Episode 114 – Santel in Japan
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In this episode, I discuss Ad Santel’s tour of Japan in 1921.
Review
WWE made a disasterous blunder at the John Cena retirement show on the December 13, 2025 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event. The show was heartwarming and built around Cena’s legacy. The fan response to the show was strong but the company snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Ad Santel, skilled shooter and hooker, defeated many judo and jujitsu black belts (Public Domain)
The four match card focused on younger talent and initially left fans happy. Cody Rhodes defeated Oba Femi, when Drew McIntyre interfered. The finish gave Rhodes the win without defeating Femi. Rhodes and Femi teamed up to send McIntyre running.
Sol Ruca defeated Bayley in a match to “make” Sol Ruca. Kudos to Bayley for willingness to lead Ruca through the match and put Ruca over. Bayley would be a great coach or producer one day.
A.J. Styles and Dragon Lee defeated Jevon Evans and Leon Slater in high-flying, entertaining match. All four hugged at the end of the match to keep all four babyfaces. Right before, the main event, the fans saw an entertaining segment with The Miz, R-Truth, and Joe Hendry.
Everything was set for one of the more memorable WWE shows in a while, when the creative team made a head scratching decision to ruin the night.
Main Content
An academic article, Ad Santel is Coming to Town: The 1921 Yasukuni Shrine ‘MMA Fights’ Between Catch Wrestling and Kōdōkan Judo by Kōtarō Yabu & Andreas Niehaus, in the International History of Sport is the source for a lot of this discussion.
Ad Santel was a shooter and hooker, who won a handful of mixed styles bouts with judo and jujitsu black belts in the 1910s. His success in these matches convinced Santel that traveling to Japan to have contests with Kodokan black belts could be financially lucrative and further build his reputation.
Santel employed two Japanese business people in the United States to setup the matches. The gentlemen were able to arrange for a bouts over two days at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Twenty to twenty-five thousand spectators attended the matches.
Initially, the Kodokan and Dr. Jigoro Kano did not object to judo black belts engaging in contests with Ad Santel and his manager/fellow wrestler Henry Weber. However, a Kodokan black belt close to Dr. Kano objected to the competition. Okabe Heita was able to persuade Dr. Kano and the Kodokan leadership to issue a warning to any black belts taking part in the competition.
Update
The second edition of St. Louis’ Civil War: The Streetcar Strike of 1900 should be available.
Live Wrestling Match Attendance
1980s live match attendance – Ken Sr. -1, Vicky – 12 or 13, Dad – 1 Jeff-2 or 3, Dan-1, Vicki-1,
1990s live match attendance – Dan-1, James-1, Sheri and Ron-2, Eric and Chris-1
23 or 24 live cards and none since 1998.
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