Profession: Wrestler
Real name: Zhuo Yiyue
Professional names: Zhuo Yiyue, Niitakayama, Rashomon Tsunegoro
Life: 3/5/1920-unknown
Born: Taiwan
Career: 1954-1957
Height/Weight: 203cm/125kg (6’8”/276lbs)
Signature moves: single-leg crab
Promotions: Japan Wrestling Association
Titles: none

The tallest man in puroresu for its first several years, Rashomon Tsunagoro is more noted now for his subsequent acting work.

Standing at 6’8”, the Taiwanese Zhuo Yiyue entered sumo through the Hanago stable in 1940. First given the name Niitakayama, after the name given to Taiwan’s tallest mountain when it was a subject of Imperial Japan, Zhuo changed his name to Izuminishiki. He retired in 1946 after having stalled out at the makushita division. Eight years later, Zhuo entered pro wrestling through the JWA, and would go by various names through a four-year stint. The tallest man in puroresu until Giant Baba, for whom he has been mistaken by modern viewers, the man best remembered as Rashomon Tsunegoro was noted for his tag team with a former stablemate, the 5’6” Fujitayama. As the JWA entered its first decline, Rashomon left wrestling in late 1957. He would make a successful pivot into acting, as his frame found him steady work as a bit player in late 50s and early 60s productions. The most notable of these, certainly to Western audiences, was as a henchman in Akira Kurosawa’s classic Yojimbo. 

Rashomon stands out in Yojimbo.

Rusher Kimura (ラッシャー木村)

[KinchStalker Deluxe Profile #1] 

Real name: Masao Kimura (木村政雄)
Professional names: Masao Kimura, Masami Kimura, Rusher Kimura, Great Kimura, Mr. Sun, Mr. Toyo, Professor Kimura
Life: 6/30/1941-5/24/2010
Born: Nakagawa, Hokkaido, Japan
Career: 1965-2003
Height/Weight: 185cm/125kg (6’1”/275 lbs.)
Signature moves: bulldogging headlock, lariat, headbutt, butterfly suplex
Promotions: Japan Wrestling Association, Tokyo Pro Wrestling, International Wrestling Enterprise, New Japan Pro Wrestling, UWF, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH
Titles: “European Tag Team” [IWE] (2x, w/Great Kusatsu), TWWA World Tag Team [IWE] (1x, w/Thunder Sugiyama), IWA World Tag Team [IWE] (2x; 1 w/Thunder Sugiyama, 1 w/Great Kusatsu), IWA World Heavyweight [IWE] (5x), NWA Americas Tag Team [NWA Hollywood] (1x, w/Ryuma Go)
Tournament victories: IWA World Series [IWE] (1973, 1977), Japan League [IWE] (1978)

As the demon of the cage, Rusher Kimura became the heart of the IWE and eventually its ace. As the demon of the microphone, he became one of puroresu’s most famous promo-cutters and comedic performers.

PART ONE: RUSHER RISING (1941-1973)

“During his junior high school days, Kimura was a great hitter, batting fourth in the lineup. Even as a wrestler, he continued to go to Korakuen Garden, and he was a regular spectator at local baseball games (on the banks of the Arakawa River in 1962).”

The youngest of four children, Masao Kimura played baseball at Saku Junior High when Rikidozan started puroresu’s first boom, and he admired the star wrestler. He would go on to Hokkaido Tenshio High School but dropped out to enter sumo. As he told the story, his older brother loved the sport, and the two went to an open practice session by the Miyagino stable, newly revived under retired yokozuna turned coach Yoshibayama. Yoshibayama told Masao that he had a good body, and after he was treated to some chanko, he “couldn’t refuse”. Kimura debuted for Miyagino in the March 1958 tournament. Under various shikona (he had settled on Kinomura by late 1962), Kimura competed for six years and reached the top twenty in the makushita division. Over Yoshibayama’s protests, Kimura retired after the September 1964 tournament. His goal had been to condition himself for pro wrestling, and as he saw it, if he made it to juryo he would never get out of sumo. 

Kimura sits with fellow Hokkaido native Shinya Koshika and stirs a pot of chanko during his time with the JWA.

Kimura joined the JWA that October. Assigned as Toyonobori's valet, he debuted at a Riki Sports Palace show the following April with a match against Motoyuki Kitazawa. In his early career he performed under the ring name Masami Kimura (木村政美), almost certainly a Toyonobori invention. He wrestled for the JWA for ten months until he was swept up in his senior’s plans to form Tokyo Pro Wrestling. Kimura was gathered alongside Kitazawa, Tadaharu Tanaka, and Masanori Saito in February to begin training camp, and his expulsion from the JWA was announced the following month.

Kimura spars with Antonio Inoki during their Tokyo Pro tenures.

Issue #38 (2016) of the Showa Puroresu fanzine claims that Kimura’s “huge physique and natural ability” made him a wrestler to watch during Tokyo Pro’s brief life. As was revealed decades later, he had also scouted sumo talent for the company. However, despite swiping Antonio Inoki in the "Plunder on the Pacific Ocean" and starting strong with a well-attended show at the Kuramae Kokugikan, the organization shambled through its first tour. This was due to JWA aggression, failure to secure television network support, and of course, the rampant embezzlement of the man who had started the company. It all came to a head in the Itabashi Incident, when an outdoor show was canceled, and the spectators set the ring aflame in protest. After the tour ended in December, Kimura joined Inoki when he created a new Tokyo Pro separate from Toyonobori and Tanaka, and he was among the Tokyo Pro wrestlers who participated in the International Wrestling Enterprise’s first tour in January 1967. As Tokyo Pro completely fell apart, Inoki took his two valets Kitazawa and Haruka Eigen back with him to the JWA. Kimura began living in an apartment with Saito and Tokyo Pro recruit Katsuhisa Shibata and the three awaited a call from the JWA, while declining an offer from the IWE. While Shibata would get to join in early 1968, Kimura and Saito eventually accepted that they had burned their bridge with the company, and the two planned to begin wrestling as a tag team in San Francisco. When Kokusai came with another offer, Saito declined again, but Kimura accepted it. (As a result, Mr. Moto would book Saito to wrestle as Kinji Shibuya’s tag partner.) 

