Kendo Nagasaki's CHRISTMAS DISCO LADDER Match!! - Wrestle Me Review

Hear the FULL EPISODE AND MANY MORE at / wrestleme
Marc & Pete are blinded by the lights, deafened by the music, and just generally befuddled by possibly the most bizarre match in British wrestling history: Clive "Ironfist" Myers vs Kendo Nagasaki in a Christmas Disco Gold Record Ladder Match!!
Hosted by Marc Haynes & Pete Donaldson; Edited by BanyaBat
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[@stevenrose86]

"My mum's 82! Have some respect!" I can't stop laughing

[@KomradeKrusher]

"It's Christmas, you fucking animal!" I'm in stitches

[@stalfithrildi5366]

Give her her due tho, she doesn't look a day over 61. With those huge [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] [REDACTED][REDACTED] [REDACTED] left me gasping for air, I can tell you.

[@redninjamike]

Nice. We all love a bit of mince.

[@aliteralchad7128]

Man how many times can you say a podcast had you cackling. Holy shit I went from laughing to “it’s Christmas” then wheezing

[@ifgwelf]

That part was hilarious 😂

[@JaceyMitchell]

"My mum's 82!" followed by Pete absolutely breaking apart is the greatest Wrestle Me moment in history.

[@bitterman_]

Been rather hard to manage as much as a smile lately on what’s been a terrible lame week, but that Ipcress File/MK-Ultra observation had my fucking ribs hurting in literal sharp-pain from laughing so good. Thanks for the consistently rich AF content y’all pour out. You 2 absolutely make the best & most universally entertaining wrestling-podcast/KZbin-channel on the entire planet, IMO.

[@michaelkitchin9665]

I do wonder how many of these old British fights would've been improved by letting the Blackpool Wirlitzer blast out 'I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside' throughout.

[@CactusJackIV]

All I have asked Santa for is a WrestleMe Patreon subscription

[@jasoncoward-aintscared]

I'm a hacker, and Im going to Grinch that Patreon sub!! Imagine a diabolical laugh.

[@theweejoke9850]

Wise choice. This ain't your desired Hungry Hippos which will leave you spiritually unsatisfied after a few hours of sore hands, their Patreon is the gift that keeps giving

[@redninjamike]

Yes! Spoken like a true person who wanted the game, asked for the game, got the game....only to realise we all lose when we play it.

[@theweejoke9850]

@@redninjamike I never got it but I played it years later in my 20s and it was the shits. Lol

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

The big problem with the ladder match as Kendo points out in his book, was that the hardcam was facing a bar rather than the crowd stands or the lighting rig, so all you saw in the background was a couple of barmen mixing drinks.

[@pendafen7405]

Priorities. The cameraman was probably gasping for a rum & coke.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

@@pendafen7405 it's the hard-cam. And they could have set up with the bar BEHIND them and drank to their hearts content. Stringfellows and it's lighting rig SHOULD have looked pretty decent on camera, like an episode of The Hit Man* And Her with a wrestling show on the dancefloor. ( * as in Pete Waterman not Bret Hart)

[@BiggieTrismegistus]

That's the first thing I noticed. The hard cam is opposite of what it should be.

[@ifgwelf]

I love the British wrasslin content from you guys. Completely unknown world for me

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

I grew up with this as my home territory.

[@alhaigh78]

I remember stumbling on this match on The Wrestling Channel (RIP) after a night out and thinking it was a weird hallucination until I heard the podcast episode!

[@redninjamike]

Maybe the mark of a legendary wrestling match is that it leaves you needing someone else to confirm that "yeah, that really just happened".

[@pendafen7405]

10:11 "Disco's never suitable in the wrestling ring" Tyler Breeze: *lip wobbles and eyes tear up cutely*

[@christopherwall2121]

Glenn Gilbretti angrily kicks a hole in his door.

[@pendafen7405]

@@christopherwall2121 HOW is he gifted???

[@PendaMercia655]

The easiest twenty minutes on the cross trainer this morning! This was superb, thanks guys!

