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Great Bash Heel

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Great Bash Heel ( グレート・バッシュ・ヒール , Gurēto Basshu Hīru ) , often abbreviated to G・B・H , is a professional wrestling stable turned tag team in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

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71-533: Originally formed by Hiroyoshi Tenzan in October 2006, G・B・H was the top villainous group in NJPW until April 2009, when the rest of the group turned on their leader, Togi Makabe , and formed a new stable named Chaos , under the leadership of Shinsuke Nakamura . Since 2010, G・B・H has operated as a tag team consisting of Makabe and Tomoaki Honma . On October 2, 2006, Hiroyoshi Tenzan , fresh off his G1 Climax triumph and

142-611: A Deep Sleep to Lose match , a match that could only be won by choking the opponent unconscious. In August, Tenzan took part in the 2011 G1 Climax , where he managed to win four out of his nine matches, finishing in the middle of his block. Later in the year, Tenzan and Kojima reformed their Tencozy tag team, defeating CHAOS members Hideo Saito and Takashi Iizuka in their return match on December 4. On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome , Tenzan and Kojima defeated Bad Intentions ( Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson ) to win

213-478: A Deep Sleep to Lose match , a match that could only be won by choking the opponent unconscious. On May 3, 2012, at Wrestling Dontaku 2012 , Iizuka won his first title in sixteen years, when he and Toru Yano defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. On June 20, Iizuka and Yano were stripped of the title, after their title rematch with Tenzan and Kojima ended in

284-474: A big win over former mentor Masahiro Chono and on his way to challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship , announced the formation of his first stable and named former interim IWGP Tag Team Champions, Togi Makabe and Shiro Koshinaka , as his first recruits. Tenzan announced that the criteria for joining his group was to "be strong, bad and cool" and that the intention of his new stable

355-440: A broken left ankle, which sidelined him until August. After 33 years with New Japan Pro-Wrestling , on January 7, 2019, NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced Iizuka would retire from professional wrestling the following month, with his retirement match taking place on February 21. In the weeks leading up to his retirement match, Iizuka's former partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan , whom Iizuka turned on in 2008, began attempting to get

426-629: A few misconducted customers (played by Togi Makabe , Toru Yano , Jado , Gedo and a CTU Themed wrestler). He has appeared on the Japanese television show Sasuke . Tenzan, along with fellow NJPW wrestlers Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada , Satoshi Kojima, Tetsuya Naito and Toru Yano, appears as a member of the gang Justis in the 2016 video game Yakuza 6: The Song of Life . Takashi Iizuka Takayuki Iizuka ( 飯塚 孝之 , Iizuka Takayuki , born August 2, 1966) , better known by his ring name Takashi Iizuka ( 飯塚 高史 , Iizuka Takashi ) ,

497-705: A founding member of NWO Japan , as Chono joined the nWo in December 1996. For the rest of 1997, Tenzan and the rest of nWo Japan continued the nWo tradition of attacking their various enemies. Tenzan got his third chance for the IWGP Tag Team Titles in July 1998, after Chono's former tag-team partner Keiji Mutoh was injured. Tenzan and Chono went on to win the tournament and the belts. A month later, they were defeated by Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka . Tenzan continued to feud with Tenryu and Koshinaka, eventually getting

568-477: A four-way match, which also included Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano, and Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man , starting Tenzan's eleventh reign as champion. During early August, Tenzan competed in the G1 Climax , but midway through the tournament it was announced that, due to a fractured rib, he was pulled from the competition. Tenzan returned to the ring on October 14 at King of Pro-Wrestling , ironically just as Kojima

639-473: 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

710-462: A major concussion in a match against Mitsuya Nagai on June 6, 2001, the injury would keep him out until October 6, 2002. Upon his return, he began a feud with Nagai, who by that point joined the Makai Club as Makai #5. The feud with go through the first quarter of 2003 with Iizuka eventually winning two three-match series against Nagai to end the feud. After the feud, he spent the next few years in

