YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Senior Airman Timothy Keel was in his glory Saturday night, impressed that the fine arts finally had made it to Yokota.
Granted, Saturday’s performance included a blood-spattered ring, 280-pound men leaping through the air to smash each other with vicious kicks and elbows and an audience that reveled in talking trash to the performers from the safety of the stands.
“This is like watching the theater,” Keel said during an intermission of the International Championship Wrestling matches at Yokota’s Taiyo Recreation Center. “This is the greatest entertainment … an art form.”
It was a typical night of professional wrestling, with good body-slamming evil. The “bad guys” taunted fans, playing particularly on U.S. patriotism and service pride.
“They say the Marines are looking for a few good men,” Disco Inferno told the crowd. “I guess the rest of you joined the Air Force.”
His insults were met with a chorus of “Disco sucks!” shouts from the crowd.
A tag-team pair of Canadian brothers, Shane and Shannon, blasted the Americans in the crowd, saying they were upset that the Canadian national anthem wasn’t played.
“Look at a map,” one shouted over the boos. “Canada’s up here and the U.S. is down here. You’ll always be below us.”
But when “good guy” Virgil entered the ring to wrestle “Doink the Clown,” he grabbed the microphone and sent out his own message to “thank the Air Force, all the great women and all the great men.”
Saturday’s show, provided by the 374th Services Division, was part of a whirlwind Yokota tour. The wrestlers signed autographs and ate lunch with residents, talked to American Forces Network’s “Traffic Jams” afternoon radio program and held a second performance Sunday afternoon.
Airman 1st Class Russell Granby, 20, led the rowdiest of fans in heckling the wrestlers.
“Trash talking is just something you have to do,” said Granby, at his first pro- wrestling show. “It’s awesome.”
