Brits’ Williams and McGuiness making mark in Japan
The British Bruiser
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Nigel McGuiness & Doug Williams, who are considered by many as the top two present British wrestlers in the world today (certainly the most-travelled) are currently enjoying much success and travel over in Japan as a tag team, more specifically, Mitsuharu Misawa’s strong style promotion, Pro Wrestling NOAH - and it looks as if it is going to stay that way for a while.
McGuiness, born in London, England was trained by British wrestling greats Robbie Brookside, Chic Cullen, Les Thatcher & Dave Taylor before debuting in September 1999. It wasn’t untul November 2005 that he debuted for NOAH, teaming up with stars such as Williams, Scorpio & Bison Smith before going back to where he is currently residing in the United States in December. Speaking of the US, most of his career so far he has wrestled over there for Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) and Ring of Honor (RoH) where he became the longest reigning Pure champion in its history, holding the belt for a total of 350 days in all when he dropped it earlier this year to Bryan Danielson on an RoH card in a unification match in his home country. He has also held multiple major titles in HWA.
Williams, born in Berkshire, England but currently living in Kent, England, debuted in 1993 after being trained by the NWA UK Hammerlock Academy. Before he started wrestling, he already had experience in comtact sports as he won the British Judo under 72 kilogram championship in 1992. His first major break out moment of his career was when he wrested Jake “The Snake” Roberts in 1998 and his career seemed to go up from their. Like McGuiness, Williams has also had an RoH Pure title reign for several weeks in 2004. He has been wrestling for NOAH for several years now and has tasted gold before as one half of the NOAH GHC Tag Team Heavyweight champions along with Scorpio.
They recently have had their sights on the NOAH GHC Tag Team Heavyweight titles and despite not winning a recent tournament for those belts, they have remained succesful regulars for NOAH. Williams started their most recent tour, the ‘Winter Navigation’ tour on 17th November at the Karokuen Hall in Tokyo in front of a sell out crowd of 2,100, then the next night he wreslted in the Shimada City Gymnasium in Shizuoka infront of 1,800 fans. A couple of days after that he experienced his largest crowd of the tour, 2,200 people, at the Niigata City Gymnasium in Niigata. Granted, while all of these bouts up to then had been loses for Williams, luck finally came his way on the 21st November at the Yamagata Sports Centre in Yamagata infront of 1,400 fans teaming up in a six-man tag with fellow gaijins Bison Smith & Eddie Edwards defeated Japanese natives, Jun Akiyama, Yoshinubo Kanemaru & Makoto Hashi but what made it even more special was that — after over 20 greuling minutes of wrestling — Williams got the pin for his team over Hashi. His luck stayed with him two days later as, once again in a six man, he teamed up with ROH World champion, “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson & Bison Smith to beat KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & Akitoshi Saito infront of 1,200 fans. Although it was not third time lucky though — given that he lost two nights in a row at the Media Parks Spica in Sapporo and late on in the month in Akita and Sendai – it shouldn’t do his career any harm at this stage.
So, Williams & McGuiness are steady in Japan but how long will it be until the Brits become huge stars over there – like the likes of Johnny Saint, Mark Rocco & The Dynamite Kid, just to name a few – did decades earlier? Only time will tell, but the Japanese fans have always seemed to appreciate the typically fine technical ability of British wrestlers. Perhaps 2007 will be the year for gaijins, Doug Williams & Nigel McGuiness in Japan.