remember finding out about him when listing to the pioneers of pro wrestling history podcast by whenitwascool, wondering about who were the "first pro wrestlers" from different parts of the world. It's an interesting rabbit hole when looking into these very early wrestlers that are basically lost in the record books.
>>21031691kek
If you search in Japanese there is a decent amount of people that know about him
>>21033894>pioneers of pro wrestling history podcastThis any good? I get it recommended all the time
Bump for based bread
>>21031617All this giants have similar faces
>>21034328To me it is. He will find old newspaper archives to find match listings when researching the topics. The main thing I like is as he goes through the history the topics of "when did kayfabe begin," or "what was the first match with a proper ring" and other mark questions like that come up. Apparently early on in newpaper reports he found there was a belief that pro wrestling was fake by some from the start.
>>21035691Yeah that revelation killed all the mystique about the golden age of wrestling, here I was thinking old timers were marks to all of it and thought wrestling was real just to find out they were always aware of the booking like me and those UFC faggots
>>21035707I'm sure that at the beginning of any type of competitive sport's history there were people that believed/knew it was fake from the start. I wouldn't be surprised if at the beginning of basketball or american football there were some fans that thought it was completely fake. Gambling and betting was really big and out in the open during the beginning stages of pro wrestling based on what he says so I suppose it makes sense people were skeptical on how real it was.
>>21033190>Ross went to shake Sorakichi's hand at the opening, but Sorakichi rushed across the stage to butt Ross in the ribs. Christol declared one of Ross's ribs broken. Ross declared, "Thats funny wrestling. But I shake hands no more with that feller." >Learning from earlier Ross bowed his head to charge at Sorakichi, Sorakichi copied, the two clashed in the middle with Ross's head imploding Sorakichi's nose sending blood splattering.>The whole event was reportedly well received.
