Mid 20th Century
144-568: Yoshihiro Tajiri ( 田尻 義博 , Tajiri Yoshihiro , born September 29, 1970) is a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter primarily known under the ring name Tajiri (sometimes stylized as "TAJIRI"), he has also competed under his real name as well as under the names Aquarius and Kikkoman and briefly worked as the masked character Tigre Blanco . He rose to international attention through his work for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1998 to 2001 and World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment from 2001 to 2008 and
288-629: A Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) event on December 26, 2010, where they were defeated by the defending champions, the Golden☆Lovers ( Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi ). At the end of 2011, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter named Gedo and Jado the bookers of the year. They have won the award three more times since then. On July 5, 2013, Gedo received his first shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in nearly
432-435: A bona fide athletic contest or competition. Professional wrestling is not a combative sport. Wrestling constituting bona fide athletic contests and competitions, which may be professional or amateur combative sport, shall not be deemed professional wrestling under this Part. Professional wrestling as used in this Part shall not depend on whether the individual wrestlers are paid or have been paid for their performance in
576-479: A ladder match . The following week, Guerrero and Tajiri managed to retain their title by cheating. In addition, they also defeated Roddy Piper and his protégé Sean O'Haire at Madison Square Garden . After Guerrero and Tajiri lost the titles to The World's Greatest Tag Team (formerly Team Angle) on the July 3 episode of SmackDown! , Guerrero turned on Tajiri, slamming him through the windshield of his lowrider truck. On
720-415: A performing art evolved from the common practice of match-fixing among American wrestlers in the 19th century, who later sought to make matches shorter, more entertaining, and less physically taxing. As the public gradually realized and accepted that matches were predetermined, wrestlers responded by increasingly adding melodrama, gimmickry, and outlandish stunt work to their performances to further enhance
864-415: A professional wrestling exhibition. All engagements of professional wrestling shall be referred to as exhibitions, and not as matches. In the industry's slang, a fixed match is referred to as a worked match, derived from the slang word for manipulation, as in "working the crowd". A shoot match is a genuine contest where both wrestlers fight to win and are therefore "straight shooters", which comes from
1008-458: A 3-Way Dance (that also featured Little Guido) to Super Crazy at ECW One Night Stand 2005 on June 12. Later that year, he formed a short-lived team with Eugene . In December 2005, Tajiri left WWE, stating that he wanted to try to become a journalist and spend more time with his wife and family in Japan. His final televised WWE match was a loss to Gregory Helms on Heat . After the match, he received
1152-413: A background in authentic wrestling no longer mattered. After this time, matches became more outlandish and gimmicky and any semblance professional wrestling had to catch wrestling faded. The personas of the wrestlers likewise grew more outlandish. Gorgeous George , who performed throughout the 1940s and 1950s, was the first wrestler whose entrance into the arena was accompanied by a theme song played over
1296-520: A carny term for a shooting gallery gun whose sights were not deliberately misaligned. Wrestling in the United States blossomed in popularity after the Civil War , with catch wrestling eventually becoming the most popular style. At first, professional wrestlers were genuine competitive fighters, but they struggled to draw audiences because Americans did not find real wrestling to be very entertaining, so
1440-513: A central authority. Nor could any of them stomach the idea of leaving the NWA themselves to compete directly with McMahon, for that would mean their territories would become fair game for the other NWA members. McMahon also had a creative flair for TV that his rivals lacked. For instance, the AWA's TV productions during the 1980s were amateurish, low-budget, and out-of-touch with contemporary culture, which lead to
1584-574: A champion that Curley put forth: Dick Shikat . The National Wrestling Association shut down in 1980. In 1948, a number of promoters from across the country came together to form the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). The NWA recognized one "world champion", voted on by its members, but allowed member promoters to crown their own local champions in their territories. If a member poached wrestlers from another member, or held matches in another member's territory, they risked being ejected from
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#17331048574731728-462: A contract by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), but turned it down because he would have been required to portray a stereotypical Japanese character. In July 2007, Gedo and Jado joined the Great Bash Heel (GBH) faction. The tag team would compete in the 2007 G1 Tag League , but failed to win, with a final tally of 6 points. In April 2009 Gedo and Jado left GBH and became founding members of
1872-531: A decade as he attempted to stop Prince Devitt from earning a shot at Okada's IWGP Heavyweight Championship . Gedo, however, failed in his challenge and Devitt advanced to the match with Okada. On November 1, Gedo and Jado received their first shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in three years, but were defeated by the defending champions, Suzuki-gun ( Taichi and Taka Michinoku ). In early 2015, Gedo became
2016-417: A degree. Vince Russo, the boss of WCW in 2000, completely disregarded kayfabe by routinely discussing business matters and office politics in public, which alienated fans. I watch championship wrestling from Florida with wrestling commentator Gordon Solie . Is this all "fake"? If so, they deserve an Oscar . Gedo (wrestler) Keiji Takayama ( 高山 圭司 , Takayama Keiji , born February 20, 1969)
2160-404: A distinct vernacular . It has achieved mainstream success and influence within popular culture , with many terms, tropes , and concepts being referenced in everyday language as well as in film , music , television , and video games . Likewise, numerous professional wrestlers have become national or international icons with recognition by the broader public. In the United States, wrestling
2304-410: A fee, a visitor could challenge the wrestler to a quick match. If the challenger defeated the champion in a short time frame, usually 15 minutes, he won a prize. To encourage challenges, the carnival operators staged rigged matches in which an accomplice posing as a visitor challenged the champion and won, giving the audience the impression that the champion was easy to beat. This practice taught wrestlers
2448-564: A full-time member of the New Japan roster on April 1. At Smash.12 Tajiri would successfully defend his title against Super Crazy but would lose the title later on in the night to Michael Kovac at Smash.13, at Smash.13. On September 8 at Smash.21, Tajiri defeated Akira in the semifinals of the Smash Championship tournament. On October 28, Tajiri was defeated in the finals of the tournament by StarBuck. On February 10, 2012, Smash announced that
2592-477: A knee injury, but WWE decided not to use him due to his age. Following his departure from WWE, Tajiri returned to Japan, with All Japan announcing his first post-WWE booking for June 11. On July 30, Tajiri defeated Hikaru Sato to win the promotion's World Junior Heavyweight Championship . He lost the title to Último Dragón on August 27, before regaining it on October 21. His reign as Junior Heavyweight Champion lasted until February 3, 2018, when Atsushi Aoki won
2736-405: A legitimate sport. Firstly, wrestling was more entertaining when it was faked, whereas fakery did not make boxing any more entertaining. Secondly, in a rigged boxing match, the designated loser must take a real beating for his "defeat" to be convincing, but wrestling holds can be faked convincingly without inflicting injury. This meant that boxers were less willing to "take dives"; they wanted to have
