Bad Luck Fale & Toru Yano Are The Same Wrestler (But Not Really)
By Ross W Berman IV
It’s tournament season in New Japan Pro Wrestling. This means that Toru Yano is sneakier and slipperier than usual. It also means that Gedo remembered that Bad Luck Fale is a giant man.
These two wrestlers share an ability to anchor multi-man tag matches, while also blending into the fabric of the roster. It’s easy to forget how dominant Fale is, when Chase Owens keeps eating pinfalls for his team. It’s also easy for Yano to escape to his team’s corner during these matches.
However, when the New Japan Cup or the G1 Climax rolls around, these two transform. Yano, with no teammates to run to, uses every dirty trick in the book. Somewhere, Eddie Gurrero is smiling when Yano tapes his opponents to the ropes for a countout, or sneaks away with a low blow, especially when it usually gets a pretty substantial pop from the crowd.
Fale, during tournament season, becomes less man and more kaiju. His battles with Lance Archer can often feel like they belong in a Toho Godzilla film. It is a breathtaking sight.
These two are representative of tournament season’s effect on the New Japan roster. A promotion already known for stiff strikes, features even stiffer strikes. When New Japan runs a tournament, the product suddenly becomes combat sport through and through.
Already in this year’s New Japan Cup, Ishii was nearly paralyzed by a top-rope Elgin Bomb from Michael Elgin, Juice Robinson’s back was bloodied by Yujiro Takahashi, and Zack Sabre Jr. has nearly ripped Tetsuya Naito’s arms off. While nothing has yet to reach the sheer brutality of the 2014 final match between Fale and Shinsuke Nakamura, this year’s tournament has been as violent as past cups.
This level of violence can have it’s downside. Last year’s New Japan Cup winner, Katsuyori Shibata gave himself a career-ending subdural hematoma in his Sakura Genesis match with Kazuchika Okada. Outside of Ibushi, there is no one masochistic enough to repeat that sickening display this year. However this year’s tournament has featured the same rushed, headstrong wrestling that Fale and Yano capitalize on. Yano uses his opponents momentum against them, while Fale stops their momentum cold.
Bad Luck Fale has been eliminated already, but Toru Yano stands a small chance at sneaking away with a victory over SANADA on 3/15. Should Yano fall to SANADA, the comparison between him and Fale will remain apt. Yano and Fale are two tag competitors that have just enough tricks up their sleeve to best the headstrong competition. They’re essentially the same tool in the toolkit (but not really).
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