Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Hiroyoshi Tenzan.jpg
Ring name(s) Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Hiroyoshi Yamamoto
Billed height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Billed weight 115 kg (250 lb)[1]
Born (1971-03-23) March 23, 1971 (age 42)
Kyoto, Kyoto
Resides Tokyo
Debut January 11, 1991

Hiroyoshi Yamamoto (山本 広吉 Yamamoto Hiroyoshi?, born March 23, 1971) is a Japanese professional wrestler who currently works for New Japan Pro Wrestling, and is better known by his ring name Hiroyoshi Tenzan (天山 広吉 Tenzan Hiroyoshi?). With Satoshi Kojima, in 2008, they won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the G1 Climax Tag League in NJPW becoming in the only tag team which has done it. He is currently in his eleventh reign as one half of the IWGP Tag Team Champions, his fifth with partner Satoshi Kojima.

Professional wrestling career

Early years (1991–1994)

Hiroyoshi Yamamoto first worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He debuted in January 1991, wrestling Osamu Matsuda. In 1993, after winning the Young Lions Cup, NJPW sent Yamamoto on a European excursion; one of his stops was in the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany, where in July 1993, he defeated Lance Storm to become the first CWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion. A few weeks later, he lost the title to Storm. Three months later, he would regain and lost the title back to Storm.

New Japan Pro Wrestling (1995–present)

Main article: Ten-Koji

After spending nearly two years in Europe, Yamamoto would finally make his return to NJPW on January 4, 1995, at the Tokyo Dome, this time under a new name: Hiroyoshi Tenzan. A month later, he received his very first shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort against Shinya Hashimoto. Tenzan then began teaming with Masahiro Chono as Team Wolf. In June 1995, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a tournament, which they held for a month until the title was vacated due to Chono missing a match when his father died.

Tenzan had a brief tenure in World Championship Wrestling, most notably being defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage at Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling; Tenzan would get a rematch with Savage at NJPW's Battle Formation show on April 29, 1996, and again he lost.

In July 1996, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Title again, this time beating Kazuo Yamazaki and Takashi Iizuka. They held the titles for over 5 months before losing to Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura in January 1997. A few weeks later, Tenzan became a founding member of nWo Japan, as Chono joined the nWo in December 1996. For the rest of 1997, Tenzan and the rest of nWo Japan continued the nWo tradition of attacking their various enemies.

Tenzan got his third chance for the IWGP Tag Team Titles in July 1998, after Chono's former tag-team partner Keiji Mutoh was injured. Tenzan and Chono went on to win the tournament and the belts. A month later, they were defeated by Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka. Tenzan continued to feud with Tenryu and Koshinaka, eventually getting a new partner in Satoshi Kojima, thanks to Mutoh's leadership in nWo Japan. The two teams fought at the Tokyo Dome in January 1999, with Tenzan and Kojima coming through, defeating Koshinaka and Tenryu to get the IWGP Tag-Team belts. A few months later, Koshinaka retook the titles from Tenzan and Kojima, with his partner Kensuke Sasaki. For the next year, Tenzan continued to wrestle in NJPW, feuding with Koshinaka, Masahiro Chono, Manabu Nakanishi, and others. He defeated Wild Pegasus at the Tokyo Dome in January 2000.

In July 2000, Tenzan, still teamed with Kojima, got the IWGP Tag Team Titles for the 5th time, winning over Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata. Tenzan and Kojima feuded with Nakanishi and Nagata for the next few months, with Tenzan and Kojima coming out on top.

On February 24, 2002 Tenzan made a brief appearance at WWA The Revolution pay-per-view from Las Vegas, Nevada where he choked Disco Inferno. Scott Steiner then attacked Disco in the ring. Tenzan could be seen sitting right behind the announcer's table when Disco joined commentary. He can be seen leaving the arena following Steiner's attack on Disco.

Tenzan also won the IWGP Tag Team Titles in March 2002 with Masahiro Chono (their title reign lasting over one year; it also tied the team record for most championships won with Fujinami & Kimura), and again in December 2003 with Osamu Nishimura.