2880-754: A match against Gus Sonnenberg in January 1929. Bowser then broke away from the trust to form his own cartel, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), in September 1930, and he declared Sonnenberg to be the AWA champion. This AWA should not be confused with Wally Kadbo's AWA founded in 1960. Curley reacted to this move by convincing the National Boxing Association to form the National Wrestling Association , which in turn crowned
3024-424: A more literal meaning in those places. A notable example is India's Pro Wrestling League . In numerous American states, professional wrestling is legally defined as a non-sport. For instance, New York defines professional wrestling as: Professional wrestling means an activity in which participants struggle hand-in-hand primarily for the purpose of providing entertainment to spectators and which does not comprise
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#17331048574733168-455: A more ruthless, deranged persona, focusing more on inflicting pain on his opponents than winning matches, which included creating the Tarantula submission hold. The Tarantula is a Rope-hung Boston crab , where Tajiri himself is hung upside down over the top rope as he applies the hold. Since the move involves the use of the ring ropes, it is technically an illegal hold, and must be broken before
3312-497: A new career as an acupuncturist abroad. On January 31, 2016, Tajiri, Kaz Hayashi and Minoru Tanaka won the vacant UWA World Trios Championship . On June 28, 2016, Tajiri announced he was leaving Wrestle-1 due to his contract with the company expiring. On July 29, Tajiri, Hayashi, and Tanaka lost the UWA World Trios Championship to Andy Wu , Daiki Inaba and Seiki Yoshioka in their fifth defense. Tajiri debuted at
3456-440: A new city, attendance was high because there was a waiting fanbase cultivated in advance by the cable TV shows. The NWA's traditional anti-competitive tricks were no match for this. The NWA attempted to centralize and create their own national cable television shows to counter McMahon's rogue promotion, but it failed in part because the members of the NWA, ever protective of their territories, could not stomach submitting themselves to
3600-467: A new feud, which quickly ended after Noble betrayed his blind girlfriend and turned heel again. Kyo Dai would quickly be separated from Tajiri and eventually split up after Tajiri refused the WWE writers proposal of Kyo Dai portraying Japanese gangsters. Tajiri feared that it might anger the real Japanese yakuza if they saw the gimmick as an insult. At WrestleMania XX , Tajiri took part in a cruiserweight open for
3744-575: A new promotion. On April 5, 2012, Tajiri announced the follow-up promotion to Smash, Wrestling New Classic (WNC), which would hold its first event on April 26. On April 26, Tajiri was defeated by Akira in the main event of WNC's first event. For WNC's second event on May 24, Tajiri reunited with former ECW tag team partner, Mikey Whipwreck, to defeat Gedo and Jado in a hardcore tag team match. Two days later, Tajiri and Whipwreck defeated Yo-Hey and Yusuke Kodama in another hardcore tag team match. On June 22, Tajiri's longtime partner Akira turned on him and,
3888-564: A one-night event where he and his partners Akira and StarBuck defeated Bushi , Keiji Muto , and Shuji Kondo . During the summer of 2009, Tajiri invaded NJPW, where he started a feud with the International Wrestling Gran Prix (IWGP) Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi , by attacking and green misting him after his title defense against Takashi Sugiura . Tajiri participated in G1 Climax 2009 and won his first match of
4032-438: A referee's count of 5 or risk disqualification. Since a submission from this position is not valid, it is a symbol of the "Sadism" that his "Japanese Buzzsaw" character displays. When Tajiri transitioned to the heel character in 1998 he began wearing baggy pants, using the heavy pants to hide just how much contact his foot actually has with an opponent's chest when Tajiri performs a " Buzzsaw Kick " (a high-speed roundhouse kick to
4176-493: A return in 2016–2017. Early in his career, he worked for several Mexican promotions such as Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). After leaving WWE in 2005 he has worked for a number of Japanese promotions including New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Hustle , Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah) and Wrestle-1 (W-1). He was also the promoter and featured wrestler for the Smash promotion as well as its successor Wrestling New Classic (WNC). He
4320-599: A standing ovation as a farewell. Tajiri returned for a one-night appearance at WWE's ECW One Night Stand 2006 pay-per-view, teaming with Super Crazy to lose to The Full Blooded Italians (F.B.I.). On February 12, 2008, Tajiri made an appearance at a WWE house show in Tokyo, where he accompanied William Regal to the ring for a match against Ric Flair , which Regal lost. Tajiri's return to Japan came at Hustle on March 5, 2006, defeating Kohei Sato , The Monster PTA and Yoji Anjo with Razor Ramon Hard Gay and Shinjiro Otani . In
4464-469: A storyline, where he began helping Funaki train for his semifinal match in the tournament. However, on October 8, Tajiri turned on Funaki, costing him his semifinal match against Masayuki Kono . Post-match, Tajiri was announced as the newest member of Kono's villainous Desperado stable. In November, Tajiri and Masayuki Kono took part in the First Tag League Greatest tournament, set to determine
Yoshihiro Tajiri - Misplaced Pages Continue
4608-440: A table during the match that caused Tajiri to be counted out and later joined forces with Tajiri's rival, Maven . Tajiri became a face in WWE once more after Jamie Noble attacked him for touching Noble's girlfriend Nidia . This led to several Cruiserweight Championship matches between the two including matches at No Mercy and Rebellion . He also participated in his first Royal Rumble match in January 2003. Tajiri would leave
4752-593: A trademark move ever since. When working as a heel the mist usually draws a strong negative reaction, but when he's a face it draws a positive reaction from the crowd when he uses it as payback on a heel during a match. During his partnership with William Regal, the face Tajiri portrayed a more comedic version of the Buzzsaw character, often either disgusting or disturbing Regal with his antics. In December 2003, Tajiri released his autobiography, Tajiri: The Japanese Buzzsaw , in Japan. The book chronicles his wrestling career, from
4896-497: A typical American household only received four national channels by antenna, and ten to twelve local channels via UHF broadcasting . But cable television could carry a much larger selection of channels and therefore had room for niche interests. The WWF started with a show called All-American Wrestling airing on the USA Network in September 1983. McMahon's TV shows made his wrestlers national celebrities, so when he held matches in
5040-575: A victory for all the pain to which they subjected themselves. In the 1910s, promotional cartels for professional wrestling emerged in the East Coast (outside its traditional heartland in the Midwest ). These promoters sought to make long-term plans with their wrestlers, and to ensure their more charismatic and crowd-pleasing wrestlers received championships, further entrenching the desire for worked matches. The primary rationale for shoot matches at this point
5184-602: A victory over Super Crazy, and January 13, 2001, when he lost to Super Crazy. With ECW's television deal being canceled in October 2000, the company had to make massive cuts. This resulted in Tajiri wrestling for the company for lower wages and led to him wrestling more frequently on the American and Mexican independent circuit . In IWA Puerto Rico , Tajiri teamed with Super Crazy as they unsuccessfully wrestled Andy Anderson and Vyzago for
5328-399: Is a Japanese professional wrestler , manager and booker signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) under the ring name Gedo ( 外道 , Gedō ) . Gedo has been the main booker of NJPW since the early 2010s. As a wrestler, Gedo is best known for his tag team work with partner Jado , forming a very successful tag team from 1990 through the mid-2010s. Alongside his backstage work, Gedo
