There is a saying among pro-wrestlers that your true opponent is not the person facing you in the ring, but everyone outside the ring — in other words, the spectators in the stadium and, for some bouts, the millions watching on television.
It's a saying well understood by Yoshi Tatsu, who is the only Japanese wrestler in the top-flight RAW league run by the world's largest promoter of the sport, U.S.- based World Wrestling Entertainment. It is, too, something he will no doubt recall as he performs in front of his home crowd next week, when WWE stages two nights of fights in Tokyo.
The saying cuts to the core of pro-wrestling, in which most bouts are loosely scripted. Wrestlers don't really "compete" against each other, because they've already been told by the organizers who is to win. Instead, the challenge they face, together, is to reach the predetermined conclusion in a way that is as entertaining as possible — starting not with the first body slap or headlock but with the so-called "mic time" beforehand, when the wrestlers goad each other verbally.