10 Wrestlers With Surprisingly Successful Japanese Careers

Scott 'Flash' Norton was never able to achieve great success in North America. Well, unless you count his amazing Arm Wrestling career which culminated in appearing in cinematic masterpiece Over the Top. Sylvester Stallone movies aside, Scott Norton's professional wrestling career in Japan was just as impressive as his career in North America was unimpressive.

Scott Norton's Japan career has spanned more than 16 years wrestling for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Varying from full-time runs in the early 90s and 2000s to part time runs while wrestling for WCW in the late 90s. During his time in NJPW Norton rarely left the main event scene winning the IWGP Tag Team championships twice, once with Hercules (yes that Hercules) and Tony Halme (better known as Ludvig Borga).

After those runs Scott Norton would win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship two times, defeating Yuji Nagata in 1998 and Kensuke Sasaki in 2001. To give you an idea of the kind of company Norton is with in Japan the list of Gaijin Pro Wrestling IWGP champions consists of AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar, Vader, Scott Norton and well, Bob Sapp.

Scott Norton's WCW run was far less memorable. Primarily known as the leader of the nWo 'B' team, Norton did manage to have a few feuds with top line talent like Sting and the Steiner brothers with various different partners but his WCW runs mostly consisted of squashing jobbers and making up the numbers as a lower-midcard talent.

Despite being consistently booked in tag teams with fantastic names like 'Vicious and Delicious' and 'Fire & Ice' and even being involved in arguably the most successful angle in wrestling history (nWo) Norton never really garnered success in North America. He never won any major championships, or had any really memorable matches, while in Japan he feuded with top talent consistently (like the Great Muta, Yuji Nagata, Kensuke Sasaki).

Norton is in elite company being a Gaijin IWGP champion and still managed to be in a tag team with an awesome team name in the 'Jurassic Powers' with Hercules. So ends the ballad of Scott Norton, Japanese wrestling legend, North American cult movie actor and arm wrestling champion.