Kimura debuted in January 1968, during the IWE’s brief takeover by network Tokyo Broadcasting System and rebranding as TBS Pro Wrestling. Kimura’s most famous match from this year came in April, when he was Billy Robinson’s opponent for his Japanese debut, and he took Robinson’s butterfly suplex to lose the match. He suffered an early setback the following month when Billy Joyce injured his shoulder in a singles match. Kimura had originally been selected as the IWE’s first wrestler to go on excursion to England, but his injury led Shozo Kobayashi to be sent in his stead that autumn. He also missed out on the Hong Kong “market research” tour that summer, though he returned as an undercard referee in August. Kimura would get back in the groove for the last two tours of the year, and at the start of 1969, he received the ring name Rusher; this was the result of a fan contest, which had seen other candidates such as Strong, Yamato, Typhoon, and King. 

Kimura and Kusatsu celebrate with the European Tag Team titles on February 8, 1969.

In the Big Winter Series’ tour program, TBS producer Tadadai Mori stated that Kimura and the now-renamed Strong Kobayashi would join Great Kusatsu, Thunder Sugiyama, and Toyonobori that year in the “establishment of five aces”. Sure enough, that year saw Kimura built up with tag title reigns alongside two of the three aces the company had established in 1968. With Kusatsu, Kimura won the European Tag Team titles from Andre Bollet & Robert Gastel in February. Then, in April, he and Sugiyama defeated Stan Stasiak & Tank Morgan to win the TWWA World Tag Team titles that Sugiyama and Toyonobori had just vacated. This was significant for being puroresu’s first hair match, and it led Kimura to receive his first IWA World Heavyweight title shot against Billy Robinson on May 5. (This match is currently missing from Cagematch records, but it happened.)

As the TWWA tag titles were vacated in August to make room for the IWA World Tag Team titles, Kimura may have been originally intended to win them alongside Kobayashi in France. It would be logical that he would get the opportunity, and Yoshiwara and Mori had even suggested in the Osaka sports tabloid Weekly Fight Magazine that Kimura would be sent to Europe. Alas, Toyonobori was sent in his stead, and it would be two years before Kimura felt that belt around his waist. He had to make do with his first excursion.

Kimura first worked in the NWA Central States territory under his own name, growing a mustache and donning a mawashi to work as a Japanese heel while being coached by Pat O’Connor. In his St. Louis appearances, he was Kinji Kimura; in Georgia Championship Wrestling, he was Professor Kimura; and in the AWA and its Nebraska-based affiliate All Star Wrestling, he was The Great Kimura. During his excursion, he would team up with future rival Killer Tor Kamata, and also donned a mask to team with Chati Yokouchi as the Masked Invaders. Kimura was successful enough in Central States to receive three NWA World Heavyweight title matches against Dory Funk Jr., and as Dave Meltzer would write, “many stated [that] he owed a lot to Bob Geigel” for the press coverage which these matches got in Japan.

Kimura’s return match was a victory against a faux Blue Demon played by Les Wolff. He won the match using a distinctive submission technique, the “rotating foot” figure-four leglock. According to the Showa Puroresu zine, he only used it three times and it was supposedly not well-received. However, an uncited passage on the Japanese Wikipedia page for the figure-four leglock, which calls Kimura’s variation the “back foot” figure-four, states that this technique has since been used by the likes of Kendo Kashin and Yutaka Yoshie. It suggests a type of wrestler far from that which Rusher was about to become.

It was on this first tour back home that he found his niche in the company. By this point, Kokusai’s television ratings stagnated around the 15% mark, and this tour had been damaged by JWA sabotage. Back in May, the company had held the You Are The Promoter poll to scout interest in wrestlers which had not yet worked in Japan. At the top of the list was Spiros Arion, and the IWE had booked him to challenge IWA World Heavyweight champion Sugiyama, but Arion had been incentivized to cancel this booking and claimed a shellfish allergy. (Blue Demon had placed fourth in the poll, hence Les Wolff's booking.) With Toyonobori retired and Kobayashi away on his second excursion, Kimura needed to establish himself as a top draw to help his company. In what one source states was his own request, Kokusai pulled a stunt that would come to define their legacy.

On this tour, Rusher entered a bloody feud with Dr. Death; under the red hood, this was Moose Morowski, who became one of 70s AJPW’s most reliable midcard foreigners. On August 25, after Sugiyama’s successful IWA world title defense against Rene (billed as Jack de) Lasartesse, Dr. Death assaulted Sugiyama and Isao Yoshiwara until Kimura stormed the ring in plainclothes to defend them. On October 8, 1970, the two were booked to hash it out in puroresu’s first kanāmi (wire mesh) deathmatch: that is, a cage match. The IWE’s first attempt was amateur hour, as they had forgotten to add a door and the wrestlers were forced to hold the walls in place themselves. Nevertheless, Rusher defeated Dr. Death by knockout in seventeen minutes, and the match was broadcast in color six days later. The match was controversial among the press, as Professional Wrestling & Boxing magazine refused to publish photographs, and the sports papers dismissed it as “a dogfight”. The public response, a flood of complaints, was more damaging. It would be the only cage match to see television broadcast during the company’s TBS years, and their ratings also began to drop below fifteen percent. This would not discourage them from continuing to use the gimmick. Over the next eleven years, Kimura’s success in the stipulation earned himself the nickname kanāmi no oni (“wire mesh demon”). Alongside Kusatsu, Kimura also won a match for the vacant European tag titles.

