Fan Beats AEW Star After Dynamite, NJPW Referee Tiger Hattori Talks Hulk Hogan, Feature Match Friday

By Joshua Gagnon

- Above is today's Feature Match Friday exclusive between Kevin Blackwood and Bill Collier from Empire State Wrestling, courtesy of Powerslam.tv! Check out Powerslam.tv and use the coupon code WRESTLINGINC to receive a free month when you subscribe! A new match will be added to the Wrestling Inc. YouTube channel every Friday.

- Longtime NJPW referee Tiger Hattori retired earlier this month and has since done an interview with NJPW. During the conversation, Hattori spoke about how he first got into becoming a referee and working with Hulk Hogan during his first years in wrestling.

"Back then, Hiro Matsuda was wrestling there and he invited me to teach in his school," Hattori began. "So I was teaching the wrestlers and some kids amateur stuff. That was my in. That's how it turned out, yeah. Man, I sucked at first though! It was in '77 in front of about 400 people in Miami. I remember I was refereeing Hulk Hogan and Willem Ruska, and everybody involved in that match sucked ass.

"A young Hogan lived with his mom under my apartment. I used to live with his friends, and he was in a band with these guys. They'd be practicing guitar and it'd drive me nuts. But I went to a few of his gigs, and when he wanted to get into wrestling, he came to Matsuda's school. We both debuted around the same time, and we both sucked. I learned from Frenchie Bernard, who was a great referee and close friends with Andre the Giant. Him, Sonny Myers, Karl Kox, they taught me everything."

- After this past week's Dynamite in Kansas City, a fan (Tiffany Castagna) defeated Brandon Cutler, thanks to an assist from Brandi Rhodes. You can check out the quick match in the video below.

Comments

Recommended