781-662: A new partner in Satoshi Kojima , thanks to Mutoh's leadership in nWo Japan. The two teams fought at the Tokyo Dome in January 1999, with Tenzan and Kojima coming through, defeating Koshinaka and Tenryu to get the IWGP Tag-Team belts. A few months later, Koshinaka retook the titles from Tenzan and Kojima, with his partner Kensuke Sasaki . For the next year, Tenzan continued to wrestle in NJPW, feuding with Koshinaka, Masahiro Chono, Manabu Nakanishi , and others. He defeated Wild Pegasus at

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852-438: A new tag team with Toru Yano and together the two of them entered the 2007 G1 Tag League , along with their stablemates, Gedo and Jado. Makabe and Yano would make it to the semifinals of the tournament, before being defeated by the eventual winners of the whole tournament, Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko of RISE , a spinoff group of BLACK, led by Shinsuke Nakamura . After the tournament, Makabe and Yano would remain together as

923-514: A no contest. They would eventually lose to TenKoji in a decision match for the vacant title on July 22. In early 2013, Iizuka and Yano began making appearances for Pro Wrestling Noah , which led to them defeating Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura for the GHC Tag Team Championship on March 10, 2013. They lost the title to TMDK ( Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste ) in their third defense on July 7. On May 25, 2014, at Back to

994-604: A number of different partners in the lead up to April. Iizuka's career would make a radical change in April 2008. During a tag team match with Hiroyoshi Tenzan against then-IWGP Tag Team Champions, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano , Iizuka turned on Tenzan with his trademark sleeper hold, turning heel and joining G.B.H. as their newest member and their insider in the New Japan Seikigun. Upon his heel turn, Iizuka changed his look and wrestling style, shaving his head bald, growing

1065-487: A record of three wins and four losses. Throughout 2015 both Makabe and Honma were involved in the NEVER Openweight Championship picture with Makabe winning the title twice from Tomohiro Ishii, who defeated Honma twice in his attempts to win his first NJPW title. In November, Makabe and Honma reunited for the 2015 World Tag League , winning their block with a record of four wins and two losses and advancing to

1136-467: A rematch with Savage at NJPW's Battle Formation show on April 29, 1996, and again he lost. In 1998 he returned to WCW as a member of NWO Japan , where he mainly teamed with Masahiro Chono . Tenzan appeared in the video for "Yonaoshi Good Vibration" by Japanese metal band Sex Machineguns . Tenzan also appeared as a cooking chief alongside Masahiro Chono on a movie called Kantoku Banzai! directed by Takeshi Kitano . He appears alongside Chono beating

1207-405: A singles match, at the end of which Yano turned on both Makabe and Tomoaki Honma and helped Nakamura pick up the win. Nakamura would assume leadership of G・B・H, having the support of all members except Makabe (who was taking time off) & Honma. G・B・H would continue to be led by Nakamura as different members defeated Honma in singles matches before Makabe returned and declared that he and Honma were

1278-454: A sinister beard, and adapting a hardcore wrestling style. He was also given the gimmick of an uncontrollable madman, often making his entrances through crowds, violently pushing fans and announcers around. He also began frequently using an iron glove on opponents as his main weapon of choice. For a brief period, Iizuka was also given the nickname: "The Great Traitor" for his betrayal of the New Japan Seikigun. His first major feud after turning

1349-584: A six-man tag team match, where they faced Takahashi, Takashi Iizuka and Yoshi-Hashi . After Kojima had pinned Yoshi-Hashi for the win, Iizuka hit both him and Tenzan with a steel chair, after which Takahashi began choking out his rival Makabe with his own steel chain. This led to Tomoaki Honma making his return to New Japan, one year after his firing from the promotion, chasing Chaos out of the ring and helping Makabe backstage. The reunited G・B・H. had their first match back together on April 7 at Invasion Attack , where they were defeated by Takahashi and Masato Tanaka in

1420-575: A tag team match. In late 2013, G・B・H. started feuding with the Bullet Club stable. In December, Makabe and Honma made it to the semifinals of the 2013 World Tag League , before being eliminated by the Bullet Club team of Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. G・B・H. continued teaming sporadically throughout 2014 and in November took part in the 2014 World Tag League , but this time finished last in their block with

