is a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

and former

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...

working for various Japanese

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within ...

s such as

DDT Pro-Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Its name is an initialism of Dramatic Dream Team, which was the promotion's original name from 1997 to 2004. Founded in March 1997 by Shintaro Muto, the p ...

(DDT) and

Apache Pro-Wrestling Army was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion operating from 2004 to 2009 and from 2010 to 2016. History Following the closure of Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in 2002, FMW booker Hiromichi Fuyuki formed his own promotion, which ra ...

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (1997–present)

Ichimiya made his

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

debut at ''WAR 5th Anniversary of WAR & 10th Anniversary of the Tenryu Revolution'', an event produced by Wrestler Association-R on July 6, 1997, where he teamed up with

Shigeo Okumura is a Japanese professional wrestler who works for the Mexican professional wrestling promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and is billed as Okumura. He also performs for Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is a two-time and current ...

and

Tomohiro Ishii is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is currently a double champion: being the Strong Openweight Champion in his first reign, and one-half of the current IWGP Tag Team Champions with Ta ...

to defeat

Masaaki Mochizuki is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling Noah. Mochizuki is a former FIP World Champion and three-time Open the Dream Gate Champion. Professional wrestling career Early years A former karat ...

, Takashi Okamura and

Yoshikazu Taru is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known simply as Taru (stylised in all capital letters). He is signed to Makai, while also working for Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1) and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is the leader of the Voodo ...

in a

six-man tag team match Much like the singles match, tag team professional wrestling matches can and have taken many forms. Just about any singles or melee match type can be adapted to tag teams; for example, hardcore tag team matches are commonplace. Tag team ladder m ...

. On March 6, 1998, he competed at ''IWA Japan FUTURE TRIAL TOUR’98'', an event produced by

International Wrestling Association of Japan The International Wrestling Association of Japan, more commonly known as IWA Japan, was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion operating from 1994 to 2014. History Early years It was formed by Víctor Quiñones as a successor to the W*ING ...

, where he teamed up with

in a losing effort to

Keisuke Yamada is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . Originally starting his career in International Wrestling Association of Japan, where he worked under his real name, Yamada found a new home promotion in 1999 in Osaka Pro Wres ...

and Takeshi Sato. On January 25, 2003, Ichimiya teamed up with

Masao Orihara (born June 16, 1969) is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is known for his tenure with various Japanese promotions such as Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Wrestle Association R, Battlarts and Dramatic Dream Team. Professional wrestling career Or ...

, Mr. Pogo, Ofune and Goemon in a losing effort to

Mitsuhiro Matsunaga is a Japanese retired professional wrestler best known for his deathmatch wrestling style, having competed in memorable deathmatches in Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) and Wrestling International New Generat ...

, Mr. Gannosuke,

Kazuya Yuasa is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known for his ring names Gaina (stylized in all capital letters) and . He has worked in Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Osaka Pro Wrestling and Okinawa Pro Wrestling, having titles in all the three promotions. ...

Command Bolshoi is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. She debuted for Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (JWP) in November 1991 and worked for its follow-up promotion JWP Joshi Puroresu from 1992 until its folding in 2017, also serving as its final president. D ...

and Bad Boy Hido in a ten-person tag team match which took place at ''Battle Decisive East vs. West'', a freelance event. His last known match was at

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Puroresu, Japanese professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on October 21, 1972, by Giant Baba after he left the Japanese Wrestling Association to create his own promotion. Ma ...

's ''Suwamachi Revitalization Vol. 9'' event from October 30, 2016, where he defeated Fuminori Abe under the name of Ichiba Shin "Ichi".

Dramatic Dream Team/DDT Pro Wrestling (2002–present)

Ichimiya is a former KO-D Tag Team Champion, title which he won at ''DDT Max Bump 2003'' on May 18, by teaming up with Seiya Morohashi to defeat

Super Uchuu Power was a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler, also known under the ring name . Kimura was known for his work in promotions like Dramatic Dream Team, W*ING, Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, among ...

and Takashi Sasaki in a tournament final for the vacant titles. Ichimiya participated in a 14-person battle royal for the

Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship The is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the Japanese promotion CyberFight in its DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) brand. Open to anyone, regardless of gender or DDT employment status, the championship is defended "24/7", as in ...

, appearing two times under the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name or nickname 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 ...

of Giru Nakano and Keigi Mutoh parodies of the real wrestlers

Bull Nakano is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional golfer better known as . She began competing in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) as a teenager under the ring name Bull Nakano. As a wrestler she was a villain, who often team ...

and

Keiji Mutoh is a Japanese professional wrestling executive, actor and retired professional wrestler. He is known for his work under his real name and as his alter ego in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as well as World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and duri ...

, competing against many popular wrestling figures such as the winner

Toru Owashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by his ring name . He is best known for his work in DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion and two-time KO-D Tag Team Champion. Sumo career Initially aspiring to b ...

