Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2012 4:16:00 GMT -5
It’s been more than a year since last wrestled in Japan, since my release from Pro Wrestling NOAH. For the past year, I’ve taken the only break I’ve had since I started wrestling. I moved back to America and looked to pick of the pieces and start something new. Getting fired after eleven years with one company really sucks, as you can imagine, and I had no clue where to go from there. So I moved back to Tennessee, living in an apartment, and even worked as a mechanic for awhile just to occupy myself. I met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun, but there was something missing, and that something was wrestling. It’s all I did for nineteen years. It left a void that nothing could fill.
I got a call several weeks ago from my former employer All Japan Pro Wrestling. They wanted to know if I wanted to come back, full time. It didn’t take me long to agree.
It’s been more than twenty years since I headed off to Japan alone and started training with AJP, and nearly twenty since I made my wrestling debut with them, twelve years since I worked for them full time, and two years since I‘ve set foot inside their ring. A lot has changed in those twelve years, and while I have wrestled for them since that point, and even won the Tag Team Championships with Kea again since then, I know it will be a different world being with them full time, especially after not working in Japan for a year.
It’s almost time to head off to Japan again, but this time? I’m not alone. This time I will have my great friend, and a man some consider my protégé in wrestler, Mercennario. I brought Merc in to NOAH in 2012 after seeing him wrestling in America. I definitely made the right choice, as he did great in NOAH. I got to know each other a lot in the ring, wrestling and teaming together. We also got to know each other a lot outside of the ring. I knew what it was like to be the new kid in a foreign country, so I took him under my wing and helped him out. What I didn’t know, was that Merc was such a huge fan of mine. We sat on the NOAH bus talking for hours about wrestling and life, and it wasn’t long before our friendship turned into more of a teacher and student relationship, as I tried to teach him everything I knew, and he caught on faster than I ever did.
I’m glad to have such a great friend coming with me, as we both make our returns to Japan, and with friends like Akiyama, Kea, and Doering already there, instead of nervousness, I’m full of excitement for the great times I know that are ahead of us.
It’s been twenty years since I first hit Japan with nothing to lose, slowly climbing the ranks. I’ve grown a tremendous amount since then. I’ve wrestled nearly twenty years, won a number of Tag Team Championships and a singles title.
As I prepare to hit Japan again with nothing to lose, this time, me and Merc are going to take things by storm.
I guarantee it.
~Justin Tyger
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