1491-476: A tag team, eventually naming the unit "Most Violent Players" (MVP). On January 4, 2008, at Wrestle Kingdom II in Tokyo Dome , MVP faced Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) tag team Team 3D ( Brother Devon and Brother Ray ) in a hardcore tag team match in a losing effort. After spending months sidelined, Hiroyoshi Tenzan finally made his return to New Japan on February 17, but after he, Gedo, Jado and Ishii were defeated by Legend in an eight-man tag team match,

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1562-684: A tag team. Karl Anderson joined the unit on March 13 after assisting Makabe, Yano & Ishii beat down Tenzan & Iizuka. On April 27, Tenzan and Iizuka challenged Makabe and Yano for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, however, Iizuka ended up turning on Tenzan and joining G・B・H. Tenzan would find new allies in Legend and Satoshi Kojima and would spend the rest of the year feuding with the stable he had created. On September 5, 2008, former RISE member, Low Ki , made his return to New Japan, attacking Jyushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask , before being revealed as

1633-502: A three-way match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, which was won by Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano. After missing the better part of 2017 and 2018 due to injury caused by Jado , Honma returned to the ring although was a shadow of his former self. With Great Bash Heel seemingly out of tag team title contention, the alliance formed between the Main Unit and Chaos led to Makabe, Toru Yano and Ryusuke Taguchi teaming up. They ended up earning

1704-495: A trio with El Samurai , wrestling in mid-card tag team matches against teams such as Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatsutoshi Goto , Hiro Saito and Norio Honaga , Brad Armstrong and Scott Norton and others, but the team never proved to be any threat to the IWGP Tag Team titles, so they disbanded in 1996, with Nogami joining with Shiro Koshinaka 's Heisei Ishingun , while Iizuka began teaming with Kazuo Yamazaki , together winning

1775-566: 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 Takashi Iizuka ( 飯塚 高史 , Iizuka Takashi ) in 1995, he became

1846-557: The 2005 G1 Tournament , and almost made it to the semi-finals. In October 2005, Tenzan and Chono reunited to win the IWGP Tag Team Title for a fifth time from Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura. On August 13, 2006, Tenzan defeated longtime rival Satoshi Kojima in the final of the 2006 G1 Climax , becoming only the second wrestler to go undefeated in a round robin style G-1. This would be his third G1 title. After severing ties with his old mentor Masahiro Chono, Tenzan founded

1917-482: The GHC Tag Team Championship . In December, Makabe and Honma advanced to the finals of the 2016 World Tag League by winning their block with a record of five wins and two losses. On December 10, Makabe and Honma defeated the reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny to win the 2016 World Tag League, becoming the first ever team to win the tournament in two consecutive years. On January 4, 2017 at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome , Makabe and Honma took part in

1988-493: The IWGP Tag Team Championship in a tournament, which they held for a month until the title was vacated due to Chono missing a match when his father died. In July 1996, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Title again, this time beating Kazuo Yamazaki and Takashi Iizuka . They held the titles for over 5 months before losing to Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura in January 1997. A few weeks later, Tenzan became

2059-412: The IWGP Tag Team Championship on June 12, 1996. They held the championships for 34 days, before dropping them to Masahiro Chono and Hiroyoshi Tenzan . In October 1995, he changed his ring name from Takayuki to Takashi. In June 1996, he won his second IWGP Tag Team title, this time with another veteran, Kazuo Yamazaki . After losing the titles in July 1996 to Masahiro Chono and Hiroyoshi Tenzan , he

2130-595: The NEVER Openweight Championship . When the participants for the 2016 G1 Climax were revealed, Tenzan was surprisingly left out of the tournament. Tenzan was a former three-time G1 Climax winner and the holder of the record for most wins in G1 Climax matches, who had participated in every tournament since 1995 with the exception of the 2010 tournament, which he missed due to an injury. Afterwards, Tenzan repeatedly expressed his anger at being left out of possibly his last G1 Climax. However, on July 3, Satoshi Kojima bowed out of

2201-516: The Soviet Union to be trained in sambo , where he would learn his signature maneuvers, the uranage and the Blizzard Suplex . A month later, he won his first championship, the IWGP Tag Team Championship , with veteran Riki Choshu , defeating Super Strong Machine and George Takano in July 1989. After losing the titles two months later to Shinya Hashimoto and Masa Saito , he floundered in

