The story of how a small rural ironworks put a professional wrestling ring in a booth at one of Japan's largest cross-industry trade shows

First of all, I am very grateful that my second article, "The Story of Making a Pro-Wrestling Ring," was chosen as a featured article today and has been seen by so many people.

Anyway, putting that aside, today I'd like to talk about how I caused a bit of a stir in the industry last autumn by placing a pro-wrestling ring in our company booth at "Messe Nagoya 2023," one of Japan's largest cross-industry trade shows (lol).

I'd like to write about the process that led to that.

From a flat refusal to a change of heart

Around May of last year, I received a call from the Tsushima City Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber: "We're holding a cross-industry trade show called Messe Nagoya at Port Messe Nagoya this autumn, and a cancellation has opened up a spot for Tsushima City. Would Ito Seikan be interested in participating?!"

Me: "Huh? We don't have any products that would be suitable for a trade show! Why don't you try asking someone else!"
I turned them down lightly like that (lol).


However, right after that, I had a delivery of a ring to World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana, and my passion for making pro-wrestling rings was running high, so I suddenly thought,
"Oh, I turned them down before, but it would be interesting if I could put a pro-wrestling ring in a serious, large-scale trade show like that. But the regulations seem strict, so maybe it's impossible. No, should I ask just in case?!"
When I think it, I act on it!

Me: "Um, I think I turned you down before, but is that spot still open?!"

Chamber: "Yes, it is!!"

Me: "Um... it's hard to say, but is it possible to put a pro-wrestling ring there?! It's our own product, and of course we won't be holding matches, but if it's okay to put it there, I might be interested in participating." (Sorry for sounding a bit condescending lol)

Chamber: "Understood, I will check."

A few days later...

Chamber: "Basically it's fine, but they want to see the dimensions and photos, so they will make a decision based on those submissions."

Me: "Understood, I'll prepare them right away."

So, I submitted the photos and drawings.
After a while, I received official permission from headquarters, and our participation in Messe Nagoya was decided.

Fighting against trade show-specific regulations

Now that it was decided, I didn't actually have the ring on hand, so I had to make it from scratch, but the space at the trade show was only "3m x 3m".

Since this is the maximum space, the ironclad rule of such trade shows is that anything protruding from the space is absolutely NG, so it had to be smaller than that.
This includes not just the outer dimensions of the ring itself, but also the base of the corner posts, so no matter how I estimated it, the outer dimensions of the ring had to be 2.7m or less.

That means the actual space inside the ropes would be about 1.8m, so even though it's for a trade show and there won't be any matches, I was worried from the start whether it would even work as an exhibit.

*A normal ring is 6m x 6m, and our smallest production record is 4m x 4m.

However, I thought if I could finish it, I could probably claim it's the "world's smallest pro-wrestling ring!" so I decided to just go for it without overthinking it, and recalculated the dimensions for the mini-ring. As I wrote in my previous note, since I have completely adapted ring production to our company's original style, the basic construction method is exactly the same (4 corner posts, a center pipe, and 4 pipes in the center of the outer frame), and I've made it so that any size can be accommodated just by adjusting the dimensions of the square steel pipes used for the framework, so the calculation itself was easy, but when I looked at the numbers, it was indeed smaller than I thought (lol).

But I have to go for it! (I always end up like this)
So, production began.

Since I've already made many of them, the work itself was familiar and proceeded smoothly, and in the meantime, I arranged for ropes, ring mats, urethane, and wood, and things went surprisingly smoothly and it was completed safely.

The ropes and other items we ordered arrived just in the nick of time, so we did a test assembly at our company the day before move-in just to be safe, and that's when an incident occurred.

The rope length is...!! A miraculous tightrope act of a response

We assembled it as usual, put the wood on, laid down the urethane, and stretched the mat. Then, finally, we went to attach the ropes, and... wait? The ropes are super saggy!

As I wrote in a previous note, this was an issue that also occurred when we first built the ring, but that time it was completely due to our own miscalculation in the order. Since then, we've been double-checking our calculations multiple times before ordering to avoid that mistake, so I wondered if it was really possible we'd made a mistake, and immediately checked the order form.

It turned out the calculations were correct! When I looked at the delivery note, it was longer than the dimensions we had ordered!

I immediately called the supplier and explained the situation. While I received an apology, they couldn't provide a replacement by the next day, and since the supplier was a company in Osaka, they couldn't move quickly enough to make repairs. I was at a loss, thinking this was a huge crisis, when I received another call from the supplier.

They said, 'We found a company in Nagoya that can handle this, so would you mind taking it there?' but it was already late and they were closed for the day, so we couldn't take it then. We ended up taking it first thing on the morning of the move-in day.

At that point, they hadn't told me how long the repairs would take or if they could even be repaired properly, so I was extremely anxious about whether we would actually be able to finish the installation within the move-in day. However, when I looked up the location, it was miraculously near Port Messe, so I realized we could wait until the very last minute! I then planned the process, considering various scenarios.

As for the schedule, it was a stroke of luck that the ropes were only used in the final stage of assembly.

The day of move-in arrived

First thing in the morning, I headed to the rope shop in Minato Ward, Nagoya, with a truck loaded with everything.
Naturally, it was our first time meeting, but the atmosphere seemed good, and they said it was a tall order but they would do their best to get it done as quickly as possible, so I entrusted the ropes to them and headed to Port Messe Nagoya.