5472-436: Is a form of athletic theater that combines mock combat with drama , with the premise that the performers are competitive wrestlers. Professional wrestling is distinguished by its scripted outcomes and emphasis on entertainment and showmanship . The staged nature of matches is an open secret , with both wrestlers and spectators nonetheless maintaining the pretense that performances are bona fide competitions, which
5616-410: Is a true sport. Wrestlers would at all times flatly deny allegations that they fixed their matches, and they often remained in-character in public even when not performing. When in public, wrestlers would sometimes say the word kayfabe to each other as a coded signal that there were fans present and they needed to be in character. Professional wrestlers in the past strongly believed that if they admitted
5760-743: Is also an on-screen character in NJPW, working as a manager for the villainous Bullet Club faction and its seventh and current leader David Finlay . Prior to this, he was the manager of Chaos , Kazuchika Okada (Chaos's former second leader) and Jay White (Bullet Club's former fifth leader). Jado and Gedo have won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship four times, the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship one-time, BJW Tag Team Championship and several other tag team championships. Gedo
5904-626: Is an eight-time recipient of the Best Booker award from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . Gedo debuted on March 19, 1989, for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) during the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan (TPG), NJPW's parody of World Wrestling Federation 's Rock 'n Wrestling era. His debut match was against Magic Monkey Wakita , who would later be known as Super Delfin, on March 19, 1989. After TPG died out, Gedo, Wakita, and TPG comrade Jado left NJPW. Jado and Gedo went on to become one of
Yoshihiro Tajiri - Misplaced Pages Continue
6048-594: Is currently under a full-time contract with Kyushu Pro-Wrestling . Over the years Tajiri has trained various wrestlers including Kushida , Minoru Fujita , Ray and Syuri . In ECW he won the ECW World Television Championship and formed a regular tag team with Mikey Whipwreck that won the ECW World Tag Team Championship on one occasion. In CZW , he was a one time CZW World Heavyweight Champion . During his years with WWE, he won
6192-427: Is generally practiced in an amateur context. No professional league for competitive wrestling exists due to a lack of popularity. For example, Real Pro Wrestling , an American professional freestyle wrestling league, dissolved in 2007 after just two seasons. In other countries, such as Iran and India , wrestling enjoys widespread popularity as a genuine sport, and the phrase "professional wrestling" therefore has
6336-470: Is likened to the suspension of disbelief employed when engaging with fiction . Professional wrestlers perform as characters and usually maintain a " gimmick " consisting of a specific persona , stage name , entrance theme , and other distinguishing traits. Matches are the primary vehicle for advancing storylines, which typically center on interpersonal conflicts, or feuds , between heroic " faces " and villainous " heels ". A wrestling ring , akin to
6480-454: The Chaos stable. On November 13, 2010, Jado and Gedo returned to the top of New Japan's Junior Tag Team division by defeating their Chaos team mates Davey Richards and Rocky Romero in the finals of a five-day-long tournament to win the 2010 Super J Tag League. As a result of their victory, Gedo and Jado received a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, which took place at
6624-706: The Dusty Rhodes of Japan. He further said that Gedo was a fan of 1970s U.S. Southern style brawling. Gedo won the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship not with Jado but with Koji Nakagawa when they defeated Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on June 13, 1999. Gedo would leave FMW in 2001 along with Masato Tanaka, Jado, Hideki Hosaka, and Kaori Nakayama with the group becoming freelancers with Gedo mostly working in Michinoku Pro . Gedo along with Jado would eventually return to New Japan and win
6768-682: The FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship , defeating the Headhunters and Hisakatsu Oya on March 21, 1997. It was also in 1997 that Gedo toured North America, appearing at the 1997 WCW Halloween Havoc show wrestling Chris Jericho, and winning the CRMW North American Mid-Heavyweight Championship defeating Ricky Fuji on August 31, 1997. During the Halloween Havoc show, Mike Tenay called Gedo
6912-529: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship when they defeated Jyushin Thunder Liger and El Samurai on July 20, 2001. Gedo had a fierce rivalry with Liger after Jado and Gedo made a surprise appearance in NJPW when they both pulled Liger's mask off. Jado and Gedo won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belts for a second time in 2003 after again defeating Liger and Samurai. In 2007, Gedo was offered
7056-609: The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board that professional wrestling is not a real sport because its matches have predetermined outcomes. Shortly thereafter, New Jersey deregulated professional wrestling. The WWF then rebranded itself as a " sports entertainment " company. In the early years of the 20th century, the style of wrestling used in professional wrestling matches was catch wrestling . Promoters wanted their matches to look realistic and so preferred to recruit wrestlers with real grappling skills. In
7200-645: The WCW United States Championship . However, Tajiri would lose the belt to Rhyno soon afterward at Unforgiven in September. After Regal turned heel by joining The Alliance , Tajiri feuded with him throughout late 2001. Tajiri won his first WCW Cruiserweight Championship on October 22, 2001, on Raw . The title became the WWF Cruiserweight Championship and replaced the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship when
7344-650: The World Tag Team Championship from La Résistance at Unforgiven . On February 4, 2005, in Saitama Super Arena , Tajiri reunited with William Regal to defeat La Résistance for the World Tag Team Championship on an episode of Raw emanating from Japan. After several defenses against La Résistance, among others, their reign ended on May 1 at Backlash , when they were eliminated from a tag team turmoil match by La Résistance. Tajiri lost
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#17331048574737488-565: The World Tag Team Championship . He would also enter the Hardcore Championship invitational match but lost. During this period, Tajiri had multiple CZW World Heavyweight Championship matches in the Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) promotion. His first would be against Justice Pain . Tajiri lost to Pain twice but would later go on to beat Nick Berk to become CZW World Heavyweight Champion on February 28, 2001; however, Tajiri lost
7632-767: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the name Yoshihiro Tajiri as enhancement talent. On an episode of Monday Night Raw in July 1997, he lost to Taka Michinoku , whom the WWF was pushing as its rising star in the Light Heavyweight division at the time. Tajiri's final appearance was a tag match with Brian Christopher , losing to Scott Taylor and Michinoku. He would briefly work for CMLL in 1997 and 1998, before leaving in 1999 to work for Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) full-time. After working in Mexico, Tajiri
7776-607: The Wrestle-1 promotion. Tajiri wrestled his first match under a Wrestle-1 contract on July 6, 2014, teaming with Yusuke Kodama in a tag team match, where they defeated the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) team of Ethan Carter III and Rockstar Spud . On September 22, Tajiri entered the Wrestle-1 Championship tournament but was defeated in his first-round match by Masakatsu Funaki. Tajiri then entered
7920-696: The Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship . On May 30, Tajiri lost the EWP Intercontinental Championship back to Tanaka in a Title vs. Title match also contested for the Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship. Following the match, Desperado turned on Tajiri and kicked him out of the stable. On June 19, Wrestle-1 announced a new contractual status for Tajiri, which would see him work only sporadic Wrestle-1 events from July onwards due to looking for
