7 Best Ever NJPW Gaijin Wrestlers

No, that's not a mistake: we really do mean Scott Norton. The man once inexplicably known as 'Flash' may have been a perennial mid-carder on North American soil, but he was a veritable megastar in the Far East.

The Minnesota native began his career as an arm wrestler, excelling on the scene and even starring in Sly Stallone flick (about, yes, arm wrestling) Over the Top. Soon after, he began to realise he could wrestle other body parts, and began training under the tutelage of Brad Rheingans.

After excelling as a heel in the North West, Norton's attentions were diverted eastwards, and he joined New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1990. Working for the company's Tokyo Dome shows joint-promoted with WCW, heads of officials from Atlanta began to turn. Over the next three years, 'Flash' captured tag gold alongside Tony 'Ludvig Borga' Halme and Hercules Hernandez, before Turner came calling.

Norton's spell in WCW was underwhelming, to say the least. Constantly floating in the mid-card shuffle, Norton eventually found himself an anonymous figure in the backbenches of the nWo, directionless and generally pointless. But when the company toured Japan as part of their talent sharing deal, he was a star. Rather than running through jobbers such as he did on Nitro, the former arm-wrestler and one-time bodyguard to Prince was instead a permanent fixture of the world title scene. In 1998, he reached his zenith, defeating Yuji Nagata for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

With WCW in decline in 1999, it was no surprise when Norton called it quits to concentrate on his blossoming career across the Pacific. A second title followed, and Norton remained a regular feature of the promotion for the next seven years.

Given his presentation on the likes of Thunder, Japan might as well have been a parallel universe for Scott Norton.