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Takayuki Iizuka
, better known by his ring name , is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his 33-year career in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a three-time IWGP Tag Team Champion. He has also worked for Pro Wrestling Noah, where he was a one-time GHC Tag Team Champion. Debuting in 1986 under his real name, Iizuka formed the tag team J-J-Jacks with fellow dojo trainee Akira Nogami in 1992. After changing his ring name to in 1995, he became a mainstay of the New Japan seikigun, and was a frequent tag team partner for Yuji Nagata during the early 2000s. In 2008, Iizuka underwent a drastic change to his look, character and wrestling style, turning heel, shaving his head bald, growing a sinister beard, and adapting a hardcore wrestling style. He was also given the gimmick of an uncontrollable madman, and nicknamed "The Great Traitor" for his betrayal of the New Japan roster. Iizuka competed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling over four separate decades before retir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Japan Pro-Wrestling
(NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV Asahi and Amuse Inc. owning minority shares of the promotion. Naoki Sugabayashi has served as the promotion's Chairman since September 2013, while Hiroshi Tanahashi has served as the president of the promotion since December 2023. Owing to its TV program aired on TV Asahi, NJPW is the largest and longest-running professional wrestling promotion in Japan. Their biggest event is the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show (currently promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom banner) held each year since 1992. In addition to promoting professional wrestling matches, NJPW has also showcased mixed martial arts fights on some of its live events. The promotion was owned by Yuke's from 2005 until 2012. It was then sold to Bushiroad in 2012, which parlayed its entry to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sambo (martial Art)
Sambo is a combat sport, and a recognized style of amateur wrestling governed by the United World Wrestling, UWW in the World Wrestling Championships along with Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling. Practiced worldwide, sambo is a martial art with Soviet origins. Many of its moves have been incorporated in other forms of combat sport such as mixed martial arts. Etymology It originated in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union during the 1920s. The word ''sambo'' is an acronym of (), which literally translates to 'self-defence without weapons'. Sambo is a martial art and combat sport developed and used by the Soviet Red Army in the early 1920s to improve their hand-to-hand combat abilities. The sport incorporates various styles of wrestling and other self-defence systems such as Kickboxing, kick-boxing and fencing. Soviet martial arts expert Vasili Oshchepkov is credited as one of the founding fathers. Viktor Spiridono ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It shares Anglo-Scottish border, a land border with Scotland to the north and England–Wales border, another land border with Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, the largest city and the Capital city, capital. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. It takes its name from the Angles (tribe), Angles, a Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe who settled du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catch Wrestling Association
The Catch Wrestling Association (CWA) was a professional wrestling organization based in Austria and Germany that was founded as the Internationalen Berufsringer Verbandes (IBV) in 1973. Since the late 1980s it has been known as the CWA in honour of the promotion's World Heavyweight Championship (originally claimed to be sanctioned by the fictitious Canadian Wrestling Association with previous lineage in North America.) This has since become a common retronym for the entire history of the organisation. It was founded by Nico Selenkowitsch and run by him until the late 1980s when he was succeeded by long-term champion Otto Wanz and Peter Wilhelm. The CWA featured a traditional brand of mat wrestling mixed with various “Strong Man” competitions. During the late 1970s the then IBV overtook the old Verband der Berufsringer to become the dominant promotion in the German/Austrian wrestling territory, maintaining a high profile even after the invasion of WWF circa 1990. After ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total population of over 84 million in an area of , making it the most populous member state of the European Union. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The Capital of Germany, nation's capital and List of cities in Germany by population, most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic, with various tribes inhabiting it from the Neolithic onward, chiefly the Celts. Various Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country occupies an area of and has Austrians, a population of around 9 million. The area of today's Austria has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic, Paleolithic period. Around 400 BC, it was inhabited by the Celts and then annexed by the Roman Empire, Romans in the late 1st century BC. Christianization in the region began in the 4th and 5th centuries, during the late Western Roman Empire, Roman period, followed by the arrival of numerous Germanic tribes during the Migration Period. A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Africa and Asia. Europe is commonly considered to be Boundaries between the continents#Asia and Europe, separated from Asia by the Drainage divide, watershed of the Ural Mountains, the Ural (river), Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Greater Caucasus, the Black Sea, and the waterway of the Bosporus, Bosporus Strait. "Europe" (pp. 68–69); "Asia" (pp. 90–91): "A commonly accepted division between Asia and Europe ... is formed by the Ural Mountains, Ural River, Caspian Sea, Caucasus Mountains, and the Black Sea with its outlets, the Bosporus and Dardanelles." Europe covers approx. , or 2% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface (6.8% of Earth's land area), making it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masa Saito
