The Realest Guy in the Room: The Life and Times of Dan Severn by Severn Dan & Douglass Ian

Author:Severn, Dan & Douglass, Ian [Severn, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: WhatCulture.com
Published: 2016-07-04T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

ONE MONTH AFTER MY FIGHT with Shamrock, I was in Japan participating in one of the most memorable wrestling tours of all time. My NWA championship defense against Tarzan Goto is the craziest match I’ve ever been in, and it was part of the most mind-boggling overall experience I was ever involved in during my professional wrestling career.

The funny part about the whole deal was that I was on this American squad, including Terry Gordy, Terry Funk, and Mick ‘Cactus Jack’ Foley, that was over in Japan for eight or nine days. All of the other guys worked seven or eight dates with only one day off, and I was there with them the entire time while only being booked for one match.

We were part of the group of foreigners assembled for the International Wrestling Association’s King of the Death Match 1995 Tour in Japan, and in establishing the craziness of the entire spectacle, it seems almost fitting how the entire thing was kicked off by a parade during which Terry Funk rode around on a horse.

Most Americans, and particularly the millennials, would have a hard time believing how worked up a nation could get over a professional wrestling event.

Every day I was off training by myself because no one else was traveling with me, and each night, I was in the arenas watching the matches. This was the tour when I got to see Tiger Jeet Singh in action, which amazed me, because I got to see Singh run through the crowd and backhand a fan while he still had a sword in his hand!

The backhanded fan would stand right back up with a bruise or a mark on his face, and he would make a big deal out of showing it off to everyone around him. He so proud to have been maimed by Tiger Jeet Singh! The stuff you could get away with in Japan was stunning. You could never, ever get away with that shit in the United States.

The one day all of the American wrestlers were off, Mick Foley was in the gym with me watching me go through my exercises and shadow wrestling. We were limited in terms of equipment, but they had mats and a ring for us to train on, so I would be doing calisthenics, free squats and things of that nature to work up a sweat.

Out of the blue, I heard Mick’s voice.

“Can you teach me some moves?” Mick asked.

Keep in mind, these are probably the first words Mick ever spoke to me.

I looked back at him in surprise.

“You’re Cactus Jack!” I exclaimed. “You’ve been wrestling professionally way longer than I have. How can I ever teach you any moves?”

Keep in mind, by this point, Mick had already been involved in a main-event run in Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling against guys like Sting and Vader, who were both huge stars in the world of professional wrestling.

“Dan, I really can’t wrestle,” Mick explained. “But, I can endure pain.”

From then on, I always watched Mick’s matches from a completely different perspective.

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