The Origins Of Wrestling’s 6 Favourite Foreign Objects

Invention:

The kendo stick, or as it’s known in Japanese culture a shinai, is a light bamboo sword used in the martial art Kendo. It owes its invention to samurais Kamiizumi Nobutsuna (1508-1572) and Nakanishi Chuzo Tsugutate (unknown-1801). The former was the first to use a bamboo weapon to train, the latter pioneered the modern construction, which uses four slats of bamboo.

Innovation:

The Kendo Stick took off as a weapon in the US when Paul Heyman booked Sandman and Tommy Dreamer in a Singapore Cane match on 30 August 1994 episode of ECW Hardcore TV. The bout (and feud) was inspired by the international uproar when Michael P. Fay, an American teenager in Singapore, was sentenced to caning for the crime of vandalism. Despite the match’s name, a kendo stick was used in place of a thicker and less forgiving cane.

Innovator:

While kendo sticks have become a popular weapon, always seemingly on hand despite a non-violent use being unimaginable, one man made the brutalisation by bamboo his thing – The Sandman. The ECW icon and World Champion claimed his first victim in Tommy Dreamer and went on to leave welts on everyone who crossed him. His valet Woman (Nancy Benoit) was also fond of dishing out lashings.