Guest cynicalprofit Posted May 28, 2002 Report Posted May 28, 2002 Earl Hebner is famous here in america, are there any foreign refs? I know I've seen the one guy from the 6-man Barely Legal match a few times, but i dont know his anme or anything.
Guest wolverine Posted May 28, 2002 Report Posted May 28, 2002 Kyohei Wada from All Japan is generally regarded as the best ref. He was really over with the fans, in that after the ring announcer would say "Referee Wada Kyohei," the fans would chant "KYO-HEI!" I also like Bob Yazawa of AJW and Daichi Murayama of Arsion, formerly of AJW.
Guest PlatypusFool Posted May 28, 2002 Report Posted May 28, 2002 I love the whole "KYO-HEI" thing, I think that is just a really cool chant to have for the crowd to feel involved in the match a little more. Also, before a big fight, it really helps to heat up the crowd and get them prepared to cheer and respond to the in ring action. I think the place of referees in wrestling is greatly underestimated - the way Kyohei himself leaps into action to count the pin adds to the selling of the wrestlers as it seems the referee thinks the pin in question could be the one to end the match. He adds to every match he officiates in this way, so therefore a great ref is he.
Guest wolverine Posted May 28, 2002 Report Posted May 28, 2002 Absolutely. Wada is the best I've ever seen at reffing. It's mind boggling how many great matches he's seen up close and person.
Guest Black Tiger Posted May 28, 2002 Report Posted May 28, 2002 The most famous ref in New Japan is probably Tiger Hatori. There is another one named Joe Higuchi, I'm not sure where he refs for though.
Guest wolverine Posted May 28, 2002 Report Posted May 28, 2002 Joe Higuchi of All Japan fame retired in 1997. He ended up on Misawa's side after the split, so he's on some NOAH shows reading the proclamation from what I've seen. Personally, I didn't like his counts very much because they were slow, but he was a good ref.
Guest Posted May 28, 2002 Report Posted May 28, 2002 Yeah, Joe was apparently a close hand of Baba's when he was alive. Mick Foley talks about him coveying messages from Baba in his book, so that must have been a secondary role of sorts for him.
Guest Ace309 Posted May 29, 2002 Report Posted May 29, 2002 I believe the referee from Barely Legal is named Ted Tanabe. He's been in a lot of the stuff I've seen and I believe he was actually well-known enough to work as a guest ref for another promotion at some point. Of course, I don't remember what promotion or what show. *sigh*
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