Top stars of Puroresu/Lucha Libre

[Rikidozan]

Hi all,

in a new feature here at the Puro/Lucha Libre forum, i'll introduce a Puro/Lucha Libre star each month that a casual fan may not have heard of. Casual fan or not, it should be interesting reading.


Mitsuharu Misawa

Groomed by the legendary Shohei ‘Giant’ Baba, Mitsuharu Misawa was destined to become a pro wrestling legend. And indeed AJPW management had so much faith in him that he first got noticed whilst wrestling under the legend Tiger Mask as Tiger Mask II, a gimmick and character immortalised by Satoru Sayama.
Mitsuharu Misawa started the 90’s off by taking of his mask and ditching the Tiger Mask II gimmick. He then left his former partner of the last three years, Jumbo Tsuruta, and soon hooked up with Toshiaki Kawada, who was also in the same training school year as Misawa.
The team quickly gelled and got over, and won numerous titles, championships and tournaments. After staying with Kawada for a further three years, and gaining the spotlight in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Misawa again decided to go it alone, but was put in another tag team in 1993, this time teaming with another fellow trainee, Kenta Kobashi. By the time he had teamed with Kobashi, Misawa was already an international star, but gained even more praise and accolade whilst teaming with Kobashi.
Like he did with his previous partners, Misawa collected a serious amount of trophies, championships, belts and tournament wins. Indeed throughout the nineties Misawa was the driving force behind AJPW’s huge success and many believed he was the best in-ring performer of the decade. Not many can argue with that. Misawa made an unprecedented move when he left All Japan Pro Wrestling along with most of its roster and formed his own promotion, Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Staging its first card on August 5th, 2000 at Differ Ariake, Misawa made it clear that he wanted his promotion to become Japan’s premier wrestling organisation. After two-plus years of cementing his group, Misawa now seems open to working with other promotions in Japan, including his former employer AJPW. Now in his late 30’s, Misawa’s body has suffered, as one would expect for someone who spent over a decade working the most physically demanding matches anywhere on the planet. Although he can still perform at the same standard when he was in his prime, he’s clearly in pain when he does.

Major titles held:

1. All Asia Tag Team Titles with Kenta Kobashi ( date won on 04-09-90)
2. Unified (PWF/NWA Intel) Tag Team Titles with Toshiaki Kawada (07-24-91)
3. Triple Crown Title (AJPW’s top singles title) (08-22-92)
4. Unified Tag Team Tiles with Toshiaki Kawada (12-04-92)
5. Unified Tag Team Titles with Kenta Kobashi (12-03-93)
6. Unified Tag Team Titles with Kenta Kobashi (12-10-94)
7. Triple Crown Title (05-26-95)
8. Unified Tag Team Titles with Jun Akiyama (05-23-96)
9. Triple Crown Title (05-01-98)
10. Triple Crown Title (10-31-98)
11. Triple Crown Title (05-25-99)
12. Unified Tag Team Titles with Yoshinari Ogawa (08-25-99)
13. All Asia Tag Team Titles with Yoshinari Ogawa (08-25-99)
14. Global Honoured Champion Heavyweight title (4/15/01)

Recommended Matches:

1. Misawa vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (06-08-90)
2. Misawa/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Akira Taue (Unified Tag Team Titles) (06-01-93)
3. Misawa vs. Kawada (Triple Crown Title) (06-03-94)
4. Misawa vs. Kobashi (Triple Crown Title) (01-20-97)


Promotion Affiliations:

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) 1990-1999
Pro Wrestling NOAH 2000-onwards


Current Status:

After being a pioneer in AJPW throughout the nineties, Mitsuharu Misawa left the company (along with 90% of the roster) to form his own wrestling promotion, NOAH, in 2000. Now 39, Misawa is head-booker and performer for NOAH, and will go down as a legend of pro wrestling.