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2272-653: The World's Strongest Tag Determination League in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the G1 Tag League in NJPW, becoming the only tag team which has done both. He is a four-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and a record twelve-time IWGP Tag Team Champion . He is also a former National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Champion . Hiroyoshi Yamamoto first worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling . He debuted in January 1991, wrestling Osamu Matsuda . In 1993, after winning

2343-711: The Young Lions Cup , NJPW sent Yamamoto on a European excursion; one of his stops was in the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany , where in July 1993, he defeated Lance Storm to become the promotion's first World Junior Heavyweight Champion . A few weeks later, he lost the title to Storm. Three months later, he would regain and lose the title back to Storm. After spending nearly two years in Europe, Yamamoto would finally make his return to NJPW on January 4, 1995, at

2414-447: The "old" Iizuka back, wearing a Friendship Tag t-shirt and constantly reminding Iizuka of their past together. After being attacked by Iizuka at every attempt, Tenzan said he would face Iizuka in one last attempt to get his old friend back. In Iizuka's last match on February 21, he, Minoru Suzuki and Taichi were defeated by Tenzan, Kazuchika Okada (who was once one of Iizuka's students) and Toru Yano (his former CHAOS partner). After

2485-455: The Butcher against Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono , Manabu Nakanishi , and Terry Funk . Iizuka's team lost when tension between Abdullah and Iizuka led to their loss. On December 11, 2010, Iizuka restarted his feud with Hiroyoshi Tenzan, who had just returned after being sidelined for fifteen months due to an injury. On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome , Tenzan defeated Iizuka in

2556-529: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Yoshihiro Takayama. He would go on to drop the title less than a month later to unlikely victor Shinsuke Nakamura , who, at the young age of 23, became the youngest world champion in company history. Tenzan proceeded to win it three other times (in February 2004 from Genichiro Tenryu, December 2004 from Kensuke Sasaki and May 2005 from Satoshi Kojima). He lost

2627-543: The IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which he would win on May 3, 2010, and although he and Tomoaki Honma, the only member of G・B・H. to remain loyal to him, would occasionally wrestle together under the G・B・H. banner, the stable was effectively dissolved. On March 28, 2012, New Japan released Honma from his contract, officially ending G・B・H. On March 23, 2013, Togi Makabe, who had recently begun feuding with Chaos member Yujiro Takahashi , teamed with Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima in

2698-518: The IWGP Tag Team Championship for the third time together, Tenzan's ninth time individually. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012 , Tenzan and Kojima lost the title to Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano in their third defense. On July 22, Tenzan and Kojima defeated Iizuka and Yano in a decision match to regain the newly vacated title. On October 8 at King of Pro-Wrestling , Tenzan and Kojima lost the title to K.E.S. ( Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lance Archer ). From November 20 to December 1, Tencozy took part in

2769-405: The IWGP Tag Team titles to Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yutaka Yoshie , Tenzan went on a brief excursion to Canada in the summer of 2003, training with Tokyo Joe Daigo. When he returned for the G1 Climax, he transformed his wrestling style from a buffalo to an anaconda. The excursion worked, as he won his first G1 Climax, defeating NOAH's Jun Akiyama in the finals. In November 2003, Tenzan finally won

2840-623: The Junior Heavyweight Championship back to Tiger Mask and MVP lost the Tag Team Championship to Team 3D in a hardcore rematch of their encounter from the previous year. Val Venis joined the unit briefly and lost a singles match against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Black Tiger (played by Rocky Romero) also joined briefly to feud with Tiger Mask over the Junior Heavyweight Championship after Ki's departure. On April 5, G・B・H. co–leader Togi Makabe faced RISE leader Shinsuke Nakamura in

2911-628: The New Japan roster. Iizuka competed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling over four separate decades before retiring from in ring competition in February 2019. Iizuka made his debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling in November 1986, wrestling against Akira Nogami in a losing effort. From 1986 to 1988, he would only be used as a pre-show attraction, wrestling other young lions such as Kensuke Sasaki , Kenichi Oya , Osamu Matsuda , Shigeo Miyato and Minoru Suzuki , with this latter wrestling Iizuka in his debut match in June 1988. In June 1989, Iizuka and Hiroshi Hase went to

