Originally posted on Sledgecorp Productions.
By: Chris "Sledge" Douglas
You know that Eagle Sawai Retirement Event?
Well, I decided to go. It was my first joshi show here...
AND IT TOOK ME TWO YEARS OF BEING HERE TO F'CKIN' DO IT! Unbelievable that it took me that long.
Anyway, I got alot to write, but since I just got back from that very event, I am COMPLETELY beat, so I'll write up a full, well, write up of my trip.
Oh, and since I'm one of those, "pics or it didn't happen" kind of guys, I took pics. Not really wonderful ones, but you could tell what's going on.
Well, actually I've been a fan of joshi pro-wrestling since about 1996, but I first noticed it in 1990 when I saw the 87 Survivor Series on video. I got cool with the Jumping Bomb Angels real quick.
It just took me two years of living here before venturing out to check out a show. Ironically, some years before coming here, I would have stated that it was my number 1 thing to do in Japan, were I to go. Of course, when I finally DID get here, life just sorta happened, and I got seriously sidetracked.
It's a bit long, but if you have the patience, I'm sure you'll be rewarded.
Well, first, a bit about the journey. I decided to leave the apartment at around 7pm or so the previous day, since I really like looking at nighttime Tokyo. Got to the train station at about 7:35 or so, and finally arrived in Shinjuku some time later. I decided to play it cheap and stay at an internet cafe for about 1,300 yen (12 bucks). Since my usual overnight place is a capsule hotel (called Capsule land) in Shibuya, I decided to look around there for a cafe. After all, if I couldn't find one, I would just say, "fuck it" and do my usual 3,000 yen stay at the hotel.
It ended up being pretty busy in Shibuya that night (it was a Saturday, after all) and it was pretty crowded. And the massage parlor solicitors were out in full force.
FULL FORCE.
Finally, I made it to the place, paid my 1,300 yen and got my cubicle. The place itself was nice; free drinks, food available, and all the manga and photobooks you could want. Despite all this, I opted to just watch some old Chaplin short flicks I read about on Wikipedia and then go to sleep in my reclining chair.
Only one problem... IT WAS TOO FUCKING HOT in there.
I'm real specific about my sleepable temperatures (which is why, although my apartment has two bedrooms, one with a Japanese style tatami floor-futon mattress setup, and one with an a western style bed, I usually opt to sleep in the living room where the AC is). So, I was only able to sleep in 2 one-hour spurts before finally giving up and getting one more on the floor, where it was MUCH cooler.
Well, morning came and I felt I needed a shower. Two hour wait, they said. Alright, fair enough. So I decided to try a few other places. EVERYWHERE I asked said that it was a two hour wait. By that time, I saw it was getting late, so I decided to head to Korakuen.
First off, I was surprised to find out that Korakuen Hall is actually part of the Tokyo Dome complex. So, my first trip to a joshi show and to Korakuen Hall was also my first visit to the 'Dome itself, and it's amusement park attraction-laden Tokyo Dome City!
Sat around and ate some KFC while waiting (I ate BEFORE I saw the afore mentioned place, or else I would have eaten there) until around 12:00, then made my way to the Hall, and showed my "Special Ring-side reserved seat" ticket that I bought from 7-11. I was shown to my seat. 3rd row. Right behind the red corner.
I gotta say this: both times I went to the Budokan to see NOAH, the other people there weren't very outgoing at all, which is kind of normal here. But the people sitting aroung me were COOL AS FUCK. Even giving me some chips as the event got started! One couple next to me even helped me with my streamers, since I had no idea how to set them up. In exchange I offered them some of my Bugles-type snack (called here Tonkari Corn).
The first match was an Ito Dojo Exhibition between Mai Ichii and Ayako Sato. They were pretty stiff with each other, though I was not at all familiar with either of them.
The next match was pretty odd, to say the least. First, Rumi Kazama came out to introduce her fellow glamour angel, Uchina (I think). She faced off against Obacchi who came out to the Sazae-san theme throwing candy. One happened to land in my lap.
After intermission, the guy with the kid gave a bunch of us some juice boxes of Coffee! Nice guy!
Now onto the main event: Dynamite Kansai and Harley Saito versus Eagle Sawai and Mayumi Ozaki (!).
There was some definite kayfabe "heat" between Kansai and Ozaki, which I thought was a nice touch.
The show ended with a retirement ceremony for Eagle, which had Jumbo Hori, Cuty Suzuki and Lioness Asuka (among others) enter the ring to give flowers.
After the event was actually pretty cool as well. While walking down the hall on our way to the lobby after the event, I looked over to see Takako Inoue walking past me through the hall to get to her merch booth. Needless to say that was pretty cool to get that physically close to someone I was watching perform on 13th generation tapes just 10 short years pior. Now, I do not get star struck, as it is ridiculous to do so, but it the feeling got pretty close to that.
When I got to the lobby, I decided to get some autographs. For a measley 1000 yen (roughly $10, compared to the $20 to $30 wrestlers here charge), you could get in line and get an autographed picture. Here's what I got:
That's pretty much it for the event. After the show I fucked around at Tokyo Dome City hitting up the roller coaster, haunted house, and drop tower rides before finally leaving.
More to come soon, including video of the event WITH CONCLUSIVE PROOF I WAS THERE... plus the merch I picked up!
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