Hello Wrestling fans;

As time passes by, you know there are some wrestlers you’ll get to see or meet somewhere down the line. To me, Ultimo Dragon was not one of them.

So yesterday, August 15 was a historical day for wrestling in our country, as Yoshihiro Asai made a rare Canadian appearance on a joint Wrestling Inter-Species / C*4 wrestling card.

The event was a fundraiser to fight cancer, and it was pretty successful, raising 26 305 $ for the cause. I would estimate the crowd at roughly 300 people, very close to a sold out show.

We had an easy, 2 hours and a half ride to the nation’s Capital. We arrived at the building well before the doors were supposed to open, so we waited quite a bit since they opened more than 20 minutes late. It didn’t matter much though since the weather was great.

After a small chat with our friends at the Québec Wrestling table, we got in line to meet Ultimo Dragon first. After all, he was the main reason for us to make this trip !

We didn’t have to wait more than 5 minutes because his line was moving fast. He had a Japanese assistant with him, and had a whole table of his own merchandise for sale, including 8x10s, T-Shirt, a photo album, replica masks and an actual mask for 100$. I bought the album, and you can see it in the photos below. It really is a collector’s item, 50 pages of color photos of him, alone, in action and with other wrestlers. It looks like a program he would sell in Japan and Mexico.

I was amazed that he signed autographs and took pictures with fans for free before and after the card, and also during intermission, where my son got to get a picture with him in full wrestling gear! I was expecting him to be realy expensive, but to the contrary, he didn't seem to care much about money.

Dragon was shaking hands and smiling to everybody, but  we really couldn’t get a conversation going with him because of the language barrier. I think this is the reason his line moved so fast. Still I told him I fondly remembered his great matches with Dean Malenko in WCW, along with the period of time he had 10 title belts. (Must have been a pain to carry). Awesome experience, and he was especially patient with us, since we took more than our share of photos with him.

Then I went to talk with Roderick Strong, who remembered that my photo with him was taken in Toronto, when he pinned Thunder Liger at the last WrestleReunion. He said tonight he was flown in from Florida just for this show, so he would make sure it would be worth it for the fans. He was also easier to talk to than he was in Toronto. That was back in 2012.

During intermission, I stopped by to say hello to 2 Cold Scorpio, who had just wrestled and won. He remembered me from last month’s Montréal Comic con. He was just as friendly and easygoing than usual, and insisted we take another photo together (for free). I can’t stress enough how friendly that guy comes across to the fans.

Many items were donated and up for auction during the night, as a way to raise money to cure cancer. Among those were ring worn and signed T-shirts by Cesaro, Rollins and Owens, stack of DVDs, and autographed 8x10 by Flair, Cena and more. Most items sold for around 90$.

Now here are the match results:

-There was a 20 person battle royal to open the show. There was no program sheet, so unfortunately I didn’t get the name of the winner. But he last eliminated a Panda. (really)

-Two 4 corners tag-team matches followed, which were really good and action-filled. The winners of each of these matches met later in the card in a single 4 corners match. The winner was Mr. Jonathan Rukin.

-PCP Crazy F’N Manny pinned George Gatton after driving him through a table.

-Addy Star, a girl, pinned Cecil Nyx, a man.

-The Inter Species champion IzzieDeadyet beat Dan Barry in a championship match.

-2 Cold Scorpion beat Michael Von Payton with a second rope moonsault. He told me he would have gone to the top, but the ceiling was too low. (Indeed it was). Scorpio danced with fans before and after his match, and really seemed to have a blast in the ring. He even did his sommersault leg drop and sunset flip power bomb during the bout.

-Roderick Strong pinned Mathieu St-Jacques in a hard hitting, awesome contest. St-Jacques subbed for the injured Dirty Buxx Belmar. At one point hey were litterally throwing each others into the fans, who loved every minute of it. Strong tried hard to turn the crowd against him, with moderated success.

-In the main event, Ultimo Dragon and the Super Smash Brothers beat Pinkie Sanchez, Mike Draztik and Angel Ortiz in a simultaneous triple pin. The fans exploded for Dragon’s entrance, and had their streamers ready. He looked really good here, and did some of his trademark spots, including the headscissors as he’s standing on his head, his combo of kicks and his WWE finishing move, along with some innovative submission holds. The other 5 wrestlers more than held up their ends in this match, well worthy of main event status.

Once again, a fun evening of pro wrestling, the meeting of a Japanese legend, and to cap it off, lots of money was raised to help cure cancer. What more can you ask for ?

Thanks to all the folks involved with Inter Species wrestling and C*4 wrestling, because everything ran smoothly and it was well organized.

Thanks for reading!

Frank