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2982-489: The Tokyo Dome in January 2000. In July 2000, Tenzan, still teamed with Kojima, got the IWGP Tag Team Titles for the 5th time, winning over Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata . Tenzan and Kojima feuded with Nakanishi and Nagata for the next few months, with Tenzan and Kojima coming out on top. On February 24, 2002, Tenzan made a brief appearance at WWA The Revolution pay-per-view from Las Vegas , Nevada , where he choked Disco Inferno . Scott Steiner then attacked Disco in

3053-475: The Tokyo Dome, this time under a new name, Hiroyoshi Tenzan ( 天山 広吉 , Tenzan Hiroyoshi ) . The name was given to him by Tokyo Joe, who derived the name from the Tien Shan mountains. A month later, he received his very first shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort against Shinya Hashimoto . Tenzan then began teaming with Masahiro Chono as Team Wolf. In June 1995, Tenzan and Chono won

3124-589: The Yokohama Arena , Iizuka turned on Yano and Chaos and jumped to the Suzuki-gun stable. On January 10, 2015, Iizuka took part in an angle, where he, along with the rest of Suzuki-gun, invaded the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion. Iizuka worked regularly for Noah until the storyline concluded in December 2016, which led to the stable returning to NJPW on January 5, 2017. A couple of months later, Iizuka suffered

3195-518: The championship to AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Kojima in a cross-promotional champion vs. champion match. The match had a unique finish designed to fool fans in attendance. The idea was to make it look like the match was going to end in a 60-minute time limit draw. However, with just seconds before the match would be declared a time limit draw, Tenzan, who was known to have a legitimate back injury, could not continue, resulting in Kojima being declared

3266-595: The finals of the tournament. On December 9, they defeated Los Ingobernables de Japón ( Evil and Tetsuya Naito ) in the finals to win the 2015 World Tag League. On January 4, 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome , Makabe and Honma defeated Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Guerrillas of Destiny ( Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa ) on April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016 . On October 23, Honma and Makabe made an appearance for Pro Wrestling Noah , unsuccessfully challenging Naomichi Marufuji and Toru Yano for

3337-820: The finals. On February 14, 2015, at The New Beginning in Sendai , Tenzan defeated Rob Conway to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . He made successful title defenses against Kojima on March 21 and Big Daddy Yum-Yum on April 29. In the 2015 G1 Climax , Tenzan finished second to last in his block with a record of three wins and six losses. On August 29, Tenzan lost the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Jax Dane in San Antonio, Texas . On April 10, 2016, at Invasion Attack 2016 , Tenzan unsuccessfully challenged Katsuyori Shibata for

3408-537: The fourth and fifth member of G・B・H. G・B・H. were then engulfed in a three–way war with the New Japan Seikigun, led by Yuji Nagata, and BLACK, led by Masahiro Chono. While Tenzan began touring All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in December, Makabe acted as the de facto leader of G・B・H. The group then attempted to simultaneously capture both the World Tag Team Championship and IWGP Tag Team Championship , but failed on both attempts. In February 2007, G・B・H.

3479-602: The heel unit GBH ("Great Bash Heel", affectionately referred to by fans as "Great Big Head"); it was composed of Tenzan, Togi Makabe , Shiro Koshinaka , Toru Yano , Tomohiro Ishii and Tomoaki Honma . In February 2008, GBH turned on Tenzan with Makabe taking over the leadership of the group. Tenzan feuded with his former stablemates until the following October. Since returning to New Japan in May 2009, he has split his time between reforming Tencozy and teaming with old GBH teammates Makabe and Honma against CHAOS . In August 2009 Tenzan

3550-534: The mid-card, as well as helping young talent in the New Japan Dojo. On March 9, 2008, after Hiroyoshi Tenzan was attacked by the rest of Great Bash Heel once again just weeks after he had been kicked out of the stable, Iizuka came to his aid, clearing the ring of Tomoaki Honma , Gedo and Jado . Iizuka and Tenzan announced they would be forming a tag team to be known as "Friendship Tag". Friendship Tag proved to be successful, and they defeated Togi Makabe and

