Mitsuharu Misawa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mitsuharu Misawa
Statistics
Ring name(s) Kamikaze Misawa
Tiger Mask II
Mitsuharu Misawa
Billed height 185 cm (6 ft 1 in)
Billed weight 116 kg (243 lb)
Born June 18, 1962
Koshiyaga, Saitama
Trained by Shohei Baba
Dick Beyer
Dory Funk, Jr.
Debut August 21, 1981

Mitsuharu Misawa (三沢 光晴 Misawa Mitsuharu?) is a Japanese professional wrestler. He became famous working for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Currently he owns, operates, and wrestles for Pro Wrestling NOAH, where he is the current GHC Heavyweight Champion and serves as the chairman of the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance. He is often called one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

Contents

Misawa was a successful amateur wrestler. Competing in the junior age group, he placed fifth at the 1980 freestyle World Championships.

Misawa was trained in professional wrestling by Dick "The Destroyer" Beyer, Shohei Baba, and Dory Funk, Jr. and made his professional debut on August 21, 1981 for All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Early in his career, Misawa wrestled as the second generation of Tiger Mask. On May 17, 1990, during a tag match against Yoshiaki Yatsu and Hiromichi Fuyuki, he told his partner and future rival, Toshiaki Kawada, to unmask him, revealing his true face. Weeks later, on June 8 Misawa defeated Jumbo Tsuruta in his first ever main event at Tokyo Nippon Budokan. The match is seen as a turning point in the history of All Japan, with Misawa being established as a major threat and a new star. Misawa made his first challenge for the Triple Crown in July, losing to Stan Hansen in a decision match for the vacant titles after Terry Gordy was forced to vacate the belts. After losing to Jumbo in a rematch on September 1, he teamed with then-regular partner Toshiaki Kawada to place third in the Real World Tag League, beating the team of Jumbo & Akira Taue on the final day. Misawa again challenged for the Triple Crown in April, but fell to Tsuruta for a second time. Misawa continued his growth throughout 1991, pinning Terry Gordy in successive months in June and July, the second coming in an AJPW World Tag Team Titles match, with Misawa winning the belts for himself and partner Kawada. The pair made their first defence against the team of Tsuruta & Taue on September 30 at Nippon Budokan, with Misawa historically submitting Jumbo to end the match.

Misawa then went on to dominate All Japan Pro Wrestling throughout the 1990s, with multiple Triple Crown and AJPW World Tag Team Title reigns. His rivalries with Jumbo Tsuruta, Toshiaki Kawada and Kenta Kobashi are legendary, with many classic matches against them. His tag-team partners included Kenta Kobashi and Jun Akiyama.

Following the death of AJPW head booker Giant Baba and disagreements with his widow Motoko Baba, Misawa split from All Japan in mid-2000. He took all but two natives (Kawada and Masanobu Fuchi) to form Pro Wrestling NOAH.

In 2004, Misawa and his long time partner Yoshinari Ogawa returned the GHC Tag Team belts to NOAH from the New Japan Pro Wrestling combination of Yuji Nagata & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Currently, Misawa continues to wrestle a full-time schedule, competing mostly in tag team matches. At the Nippon Budokan on December 10th, he defeated Naomichi Marufuji to win his 3rd GHC Heavyweight Championship.

  • PWI ranked him # 6 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
  • He was also ranked twice in the best tag teams of the "PWI Years". He was ranked # 6 with Kenta Kobashi and # 11 with Toshiaki Kawada.
  • He is a member of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996)
  • 1985 Best Flying Wrestler
  • 1985 Match of the Year (vs Kuniaki Kobayashi)
  • 1986 Best Flying Wrestler
  • 1988 Most Underrated Wrestler
  • 1990 Feud of the Year (vs Jumbo Tsuruta)
  • 1991 Feud of the Year (vs Jumbo Tsuruta)
  • 1991 Tag Team of the Year (with Toshiaki Kawada)
  • 1995 Wrestler of the Year
  • 1995 Tag Team of the Year (with Kenta Kobashi)
  • 1996 Tag Team of the Year (with Jun Akiyama)
  • 1996 Match of the Year (with Jun Akiyama vs Steve Williams and Johnny Ace)
  • 1997 Wrestler of the Year
  • 1997 Most Outstanding Wrestler
  • 1997 Tag Team of the Year (with Jun Akiyama)
  • 1998 Match of the Year (vs Kenta Kobashi)
  • 1999 Wrestler of the Year
  • 1999 Most Outstanding Wrestler
  • 1999 Match of the Year (vs Kenta Kobashi)
  • 2003 Match of the Year (vs Kenta Kobashi)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../m/i/t/Mitsuharu_Misawa_4d39.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.