Six women wrestlers (Bison Kimura and Naomi Kato from Japan, Esther Moreno and Princess Blanca from Mexico, Candi Devine from USA and Raewyn Hunter from New Zealand), along with (males) Greg Smit and Mark Mercedes from Australia and A.J.Freely and Shane O'Rourke from New Zealand undertook a five-center tour of New Zealand's North Island. The women's tournament (five rounds of round robin with a Grand Final on the final night featuring the top two place getters) - based on the annual Japan Women's Grand Prix tournaments thatAll Japan Women ran in Japan each year - was the main focus, with also men's matches and local amateurs on the undercard.
The towns visited were Wellington (July 1), Masterton (July 2), New Plymouth (July 3), Hamilton (July 5) and Auckland (July 6).
1: Some of the tour publicity Japan's "Gong" magazine gave us - thank you to Wally Yamaguchi, who also accompanied the tour, and also helped me out with referee duties in some towns.
2: Photo of me and Bison doing a promo clip relating to the tour for Japan's Samurai television (photo taken from Gong magazines tour coverage)
3 and 4: The five women who survived as far as the Auckland show (Raewyn took ill on the tour and missed the last two dates). From left to right, Kato, Bison, me (the ref), Esther, Candi and Blanca.
5: Bison with the tournament trophy after winning it in Auckland.
More photos to follow over the next few days....
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