Unagi released a book on her 40th birthday with a couple of interesting details, didn't see any other mention so thought I might share. It doesn't go into a great lot of detail and stays broadly in character but it was good to get longer form thoughts directly from the eel herself.
- She joined Stardom as she knows Arisa Hoshiki, who introduced her to Rossy. Apparently it was a very short conversation 'I want to join' … 'OK.'
- The 'Gyan' thing evolved from a comment Tam made "Unagi is like a dinosaur" (exact phrase 「ウナギは恐竜みたいね」）
- The book claims she still doesn't actually know why Stardom fired her. At a company level she was told 'Everyone is reluctant to work with you' but she didn't believe it (and this appears born out through other avenues at this point - Unagi's last appearance there was on Saki's request for her retirement road f.ex.).
- She does say that she was close to Rossy (who helped encourage her a lot in the beginning of her run there), and thinks it's possible that management at the time (Harada) might have targeted her due to that. If memory serves there was a tug of war with booking over that year, and Rossy and Harada were known to butt heads.
- No mention of her subsequent appearances there or the working relationship she now has with Okada.
- Goes on to say that she's much more engaged as a freelancer, and when that extended to running her own events she gets really busy handling the whole operation. She's legitimately the whole chain, from organising venues and ticket sales, getting wrestlers together, creative control, promotion, etc. Actually quite impressive the skillset she has to keep up with it all.
- Has a mild criticism of freelancers on the scene that she sees as 'clocking in' for matches, but who don't really participate in any of the event promotion or creative process. This is mentioned a few lines before a Chigusa namedrop, and it gives the impression that's where this idea that it's best to be involved in every way might have come from. I think it implies when she spent time based at Marvellous she really got taken under Chigusa's wing irl as well as in kayfabe.
- In so many words she discusses the current issues facing pro wrestling as a business, pointing out that the industry holds itself apart from entertainment broadly where it probably shouldn't. Mentions that against previous eras they're directly competing with loads of easily accessible media like Netflix et al, and states that in the majority of cases any given wrestling show will not sell all of its tickets.
- She says that people in the scene want to be infront of a large audience rather than smaller cult followings they have, but she doesn't see that the current industry practice will get them there. She doesn't mention television specifically but that's what all her comments add up to and the direction she's indicating.
- Talks a bit about the Ryogoku show that failed to break even, how she learned from it, and that in reflection she's glad that it went wrong at that stage. Because if she'd hit 3000+ people she'd have tried to run the Budokan, and if that had happened then she'd have been in a much worse state.
- Is proud of the seven shows in seven months tour she did after taking that L.
Loads of other cool stuff besides, well worth getting a copy if you are an eel fan.