was a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Mr. Saito or . He wrestled for 33 years around the world. He had success as a singles wrestler, winning the AWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1990, and as a tag team wrestler with multiple partners in various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) territories. Saito joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1981, where he teamed with Mr. Fuji to hold the World Tag Team Championship twice and would claim the nickname "Chopstick Charlie". In Japan, he wrestled for both top leagues, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). He wrestled Antonio Inoki across Ganryujima island for over two hours in 1987. Saito was imprisoned in the United States for two years in the mid-1980s for physically assaulting police officers in Waukesha, Wisconsin, following an accusation of vandalism against his friend Ken Patera. Amateur wrestling career Saito competed in freestyle wrestling for Japan in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shinya Hashimoto
was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter and actor. Along with Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh, Hashimoto was dubbed one of the " Three Musketeers" that began competing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in the mid-1980s and dominated the promotion in the 1990s. He is one of three wrestlers (the others being Keiji Mutoh and Satoshi Kojima) that have held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and is an overall five-time world champion. Professional wrestling career Early years (1984–1988) Hashimoto grew up in Toki City in Gifu and began training in judo and karate in his late teens. His training helped him in his transition to professional wrestling, as he joined the NJPW Dojo in April 1984. He made his debut for NJPW in September 1984 at the age of 19, wrestling against Tatsutoshi Goto. Hashimoto worked on becoming a skilled wrestler over the next few years, traveling whenever nece ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Takano
, born June 23, 1958, is an American-Japanese retired professional wrestler better known under the ring name . He was also billed from Uganda under the alias The Cobra, a masked wrestler persona. He worked for various Japanese and American wrestling promotions from the late 1970s to early 1990s. He is the older brother of Shunji Takano. Early life Takano was born on June 23, 1958. His father was an African American Marine who belonged to the Iwakuni base, and has also become a promising boxer. However, his father returned to the United States and left his wife, a Japanese woman, and children in Japan. Takano grew up at home with his mother and brother, and he was a mixed-blooded child. He was introduced at the age of 15 to the grand sumo room of sumo wrestling, and set foot for the first time in a dojo in March 1974, but in January 1976 the place becomes out of numbering and goes out of business. Professional wrestling career Takano debuted in 1977 and worked for Sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Junji Hirata
(born December 20, 1956) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler currently working as a trainer for the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, known primarily by his ring name . Professional wrestling career Hirata applied and was approved to the New Japan dojo on May 13, 1978, and made his debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) on August 26, against Yoshiaki Fujiwara. In November 1982, he left on an overseas training expedition to Mexico, and later Canada, where in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling he would create the famous Super Strong Machine persona, as well as use a First Nations gimmick as Sonny Two Rivers (billed as the son of Billy Two Rivers, an actual First Nations chief). In April 1986, he left NJPW with Riki Choshu for rival wrestling promotion, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). In June 1987, he returned to NJPW and would soon capture the IWGP Tag Team Championship on three separate occasions with George Takano, Hiro Saito, and Shinya Hashimoto as his tag team ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riki Choshu
, better known by his ring name , is a South Korean-Japanese retirement, retired Puroresu, professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and a Booker (professional wrestling), booker. He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestlers for his work in the 1980s and 1990s and is known as the first wrestler to popularize the Professional wrestling holds#Sharpshooter, Sasori-Gatame, better known in English as the ''Scorpion Deathlock'' or ''Sharpshooter''. After leaving NJPW in 2002, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ), but eventually returned to New Japan in October 2005 as a site foreman, booker and part-time wrestler. Choshu once again left NJPW in 2010 and primarily worked in Tatsumi Fujinami’s Muga World Pro Wrestling, Dradition, as well as his own self-produced Power Hall events as a freelancer. Choshu was a second generation Zainichi Korean. He was naturalization, naturalized in 2016 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
