People seemed to enjoy the first one of these, so I thought I’d do it again! This time instead we are going back to basics. This time looking at the very first game in the series that released on the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16.

It has the smallest roster of the series as far as I know which is part of the reason I decided to do it next. Fire Pro Returns, I think has over 100 people in it and even some of the SNES games have huge rosters.

This one will be a good building block for later installments which retained many of these people that appeared in this 1989 original. I should point out that most of these games were not official and had these people under fake names, despite it being plainly obvious who they were suppose to be representing.

Akira Maeda : A wrestler who worked for many companies and is credited with being one of the pioneers of the shoot style. He worked for NJPW, Japan UWF(Which he co-created and was a promoter for) and he was even featured on World of Sports working for all 3 of those companies in the 80′s before 1991 rolled around Akira Maeda would found the wrestling promotion Rings, that would later shift focus in 1995 and become an MMA promotion.



Bad News Brown : The first talent on this list who was well known in North America. Bad News Brown was a pioneer for black talent in the industry often times called the first black heel. While that might be hyperbole, Bad News Brown’s effect on the industry should be well noted. He was most often a wrestler in NJPW starting there after his Olympic performance in Judo where he won a Bronze medal in 1976. He also won 2 gold medals in the Pan American games in 1967 and 1975.

Bruiser Brody : Another wrestler known by North American fans. He worked throughout the states and over in AJPW. He is a pioneer of the brawling style and considered one of the best if not the best brawler of the 80′s. Of course he cannot be brought up without talking about his tragic death in 1988 when he was stabbed several times by José Huertas González(promoter/booker) in a Puerto Rican shower for the show that night. One of the brave souls that tried to help Brody out was Tony Atlas, though because of heavy traffic outside the arena Brody didn’t get the medical treatment in time to save his life.

Dos Caras : The first person on this list who has wrestled a match in 2017. Dos Caras is a legend of Mexican wrestling and one of the first talents from Mexico to travel outside of North America and wrestle regularly elsewhere. Throughout the 80′s he wrestled in AJPW and NJPW while also working with UWA. He also innovated the Dos Cara’s clutch. He is brother to the other luchador in this game(Mil Mascara) and father to one of the biggest names from Mexico of the current generation Alberto Del Rio/El Patron.

Antonio Inoki : Oh boy! Inoki, how can I sum up such a massive and important career in a paragraph? Truth be told I can’t for him or any of these men, but here we go. Inoki is one of the most important wrestlers ever and is credited with the invention of the enzuigiri. When Inoki started down the wrestling path he train with Karl Gotch in old school catch wrestling. Inoki would name his own style of wrestling ‘Strong Style’ which is still used today by many Japanese talents.

Inoki is also credited as being a forefather of the modern MMA boom. Inoki use to fight people from around the world who all were trained in different fighting arts. Many of his fights were scripted, but still showed the world was interested in that kind of competition. Also, he fought Ric Flair in North Korea which drew 150,000 and 190,000 people for the two day event and is still the biggest wrestling show in recorded history.

I could go on for ages about Inoki as he has a long intriguing history. He ontop of the above listed things also was : founder of NJPW in 1972 which came about after Rikidozan’s(The original Japanese Wrestler/Promoter) Japanese Wrestling Association went defunct having NJPW/AJPW spring up in it’s place. Inoki owned NJPW out right until he sold the company to Yuke’s in 2005. Inoki is also a politician in his home country of Japan where he was elected to positions twice. That’s all for Inoki, if you want to know more feel free to look him up. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t books about the man who has a huge legacy.

Genichiro Tenryu : Genichiro like many wrestlers actually started in a different Martial Art. Sumo, which is of course very popular in Japan. Tenryu started his sumo training at the young age of 13 and would continue down that path for another 13 years before shifting his focus to the Puroresu ring. He would then be scouted by Giant Baba of AJPW. Tenryu would be sent over to Texas where he was trained by Dory Funk Jr and Terry Funk. In the early 80′s Tenryu would team with Jumbo Tsuruta collectively called “Kakuryu” (鶴 = kaku = tsuru (the “tsuru” in Tsuruta) + 龍 = ryū in Tenryū).



Tenryu would go on to become one of the most decorated players in AJPW history. The Tokyo Sports awards, a non partisan award for japanese wrestling achievements would give Tenryu Best bout/MOTY award an astonishing 9 times and call him MVP of the year 4 different times.

Jumbo Tsuruta : Another huge star for AJPW through the 80′s. Jumbo as mentioned above was a stellar tag team with Tenryu. He also had 7 MOTY’s from Tokyo sports and captured nearly anything of note in AJPW. He would sadly die in the year 2000 after complications from a kidney transplant, just short a year after his retirement in 1999. Though he hadn’t been in serious competition most of the 1990′s where he mostly worked 6 man tag matches that were comedic in tone.

Masa Saito : The journey man of Japan on this list, though many of these talents traveled around. Masa Saito was on another level working for various promotions connected to NWA, AJPW and NJPW.

As well as holding the WWF Tag Titles with Mr. Fuji, he also made it to the finals of the Pat O'Connor Memorial Tag Team Tournament at Starrcade ‘90: Collision Course which is noteable for being the big win early in the Steiner Brothers tag team. He is also the innovator of the Saito Suplex which is used in every promotion around the world now.

Saito might have had a better career with WWF had it not been for an incident at a Mcdonald’s involving Ken Panterra and a rock thrown through the window by a young man that wasn’t Ken Panterra according to a radio interview with Panterra from 2012. The incident happened in 1984 and ended with both Panterra and Saito being charged with battery of a police officer.