[@chriswarfield7520]

This is the most entertaining wrestling show anywhere! Thank you

[@fibrewire3029]

When I was a kid my mum rented out captain scarlet on VHS from our local spar, they cocked up the tapes however, so a 6 year old me ended up watching the first half hour of evil dead 2 army of darkness. Utterly bewildered.

[@pendafen7405]

Captain Scarlet in fairness could get rather dark and spooky at moments.

[@mehallica666]

Wasn't 'Army of Darkness' Evil Dead 3? And bloody hilarious!

[@cdoggpdt6210]

Pete and Mark, thank you. Been a huge wrestling fan since the early 80s. Keep the British matches coming. Never seen them. Your channel reminds me of hanging with my boys talking wrestling.

[@ifgwelf]

Marcs mum not understanding the meaning behind the whole ratings system is honestly hilarious 😂

[@pendafen7405]

Odd that the only Disco Ladder Match in history featured neither Disco Inferno nor Fandango. Perhaps someone can book Part II to correct this oversight?

[@AbrasionUK]

Even for wrestling that was a bizarre spectacle!

[@001AlexG]

Does the patreon include a video edit or is it an audio only show? The video and clips really make it for me the whole thing is done brilliantly

[@vaudevillian7]

Started listening on Patreon but thought this would really benefit from visuals… and it absolutely does

[@Amarillo_Slim]

I wish someone would love me like Mark loves Rollerball Rocco....

[@jimbowers1693]

Crimbo-Nagasaki

[@WrestleMe]

I WISH THIS WAS THE TITLE JIM, 10/10

[@pendafen7405]

Love to Marc's mum and her new hip. Thanks to her diligent screening of 'Fritz The Cat' to a 5-year old Marc, she prevented her son from growing up to become a filthy bedhopping hippie rad!cal.

[@NelsonRedEye]

My uncle was in ring of bright water, he played the fish auctioneer. More accurately he was a fish auctioneer and they just filmed him. Also I remember renting Fritz the cat from our library when I was a kid and getting a surprise.

[@namemcnamerton4249]

Pete looks like Cm Punk; Mark looks like 1995 Tony Shivonne with a beard. And thats a compliment to both of you.

[@seanpaul_day]

I’ve known Clive “Iron Fist” Myers for the best part of 45 years. He was a legit wrestler/hard man in his prime, who went on to become a pioneer arm-wrestling competitions.

[@craigbarrett5476]

Looking back at the 80's it's amazing how bizarre they were? Things like Blake's 7, where the main character is accused of being a kiddie fiddler, on a kid's sci-fi show? Where the top 10 had Yazoo alongside René & Renata, just bizarre. Anyway, who do you think you are, Kendo Nagasaki 2?😂😂😂

[@drsteele]

...and all the rebels in Blakes 7 still agree to follow him, its a bizarre insight into rebellion in the future.

[@RobJaskula]

Please include the photo of Kendo meeting Marc every time he comes up! Marc's absolutely chuffed

[@danielcraig4974]

Well done lads, you've just inspired someone. Tony Khan has just put up on twitter that he's going to have a classical disco ladder match this week.

[@The_Nerd_Alert]

"It's still got disco DNA" LOL 😆😆😆

[@CmdrUD87]

By looking at this, none of the people involved in the production of this match have ever been even near a disco

[@kevin2400]

Surprised that wcw in 99/2000 didn't recreate this

[@Yellowblam]

This jogged memories of seeing WWF on ITV as a kid. Many thanks.

[@Toooldforthis78]

Yes, pretty sure an early match was Macho Man vs Honky Tonk Man - the names alone told you this was something different and even as a kid as soon as you saw it you thought British wrestling is over, this is the future.

[@Yellowblam]

@@Toooldforthis78 I remember seeing Macho Man. I’m almost sure I saw him piledrive someone through a table, but that may be ‘Mandela Effect’.

[@paulwerline6249]

You guys are my favorite wrestling content creators. Keep doin what your doin.

