VIEW FROM THE RISING SUN
by Masanori Horie

O Canada

A few random notes on "Canada".....

Phil Lafon (Danny Kroffat) and Masanori, March 4, 1996

What has become of that Philip "Danny Kroffat" Lafon, I wonder? He is not only one of the greatest workers, but the funniest and biggest-hearted man I've ever seen. He is originally from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, born on September 16, 1961. He, as Phil Lafleur (a tribute to his love of the Montreal Canadiens pro hockey team), came to Japan for the first time to the original UWF, with Jerry Olski, Stephen Pettipas, Frank Morrell, The Cuban Assassin (Canadian), Sweet Daddy Siki (the original), and Tapu Samoa, from October 5 to October 25 in 1984. The UWF was run by Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Rusher Kimura, Ryuma Go, Mach Hayato, and Super Tiger (Original Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama) from April 11, 1984 to September 11, 1985. They brought a lot of gaijin (foreign) wrestlers from the Montreal booking office headed by Frank Valois, who was famous here in Japan as a manager of Andre the Giant, rather than a wrestler and a promoter himself. Then, Lafon, as Danny Kroffat, was teaming with Hangman Bobby Jaggers in Puerto Rico in 1988 and booked to Giant Baba's All Japan Pro from October 1 to October 28, 1988. He was traveling all over Japan with Stan Hansen, Abdullah the Butcher, Rock & Roll Express (Rick Morton & Robert Gibson), Danny Spivey, Joel & David Deaton, Greg Brown, and Doug Furnas, who would be his best tag team partner as "Can-Am Express." Since then, he has had tremendous success as one of Baba's regular gaijin wrestlers until September 1996 (47 tours over 8 years). He won both the World Junior Heavyweight title (two times) and All Asian Tag Team title (four times). Especially, the World Junior Heavyweight title match between Kroffat and Rob Van Dam at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on June 9, 1995 (17:10 Kroffat beat RVD) and the All Asian Tag Team title match between Can-Am Express and Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi at Miyagi Prefectural Gym in Sendai on May 25, 1992 (11:21 Kobashi beat Kroffat) were very impressive to me. He, as Phil Lafon, and Furnas joined the WWF in late 1996, but they couldn't get over well. After a car accident on June 15, 1997, the last time I heard of him was that he wrestled as the masked "Blue Blazer II" in Mexico's EMLL in August 1998. I wish he would return to Japan as "Danny Kroffat" as soon as possible. Japanese wrestling is a natural for him, and he is a natural.

Masanori and Gene Kiniski, January 26, 1990

Perhaps one of the greatest Canadian pro wrestlers, Gene Kiniski will come back to Japan for "Giant Baba's Retirement Ceremony" at Tokyo Dome on Sunday, May 2. They announced that he would "team up" with Bruno Sammartino against the late Giant Baba and The Destroyer (Dick Beyer). They will show their classic matches from the 1960's. He was originally from Edmonton, Alberta in 1928, and a star of the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. He became a pro wrestler after a knee injury in 1953. He came to Japan for the first time for the old Nippon Pro Wrestling (JWA) from April 3 to May 12, 1964. He had 32 shows with the masked Caribs Hurricane (Cyclone Negro), The Mummy (Benji Ramirez), Wild Bull Curry, The Alaskan (Jay York), Gene LeBell, Chief White Wolf (a.k.a. Sheik Adnan El Kaissey), and Mr. Moto, who was a foreign booking agent for the JWA in those days. He had moved to Vancouver in 1962, and he became a top star and co-promoter of the All-Star Wrestling. Nippon Pro Wrestling had just restarted with Toyonobori, Michiaki Yoshimura, Yoshinosato, Kokichi Endo, and Giant Baba (26 years old) after Rikidozan got killed at the end of 1963. Kiniski defeated Lou Thesz to win the NWA World Heavyweight title in St. Louis, Missouri on January 7, 1966 and lost to Dory Funk Jr. in Tampa, Florida on February 11, 1969. His last Japan tour as a wrestler, was from April 20 to May 5, 1979, and he visited Japan as a special guest in 1990, 1991, and 1993. We have still often had opportunities to watch the International Heavyweight title match between Kiniski and Baba at Osaka Baseball Stadium on August 14, 1967 (65 minute time-up draw) on TV. Can we imagine if any WWF or WCW boys will have such a tough and long match in mid-summer?

