Animal Hamaguchi
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Animal Hamaguchi
is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . During his career he was recognized as a talented tag team wrestler despite his relatively small size for a heavyweight, and today he is recognized as a trainer in both professional and amateur wrestling. He is the father of freestyle wrestler Kyoko Hamaguchi. Professional wrestling career Hamaguchi debuted in 1969 with International Wrestling Enterprise. He was a regular midcarder although his teams with Sueo Inoue and Rusher Kimura were main event. He also made forays into North American wrestling in the late 1970s, winning titles in Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council and Canada's Stampede Wrestling. In 1981, when IWE collapsed, Hamaguchi teamed with Kimura and Isamu Teranishi in an "invasion" angle in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. When the angle was dropped, Hamaguchi joined Riki Choshu in forming the original Ishin Gundan rebel stable. In 1984 Ishin Gundan left NJPW and formed Japan Promotion, w ...
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Hamada, Shimane
is a city located in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It is the third largest city in the prefecture and is located at the southwestern end of the prefecture. It is a coastal city on the Sea of Japan and possesses beautiful white sand beaches, which make the city a popular destination for local tourists in the summer. Hamada is a small city around 1 hour 40 minutes by expressway to Hiroshima. The city was founded on November 3, 1940. On October 1, 2005, the towns of Asahi, Kanagi and Misumi, and the village of Yasaka (all from Naka District) were merged into Hamada. Therefore, Naka District was dissolved as a result of this merger. As of March 2017, Hamada City has an estimated population of 57,142, with roughly 43,000 people living in the coastal urban 'city' area. The prefectural university ( The University of Shimane) is located in Hamada, as is the Institute for Northeast Asian Research. Hamada is one of the few cities in the region to possess a heavy tonnage shipping port. Th ...
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Yoshiaki Yatsu
Yoshiaki Yatsu (谷津嘉章 ''Yatsu Yoshiaki'', born July 19, 1956) is a Japanese professional wrestler, amateur wrestler and mixed martial artist. He is known for being one-half of the first-ever All Japan Pro Wrestling World Tag Team Champions with Jumbo Tsuruta, having won the NWA International Tag Team Championship and the PWF Tag Team Championship, and unifying the two titles. Amateur wrestling career 1976 Summer Olympics At the age of 20, Yatsu competed in freestyle wrestling at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. He did not place in the tournament. 1980 Summer Olympics He would have participated in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but Japan chose to follow the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, American-led boycott. Controversial IOC Banishment In 1986 Yatsu took a hiatus from professional wrestling in order to one last time chase his Olympic dream. However, after winning a Japanese National Championship in the super heavyweight division in 1986 a ...
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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 has worked in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). Professional wrestling career All Japan Pro Wrestling (1992–2000) After being trained by Animal Hamaguchi, Omori debuted in All Japan Pro Wrestling, initially languishing in the mid-card and only able to get some recognition in 1995, when he and Jun Akiyama captured the All Asia Tag Team Championship. In 1998, he and newcomer Yoshihiro Takayama formed the NO FEAR tag team. The team soon won both the All Asia Tag Team Championship and the World Tag Team Championship, becoming the first team to win both titles at the same time. When Mitsuharu Misawa formed Pro Wrestling Noah, they followed him and dyed their hair blond to match the chan ...
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Bushi (professional Wrestler)
, better known by the ring name Bushi (stylized as BUSHI), is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Prior to adopting his current persona, Shimizu worked under the ring names T28 (pronounced 'Tetsuya'), Tetsuya, and Tetsuya Bushi in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). While in AJPW, together with Super Crazy, Bushi won the 2010 Junior Tag League and won the U-30 Tag Team Tournament in 2008 with Kushida. Bushi spent 2009 working in Mexico for International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG), gaining international experience before returning to AJPW in 2010. Having worked for AJPW for most of his career, Bushi transferred to NJPW in April 2012 initially temporarily, with the move becoming permanent in January 2013. In NJPW, he is a one-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, a one-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with Shingo Takagi and a record-tying four-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion, holding the belt three tim ...
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Tetsuya Naito
is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the leader of the ''Los Ingobernables de Japón'' faction. Tetsuya Naito began training for a professional wrestling career in 2000, initially under Animal Hamaguchi before joining NJPW in 2004, where he underwent further training. He is a former NEVER Openweight Champion, and a former IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with former No Limit partner Yujiro Takahashi. In addition, Naito is the winner of the 2013 and 2017 editions of the G1 Climax, NJPW's premier singles tournament, and of the 2016 New Japan Cup. Regarded as one of the most popular and successful wrestlers in NJPW history, In 2016 and 2017, ''Tokyo Sports'' awarded Naito with the MVP Award, the publication's highest honor. In 2020, Naito became the first person to hold both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at the same time, accomplishing that feat twice, becoming a three-t ...