8064-484: The hardcore wrestling promotion Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in Tokyo, Japan. He debuted for BJW under the name Aquarius. On July 19, 1996, he defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. to win the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship but lost it to him on July 27. The championship changes were not approved by CMLL but done by Dr. Wagner Jr. and Aquarius as part of the tour. Since CMLL did not approve
8208-543: The independent circuit , to internationally broadcast events at major arenas. The largest and most influential promotions are in the United States , Mexico , Japan , and northwest Europe (the United Kingdom , Germany/Austria and France ), which have each developed distinct styles, traditions, and subgenres within professional wrestling. Professional wrestling has developed its own culture and community , including
8352-431: The spectacle . By at least the early 20th century, professional wrestling had diverged from the competitive sport to become an artform and genre of sports entertainment . Professional wrestling is performed around the world through various " promotions ", which are roughly analogous to production companies or sports leagues . Promotions vary considerably in size, scope, and creative approach, ranging from local shows on
8496-577: The 1920s, a group of wrestlers and promoters known as the Gold Dust Trio introduced moves which have since become staples of the mock combat of professional wrestling, such as body slams, suplexes , punches, finishing moves, and out-of-ring count-outs. By the early 1930s, most wrestlers had adopted personas to generate public interest. These personas could broadly be characterized as either faces (likeable) or heels (villainous). Native Americans, cowboys, and English aristocrats were staple characters in
8640-400: The 1930s and 1940s. Before the age of television, some wrestlers played different personas depending on the region they were performing in. This eventually came to an end in the age of national television wrestling shows, which forced wrestlers to stick to one persona. Wrestlers also often used some sort of gimmick, such as a finishing move, eccentric mannerisms, or out-of-control behavior (in
8784-460: The 1990s, WCW became a credible rival to the WWF, but by end it suffered from a series of creative missteps that led to its failure and purchase by the WWF. One of its mistakes was that it diminished the glamor of its World Heavyweight Championship . Between January 2000 and March 2001, the title changed hands eighteen times, which sapped fan enthusiasm, particularly for the climactic pay-per-view matches. In professional wrestling, two factors decide
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#17331048574738928-641: The Atlantic Athletic Corporation (AAC). The AAC shut down in 1960. In 1958, Omaha promoter and NWA member Joe Dusek recognized Verne Gagne as the world champion without the approval of the NWA. Gagne asked for a match against the recognized NWA champion Pat O'Connor. The NWA refused to honor the request, so Gagne and Minneapolis promoter Wally Karbo established the American Wrestling Association in 1960. This AWA should not be confused with Paul Bowser's AWA, which ceased operations just two months prior. Gagne's AWA operated out of Minnesota . Unlike
9072-708: The August Impact Wrestling tapings in New York City , defeating Robbie E on August 5 (aired September 24), and working matches on the August tapings; Tajiri and Austin Aries lost to James Storm and Sanada and then on the September 24 episode of Impact Wrestling , he competed in the NYC Gold Rush Final fatal five-way match which also included Abyss , Mr. Anderson , MVP and Austin Aries with Anderson winning
9216-565: The Cruiserweight Championship again only 17 days after losing it. He turned heel by forcing Wilson to dress like a geisha against her will. Tajiri would go on to lose the Cruiserweight Championship to The Hurricane on the May 16 episode of SmackDown! in a triple threat match that also included Billy Kidman. Wilson eventually abandoned him during a Cruiserweight Championship match against The Hurricane; she did so by stripping on top of
9360-540: The Cruiserweight Championship which was won by the reigning champion Chavo Guerrero . In 2004, Tajiri had two chances to earn a shot at the WWE Championship . The first chance was in the 2004 Royal Rumble , where the winner would get a championship match at WrestleMania XX, but he was eliminated by Rhyno. His second chance was in a battle royal on SmackDown! , in which the winner would face then-champion Brock Lesnar at No Way Out . However, he lost once again when he
9504-593: The Cruiserweight division and moved to the tag team division where he formed various tag teams, many of which were somewhat comical. These included Rey Mysterio , Funaki , and Rikishi . Five days prior to the 2003 Judgment Day show, Chavo Guerrero tore his biceps, forcing Eddie Guerrero to look for another partner. He chose Tajiri. They won the WWE Tag Team Championship , at Judgment Day by defeating Team Angle ( Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin ) in
9648-741: The Hustle promotion, he was originally aligned with the babyface Hustle Army, a group which defends the sport of professional wrestling against the Monster Army (led by Monster General and Monster K , who aim to destroy the sport). However, he was hypnotized by Yinling into joining the Monster Army. In 2006, Tajiri took Yujiro Kushida under his wing and trained him while at Hustle. They participated in multiple tag team matches and tag team tournaments, and they also had several matches against one another. He also participated in Hustle GP, Hustle's only tournament, but
9792-543: The J Sports Crown Openweight 6 Man Tag Tournament, where they made it all the way to the finals on June 30, before being defeated by Prince Devitt , Ryusuke Taguchi , and Hirooki Goto . In October and November 2010, Tajiri teamed with Tanahashi in New Japan's 2010 G1 Tag League . After a strong start in the tournament, Tajiri and Tanahashi were defeated by the IWGP Tag Team Champions Bad Intentions ( Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson ) on November 6,
9936-547: The Kyushu Pro-Wrestling Championship, then announced he had signed full-time with the promotion. He lost the title to Mentai☆Kid, on February 5, at the Kitakyushu Genki Festival event. Originally Tajiri performed as a face, without much ring character as such on display, until joining ECW where he adopted his heel "Japanese Buzzsaw" ring character. As the "Japanese Buzzsaw" Tajiri began to display
10080-604: The Mexican and Japanese circuits to ECW and WWF/WWE. Written entirely in Japanese, it was the first book published by WWE in a non-English language. Over the years Tajiri has been involved in training several wrestlers, both male and female, especially after his return to Japan in 2005. These include: Professional wrestler 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Professional wrestling (often referred to as pro wrestling , or simply, wrestling )
10224-408: The NWA, at which point his territory became fair game for everyone. The NWA would blacklist wrestlers who worked for independent promoters or who publicly criticized an NWA promoter or who did not throw a match on command. If an independent promoter tried to establish himself in a certain area, the NWA would send their star performers to perform for the local NWA promoter to draw the customers away from
10368-477: The NWA, which only allowed faces to be champions, Gagne occasionally allowed heels to win the AWA championship so that they could serve as foils for him. In August 1983, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), a promotion in the north-east , withdrew from the NWA. Vince K. McMahon then took over as its boss. No longer bound by the territorial pact of the NWA, McMahon began expanding his promotion into
