Weird Japanese TV segments are a primary building block of the internet, right up there with GIFs of Kate Upton and cats doing people things. Fortunately for us here at With Spandex, a few of these Japanese variety shows seem to like puroresu as much as we do. I bookmarked a video of Minoru Suzuki kicking ass in a One Piece trivia battle on the show SMAPxSMAP a while back, but it’s all untranslated and I didn’t really know if it was worth sharing. But just in the nick of time, here comes cruiserweight legend Jushin “Thunder” Liger, speaking the universal language of playing pranks on your friends. After a night of partying hard, Liger is sent to the hotel rooms of NJPW stars Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Manabu Nakanishi, and Tomoaki Honma. His mission: To see if he can successfully pin them in their sleep.
You have my apologies in advance for a terribly unfortunate video thumbnail.
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A couple of things worth noting here:
- Liger somehow cracks himself up with his dramatic entrance. Can somebody GIF that, please?
- Why was Makabe sleeping with his lights on?
- TANAHASHI KICKS OUT AT ONE. Tell me that isn’t the most John Cena thing ever.
- If you’re surprised at all that Honma actually got pinned, please start watching more New Japan.
- Also, I didn’t really need to know that Honma sleeps naked, but here we are.
I noticed something the second time I watched this, incidentally. I thought my mind was playing a trick on me at first, but after double-checking, it’s totally real. Go to the 1:09 mark of the video and listen closely. Sound familiar? That’s right, it’s a music box version of Liger’s theme song, “Ikari no Jūshin.” That is incredible attention to detail. Let us know in the comments if you know what TV show this clip is from, because I have to send them a message requesting a full iTunes release.
