, better known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or project ...

, is a Japanese

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

, the first to adopt the high-flying Mexican

lucha libre Lucha libre (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term used in Latin America for professional wrestling. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has developed into a unique form ...

style. He has wrestled for

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority sha ...

, the Universal Wrestling Federation, Michinoku Pro and

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 ...

and was the founder of Universal Lucha Libre. He has also had stints with the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...

and

Extreme Championship Wrestling HHG Corporation, doing business as Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), was a professional wrestling promotion and media company that was based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The promotion was founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as National Wrest ...

in the United States. His daughters

Xóchitl Hamada is a Mexican semi-retired '' Luchadora'' or professional wrestler. She is the daughter of professional wrestler Gran Hamada, the sister of wrestler Ayako Hamada and the sister-in-law of Tiger Mask IV. Hamada was once married to Mexican wrestle ...

and

Ayako Hamada is a Mexican professional wrestler. During her 20-year career, Hamada wrestled for various promotions, including All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, Gaea Japan and Pro Wrestling Wave in Japan, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Lucha Libr ...

are professional wrestlers.

Professional wrestling career

He was one of the first

dojo A is a hall or place for immersive learning or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts, but has been seen increasingly in other fields, such as meditation and software development. The term literally means "place of the ...

trainees at

, being known as ''Little Hamada'' in the beginning. He was sent to Mexico's

Universal Wrestling Association The Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) was a Mexican ''Lucha Libre'' or professional wrestling promotion based in Naucalpan, Mexico State that operated from 1975 until 1995. The name of the actual promotion was Lucha Libre Internacional (LLI) ...

because of his lack of size and he found a lot of success there - so much so that Mexican fans and promoters began calling him ''Gran Hamada'' (Great Hamada). He also competed in Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre, which added El (The) to the front of his name: El Gran Hamada. In 1984, he became a member of the initial roster of the original Japanese UWF, but found that his flamboyantly acrobatic style clashed with the martial arts-inspired style and focus on realism of the UWF and soon left for

. He eventually broke off from AJPW to form his own

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

in 1990: Universal Lucha Libre. However, wrestlers began to leave the group in 1993 and in 1995 Hamada closed the promotion to join Michinoku Pro, which had been formed by former Universal Lucha Libre wrestlers. On April 13, 1997, Hamada teamed with

Great Sasuke , born July 18, 1969), is a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter and politician, currently wrestling for Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW) under the ring name . Aside from professional wrestling, he is also a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly ...

and Masato Yakushiji (who substituted for Gran Naniwa, who was injured) to defeat

Taka Michinoku (born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring name (with his first name usually stylized in all capital letters), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. Michinoku is known in North America for his work for ...

, Dick Togo and

Mens Teioh (born December 16, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Men's Teioh (also written MEN's Teioh). The English translation of his ring name, Terry Boy, is a homage to American professional wrestler Terry Funk. ...

(AKA "Terry Boy") at ECW Barely Legal. In 2001, he began competing for All Japan again, this time as a free agent. He briefly was part of the "Love Machines" stable under a mask as "Mini Love Machine" with "Super Love Machine" ( Junji Hirata of New Japan, reprising his old role as "Super Strong Machine") and "Love Machine Storm" (

Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...

, whose

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

literally means "storm"). They used

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles ...

's hit song " Love Machine" as their entrance theme. He would also briefly work for

's Wrestle Land brand as Makai Masked Hurricane but only wrestled two shows under that name. His daughters Xochitl and Ayako, who are half Mexican, are also professional wrestlers.

Championships and accomplishments

** International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team League (

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

) - with Mighty Inoue * Arsion **P*Mix Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with

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 Nagasaki, ...

BJW Heavyweight Championship The BJW Heavyweight Championship was a title defended in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling. It lasted from 2001 through 2004.https://www.cagematch.net/?id=5&nr=744 Title history Combined reigns Footno ...

( 1 time) * Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre ** NWA World Middleweight Championship ( 1 time)At the time EMLL was part of the

National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling promotion and former professional wrestling governing body operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA began as a governing body for a ...

Michinoku Pro Wrestling (originally known as North Eastern Wrestling) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded by The Great Sasuke on October 1, 1992. It was the first independent wrestling promotion in Japan to not base its operations in Tokyo, but rath ...

**Apex of Triangle Six–Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with

The Great Sasuke , born July 18, 1969), is a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter and politician, currently wrestling for Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW) under the ring name . Aside from professional wrestling, he is also a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly ...

and Tiger Mask **Fukumen World Tag League (2000) - with Tiger Mask IV *

NWA Hollywood Wrestling NWA Hollywood Wrestling (sometimes referred to as NWA Los Angeles) was a professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Los Angeles, California in the United States that promoted professional wrestling matches throughout Southern California ...

** NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) *

**One Night Eight Man Tag Team Tournament (1994) - with

Shinjiro Otani is a semi-retired Japanese professional wrestler and the current acting president of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). He is currently inactive from pro-wrestling competition due to a cervical spine injury substained in April 2022. A product of the ...

, El Samurai and

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 Publi ...

**PWI ranked him #87 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the " PWI Years" in 2003 * Universal Lucha Libre **

UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship The UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship was a tag team championship created from the working relationship between the Mexican Universal Wrestling Association and the Japanese Universal Lucha Libre (also called Universal Wrestling Fed ...

( 1 time) **UWF Super Middleweight Championship (1 time) **

WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship The WWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (''Campeonato Mundial Semi Completo de WWA'' in Spanish) is a singles professional wrestling championship promoted by the Mexican Lucha Libre wrestling based promotion World Wrestling Association (WWA) ...

( 1 time) *

** UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship ( 5 times) ** UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (

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 ...

) ** UWA World Middleweight Championship ( 3 times) ** UWA World Tag Team Championship ( 3 times) – with

Riki Choshu , better known by his ring name , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and a booker. He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestle ...

(1), Perro Aguayo (1) and Kendo (1) ** UWA World Welterweight Championship ( 1 time) ** WWF Light Heavyweight Championship (

)Hamada won the WWF title during a time that it was promoted by the UWA and exclusively in Mexico. The title reigns are not officially recognized by

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and var ...

. No reign with the championship prior to December 1997 is officially recognized or acknowledged by the

. *

** WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1 time, inaugural and final) – with Perro Aguayo

Luchas de Apuestas record

Footnotes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamada, Gran 1950 births Japanese male professional wrestlers Living people People from Maebashi Professional wrestling trainers 20th-century professional wrestlers NWA World Middleweight Champions UWA World Tag Team Champions 21st-century professional wrestlers UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Champions UWA World Middleweight Champions UWA World Light Heavyweight Champions NWA Americas Heavyweight Champions