10512-774: The September 25 episode of SmackDown! , Tajiri would beat Rey Mysterio for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship which would be his third and last reign. Tajiri would successfully defend the championship in Mysterio's rematch at No Mercy after Akio and Sakoda , later known as "Kyo Dai", interfered in the match. Tajiri would, however, lose the championship after 93 days to Mysterio on the January 1, 2004, episode of SmackDown! . Tajiri kept his heel persona going by spitting black mist in Nidia's eyes and "blinding" her (Nidia and Noble were both faces by this time.) Noble and Tajiri started
10656-603: The Triple Crown championship belts following the match. Because of Tajiri's refusal to return the titles, Suzuki created paper belts to temporarily represent his championship. Tajiri opposed Suzuki again on April 22, 2007, in a tag team match, in which Tajiri taunted Suzuki repeatedly. At the conclusion of the match, Suzuki (after losing the match because of the Tarantula) chased Tajiri around the Korakuen Hall, only for Tajiri to jump
10800-438: The WWF Light Heavyweight Championship once, WCW United States Championship once, their Cruiserweight Championship on multiple occasions, the WWE Tag Team Championship with Eddie Guerrero and the World Tag Team Championship with William Regal . In AJPW, he has won their Gaora TV Championship , World Junior Heavyweight Championship two times and the 2018 Jr. Tag Battle of Glory tournament with Koji Iwamoto . In MLW, he
10944-532: The WWF defeated The Alliance at Survivor Series on November 18. The WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment, and the roster was divided into two "brands": Raw and SmackDown!. Tajiri, along with Torrie Wilson, was drafted to SmackDown! , therefore making the Cruiserweight Championship a SmackDown! exclusive title. Tajiri went on to lose the title to Billy Kidman on the April 4 episode on SmackDown! . He would go on to beat Kidman at Backlash once again and won
11088-547: The World Tag Team Championship to them only a day after they first won them. They failed to recapture them at Anarchy Rulz and again at November to Remember . Shortly after his alliance with Whipwreck, Tajiri's amusing antics in the ring, stiff contact with opponents, and comedic backstage vignettes made him one of the most popular wrestlers in ECW. Tajiri remained loyal to the company until it folded in April 2001. He participated in ECW's final two shows: on January 12, where he picked up
11232-401: The arena's loudspeakers, his being Pomp and Circumstance . He also wore a costume: a robe and hairnet, which he removed after getting in the ring. He also had a pre-match ritual where his "butler" would spray the ring with perfume. In the 1980s, Vince McMahon made entrance songs, costumes, and rituals standard for his star wrestlers. For instance, McMahon's top star Hulk Hogan would delight
11376-418: The art of staging rigged matches and fostered a mentality that spectators were marks to be duped. The term kayfabe comes from carny slang. By the turn of the 20th century, most professional wrestling matches were "worked" and some journalists exposed the practice: American wrestlers are notorious for the amount of faking they do. It is because of this fact that suspicion attaches to so many bouts that
11520-550: The audience by tearing his shirt off before each match. The first major promoter cartel emerged on the East Coast, although up to that point, wrestling's heartland had been in the Midwest. Notable members of this cartel included Jack Curley , Lou Daro, Paul Bowser and Tom and Tony Packs. The promoters colluded to solve a number of problems that hurt their profits. Firstly, they could force their wrestlers to perform for less money. As
11664-424: The cartel grew, there were fewer independent promoters where independent wrestlers could find work, and many were forced to sign a contract with the cartel to receive steady work. The contracts forbade them from performing at independent venues. A wrestler who refused to play by the cartel's rules was barred from performing at its venues. A second goal of the wrestling cartels was to establish an authority to decide who
11808-418: The case of heels). The matches could also be gimmicky sometimes, with wrestlers fighting in mud and piles of tomatoes and so forth. The most successful and enduring gimmick to emerge from the 1930s were tag-team matches. Promoters noticed that matches slowed down as the wrestlers in the ring tired, so they gave them partners to relieve them. It also gave heels another way to misbehave by double-teaming. Towards
11952-563: The championship from Tajiri. Tajiri defeated Jun Akiyama on July 15, 2018, to win the Gaora TV Championship . AJPW further pushed Tajiri as he and tag team partner Koji Iwamoto were entered into the 2018 Jr. Tag Battle of Glory tournament. The duo won four of the six first-round matches, then defeated Atsushi Aoki and Hikaru Sato in the finals to win the tournament. On October 2, 2021, Tajiri made his MLW debut at Fightland where he defeated Myron Reed , Arez, and Aramis to become
12096-448: The championship reign they do not officially recognize Aquarius' championship reign, listing Dr. Wagner as one continuous reign during the time he toured Japan. On July 23, 1997, Tajiri teamed up with Ryuji Yamakawa to win the vacant BJW Tag Team Championship . They lost it to Gedo and Jado on December 22. The team would regain the titles eleven days later, before losing it to Shadow Winger and Shadow WX. Tajiri then beat Gedo to become
12240-423: The character in shows must be considered fictional, wholly separate from the life of the performer. This is similar to other entertainers who perform with a persona that shares their own name. Some wrestlers also incorporate elements of their real-life personalities into their characters, even if they and their in-ring persona have different names. Kayfabe is the practice of pretending that professional wrestling
12384-508: The commission. The Commission did on very rare occasions hand out such authorizations, such as for a championship match between Jim Londos and Jim Browning in June 1934. This decree did not apply to amateur wrestling, which the commission had no authority over. Wrestling fans widely suspected that professional wrestling was fake, but they did not care as long as it entertained. In 1933, a wrestling promoter named Jack Pfefer started talking about
12528-540: The current fashion of wrestling is the universal discussion as to the honesty of the matches. And certainly the most interesting phrase of this discussion is the unanimous agreement: "Who cares if they're fixed or not—the show is good." Newspapers tended to shun professional wrestling, as journalists saw its theatrical pretense to being a legitimate sport as untruthful. Eventually promoters resorted to publishing their own magazines in order to get press coverage and communicate with fans. The first professional wrestling magazine
12672-405: The end of the 1930s, faced with declining revenues, promoters chose to focus on grooming charismatic wrestlers with no regard for their skill because it was charisma that drew the crowds, and wrestlers who were both skilled at grappling and charismatic were hard to come by. Since most of the public by this time knew and accepted that professional wrestling was fake, realism was no longer paramount and
12816-597: The facade of kayfabe as best as they could. In 1989, Vince McMahon testified before the New Jersey government that professional wrestling was not a true sport and therefore should be exempted from sports-related taxes. Many wrestlers and fans resented McMahon for this, but Lou Thesz accepted it as the smart move as it gave the industry more freedom to do as it pleased, and because by that point professional wrestling no longer attempted to appear real. The demise of WCW in 2001 provided some evidence that kayfabe still mattered to
12960-495: The finals of the tournament. On December 27, Tajiri was defeated in the finals of the tournament by Akira. On August 8, 2013, Tajiri defeated Osamu Nishimura in his home prefecture of Kumamoto to become the third WNC Champion. After five successful title defenses, Tajiri lost the title to StarBuck on February 27, 2014. On June 18, 2014, Tajiri announced that WNC would be going inactive following June 26. Effective July 1, six former WNC wrestlers, Tajiri included, transferred over to