[@absurdist5134]

The Pete clap, when you in the heat of the moment tell a banger of a joke, but then have to deal with the consequences of having said it.

[@averagecarpentryskills7148]

probably couldn't afford to license actual popular disco or pop music of time so they used classical. which gives me the gimmick idea of a royalty free music battle royale.

[@TheJonnyForeigner]

This match is as big an assault on the senses as the time the KLF got booked to play the Brit awards and shot blanks at the crowd.

[@KurisuKun]

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say your videos are the only thing worth living for

[@tombaranyai6683]

The first time i heard about this match was in an issue of Powerslam magazine in the late 90's. I was really interested in watching it, to see just how bad it actually was. It would be nearly a decade before i saw it and when i did, i thought to myself, "Well, it's better than anything WCW was doing in the last two years of it's existence. "

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Fin Martin hates old school British Wrestling and wants it wiped out, so he was always 51agging it off in his mags. He must cry in his soup about All Star, Premier and Rumble all still being around in 2023 with dates booked for 2024.

[@MatthewMacCallumActor]

This is way better than that Dutch Mantel vs Jeff Jarrett match that’s in the Smithsonian.

[@corrosivecabal]

"Disco is never acceptable in the ring." Editors note: add a picture of a frowny face Disco Inferno.

[@Toracube]

I think they were going for a clockwork orange thing.. classical music with a bit of violence…

[@pmc8451]

Maybe, but it was 10 years since Clockwork Orange was released and it was banned in the UK until the late 90's / early 2000s so it wasn't something that was in the public consciousness in yhe way it is today. Its unlikely that anyone involved in this match or anyone watching would of seen it.

[@redninjamike]

1:21 I love Mean Gene, but are we going to ignore his presentation of the British Bulldogs weight in "stones", plural. Right ya daft pillock! Actually Gene probably did that intentionally.

[@CurtGullin]

OMG great review ! Amazing DISCO LADDER Match!!

[@QuartzMatrixed]

And the people in the crowd loved every second

[@welcometothepsyop3639]

This is the funnest video yet guys! You guys are hilarious!! I'm still confused over the music!😂😂

[@Star_Dragon92]

This Channel is Great! 😂😂😂

[@L_Train]

You people are lucky to have this one for free. But it's just a taste of what you will get all Wrestlememas long on Patreon

[@RobJaskula]

Love rhe Gene converting to stone clip! Charming

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Have just seen some 1970s Stampede ladder match footage, You will never have anything bad to say about this ladder after you've seen a leaning ladder being held upright by the referee!

[@theweejoke9850]

Kendo 2 walked so fake Razor and Diesel could run

[@nicklomas181]

YES YES YES, I ASKED AND YOU DELIVERED. Not watched the video, but I love Kendo

[@hjdoom3485]

If I ever become rich enough to start a wrestling promotion this stipulation is coming back, disco lights, classical music, stepladder, the whole thing. I might even make it so that you've only got until the end of the 1812 overture to win the match.

[@sternj4314]

I don't think i've ever heard a more medical sounding way to start a wrestling match than "Commence Wrestling"

[@alexkrycek3359]

Is the word you’re looking for “clinical”? Medical is a different thing

[@bozvandam]

I've got a disco step ladder. I never got on with my disco real ladder.

[@ryandoubleu.]

Disco Inferno being “a friend of the show” is not something I would be touting

[@ozzythecats]

"Very disrespectful"

[@ozzythecats]

"Very disrespectful"

[@ozzythecats]

"Very disrespectful"

[@ozzythecats]

"Very disrespectful"

[@ozzythecats]

"Very disrespectful"

[@acehunter3229]

KeNdO don't disco 🤣 they should have had Don't Leave Me This Way, as the song when they were Wrestling 🤣

[@LuchadorMasque]

this may be the paragon of media.