3621-821: The mid-card. In 1991, he wrestled in Europe , mainly in Austria and Germany for Catch Wrestling Association and in England for All Star Wrestling . He competed only twice in the United States, for the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance on September 21, 1991, against Owen Hart , and for World Championship Wrestling on May 17, 1992, teaming with the legendary Tatsumi Fujinami in a losing effort against The Steiner Brothers at WrestleWar . He formed what eventually became J-J-Jacks with Akira Nogami in 1992, also briefly forming

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3692-492: The newest member of G・B・H. The same day, Giant Bernard and Rick Fuller turned on RISE and joined G・B・H. Fuller would, however, leave the promotion shortly after his first appearance as a member of G・B・H. On September 21, Low Ki defeated Tiger Mask to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . Both of G・B・H.'s title reigns ended on January 4, 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome , when Low Ki lost

3763-414: The rest of G・B・H. turned on their leader and kicked him out of the group. Later that same night, Makabe and Yano defeated Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship, G・B・H.'s first title in New Japan. As the former leader of G・B・H., Tenzan had difficulties in finding new allies, however, long time Seikigun member Takashi Iizuka was the first to accept him and the two went on to form

3834-462: The returning Tenzan. The two would have a third match on July 20, 2009, which would be another Chain Death Match, this time though Tenzan would defeat Iizuka by knockout to end the feud. During the G1 Climax tournament in 2009, Iizuka lost five out of his six matches, mostly by disqualification, due to the use of his iron glove and his new weapon, a steel toothguard. His only non-disqualification loss

3905-528: The right to challenge Bullet Club for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship at New Year Dash!! 2019, at Wrestle Kingdom 13 . Hiroyoshi Tenzan Hiroyoshi Yamamoto ( 山本 広吉 , Yamamoto Hiroyoshi , born March 23, 1971) is a Japanese professional wrestler who is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling , and is better known by his ring name Hiroyoshi Tenzan ( 天山 広吉 , Tenzan Hiroyoshi ) . With Satoshi Kojima , in 2008, they won

3976-500: The ring. Tenzan could be seen sitting right behind the announcer's table when Disco joined commentary. He can be seen leaving the arena following Steiner's attack on Disco. Tenzan also won the IWGP Tag Team Titles in March 2002 with Masahiro Chono (their title reign lasting over one year; it also tied the team record for most championships won with Fujinami & Kimura), and again in December 2003 with Osamu Nishimura. After he and Chono lost

4047-408: The round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League . The team finished with a record of four wins and two losses, winning their block and advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On December 2, Tencozy was eliminated from the tournament in their semifinal match by Sword & Guns ( Hirooki Goto and Karl Anderson). On May 3, 2013, Tencozy regained the IWGP Tag Team Championship from K.E.S. in

4118-531: The semifinals, before losing to Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. On April 6, 2014, at Invasion Attack 2014 , Tencozy defeated The IronGodz to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship . After four successful title defenses, they lost the title to K.E.S. on October 13 at King of Pro-Wrestling . The following month, Tencozy took part in the 2014 World Tag League , where they finished with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to

4189-470: The setback, announced that his quest had only just begun. Finally on October 15, Tenzan announced that the official name of his stable was Great Bash Heel, G・B・H., and named their goal to become the biggest villainous group in New Japan history by causing " grievous bodily harm ", something the group's name was also a reference to. The following day, Tenzan orchestrated a truce between the teams of Makabe and Koshinaka and Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano, who became

4260-467: The sixth time. They lost the title to War Machine ( Hanson and Raymond Rowe ) on April 9 at Sakura Genesis 2017 . Tencozy would participate in every World Tag League from 2015 onward, failing to advance to any finals. Tenzan main evented the retirement show for Takashi Iizuka who had betrayed him in 2008. Tenzan had been trying to convince Iizuka to team with him once more before his retirement, and after match (which Tenzan had won, pinning Iizuka)

4331-414: The tournament and agreed to give his spot to Tenzan under the condition that he goes on to win the tournament. Tenzan later confirmed that the 2016 G1 Climax would be his last. After kicking off his tournament with two wins, Tenzan lost all seven of his following matches, finishing last in his block. On March 6, 2017, Tencozy defeated Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for

