From the Chapter 5 of the book, Fritz Von Erich Master of the Iron Claw

Things were really starting to go my way for a change. In fact, what I have always considered my biggest break came in December of 1966, when I took my first tour overseas. Professional Wrestling had started getting big all over the world. Promoters from Japan and parts of the Middle East were offering big money to all US Promotions to include them in a new annual world tour that was being put together back in the United States. The money I had been offered to make that trip to Japan and the Middle East was such that there was no-way I could turn it down. It was this match that really made me a success all over the world. It was when I faced a Japanese wrestling legend known as, “The Giant Baba.”

I have always considered winning this match to be one of the biggest flukes that had ever taken place in my career. The Giant Baba was one of the best pro wrestlers in all of Japan. For a big man his speed was matched by none. His experience in the ring was more than equal to that of my own. This match was to take place at the Nippon Budokan, a martial arts arena that was also used as a concert hall, located in Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda Word, in Tokyo, Japan. When I walked into the arena early that morning before the match was to take place there was no wrestling ring in sight. All I saw was a Japanese ring, which was octagonal in shape and had no ropes. But I did not care what the ring looked like. I was being paid good money to wrestle, and wrestle I did.

That night as I exited my dressing room and made my way to the octagon shaped wrestling ring, the crowd was silent. Japanese wrestling fans were so much different from their American counterparts back in the early days. They would sit in their seats very quietly, never booing or talking trash to wrestlers entering the ring. When the excitement of the matches would overcome them they would occasionally slap the side of their leg with a hand fan that was intended to keep them cool, since the arena had no air-conditioning.

As I approached the ring that night, I noticed that two boxes about eighteen inches square and filled with some type of white powder had been place in each of our corners. One of the Japanese referees met me before I stepped on the mat and began to motion me to the center of the ring. I was going to hold up my right arm and show the Japanese fans my claw but the referee kept tapping me on the shoulder, saying something in Japanese that was like none of the Japanese words that I had tried to learn before leaving the states. I tried to tell the little guy that I could not understand him but he just kept tapping me on the shoulder and pointing to the center of the ring.

I gave up on making my grand appearance and headed for the center of the ring where Baba and another referee stood staring at me with big smiles on their faces. The referee that was standing with Baba begins to motion him and me together which I took to mean that it was time to wrestle. Just as I was about to reach out and slap at my opponent, Baba holds up his hand to the referee, turns and walks back to his corner and steps into that box of powder, bends down and gets some of the powder and starts rubbing it on his hands as he stared at me with a even bigger smile on his face than the one he had as I entered the ring.

I looked at the referee standing beside me and asked him what was going on. He just stood there looking at me and shaking his head as Baba returned to the center of the ring. I was still waving my arms in the air and pointing at Baba as I continued to try and find a way to tell the referee that I was not going to stand for any this. The referee continued to stand there and shake his head trying his best not to burst out laughing. The referee’s hand goes up in the air and he started motioning Baba and I back together. I again took this to mean that it was time to wrestle.

At this point I decided I would not try and slap Baba, so I crouched down getting ready to jump out at him instead when the referee gave the word. Again, Baba raises his right hand in the air and takes a step backward, turns and walks back to his corner. He steps back in the square box, bends down and starts rubbing his hands in the white powder for the second time. But this time Baba almost burst out loud laughing and so did some of the fans sitting near ringside. I new at this point that Baba was making his grand appearance at my cost and I was not going to let him get away with it. I stood back up and waited for Baba to finish his grandstanding and get back to the center of the ring where he nods to the referee that he was now ready to begin. Just as the referee starts to give the signal to begin, I held up my right hand and stepped backwards, turned and made my way back to my corner where I stepped into my square box filled with my white powder. I then bent down and started rubbing power on my hands, then under my arms, and all over my chest.

This infuriated Baba. He started screaming at the referee as I stood in my corner and laughed at him. The referee, whose smile was gone, started motioning me back to the center ring. As I returned I was dragging white power behind me which was starting to coat the ring floor. Baba looked at the ring floor in horror, trying to get the referee’s attention as he pointed at the mess I had made on the floor. About this time I had arrived back at the center of the ring and was through joking around, it was now time to fight. I hit Baba with a round house right that took him totally by surprise. I still had a hand full of powder when I hit him which caused a cloud of white power to linger in the air as Baba was sent to the mat dazed. I was not about to let this opportunity pass me by. I ran behind him and started to apply the sleeper hold to the throat of the Giant Baba. The referee at this time was more confused than Baba as he kept running around the two of us on the ring floor not sure what he should do. Baba was almost unconscious in the center of the ring when I let him go. I did not want to win the match with a sleeper hold it had to be with the iron claw.

I came out from behind him and jumped on top of Baba applying the claw to the top of his head as I began digging my fingernails into the sides of his face. My thumbnail was dug into the top of his eyebrow which started blood flowing down his face. The Japanese fans were stunned and the whole arena was totally quite, you really could have heard a pin drop. Baba made a desperate attempt to get to his feet but the claw had started cutting the flow of blood to the brain and he was paralyzed and helpless. The referee was trying to get me to let go so he could raise my arm in the air letting everyone know that I was the victor.

On that night, December 3, 1966 I defeated The Giant Baba in just over 3 minutes and made wrestling history. No American had ever defeated this giant of a man and this match had been for the new NWA World International Heavyweight Title. After I had won the match that night using the Iron Claw the Japanese fans came unglued. I became an overnight success in Japan. A song was written about my Iron Claw and me and the Japanese fans even gave me a nickname, Tetsu no Tsume, which means Nails of the Iron. After that match I became the most famous gaijin (foreign) wrestler in all of Japan. Wrestling was becoming popular all over the world, and Texas Wrestling was now on top.

When I got back to the States the American fans that met me at the airport had even named a dance in my honor, they called it the “Claw”. So all the work, the difficulties, the doing without, the many injuries I had endured all those years were paying off. I felt that I had finally made it to the top of my chosen profession.