Tojo Yamamoto: One of the South's Greatest Wrestling Villains

Little is known about Tojo Yamamoto's early days. He was born about 1927 in Hawaii.

Tojo worked in Florida in 1961-1962. On November 16, he and Taro Myaki defeated Eddie Graham & Dick Steinborn for the Florida NWA U.S. Tag Team Championship.

He began working for promoter Gulas/Welch Enterprises in the early 1960's. It didn't take Tojo long before he became Gulas' number one heel. He remained in that spot until the Nick Gulas went out of business in 1980.

Tojo often worked tag team matches, and he was always the lead heel. In the 1960's, he won titles with Alex Perez and Johnny Long; however, as a heel, he most often teamed with fellow Asians, or "Orientals" as they were called then. He had good runs with Tamayo Soto (not really Asian), Professor Ito, Great Higami, Sigie Sito, Tor Kamata, and Mitsu Hirai.

Tojo had an pre-match act that was quite effective. He would walk to the ring in ceremonial robe and wooden shoes. He would enter the ring and walk to his corner, then reach into his trunks and bring out a pack of salt. Like sumo wrestlers, he would stomp his feet a few times and toss the salt. Often he would have another pack of salt - to throw it in the eyes of an opponent. Those wooden shoes made good weapons also. Many wrestlers were hit over the head with those shoes - and many took them away from Tojo and used bashed them against Tojo's head.

Of course, since this is wrestling, being the most hated wrestler in the promotion meant that it was only natural for him to turn babyface a few times. He actually made a very good babyface teaming with those who he had not long before hated so badly - Len Rossi, Jackie Fargo, and Jerry Jarrett, among others.

Tojo did make two forays into other territories during the time that he was primarily working for Nick Gulas. He toured the Carolinas twice as P.Y. Chung and Texas once as T.Y. Chung. Each time that he returned to Gulas/Welch Enterprises he quickly regained his status as number one heel.

Tojo was one of his most valued employees out of the ring, as well as in. Gulas used Tojo as a trainer. Many who went on to be big names were trained by Tojo; Jerry Jarrett, Bobby Eaton, and George Gulas were three of the higher profile names. (Some would say that George didn't go on to better things, but that's another story).

Tojo had a mean streak. He could be sadistic, especially when booked against guys trying to break into the business. In fact, that was one of his jobs. If a somebody could get through a match with Tojo and still want to be a wrestler, he might have potential.

Jerry Lawler says in his book "It's Good to Be the King... Sometimes" that his first match was against Tojo. Lawler, "He chopped me on the side, then threw me on the rope and chopped me on the head coming off the rope. Chop, chop, chop. All I did was sell his chops, which was very easy to do, because he hit me real hard. He didn't pull them at all. My chest was red and I had hand prints all over me. He also had this move called "The Claw" that he applied. It was horrible. For fifteen minutes he just beat me up.... After my match with Tojo, I came out of the ring and Jackie (Fargo) said, Well kid, still wanna be a wrestler?" I told Jackie it was great. I knew I couldn't act hurt or complain because this was my initiation. So I didn't ever moan. For my pains, they booked me six straight weeks against Tojo Yamamoto. I got the same treatment every week.

When Jerry Jarrett broke away from Nick Gulas, and began competing for the same cities, Tojo, even though he was friends with Jarrett, decided to stay with Gulas. It didn't take Jarrett long to win the promotional battle, and Tojo began working for Jarrett in the summer of 1980. Tojo took on the role of aging veteran who could still keep up with the younger talents. He did some managing during this time also.

In 1978, Tojo had formed a heel tag team with fellow veteran Gypsy Joe called the "No Pain Train." They were Mid American Tag Champions that same year. In 1982, they got back together and won the World Tag Team Title in Angelo Poffo's Kentucky based IWF.

In World Class during the late 1980's, Tojo became Phil Hickerson's manager. Hickerson became known as P.Y. Chu-Hi. Hickerson and Tojo were involved in memorable feuds with Eric Embry and Chris Adams.

Tojo returned to Texas (now USWA) in 1991 to manage Embry. This was to be Tojo's last big run.

Depression and health isues drove Tojo to commit suicide on February 19, 1992.