Here’s an Olympic Comeback Story You Probably Haven’t Heard About
March 4, 2026Concussion Inc. readers can reserve their direct, author-autographed copies by remitting $24.95 in U.S. currency to paypal@muchnick.net. The price includes free shipping. (Canadian orders, add $10 for shipping; all other foreign orders, add $20.)
Here is the ECW Press catalogue copy for PACHINKO MAN:
Dropping into the world of KPop Demon Hunters and the “Korean wave” is the first English biography published in the West of professional wrestling superstar Rikidōzan
He was Japan’s biggest celebrity — second only to the emperor. But his public image was a lie.
Pachinko Man reveals the man behind the myth, and the forces that shaped him.
As he pummeled American bad guys in the ring in the 1950s, Rikidōzan was a cultural phenomenon and a symbol of the defeated Japan’s restoration of postwar pride. But his birth name wasn’t actually Mitsuhiro Momota. In a fiercely guarded secret, he was born Kim Sim-rak, part of the persecuted minority from the former imperial occupied territory of Korea. Moreover, he was from North Korea, the communist bastion locked in Cold War conflict with U.S.-aligned South Korea.
Pachinko Man is a riveting story of this sport’s manipulations of fact and fiction, along with its deceptively important relationship to larger political and cultural forces. Legendary wrestling historian Irvin Muchnick documents the birth of puroresu (Japanese pro wrestling) and its passionate swap of official storylines with the American brand.
Rikidōzan’s instinctive genius in his genre, along with his huge appetites and human foibles, made for a titanic impact before his 1963 murder by a fellow traveler in the Yakuza, Japan’s organized crime syndicate. For the first time, North American readers can fully grasp the legacy of a man who didn’t just transform a sport — he helped shape a nation’s identity.
ADVANCE PRAISE
- “This biography of Rikidōzan is an important and long overdue contribution to the study of Japanese pop culture and Korean diaspora, and Irvin Muchnick is just the author to bring this amazing story to life.” — Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Orphan Master’s Son
- “An impressive, knowing biography of an iconic, legendary ring figure in Japan and Korea, and a primer on the world of professional wrestling at the same time — densely researched, rich in detail, brimming with fascinating facts, memorable tidbits and insights.” — Robert Whiting, author of Tokyo Underworld and Tokyo Junkie