Peter Thornley

English wrestler

Thornley gave occasional interviews as Kendo Nagasaki, usually photographed fully masked or with his face hidden, and often speaking through a representative. The character's voice was never heard in public. His identity as the man behind Kendo Nagasaki was first revealed publicly by a plumber who visited his house in the 1970s. Thornley never spoke publicly about being Kendo Nagasaki until the publication of his autobiography in 2018. i. e. Thornley/Yogensha

At the height of his career, Thornley discussed the relationship with his character in an interview for TVTimes in 1976 in which he claimed that the Nagasaki character was "the spirit of a samurai warrior who, 300 years ago, lived in the place that is now called Nagasaki" which he had contacted while in "a trance state" during meditation.

In November 1964 Thornley had his first professional contest against "Jumping" Jim Hussey at Willenhall Baths. Nagasaki's most notable achievement during the 1960s was in March 1966 when he defeated and unmasked Count Bartelli (Crewe born Geoff Condliffe) at the Victoria Hall in Hanley, Stoke on Trent. Bartelli had been Nagasaki's mentor and tag team partner until they had a storyline falling out over Nagasaki's rough tactics in the ring. During July 1971, in what was said to be a sensational TV contest with Billy Howes, his mask came off in the heat of the battle. Howes spent a great deal of effort in pounding Nagasaki's head and dragging his tight fitting mask up, almost covering Nagasaki's eyes, and tried to untie the straps holding it on, before under his relentless efforts it came loose. Howes showed little sign of actually wrestling in the end stages, and was solely intent on removing the mask, which he finally did and Nagasaki quickly left the ring covering his face. Another tag team with Blondie Barrett would run for several years. During his final ITV appearance, Nagasaki and Barrett defeated the 'Golden Boys' tag team of Robbie Brookside and Steve Regal when the masked man hypnotised (kayfabe) Brookside to attack Regal. This too would lead to a long running storyline with Nagasaki regularly using his 'powers' to turn Brookside over to his side at live shows. In January 1989, George Gillette died of AIDS and Lloyd Ryan officially became Kendo's new manager. In May 2008 his old tag team partner Blondie Barratt teamed with him, along with a handpicked LDN Wrestler named Gregory Cortez in a Triple Tag Team match to take on Powers, Brookside and Hakan, who replaced Yorghos who he refused to wrestle. He then began feuding with Yorghos. Barratt wrestled against Yorghos and Hakan in a Ladder match in Hanley in September 2008. Then in October he was scheduled to wrestle Yorghos in a singles match in Wolverhampton, but refused to face him again, instead teaming with Blondie Barratt to defeat Hakan and Travis to win the LDN British Tag Team Championship. Following this match, Nagasaki left LDN and the Sword of Excellence storyline was concluded without him. He has not wrestled since that time.

Nagasaki appeared with Lyn Rigby (see below) at several of All Star's wrestling events in 2018 to promote his autobiography. At these shows he performed a reenactment of the 1977 unmasking ceremony with Rigby in Gillette's role. Following each unmasking Nagasaki would revert to being Thornley for the rest of the evening. On 16 October 2022, Nagasaki, fully masked and in character, attended an All Star show at the Floral Pavilion Theatre, New Brighton and was a ringside judge at Oliver Grey's defence of his All Star British Heavyweight Championship (which Nagasaki himself had held in 1988) against former champion NIWA. During the match, NIWA attempted to grab the title belt to use as a weapon but Nagasaki used his "powers" to make NIWA keep his hands off the belt. Grey went on to pin NIWA to successfully defend the title and was presented with the belt by Nagasaki.

The artist Peter Blake was once asked by a magazine what he would have liked to have been had he not been an artist, and he answered a wrestler, and more specifically Kendo Nagasaki. Kendo agreed to sit for a Blake portrait for the BBC Arena programme, Masters of the Canvas in January 1992. In December 2012, Kendo Nagasaki appeared in the BBC documentary "Timeshift — When Wrestling Was Golden: Grapples, Grunts and Grannies". He remained silent, and the programme also featured clips of him wrestling and the famous "unmasking" ceremony in Wolverhampton, 1977. The programme was repeated on BBC Four on 15 July 2013 and 10 June 2015.

Thornley's autobiography Kendo Nagasaki and the Man Behind the Mask was published in 2018, in which he discussed for the first time publicly about being the person behind the Kendo Nagasaki persona. His identity had previously been publicly revealed during a 2002 court case over a land dispute with his neighbour. his longtime personal assistant Lawrence Stevens. Thornley is a believer in Zen Buddhism. At his private estate, Moor Court Hall, near Cheadle, Staffordshire he established Lee Rigby House as a retreat for families coping with bereavement. The house was named in honour of Lee Rigby, who was murdered by Jihadists in 2013, with Lee's mother Lyn helping to run the retreat. However, Thornley later faced legal issues with the estate (relating to the above mentioned land dispute) which threatened its forced sale, as a result of which he asked Lyn Rigby, who was a permanent resident in the House, either to buy or to rent the site. Unable to afford either option, Rigby and the charity moved out of the estate