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Akitoshi Saito
is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah). Early life Before pro wrestling, Akitoshi Saito was trained in karate by Masashi Aoyagi. Saito seconded Aoyagi in his matches against Atsushi Onita in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in 1989. He was trained for pro wrestling by Aoyagi and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Career Early years (1990–1991) Saito made his pro wrestling debut in Pioneer Senshi and spent much of his early career in W*ING, a small promotion where he enjoyed moderate success. New Japan Pro Wrestling (1991–1998) He joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling in December 1991, along with his mentor Masashi Aoyagi, feuding with Shiro Koshinaka and Kuniaki Kobayashi. In 1992, the four formed a faction later named Heisei Ishingun, but left the promotion in 1998. Pro Wrestling Noah (2000–2012) After a lengthy hiatus, Saito made his surprise return to pro wrestling in October 2000 for Pro Wrestling N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sendai, Miyagi
is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date Masamune. It is nicknamed the ; there are Japanese zelkova trees lining many of the main thoroughfares such as and . In the summer, the Sendai Tanabata Festival, the largest Tanabata festival in Japan, is held. In winter, the trees are decorated with thousands of lights for the , lasting through most of December. On 11 March 2011, coastal areas of the city suffered catastrophic damage from a magnitude 9.0 offshore earthquake,UK Foreign Office 9.0 assessment [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takeshi Rikio
Takeshi Inoue (born December 20, 1972) known by his stage name , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, who worked for Pro Wrestling Noah. He is also a former sumo wrestler. Sumo career He made his sumo debut in March 1988, after leaving junior high school. He joined at the same time as future ''yokozuna'' Takanohana and Wakanohana. He initially trained at the same stable as these two, Futagoyama-beya, but when former ''yokozuna'' Takanosato branched off to set up Naruto-beya in March 1989, Inoue was one of the young recruits to follow him to the new stable. He also changed his ''shikona'', or fighting name, from Futagozakura to Rikio. In July 1993 he was promoted to the second highest ''jūryō'' division, becoming the first wrestler from Naruto stable to reach elite ''sekitori'' status. He was demoted from that division after just one tournament, but returned to ''jūryō'' in May 1994 and was promoted to the top ''makuuchi'' division in July 1996 after winning his s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takuma Sano
(born February 2, 1965) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist most notable for being the generational rival of legendary Japanese pro wrestler Jushin Liger. During the last years of his career he went by the name . Professional wrestling career New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1984–1990, 2020) Sano was a member of the 1984 NJPW Dojo class, and in his first few years wrestled in preliminary matches. In 1987, he went on an overseas excursion to Mexico, wrestling for the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA). In August 1987, he won his first championship, the Distrito Federal Trios Championship with fellow NJPW wrestlers Hirokazu Hata and Yoshihiro Asai. Upon his return to the promotion in January 1989, he won the Young Tokyo Dome Cup on April 24, becoming the first NJPW wrestler to wrestle inside the Tokyo Dome, along with Hiro Saito. He went on to have numerous acclaimed matches against Jyushin Liger. Sano defeated Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavywe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four Weekly'' website in 2008, becoming ''Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online''. Issues are offered in print and digital. The newsletter is often considered the first "dirt sheet", which is a wrestling publication which covers the art from a real-life perspective. History The beginnings of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' date back to 1980, when Meltzer began an annual poll amongst those with whom he corresponded regarding professional wrestling. According to Meltzer, he was just a fan at first. A short time later, he began maintaining a tape-trading list, and would occasionally send match results and news updates along with tape updates. Meltzer stated that he wanted to keep his friends in college "in the loop" for his tape trading as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan Standard Time
, or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to as Tokyo Standard Time. Japan Standard Time is equivalent to Korean Standard Time, Pyongyang Time (North Korea), Eastern Indonesia Standard Time, East-Timorese Standard Time and Yakutsk Time (Russia). History Before the Meiji era (1868–1912), each local region had its own time zone in which noon was when the sun was exactly at its culmination. As modern transportation methods, such as trains, were adopted, this practice became a source of confusion. For example, there is a difference of about 5 degrees longitude between Tokyo and Osaka and because of this, a train that departed from Tokyo would arrive at Osaka 20 minutes behind the time in Tokyo. In 1886, Ordinance 51 was issued in response to this problem, which stated: Accordi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Go Shiozaki
is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion where he is the former GHC Heavyweight Champion in a record breaking fifth reign. He made his debut for the promotion in July 2004 and remained with it until the end of 2012. In January 2013, Shiozaki joined All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he became a one-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and a two-time World Tag Team Champion, before resigning from the promotion in September 2015. Afterwards, he returned to Noah, where, in May 2016, he won the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the third time. He has also worked for American promotions Ring of Honor (ROH) and Full Impact Pro (FIP), winning the latter's World Heavyweight Championship. In August 2016, Shiozaki was appointed the chairman of Noah's wrestlers' association. Early life Go was born as the third and youngest child in the family, with one older brother and sister. Due to the influence of his older brother who was a profe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kensuke Sasaki