13104-474: The first BJW Junior Heavyweight Champion . He would later be stripped of the title when he left the company. That same year, Tajiri competed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), participating in the promotion's Best of the Super Juniors IV tournament as a guest from BJW. He won three matches but also lost three and did not advance from the first-round. In 1996 and 1997, Tajiri made several appearances for
13248-470: The first place. "Double-crosses", where a wrestler agreed to lose a match but nevertheless fought to win, remained a problem in the early cartel days. At times a promoter would even award a victorious double-crosser the title of champion to preserve the facade of sport. But promoters punished such wrestlers by blacklisting them, making it quite challenging to find work. Double-crossers could also be sued for breach of contract, such as Dick Shikat in 1936. In
13392-436: The following month formed a new alliance with StarBuck and Syuri . Tajiri, Hajime Ohara, and Kana , the former partners of the three formed an alliance of their own to battle the three, but were on August 2 defeated in the first match between the two groups. Following the match, Ohara also turned on Tajiri and WNC, forming a new partnership with debuting female wrestler Nagisa Nozaki . On August 30, Tajiri teamed with Kana and
13536-610: The game is not popular here. Nine out of ten bouts, it has been said, are pre-arranged affairs, and it would be no surprise if the ratio of fixed matches to honest ones was really so high. The wrestler Lou Thesz recalled that between 1915 and 1920, a series of exposés in the newspapers about the integrity of professional wrestling alienated a lot of fans, sending the industry "into a tailspin". But rather than perform more shoot matches, professional wrestlers instead committed themselves wholesale to fakery. Several reasons explain why professional wrestling became fake whereas boxing endured as
13680-455: The government. They pledged to stop allocating exclusive territories to its promoters, to stop blacklisting wrestlers who worked for outsider promoters, and to admit any promoter into the Alliance. The NWA would flout many of these promises, but its power was nonetheless weakened by the lawsuit. Paul Bowser's AWA joined the NWA in 1949. The AWA withdrew from the Alliance in 1957 and renamed itself
13824-466: The green mist and a Buzzsaw kick. On February 14 Nagata defeated Tajiri in a one-on-one match in under five minutes to seemingly end the feud and Tajiri's run with the company. On June 19 at Dominion 6.19 , Tajiri returned to New Japan, turning face and saving former rival Hiroshi Tanahashi from Toru Yano and Takashi Iizuka . He then helped Tanahashi shave Yano's head following their Hair vs. Hair match . On June 28 Tajiri, Tanahashi, and Kushida entered
13968-470: The guard rail and steal the paper belts. Days later, Tajiri returned the titles in exchange for a title match on April 30, 2007, where he was unsuccessful. Tajiri also teamed with The Great Muta to defeat Kohei Suwama and Scott Steiner . Tajiri returned to All Japan Pro Wrestling in 2011 to team up with Great Muta and Kenso in a loss to Partisan Forces ( Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki) and KAI . Tajiri would then bring Smash's biggest stars to AJPW for
14112-460: The head) on an opponent that often finishes his matches. As part of the deranged Buzzsaw persona, Tajiri began using "Asian mist" during his matches, spraying a mist of water and green food coloring in the face of an opponent who sells the mist as being blinding. The mist was one of the signature moves of the Great Muta, Tajiri's wrestling inspiration and adopted by Tajiri in the late 1990s and has been
14256-448: The inaugural International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with Lion Do . Gedo, with the addition of being an accomplished tag team wrestler, was also one of the top junior heavyweights in Japan in the first half of the 1990s. Gedo reached the semi-finals of the 1994 Super J-Cup where he would lose to Wild Pegasus . Gedo was in the 1995 Super J-Cup and reached the finals, losing to Jushin Thunder Liger in his fourth match of
14400-547: The inaugural Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champions , where they won their block with a clean record of four wins and zero losses, advancing to the semifinals. On November 30, Tajiri and Kono were eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Akira and Manabu Soya . On May 16, 2015, Tajiri defeated Minoru Tanaka at a Wrestle-1 event to capture the European Wrestling Promotion (EWP) Intercontinental Championship. A week later, Tajiri unsuccessfully challenged Tanaka for
14544-513: The independent. By 1956, the NWA controlled 38 promotions within the United States, with more in Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. The NWA's monopolistic practices became so stifling that the independents appealed to the government for help. In October 1956 the US Attorney General's office filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NWA in an Iowa federal district court. The NWA settled with
14688-471: The industry was anything but a competitive sport. The first wrestling promoter to publicly admit to routinely fixing matches was Jack Pfefer . In 1933, he started talking about the industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , resulting in a huge exposé. The exposé neither surprised nor alienated most wrestling fans, although some promoters like Jack Curley were furious and tried to restore
14832-487: The industry's inner workings to the New York Daily Mirror , maintaining no pretense that wrestling was real and passing on planned results just before the matches took place. While fans were neither surprised nor alienated, traditionalists like Jack Curley were furious, and most promoters tried to maintain the facade of kayfabe as best they could. Not the least interesting of all the minor phenomena produced by
14976-523: The last day of group stages, and slipped to third place in their block, narrowly missing the semifinals of the tournament. In 2010, Tajiri was placed in charge of Smash , a new promotion taking the place of Hustle. The promotion held its first show on March 26 which saw Tajiri wrestle two matches in one night. The first was a hardcore match against Tommy Dreamer . Tajiri lost to Dreamer but then beat Mentallo in his second contest. Later that same night, Tajiri and Dreamer saved Kushida from Leatherface. To end
15120-512: The match, The Brian Kendrick tried to welcome him back to the WWE, only for Tajiri to spit green mist onto his face. In January, Tajiri suffered a knee injury at an NXT taping. After weeks of recovery, Tajiri returned at a 205 Live taping in February, following a match between Lince Dorado and Brian Kendrick. On April 22, Tajiri officially announced his departure from the WWE. According to him, he had been medically cleared to return and compete from
15264-452: The match. His final appearance for the promotion was at the October 12, Bound for Glory pay-per-view event in Tokyo, teaming with The Great Muta in a tag team main event, where they defeated James Storm and The Great Sanada . On June 13, 2016, Tajiri was announced as a participant in WWE's Cruiserweight Classic tournament. The tournament kicked off on June 23 with Tajiri defeating Damian Slater in his first-round match. On July 14, Tajiri
15408-498: The members of wrestling cartels as the champion drew big crowds wherever he performed, and this would occasionally lead to schisms. By 1925, this cartel had divided the country up into territories which were the exclusive domains of specific promoters. This system of territories endured until Vince McMahon drove the fragmented cartels out of the market in the 1980s. This cartel fractured in 1929 after one of its members, Paul Bowser , bribed Ed "Strangler" Lewis to lose his championship in
15552-529: The new MLW World Middleweight Champion . Tajiri will defend the MLW World Middleweight Championship in England at Cheltenham Town Hall February 19 when he will face Jody Fleisch on a card promoted by World Pro Wrestling. He would lose the title in January 2022 against Myron Reed. On January 3, 2023, Tajiri made his Kyushu Pro-Wrestling debut at Jokyo 2023 where he defeated Kodai Nozaki to win
