Unappreciated: Why Jumbo Tsuruta is the most unknown star of his era.

(Author’s Note: I have deliberately left out certain facts about the legend of Tsuruta. This is more of a worshipful piece to a guy I think gets ignored than a nuts-and-bolts encyclopedia-type article. If that is what you are interested in I recommend these 2 articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumbo_Tsuruta and http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingEditorial/may18_molinaro.html .)
As a general rule you can ask most slightly dedicated wrestling fans what they would know about wrestling in Japan. And most answers would be, in no particular order,: Jushin Liger, Great Muta, Antonio Inoki, Tiger Mask. Now what do all of those names have in common? They all competed for New Japan Pro Wrestling, known in the United States for its long-time talent sharing agreement with WCW and the WWF before that.
But, for hardcore fans of the art form known as Puroresu, there is another promotion. One with just as much history, just as tightly woven a partnership with a major American promotion, and just as many epic stars. This promotion is All Japan Pro Wrestling. And for most fans their salad days, if you can even remember the difference between All Japan and New Japan, is the era of the 1990’s where Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, and Toshiaki Kawada seemed intent on putting on one epic match after another and eventually earned themselves the moniker of the “4 Corners of Heaven”. But who was the guy who made it possible for those stars to become stars? Easy. The most under appreciated puroresu star of his era. Jumbo Tsuruta.
All Japan is different in that most of, if not all, of its main stars stayed home for the entirety of their runs at the top of the promotion. Kobashi’s sole trips to the United States took place after he left All Japan, as did Misawa’s while Taue and Kawada never left. Meanwhile, during the same time period, their promotional rival New Japan Pro Wrestling sent Jushin Liger over to WCW to blow the mind of the gaijin fans with an exceptional series of matches against the American Brian Pillman, and the Great Muta over to do the same thing with the all-American superhero Sting. Even recently, in the past couple of years, New Japan gave American fans Liger one more time by allowing him to be booked in Ring of Honor for a 2-match series.
But, while All Japan was strictly isolationist in its approach, Tsuruta was different. He actually flowered as a wrestler in the United States, having been sent to train in Texas with the legendary Funk Brothers and given the name Tommy Tsuruta. In fact, shortly after his training began, he was thought to be so good that he was put in a 2-out-of-3 falls match with the reigning champion Dory Funk Jr., and even managed to win a fall. After his apprenticeship in the states was done All Japan came calling, and he quickly returned home where he became a tag team champion with the promotion’s top star Shohei Baba. Eventually though Jumbo became the top man in All Japan, and held that title pretty much without interference or contest until 1990.
Because at that point someone new came along, someone the brass believed would be the promotion’s next top guy but needed just that little push. His name was Mitsuharu Misawa, and up until a little while before this point, he had been the second generation of Tiger Mask who was originally portrayed by the freakishly innovative Satoru Sayama.
But, as all fans would soon discover, he was more, much more, than just the next in the Tiger Mask line. And on June 9 1990 that dawning of what Misawa really was became evident. But, as things went on, we learned that while Tsuruta’s time at the top was ending he still had enough left in himself to put on one last epic. And he did just that. Putting on a performance that was so magnificent, so brave, that it left fans in the audience crying Tsuruta went down on his sword, and after that left.
In closing Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, and Taue would not have become what you know them to be without Tsuruta. But hopefully, and with a little love, care, and attention, you have learned a little more about Jumbo than you did before you read this.