Dragon Screw: The Comprehensive Super Rider

Friday, June 3, 2022

The Comprehensive Super Rider

(Written by jom)

In professional wrestling and especially in Japanese professional wrestling, there have been a lot of "tie-in" wrestlers. Guys like Jushin Thunder Liger sit at the helm of this category, with more obscure tie-ins such as WYF's Cosmic Angels and Ultraman Robin acting as the official wrestling representatives for the own respective brands. However, the most famous of all of these tie-ins is most definitely the Tiger Mask persona, which is undeniably most connected to Satoru Sayama. Sayama's legacy forever shaped professional wrestling, both in the pro and shoot styles, and he himself ended up having a direct hand in keeping that legacy alive through his training. Guys like Koki Kitahara, Naomichi Marufuji, Naoyuki Taira, Super Tiger II, and Tiger Mask IV all went through Sayama's arduous training in the Super Tiger Gym. However, the man we're talking about in this article is not only one of Sayama's first proteges, but a fellow tie-in wrestler as well.

That man is Kamen Shooter Super Rider.

Kamen Shooter Super Rider (or Super Rider for short) began his combat sports life in high school as an amateur wrestler. He became the team captain and ran the club with his deputy captain Mitsuharu Misawa, leading the clubs other members including Toshiaki Kawada. He won the National High School Overall Wrestling Tournament in 1980 and went to college on a wrestling scholarship, winning another tournament in 1982 and losing in 1984 to a future Olympic medalist. He would enter into the Super Tiger Gym after graduating from college. Rider got his start in Shooto in 1989, amassing a very respectable 6-3 record and even becoming the first ever welterweight champion in 1991. He would make his pro wrestling debut in late 1993, appearing in SPWF as Hopper King and sticking with that name for a few years, working on the lower level indies in places such as PWC, IWA Kakuto Shijuku, and West Japan.

At the beginning of 1996, Hopper would start using the name "Super Rider" in PWC, but he would change it to "Kamen Shooter Super Rider" in May of that year. Toei, the owners of the Kamen Rider brand, very quickly let Super Rider know that he did not have permission to use the name, and planned to license their own wrestler to keep Rider from continuing to use it. However, Rider (joined by Sayama himself), would go to the Toei headquarters and plead with them to allow him to use the name, exclaiming his love for Kamen Rider and his deep desire to represent the brand in professional wrestling. Toei would have a change of heart after this, and in December of that year, Kamen Shooter Super Rider would become officially recognized as Toei's professional wrestling representative of the Kamen Rider brand.

Very soon after this, Super Rider would wrestle in the main event of DDT's official debut show, and from that point on he played a vital role in the promotion's early years, constantly appearing in the main event and helping to shape the promotion into the juggernaut it is today. After 2000, Super Rider left DDT and appear much less frequently, working for BattlArts and having a few matches in more low level promotions like KAGEKI and TAMA, but not doing much until 2005, when he was officially brought into Sayama's new promotion, Real Japan Pro Wrestling, working in the offices until making his in-ring debut for the promotion in 2007. He's been in Real Japan (now Strong Style Pro Wrestling) ever since, making very few appearances elsewhere but always representing his home promotion. He's even left one final mark on combat sports, as both of his sons have become MMA fighters, and his eldest son Shooto (yes, he named his kid after Sayama's martial art because of course this legend did) currently has a 23-7 record, racking up win after win in places like ZST, DEEP, and Rizin.

In terms of Rider's wrestling style, Rider is very much in line with Sayama's vision of the U-System. Tons of tight grappling and pinpoint striking, but with clear professional wrestling influence, using diving moves and more Tiger Mask-esque movements like the hopping and tiger feint kick. Rider even does the Rider Kick commonly seen in the series. Basically, he's a stone-cold killer in the ring but doesn't forget about actual pro wrestling when he's in a match.

While he's definitely been divisive among certain groups in terms of ability, I personally think that Super Rider fucking rules, and I hope this series is able to possibly change some people's minds on him. The more people that know how great this guy is, the better.