Michael Nakazawa , better known by the ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler and judoka signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Early life Nakazawa attended Tokai University before studying abroad in the United States where he obtained an MSc Sports Scien ...

Riho is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). She is a former AEW Women's World Champion. She was trained by Emi Sakura and debuted for her Ice Ribbon promotion in May 2006, at the age of 9. She would work for th ...

and

Yumiko Hotta is a Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. Hotta was trained by and started her career in the All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) promotion in June 1985. She worked for the promotion until 2003, becoming a three-time WWWA ...

at Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2009 on August 23. He won the

KO-D Openweight Championship The is a professional wrestling championship (professional wrestling), championship and the highest singles achievement in the DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) brand division of the Japanese professional wrestling promotion, promotion CyberFight. It is on ...

at ''DDT Dead Or Alive 2003'' on October 26 by defeating Takashi Sasaki in a chain deathmatch.

Professional wrestling persona

Throughout his career, Ichimiya has used many

s that were parodies of real wrestlers. Those names were usually based on

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, ph ...

and included the

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

(''gi''), meaning "fake". Once

romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

, some of those names can be indistinguishable from the real names. Those ring names included: * * * * * * * * *

Mixed martial arts career

Ichimiya debuted as a

as a

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

at Deep: 6th Impact, on September 7, 2002, falling short to Kazuki Okubo by way of

armbar An armlock in grappling is a single or double joint lock that hyperextends, hyperflexes or hyperrotates the elbow joint or shoulder joint. An armpit lock is very useful; it will immobilize an opponent and pin them on the ground. An armlock t ...

. At Deep: 7th Impact, he scored the first draw of his career against Azteca. Hos last known contest was a loss against Hidehisa Matsuda by way of a

rear-naked choke The rear naked choke (RNC), also known as hadaka jime (裸絞) in Judo and "lion killer choke (Mata Leão)" in BJJ, is a chokehold in martial arts applied from an opponent's back. The word ''naked'' in this context suggests that, unlike other stra ...

at Deep: 10th Impact from June 25, 2003. His final record of the career was (0-2-1).

Mixed martial arts record

, - , Loss , align=center, 0–2–1 , Hidehisa Matsuda , Technical Submission (rear-naked choke) , Deep: 10th Impact , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 3:39 ,

Tokyo, Japan 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 ...

, , - , Draw , align=center, , Azteca , Draw (unanimous) , Deep: 7th Impact , , align=center, 3 , align=center, 5:00 ,

, , - , Loss , align=center, 0–1 , Kazuki Okubo , Submission (armbar) , Deep: 6th Impact , , align=center, 1 , align=center, 2:41 ,

Championships and accomplishments

WEW World Tag Team Championship The WEW (World Entertainment Wrestling) World Tag Team Championship is a tag team professional wrestling championship formerly contested in the Japanese promotions Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling-Explosion ( ...

( 1 time) – with

Tomohiko Hashimoto is a Japanese professional wrestler and former judoka and mixed martial artist, best known for his time with Dramatic Dream Team (DDT), where he competed as a mainstay from 2000 to 2006. After working as a freelancer on the Japanese independent ...

* Dramatic Dream Team/DDT Pro-Wrestling :*

( 20 times) :*

( 1 time) :*

KO-D Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the Japanese promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). The title was established in 2001. The current champions are Astronauts (Fuminori Abe and Takuya Nomura). They won the titles by defe ...

( 1 time) – with

Seiya Morohashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Noah. Professional wrestling career Independent circuit (1997-present) Morohashi made his professional wrestling debut in In ...

* :*

GWC 6-Man Tag Team Championship The was a six-person tag team title established in 2006 by the Japanese professional wrestling promotion . After the promotion folded in 2018, the titles moved to Ganbare☆Pro-Wrestling, a sub-brand of DDT Pro-Wrestling. In June 2021, the titl ...

( 1 time) – with Daisuke and Yuri Urai *

IWA World Tag Team Championship The IWA World Tag Team Championship is a Tag Team Championship defended in Puerto Rico.The titles were first introduced in the first incarnation of the International Wrestling Association, where they are defended. They also made a brief appearan ...

( 1 time) – with

Jun Izumida was a Japanese professional wrestler who worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah. Sumo career Before being a professional wrestler, Izumida was a sumo wrestler, making his debut in March 1986. He reached a highest rank of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ichimiya, Shoichi 1969 births Living people Japanese male mixed martial artists Professional wrestlers from Tokyo Japanese male professional wrestlers 20th-century male professional wrestlers 20th-century Japanese professional wrestlers 21st-century male professional wrestlers 21st-century Japanese professional wrestlers Ironman Heavymetalweight Champions KO-D Tag Team Champions KO-D Openweight Champions GWC 6-Man Tag Team Champions 20th-century Japanese sportsmen