Gran Hamada

So we go to the Observer for the first time.

This is from the 11/25/96 Observer, where Dave writes that Michinoku Pro drew a sellout of 3,500 fans to Gunma on the 11/12 card to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the pro debut of Gran Hamada.

Hamada teamed with Sasuke and Delfin to beat Shiryu, Teioh, and Togo in the main event.

The other top match saw the current Tiger Mask team with mentor Sayama to beat Michinoku, Taka Michinoku, and Shoichi Funaki, who Dave describes as the top indie tag team in Japan.

Um, you know, I think you, you hit the nail on the head where you can watch this match five to 10 different times, and I think you can still pick up on something new every time around.

You know, the first time I saw this match, I was taken aback by the noise of the crowd.

And then the second time I watched it, I was blown away by Dick Togo and I was blown away by Gran Hamada.

There are times where I watch this match and I'm blown away by Yakushiji and by Super Delfin, who I think is excellent in this match.

You need 60% of the votes in your chosen region, and, uh, the deadline is coming up in just a couple of weeks, and then the results will be posted.

So, um, last year, uh, in the Hall of Fame, those going in included Spiros Arion, Gran Hamada, Doral Dixon, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Sabu, and Bobby Bruns.

Brandon, did you vote for any of these people that went in last year, do you recall?

I definitely voted for CM Punk.

Oh.

And the guys who held it: X-Pac, The Great Sasuke, Perro Aguayo, Gran Hamada, Fishman, Dean Malenko, El Samurai.

X-Pac?

Nope.

Common answer, though.

He, as well as Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada, Fishman, Dean Malenko, El Samurai, all held it twice, with a whopping gap.

Perro Aguayo is the guy with seven.

That makes sense.

I didn't want to do that.

Uh, you had Spiros Arion, Gran Hamada, Durell Dixon, uh, who v- very kindly, thanks to the work of the great Roy Lucier, uh, found out he was inducted and was super hype about it.

So big love to Durell Dixon.

Uh, Punk, Cody Rhodes, Sabu, uh, Bruns, as I mentioned, and Raul Paoli, uh, on there, so lots of good candidates.

When it felt like it was actually going to become real, she started crying.

She would also be able to bring home to Japan her father, Gran Hamada, who had passed away a year ago.

So bring his remains back to Japan.

So that's why it meant a lot to her as well.

I've kind of butchered the history of Lucharesu there because it really started way before that.

It was Gran Hamada doing the same thing and having his Hamada UWF in the late 80s, early 90s.

So yeah, that's a great example of early homogenization, but it was caused more by travel rather than I think there's the technological wave where you talk about all the luchadors in their...

All the luchadors, star luchadors now, who were teenagers in the late 2000s, 2010s, your Pentas, your Phoenixes, all these guys, they all... just watched pwg dvds that's well known um those guys ate that up takeshita in mexico or in japan he his favorite result generico he just couldn't could not get enough pwg um that was technological in the case of gran hamada in the case of uh ultimo in the case of um rollerball rocco jushin liger going to the uk that was travel and those guys went to the uk and brought back elements of that to japan those guys went to mexico brought back stuff to japan all vice versa it was the mixing based on travel and it was guys getting out of their territories and and saying oh this would work here oh i'll try this here and and you know and that's and that the benoit malenko guerrero jericho crew were huge

when it comes to that and building on that like even into the 2000s and 2010s there'd be the u.s indie wrestler the uk indie wrestler that would work some shows in japan and they would come back and they'd have the kanji on their on their tights and they would be throwing you know kicks and stuff like that things that they weren't doing before but they went to japan and they learned the strong style yep Um, and it kind of would evolve and like with a company like Dragon Gate, like a big thing was they're definitely way ahead of the curve of not being so tied to individual size, which so much of wrestling had been geared towards up until that time period.

Right.