10 Awesome Modern Wrestlers Who Made Their Name In Japan
9. Marty Scurll
While it may read as strange - he performed boy band karaoke as part of the ALL IN festivities last year - Marty Scurll became cool in the east.
He wasn't always cool; as 'Party' Marty Scurll, he once made an enterprising appearance on British dating show 'Take Me Out'. For the uninitiated, 30 women gather on the stage. One man descends down the 'Love Lift'. Whether through an initial, superficial glance or later, an embarrassing revelation, they switch their podium lights off - "No lighty, no likey!" - the women rule themselves out of a date. Host Paddy McGuinness says things like "Let the predator see the prey!", and much light entertainment fun is had by all. Scurll successfully got his name out there - there was no UK circuit to speak of at the time - but it was all a bit naff.
Backed by immense production values, Scurll, having got himself over as the cackling, theatrical, finger-breaking 'Villain' on the resurgent BritWres scene, felt more big time in the big time of New Japan Pro Wrestling, what with his super-gimmicked aesthetic of plague masks, umbrellas, and, at Wrestle Kingdom 12, a pair of big f*ck off bird wings. Scurll, sharpened by his Elite stablemates and a roster of genius performers, levelled up - securing, at Sakura Genesis 2018, his first Wrestling Observer Newsletter ***** rating in a phenomenal match with Will Ospreay.
It removed all the novelty from the act, exposing the sadist within.