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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.
Disabled wrestlers in Japan challenge stereotypes in film 'Doglegs'
By Atsuko Kitayama TORONTO©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Debio
I saw a short version of this documentary a few years ago on Japanese TV. I thought it was a twisted late night TV joke because it aired at about 11 pm at night and it was WAY over the edge of acceptable entertainment. The depressed wrestler, Yuki Nakajima, is the strongest one in the league, and he is not handicapped at all. He just gets in the ring and wails on people with much more severe handicaps. The mentally and physically handicapped compete making for blood drawing biting and scratching, mized with crying and screaming. It was so horrifying to watch that I questioned whether or not it should be legal. 90% of the show looked like dark sick humor and 10 percent tried to explain it as giving the handicapped participants confidence and kind of justifying it since it is run by an individual with physical handicaps (many wrestlers are severely mentally handicapped). Awesome that Japantoday is talking about it, even though they seem to be on the side of promoting it.