Hashimoto Shinya

I had put a random picture of myself and a friend on here,  Sylvester "Bear" Turkoy , Patrick had commented on the picture and it reminded me of why I am friends with this big guy, it is because of another Big dude, no not Big Mike, although he was the Big guy taking this picture,

When I see this picture I see my friend, not just Sylvester here, I see our friend Hashimoto Shinya

look at that whopper

Let me give you some background,

This is me and Sylvester Turkoy

who had just finished shooting with Yuen Woo Ping. On Su Qi Er starring Vincent Zhao Wen Zhou.

Word was, he was awesome on set and could do really well with asian Choreography.

I knew it couldn't be any other way,  I had worked with Bear years ago back in Japan.  Back then we called him "Predator"  a big huge mean lookin mother, with a heart o' gold. Bear... uh Preda.....  ok,   Sylvester was a pro wrestler, he had been through WWF and all those.

but he was working in Japan when we did a film called "AHH,  Ikenya Pro Wrestle."

or "house of smackdown,"   or as it later became known for it's international release "OOh my house collapse and all i have is a Pro wrestling Zombie GirlFriend"  or something like that,  seriously no joke.    I think this film can't even be classified as Cult,  More on that movie in future.

There was actually one sceen where Sylvester gets his head pile driven into a toilet. just 2 feet out of frame I was holding him upright, this guy needed the biggest wire team I have ever seen asembled for a single person.

thats me with the yellow hair.

this was Kenji's first feature as action Director it was quite a venture  kenji is the guy all the way on the right

          It was great fun.  I was doubling K-1 champ Nicholas Pettas and working for the Legendary Kenji Tankigaki,  that was a great year,  nonstop action in japan.  (film action! geesh)

  Gee  this is alot of set up,  anyway  we were working with this great guy called Hashimoto Shinya.

    At first we barely spoke to each other, but then we had to do one scene where I was Doubling Nick Pettas, and we were on a wire dangling for about 6 hours. pretty much attached to each other.   One of the wires at one point actually even snapped (something that very rarely happens) However dangerous, it was a funny sight i'm sure to see too "tough guys" holding on to each other for dear life.   We became good friend from that moment on. 

funny as hell, and saying he was a nice guy is an understatement.  You can see hashimoto fighting kane kosugi in the movie Muscle Heat. that one is probably easier to find than this movie.

I'm still trying to get a copy.

      There was a Legend and his name was Hashimoto Shinya,   He stomped the ground and mountains pulled up their stony roots and ran away in fear.   The greatest wrestler In all of japan.

He was a true legend.  I got to work with him for a short time, but he taught me alot about life then.  Many of you may not know him,  but I want to introduce you to him here.

This is Hashimoto Shinya.

this is the only picture i took of him on set ,  talking to Kenji Tanigaki.

this was the day before we were dangling on the wire together,  before then I was even afraid to talk to him.

Hashimoto  was great man and he developed the sport of wrestling in Japan, We had joked about me becoming a wrestler in japan and he came up with some crazy wrestling names for me. most of which i can't type here, but one was "The Golden Trigger"    He was Such a golden Guy.

After i came back to China I never got to see him again.    I had found out many years later from Kenji that he was gone. 

 on July 11th 2005   the Gods took him away from us.    

   Some people in our lives are there for just a moment but they leave a lasting impression.

they just live harder than others. 

Hashimoto was one of those people for me.