[@robertclark5936]

You are wrong lads Mayer's gets a breakfall down from the ladder spot. That's some class

[@regkray]

The promoter was either too cheap or too stupid to knock together the stepped parts of two different stepladders 🤦‍♂

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Kendo Nagasaki II was NOT King Kendo! KN2 was called Nick Heywood, he was a lighter weight and he lasted a few months in 1979. King Kendo was Bill Clarke and originally he was a Fake Kendo Nagasaki for dodgy indie promotions, mainly one run by a guy called Terry Goodrum who at one time wrestled as Sandor Kovacs . The real Kendo, Peter Thornley got wind of this and took out an injunction. Clarke and Goodrum decided to ignore this and carry on being Kendo Nagasaki in small towns where they thought it would slip under Thornley's RADAR. Of course it did not, it all went back to court and Clarke and Goodrum each ended up doing a short prison sentence for Contempt of Court. After that, Clarke became King Kendo.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

It was Brian Dixon and All Star (then Wrestling Enterprises) who put on the Battle of the Kendo's bouts in 1981. Only after that did Joint bring in KK as a journeyman heel and out him on TV a couple of times - more after Kendo came back to All Star in 87.

[@WrestleMe]

Love being corrected - I will note this down, because let tell you Kurt, it's not out there anywhere but from you, so thanks for the proper rundown!

[@pendafen7405]

Porridge for gimmick infringement? Madness

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

@@WrestleMe Except for the prison sentence, it's on Wikipedia's Kendo Nagasaki article, in the "Related Characters" (formerly "Other versions") section. Not to be confused with the Peter Thornley article.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

@@pendafen7405 Porridge for Contempt of Court by all means. That was a stupid thing of Clarke and Goodrum to do, talk of porridge they should have been dunked in a bowl of the stuff on Tiswas.

[@richardwhite2304]

Should have had Fred Dibnah as a special referee...

[@speight88]

I see, so the fabulous freeloaders get this lovely video, and what do we Pat Patreonsons get? …A fantastic Newsletter and the rest of these excellent podcasts you say? Fair enough then

[@chrismorale_]

This pod is the absolute closest we will get to hearing a genius and an alien watching wrestling. Not the "I have a super computer" alien either. It's so weird.

[@danielcraig4974]

I remember this match. Certainly a spectacle.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

It was at STRINGFELLOWS

[@pendafen7405]

It certainly was a thing that happened once.

[@119Agent]

As an American, i never heard of the British Keno Nagasaki, only the Japanese one who I think wrestled under several other names as well.

[@DolFan316]

Never ever EVER watch Fritz The Cat while binging absinthe. Not that I've personally done that, nope, not me, I've just...um, heard about people doing this. Yeah, that's it.

[@sunekoo]

Is the Patreon content audio podcasts only or is there video content (like these vids) too?

[@Rydonattelo]

Show this match to an American from the South and tell them all European wrestling is like this. Why would you even have a wrestling match without an elaborate light show and classical music?

[@fatherfiguredad]

I watch these and I really dont laugh at the jokes, but I enjoy listening to these guys crack themselves up lol.

[@shagmeimbj]

Literally Wrestling Fantasia

[@dachronicalalittlebitofeve6630]

Brett hart invented it… he said so so it has to be true…😂😂

[@paulpetroleum]

The band Cuddly Toys had a VERY non cuddly name originally.....

[@pendafen7405]

Well, you can't just tease us with that and not follow through, mate

[@GeordieJamie84]

Just had a hip done? Shel need the other one done now 😮😂

[@pendafen7405]

All this talk of Kendo combined with Pete's accent has reopened the heartbreak I still feel over Jordan Henderson, so cheers for that. Word to the wise: if you can help it, never fall in parasocial limerence with a sports person or celebrity.

[@RealInternetStalker]

This video explained it all. I was thinking when I would get wrestling magazines. I never seen this Kendo before. The Japanese version is the only one I knew.

[@alexkrycek3359]

Is the ladder/step-ladder bit a Phoenix Wright reference?!

[@pendafen7405]

IGIARI!!!!!!!

