sek69 Posted March 29, 2019 Report Posted March 29, 2019 Saw that he passed away today, IMO one of the biggest "could have been a huge star" guys of his time. A former Yokozuna, he was a big star in sumo only to get kicked out for attacking the stable boss's wife which ended up being a recurring theme of his (losing jobs due to unprofessional violence). Had a brief run in New Japan where he sold out the Dome, but feuded with the booker and got fired. Tenryu brought him in, but that led to the famous semi-shoot with John Tenta because Kitao didn't want to lose to a guy who was a sumo equivalent to a midcarder. After that he went to UWFI where again there were issues, he didn't want to lose to Takada who ended up legit KO'ing him with a shoot kick. Afer a brief MMA stint he ended up in WAR before retiring. He's probably known best to US fans for the seemingly random tag match with Tenryu against the Smash/Crush version of Demolition at the 1991 Wrestlemania, which was set up due to the SWS/WWF partnership at the time.
El-P Posted March 29, 2019 Report Posted March 29, 2019 Worst Yokozuna ever (never won a basho, no idea how he was even promoted) then acted like a dick (and got fired). One of the worst pro-wrestler ever then, and acted like a dick (and got fired). One of the worst shoot-style wrestler ever, and acted like a dick (and got served by Takada for doing so). Great track record, that guy. A "legend" for all the wrong reasons.
clintthecrippler Posted March 30, 2019 Report Posted March 30, 2019 Now that Magee vs Bret has been found, my new Holy Grail footage is Koji Kitao kicking the crap out of Preston Steele when he came over for a couple random appearances in 1995.
funkdoc Posted March 31, 2019 Report Posted March 31, 2019 On 3/29/2019 at 2:31 PM, El-P said: Worst Yokozuna ever (never won a basho, no idea how he was even promoted) then acted like a dick (and got fired). One of the worst pro-wrestler ever then, and acted like a dick (and got fired). One of the worst shoot-style wrestler ever, and acted like a dick (and got served by Takada for doing so). Great track record, that guy. A "legend" for all the wrong reasons. don't forget the racism - IIRC he was the first person to publicly out Choshu as Korean or getting bodied in early UFC EDIT: re: the Yokozuna title, apparently that was a dark period for sumo talent and they picked a young guy who they felt had a lot of athletic potential
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