is a Japanese bodybuilder and professional wrestler better known by his ring name . He is currently a

freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

, working most notably for

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, ...

(AJPW), where he is a four-time World Tag Team Champion with longtime partner

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D� ...

as " The Big Guns". Kurakawa is also a former two-time Osaka Pro Wrestling Tag Team Champion with Zeus, and a former IWF Heavyweight Champion.

Professional wrestling career

Osaka Pro Wrestling (2009-2014)

The Bodyguard made his first appearance in

Osaka Pro Wrestling Osaka Pro Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 1998 by Super Delfin. The promotion held a major flagship event called the Osaka Hurricane each year from 2003 to 2012 and also hosted the fourth edition of the Supe ...

in the fall of 2008, assisting Tigers Mask in completing his heel turn. Originally called Kurofuku, his strength was evident from the start and immediately started to cause trouble by helping Tigers win matches. Soon, he began a long-running feud started with Zeus, which eventually led to him being outed as former professional bodybuilder, Noboru Kurakawa, the winner of two Musclemania Japan competitions in 2002 and 2007. To build heat for their feud, Kurakawa (now known as The Bodyguard) and Zeus engaged in some power battles, including an arm-wrestling contest that had no clear winner. Bodyguard would make his official in-ring debut as The Bodyguard at Hurricane 2009 in a loss to Zeus. In August 2010, Bodyguard turned on Tigers Mask, aligning himself with Asian Cougar and Orochi to form Joker. In January 2011, Bodyguard was kicked out of Joker by Kuuga after they attempted to illegally help in a match against Zeus, but Bodyguard refused, wanting to win the match fairly. After the match, Bodyguard was attacked and beaten down by Joker, but was saved by Zeus, who cleared everyone out of the ring and shook hands with Bodyguard after the match, signalling a mutual respect between the two and ending their long-running rivalry. Soon after, they formed a tag team. Known as the Big Guns, they won the Osaka Pro Tag Titles in February 2011, but lost them to Joker in March. Various injuries kept him sidelined for a good portion of 2011, but he was able to return to active competition in the fall. A knee injury once again sidelined him in early 2012, but he returned for a Big Guns produced show in May. Shortly after that, he announced that other than for Big Guns-related matches, his new ring name would be "Macho Samurai". At Hurricane 2012, Bodyguard aggravated his knee injury during a three way Tag Title match, and shortly after announced that he needed surgery. The surgery and recovery kept him out for 8 months. He returned to the ring in March 2013, announcing that he would become a full-time Osaka Pro roster member. The Big Guns began to achieve more success shortly after, winning the Osaka Tag Festival in June and the Osaka Pro Wrestling Tag Team Championship for the second time in October. At the same time, Zeus also won the

Osaka Pro Wrestling Championship The is the top singles title in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Osaka Pro Wrestling. The title was established in 2000 when Super Delfin defeated Dick Togo to be crowned the inaugural champion. , there have been a total of 20 reco ...

and the 2013 Tennozan Tournament. Zeus and Bodyguard faced each other in the finals, with Zeus coming out on top. On March 1, 2014, it was announced that Osaka Pro would be folding due to financial difficulties and on April 20, all of its workers would become freelancers. Zeus and Bodyguard eventually vacated all of their championships, and on April 20 wrestled their last match in OPW to date, teaming with Quiet Storm in a loss to Billyken Kid, Bull Armor Takuya and

Black Buffalo The black buffalo (''Ictiobus niger'') is a North American species of freshwater fish in the Catostomidae or sucker family.* . At 56 years old for one specimen's age, it is one of the longest-lived catostomids. Found in the Mississippi Basin a ...

All Japan Pro Wrestling (2014–present)

On March 28, 2014, Zeus and The Bodyguard made their debuts for AJPW, defeating Menso re-Oyaji and

Sushi is a Japanese cuisine, Japanese dish of prepared , usually with some sugar and salt, accompanied by a variety of , such as seafood, often raw, and vegetables. Styles of sushi and its presentation vary widely, but the one key ingredient is " ...

. On May 16, they received an opportunity at the

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championships in professional wrestling promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promotion is often preceded to the term "world tag team championship" as the ...

, but were unable to defeat defending champions

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

(

Joe Doering Joseph Doering (born April 16, 1982) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Impact Wrestling, where he is a member of Violent By Design. He is currently inactive due to cancer surgery. He is a former two-time Impact World Tag ...

and Suwama). Zeus and Bodyguard both participated in the 2014

Ōdō Tournament is a professional wrestling tournament held annually by All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) since 2013. The single-elimination tournament is a spiritual successor to the Open Championship tournament, which was held in 1975. Typically, the winner of the ...

as singles competitors, with Zeus being eliminated in the second round by eventual winner

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 unti ...

and Bodyguard in the first round by

Takao Omori is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a one-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and seven-time World Tag Team Champion. He is also part of the All Japan Board of Directors. He ...

. The Big Guns also participated in the 2014

World's Strongest Tag Determination League __NOTOC__ The , more commonly known in the West as the Real World Tag League, is an annual professional wrestling tournament held by All Japan Pro Wrestling since 1977, usually, run on the first weeks of December. The first tournament was actually ...

