Kendo "came up with the ladder match and hypnosis ideas"

I have found the "Kendo Nagasaki New Book" topic to be very interesting.

SaxonWolf (who is one of my favourite posters) noted that Nagasaki claimed that he "came up with the ladder match and hypnosis ideas!"

Not having read the book, I would like to ask whether Kendo actually took credit for creating the ladder match and the hypnosis angle? Whilst Nagasaki may have introduced the ladder match and the hypnosis angle to British wrestling, he certainly did not invent either of these questionable additions to professional wrestling.

Canadian wrestler Dan Kroffat was the innovator of the ladder match. The first such match that I can locate took place on Tuesday 3 October 1972 in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada for the Stampede promotion. In that first ladder match Dan Kroffat defeated Tor Kamata. On the undercard Kendo Nagasaki beat Super Hawk. Other interesting names on that event were George Gordienko and Lennie Hurst.

I'm sure that my mate, Ron Historyo, has acknowledged that Nagasaki borrowed the ladder match concept from Kroffat.

I believe that Kendo introduced the ladder match to British wrestling in 1976 - around 4 years after he saw the original occurrence in Canada during his 1972 tour.

The angle of Nagasaki hypnotising Robbie Brookside was, I believe, played out in 1988 in England. In Australia in 1969, American manager Playboy Gary Hart used this angle (in a more subtle fashion) to turn babyface Mario Milano into a heel. I'm sure that hypnosis angle would have been used in America way before 1969.

Cheers!

7 Comments

Ed Lock

Dec 23, 2018

David commented that "Kendo definitely did the hypnosis angle (albeit more subtly) with Rex Strong ten years before Brookside".

Be that as it may, Playboy Gary Hart used this angle nearly 10 years before Nagasaki and Strong. :)

I knew that the hypnosis routine would have been used in America way before the Australian angle in 1969 so I did a little research.

It turns out that a wrestler named Joe Reno was hypnotised in Dallas, Texas, USA way back in 1930! Unfortunately, the perpetrator of the dastardly deed was not identified. ;)