15696-536: The new leader of Bullet Club. On June 12, 2016, Gedo made a surprise appearance at a Pro Wrestling Noah event. He reunited with Jado to unsuccessfully challenge Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada for Noah's GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, also involving Taichi and Taka Michinoku. On October 8, Gedo and Jado defeated Kotoge and Harada to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They lost
15840-511: The next SmackDown! , Guerrero explained that this was because, during the match, Tajiri had accidentally hit his lowrider. At SummerSlam , Tajiri competed in a Fatal four-way match for the WWE United States Championship but failed to win the title. Tajiri would mark his return to the cruiserweight division by taking on the champion Rey Mysterio and after losing he spat green mist in Mysterio's eye, turning him heel once again. On
15984-422: The night. Gedo won his first singles title when he defeated Lionheart in a tournament final to become the inaugural International Junior Heavyweight Champion on March 26, 1995. Gedo would win this belt again, defeating Último Dragón for it. Jado and Gedo left WAR, which was declining, and headed to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , one of Japan's top independent promotions. Gedo, with Jado and Kodo Fuyuki, won
16128-573: The now former IWGP Heavyweight Champion in multiple man tag team matches, but in the end lost the feud, when Tanahashi pinned him cleanly in a one-on-one match on December 5. Afterwards, Tajiri set his sights on Seigigun , led by Yuji Nagata . On January 4, 2010, at Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome Tajiri teamed up with fellow ECW alumnus Masato Tanaka and together they defeated the Seigigun team of Nagata and Akebono when Tajiri pinned Nagata after
16272-471: The pair used double Asian mist to achieve victory. Tajiri was a title contender in All Japan Pro Wrestling throughout 2007, including a feud with Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Minoru Suzuki . This feud started on March 30, 2007, at the final Champion Carnival 2007 event, following Tajiri's victory over Suzuki via count-out when Tajiri tied Suzuki's foot to the guardrail and went on to steal
16416-437: The platform used in boxing , serves as the main stage ; additional scenes may be recorded for television in backstage areas of the venue, in a format similar to reality television . Performers generally integrate authentic wrestling techniques and fighting styles with choreography , stunts , improvisation , and dramatic conventions designed to maximize entertainment value and audience engagement. Professional wrestling as
16560-617: The premiere tag teams in Japan . Jado and Gedo headed to the Universal Wrestling Association in Mexico as Punish (Jado) and Crush (Gedo), and defeated Silver King and El Texano for the UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship on November 8, 1991. They would win these belts on two more occasions in 1992. This led to their many tours with W*NG and were a part of the incident where Kanemura
16704-772: The primary booker of New Japan, when Jado took over as the new booker of Pro Wrestling Noah . At the 2018 G1 Climax Finals, Okada parted ways with Gedo. Gedo returned at Destruction in Kobe , where it appeared he was going to save Okada but instead, hit him with a chair, becoming Jay White 's new manager. At King of Pro-Wrestling , Gedo, White, and longtime tag partner Jado all completed their defection from Chaos to align themselves with Bullet Club . Throughout White's tenure as Bullet Club leader, Gedo managed White, as well as still wrestling occasionally, mostly in tag matches with White and other Bullet Club members. After White's departure from NJPW, Gedo began managing David Finlay , who became
16848-519: The promotion would be folding after its March 14 event, following a disagreement between Tajiri and financial backer Masakazu Sakai. On February 19 at Smash.25 , Tajiri unsuccessfully challenged Dave Finlay for the Smash Championship. On March 14, Tajiri wrestled in Smash's final match, where he and AKIRA defeated Hajime Ohara and StarBuck. Following the match, Tajiri announced his intention of starting
16992-714: The promotion's closing in 1991. In the spring of 1984, the WWF purchased Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW), which had been ailing for some time due to financial mismanagement and internal squabbles. In the deal, the WWF acquired the GCW's timeslot on TBS . McMahon agreed to keep showing Georgia wrestling matches in that timeslot, but he was unable to get his staff to Atlanta every Saturday to fulfill this obligation, so he sold GCW and its TBS timeslot to Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). JCP started informally calling itself World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1988, Ted Turner bought JCP and formally renamed it World Championship Wrestling. During
17136-553: The returning Mikey Whipwreck in a Barbed Wire Board Deathmatch , where they were defeated by Akira, StarBuck and Syuri. In a September 1 match, Whipwreck pinned StarBuck for the win, ending the villainous trio's win streak in the process. On September 20, Tajiri defeated Syuri in an intergender match at Korakuen Hall. On October 26, Tajiri entered the WNC Championship tournament , defeating Carlito in his first-round match. On November 28, Tajiri defeated Hajime Ohara to advance to
17280-659: The show, Dreamer paid tribute to Tajiri which led him to break into tears. During 2010, Tajiri, along with other Smash talent made crossover appearances in Finnish promotion Fight Club Finland (FCF). At Smash.3 on May 29, 2010, Tajiri defeated Valentine to win the FCF Finnish Heavyweight Championship for the first time. He would drop the title to StarBuck on July 24 at Smash.6, before regaining it from him on November 22, 2010, at Smash.10. On February 25, 2011, Tajiri gave Kushida his blessing to leave Smash and become
17424-440: The stamina for an hours-long fight. Audiences also preferred short matches. Worked matches also carried less risk of injury, which meant shorter recovery. Altogether, worked matches proved more profitable than shoots. By the end of the 19th century, nearly all professional wrestling matches were worked. A major influence on professional wrestling was carnival culture. Wrestlers in the late 19th century worked in carnival shows. For
17568-426: The territories of his former NWA peers, now his rivals. By the end of the 1980s, the WWF would become the sole national wrestling promotion in the U.S. This was in part made possible by the rapid spread of cable television in the 1980s. The national broadcast networks generally regarded professional wrestling as too niche an interest, and had not broadcast any national wrestling shows since the 1950s. Before cable TV,
17712-460: The title back in a three-way dance involving Super Crazy and Little Guido. Shortly after becoming champion, Tajiri was asked by Cyrus to relinquish the belt to The Network so they could award the title to Rhino . Tajiri refused to turn the belt over and turned his back on the Network, becoming a babyface in the process. His first defense of the title ended in a no contest with Tommy Dreamer. Tajiri lost
17856-538: The title on both occasions. In 2000, he earned another shot at the championship against Justin Credible but lost once again. In early 2000 Taiji was recruited by Cyrus to join The Network group along with Steve Corino . During this time, Tajiri went up against Super Crazy for the ECW World Television Championship in a Japanese death match , a match with no disqualification and all weapons are legal. He lost but gained
18000-457: The title that same night to Zandig. Soon after the closure of ECW, Tajiri was hired by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). Tajiri debuted on the May 24, 2001, episode of SmackDown! as a face . He was given the gimmick of WWF Commissioner William Regal 's comedic assistant. With the help of Regal, Tajiri made his in-ring debut defeating Crash in a King of the Ring 2001 qualifying match. He
18144-499: The title to Rhino on April 22. His rematch came on May 6, but he was unable to regain the title. Tajiri would then form a tag team with Mikey Whipwreck , known as The Unholy Alliance , who were managed by The Sinister Minister . They entered the World Tag Team tournament and won the vacant ECW World Tag Team Championship in August 2000 at Midtown Massacre . The team then started feuding with The Full Blooded Italians and lost
