When American wrestlers would travel to Japan, they’d often take on different personalities to jive with the tastes of the Japanese fans. Now that Japanese matches are easily accessible (now that everything under the sun is easily accessible) thanks to the Web, it’s shocking to see our wrestlers adopt totally different attitudes and personas, as if traveling to Japan is like Superman traveling to Bizarro World where everything is backwards.
In Japan, Hulk Hogan displayed mad wrestling skills and talent, the Von Erichs were bad boys, and many Tag Team partners like the British Bulldogs would wrestle against each other. Crazy!
Japanese pro wrestling depends on the import of foreign wrestlers, or Gaijin, usually to play the Bad Guys. Japanese fans love to be offended, frightened, and angered by brutal foreigners, whom they mostly consider to be little better than savage beasts anyway. Sometimes, two Gaijin would face off against each other as in this Japanese match pitting Ricky Steamboat against Jimmy Snuka.
Steamboat had Japanese features, his mother being Japanese American, so he took on the Baby-Face role, selling the pain to gain the affection and sympathy of the fans. Snuka, however, had a wild appearance with his unruly hair, massive physique, and thick goatee, so he portrayed a crazy, savage beast, a stalking monster out to injure and destroy his opponent (and possibly anyone in the audience he could sink his teeth into.)
Snuka played right into the prejudices of the audience, giving the fans exactly what they wanted to see from him. He head-butted poor Steamboat until busting open his forehead, then repeatedly bit the hero’s face like some kind of animal.
With an insane, blood-thirsty look in his eyes, Snuka repeatedly dragged the ailing opponent back to his feet for another taste, licking his lips with blood on his chin. The Japanese fans went wild, reveling in the savagery.
If you’re used to Snuka as a good guy, suffering under Roddy Piper’s cruel, racist assaults and impressing the fans with his flashy dives off the top rope, you may be shocked to see him take on this wild-man persona, biting, clawing, and head-butting poor, bleeding Steamboat into submission.