[SiMania]

Jsut a quick question for anyone who knows the answer:

When Misawa unmasked *I presume he only did this once) was it after he'd been wrestling without the hood previously? I ask this because last night I watched the match when he was teaming with kawada and kawada unmasked him near the start of the match, the crowd were clearly chanting "Misawa, Misawa, Misawa"

[Rikidozan]

Sorry it took this long to answer, anyway, Misawa wrestled under his real name before he went under the Tiger Mask hood, so the fans knew who he was, thus them chanting for him when he was un-hooded.

[Rikidozan]

El Santo/Rudolfo Guzman

Mexico’s most beloved pro wrestler, Guzman started his professional life by using several ring names; Red Man, Murcielago II as well as his birth name. Professional wrestling was a family affair for Guzman, his three brothers Black, Jerry and Javier all wrestled so it was a given as to what he would with his life. Under the mask as El Santo (The Saint), Guzman was an instant sensation in Mexico City where here wrestled, and even unseated Lucha Libre legend Ciclon Veloz for the Mexican Welterweight championship sometime in the 1940’s. After gaining unrivalled fan support, Guzman would often wrestle tag team matches with the likes of Gory Guerrero and Rayo de Jalisco, both bona fide legends in the world of Lucha Libre.

Not only did Guzman tag with these men, he also held numerous tag titles with them, and managed to gain mainstream cross-over appeal at the same time. Guzman’s El Santo character is famous for predominantly one thing, his legendary silver mask and the fact he was never seen not wearing it. Indeed when Guzman became Mexico’s most famous film star, when on-screen he still wore it as he realised it was his trademark that everyone recognised and loved. Moving into the film business Guzman became Mexico’s top star, starring in films such as ‘El Santo vs. Las Mujeres Vampiro’, (El Santo vs. the Vampire Women) ‘Mummies of Guanauato’, ‘Santo in the Wax Museum’, ‘Invasion of the Zombies’ and ‘The Masked Man Strikes Again’ (with the two former dubbed into English). Whilst being a film star, Guzman also found time to win championship titles, gaining the Mexican Middleweight title in 1954 as well as the Mexican Light-Heavyweight title a number of times from 1964-1967.

Having a career spanning almost fifty years (Guzman debuted in 1935), Santo wrestled his last match in 1983, and retired as one of Mexico’s most loved and famous faces not just in pro wrestling, but in Mexican history and society. Sadly Guzman died on February 5th, 1984 from a heart attack in Mexico City, however his legacy lives on in his son, El Higo Del Santo who debuted one year before his father’s death; Guzman was said to be as proud as one could be to see his son wrestle. Guzman was the first real innovator the pro wrestling industry had ever seen, his flyer style was a prelude to what the likes of Jimmy Snuka, Antonio Rocca, Justin Liger and Ray Mysterio Jr. did years later, all of whom have Guzman to thank for the flyer Lucha Libre style. Guzman was held in such high regard in his native land, that he was buried in his mask (which is classed as illegal normally as no face distortion is allowed) and a national public holiday was commemorated after him. A legitimate innovator, Guzman is a legend in the industry that will never be forgotten.

[Seabass]

Where's Rikidozan? I was actually enjoying reading infomation on the Puroresu and Lucha Libre wrestlers

[Rikidozan]

Don't worry i'm still here, just been very busy as-of late. I'll write-up some more bios of the likes of Rikidozan, Riki Choshu, Giant Baba etc etc.

[Rikidozan]

