Post by Deleted on May 17, 2014 17:05:12 GMT -6
“There was little boy whose dreams were crushed. He was lost. He was lonely. He had no one to guide him through life’s problems. No one had a reason to listen. No one wanted to be bothered. The day the fire claimed his father’s life was the day that his life started…”
The paragraph were notes that Ayumi scribbled on a partially ripped napkin for me to consider prior to meeting up with Mugen Mushaboom. I had already knew some of his story from an article in Flame Pro Wrestling Magazine that a fellow journalist had published this time last year. I took the story to heart. The Mugen that preformed for the fans was always so full of life. His smiled beamed as bright as the stage lights, and he gave off the kind of aura that absolutely nothing in his life lacked joy. I wanted to find out how such a sad, troubled kid in a foreign nation became the rising star that he was today.
Mugen told us his life story in it’s entirety over lunch at one of his favorite restaurants on the island, Ramen Kagetsu Arashi. This was my first experience at what I like to call a “Ticket Restaurant” – you make your food choice by inserting Yen, pressing a button from the choices on the machine, and then sit at a table to wait for your food. The aroma of garlic sauces, soy-yumminess, fried rice, and exotic curry excited my taste buds and teased at the my nostrils.
This has been my most in depth interview to date. I hope you find Mugen’s story as uplifting as I did.
Mugen Mushaboom was born in the Okinawa Prefecture on the island south of the Japan’s main island. Mugen calls his relationship with Okinawa “harmonious,” as the island is where his adopted family, friends, and fellow dojo mates reside. Raised in a single family house hold, Mugen’s father worked as an independent contractor for the United States Military, and the island was home to quite a few American military bases.
It wasn’t difficult to spot Mugen out in a crowd. All one had to do was spot the guy with the dark skin complexion, and if that wasn’t enough, he stood head and shoulders above the rest standing at 6‘5. Other than that, he looked like a typical foreigner who did quite well for himself on little island of Okinawa, Japan. He apologized for looking as if he just rolled out of the bed, although that wasn’t my thought as well. He wore a white collar shirt with a red tie loosened around his neck. Following his short but illustrious career, it had become apparent that red was his color of choice. Red was also the color synonyms with Japan’s history, as the Japanese flag welded a red disk at it’s center that represented the sun, hence the name, “Land of Rising Sun.”
One of the more interesting things about Mugen Mushaboom, was that he opted to use his real name vs creating a stage name which in this day in age is common practice. When asked about this, he responded with the following after laughing at the question…
“I had vivid imagination as kid I pictured myself a super hero who don a cape and fight crime whenever I saw fit. Everything I did was influenced by what I read in comic books or manga. Once I tried to jump off the kitchen counter but slipped on the tail of my cape, that’s when I learned that I -actually- couldn’t fly. When I climbed up on the roof, I could pick up radio signals and transmissions from the US military base, and I would pretend as if knew what was going on and it was the Mayor of the city feeding me information on the bad guys. The sandbox was Gotham City or Metropolis. I genuinely believed that I as a person could make a difference in people’s lives. To keep my incredibly active mind occupied, my father signed me up for Shotokan Karate, a martial art style born right in the heart of Okinawa. I practiced it just about everyday of the week for as long as I could remember. I learned a good deal about life while taking Shotokan. Karate aims to build character, improve human behavior, and cultivate modesty. In my days we trained Karate as a martial art, but now they train Karate as a gymnastic sport. I think we must avoid treating Karate as a sport – it must be a martial art at all times! Your fingers and the tips of your toes must be like arrows, your arms must be like iron. You have to think that if you kick, you try to kick the enemy dead. If you punch, you must thrust to kill. If you strike, then you strike to kill the enemy. This is the spirit you need in order to progress in your training. Spirit first, technique second. A martial art…not a sport.
I thought that instead of pretending to be someone else, I could just be the ultimate version of myself. Instead of being an alter ego that stood for something, I could be the one that stands for something. I want to do good. I want to help make the world a better place. Me. So I choose my own name and ran with it because I knew what I wanted to stand for.
I fell in love with the idea of the fighting spirit. You can apply it to anything, not just wrestling or Karate. I umm.. I like to envision myself of the physical embodiment of the fighting spirit the way the samurai’s were. It’s not something someone can reach and say, “Oh hey! I did it!” It’s a constant lesson, a lifetime study, and as I live as a student, I’ll die as a student, but I hope to have lots of fun along the way as well!”
