The United Kingdom, England especially, has a long and storied history of masked wrestlers performing in the ring. Wrestling under a mask, like modern stars such as Rey Mysterio, has been going on for as long as the sport itself. In France, the first mention of a masked wrestler was in 1848 that L’Homme Masque … Read more
Wrestling was in a state of flux in 1987 and Kendo Nagasaki had a slightly faulty vision for how All-Star Wrestling could compete with the glitz and glamour of the WWE. If one word could describe Joint Promotions’s presentation, it might be ‘traditionalist’. Indeed, its conservative approach saw few real characters, white meat goodies take … Read more
Peter Thornley create the Kendo Nagasaki gimmick in 1964, going on to become one of the greatest wrestlers in British wrestling history.
The mystery of how Kendo Nagasaki lost his finger has finally been revealed. For nearly sixty years, the legendary wrestling champion and judo master has hidden the secret behind his missing phalange. The wrestler, who is really a man named Pete Thornley from Crewe, has been missing the index finger from his right hand ever … Read more
Count Bartelli’s unmasking at the hands of Kendo Nagasaki should have been the start to the second half of his career with even more success than the first. In the annals of British professional wrestling, few names evoke as much intrigue and admiration as Count Bartelli. A Crewe-based car salesman by day and a masked … Read more
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. … Read more
Kendo Nagasaki is one of the most iconic masked wrestlers in British wrestling history. As such, numerous other wrestlers tried to rip him off, and portrayed Kendo Nagasaki imposters in the ring.
Peter Preston is not a name most wrestling fans will remember, but the wrestlers in the back will look back at him and not be impressed at what they saw. He was an unpredictable fighter. You never knew who was going to win a match when he stepped into the ring. While the results of … Read more
Kendo Nagasaki shocked the world when he removed his mask in 1977. It became a must-see TV moment, but the move almost torpedoes the British legends’ career.
Kendo Nagasaki is arguably Britain’s greatest ever heel. The “Japanese” star took the wrestling world by storm for sixty years, from 1964 to 2024