Keiji Mutoh

After graduating from the New Japan Academy, Mutoh worked his first match in 1984 under the guise of White Ninja. After an uneventful stint under the WM gimmick, Mutoh was sent to North American to grow as a worker, and captured the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship, winning the title on 5/21/86 and dropping it on 6/86.
Back in Japan he then hooked up with The Great Kabuki and formed the tag team of The Rising Sons and had a decent run. After Mutoh and Kabuki parted ways, he again hooked up in a tag team, this time with Shiro Koshinaka and the two captured IWGP Tag Team Titles (Mutoh’s first tag titles gold) when they went over Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Tanaka in a tournament final on 20/3/87. However their tag title run only last all of a week, as Maeda and Tanaka won the titles back on 26/3/87.
Now a big name draw in Japan, Mutoh moved his sights to North America again, more precisely, World Championship Wrestling (WCW and NJPW had a talent trading/working agreement at the time).
Mutoh, now wrestling under the ‘Great Muta’ gimmick was an instant hit, and was put in a programme straight away with WCW’s top (baby) face Sting. The two clicked immediately and had classic matches which were mostly for the NWA T.V title, with Mutoh challenging and indeed in September ’89, management had enough faith in him to give him the nod to go over Sting for the title. His title run lasted a moderate four months, before starring at the lights for Arn Anderson. In 1990, teaming with Masahiro Chono, Mutoh went over Masa Saito and Shinya Hashimoto to win the IWGP Tag Team Titles for a second time, holding onto the gold for a respectable seven month run. Splitting with Chono, Mutoh then formed another combo with Hiroshi Hase, and downed Rick and Scot Steiner on 5/11/91 in a great match at the Tokyo Dome for the IWGP Tag Team Tiles, Mutoh’s third time.
Four months passed until Hase and Mutoh were toppled, by (Big Van) Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow. Mutoh then returned to North America and WCW for some months, working matches against/with Sting, then returned back to Japan in 1992, and officially became the biggest draw in the business at the time downing legend Riki Choshu for the IWGP World Heavyweight title on 11/8/92 and ending on 20/9/93.
Mutoh then made history in an unprecedented move by going over Masahiro Chono to win the NWA World Heavyweight title, uniting it with the IWGP World Heavyweight title on 4/1/93 until 1/5/93 losing the title to Barry Windham. Proving to be every bit the company man, Mutoh then dropped the IWGP Heavyweight title to Shinya Hashimoto. Over the next two years, Mutoh would cement his status as a one of the best in the world by winning the 1993 and 1994 Super Grades tournaments and hooking up with Hiroshi Hase again to win (for the fourth time, on 4/1/93) the IWGP Tag titles.
Defending the title for a lengthy six months, the duo was forced to vacate (on 10/6/95) after Mutoh downed Shinya Hashimoto on 3/5/95 for the IWGP Heavyweight title, for the second time. This time his title run lasted eight months until 4/1/96 when he jobbed to Nobuhiko Tanaka. With the huge success WCW was having in North America with the n.W.o gimmick, and NJPW and WCW still having a working agreement, the n.W.o International gimmick was carted over to Japan, with the n.W.o faction being led by No.1 heel Masahiro Chono. Mutoh had an integral part of the success of the gimmick in NJPW, as Mutoh was the n.W.o’s main challenger. After going over Chono in a big-time match, Mutoh turned heel and eventually joined the heel stable, donning the face paint and under the guise of The Great Muta (the gimmick which he had used on-and-off for the past near-ten years) and teamed with former partner turned-enemy turned-partner again Chono. Mutoh played the heel-turn almost to perfection as he struggled with the moral dilemma of joining the ‘bad guys’ and turning on the fans. Mutoh left the faction due to a falling out with Chono, only to return a short time later and team with Chono again to capture the IWGP Tag Team Titles, for Mutoh the fifth time on 91/10/97.
The tandem had to then vacate the titles (on 5/6/98) after Mutoh sustained a serious knee injury. After recovering from the resulting knee surgery, Mutoh and Chono were shipped off to North America and WCW where they showed up an edition of Monday Nitro and defeated Alex Wright and the Disco Inferno in a tag match. Then, on 4/1/99, Mutoh went over IWGP World Heavyweight titleholder Scot Norton to win the title, Mutoh’s third title run. Between 4/1/99 and 10/12/99 Mutoh would defend the title against the likes Don Frye, Scot Norton and Manabu Nakanishi, before finally starring at the ceiling for Genichiro Tenryu (on 10/12/99). Early-2000 was a quite period for Mutoh, doing battle with his off-again partner Chono, with Chono getting the nod more-often than not. Later that same year, in the summer, Mutoh again showed up in WCW, being teamed with Vampiro and the Innate (Insane) Clown Posse and starting a programme with then WCW Commissioner Ernest Miller. Hardly a great pairing (due to Miller’s inept working ability), their matches were unremarkable at best, and at the New Blood Rising pay-per-view Miller even got the nod to go over Mutoh, after Mutoh’s green-mist gimmick landed on Miller, but Miller made a comeback and pinned Mutoh. Vampiro and Mutoh them teamed together that night (13/8/00), and won the WCW Tag Team Titles.
He and Vampiro held them for 24 hours, before they dropped them to Juvi Guerrera and Ray Mysterio Jr. on Monday Nitro. Mutoh and Vampiro then worked several matches Sting, although they weren’t to the same standard as they were in the early 1990’s. Vampiro and Mutoh then feuded, leading to some so-so matches. After pishing around in WCW for months, Mutoh returned to NJPW, and on 6/8/01, Mutoh won the AJPW Triple Crown for the first time. Now in 2003, Mutoh is at the helm of the booking for the Wrestle-1 shows, with the first being semi-successful, and the second being a semi-commercial success, but critically and artistically being terrible. Mutoh is fast becoming the Vince Russo of Japan; once heralded as the saviour of AJPW and the Japanese industry, but doing almost everything wrong (not intentionally I hasten to add) Mutoh needs to do something fast to resurrect that label.


