WWE Smackdown, part circus-sideshow, part rock-video testostoronefest, came to the Nippon Budokan on on July 8th and 9th. The Budokan was originally built for the judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics.
A few Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters flew overhead as we were entering the building.
And two men armed with lightsabers held down the fort on foot.
Rey Mysterio, representing San Diego’s 619 area code put on an incredible show. His athletic ability is impressive! Jeff Hardy also put on a nice show. He got booed and of course there were some drunk white guys yelling from the upper level which not only made me proud to be an American, but kept me amused throughout the entire show. Thanks fellas!
Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat was the referee and he ended up getting involved in the mayhem. Somehow I knew that was gonna happen – great show for a guy who’s 58 years old – reminded me of Mickey Rourke’s movie, “The Wrestler”
A big thanks to my man Kengo who hooked up the tickets!
My friend Akilla, traditional japanese tattoo artist, made an official WWE t-shirt for Rey Mysterio which you can see on Akilla’s blog. Limited edition – only available in Japan.
As you can see, I’m a Mysterio fan myself. :)
So did most of the crowd hoot and holler through the whole show? I’ve noticed from watching Super J Cup that the Japanese wrestling audience is usually very quiet and only shouts out occasionally.
But Super J is very “technical” (still fake, but it takes the illusion of a sport seriously) while WWE is an over-the-top comedic soap opera, so perhaps the audience behaves accordingly. Either way, looks like a fun time!
@supreme
The Japanese crowd was very quiet and it was kinda strange. At times when it was obvious that the crowd should have cheered… they didn’t. I’ve been to a bunch of MMA events and I kind of figured it would be the same type of atmosphere so I wasn’t surprised.
Your commentary is hilarious