History YMMV / JumboTsuruta

** To clarify, Tsuruta was not OnlyInItForTheMoney, and had a genuine passion for professional wrestling. However, he was famously frugal, and was always frank about the fact that wrestling was a career that he believed he wouldn't get much more than twenty-five years out of. Tsuruta wasn't the Japanese equivalent of Wrestling/KevinNash or anything; it was more that his way of life made him difficult for the core demographic, often salarymen themselves, to get into as an EscapistCharacter.

** To clarify, Tsuruta was not OnlyInItForTheMoney, and had a genuine passion for professional wrestling. However, he was famously frugal, and was always realistic about the fact that wrestling was a career that he believed he wouldn't get much more than twenty-five years out of. Tsuruta wasn't the Japanese equivalent of Wrestling/KevinNash or anything; it was more that his way of life made him difficult for the core demographic, often salarymen themselves, to get into as an EscapistCharacter.

** To clarify, Tsuruta was not OnlyInItForTheMoney, and had a genuine passion for professional wrestling. However, he was famously frugal, and was always realistic about the fact that wrestling was a career that he believed he wouldn't get much more than twenty-five years out of. Tsuruta wasn't the puroresu equivalent of Wrestling/LexLuger or anything; it was more that his way of life made him difficult for the core demographic, often salarymen themselves, to get into as an EscapistCharacter.

** To clarify, Tsuruta was not OnlyInItForTheMoney, and had a genuine passion for professional wrestling. However, he was famously frugal, and was always realistic about the fact that wrestling was a career that he believed he would get twenty-five years out of. Tsuruta wasn't the puroresu equivalent of Wrestling/LexLuger or anything; it was more that his way of life made him difficult for the core demographic, often salarymen themselves, to get into as an EscapistCharacter.

** To clarify, Tsuruta was not OnlyInItForTheMoney, and had a genuine passion for professional wrestling. However, he was famously frugal, and was always realistic about the fact that wrestling was a career that he believed he would get twenty-five years out of. Tsuruta wasn't the puroresu equivalent of Wrestling/LexLuger or anything; it was more that his way of life made him difficult for the core demographic to get into as an EscapistCharacter.

** The second was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TESXKk7Tivk "Rolling Dreamer"]], used from 1980 through mid-1983. Jumbo would record a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-APO9JsAHQ vocal version]].

** The first was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JxneTIbo5M "Chinese Kung Fu"]], a 1975 French "Kung Fu Fighting" cash-in which AJPW revived two years later for Jumbo. He would keep this for the rest of the decade.

* PeripheryDemographic: Wakadaisho-era Jumbo was actually more popular with women and children than the men that made up the bulk of the 1970s puro audience. This paralleled his [[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling NJPW]] counterpart Wrestling/TatsumiFujinami, who garnered a large female following during his junior ace run in the latter part of the decade.
* ValuesDissonance: One of the AJPW television skits mentioned above, namely the adaptation of ''The Rose of Versailles'' starring Jumbo as Lady Oscar, is unfortunately blighted by a brief RuleOfFunny cutaway to a group of AJPW wrestlers doing the [[MichaelJacksonsThrillerParody "Thriller" dance]]. It would be absolutely ''hilarious'', were it not for the fact that Jumbo is portraying Music/MichaelJackson...with [[{{Blackface}} brownface]].

* CreatorsPet: Averted for the most part, but the fact that Jumbo was instantly made a main-eventer upon his return to Japan from Amarillo did irk some people backstage, who believed that he hadn't paid his dues. Kintaro Oki, who had been the JWA's third biggest star under Baba and [[Wrestling/AntonioInoki Inoki]] but felt slighted when Jumbo was given preferential treatment, even left AJPW over it in 1974, as did Umanosuke Ueda.

* CreatorsPet: Averted for the most part, but the fact that Jumbo was instantly made a main-eventer upon his return to Japan from Amarillo did irk some people backstage, who believed that he hadn't paid his dues. Kintaro Oki, who had been the JWA's third biggest star under Baba and [[Wrestling/AntonioInoki Inoki]] but felt slighted when Jumbo was given preferential treatment, even left AJPW over it in 1974.

