Pacific Rim: Uncertainty, empty arenas and the Island Death Match

From Seattle to Tokyo, this week the Pacific Rim Pro Wrestling Podcast updates you on how Fumi Saito and Kiki are coping with social distancing.

Believe it or not, he’s watching even more wrestling. Fumi has some interesting thoughts on the Fujita-Shiozaki match and its 30-minute staredown. Rather than see the empty venue as a negative, they looked at the situation, adapted, and used it to their advantage. As we’ve seen the past few weeks in both Japan and the United States, some wrestlers are able to change their presentations to fit the situation and some are not.

Fumi also goes into detail about the uncertainty of the Japanese wrestling business, different companies, the effect on wrestlers, and why it may be impossible to predict the future. He’s fairly certain the wrestling business won’t be the same.

We also talk about WrestleMania 36 in an empty arena and matches like The Undertaker vs. AJ Styles which are expected to be more like action movies than traditional wrestling matches. That discussion leads us into the history of another famous concept match, Antonio Inoki and Masa Saito’s Island Death Match from 1987. Fumi teaches us the history of the match and if the wrestlers broke kayfabe in order to speed up the filming of the two-hour match.