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4402-450: The true members of G・B・H. 2 nights later on the 23rd, Nakamura announced that He, Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson, Tomohiro Ishii, Black Tiger (being played by Tatsuhito Takaiwa after Romero's unmasking on April 5), Jado and Gedo would form a new unit, Chaos (RISE was also ignored). G・B・H would then align with the New Japan Seikigun, turning them babyface. The events would kickstart Makabe's singles career and quest for

4473-635: The two embraced before Iizuka attacked and retired as a villain. Tenzan competed in the newly expanded New Japan Cup in 2019, where he would lose in the Round of 32 to Ryusuke Taguchi , who was filling in for injured David Finlay . He would also compete in next year's tournament, losing in the same round to Yoshi-Hashi . Tenzan had a brief tenure in World Championship Wrestling , most notably being defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage at Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling ; Tenzan would get

4544-473: The winner and becoming the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. NJPW officials had come up with the finish, which was designed to look like a "mistake", having agreed with AJPW that it would be better if Kojima won the match, but not wanting the match to end in a standard pinfall or submission. Tenzan defeated Kojima in a rematch three months later, bringing the championship back to NJPW. He lost the championship to Kazuyuki Fujita on July 18, 2005. Tenzan competed in

4615-457: Was back in the mid-card. 2000 proved to be a great year for Iizuka: on January 4, he teamed with Shinya Hashimoto in a victorious match against Naoya Ogawa and Kazunari Murakami . On July 20, he finally received a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship , despite a losing effort against Kensuke Sasaki . His successful year was capped off by winning the G1 Tag League tournament with Yuji Nagata in November. After that, Iizuka would suffer

4686-427: Was joined by Tomoaki Honma and he was followed by veteran tag team of Jado and Gedo in July, while the following month, Koshinaka turned on G・B・H. and joined Masahiro Chono's new Legend stable. After being pinned by Koshinaka in a tag team match between G・B・H. and Legend, Tenzan announced that he was going to be taking some time off to heal himself up. With his regular tag team partner gone from G・B・H., Makabe formed

4757-447: Was sidelined with an injury of his own, teaming with Takaaki Watanabe in a tag team match, where they were defeated by K.E.S. Kojima returned to the ring on November 9 at Power Struggle , where he and Tenzan lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship back to K.E.S. in a three-way match, which also included The IronGodz ( Jax Dane and Rob Conway ). In December, Tencozy made it to the finals of the 2013 World Tag League , defeating K.E.S. in

4828-498: Was sidelined with an injury. Fifteen months later on November 18, 2010, Tenzan returned to the ring, defeating Antonio Honda at New Japan's NEVER.4 event. On December 11 Tenzan wrestled his first main show for New Japan since his return, defeating Gedo in Osaka . After the match Tenzan was attacked by Takashi Iizuka, restarting the feud between the two. On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome , Tenzan defeated Iizuka in

4899-402: Was to Shinsuke Nakamura by pinfall. And, his only win came against his former tag team partner, Yuji Nagata, who got himself disqualified by throwing the referee out of the ring, whilst he was making his comeback, following Iizuka's repeated use of the steel toothguard and interference from Tomohiro Ishii . On January 4, 2010, Iizuka teamed with fellow CHAOS members Yano and Ishii and Abdullah

4970-433: Was to revive the old "beautiful New Japan". Tenzan immediately began sending out invitations to other New Japan wrestlers, such as Yuji Nagata , Manabu Nakanishi and even Makabe's and Koshinaka's blood rivals, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano , to join the group, which was unofficially named Mougyu Ikka. On October 9, Tenzan failed in his attempt to regain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Hiroshi Tanahashi , but despite

5041-643: Was with the man he betrayed, Tenzan. The two first fought on July 8, 2008, in a Lumberjack Death Match which Tenzan won. The two fought again on October 13, 2008, at Destruction '08 in a Chain Death Match which Iizuka won. Since then Iizuka has gone on to feud with Yuji Nagata, again defeating him in a Chain Death Match on April 5, 2009, but would lose the rematch on May 3, 2009, at Wrestling Dontaku 2009 . In early 2009, Iizuka, along with most of his stablemates, turned on G.B.H. to join Shinsuke Nakamura 's new Chaos group, and in mid-2009 he rekindled his feud with

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