Following extensive press, radio, and television promotion of Kendo Nagasaki’s return to the
Wolverhampton Civic, the night itself was sensational!

Atlantis Chronos Goth opened Kendo’s bout by announcing that having wrestled all over Britain and indeed all over the world, Kendo chose the Wolves Civic for his ceremonial unmasking because he regards the venue as his spiritual home…

The audience really appreciated this connection with the great man, and they applauded enthusiastically. Then it was down to business for another sensational and brutal wrestling match!

The match was originally intended to be Kendo Nagasaki versus Yorghos Christopoulos, but Kendo had previously decided that Yorghos did not deserve the honour of such a competition, and that he and his familiar tag team partner Blondie Barrett should instead challenge LDN for their tag team belts! Yorghos did not know this until he was actually in the ring, but Atlantis soon set him straight, and told him to go and find a tag team to oppose Nagasaki and Barrett.

Yorghos must have been furious! After having been so battered by Kendo in their previous match at Hanley, he was no doubt aching for some pay-back against Nagasaki, but he was brutally shut out of the competition; Kendo certainly knows how to treat his adversaries with contempt! However, Yorghos left the ring, and found the tag team of Hakan and Alan Lee Travis who had accompanied LDN to the venue. Hakan too had a bone to pick with Nagasaki, as he, too, had been brutally dispatched by Nagasaki at Hanley – it had been so severe that his courage at facing Nagasaki again was admirable, if more than foolhardy! Poor Travis had no idea of the baptism of fire he was about to endure!

So, the two tag teams faced each other across the ring – Kendo Nagasaki and Blondie Barrett versus Travis and Hakan; Kendo had a serious score to settle with any tag team including Hakan, as he, in combination with Yorghos, had stolen the Sword of Excellence from Kendo at a book and poster signing session in Grays in July, and while Kendo had slapped them both about in Hanley, his memory is long and his vengeance is total! While Hakan had had time to recover and perhaps train-up in some new techniques, he must have known that he was most likely to be battered once again!

And that is precisely what happened… Kendo could barely restrain his fury, and ended up with 2 public warnings against him, but he also took a clean first fall against Hakan, who had been subjected to the customary vicious Nagasaki “softening-up”! The highlight of the match came when Kendo threw Travis over the top rope onto the floor outside the ring, and attacked him with a table! This was followed by the time-keeper’s bell, which Kendo hurled into Travis’s stomach with a “smack!” which echoed around the entire Wolves Civic!

At this point, the entire audience were on their feet in outrage at witnessing the two baby-faces Hakan and Travis being so comprehensively slapped around by Nagasaki and Barrett. These days it’s rare for a wrestling announcer to have to appeal to the audience to take their seats, but this is what happened here out of sheer necessity… Missiles had also begun to rain down into the ring, so effective was Nagasaki’s brand of rule-bending brutality!

Hakan had also been booted out of the ring, but he hauled himself back in to protest to the ref, but Blondie Barrett intercepted him and beat him into a corner post, and while the ref was attending to the in-ring action, Nagasaki casually booted Travis in the face as he attempted to get back into the ring, and he collapsed once again at the feet of the sudience.

Eventually, the crowd calmed down and Travis dragged himself back into the ring, but Kendo swiftly made the result a formality by subjecting him to a body-slam and shoulder-press, gaining the winning fall.

Yorghos re-appeared at the end of the match, outraged at how his fellow LDN wrestlers had been so completely dominated, and, no doubt, still furious and deeply frustrated that he had been shut out of the match, but Atlantis gave him an ominous warning that he would be dealt with in due course! He got a little quieter after that!

Kendo scoring the winning fall on Travis

It was an intense and energy-packed evening, and as usual Kendo had polarised the audience – some hated him, but the majority – including a large group of metal-heads – congratulated Kendo and wanted to pose for pictures with him.

Kendo had once again shown total dominance, to the delight of the audience, both his long-term fans, and new appreciators of his awesome power.

Coverage of the event by the media had been extensive, including pre-match radio and television spots, and articles by Wolverhampton’s Express and Star newspaper, and an excellent web article by BBC Black Country, as seen below.

The BBC also covered the match itself, showing a video feature of the match on BBC Midlands Today in the evening, showing that Kendo deservedly remains as popular as ever!