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Yoji Anjo
(born March 28, 1967) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and kickboxer. Anjo is considered to be one of the pioneers of the shoot style movement during the 1980s and early 90s. Professional wrestling career Universal Wrestling Federation and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1985–1988) A former practitioner of judo, sumo and muay thai, Anjo tried professional wrestling after meeting Nobuhiko Takada. He passed the original Universal Wrestling Federation's entrance tests and had his debut on July 6, 1985, against Osamu Hoshina. He only wrestled a handful of matches for the company, as it collapsed later in the year and its roster moved back to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where Anjo debuted as a low-ranking member of the UWF "invading" army. Often teaming with fellow shooter Tatsuo Nakano, he feuded with names like Akira Nogami, Osamu Matsuda and Masakatsu Funaki as part of the NJPW junior heavyweight division. He eventually left the company in 1988 follow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most populous urban areas in the world. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes Tokyo and parts of six neighboring Prefectures of Japan, prefectures, is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with 41 million residents . Lying at the head of Tokyo Bay, Tokyo is part of the Kantō region, on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. It is Japan's economic center and the seat of the Government of Japan, Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government administers Tokyo's central Special wards of Tokyo, 23 special wards, which formerly made up Tokyo City; various commuter towns and suburbs in Western Tokyo, its western area; and two outlying island chains, the Tokyo Islands. Although most of the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osamu Matsuda
(born April 19, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and is better known by his stage name El Samurai. Professional wrestling career Early years (1986–1992) Osamu Matsuda graduated from high school in 1985, and joined the NJPW Dojo. He debuted on July 24, 1986 in a losing effort against Masaharu Funaki, and spent a few years working at the bottom of the card, wrestling with the likes of Kensuke Sasaki, Kenichi Oya, and Takayuki Iizuka. In March 1991 he went on a learning excursion to Mexico, and while working for the UWA promotion, adopted a mask and the El Samurai stage name. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1992–2008) El Samurai returned to NJPW in March 1992. A month later, he made it to the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, in which he lost to Jushin Thunder Liger. Two months later, he defeated Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would lose the title to Ultim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dojoyaburi
In the history of Japanese martial arts, , also known as or as "dojo storming" in English, is the action of visiting a rival martial arts school in order to challenge its members. This usually led to , a fight between the visitor and a member of the school, usually its head or a fighter chosen for the challenge, where the superiority of their respective fighting styles would be tested. The losing side would also lose its martial prestige and in many cases, its apprentices would abandon it for the winner's school. The one who ends victorious in the stand off receives its rivals battle awards. History Since ancient times, dojoyaburi was an established way for Japanese martial arts organizations to gain popularity and students. It was practiced by schools of kenjutsu, jujutsu, and other styles and it was sometimes associated with musha shugyo and the samurai lifestyle. Its usage fell with the prohibition of taryujiai, which limited martial arts competitions to the bounds of every sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rickson Gracie
Rickson Gracie (; born November 21, 1959) is a Brazilian retired mixed martial artist. He is a member of the Gracie family: the third oldest son of Hélio Gracie, brother to Rorion and Relson Gracie, and half-brother to Rolker, Royce, Robin and Royler Gracie. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was widely considered to be the best fighter of the Gracie clan, and one of the toughest in the world. In July 2017, he was promoted to ninth-degree red belt, the second-highest ranking in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Biography Rickson Gracie, son of Helio Gracie, received his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu at age 18 in 1977. Matches against Rei Zulu At 20, Gracie was pitted in a high-profile fight in Brasília against famous Brazilian professional wrestler and fighter Casemiro " Rei Zulu" Nascimento Martins (father of Zuluzinho). Rei Zulu was not a qualified martial artist, having only a background in a supposedly indigenous wrestling style named ''tarracá'', but he weighed 230 pounds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Iron Sheik
Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri (; March 15, 1942 – June 7, 2023), better known by his ring name the Iron Sheik, was an Iranian-American professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and actor. To date he is the only Iranian-born champion in WWE history, having won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship in 1983. Vaziri's career peaked during the 1980s WWF wrestling boom, and his rivalry with Hulk Hogan turned Hogan into one of the greatest television heroes of the decade. He later formed a tag team with Nikolai Volkoff, which won the WWF Tag Team Championship at the inaugural WrestleMania event. In 2005, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. A heel throughout the 1980s, Sheik later gained popularity on the Kidd Chris show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', ''Opie and Anthony'', and the Internet due to his shoot interviews, vulgar language, and apparent intense dislike for some of his fellow professional wrestlers, particularly Hogan and Brian Blair; however, the true nature of his r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kazuo Yamazaki
