Tag: mankind

The autobiography of Mankind wasn’t supposed to be anything special. The idea was that Regan Books would take advantage of the WWF’s popularity to mass market quickie autobiographies on the company three most popular wrestlers. Mankind barely made the cut, but they probably figured because his more than dozens…and dozens of fans were so loyal they’d probably buy a book, behind the expected big sellers, Steve Austin and Rock. The books would be autobiographies actually penned by long-time wrestling magazine writer Lou Sahadi, this one entitled “Have a Nice Day! A tale of blood and sweatsocks,” and would take the tact that pro wrestling was real and reveal things like that Cactus Jack was still upset about how Robert Fuller turned on him in Memphis more than a decade ago and what his favorite food was.

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The death of any major pro wrestling figure makes one reflect upon the past. But the death of Shohei Baba will likely have repercussions far more telling about the future, and in ways that nobody at this point can predict.

More than the death of a wrestling superstar or a legendary promoter, of which he was both and a lot more, his death spells the end of the major chapter in Japanese wrestling history, of which he was one of the two main participants. And his death leaves in question the future of the old style of wrestling, with lengthy main events, clean winners and losers, finishing moves that work against the top stars, of which his company was the lone holdover, and the beginning of a new chapter in the Japanese wrestling world. What it will turn into and how it will get there is far more difficult to examine than what it was and will probably never be again.

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