Peter Thornley

Professional wrestling career Early career (1964–1971) 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 (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 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.

By September 1987 he went on to become the WWA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating Wayne Bridges.

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, whom 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.

On July 22, 2012, Thornley reprised the character in a special appearance for New Generation Wrestling at the Bonus Arena in Kingston upon Hull. However, he did not wrestle again until November 2024 in Croydon when, aged 83 he teamed with the tag team Dead Gorgeous to defeat LDN promoter Sanjay Bagga and the tag team Filthy in a six man tag match. This was following a (kayfabe) war of words on social media and at shows regarding the Sword of Excellence, which had remained in Bagga's possession since the above 2007 storyline. Controversially, Nagasaki's team was disqualified by the referee. Kendo appealed directly to the full-house audience, who overwhelmingly sided with him and his team. The decision was reversed, in Nagasaki's favour, and he thus regained the Sword of Excellence. After the match, to quash any rumours that another wrestler had stood in for 83-year-old Peter Thornley, after removing his mask, he invited 3 members of the audience into the ring to verify that it was the real Kendo Nagasaki who had wrestled, by allowing them to examine the characteristic tattoo on his head, which they did and duly confirmed that it was indeed Thornley. This match was documented for an application to Guinness World Records for the oldest male professional wrestler ever to take part in a match. His participation fell behind the record held by Dory Funk Jr., who had held his last match months earlier at 83 years and 203 days old, but on 10 December 2025, Guinness World Records formally accepted Thornley's application and awarded the record to him.

On 23 November 2025, Thornley set a new record for the world's oldest professional wrestler (at 84 years, one month, and four days) by participating in LDN's event in Croydon under the title "The Final End of the Feud," pitting the team of Nagasaki, Ben Nelson and Jordan Nelson against Sage Valentine, Stevie Fee and Sanjay Bagga in an elimination trios match. Nagasaki scored the deciding pinfall after influencing Fee to his side with his mask.

Post-retirement appearances 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 defend the title successfully and was presented with the belt by Nagasaki.

Other media work 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. Thornley, in turn, expressed a wish to have been Richard Branson.

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.

Championships and accomplishments Judo British Judo Council Northwest area heavyweight champion and National Champion 1961/62 and finalist Northwest area 1962/63 LDN British Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Blondie Barratt Wrestler of the Millennium trophy winner (2000)

Personal life 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.

In his autobiography, Thornley says that he is bisexual, and he has spoken in related interviews about the issues faced by gay and bisexual sportsmen of his era. Thornley also married a woman, Yvette, who died in the 1990s. In his autobiography, he says he is now in a new relationship with a man, his longtime personal assistant Lawrence Stevens.

Thornley is a believer in Zen Buddhism and established his own Buddhist retreat at his private estate, Moor Court, near Cheadle, Staffordshire, which later gained charitable status as 'The Kendo Nagasaki Foundation'. However, Thornley later faced legal issues which threatened the forced sale of the House, as a result of which he asked Lyn Rigby (whom Thornley had allowed to reside for free in other properties on the estate)

In his youth, Thornley lost the index finger on his left hand. Although Simon Garfield's "The Wrestling" quotes promoter Max Crabtree's story that it was lost after an industrial accident at a Crewe horsebox manufacturer, Thornley has admitted it was the result of sepsis, contracted after being bitten by a member of a local gang.