For the 1970 Big Winter Series, a second wire mesh deathmatch was booked for the last show of the year, using the TBS ban as a promotional tactic. It worked, and in the only time in its history, the IWE sold out Tokyo’s 5,000-seat Taito Ward Gymnasium on December 12. Rusher’s second opponent in the stipulation was the returning Ox Baker, who now sported his signature facial hair. Unfortunately, their December 9 match would have a significant effect on Kimura’s career. When future Blackjack Bob Windham tossed a chair into the cage, Baker took all the liberties, as contemporary coverage claimed that he had struck Kimura’s right leg some twenty times. Kimura won the match with a sleeper hold but was unable to walk. He would be hospitalized immediately and diagnosed with three complex fractures along his right tibia. The prognosis stated that Rusher would need six weeks of treatment and would have to wait ten weeks before he could exercise again. Alas, circumstances outside his control would compromise that, and as soon as after Christmas, Kimura would sneak out of the hospital for drinks with Animal Hamaguchi.

The IWE managed the first tour of the year without him, but the smaller AWA Big Fight Series suffered sabotage when the JWA bumped their Kuramae Kokugikan show up one day to go head-to-head with Kokusai’s Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium event. This would be the first box office war in puroresu since the first Battle of the Sumida River in 1968. (What’s more, the JWA show saw Baba & Inoki defend their tag titles against Spiros Arion & Mil Mascaras: the top two of the IWE’s own You Are the Promoter fan poll.) Yoshiwara needed as much native talent as possible, and even flew to West Germany to bring Mighty Inoue back from his excursion. Even he did not dare ask Kimura to try to speed up his recovery, but Rusher felt deeply obligated to Yoshiwara for having given his career a second wind after Tokyo Pro’s demise. As the story goes, he resolved to work the Tokyo show even if it killed him, and Yoshiwara wasn’t in a position to not acquiesce. Kimura was booked to wrestle the ‘?’, a masked Angelo Poffo, in the wire mesh. The circumstances robbed the match of the buildup heat the other two had had, and photographs of Rusher wrestling in a knee-high cast tell it all. He won, of course, but he could not use much of his signature repertoire and was again unable to walk afterwards. His fellow wrestlers had to open the cage to carry him out on a tatami mat. As the show drew a paltry three thousand, it hadn’t been worth it. Kimura resolved to work the 3rd IWA World Series tour afterwards, but two of his bones became dislocated. After this, he developed a posture which leaned to his left side to reduce strain on his right knee, an imbalance that would bring years of back pain and help develop spinal stenosis. Outside of his wire mesh proclivities, Kimura fought for the IWA World Tag Team titles in the second half of 1971. With Great Kusatsu abroad on his second excursion, Rusher teamed up with previous co-champion Sugiyama. The two lost a match for the vacant belts against Red Bastien & Bill Howard on September 7, 1971, but they won them in a rematch at the end of the tour to begin an eight-month reign.

In 1972, Kokusai’s dependence on the wire mesh deathmatch for ticket sales became clear. Rusher went over Kenny Jay in the cage on the first show of the year, which led even Monthly Gong, which had been the one part of the wrestling media to cover the stipulation evenhandedly, to remark in a photo caption that they wished that the IWE would exercise restraint in the future. They wouldn’t. That May, Kimura & Sugiyama vacated their titles after a final successful defense against Ivan Buyten and Monster Roussimoff (that is, Franz von Buyten and Andre the Giant), as Sugiyama transitioned into a part-timer to focus on his business pursuits, which would lead him to transfer to All Japan Pro Wrestling. On September 9, Rusher defeated Buddy Austin in the cage for his sendoff show before a second excursion.

Left: Kimura sits with Kiyomigawa in France. Right: Kimura with Hiroshi, the stepson whom he met during this excursion.

Kimura returned to Japan in time for the 1973 Dynamite Series. It was at this time that he added a butterfly suplex, which broadcasters would dub the Rusher suplex, to his repertoire. This tour saw him defeat Ric Flair in the latter’s Japanese debut. Backstage, Isamu Sakae became his valet. Kimura became very close to the future Snake Amami, who Hiroshi later called the best person he ever met in the business. Rusher returned to a company which had become so dependent on the gimmick he had brought to them that it had directly damaged them. The unavailability of some venues had forced Kokusai to book wire mesh deathmatches on taping dates, which had led TBS to permanently slash the program to thirty minutes. With Sugiyama permanently transferred to AJPW, Kimura teamed up with Kusatsu on his return tour to challenge Mad Dog Vachon & Ivan Koloff for the IWA tag titles. Their first attempt on April 30 was unsuccessful, but they prevailed in a May 14 rematch. The duo would hold the belts for nearly two years.