Legitimate Height: 6'1"
Legitimate Weight: 245 lbs.
Real Name: Keiji Mutoh
DOB: 23/12/62
Hometown: Yamanishi, Japan
Other Names: White Ninja (NPJW), Super Ninja, the Great Muta (NJPW, WCW)
Debut Year: 1984
Signature Manoeuvres: Dragon-Screw Legwhip, Figure 4 Leglock and Moonsault

Title Summary runs:
- NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion 21/5/86 - 6/86
- IWGP Tag-Team Champion w/ Shiro Koshinaka (20/3/87 - 26/3/87)
- NWA World Television Champion (3/9/89 - 2/1/90)
- IWGP Tag-Team Champion (2) w/ Masa Chono (27/4/90 - 2/11/90)
- IWGP Tag-Team Champion (3) w/ Hiroshi Hase (5/11/91 - 1/3/92)
- IWGP Heavyweight Champion (16/8/92 - 20/9/93)
- NWA World Heavyweight Champion (4/1/93 - 1/4/93)
- IWGP Tag-Team Champion (4) w/ Hiroshi Hase (4/1/93 - 10/6/95)
- IWGP Heavyweight Champion (2) (3/5/95 - 4/1/96)
- IWGP Tag-Team Champion (5) w/ Masa Chono (16/10/97 - 5/6/98)
- IWGP Heavyweight Champion (3) (4/1/99 – 1o/12/99)
- WCW World Tag-Team Champion w/ Vampiro (13/8/00 - 14/8/00)
- AJPW Triple Crown Champion (8/6/01 - 02)
- AJPW World Tag-Team Champion w/ Taiyo Kea (22/10/01 - 7/17/02)
- IWGP Tag-Team Champion(6) w/ Taiyo Kea (28/10/01 - 17/7/02)
- AJPW Triple Crown Champion(2) (27/10/02 - Current)


Created by Matt Singh.

[Dintrox]

Good bio of Muta ...

[Seabass]

....hey Riki, you gonna do anymore Bios, as I find them intresting :D

[Rikidozan]

Thanks Seabass/Dintrox, i'll get started on them again next week:xyx

[Nash02]

yeah i really like these .. very cool idea and if i can make a suggestion for a future bio .. how about the original Tiger Mask .. ive seen quite a few of his matches and i wouldnt mind reading about him

[Evil Gringo]

One man who needs a bio is the great Kenta Kobashi, the man who gave use the Orange Crush bomb, Burning Hammer, Diamond Head and made the Half Nelson suplex well known....