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Shingo Takagi
, known by his ring name Shingo Takagi (鷹木信悟, ''Takagi Shingo''), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former bodybuilder, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the provisional KOPW 2022 champion in his first reign and is a member of the ''Los Ingobernables de Japón'' stable. Takagi first became known for his work with Dragon Gate, where he competed from his debut in 2004 up until 2018. Known during his tenure as the Pumping Hawk, he was recognized as the promotion's top heel for many years, and went on to become one of the most decorated wrestlers in the company's history, winning the Open the Dream Gate Championship, the top championship in Dragon Gate, four times in eight years. He was also known as the leader of the New Hazard, Real Hazard, KAMIKAZE, -akatsuki-, VerserK and ANTIAS stables in Dragon Gate, and for his long-lasting rivalry with BxB Hulk, with whom he main-evented several prominent Dragon Gate events. He had his last contract ...
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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 New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) dojo, Otani is best known for his longtime association with Zero1, a promotion he founded in 2001 along with Shinya Hashimoto. Starting his career in NJPW as a junior heavyweight, Otani gained a reputation as a gutsy underdog and would go on to hold several championships during his nine-year run with the promotion, including the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and the J-Crown, as well as forming a successful tag team with dojo classmate Tatsuhito Takaiwa, twice holding the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. After jumping to the heavyweight division in 2001, Otani would leave New Japan the same year, joining Shinya Hashimoto as one of the founders of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). Following the ...
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Satoshi Kojima
is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, but makes appearances for Pro Wrestling Noah. Considered to be one of the greatest Japanese professional wrestlers of the 21st century and of all-time, he was the first wrestler to hold NJPW's IWGP Heavyweight Championship and All Japan Pro Wrestling's Triple Crown Championship simultaneously, the fourth to win the three major heavyweight championships in Japan with the Triple Crown Heavyweight, IWGP Heavyweight, and Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship, and one of three wrestlers to hold the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Triple Crown Championship, and NWA World Heavyweight Championship (the other two being Keiji Mutoh and Shinya Hashimoto), and is an overall seven-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. Since 2022, he also wrestles for Pro Wrestling Noah. As a team, he and Hiroyoshi Tenzan are six-time IWGP Tag Team Champions and became the first team to win G1 Tag League and World' ...
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Koki Kitahara
(born March 9, 1964) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known by his ring name . Career Kitahara trained in soccer and karate during high school, particularly the latter due to his penchant for street fighting. After graduating and moving to Tokyo, he started training mixed martial arts at Satoru Sayama's Super Tiger Gym and eventually became an instructor. Three years later, he developed an interest in professional wrestling and decided to become a wrestler. All Japan Pro Wrestling (1988–1990) Kitahara began as a trainee for Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1987. After the promotion dissolved, he transferred to All Japan Pro Wrestling and trained under Genichiro Tenryu. He made his debut on April 8, 1988, against Mitsuo Momota. He was part of Tenryu's Revolution stable. After spending nearly a year floundering in the opening and mid-card matches, Kitahara left for Canada in March 1989. When he arrived in Canada, he joined Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary, where ...
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WAR (professional Wrestling)
Wrestle Association R (formerly known as Wrestle and Romance and abbreviated as WAR) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded and run by Genichiro Tenryu as the successor to Super World of Sports, and which lasted from 1992 to 2000. The promotion initially established as Wrestle and Romance in 1992, had very few regular contracted workers, instead most of the workers were either freelance or employed in other promotions. Because of this WAR ran many all-star cards. It had inter-promotional feuds against New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, the new Tokyo Pro Wrestling, and UWF International. WAR also continued, albeit in a loose fashion, SWS's old working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation, when they backed the WWF's first Japanese tour, in 1994. On July 28, 1995, WAR was renamed "Wrestle Association R" at a show held in the Korakuen Hall. In 1998, WAR cancelled contracts to the roster and began running fewer and fewer events due to T ...
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Tiger Jeet Singh
Jagjeet Singh Hans (born April 3, 1944) is an Indo-Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler, known better by his ring name Tiger Jeet Singh. He was known for his elaborate ring entrances, and generally performed as a heel. He wrestled in Japan for 22 years and was the first professional wrestler in Japan to defeat sumo wrestler Wajima Hiroshi. He held Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling's World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship and headlined the company's flagship event Anniversary Show in 1992. Professional wrestling career Early career (1965-1972) In the 1960s, Hans began wrestling and emigrated from his hometown in Punjab to Canada, arriving with $6 in his pocket. Hans trained in Toronto under Fred Atkins and eventually signed with Frank Tunney, a Toronto wrestling promoter. Atkins dubbed Hans "Tiger" after witnessing his ferocious style of fighting. Tiger made his Maple Leaf Gardens debut in 1965, wrestling as a heel. His first main event in Toronto was a tag team match ...
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Antonio Inoki
Muhammad Hussain Inoki (born ; February 20, 1943 – October 1, 2022) was a Japanese professional wrestler, martial artist, politician, and promoter of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. He was best known by the ring name , a homage to fellow professional wrestler Antonino Rocca. Inoki was a twelve-time professional wrestling world champion, notably being the first IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the first Asian WWF Heavyweight Champion – a reign not officially recognized by WWE. Inoki began his professional wrestling career in the 1960s for the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) under the tutelage of Rikidōzan. Inoki quickly became one of the most popular stars in the history of Japanese professional wrestling. He parlayed his wrestling career into becoming one of Japan's most recognizable athletes, a reputation bolstered by his 1976 fight against world champion boxer Muhammad Ali – a fight that served as a predecessor to modern day mixed martial arts. In ...
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