10 Wrestlers You'll NEVER Believe Shared The Same Ring
2. Big Vito & Mitsuharu Misawa
You'd struggle to find two promotions further apart than 2000 WCW and the peak of '90s All Japan Pro Wrestling.
AJPW operated under a strict clean wins-only policy.
WCW in 2000 statistically booked more f*ck finishes than clean finishes.
In AJPW, wrestlers ascended to top positions through herculean efforts in hard-fought defeats before proving themselves worthy as masters of the craft.
In WCW, wrestlers swerve-turned on their pals because you wouldn't see it coming which, considering it happened most weeks, was a bit like asking the audience to be surprised by the falling of rain.
"Swear to Gad bro these f*ckin' dropses was bigger than ya head! Hanestly! I had no idea they was fallin'."
Big Vito was a midcard concern who once, in a single segment, was the recipient of a swerve turn when fellow New Yorker Johnny The Bull beat him down after a Stickball on a Pole match. This could only be more quintessentially Russo if a woman was called a slut.
And yet, before Vito turned up in the death throes of big-time American wrestling, the journeyman worked a tour of All Japan and ate a loss to the great Mitsuharu Misawa in a tag match as Skull Von Krush. The degree of separation is terrifying. Christ, can you imagine Vince Russo booking Misawa?
Knowing what we know of Russo's perception of amazing Japanese talents, Misawa would have played the drunken karaoke-singing manager of the Jung Dragons in their feud with Three Count.