is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, and founder of the now-defunct wrestling promotion Diamond Ring. Sasaki is the first of four men ever to hold all three of '' puroresus major heavyweight titles (the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, and the GHC Heavyweight Championship), the others being Yoshihiro Takayama, Keiji Muto, and Satoshi Kojima - totalling seven world championship reigns. Sasaki also competed in MMA and won both fights by submission, remaining undefeated in mixed martial arts competition. Professional wrestling career Early years (1986–1989) Sasaki debuted in Riki Choshu's Japan Pro-Wrestling, a satellite of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), in February 1986. On February 16, 1986, he made his debut against Shinji Sasazaki in a losing effort. Shortly afterwards, Sasaki became a regular in AJPW for over a year. He defected to rival promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), following Cho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takeshi Morishima
(born October 15, 1978) is a Japanese former professional wrestler. Morishima is best known for his work with Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a former three-time GHC Heavyweight Champion. He has also performed for Ring of Honor (ROH) in the United States in the past where he was a one-time ROH World Champion. Professional wrestling career All Japan Pro Wrestling (1998–2000) Morishima attended Urayasu High School where he took part in judo. His instructor, Shoji Abe, was friends with Mitsuharu Misawa, and managed to get Morishima a tryout with All Japan Pro Wrestling, which he passed and shortly after began training with the promotion for a career in professional wrestling. Initially, Morishima was a protégé of Misawa, but after Naomichi Marufuji joined the promotion and Misawa decided instead to focus solely on training Marufuji, Akira Taue took Morishima under his wing and trained him. Morishima debuted for All Japan in 1998, but left in 2000 to join the newly formed Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akira Taue
is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is also a former All Japan Pro Wrestling Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a former GHC Heavyweight Champion and has had fourteen 5 Star Matches as awarded by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Early life and sumo career On the 8th of May, 1961 Akira Taue was born the eldest son of a construction worker, in Saitama, Japan. As a teenager and young adult in Kagemori Junior High School, Taue was quite active in various sports such as shotput, baseball and judo. After graduating, Taue would work as a part time auto-mechanic, while attending the Saitama Prefectural Chichibu High School. There Taue was sent a recommendation for the high school's sumo club. He joined the club in his second year of high school, and he won the third place in the national sumo high school championship. Taue was then invited in the Oshiogawa stable, and made his professional sumo debut, in January 1980. For the first six years of Taue's sumo career he went ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jun Akiyama
is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion. He is best known for his time working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he was the president, representative director, co-head booker, and an in-ring performer. In AJPW, he is a former two-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, while also being a six-time overall professional wrestling world champion. Akiyama is noted for his serious in-ring style and demeanor, innovating the '' Blue Thunder Driver'' and the wrist–clutch exploder suplex maneuvers. Considered an outstanding tag team wrestler, Akiyama is a three-time winner of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' Tag Team of the Year award. Personal life In junior high school, Akiyama participated in swimming and in senior high school he competed in freestyle amateur wrestling and judo. After high school, he attended Senshu University in Tokyo, where he joined an amateur wrestling team that produced ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naomichi Marufuji
(born September 26, 1979) is a Japanese professional wrestler who competes for Pro Wrestling Noah, with occasional appearances in other professional wrestling promotions including New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Ring of Honor (ROH), and Impact Wrestling. Marufuji is a four-time GHC Heavyweight Champion, as well as the first of two men to win Junior Heavyweight Championships in all three major Japanese promotions ( Minoru Tanaka is the other). In 2009, he was appointed to the position of Vice President of Pro Wrestling Noah, and has retained the position since, being reappointed in September 2011. Professional wrestling career All Japan Pro Wrestling (1998–1999) Marufuji pursued amateur wrestling and basketball during his high school days before joining All Japan Pro Wrestling, and trained in Satoru Sayama's Super Tiger Gym. His debut match came on August 28, 1998 against Yoshinobu Kanemaru. For the first two years of his career, under Gian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoshinari Ogawa
(born November 2, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler who currently works for Pro Wrestling Noah. He has earned the nickname of "Rat Boy" from the English-speaking Puroresu fanbase due to his sneaky, clever in-ring tactics and baiting his opponents into quick pins, as well as the disheveled, greasy appearance he cultivated during the late-90's.. Professional wrestling career Yoshinari Ogawa debuted in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1985, working on the undercard, until joining Genichiro Tenryu's group Revolution, which helped him elevate higher on the card. He remained in the group until it disbanded in 1990 upon Tenryu's abrupt departure from AJPW. After Tenryu left, Ogawa became one of the top stars in AJPW's junior heavyweight division in the 1990s, winning the junior heavyweight championship three times. He also reigned as tag team champion with his mentor, Mitsuharu Misawa. Ogawa left AJPW for Misawa's newly formed Pro Wrestling Noah in 2000, where he continued his tag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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