Meanwhile, Kimura made history that summer. On June 21, the IWE announced that he would receive an IWA World Heavyweight title shot on July 9. After Kobayashi retained against Dick Murdoch on June 29, this meant that Kokusai would hold puroresu’s first top title match between native wrestlers in eighteen years. Supposedly, this was Kokusai’s response to Antonio Inoki’s calls for a unified Japanese commission to decide the nation’s true champion. The Rusher Suplex won the first fall, but Kobayashi would prevail to continue what would be a 25-defense reign. Unfortunately, the Osaka show drew an announced 4,500, a dismal number compared to that which New Japan had drawn the previous month with the first Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh match.

In autumn, Kimura entered the 5th IWA World Series tournament. (The previous year, the IWE had announced that future iterations of the tournament would be held in the fall instead of spring so as not to have to compete with the JWA’s World League.) He was put in the A block, with fellow natives Kobayashi, Isamu Teranishi, and Tadaharu Tanaka, and gaikokujin Lars Anderson, Moose Cholak, Bob Bruggers, and Flicky Alberts. The ace Kobayashi was the favorite to win the block and the tournament, but after Kobayashi defended his world title against Verne Gagne twice, his massive upset loss to Teranishi made Kimura the native with enough points to advance to the four-man semifinal round. At what in kayfabe was his opponent’s request, the cage was set up for Kimura and Anderson’s block match on September 27. Lars disassembled the ropes and busted Rusher open with the metal fittings, but Kimura choked Anderson with the ropes before hitting his signature suplex for the knockout victory. Kimura and Bruggers advanced to the semifinals, where Rusher prevailed in the cage. On October 10, Kimura defeated Blackjack Mulligan in a bloody brawl to win the tournament. 

In late 1973, Kimura’s 29-win streak in the wire mesh deathmatch was broken when he and Ole Anderson, avenging his kayfabe brother, went to a double knockout finish. Rusher got his heat back against Ole with a win in the cage one week later.

Kimura stretches out Blackjack Mulligan in the 1973 IWA World Series final.

Profession: Wrestler, Promoter, Trainer
Real name: Hiroshi Yagi (八木宏)
Professional names: Hiroshi Yagi, Ryuma Go, Mr. Go, Ninja Go, Super Ninja
Life: 3/23/1956-10/18/2009
Born: Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Career: 1972-2009
Height/Weight: 185cm/108kg (6’1”/238 lbs.)
Signature moves: Armbar, various suplexes (German, "side"/gutwrench, back), lariat (later career)
Promotions: International Wrestling Enterprise, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, UWF, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pioneer Senshi, Oriental Pro Wrestling, Atsugi Pro Wrestling, Samurai Pro Wrestling
Titles: NWA Americas Tag Team [NWA Hollywood] (2x: 1x w/Black Gordman, 1x w/Rusher Kimura); WWF Junior Heavyweight [NJPW] (1x); NWA Beat the Champ Television [NWA Hollywood] (1x); CIWA Tag Team [Championship Wrestling USA (Portland, OR)] (2x, w/Jesse Barr)

A fair number of wrestlers in puroresu were more successful than Ryuma Go, but few were as liminal. From the early rival of Tatsumi Fujinami to the baka of the indies, Go became one of pro wrestling's great cult figures.

The son of a chef, Hiroshi Yagi and his younger sisters were abandoned by their mother in his teens. He had wrestled and played baseball as a child, and he left for Tokyo before completing junior high, intent on joining the JWA to support his family. (Eventually, he would pay his sisters' way through college.) Yagi trained with the promotion for several months, reportedly meeting future rival Tatsumi Fujinami in the process, but failed to debut. One source claimed that this was because JWA officials wanted him to complete junior high, but after his death, future Pioneer Senshi partner Masahiko Takasugi would claim in a G Spirits interview that Yagi told him he had been forced by a senior wrestler to consume alcohol, which had caused internal damage. Yagi joined the International Wrestling Enterprise in a 1971 recruitment call, debuting the following September. Alongside Devil Murasaki and Goro Tsurumi, Yagi helped fill early AJPW cards in a gesture of goodwill between the two organizations. In 1973, Yagi and Tsurumi left to begin a training expedition under the custody of IWE booker Umeyuki Kiyomigawa. While he would sometimes be barred from working shows until he turned 18 in 1974, Yagi remained abroad for three years. By the end of March 1974, by which point Kiyomigawa had turned his back on the IWE in his role in Strong Kobayashi’s match with Antonio Inoki, Yagi was in Calgary…in time for fellow Kokusai wrestler Tetsunosuke Daigo to suffer his career-ending injury. 

Go stands at ringside during the 6th IWA World Series final between Rusher Kimura and Mad Dog Vachon.

