Ralph Imabayashi is known today as "The Best Pure Wrestler." For wrestling fans who have seen him live at an event in Circuit Makati or elsewhere, you'll know what I mean.
This blogger first saw Ralph on You Tube several years ago during the pandemic times. There were several matches that really inspired this wrestling fan.
At the last FPW: Astig wrestling event of 2023 in August, Ralph and Robbie Eagles put on one of the best wrestling matches seen in a few years.
Recently,
I did the interview with Ralph. This fan was a little shy and timid
but Ralph wanted to do this. Thank you again and will look forward to
seeing you in action in 2024!
Wayne: Ralph, how long, other than the pandemic time, have you been wrestling?
Ralph:
If we exclude the pandemic time then I've only been doing this for 5
years, it feels weird cause a lot has happened but I still feel new and
fresh with still lots to learn. I haven't had a lot of opportunities to
face opponents with the same caliber as Robbie Eagles, who I learned a
lot from through wrestling him as well as seminars. I wish to have more
of that and have more learning experiences in my career.
Wayne: Was there a moment or time when you knew that you wanted to become a pro wrestler?
Ralph:
I always wanted to be one. Everyday at school when I was a young kid, I
would day dream almost every day about being a wrestler. I vicariously
lived through the Smackdown vs Raw games pretending I was really in WWE
and I wanted my dad to bring me to Japan ASAP because I thought I could
start my wrestling career there. The moment I got a chance here I did
not waste my time I immediately took it.
Wayne: Do you remember your first pro wrestling match?
Ralph:
I clearly do. It was a bad match. I had no idea what I was doing and
neither did my opponent. It was a miracle how I came through. It was
also in a boxing ring bumping there sucked it probably took years off my
life. I had no idea who or what I was as a wrestler and my opponent was
just copying popular Japanese wrestlers he watched. Thing is the first
step in being great at something is sucking at it. I was clearly not a
good wrestler but I wouldn't be able to achieve my dreams if I didn't
start at all.
Wayne: Do you have a favorite promotion outside of FPW? It can be local, international or both.
Ralph: I love AEW, I watch both Collision and Dynamite every week. The match that solidified my fandom for the promotion was Cody Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes at Double or Nothing 2019, it just kept escalating until it became something special. Of course it sucks Cody is no longer All Elite but he has achieved great success in WWE even becoming one of their biggest draws. The main events in recent PPVs have mostly felt special too like Orange Cassidy vs Jon Moxley, MJF vs Adam Cole, MJF vs Bryan Danielson, Bryan Danielson vs Kazuchika Okada - all big fight feel matches that future generations will look back to.
Wayne: Do you have a favorite wrestler that you follow today? It can be local, international or both.
Ralph: Bryan Danielson has been a long time favorite of mine and probably inspired me a lot as a pro wrestler. When he won the Undisputed WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the main event of Wrestlemania XXX it felt like a strong message towards little guys like me. If someone like him can achieve great things then I can too, it was prolly the catalyst for me to take my dreams seriously and join a local wrestling promotion. I watched him in person back in WWE Live Manila 2019 and I was close to tears I didn't expect to see him at all after his retirement in 2016. This man inspired me to start wrestling and he continues to inspire me today. Fight for your dreams and your dreams will fight for you.
Wayne: Ralph, your thoughts on pro wrestling in the Philippines, now and it's future?
Ralph: With
the release of the FPW: Astig episodes I think its about to be special,
it's on Youtube so it's accessible to audiences worldwide. We've put so
much into this, the wrestlers, the production, and the marketing team
of Filipino Pro Wrestling all worked in tandem to give you guys this
beautiful finished product of guaranteed great pro wrestling. This was
honestly the most fun I've ever had in my pro wrestling career,
everything just works and clicks. The eyes of the world can now see how
great Philippine Wrestling can be. We're starting out really small and
slow taking careful steps into the next level while thinking things
through instead of rushing to get big like how we used to be. There's no
where to go but up from here and I'm every excited to see where it
goes.