When I saw the space, it was indeed narrow! But we finished moving in without incident, and when we actually started assembling, it felt like it might just work out.

We had pro wrestlers come to help, and as things were going smoothly, we got a call from the rope shop much earlier than expected saying, 'It's done!'

We immediately had a separate team go pick it up, and it arrived an hour later. When we tried stretching it out, it was a perfect fit!!! Thanks to the rope shop's response and their location, we were able to get everything ready within the move-in day without any issues!!!

A ring is a living thing, and a lesson I've learned from past experience is that you never know what will happen until you try putting it together. Perhaps I had become a bit arrogant, thinking that since I was used to it, nothing major would happen. The supplier's mistake was completely unexpected, but it served as a renewed lesson to build with more room for error, including such possibilities.

This tightrope act was really bad for my heart (lol)

Learning the importance of having 'customers themselves' stop in their tracks from a mini-ring

And so, the first day of the three-day exhibition arrived.
Looking around, we were surrounded by famous companies like Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Tokio Marine on the sides, and Meieki Kyosho in the back. With their large staff and the atmosphere of a standard, professional trade show, our booth, where I and two helpers were running a ring, was, well, a very strange space.

However, the reaction was excellent. Even before the exhibition started on the first day, we were getting intense stares from other exhibitors, and several people called out to us, took photos, and exchanged business cards.

This was my first time exhibiting at a trade show, but I had decided on one thing first: I had made novelty items like clear files, sticky notes, and ballpoint pens, as well as tri-fold pamphlets for this exhibition, but I would not do what is common at these shows and 'hand them out indiscriminately.' I don't deny the 'spray and pray' philosophy, but personally, I felt that wasn't the way to go. So, I made it a point to only give out novelty items and have people listen to our story if they stopped because of our call and showed interest in the ring or our company.

And then the main event began.
Just as I had planned, the ring was a huge eye-catcher, and from the very beginning, various people approached us with great interest.

With the slogan, 'Feel free to touch the ring, ring the gong, and you can even climb into the ring for a photo!', people kept stopping by.
Less than 10% of them were interested in pro-wrestling. However, the fact that so many people stopped by because there was something unusual in this space, and they thought our company looked interesting regardless of pro-wrestling, was a confirmation that I was happy to have drawn this much interest with something I love.

I thought carefully about how I would feel if I were a customer, and I felt strongly that if someone forced me to listen when I hadn't even stopped, I would lose interest in hearing what they had to say. Even if you try to promote something amazing, if you force people to stop, only 10% of your words will resonate. But if people stop on their own, at least 50% will resonate. I went in with the selfish assumption that this would be a win-win situation where neither side would have a bad experience compared to doing it blindly, and there is nothing that catches the eye more than this for stopping people.
Whether they were interested in pro-wrestling or not didn't really matter, so it didn't take long for my assumption to turn into a certainty.

I learned a lot from the mini-ring.
It's a big ring now, really! (laughs)

The typo-filled clear file that had an unexpected follow-up effect

The original clear files also proved effective beyond just the ring.
The front features our company's signboard illustration, drawn by Mr. Anraku, a retro artist from Nagoya.
It's a highly acclaimed illustration that depicts our main work of welding the golden shachihoko to promote Aichi, along with Tsushima City's famous shrines, makiwara boats, wisteria, and floats.

For the back, I intentionally packed it with a dense, overwhelming amount of text introducing our company. The sad reality of novelty items is that if you write only a little, nobody reads it anyway. So, instead of doing it halfway, I filled it with text to create a contrast with the front. It wasn't intentional, but in all seriousness, despite ordering 1,000 copies, there were two typos in this long text.

The post from when I discovered ithttps://x.com/110seikan/status/1715339523088138695?s=19

But 1,000 copies had already been printed.
There was no time to redo it.
So, we decided to turn it into a self-deprecating joke instead!!!

1. Stop people with the ring. Encourage them to take photos or touch it
↓
2. Wait for the right moment to hand over the clear file with the pamphlet inside
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3. Show off the illustration on the front before showing the text on the back
↓
4. Make a self-deprecating joke like, 'You don't want to read this, do you?'
↓
5. Then appeal to them by saying, 'But even though we printed 1,000 of these, there are two typos in it!'
↓
6. Get them to read it while promoting the company (actually, we're a welding company, not a pro-wrestling company...)
↓
7. Present a ballpoint pen and sticky notes as a prize to those who find the typos
↓
8. 'Shall we exchange business cards?' and exchange cards and information.

This method was established (laughs).
I think by including self-deprecation, the atmosphere softened and the rate of people listening to us increased significantly. It takes time per group, but it was more precise than indiscriminate attacks and suited my style, so it was very good.

The connections the ring created. And this year again...

And for the three days of the event, I was responding to people non-stop, so by the afternoon of the final day, I looked like this.

In the end, despite the inefficient method, I received over 300 business cards and had many people listen to our story, so I think it was worth exhibiting, don't you think?!

After that, it was hectic with non-stop phone calls for a while, but this led to us still having connections with some companies today.

It truly was a connection forged by the ring (laughs)

And so, after much hesitation, we have decided to exhibit again this year in 2024.
Naturally, we will be setting up the ring as well!!!

For three days from October 30 to November 1, 2024.
At Messe Nagoya 2024, held at Portmesse Nagoya.

This ended up being over 5,000 characters for the first time, but if reading this has piqued your interest, please come and visit us! We look forward to seeing you there!