As a journalist, there were two kind of facial expressions that I was use to seeing. The first was the facial expression of that of a salesman. The type of salesman who could pitch a product and smoothly sling back syllables like sake. You wouldn’t expect anything less, they had to, it was their job that paid the bills.
Secondly, there were the ones who believed what they were saying. They pitched an idea that had been dwelling in their mind, and over time they had been able to breath life into it, nurture it, and bring it to fruition. You could see the excitement in their eyes as they tried to explain it to someone else in hope to get them to see things on the same wavelength as them. Mugen was like this. You could see the passion in his eyes that he was genuine, and that this wasn’t just some rehearsed speech to make him sound greater than what he actual was.
Looking back at Mugen’s story growing up, one could select key moments and pinpoint what exactly molded Mushaboom’s personality and zest for life. At 12, Mugen’s father and his Karate instructor died while trying rescue people from a burning building here on the island. The smoke was stifling, and eventually got the best of Mr. Mushaboom after assisting half a dozen people before the building went up in flames entirely. Shortly after, the emergency services arrived, and Mugen was there to witness it all.
Lost and confused, Mugen explained how he spent the next several weeks hiding from everyone out of fear. A fear of the truth. A fear of being fatherless. A fear of being sent to some place unknown. He hid around the Shotokan dojo come nightfall and would scavenge for food during the day.
As fate would have it, a previous instructor and brother to the head of the Shotokan school obtained the dojo by will. Master Shinya and his family came down from the Aomori Prefecture on the northern tip of Japan’s main island, setting up shop while changing the identity of the dojo from a Shotokan dojo, to a Puroresu one. Master Shinya would allow Mugen to stay on the facility as long as he trained hard and helped around the Tobikan Judan Dojo, and just a few months time, he adopted him. Mugen’s future in wrestling was born.
Koga closed the magazine as she finished reading aloud to Mugen. In mocking fashion, she wiped a fake tear from her eye and gave a slow clap, letting the sound of her palms echo across the empty walls of the gym.
Koga: It looks like you have someone else back in Japan who has a hard on for you. Perhaps I should open up a fanclub and become it’s President!
Mugen rolled his eyes. Outside of being many things, Koga and Mugen were the very definition of opposites attract. Where Mugen was polite, Koga was brash, where Mugen was understanding and empathic, Koga was ignorant and unsympathetic. They were tag team partners, in and out of the ring. Although their fighting styles were similar, their morals couldn’t have been any different. Koga had no problem with cheating, it was a dog eat dog world out there and everyone was more than just a chew toy to her.
Master Shinya had also taken her in at a young age. The two of them would stay up late watching old wrestling films on VHS of Master Shinya and others in his hey day. The duo vowed to travel across the world and represent Tobikan Judan Dojo.
Mugen: Whatever, have that camera ready?
The two of them liked to filmed their own promo videos without the help of a fledgling camera crew following them around. That was just down right creepy. Full of passion, prideful, and behind a mask of confidence, Mugen eyes stared deep into the lens of a Ikonoskop A-Cam dII camera propped upon a tripod. Other than a clear panel window looking out into St. Paul, Minnesota, his surroundings lacked the picturesque quality of the emotional escapade he found himself mentally submerged in.
Mugen: For many of you who aren’t aware, I am Mugen Mushaboom(not be confused with Mushroom)! There isn’t much that I can tell you that you haven’t heard before. That’s the nature of this business. We constantly recycle the same material over and over again, hoping that you might forget the last time we used it. For example, when a good guy turns bad, he usually starts off his speech with…
“All this week, everywhere I go I’ve heard the question, why? Why did I do it?”
or…one of my personal favorites…
“I am the best at what I do. I am the best wrestler in the world!” so on and so fourth.
I don’t want to put you through all of that. I am a wrestler, not a role-player. I don’t want to subject you to something that you’ve heard for before. Instead of saying what I’m going to do, I rather you see my wrestling tell the story. I rather you know me and form your opinion of me based on what you see in the ring. I rather the blood, sweat, and tears soaked in the canvas be the bolded text in which you read the “Trials and Tribulations of Mugen Mushaboom.”
I, Mugen Mushaboom, am a man of action. Come Breakthrough, let me show you.
*camera flips off*