is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, wrestling instructor and commentator who is known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and shoot-style promotions Universal Wrestling Federation (Japan), Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) and UWF International (UWFi). He is signed as a commentator for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Professional wrestling career New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1982–1984) An amateur wrestling, amateur wrestler and high school judoka in his youth, Yamazaki's professional wrestling career began in May 1982 in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He wrestled his debut match on May 6 against Black Cat (wrestler), Kuroneko. During this time, he was also a student of Satoru Sayama, better known as Tiger Mask, who trained Yamazaki extensively in shoot wrestling and kickboxing. He also trained under NJPW's head submission grappling instructor Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Whenever Kuniaki Kobayashi stripped Sayama of his mask, Yamazaki was always the first to help remask hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UWF International
Union of Wrestling Forces International, better known as UWF International, U-Inter, or simply UWFi, was a shoot style professional wrestling promotion in Japan from 1991 to 1996. The UWF international was the successor to the ''Newborn UWF'' that ran from 1988 to 1990, which itself was the successor to the original Universal Wrestling Federation. Although the matches were predetermined, the UWF-i was very convincing for its time, promoting a combat-based style featuring a mix of wrestling, submission grappling and kickboxing. The promotion also held kickboxing contests and, in rare instances, special shoot matches. In retrospect, UWFi, along with other shoot-style promotions, served as a precursor to mixed martial arts and to popular Japanese MMA promotions, particularly Pride FC. The promotion was also known for hiring dangerous shooters Lou Thesz, Billy Robinson and Danny Hodge as trainers and promoters of their product in order to establish legitimate credibility. Hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minoru Suzuki
(born June 17, 1968) is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and former Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist, known for his tenure in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former one-time IWGP Intercontinental Championship, IWGP Intercontinental Champion, former two-time NEVER Openweight Champion, former one-time IWGP Tag Team Champion, former one-time NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship, NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion (with former Suzuki-gun stablemates El Desperado (wrestler), El Desperado and Ren Narita) and a former KOPW (professional wrestling championship), Provisional KOPW Champion. He also makes appearances for Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is a member of Contra Unit and is a former MLW World Tag Team Championship, MLW World Tag Team Champion, with Ikuro Kwon. Suzuki was the co-founder of Pancrase, one of the first mixed martial arts organizations in the world. During the 1990s, he was widely considered one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Vrij
Dick Vrij is a retired Dutch professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. A professional competitor from 1995 until 2003, he competed in the Heavyweight division for RINGS and It's Showtime. Professional wrestling career A former bodybuilder and club bouncer, Vrij started training martial arts at the Chris Dolman gym. He had his debut to a worldwide audience when he wrestled a special match in Japanese pro wrestling promotion UWF Newborn, facing Yoshiaki Fujiwara in a losing effort. He would return to defeat Yoji Anjo and lose again to Fujiwara. When the promotion closed, Dolman and Vrij followed UWF member Akira Maeda to his Fighting Network RINGS promotion in 1990, becoming full time wrestlers for it. Mixed martial arts career Fighting Network RINGS Vrij took part in RINGS's first main event, wrestling Maeda himself. He later became famous for his kickboxing strikes and intimidating physique, being nicknamed "Cyborg". Vrij competed both in pro wrestling and shoot matc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Changpuek Kiatsongrit
Somchai Ropkwaen (; born October 13, 1966), known professionally as Changpuek Kiatsongrit () is a Thai former professional Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer. He is credited as being one of the first Muay Thai fighters to go abroad and fight other fighters of other martial arts styles, often stronger and heavier than himself, bringing to the world an understanding of the effectiveness of Muay Thai. Changpuek is a seven time world champion who has fought some of the world's best fighters at middleweight to heavyweight and has wins against world class fighters such as Rob Kaman (x3), Rick Roufus, Peter Smit and Tosca Petridis. After ending his career as a professional fighter while working for Sitpholek gym in Pattaya, Thailand, he continued his employment at that gym as a Muay Thai trainer. Biography and career Changpuek was born and raised in a small village some 30 km from the town of Prakhonchai, Buriram in northeastern Thailand, one of seven children. A young Changpu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heel (professional Wrestling)
In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a ''rudo'' in ''lucha libre'') is a wrestler who portrays a villain, "bad guy", "baddie", "evil-doer", or "rulebreaker", and acts as an antagonist to the Face (professional wrestling), faces, who are the heroic protagonist or "good guy" characters. Not everything a heel wrestler does must be villainous: heels need only to be booed or jeered by the audience to be effective characters, although most truly successful heels embrace other aspects of their devious personalities, such as cheating to win or using Glossary of professional wrestling terms#foreign object, foreign objects. "The role of a heel is to get 'heat,' which means spurring the crowd to obstreperous hatred, and generally involves cheating and any other manner of socially unacceptable behavior." To gain Heat (professional wrestling), heat (with boos and jeers from the audience), heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner by breaking rules or otherwise ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
