"With Kendo Nagasaki’s spectacular ring career now just resigned to memories, old red eyes made a brief appearance on the small screen in Granada Television’s 1998 homage to British wrestling Everything Stopped At 4 O'clock, which was in turn based on Simon Garfield’s widely lauded book “The Wrestling”, a warts and all look behind the scenes at the heyday of the sport in Britain. Lloyd Ryan as usual answered the questions whilst Kendo sat in complete silence, as he had done since he first entered a wrestling ring all those years ago. Many fans of the old days had been asking: what has happened to Nagasaki. Rumours and half-truths abounded in wrestling circles but it was conceded that he had disappeared into the night for the last time, the great wrestling warrior Nagasaki was no more. That was until the long running telephone information line WrestleCall conducted a Millennium poll to find out who the greatest British wrestler of all time was. Many people thought it was a forgone conclusion that such greats as Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith and Mark Rocco would clinch the title. The final result surprised everyone: Kendo Nagasaki was officially the Wrestler Of The Millennium. The wrestling business had not been the same without Kendo’s showmanship and sense of theatre, and it seemed the fans recognised that here was one of the all time greats. It was announced that plans were being laid for Kendo to thank the fans by accepting the trophy at three leading venues: Fairfield Hall in Croydon, Victoria Hall in Hanley and Colston Hall in Bristol. Scenes of some of Kendo’s greatest triumphs and most controversial victories. These presentations happened in May 2000, fans turned out in their hundreds to see Nagasaki in a wrestling hall once more, but as ever with Kendo things weren’t quite so simple. He could not resist getting involved in the grappling game once more, at Hanley local radio presenter Legendary Lonnie (himself a wrestling manager in days gone by) stood waiting to present the award. It seemed that Nagasaki hadn’t turned up and Darren Walsh was put forward to accept the award on his behalf, Lloyd turned on Walsh resulting in a strong verbal barrage from both sides, suddenly Kendo entered the ring and threw salt in Walsh’s eyes before slamming him and throwing the young heavyweight out of the ring. As the red eyes stared out the crowd went crazy, the Kendo of old had emerged - Nagasaki incited the crowd, bowing and generally acclaiming victory.

In the intervening years it seemed that Kendo’s desire for gentlemanly conduct was as low as ever. Kendo had gone from a weight of around 18 stones in the early 90’s to some 15 stones, the weight loss resulted in some wrestling observers trying to claim that this was not the original Nagasaki but an impostor. These people quite failed to notice the missing index finger which is the one true giveaway in any question of Kendo’s identity, this was indeed the Nagasaki of old and little did fans know that the career of the legend was not over yet. Similar controversy followed the presentations in Croydon and Bristol and before long Lloyd Ryan had lined up a series of tag team matches featuring the masked one.

One man desperate to have a crack at Kendo again was Marty Jones, for a long time Marty had been one of his most bitter rivals and in the tag clashes that followed the old rivalry was rekindled. Drew MacDonald partnered Kendo in a number of contests, the team reviving the sort of atmosphere that had been present in the glory days of the 60’s and 70’s. Children who had grown up without ever seeing Kendo on television, a generation addicted to the WWF, became fascinated by the impressive masked man. The stage doors of the venues where Kendo had chosen to make these appearances were besieged by fans young and old who wanted an autograph of the red devil. To coincide with the renewed interest in Kendo, Paul Yates released a follow up video to his Masters Of The Canvas documentary, the video was called Images Of Nagasaki and had in fact been recorded two years before. This strange programme looked at the mythology behind the Samurai and Japanese influences of Kendo, specially shot footage at Nagasaki’s secret hideaway showed a bizarre ceremony intended to break the connection between the man and his spiritual guru - forever severing the link with the Samurai.

The footage had been shot to celebrate the final chapter in Kendo’s long and colourful career - however little did anyone know when the video was being made that Kendo would decide to contact his Samurai again in 2000 for a Millennium campaign that would continue the havoc and violence where it had left off some seven years before.

How long Nagasaki continues is in the hands of the man himself, surely a legend in his own time he will go down in the history of popular sports as being one of the greatest wrestlers and showmen of the 20th century. Kendo has succeeded in filling halls to see his skills over nearly 40 years and as such has carved a niche for himself in the history books. The future is as clouded in fog as the past of this remarkable fighting machine, his followers can only hope that he will continue to delight and enthral them for as long as is possible. For now, at least, the legend lives on..."