, 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 projectin ...
s Nosawa and , (born December 17, 1976) is a Japanese
freelance
''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 ...
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 or ...
, best known for his appearances in
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 Bab ...
and various independent promotions.
Career
Early career (19952004)
Nosawa spent most of his early career training and wrestling in
Mexico
Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
, most notably with
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre Co., Ltd. (CMLL; , "World Wrestling Council") is a ''lucha libre'' professional wrestling promotion based in Mexico City. The promotion was previously known as ''Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre'' (''EMLL'') (''Mexi ...
(CMLL). He also spent much of his early career competing on the
U.S. independent scene, Nosawa has competed for American promotions such as
Ring of Honor
Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was s ...
(ROH),
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Los Angeles, California. It is owned and operated by wrestlers themselves, having been created by Disco Machine, Excalibur, Scott Lost, Joey Ryan, Super ...
(PWG), and
Xtreme Pro Wrestling
Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion owned by Rob Zicari.
Zicari originally ran the promotion out of Los Angeles from 1999 to 2003. He appeared on shows as the on-camera owner under the name ...
(XPW). Along with
Mitsunobu Kikuzawa,
Kazuhiko Masada,
Minoru Fujita and
Katsushi Takemura, Nosawa created the group "
Tokyo Gurentai".
In 2004, he would adapt the "Nosawa Rongai" or "Nosawa Out of the Question"
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 projectin ...
as a play off to a comment made by
Kaz Hayashi, who had replied "Nosawa is out of the question" when he was asked about whether he was going to allow Kazushige to challenge for the
World Junior Heavyweight Championship. By doing this, Nosawa forced a title match against Hayashi, and although he lost, he would decide to keep the name for the rest of his career.
Juggalo Championship Wrestling
JCW Heavyweight Champion (20032007)
On March 16, 2003, at a
Juggalo Championship Wrestling
Juggalo Championship Wrestling (formerly Juggalo Championshit Wrestling) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion founded in 1999 by Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (Joseph Utsler), better known as the hip-hop duo In ...
(JCW) event, Nosawa defeated "Ritchie Boy" Breyer Wellington to win the
JCW Heavyweight Championship.
Later that year, he was featured on ''JCW Vol. 3'' in a match where he again defeated Wellington.
In July 2004, Nosawa lost the championship to
Kid Kash
David Tyler Cash (born July 31, 1969) better known by his ring name Kid Kash, is an American mixed martial artist and professional wrestler, best known for his tenures with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestlin ...
at the
Gathering of the Juggalos
The Gathering of the Juggalos (The Gathering or GOTJ) is an annual festival put on by Psychopathic Records, featuring performances by the entire label roster as well as numerous well-known musical groups and underground music, underground artists. ...
.
In 2007, he took part in the Pro Wrestling Unplugged/Juggalo Championship Wrestling cross promotional event "Cuffed & Caged: Last Man Standing". Nosawa was featured in the main event War Games match as a member of Team JCW.
SlamTV! (2007)
In 2007, Nosawa went on tour with JCW to film the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
show
SlamTV!
SlamTV! is an internet wrestling show, broadcast by the Insane Clown Posse's wrestling promotion Juggalo Championship Wrestling. It features color commentary by "Handsome Harley 'Gweedo' Guestella" ( Shaggy 2 Dope) and "Diamond Donovan '3D' Dougla ...
, where he was one of the main heroes of the program. However, he started off his SlamTV! tour with a string of losses, going 0–5 in his first five matches.
After receiving a letter from his storyline mentor
The Great Muta
is a Japanese professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah), where he is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for his work as in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and ...
, saying that Muta was coming to JCW to check up on his pupil, Nosawa stepped up his game and began a winning streak.
At "East Side Wars", The Great Muta teamed with Nosawa to help him defeat the team of Mad Man Pondo and Necro Butcher.
By the following week however, The Great Muta had left. Despite this, Nosawa continued his winning streak into episode 14, where he faced and defeated Ron Zombie.