* ValuesDissonance: One of the AJPW television skits mentioned above, namely the adaptation of ''The Rose of Versailles'' starring Jumbo as Lady Oscar, is unfortunately blighted by a brief RuleOfFunny cutaway to a group of AJPW wrestlers doing the [[Music/{{Thriller}} "Thriller"]] dance. It would be absolutely ''hilarious'', were it not for the fact that Jumbo is portraying Music/MichaelJackson...with [[{{Blackface}} brownface]].

* CreatorsPet: Averted for the most part, but the fact that Jumbo was instantly made a main-eventer upon his return to Japan from Amarillo did irk some people backstage, who believed that he hadn't paid his dues. Kintaro Oki even left AJPW over it in 1974.

* CreatorsPet: Averted for the most part, but the fact that Jumbo was instantly made a main-eventer upon his return to Japan from Amarillo did irk some people backstage, who believed that he hadn't paid his dues. Kintaro Oki even quit AJPW over it in 1974.

* CreatorsPet: Averted for the most part, but the fact that Jumbo was instantly made a main-eventer upon his return to Japan from Amarillo did irk some people backstage, who believed that he hadn't paid his dues.

** The second was "Rolling Dreamer", used from 1980 through mid-1983. Jumbo would record a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-APO9JsAHQ vocal version]].

* ValuesDissonance: One of the AJPW television skits mentioned above, namely the adaptation of ''The Rose of Versailles'' starring Jumbo as Lady Oscar, is unfortunately blighted by a brief RuleOfFunny cutaway to a group of AJPW wrestlers doing the [[Music/{{Thriller}} "Thriller"]] dance. It would be absolutely ''hilarious'', were it not for the fact that Jumbo is portraying Music/MichaelJackson...with brownface.

* ValuesDissonance: One of the AJPW television skits mentioned above, namely the adaptation of ''[[Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles]]'' starring Jumbo as Lady Oscar, is unfortunately blighted by a brief RuleOfFunny cutaway to a group of AJPW wrestlers doing the [[Music/{{Thriller}} "Thriller"]] dance. It would be absolutely ''hilarious'', were it not for the fact that Jumbo is portraying Music/MichaelJackson...with brownface.

* ValuesDissonance: One of the AJPW television skits mentioned above, namely the adaptation of ''[[Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles]]'' starring Jumbo as Lady Oscar, is unfortunately blighted by a brief RuleOfFunny cutaway to a group of AJPW wrestlers doing the [[Music/Thriller "Thriller"]] dance. It would be absolutely ''hilarious'', were it not for the fact that Jumbo is portraying Music/MichaelJackson...with brownface.

* PeripheryDemographic: Wakadaisho-era Jumbo was actually more popular with women and children than the men that made up the bulk of the 1970s puro audience. This paralleled his [[Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling NJPW]] counterpart Wrestling/TatsumiFujinami, who garnered a large female following during his junior ace run in the latter part of the decade.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: Jumbo's performances in AJPW's 1980s television skits. His turn as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] is relatively well known: less so are his turns as Literature/SnowWhite and ''[[Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles Lady Oscar]]''.

** The first was "Chinese Kung Fu", a 1975 French cash-in on "Kung Fu Fighting", which AJPW revived two years later for Jumbo. He would keep this for the rest of the decade.

** The third, "T.T. Backdrop", is by far the most obscure, as he only used it once.
** Finally, there is "J". The most famous of these, but not undeservedly so.

* FunnyMoments: Jumbo's performances in AJPW's 1980s television skits. His turn as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] is relatively well known: less so are his turns as Literature/SnowWhite and ''[[Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles Lady Oscar]]''.

* FunnyMoments: Jumbo's performances in AJPW's 1980s television skits. His turn as [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] is relatively well known: less so are his turns as Literature/SnowWhite and [[Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles Lady Oscar]].

* FunnyMoments: Jumbo's performances in AJPW's 1980s television skits. His turn as [[Mario Franchise/SuperMarioBros]] is relatively well known: less so are his turns as Literature/SnowWhite and [[Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles Lady Oscar]].

* GrowingTheBeard: While he had been a very good wrestler for over a decade at this point, a fairly strong consensus has emerged in subsequent years that Jumbo's best work was in the back end of his (pre-hepatitis) career: approximately from around 1987 until mid-1992.