Yagi's return was hyped up through a fan contest for a ring name. According to IWE reporter and color commentator Takashi Kikuchi, the top names that came through were Concorde Yagi, a reference to the French airliner, and Hiro Yagi, a reference to Hiro Matsuda. He would get neither, instead receiving the much better Ryuma Go. Well, he actually received the name Go Ryuma—that is, recognizing Japanese naming order—but “Go” caught on so much that the naming order was often informally reversed. While I had suspected the contest was more intended for fan engagement, and that the name was decided independently of the submissions (like how Monthly Pro Wrestling coverage was nicknaming Tomomi Tsuruta “Jumbo” as early as their December 1972 issue, almost a year before the autumn 1973 fan contest), the name was credited at the time to a submission by one Mitsuyoshi Goto of Mie prefecture. Regardless, when NJPW repeated this tactic with a returning Mitsuo Yoshida, Yoshida had begged the company to give him a name "like Ryuma Go". (It would take him some time to warm up to Riki Choshu.) Yagi was rechristened on July 4, 1976. As cool as his new name may have been, though, he did not receive any substantial push from Kokusai. His return match, a twenty-minute draw against IWE’s premier ‘exchange student’ Jiro Inazuma [aka Martinique-Canadian wrestler Gerry Morrow], was considered a success. He also received a taste of the promotion's trusty gimmick, the wire mesh deathmatch, in a loss to Gypsy Joe that autumn. However, contrary to claims in Dave Meltzer’s 2009 obituary that Go had been pushed as a top prospect, Japanese sources assert that his performances were lackluster in this era, as his matches were monotonous, and he was prone to botches which drew little but laughter from crowds. He was not a priority of IWE booker Great Kusatsu, and he never received a shot at Isamu Teranishi's light heavyweight title. In March 1977, Go would be the native jobber in Kokusai's fifth and final IWA World Series tournament. On that same tour, he reached the semifinals of a tournament for the vacant IWA World Tag Team titles. Working alongside Thunder Sugiyama, the early-70s IWE ace who had left AJPW over money the previous year, Go fell to Big John Quinn & Kurt von Hess in the semifinal. As the IWE began to court former rugby player Susumu Hara, and especially as the company’s financial situation worsened in early 1978, Go began secret talks with NJPW sales executive and “radical instigator” Hisashi Shinma.

Tatsumi Fujinami's return to Japan in March 1978 began the Dragon Boom. It rejuvenated puroresu, bringing an influx of younger fans to NJPW shows. A match pitting Fujinami against Go had the potential to recreate the Inoki-Kobayashi match of four years past. Go began secret talks with Shinma in 1978, and aroused his coworkers’ suspicions with his refusal to embark on a Maritime excursion. Mighty Inoue has claimed that he sniffed out Go’s intentions. On May 11, 1978, AJPW ran the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. In a response to the Dragon Boom that somewhat missed the point, they booked NWA World Junior Heavyweight champion Nelson Royal to defend his strap against Al Madril. Go made a shocking appearance at the show to declare his resignation from Kokusai to the press and stated his wish to wrestle as a freelancer. At this point, what “freelance” usually meant in puroresu was a wrestler who was probably based overseas, and only worked for a single Japanese promotion at a time due to the political landscape. (Examples from the period include Masa Saito, Umanosuke Ueda, Mr. Hito, and Yasu Fujii.) Go left for the States on a JAL flight on May 18, joining Hiro Matsuda in Tampa, Florida on Shinma’s orders. On June 9, Go appeared alongside Matsuda in the Olympic Auditorium to see Tatsumi Fujinami defend his WWWF Junior Heavyweight title against Mando Guerrero. In an effort to avoid legal troubles from Kokusai, Shinma asked NWA Hollywood promoter Mike LeBell to sign Go to a contract, which would allow him to take NJPW bookings as a “representative” of LeBell’s territory. While this did not really work, as the IWE saw through it and unsuccessfully petitioned the Tokyo District Court to get involved, Go spent much of the rest of 1978 working for LeBell, at one point winning tag titles with territory stalwart Black Gordman. During this time, he also got Mach Hayato in touch with Goro Tsurumi.

Go first wrestled Fujinami on July 27, 1978. The previous year, Kosuke Takeuchi had used his connections to fan clubs to sweeten the crowd for Jumbo Tsuruta and Mil Mascaras' famous match at the Denen Coliseum, arranging cheer squads for each man. Takeuchi would contribute to this match by manufacturing crowd support for the IWE invader. (Notice the sign on the photo on the right which reads "The Maniax"; this refers to a specific club of Gong superfans and part-timers.) The match made Go's name and led to a program which lasted into the following year. Remaining “freelance” for the time being, his next dates with New Japan that November saw him associated with fellow "lone wolves" in Hiro Matsuda's Okami Gundan faction, which entered the Pre-Japanese League tournament. A second Fujinami title shot came in December. On October 2, 1979, six thousand fans packed the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium to see Fujinami defend his title against Go for the third time in the main event. Go became the one to end an almost two-year reign, even if he dropped it back two days later. (According to Killer Khan's autobiography, Masa Saito was the one who had lobbied for this title switch.) While Jumbo Tsuruta's rivalry with Kim Duk arguably preceded it, the Fujinami/Go series deserves credit as an early example of native vs native programs in puroresu.

Five months after the Fujinami switcheroo, Go returned to the IWE as an invader, getting disqualified in a singles match against Ashura Hara on their Match 31, 1980 show. (This was a challenge for Hara’s WWU World Junior Heavyweight title.) Two days later, Go lost a final junior title match against Fujinami in Osaka, after which he officially joined New Japan. Despite his opportunities, Go was sidelined in a saturated talent pool. Kengo Kimura was pushed that year as a major junior talent, winning the NWA International Junior Heavyweight title and taking Fujinami to a double knockout in a title vs title epic, while Go barely crawled past the MSG Series tournament’s preliminary block before playing the jobber in the tourney itself. Beginning that October, Go was hospitalized due to "tetanus-like symptoms" in his leg. This lasted for about six months, according to NJPW sales manager Naoki Otsuka.

