10 Wrestlers With Surprisingly Successful Japanese Careers

Ok, so this is going to be a bit of a strange one as despite wrestling in the Hulkamania era, the WWE Corporal Kirchner is not exactly a house hold name in the US. Corporal Kirchner was also not a household name in Japan, however his alter ego 'Leatherface' was. This gimmick and its flavours and variations would give him new professional life overseas.

Corporal Kirchner made his way to Japan after being suspended for substance abuse in 1987 in WWE. While in Japan he would wrestle predominantly for the W*NG and FMW promotions. He would win the FMW Brass Knuckles Championship as a variant of his 'Leatherface' gimmick called Super Leather. He won the W*NG Tag Team Championships with Freddy Krueger (seriously) and also formed a tag team with another Leatherface known as the Leatherfaces.

All in all, his ridiculous gimmick tag teams and death matches would afford him a lengthy career overseas lasting nearly 20 years.

In the WWE Kirchner was a 'jobber to the stars' type like other wrestlers from his generation S.D. Jones, the Red Rooster and Koko B. Ware. He was scheduled to make a return for the gimmick battle royal at WrestleMania X-Seven but was later withdrawn for unknown reasons. The highlight of his WWE run was defeating Nikolai Volkoff at WrestleMania 2 in a flag match.

For someone with a less than stellar track record, a substance abuse suspension and little real wrestling experience under his belt, the Corporal managed to find a way to get himself over in Japan in an albeit unconventional way.