During the match,
Justin Credible
Peter Joseph "PJ" Polaco (born October 16, 1973) is a retired American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring name Justin Credible. H ...
came to the ring and assaulted Nosawa.
On the next episode, Nosawa interfered in Credible's match by spitting
Asian mist into his eyes. At
Bloodymania
Bloodymania is a professional wrestling event, produced annually in August by Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW). All events are held on a Sunday at midnight during the four-day musical event Gathering of the Juggalos. The company regards it a ...
, Nosawa and The Great Muta teamed up again to defeat Justin Credible and
2 Cold Scorpio
Charles Bernard Scaggs (born October 25, 1965) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name 2 Cold Scorpio (sometimes spelled Too Cold Scorpio). He is best known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling, Extrem ...
.
Juggalo World Order (20072008)
On October 6, 2007,
Corporal Robinson,
Scott Hall
Scott Oliver Hall (October 20, 1958 – March 14, 2022) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenures with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under his real name and under the ring name the Diamond Studd and with the ...
, and
Violent J
Joseph Frank Bruce (born April 28, 1972), known by his stage name Violent J, is an American rapper, record producer, professional wrestler, and part of the hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse. He is a co-founder of the record label '' Psychopathic R ...
formed the Juggalo World Order (JWO) at ''Evansville Invasion''.
At that year's ''Hallowicked After Party'', on October 31,
Shaggy 2 Dope
Joseph William Utsler (; born October 14, 1974), known by his stage name Shaggy 2 Dope, is an American rapper, record producer, DJ, podcast host of Shaggy and The Creep Show, and professional wrestler. He is part of the hip hop duo Insane Clow ...
was introduced as a member of the group. After the main event of the night,
special guest referee Nosawa ripped off his referee shirt to reveal that he, too, was a member of the JWO.
Nosawa appeared in a few matches with the JWO, before returning to Japan.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (20032004)
Nosawa would first gain national U.S. exposure by making appearances for
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment.
Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promot ...
(TNA). He debuted at the 2003
Super X Cup
The Impact X Cup Tournament consists of various types of X Division tournaments that feature wrestlers and/or teams from all over the world competing in Impact Wrestling – formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and Global Force Wrestling ...
, losing in the first round to Juventud Guerrera; he then reappeared as captain of Team Japan in the
2004 World X Cup, where he ended up placing last by the end of the tournament. Nosawa would go on to make sporadic appearances on the early episodes of
TNA Impact, usually teaming up with fellow Japanese rookie
Kazushi Miyamoto. The duo even challenged for the
NWA World Tag Team Championship
The NWA World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created by the National Wrestling Alliance. From 1948 to 1982, the NWA allowed member promotions to create their own territorial version of the "NWA Worl ...
at TNA's second Anniversary show in June 2004, but ultimately came up short against
America's Most Wanted
''America's Most Wanted'' (often abbreviated as ''AMW'') is an American Television show, television program whose first run was produced by 20th Television, and second run is under the Fox Entertainment#Fox Alternative Entertainment, Fox Alter ...
. The duo's last in-ring appearance for the company would be at
Victory Road '04, where both Nosawa and Miyamoto competed in the X-Division Gauntlet match, which was won by
Hector Garza
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (20052008)
Nosawa would originally find little success after arriving in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in the mid-2000s, losing as many matches as he won. On March 20, 2005, he received an opportunity at the
World Junior Heavyweight Championship, but would lose to defending champion
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 t ...
. On July 26, he lost a "Banishment" match to his old friend Mazada, and was forced to leave All Japan. Soon after that, he would reappear as a masked wrestler named Space Lone Wolf (Keiji Mutoh's old alter-ego), finding more success than his previous character. However, by December, Space Lone Wolf would be unmasked and revealed as being Nosawa.
In 2006, Nosawa would begin again wrestling with his old friend Mazada again, and for parts of the year would also team with Brute Issei and
Akira. Towards the end of 2006, Nosawa and Mazada began to team up with
Minoru Suzuki
(born June 17, 1968) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist, currently working for New Japan P