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Wally Yamaguchi, who was a major behind the scenes player in the Japanese pro wrestling scene but may be best known to American audiences at Yamaguchi-San in the late 1990s WWF, leading Kaentai, passed away yesterday after being bed-ridden for a year following a stroke last year. Yamaguchi was 60 years old.
Yamaguchi grew up a massive fan of pro wrestling in Japan and became one of the prime personalities for Gong Magazine, a hugely popular magazine that helped get over endless personalities and matches during an era where the magazines meant as much as TV, and in some cases, got over moments and personalities with great photography that otherwise never would have gotten that level of mainstream press.
Behind the scenes, Yamaguchi was a personality who would help talents get bookings. He was responsble for Sean Waltman and others getting his first Japanese bookings. He would accompany younger Japanese wrestlers here to the United States to oversee their tours and assist them in making the travel and extended visits easier and fun. I can recall him managing a young Osamu Nishimura, billed as evil manager Mr. Danger, his face covered in facepaint, at the 1994 NWA title tournament promoted by ECW.
In the late 1990s, Yamaguchi was the conduit for Dick Togo, Mens Teioh, TAKA Michinoku and Sho Funaki to come to the united States as Kaientai, a take-off of their heel group in Michinoku Pro Wrestling. Perhaps the most noteworthy storyline was Yamaguchi's line that he was going to "choppy choppy pee pee" during a storyline where purported adult film star character Val Venis had slept with Yamaguchi's storyline wife. Venis was tied up and naked but when Yamaguchi went to use a sword to sever the member, the lights went out. It was later revealed that John Bobit, a male who's wife had amputated his own penis in his sleep, had saved the day.
Yamaguchi's younger brother Shun currently handles Japanese language announcing for WWE.
On behalf of everyone at PWInsider.com, we'd like to express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Wally Yamaguchi.
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