, finishing with 8 points but not making it to the final. Both Zeus and The Bodyguard participated in the 2015

Champion Carnival The is a professional wrestling tournament held by All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). The tournament is also known by the nickname and is sometimes abbreviated to CC. Created by AJPW founder Giant Baba, the tournament has been held annually since ...

Tournament, with Zeus finishing the tournament with 3 points in Block B and Bodyguard finishing with 2 points in Block A. On May 31, they received another shot at the World Tag Team Championship, but were unable to defeat Xceed (

and

Kento Miyahara is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is the current six time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion. He was trained by Kensuke Sasaki and started his career in his Kensuke Office promotion ...

). On August 15, Zeus and Bodyguard scored a big win, defeating former World Tag Team Champions Akebono and

Yutaka Yoshie , is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working as a freelancer in Japan, performing most notably for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a former World Tag Team Champion. He has previously worked for promotions such as New Japa ...

. They once again participated in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in 2015, losing their first two matches but managing to win the rest of their matches, and make it into the finals, finishing the tournament with 8 points. In the final, they were defeated by Kento Miyahara and Suwama. On December 23, Zeus and Bodyguard finally captured the World Tag Team Championship, defeating

Wild Burning Wild Burning is a tag team composed of Japanese professional wrestlers Jun Akiyama and Takao Omori. Although Akiyama and Omori have been using the team name since 2013, their team goes back almost to the era of their debut in All Japan Pro Wrest ...

(

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-he ...

and

). On February 21, Zeus and Bodyguard made their first successful defence of the World Tag Team Championship, defeating Nextream ( Jake Lee and Kento Miyahara). On June 15, Zeus and Bodyguard lost the World Tag Team title to Daisuke Sekimoto and

Yuji Okabayashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He has been working in BJW since his debut in June 2008. He is best known as part of a tag team with Daisuke Sekimoto, with whom ...

. On November 27, they defeated Sekimoto and Okabayashi to regain the championship.

Acting career

The Bodyguard stars in the

Emilio Insolera Emilio Insolera (born 29 January 1979) is an actor and producer, known for '' Sign Gene: The First Deaf Superheroes'' (2017).Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine In 2022, Insolera had a role in Simon Kinberg's ''The 355''. Early life an ...

film ''

Sign Gene A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

'', the first superhero film about deaf mutants who have superhuman powers through the use of sign language. The film was be released on September 14, 2017.https://www.ucicinemas.it/film/2017/sign-gene/, website=UCI Cinemas, accessdate=27 August 2017, language=Italianhttp://www.advertiser.it/2017072165403/media/film-sign-gene, accessdate=27 August 2017, language=Italian

Personal life

Outside of professional wrestling, Kurakawa co-owns "King Gym", a power and strength gym in his hometown of

Osaka, Japan is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third most populous city in Ja ...

with tag team partner

Kensho Obayashi is a Japanese bodybuilder and professional wrestler better known by his ring name . He is currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is a former AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and a former four-time World Tag Team Champion ...

Championships and Accomplishments

Bodybuilding

*Musclemania Japan (2002, 2007)

Professional Wrestling

( 4 times) – with

**January 2 Korakuen Hall Heavyweight Battle Royal (2021) *

Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests. History Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagasak ...

BJW Tag Team Championship The is the top tag team title defended in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling. The championship has been the leading tag team championship in the promotion since 1997. There have been a total of 57 reigns shared ...

( 1 time) – with

Daisuke Sekimoto (born February 9, 1981) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He is also known for his appearances in Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max. He is a three-time BJW World Strong Heavyw ...

Independent Wrestling Federation The Independent Wrestling Federation (IWF) is a professional wrestling promotion based in Nutley, New Jersey. The IWF features upcoming talent, in some cases, which have made it to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Along with producing liv ...

**IWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time) *

Pro Wrestling Land's End (Land's End) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 2016 by Ryoji Sai. History In January 2016, Ryoji Sai left Pro Wrestling Zero1 to launch a new promotion named Land's End. The promotion held its first event on Mar ...

All Asia Heavyweight Championship The is a title owned and promoted by the Pro Wrestling Land's End promotion. The title was originally created in 1955 in Japan Wrestling Association (JWA), with the inaugural champion crowned on November 22, 1955. Being a professional wrestlin ...

( 1 time) *

Osaka Tag Team Championship The is the top tag team title in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Osaka Pro Wrestling. The title was established in 2001 when Daio Quallt and Gamma won a seven-team round-robin tournament to win the inaugural titles. Being a profe ...

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) – with Zeus **Osaka Tag Festival (2013) – with Zeus *

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publish ...

**Ranked No. 165 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the

PWI 500 ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishi ...

in 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodyguard, The 1968 births Japanese male professional wrestlers Living people Sportspeople from Osaka Japanese bodybuilders World Tag Team Champions (AJPW) BJW Tag Team Champions 21st-century professional wrestlers All Asia Heavyweight Champions