Chris Jericho and Masanori, April 30, 1995

Christopher "Chris Jericho / Lion Heart / Corazón de Léon" Irvine has been absent from Japan for over seven months. Where is he going to go? I became good friends with him when I went to Smoky Mountain Wrestling's FanWeek in 1994. He is a great personality to be with, and he knows about Japanese life and culture very well. I imagine he grew up with a warm-hearted family. His father, Ted Irvine, was a former National Hockey League player for the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and St. Louis Blues from 1967 to 1977. Chris spent time in the various cities where his father was playing. He is never just today's fastest rising star. He was wrestling for Atsushi Onita's FMW ('91-'92) and Gen-ichiro Tenryu's WAR ('94-'96). He always had big aspirations and motivation to rise. In his second FMW tour, he faced Eiji Ezaki in a curtain raising tag team match at Yokohama Baseball Stadium on September 19, 1992. Ezaki is now the sensational masked star "Hayabusa." Jericho, as Lion Heart, had 26 tours with WAR over three years, and he had been longing for New Japan Pro's wrestling style. He was so thrilled to face Chris Benoit (Wild Pegasus) in a singles match for the first time. It was a tournament match in the "Super J-Cup-2nd Stage" at Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Hall) on December 13 (13:43 Pegasus beat Lion Heart---Jushin "Thunder" Liger won the tournament). It's funny to see his Japanese friend Ricky Fuji (Masanori Morimura) has mimicked him, copying from hair style to costume in FMW. They became good friends when they wrestled for the CNWA's independent shows in Calgary after Chris graduated from the Hart Brothers' School of Wrestling in "The Dungeon," and Morimura went over to Calgary to be a wrestler.

Don Callis (Jackyl, Cyrus), Masanori, and Mike Anthony (Lozanski), September 13, 1996

Don Callis, WWF's Jackyl and ECW's Cyrus, is originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1972 and debuted in wrestling in 1989. He, as "The Natural," had his first Japan tour with the now-defunct Tokyo Pro Wrestling with Abdullah the Butcher, 2 Cold Scorpio, Billy Black, Mike Anthony (Lozanski), Shocker, and Astro Jr. from September 15 to October 8, 1996, after his first WWF tryout, after which he didn't get hired. Tokyo Pro Wrestling, run by a big sugar daddy, was one of the worst wrestling companies in Japanese wrestling history. However, their "disorganization" sometimes looked fresh and unique. They had a single main event match between Abdullah and The Natural in a local city without any storylines. It was just Abdullah's bloodfest, as usual. I don't know how he looks back at these three weeks in Japan, but it is my pleasure to observe Mr. Nobodies' slow and steady effort making them superstars someday. By the way, I met another great Canadian, Abdullah, on Saturday, April 24. He is staying in Japan until May 1, just one day before his greatest rival Baba's retirement ceremony will be held. I confirmed that his real name is "Shreve" (not Shreeve), and his birthday is January 11 (not January 1, nor November 2). This is his name card.

Abdullah the Butcher and Masanori

The Harts and Masanori
Stu Hart, Masanori, Ross Hart, and Bruce Hart, September 11, 1997

The biggest bridge between Japan and Canada in the wrestling business was, no doubt, Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling. They started business with Isao Yoshihara's IWE (International Wrestling Enterprises) from 1975, when IWE's Tokyo Joe (Testunosuke Daigo), who had wrestled in Calgary and Montreal in the early 1970's, lost his right leg in a car accident. He became a booking agent to send wrestlers from Stampede Wrestling to the IWE. They switched their business relationship from IWE to New Japan Pro in 1979. A lot of Canadian wrestlers took the Japanese style home, arranged it, and created the Calgary style. They trained a lot of Japanese wrestlers, such as Mighty Inoue, Animal Hamaguchi, Mr. Pogo (as Mr. Seki), Ryuma Go, Ashura Hara, Kazuo Sakurada (a.k.a. Kendo Nagasaki), The Cobra (George Takano), Shunji Takano, Junji Hirata (Sonny Two Rivers), Hiro Saito, Toshiaki Kawada (as Korean Kio Kawata), Hiroshi Hase (as Viet Cong Express), and many more, along with Dynamite Kid, Junkyard Dog, Chris Benoit, and Brian Pillman, in "The Dungeon" in the Hart home. Stu's friend, Lord James Blears, has often come to Japan as a President of the PWF (Pacific Wrestling Federation) since 1972; Blears will be the greatest history teller for you. When Stu married Helen Smith in New York City on December 31, 1947, Blears was there. The Harts had twelve children--Smith, Bruce, Keith, Wayne, Dean (died November 21, 1990), Elizabeth (married to Jim Neidhart), Georgia (married to B.J. Annis, parents of Ted Hart), Bret, Allison, Ross, Diana (married to Davey Boy Smith), and Owen. As everybody knows, so many Hart family members were involved inside and outside Stampede Wrestling. Bret "The Hitman" Hart had come to Japan for the first time to New Japan Pro with Tiger Jeet Singh, Bad News Allen (Bad News Brown), Johnny Mantell, The Gestapo (Rick Oliver), and his brother, Keith Hart, from June 19 to July 25, 1980. He was a 21-year-old young boy. Nobody could expect he would be a World Heavyweight champion about 12 years later (he defeated Ric Flair to win the WWF title in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, on October 12,1992). He had five tours for New Japan Pro before joining the WWF in 1985. He challenged for Tiger Mask's WWF Junior Heavyweight title at Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center on February 5, 1982 (17:34 Tiger beat Bret) and at Aichi Prefectural Gym on July 30, 1982 (17:03 Tiger beat Bret). He grew up surrounded by wrestling, wrestlers, and wrestling fans, so he has a wrestling mind, and he is so nice to us.

Masanori and Bret "The Hitman" Hart, September 11, 1997