In 1981, Go landed a role in a TV Asahi police drama Keishi Chō Satsujinka. In all but the last of its thirteen episodes, Go acted as murder detective Takeshi Kubo alongside such Toei heavyweights as Bunta Sugawara and Koji Tsuruta. Outside the ropes, Go apparently worked as a coach in the NJPW dojo; an uncited passage in his Japanese Wikipedia page claims he had some involvement instructing Nobuhiko Takada and Kazuo Yamazaki. When his former IWE coworkers Rusher Kimura and Animal Hamaguchi invaded New Japan, Go was mentioned in Hamaguchi’s end of their promo segment, but his history was not capitalized on by joining the Kokusai Gundan stable. However, Go accompanied Kimura on an excursion in May 1982. As the Rising Suns, “Mr. Go” and “Mr. Toyo”, they ended the last of Black Gordman & El Goliath’s 22 NWA Americas tag title reigns, in a brief run transitional to Hector & Mando Guerrero. 

In January 1984, Go was the first New Japan wrestler to disappear and join the UWF. As Hisashi Shinma claimed in a 2009 G Spirits interview, he had invited Rusher Kimura due to their shared past in Tokyo Pro Wrestling, and Rusher then invited Go; when Shinma asked if Go was sure, Go affirmed his decision as he felt indebted to Shinma for giving him his earlier opportunity. After Shinma resigned from the UWF that summer, he claimed in a Hawaii press conference that Go, Kimura, Gran Hamada, and Akira Maeda would all leave in turn to join AJPW. In a gesture intended to dissociate the UWF from Shinma, UWF officials convinced Go, Kimura, and Maeda to declare unity with the company in a press conference. Alongside Kimura and Mach Hayato, Go helped the company on their second tour by using his connections to book talent after Shinma’s departure cost them a possible WWF partnership. He is credited with booking Canadian wrestlers Leo Burke, Frenchy Martel, and The UFO. Maeda would become a lynchpin of the promotion but Go and Kimura would both leave the promotion before the year’s end. While Japanese Wikipedia cites something called “The Nostalgic Story of Rusher Kimura” to claim that Go had done it out of a sense of loyalty towards Shinma, G Spirits magazine offered a less idealistic and more realistic story in 2018. Go had booked foreigners for the promotion, but the talent he brought were incompatible with the shoot-style direction that the UWF prepared to go in with Satoru Sayama.

Kimura and Go joined All Japan Pro Wrestling for the 1984 Real World Tag League tour. Go did not enter the ring until the last four dates of the tour; after Kimura and Giant Baba’s tournament team broke up in a December 8 angle, Go wrestled alongside Rusher (and in one singles match against Yoshihiro Momota) as the nucleus of what would become Kokusai Ketsumeigun. The second incarnation of the ex-IWE heel stable also featured Goro Tsurumi, Masahiko Takasugi, and Apollo Sugawara, and a returning Ashura Hara also wrestled alongside them. While they did get television time, and Kimura was starting to show the promo skills that would serve him so well in the many years to come, Ketsumeigun were decidedly minor players in the mid-80s AJPW shuffle. Go would ultimately be cut at the end of the fiscal year to make room for the Calgary Hurricanes, alongside Takasugi, Sugawara, and referee Mr. Hayashi. Go’s Japanese Wikipedia page claims that he had “offended” Baba and the company’s referees in his attempts to call attention to himself in the ring.

After his dismissal, Go briefly found work outside the wrestling sphere. Retired NJPW wrestler and future RINGS referee Motoyuki Kitazawa hired him for his construction firm. As April 1986 ended, though, Go found wrestling work again. He was booked for the AWA by Masa Saito, where he would wrestle as Ninja Go. During his time in the territory, Go worked as the partner of Super Ninja (that is, Calgary Hurricane Shunji Takano), and that duo as well as a Go-Bill Irwin team received shots at Scott Hall & Curt Hennig’s AWA World Tag Team titles. Go’s first work back in Japan was a brief return to All Japan. In the Summer Action Series tour, Go and Takasugi were hired on a freelance basis; my guess is that they were brought aboard to fill space left by the last of the Japan Pro Wrestling talent to jump ship back to New Japan (Kuniaki Kobayashi, Hiro Saito). Go would not impress enough to get a contract. According to the aforementioned G Spirits Vol. 46, his cardio was no issue, but he was considered stiff and clumsy. He would manage an okonomiyaki restaurant owned by a patron.

In late 1988, when now-JWP sales manager Hisashi Shinma made plans to restructure the organization into the mixed-gender Martial Arts Union (Kakutōgi Rengō) promotion, Go was poised to join alongside JWP salesclerk Atsushi Onita, as well as Gran Hamada. However, this was not how he would step back into the ring. A patron of Masahiko Takasugi had asked if he wanted to start a small wrestling promotion, and Takasugi approached Go and Sugawara to join him. Takasugi and Sugawara’s original name for the promotion, Shin Kokusai Puroresu, was shot down by Go due to his own shame over how he had left the IWE. On November 15, 1988, they held a press conference at Animal Hamaguchi’s gym and announced their new enterprise, which had been given a name by Takashi Kikuchi: Pioneer Senshi. While Go had not initiated the plan to start the promotion, and his partners were concerned that he may take control of the organization, he was made its ace due to his greater name value. He used his friendship with his old rival, Tatsumi Fujinami, to receive a ring on loan from New Japan and help secure Korakuen Hall for their first show. Go also secured and opened the Pioneer Gym Popai gym in Urayasu, where he would train aspiring wrestlers such as Yukihiro Kanamura and Hiroshi Itakura.

Go and Atsushi Onita enter a backstage scuffle at the first Pioneer Senshi event.

