The original tour plan was for shows in five North Island cities (Wellington, Masterton, New Plymouth, Hamilton and Auckland). With the main focus of the tour being our women's tournament featuring six contenders, each town would host a complete round of three matches, plus two men's bouts featuring a mix of matchups between New Zealanders Shane O'Rourke and A.J. Freely and Australians Mark Mercedes and Greg Smit. It was hoped that we would also have amateur wrestlers from the local clubs in each region participate on the undercard, and, in addition to the final round of tournament matches, the final night in Auckland would feature a Main Event matchup between the two top place-getters in the round-robin phase, to decide a champion.
Esther (Moreno) and Bison (Kimura) got things off to a flying start with a fantastic first-round tournament clash in Wellington, which was set as the Main Event that evening - they had both worked extensively for All Japan Women, and I figured they would provide our best match-up, and I was right.
Masterton threw a real spanner in the works though - in the form of bad weather. A nasty storm blew into town late that afternoon, arriving just in time, and staying just long enough, to mess things up for us. Although we got most of our wrestlers over the hill (from Wellington) before the road was closed - our two vans were two of the last vehicles allowed through - very few locals braved the elements and we ended up cancelling the show. That, of course, meant juggling the scheduled bouts in New Plymouth and Hamilton to enable us to arrive in Auckland with the planned final round in place.
In New Plymouth and Hamilton, we found ourselves without amateurs, but the women were happy to do an additional tag match in each of these two towns, so we were still able to provide a full show. In lucha style shows - certainly in Japan - the wrestlers often returned to the ring for a special main event after the main card, so for at least four of our women, this was no big deal, although as promoter, I was certainly grateful for their enthusiasm and willingness to help make the shows a success. In New Plymouth, this tag-team matchup saw us pit Candi Devine (USA) and Kimura and Kato (Japan) against Raewyn (NZ) and Esther and Blanca (Mexico).
But by now, the poor weather/cold temps were making their presence felt, and both Raeywn and Esther were coming down with flu. Raewyn ended up withdrawing from the tour after New Plymouth, although Esther continued with the tour, and Hamilton's tag match was a Japan Vs Mexico affair. Kato gave us a scare in that match, injuring her neck and having to be carried back to the dressing room. Fortunately, she was in much better shape the next morning, and able to still participate in the Auckland show. With Bison already in possession of four wins from four tournament matches, and Esther certain of a fourth in Auckland due to Raewyn's forfeiture, regardless of final round results, we knew this would be our Grand Final.
Story to be continued in the final post. Photos below - courtesy of Dave Cameron - are from the Auckland show with the non-finalists.....
1: Kato waits for her call to enter the ring. Kato wrestled under a mask in Japan, and with tour photos appearing in Gong magazine, and also video to air on the Samurai cable television station, she also wore it for her New Zealand matches.
2: Japan Vs Mexico, with Kato in a little trouble here against Princess Blanca. Kato and Blanca were both in the early stages of their respective careers, and I believe this was the first overseas tour for both of them. Blanca was scheduled to be spending some time in Japan after our tour, so hopefully, she found the New Zealand experience a useful preparation for Japan.
3: Candi Devine goes airborne off the ropes.
No comments:
Post a Comment