[@teamblitz1990]

Believe it or not it was Peter Stringfellow who challenged Kendo Nagasaki to come out of retirement and also Nagasaki took on Jimmy Greaves

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

That was filmed earlier that day at Stringfellows for Saint & Greavsie. Kendo actually decided to come back after a chat with Brian Dixon and a TV exec who noted that Peter was still quite young.

[@teamblitz1990]

@@kurtvanderbogarde8402 All star were like the proverbial breath of fresh air as the talent that all star had completely overshadowed Dale martins.

[@randomwrestlingarchive3937]

I'm from NY but my cousin has lived in the UK for over 60 years. Her family was one of those households that didn't watch ITV wrestling! Not exactly a blue collar family (her husband a lawyer) and I'm not trying to be rude be saying that.

[@TopBoon]

Presume the classical music was due to not being able to use music of the time due to rights issues for TV usage?

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

What makes you think Kendo hated disco? He managed Disco diva Laura Pallas of Skiing In The Snow fame.

[@jamesthompson3023]

Guys only in wrestling do u have a ladder with steps on both sides no matter where u live

[@just_stevesey1782]

Anybody know where this was filmed? rooftop gardens in Wakefield used to have a light show very similar, using the same music

[@Brando-Lee3725]

Well......I thoght I had seen it all in wrestling , piranha death matches , HIV infected needle matches (obviously they were clean needles I suspect lol ) and every type of barbed wire explosion match combination possible , but this one is just plain odd on a different level !

[@pendafen7405]

Am going to regret asking: who worked the needles match, and for what promotion? (it's CZW, isn't it)

[@Stonehopper1067HMG]

Fritz the Cat > Fritz Von Erich

[@craigcharlesworth1538]

Fucking hell, I just googled Cuddly Toys. Turns out they changed their name, they were originally called Raped and they released an EP called Pretty Paedophiles. The 1970s!

[@scotttrammell3913]

Honestly, British Wrestling took place on an Alternate Reality.

[@VelvetMetrolink]

Yes. It's called Britain. Please. Help us.

[@scotttrammell3913]

@@VelvetMetrolink It'll be alright, you still got Doctor Who.

[@shaunbritton939]

All I want for Xmas is more wrestle me and I need to know the name of the theme music I love it

[@jaystreet46]

Here in the states the regular step ladders have one side of slats too. I don’t know if the wrestling companies have them made special or what

[@jeremiahdillard9201]

were they playing the old Hooked on Classics stuff?

[@davemk0]

One way to tell who the real Kendo is was he had part of a finger missing

[@DolFan316]

So let me get this straight...the Brit dude who was the original Kendo was a Yakuza member and the Japanese guy who came along later wasn't?

[@biccytrollox]

'Who do you think you are? Kendo Nagasaki?"

[@trash80media]

Its not a great match but certainly memorable

[@chairmanofthebored7391]

What this video has proved, without a shadow of a doubt, is that we need a Hell in a Cell Match, with a Disco Ball hanging off the top of the cage...and Every Loser Wins playing over the tannoy. Book it, Triple H!

[@scottylamm9673]

There was a wrestler in the 80s in Florida who went by the name Kendo Nagasaki. Was it the same person as the original?

[@StillABigKid]

Maybe the CIA implanted a false memory, but isn’t there a bit where the ring starts to rotate?

[@pmc8451]

There is absolutely no way that a British wrestling promotion in the late 80s could afford a rotating ring.

[@pendafen7405]

Mate, the National Theatre can barely afford the upkeep for their (antiquated) rotating drum.

[@BileDuctBalderdash]

happy wrestle me-mas🎉🎉

[@freakyzed8467]

Is that how you tell which the step children are as well?

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

Yessssssss!! This match is incredible!

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

The “disco” was Stringfellows

[@pendafen7405]

13:35 iirc Prince Iaukea did a few matches with Billy Kidman in WCW that veered toward LoveSexy

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Part of the reason for the American rules was to soften viewers up for the anarchy of the WWF. a few weeks later.

[@kurtvanderbogarde8402]

Hence the Fighting outside the ring, which Kent notes is allowed. So it won't be a TOTAL Shock when WWF comes on in a few weeks.