By the time Pioneer held its kickoff show on April 30, 1989, none of the trainees were deemed ready to wrestle, although they did hold open training sessions and arm-wrestling tournaments to “make up for it”. The show only had two matches: Takasugi vs. Sugawara, and Go vs. Onita. Go dislocated his shoulder when he took a bump off the apron; he had instructed his seconds to move the floor mats several inches back in case Takasugi performed a tope but had forgotten to tell them to move it back. While the show was profitable, Sugawara would leave when Mitsuo Endo hooked him up with Koji Kitao; he was replaced by former Japan Pro wrestler Fumihito Niikura, who faced Go in Pioneer's second show on October 26, less than a month after FMW’s first show. On April 5, 1990, Go wrestled Masashi Aoyagi. The match was thrown out after an Aoyagi kick broke Go’s nose (Go also claimed his eyeball popped out and he had to push it back in), before an enraged Animal Hamaguchi dragged both back to the ring to restart the match; a riot almost broke out. The two would have a rematch three weeks later, and although Pioneer Senshi provided lousy pay, their partnership with NJPW proved fruitful for Aoyagi.

In 1990, Go wrestled thirteen dates for NJPW between May and December as the leader of the invading Pioneer Legion faction. Go and Takasugi would win the first of these matches, a tag against Riki Choshu & Kensuke Sasaki, but Go’s ring rust earned him strong criticism from Fujinami and a cold shoulder from booker Choshu. In October, Go was injured in a traffic accident, but he got a singles match against Fujinami that December: his first since the 3rd MSG Series a decade before. It was in a Weekly Gong interview building up to this match that Go first called himself a puroresu baka. While I do not know if this was deliberate, it cannot help but recall Jumbo Tsuruta's statements in the 1970s that he "didn't want to be a pro-wrestling idiot". Their match hardly lived up to their late-70s feud, and World Pro Wrestling commentator Yoshinari Tsuji made a cutting remark that Go was more of a “pro wrestling hippopotamus” than a pro wrestling idiot. With this match ended New Japan’s relationship with Pioneer. The company almost had itself absorbed into SWS afterward; the plan was that it would have been the parent company of a new stable for Koji Kitao, and owner Hachiro Tanaka had already paid an advance. The SWS wrestlers’ association unanimously opposed the merger, though, and Go was left to languish until June 1992. With the help of Tsunekichi Mochimaru, who had been JWP president until its dissolution that February, Pioneer Senshi was revived and rebranded as Oriental Pro Wrestling. Oriental Pro went reasonably well at first, but financial mismanagement and friction with either younger wrestlers or the company’s PR and sales departments got Go kicked out of the organization that November.

Go showed up in Portland, Oregon’s Championship Wrestling USA promotion and won its tag title with Jesse Barr twice. Back in Japan, he wrestled some novelty matches for local organization Yataimura Pro Wrestling, and even started his own local promotion, Atsugi Pro Wrestling. In 1994, Go began to develop his puroresu baka comment into a proper character and rejuvenated his career with promos and promotional appearances. He also made frequent calls to Weekly Pro Wrestling’s editorial department, and at the April 2, 1995 Bridge of Dreams Tokyo Dome show, Go got the loudest cheers of the night in his match against Uchu Majin Silver X (Hiroshi Shimada). The rest of the decade saw Go appear for WAR, Takashi Ishikawa’s Tokyo Pro Wrestling, IWA Japan, FMW, and DDT, as well as various independent shows. He also formed the Samurai Project production company, which ran shows as Samurai Pro Wrestling. Samurai only lasted a year, but I cannot let one of its gimmicks go unmentioned: a tour of free shows in the Kanto region that came with a free lunch.

Go in February 2005.

Go’s financial condition bottomed out in the early 2000s. He had married in 1987 and had had two children, but his wife had been forced to become the sole provider since none of Go’s wrestling enterprises were profitable, and by this point they had separated. Besides Goro Tsurumi, he got few offers from promoters, and in late 2001, he may have even burned that bridge. Tsurumi arranged a retirement show for Go that December, but the money wasn’t good enough, so Go no-showed at the last minute and the retirement ceremony (with ten-count and all!) was held without him. One way that Go made ends meet in the early 2000s was by performing solo scenes under pseudonym in gay pornographic videos. (A sad 2019 interview with video producer Samson Takahashi claims that Go talked him up from ¥50,000 to ¥70,000, which when accounted for inflation amounts to about a $150 difference in 2022.) This would become front-page news in Tokyo Sports after Go was arrested on suspicion of theft in 2003. While denying the charge, as Go that he only wished to return the wallet he had picked up to the woman who dropped it, he admitted to his other endeavor and showed no shame: “What’s wrong with making money with your own body?” He returned to wrestling in 2004, but back pain would soon cause him to miss matches. As reported by guest Tarzan Yamamoto in a column, Go booked Korakuen Hall on December 28, 2004 for a show in which he promised to see fans "no matter what", but on the day of the show, he could not even sit up, much less perform. So, as customers shouted for refunds, he was brought out on a stretcher to do his famous "Showa!" cry. After a period of inactivity, Go came back from semi-retirement to work for DDT in 2006, and continued to wrestle for the next three years. One month after a final tag match against Tsurumi in September 2009, Go injured his wrist in a bike accident. The wound became infected, and due to years of alcoholism, his immune system was not strong enough to keep it from spreading. Go died of sepsis on October 18.

