Outside of the Pacelli Event Center in Daly City, CA.
Hello everyone!
The second version of Looking Back, hopefully, is a good one for all of you reading and watching.
Japanese wrestling, and wrestlers, have always been one of this blogger's favorites in pro wrestling. In the West Coast of America where I live, there were two excellent wrestlers that performed and were main event talent. This was before the formation of what is now New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1972.
Kinji Shibuya and Mr. Saito (Masa Saito) were excellent AWA Tag Team champions back in the late 1960s. They would face all comers in the area. Mr. Saito would go on to the WWF and finish his career there.
In the 1970s-1980s, it would be The Great Fuji (later Mr. Fuji). From the West Coast, he would continue on in the WWF not only as a wrestler, but also a manager.
In the 1980s, when the American Wrestling Association came to our area, Jumbo Tsuruda would have a brief stint as the AWA World Champion. In the one show, this fan saw something that he never saw before, a belly-to-back suplex. The move wasn't that common back then.
In the 1990s and 2000s, there would be more. Fans reading this will recognize the names of Tajiri and Yoshi Tatsu! This fan would see them on television and they would light up the arenas! They were that good and electric during shows.
This fan never had the chance to see Tajiri live. I was a little more fortunate to see Yoshi Tatsu. It was in May 2016. All Pro Wrestling, a local independent promotion in Daly City, about 10km from San Francisco hosted an event. It was called Friday The 13th!
This would be my first ever independent show! Besides Yoshi Tatsu, the names of Marty Janetty (WWE - The Rockers), MVP (WWE and AEW who was wrestling in a 4 way match for the APW Universal Title) and a young Jeff Cobb (FPW Champion, AEW and NJPW) were on the show.
Yoshi Tatsu wrestled Joey Ryan, a familiar local wrestler with the promotion. There were 10 matches on the evening. The fans, in every match, were loud and enthusiastic!
Dexcon, wrestling fans in the Philippines, and in Southeast Asia, are in for a treat on March 16th! You will have a chance to see the legendary Yoshi Tatsu in action. Very few tickets are left for the show so please visit the Dexcon Facebook page for tickets!
Back to the Pacelli Events Center, to this fan's recollection, it holds 150-200 fans for wrestling events.
Believe it or not, this fan found the Yoshi Tatsu-Joey Ryan match on You Tube. A courtesy thank you to Bar Wrestling and to You Tube for showing this. The link is below so please click if you would like to see this! Thank you.