5-Star BOOK Reviews: Masanobu Fuchi’s Books, Part III

After years of toiling away and praying for an opportunity to wrestle abroad, Masanobu Fuchi finally gets his chance. This section will see Fuchi interact with many famous wrestling veterans from the past. For Fuchi this dream was more important than finding a girlfriend. Luckily he’ll soon get his wish.

You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Chapter 3: “Baba’s Boy” Goes to America for Training

Right before Fuchi departs for America, Genichiro Tenryu debuts and begins training while still wearing his sumo topknot. His training is split between being overseen by Tsuruta, someone named Takachiko, and Baba himself, with Fuchi and the other trainees serving as practice partners in between. Around this time Fuchi wins the Tokyo Sports’ Effort Award for puro (APOD: Along with Ryuma Go and Shoji Kai), but Fuchi recalls his parents being happier about winning it than he was. Soon after Billy Robinson comes to All Japan and Fuchi volunteers to be his practice partner. Aside from Robinson, Fuchi also learns trains with and learns techniques from, Horst Hoffman, Pat O’Connor, and Karl “Kami-sama” Gotch. He also describes receiving plenty of instruction and advice from “The Destroyer” Dick Beyer.

As 1979 turns into 1980 the other two trainees depart with Fuchi’s foreign excursion still left undecided. In a surprise turn of events, Fuchi credit Ed Farhat (The Original Sheik) with helping him get a working visa to wrestle in the United States. This allowed Fuchi to accompany Baba to an NWA convention and is, in all likelihood, the only time Fuchi and Vince McMahon would be in the same room together. Sheik’s help didn’t end there, though; he describes how wrestling in the Detroit territory had declined so he encouraged Fuchi to go work in Puerto Rico. Fuchi followed Sheik there and the two of them meet up with Abdullah The Butcher.

Abby is the one who takes care of Fuchi while in Puerto Rico and gives him pointers about making money in that territory. He also warns Fuchi about the fans there being far more aggressive than in Japan and how they’d have to fight against fans if necessary. By watching Abby fight wildly and lose by via disqualification, Fuchi witnesses Abby rile up local crowds enough for them to want to see him next time. This is now Abby as a heel made money which, at times, was more than what the babyfaces made. When not working closely with Abby, Fuchi also recalls being well taken care of by Race and Bruiser Brody, both of whom had worked for Baba in the past. Being “Baba’s boy” comes with certain perks and a certain level of respect, but Fuchi earns his keep as well. He recalls the lessons he learned in AJPW dojo and applies them in the ring which the people around him all respect. Fuchi notes that many American wrestlers lack the same mastery of fundamentals Baba had drilled into him so Fuchi is able to hold his own in athletic and competitive matches.

Much of Fuchi’s initial time in Puerto Rico sees him wrestle as the masked wrestler “El Destructor” which he doesn’t particularly like. One reason is that he has to wash the mask every day and it doesn’t always dry in time so on many nights he wrestles in a damp mask which is worsened by how much sweat pours down his brow. A few weeks later Onita joins him and Fuchi sheds the mask. He and Fuchi form a generic tag team showcasing that they’re from Japan, which he finds refreshing. At this time he’s paid about 10,000 yen per week, which translates into the same monthly salary that university graduates were paid in white collar jobs in Japan. Fuchi is particularly proud about how the promoter of the Puerto Rico territory put so much trust in him and Onita, noting “As expected from Baba’s boys”.

Four months later Fuchi moves to Amarillo, Texas, to wrestle under Dory Funk, Jr. When he arrives, there weren’t any matches scheduled so Fuchi and Onita spent a few days going to cattle & horse actions and going to local Texas bars. Since he and Fuchi were staying with the Funk Family the two Japanese guys return the favor by cooking for their hosts. After that they both go to Memphis where Tojo Yamamoto wrestles. As part of their new gimmick Fuchi receives bamboo swords sent to him from Japan by either his mother or sister. Through some sort of obligation to his host, Fuchi ends up giving one of said swords to Yamamoto. Fuchi has positive memories of wrestling in Memphis since the wrestlers of that time were similar in size and he could wrestle more normally. Fuchi recalls wrestling the team of Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee and the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express duo of Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson. Over time Fuchi & Onita would learn to evaluate wrestlers among themselves, which they didn’t have the luxury of doing in Japan. Fuchi also concludes that the lessons he learned in AJPW’s training dojo were universally applicable since he could work with anyone in seemingly any territory.

It was also around this time that Fuchi starts zeroing in on what would become his individual style. He wants to focus on ground wrestling and submissions, which wasn’t all that common in the territories he wrestled in. At the time he could only name a small handful of wrestlers who had a similar style: Eddie Graham, Gene Anderson, George Scott, and a few members of the Crockett Family. Beyond them there was only Fuchi.

After Memphis, Fuchi goes to the Florida territory and a guy named Omuka introduces him personally to Karl Gotch. Fuchi essentially jumps for joy at the prospect of learning from Gotch. Despite extremely long drives from one venue to another Fuchi still finds time to train at Gotch’s place. However, a small dilemma presents itself: Gotch regularly offers Fuchi wine during training and Fuchi, not wanting to be rude, accepts. Often more than once. This leads to numerous occasions where Fuchi would show up at the venue stinking of wine but he wouldn’t make excuses that he was only drinking it because Gotch offered. Incidentally, when Fuchi mentions that he had learned some techniques from Billy Robinson Gotch would “make a dissatisfied face”. Of all the things Fuchi learns from Gotch he is especially grateful for improving his bridging technique.

After spending six months in Florida and another four months in Puerto Rico, the last leg of Fuchi’s excursion would be nine months in North Carolina. During this period Fuchi forms closer bonds with several wrestlers, improved his English, getting a girlfriend (which helped with his English) and also starts riding with Bruiser Brody. It was around this time that Brody describes Jumbo Tsuruta as his biggest rival. In fact, Fuchi claims Brody was so engrossed in beating Tsuruta that he started changing his body and style to be able to match Tsuruta in the ring. It was also Brody who helped Fuchi master his English and the two of them would often talk for 3-4 hours on the road and after shows.

APOD: There was plenty of interesting stuff in this section as it pertained to Fuchi’s training. In many ways Fuchi serves as a bridge between the older generations and both his own and his successors. He is one of the rare few to receive training from some of the most renowned grapplers of decades past and as such carries a wealth of knowledge to pass down to later generations. Hell, if I had received training from or wrestled against Giant Baba and his many associates and staff, Bruiser Brody, Abdullah The Butcher, Billy Robinson, Lou Thesz, Karl Gotch, The Destroyer, The Funk Family, Pat O’Connor, and Jerry Lawler then I’d be bursting at the seams with wrestling knowledge. Though there isn’t anything all that revelatory in this section it’s the thought of Fuchi being so well-rounded that needs to be emphasized here. It’s extremely rare to find a single individual who has that much firsthand wrestling knowledge so it’s no wonder that he did such a great job as AJPW’s matchmaker towards the 1990s. But before we get into all that, Fuchi still has some work to do setting the stage for the era of the Four Heavenly Kings and that involves more discussion about Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiroy Tenryu.

Thanks for reading.