(ALL JAPAN) Weekly Focus: Brad Rheingans' "Amateur Wrestling Class" ~ Student, Mitsuharu Misawa

Weekly Pro

27th September 1983

Brad Rhenigans, the AWA supernova, came to Japan for the Super Power Series. The reason he has the bold catchphrase "AWA Supernova", is because of his glorious performances during his amateur wrestling days. He won the 1976 World Cup, was placed 4th in the Montreal Olympics, came 3rd at the 1979 World Championships, and won the Bandai Namco Championship* twice. He was excited about competing in the Moscow Olympics, as the final showdown of his amateur wrestling career, but just like New Japan's Yoshiaki Yatsu, he shed tears of regret, as perhaps the two of them would have met in the open-weight finals. 

Anyway, the editorial team at "Deluxe Pro Wrestling" came up with an interesting idea. Let's test the abilities of this former amateur champion, with the test subject as All Japan's Misawa, who is also a former amateur wrestler*, and we decided to ask ring announcer, Kuramochi, to be the reporter. The plan went smoothly, and now its time for the real thing.

The location was the Sports Hall in Nakano, Tokyo, which has deep ties to Japanese amateur wrestling, and was named "Rheingans Amateur Wrestling Class". You can get a detailed look at what happened in the November issue of Deluxe Pro Wrestling, which will be on sale on September 27th, but the fact is that Misawa, announcer Kuramochi, and the reporting team, were overwhelmed by Rhenigan's strength. This photo is a commemorative photo taken at the time. Naturally, these smiles were only possible before the class had even started. But what awaited them afterwards was terror. 

Notes

Brad Rheingans: See Wikipedia article (although it does not mention that he fought Jumbo Tsuruta the same year that this article was written)

Bandai Namco Championship: Pacman!?

Misawa the amateur wrestler: He didn't enjoy amateur wrestling, as he said in an earlier interview, and saw it as a stepping stone towards professional wrestling.