The story of how Peter Thornley transformed into the mystifying masked wrestler known as Kendo Nagasaki is one that is often shrouded in mystery.
For years and years, nobody even knew who donned the famous red-and-white mask. Thornley would mask up before he got to the building, even wearing a special mask just for showering.
He never spoke to the other wrestlers backstage, save for discussing how he was going to win his match that night.
Kendo Nagasaki famously never mixed with his fellow performers backstage, which added to his mysterious gimmick.
This portrayal is a far cry from the young troublemaker who grew up in a council house in Crewe. His transformation from Peter Thornley is one that began as a young man, when he trained to become a top Judoka.
Peter Thornley Met Barry Condliffe After A Judo Class
Peter Thornley was a top-class Judoka before he ever stepped into a ring.
He learned the martial art while working as an apprentice with J.H Jennings and Sons. This five-year apprentiship had Thornley building cabs for commerical use after he left school as an unremarkable student.
After work, he was enticed to learn Judo from a colleague, and the pair attended classes after work and on weekends.
Peter Thornley quickly rose up the rankings, achieving a blue belt in no time. He even converted a van, travelling around the country to follow the teachings of Japanese Judo expert Kenshiro Abbe.
Under Abbe, he learnt a number of martial arts, including Kendo and Judo. Abbe also taught him about meditation and other arts of the orient, something he still practises to this day.
After one such practise with Kenshiro Abbe, a young Peter Thornley was introduced to a 16-year-old Barry Condliffe.
They quickly hit it off and became firm friends, with Thornely the Judo expert and Condliffe the novice.
Eventually, Barry would begin inviting Peter to his home, where he met a man who he would go on to consider a father figure.
This was local business Geoff Condliffe, who moonlighted as the famous masked wrestler known as Count Bartelli.
Count Bartelli Became A Father-Figure To Kendo Nagasaki
After being introduced to Count Bartelli, he and the future Kendo Nagasaki struck up a firm friendship.
He began joining Geoff and Barry at the wrestling, watching the famous Count in action on a regular basis.
Geoff Condliffe became a father-figure to Peter Thornley. His own father had always been distant, and his home was not one filmed with warmth after his mother died when he was seven.
Thornley was constantly in trouble, and was a tearaway around his local town. Undiagnosed ADHD and dyslexia meant his schoolwork suffered, and the neighbours were always complaining about the youngster.
However, his father did nothing. He never scolded his son, no empathised or comforted him. Condliffe gave Thornley something he’d never had before, and he grapsed it with both hands.
While he didn’t want to become a wrestler, viewing it as fake in comparison to his dreams of competing in the Olympics for Judo, a hand injury pushed him into the sport.
After Peter Thornley lost his finger and his Olympic dreams were dashed, Count Bartelli organised for him to train to become a wrestler.
He knew Billy Riley, who ran one of the most famous wrestling schools in British wrestling history.
Kendo Nagasaki Trained At The Snake Pit In Wigan
Count Bartelli organised for Peter Thornley to travel to Wigaan to learn wrestling from the very best.
He worked at Riley’s Gym, which was informally known as “The Snake Pit”. Riley trained some of the top names in Catch wrestling at the time, including Billy Robinson, Karl Gotch and Bert Asserti, to name but a few.
Riley and Billy Robinson taught Thornley how how to wrestle like a proper wrestler, not the “show wrestling” that professionals like the Count did.
Their first port of call was to take him down a peg. Robinson tied him in knots for half an hour at a time, showing the Jude champion that he skills meant nothing in the ring.
This taught Nagasaki exactly what he needed. He learned quickly, becoming an expert in Catch wrestling. After a year’s training, he had his first bookings as a professional wrestler, following in Count Bartelli’s footsteps by donning his own mask.
Peter Thornley Was Inspired By Kenshiro Abbe and Count Bartelli In Creating His Gimmick
After “graduatiing” from Riley’s Gym, Peter Thornley wanted to exploded into wrestling like nobody had ever seen before.
He wanted to don a mask like his mentor Count Bartelli, but wanted to go further. He didn’t want anybody to know who he was, keeping his entire person a mystery to all.
This was only possible because he was brand-new to the wrestling business. Most wrestlers masked up years into their career, with people already aware of who they really were.
Thornley was an unknown, so his transformation into Kendo Nagasaki would be something nobody knew about.
The gimmick was inspired not just by Count Bartelli, but also the teachings of Kenshiro Abbe. He decided to portray a Japanese wrestler, after learning Judo and Kendo under Abbe.
He took the name Kendo due to this, while Nagasaki was name taken from legendary Japanese Samurai of the 14th century, as well as the city that was bombed during World War II.
The design of Kendo Nagasaki’s mask came from the men, the metal grill on the helmet worn during a first.
The image of the metal bars were represented with the white horizontal lines on the mask, which was typically done on red fabric.
“I reasoned that it must be a symbol of something.” Kendo Nagasaki said in Kendo Nagasaki and the Man Behind The Mask.
“It wouldn’t be possible to wrestle in a kendo helmet, so it came to me that I could represent the kendo helmet with a grill design on the face of a wrestling mask.”
“That would be the face of my wrestling persona.”
He also wore a cape to the ring, simply because it looked good!
Kendo Nagasaki’s first match was against Jim Hussey, the father of Mark “Rollerball” Rocco.
Hussey made the young “Japanese” wrestler look like a star, and he easily defeated his older opponent.
Backstage, Nagasaki refused to speak to anybody, pretending to be embodied by the spirit of a Japanese Samurai.
After his victory over Hussey, the character was born. Whne he entered the arena, Peter Thornley left and Kendo Nagasaki was born!