Mil Mascaras : The other side of the Luchador coin and brother of earlier luchador Dos Caras. Mil Mascaras wrestled plenty for AJPW through the late 70′s and early 80′s becoming well known in Japanese wrestling circles along with his brother. He would have a match of the year from Tokyo sports in 1977 with Jumbo who was listed earlier. Mil Mascaras has a reputation of being hard to work with, but is still important for exposing Japan to Lucha Libre alongside his brother.

Riki Choshu : Riki Choshu innovated a move that would define early 90′s wrestling in the states and most don’t even know it. That move being The Sharpshooter or as Riki Choshu called it : Sasori-gatame.

Riki Choshu is also credited as being the first ever traitor heel in Japan. Turning on his friend Fujinami after being snubbed for the inaugural tournament for the IWGP Heavyweight championship in 1983. Riki Choshu is also one of the few people to do a clean sweep of the G1 Climax where he won every match in the tournament he had.

In 1998 Riki Choshu would retire, his final card he wrestled 5 matches in one night and won 4 of them. After his retirement he would focus more as a booker at NJPW where he spent most of his career. He has moved a decent amount post 2000 and even had a deathmatch in FMW shortly after his retirement. He has wrestled sparingly in the years since, but not full time.

Stan Hansen : You can’t talk gaijin(Japanese for Foreigner) and not mention Stan Hansen. The cream of the crop when it comes to American assholes in Japan. The man’s career started with a very good case of ‘turning Lemons into Lemonade’ when he accidently broke Bruno Sammartino’s neck via a botched powerslam. The bookers and Hansen rolled with it and instead claimed the break came at the end of one of Stan Hansen’s destructive lariats.

Stan Hansen would leave WWF shortly after that and have a brief run in NJPW where he participated in the first ever G1 Tag League with his partner Hulk Hogan.

He would move over to AJPW where he would make his name winning anything he could get his hands on. He also was awarded MOTY 3 times by Tokyo sports vs great talents Kawada, Giant Baba and Tenryu. He would also win Most Outstanding Foreigner in 1982 and most popular wrestler in 1980. He by no means invented the lariat, but many credit him with it’s incredible popularity in Japan.

Tiger Jeet Singh : Undoubtable the most famous wrestler to ever come out of India. Tiger’s life story is pretty incredible, arriving in Canada with 6$ in his pocket after immigrating from India. Tiger set out into the wrestling world and made perhaps the earliest debut on this list in 1965. His first huge match was in 1971 at Maple Leaf Gardens vs The Sheik(uncle of Sabu, not The Iron Sheik).

The next year while visiting Japan he got in a fight with Inoki. This seems a little too coincidental, as apparently it wasn’t staged. So Inoki… who just happened to be opening a wrestling promotion had Tiger come and they lived out their feud in the ring. 1979 saw Tiger team with Abdullah the butcher vs the Japanese Dream Team Inoki/Baba. Which would win him his only Tokyo Sports honor for MOTY.

Through most of his career Tiger would bounce back and forth between Japan and Toronto wrestling in both territories. He made his name in NJPW, however many of the belts he held weren’t the main belt as his era didn’t have one main world title.

The Road Warriors/LOD : WHAAAAAAT A RUSH! The two tag team technicians would get their start in Georgia Championship Wrestling before getting pushed hard for their unique look and presence. This caused some friction with other talents as the young duo weren’t seen as having paid their dues. Not that it mattered though as soon both were picked up by larger promotion Verne Gagne’s AWA. Where they would be Champions again as they were in GCW, during this AWA run they would start using Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” as their entrance theme.

1985 saw the two’s first tour of Japan where they quickly became fan favorites like every promotion they went to before. They squashed a monster team of Killer Khan and Animal Hamaguchi in a mere 4 minutes. Cementing their dominance early and capturing more tag gold the NWA International Tag Team Championship. They would be the last team to hold this belt as they lost it in a unification match with PWF World Tag Team champions Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu to unify the titles as the AJPW World Tag Team titles.

That’s basically what they did of note in Japan before this game came out. They enjoyed that first run so much that whenever they had time between contracts with the big 3 : WWE/WCW/AWA they would go do a quick tour of Japan where they were normally welcomed with open arms. They like Hansen won an award just for foreigners in 1985 getting the Tokyo sports Special Foreigner Award.

The Gasper Brothers : This one I put last mostly because I have shit all to say about them. The Gasper Brothers were a brief tag team in 1988 that had some success. The two men were Cowboy Bob Orton and his real life brother Barry Orton. I can’t find any photos of them from this time or video so I don’t know if they looked like this or not. If anyone can find pictures I’ll put them here.

How’s it play? Not well. I wouldn’t suggest anyone play this fire pro game… I’m not actually sure I’d recommend any of the TurboGrafix-16 versions when the Super Nintendo ones are right there. Hell, I think many wouldn’t even suggest those when the PS2 version Fire Pro Returns has probably the biggest roster and the most options.

Still, while I had fun playings Queen’s Special… this one was just brutal. Every time I tried to play I would just get wrecked by the computer. I really had a hard time getting any of the timing down and was more frustrated than having fun.

This series still might be the best wrestling you’ll get on a TurboGrafix-16 and would probably be cool to have just as a collector’s item even if it’s not a very fun play. I saw that TurboGrafix has some other wrestling game and I might try that as it seemed less simulation and more arcade. If I try that I may put a review here on this blog.