18288-524: The tournament and his first match of his return. On August 13, Tajiri pinned the IWGP Heavyweight Champion in a non-title match during the G1 Climax tournament, after using the green mist. Tajiri ended the tournament with only four points, finishing bottom of block A. Hustle folded in October 2009, after which Tajiri began wrestling for NJPW full-time. He would score two more pinfall victories over
18432-505: The trial, witnesses testified that most of the "big matches" and all of the championship bouts were fixed. By the 1930s, with the exception of the occasional double-cross or business dispute, shoot matches were essentially nonexistent. In April 1930, the New York State Athletic Commission decreed that all professional wrestling matches held in the state had to be advertised as exhibitions unless certified as contests by
18576-471: The truth, their audiences would desert them. Today's performers don't "protect" the industry like we did, but that's primarily because they've already exposed it by relying on silly or downright ludicrous characters and gimmicks to gain popularity with the fans. It was different in my day, when our product was presented as an authentic, competitive sport. We protected it because we believed it would collapse if we ever so much as implied publicly that it
18720-535: The way of proceedings: the "in-show" happenings, presented through the shows; and real-life happenings outside the work that have implications, such as performer contracts, legitimate injuries, etc. Because actual life events are often co-opted by writers for incorporation into storylines of performers, the lines between real life and fictional life are often blurred and become confused. Special discern must be taken with people who perform under their own name (such as Kurt Angle and his fictional persona ). The actions of
18864-420: The wrestlers quietly began faking their matches so that they could give their audiences a satisfying spectacle. Fixing matches was also convenient for scheduling. A real ("shoot") match could sometimes last hours, whereas a fixed ("worked") match can be made short, which was convenient for wrestlers on tour who needed to keep appointments or share venues. It also suited wrestlers who were aging and therefore lacked
19008-497: Was MLW Middleweight Champion . Tajiri originally wanted to become a kickboxer and began training in the sport. However, after watching countless wrestling matches from Mexico, he entered the Animal Hamaguchi Wrestling gym and won its test match tournament. Tajiri debuted professionally in 1994 for International Wrestling Association of Japan (IWA Japan) with a loss to Takashi Okano. In 1996, Tajiri left CMLL to join
19152-425: Was Wrestling As You Like It , which printed its first issue in 1946. These magazines were faithful to kayfabe . Before the advent of television, professional wrestling's fanbase largely consisted of children, the elderly, blue-collar workers and minorities. When television arose in the 1940s, professional wrestling got national exposure on prime-time television and gained widespread popularity. Professional wrestling
19296-528: Was burnt. Jado and Gedo headed to Wrestling and Romance in 1994 and became one of the top tag teams there, forming a group with Kodo Fuyuki called Fuyuki-Gun . Gedo had the distinction of becoming the first title holder of all of WAR's titles as Fuyuki-Gun were the inaugural holders of the WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship , which they won five times while Gedo was also the inaugural International Junior Heavyweight Champion and
19440-488: Was challenges from independent wrestlers. But a cartelized wrestler, if challenged, could credibly use his contractual obligations to his promoter as an excuse to refuse the challenge. Promotions would sometimes respond to challenges with "policemen": powerful wrestlers who lacked the charisma to become stars, but could defeat and often seriously injure any challenger in a shoot match. As the industry trend continued, there were fewer independent wrestlers to make such challenges in
19584-503: Was eliminated by the Big Show . Following WrestleMania XX, Tajiri was drafted to Raw , where he turned face once again and feuded with the group of Eric Bischoff , Jonathan Coachman , and Garrison Cade . He would later feud with the Evolution stable for a good portion of 2004. Also that year, Tajiri formed a tag team with Rhyno. This team dissolved quietly after a failed attempt at winning
19728-621: Was eliminated from the tournament by Gran Metalik . On December 3, at the NXT special at Osaka, Japan, Tajiri teamed with Akira Tozawa , losing to NXT Tag Team Champions DIY ( Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano ). On December 4, 2016, Tajiri announced he signed a full-time contract with WWE, and that he would make his return in early 2017. On the December 13 episode of 205 Live , vignettes for Tajiri's return began airing. On January 3, 2017, Tajiri debuted on 205 Live defeating Sean Maluta . Following
19872-546: Was hired by Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He made his television debut in ECW on the December 24, 1998, episode of Hardcore TV , clad in traditional blue and white trunks with an insignia of Japan's rising sun , and picked up a victory over Antifaz Del Norte. He began a notable storyline rivalry with Super Crazy . The duo traded wins throughout 1999. His other notable single feuds included Little Guido and Jerry Lynn . In early 1999, Tajiri began to emulate The Great Muta , who
20016-407: Was knocked out of the tournaments in the first round by Wataru Sakata . In his last appearance at Hustle, Tajiri defeated Muscle Sakai in a two out of three falls match which Tajiri won two to one. Tajiri made his debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling , losing to The Great Muta ; Tajiri and Muta would team up for a few matches, the most notable of which was against Kaz Hayashi and Satoshi Kojima when
20160-627: Was later eliminated by Rhyno. Tajiri would win his first championship in WWF by defeating X-Pac for the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship on an episode of Raw . X-Pac would quickly capture the WCW Cruiserweight Championship, and at SummerSlam , Tajiri would lose a championship unification match, therefore retiring the Light Heavyweight Championship. Tajiri would quickly bounce back as he began an on-screen relationship with Torrie Wilson and defeated Chris Kanyon for
20304-561: Was one of Tajiri's wrestling heroes growing up. His wrestling trunks were replaced with baggy Karate gi pants, and he began spraying green mist into the face of his opponents. He aligned himself with Steve Corino , who promised to teach him the American way and help him to integrate himself into United States culture. With Tajiri's notoriety increasing, he received an ECW World Heavyweight Championship title shot against Taz at Heat Wave , and on an episode on ECW on TNN but failed to capture
20448-568: Was previously considered a niche interest, but the TV networks at the time were short on content and thus were willing to try some wrestling shows. In the 1960s, however, the networks moved on to more mainstream interests such as baseball, and professional wrestling was dropped. The core audience then shrunk back to a profile similar to that of the 1930s. In 1989, Vince McMahon was looking to exempt his promotion (the World Wrestling Federation ) from sports licensing fees. To achieve this, he testified before
20592-415: Was something other than what it appeared to be. I'm not sure now the fear was ever justified given the fact that the industry is still in existence today, but the point is no one questioned the need then. "Protecting the business" in the face of criticism and skepticism was the first and most important rule a pro wrestler learned. No matter how aggressive or informed the questioner, you never admitted
20736-417: Was the "world champion". Before the cartels, there were multiple wrestlers in the U.S. simultaneously calling themselves the "world champion", and this sapped public enthusiasm for professional wrestling. Likewise, the cartel could agree on a common set of match rules that the fans could keep track of. The issue over who got to be the champion and who controlled said champion was a major point of contention among
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