Miscellaneous 

1. Both puroresu.com and Cagematch credit Ryuma Go as having worked on NJPW’s October 9, 1975 show at the Kuramae Kokugikan. This is clearly incorrect, between promotional allegiances, the anachronism of his ring name, and the absurdity of calling a wrestler from another promotion across the Pacific to work an undercard tag. His supposed partner was Kang Sung-Yung, so I am presuming that another Korean wrestler was in his place; my guess is either Oh Tae-Kyun or Tian Ren-Hsiu (latter transliteration may not be perfect; I went off of DeepL and I have never seen his name actually transliterated), both of whom worked this tour according to the Showa Puroresu fanzine’s issue on 1975-6 New Japan. (Showa Puroresu would definitely have mentioned it if Ryuma Go had worked on this show.) If I can find a full card in a contemporaneous issue of Monthly Pro Wrestling, which I hope will eventually be added to the Weekly Pro Wrestling website’s subscriber archive, I will submit the correction to both parties.

Real name: Mitsuo Hata (羽田光男)
Professional names: Mitsuo Hata, Rocky Hata
Life: 9/12/1948-11/27/1991
Born: Akkeshi, Hokkaido, Japan
Career: 1972-1986
Height/Weight: 192cm/108kg (6’4”/238lbs.)
Signature moves: Side suplex (gutwrench), neckbreaker
Promotions: Japan Wrestling Association, All Japan Pro Wrestling
Titles: NWA World Tag Team [Central States Wrestling] (2x, with Bob Brown) 

Rocky Hata was among the most prominent of AJPW’s early midcarders, peaking with his late-1970s run as a supporting wrestler and jobber-to-the-stars.

Mitsuo Hata began his athletic career in sumo, joining the Hanakago stable after graduating from junior high. Debuting in January 1965, Hata advanced to the makushita division before retiring in January 1972. He joined the JWA during the post-Inoki malaise and was one of the last wrestlers it produced, debuting that summer alongside fellow ex-sumo Seiei Kimura. Hata was one of the nine wrestlers who remained with the company until its last breath, and who an unenthusiastic Giant Baba was forced by his network to take into All Japan Pro Wrestling afterwards. Hata remained an undercard talent until he received an opportunity for an expedition. In December 1974, when Ken Mantell came to Japan to defend his NWA World Junior Heavyweight title against Jumbo Tsuruta, Mantell took interest in his height, and Baba approved. Hata traveled America for two years, most notably working in the Kansas and Oklahoma territories. Towards the end of his expedition, he even received a pair of CSW tag title reigns alongside “Bulldog” Bob Brown, which saw the two go over Harley Race & Pat O’Connor. Hata reunited with his boss in early 1977, as Baba and a crop of top All Japan wrestlers worked a series of US dates for the apparent primary purpose of showcasing Genichiro Tenryu before his official AJPW debut. He then made his triumphant return for All Japan’s Super Power Series tour, teaming with Tsuruta to defeat Baron von Raschke & Mario Milano in his first match back home.

Left: Hata and Genichiro Tenryu combine their strength to whip Giant Baba during a match in the 1977 Real World Tag League (December 5, 1977).

Rechristened Rocky Hata in reference to the hit film of the time, Hata was called the “Japanese American Dream” for his comeback story. For a time, he was the #3 native in All Japan, behind Baba & Tsuruta. For a core fanbase that found Tsuruta difficult to relate to for his push and personality, Hata became a favorite. His popularity perhaps reflected on the company’s failure to build a top wrestler from the bottom up, something which they arguably did not do until Mitsuharu Misawa. Hata settled into an early supporting role as the partner of Genichiro Tenryu. Dubiously dubbed the “Fresh Handsome Combi”, they entered the 1977 Real World Tag League together, and Tenryu’s first title matches were All Asia shots alongside Hata. At that point, Hata was considered the superior wrestler of the two. At the 1977 Tokyo Sports Awards, Hata was AJPW’s winner of the Effort Award, alongside NJPW’s Riki Choshu and the IWE’s Goro Tsurumi. Hata remained relatively prominent as a supporting wrestler and jobber-to-the-gaikokujin-stars through the next couple years. In the 1979 Tokyo Sports show, Hata lost to Seiji Sakaguchi in the only true AJPW vs. NJPW singles match booked on the card. (Hata was booked in the match after the IWE's Great Kusatsu refused it, according to Kusatsu's then-valet.) Even at his peak, though, Hata was always fighting for TV time with the likes of Kojika & Okuma's All Asia champion duo, and Tiger Toguchi essentially took his spot in the second half of 1979.

Outside of an untelevised All Asia title shot with Takashi Ishikawa in early 1983, Hata’s role receded in the early decade. It was around this time, though, that Hata began to develop a comedic streak. He and referee Kyohei Wada crafted a reliable routine (sadly not seen in circulating footage) that established the referee’s personality in contrast to his senior Joe Higuchi, famously culminating in a bit where Hata attempted to toss Wada out of the ring…only for Wada to do a tiger feint/619 to transfer the momentum and remain in the ring. While the NJPW undercard matches between Don Arakawa and Haruka Eigen likely beat Hata to the punch in terms of comedic focus (and elements of such had been in puroresu for decades), Hata still anticipated the comedic tradition that All Japan’s older talent would develop in later years.

As far as the world knew at the time, Hata retired due to an internal disease after wrestling his last match in November 1986. Some thirty-five years later, though, Tenryu shed light on his old friend’s late career in a web column. According to him, the real cause of Hata’s decline was domestic troubles, as Mitsuo became unable to see his children and eventually began living in All Japan’s dojo. Spiraling into alcoholism, his work and condition deteriorated until Baba advised him to retire. After this, Hata worked for a time as a Nagano-based promoter, but “things happened, and he became a drunkard”. The Japanese fanzine Showa Puroresu recounts an instance where Hata appeared at an AJPW show, and shocked fans with his emaciated appearance. He died of acute renal failure in late 1991, which was chalked up to diabetic complications.