Sumisu’s ascent through the ranks of Olive Japan Pro Wrestling continues as he faces Kerry Bogey, Milliondollar Davies, Still James and Star Bison.
The first challenger, Kerry Bogey, is based on American wrestler Terry Gordy, who was nicknamed “The Human Torpedo” in Japan. Gordy started wrestling at 13 years of age, hence his nickname in Champion Road, “the young veteran”, though his game counterpart was slightly aged up. He was enlisted in All Japan Pro Wrestling from 1983 to 1994, and won the Triple Crown Championship twice.
The second challenger, Milliondollar Davies, is based on The Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase. He wrestled in AJPW from 1983 to 1987, and then again for a short while in 1993. His appearance in Champion Road is likely based on his 1993 AJPW run, as he developed his character during his 1987-1993 run with WWF basing it on McMahon himself. In real life, his AJPW career was ended by neck and back injuries. Despite the fact that his character in Champion Road is clearly based on his Million Dollar Man persona, trying to bribe Sumisu into working for him, from what I could find, DiBiase never actually used his gimmick when wrestling in Japan, not even during his 1993 return to AJPW.
The third challenger, Still James, is based on Steve Williams. His persona in the game is based on his “Dr. Death” nickname, which he had been given even before becoming a Pro Wrestler. He wrestled in AJPW from 1990 to 1998 initially as Terry Gordy’s tag-team partner, forming The Miracle Violence Connection, explaining his in-game comment about avenging Bogey.
The fourth and final opponent, Star Bison, is based on Stan Hansen, following his raging cowboy gimmick. He wrestled for NJPW from 1977 to 1981.
In February of 1980 he defeated Antonio Inoki (Victory Musashi), winning the NWF World Title, growing his reputation as the strongest foreigner in Japanese Pro Wrestling.
In his September 1980, during their re-match, Inoki and Hansen exchanged Lariats (a technique called Clothesline in the west) at the same time, popularizing Hansen’s Western Lariat, which was then used to announce him and after which this chapter was named.
In 1981 he was recruited by AJPW as part of a strategy from Akira Hara, the producer of AJPW Broadcast, and Giant Baba of poaching foreign wrestlers from NJPW. In AJPW, Hansen formed a tag-team with Bruiser Brody, known in the game as Big “The Great” Bull, which he had known since college.
In 1985, Brody left AJPW in favor of NJPW due to his resentment over not being booked as the main event in the April series. After his return to AJPW in 1987, Giant Baba planned to book a match between Hansen and Brody, which unfortunately never materialized due to Brody’s death in July 1988.
This is the promised match that Hansen’s character, Star Bison, is referring to in the game; his speech being based on one that Hansen gave, out of character, after Brody’s death.
The Grape Palace (ブドウパレス) mentioned by Star Bull is a FirePro-style nickname for the Nippon Budokan (日本武道館), though for some reason, its proper name is used earlier in the chapter.
The Texan he mentions as having defeated him is either Dory or Terry Funk, called Harry and Kerry Texan in Fire Pro, with which he had a feud during 1983.