In November 2003, Tenzan finally won the IWGP Heavyweight Title from Yoshihiro Takayama. He proceeded to win it three other times (in February 2004 from Genichiro Tenryu,[1] December 2004 from Kensuke Sasaki[1] and May 2005 from Satoshi Kojima).

He lost the championship to Kojima in a cross-promotional champion vs. champion match. Kojima held the AJPW Triple Crown Championship. The match ended when Tenzan was unable to get up, Kojima thus winning by a knock out. Tenzan got heat with the management of NJPW due to this, because he gave NJPW's most prestigious championship's control to the rival company, AJPW. This supports the speculation that the match didn't end the way it was booked to, and that Tenzan was really unable to get up and finish the match. Tenzan defeated Kojima in a rematch three months later, bringing the championship back to NJPW.[2] He lost the championship to Kazuyuki Fujita on July 18, 2005.

Tenzan competed in the 2005 G1 Tournament, and almost made it to the semi-finals. In October 2005, Tenzan and Chono reunited to win the IWGP Tag Team Title for a fifth time from Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura.

On August 13, 2006 Tenzan defeated longtime rival Satoshi Kojima in the final of the 2006 G1 Climax, becoming only the second wrestler to go undefeated in a round robin style G-1. This would be his third G1 title.

After severing ties with his old mentor Masahiro Chono, Tenzan founded the heel unit GBH ("Great Bash Heel", affectionately referred to by fans as "Great Big Head"); it is composed of Tenzan, Togi Makabe, Shiro Koshinaka, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii and Tomoaki Honma. Recently, though, he has severed ties with GBH (Caused by Makabe first cutting ties with him, and the remaining members following him) and was feuding with GBH until October.

Since returning to New Japan in May 2009, he has split his time between reforming Ten-Koji and teaming with old GBH teammates Makabe and Honma against CHAOS. In August 2009 Tenzan was sidelined with an injury.

Fifteen months later on November 18, 2010, Tenzan returned to the ring, defeating Antonio Honda at New Japan's NEVER.4 event.[3] On December 11 Tenzan wrestled his first main show for New Japan since his return, defeating Gedo in Osaka. After the match Tenzan was attacked by Takashi Iizuka, restarting the feud between the two.[4] On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, Tenzan defeated Iizuka in a Deep Sleep to Lose match, a match that could only be won by choking the opponent unconscious.[5][6] In August, Tenzan took part in the 2011 G1 Climax, where he managed to win four out of his nine matches, finishing in the middle of his block.[7] Later in the year, Tenzan and Kojima reformed their Ten-Koji tag team, defeating CHAOS members Hideo Saito and Takashi Iizuka in their return match on December 4.[8] On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, Tenzan and Kojima defeated Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the third time together, Tenzan's ninth time individually.[9] On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012, Tenzan and Kojima lost the title to Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano in their third defense.[10] On July 22, Tenzan and Kojima defeated Iizuka and Yano in a decision match to regain the newly vacated title.[11] On October 8, Tenzan and Kojima lost the title to K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lance Archer).[12] From November 20 to December 1, Ten-Koji took part in the round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League. The team finished with a record of four wins and two losses, winning their block and advancing to the semifinals of the tournament.[13][14] On December 2, Ten-Koji was eliminated from the tournament in their semifinal match by Sword & Guns (Hirooki Goto and Karl Anderson).[15] On May 3, 2013, Ten-Koji regained the IWGP Tag Team Championship from K.E.S. in a four-way match, which also included Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano, and Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man, starting Tenzan's eleventh reign as champion.[16]

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Other media

Tenzan appeared in the video for "Yonaoshi Good Vibration" by Japanese metal band Sex Machineguns.

He has appeared on the Japanese television show Sasuke.

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In wrestling

  • Entrance themes
    • "The Spy" (NJPW, 1991)
    • "Love Is In My Sight" by T-Square (NJPW, 1991–1992)
    • "Red Hurricane" (NJPW, 1992–1993)
    • "One World – Japan" (WCW, Starrcade '95)
    • "Outburst" (NJPW, January 4, 1995)
    • "Tenzan" (NJPW, 1995–1997, 2000-present)
    • "nWo Tenzan" (NJPW, 1997–2000)
    • "Tear It Up" by Jimmy Hart and H. Helm (WCW, 1997–1998)
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Championships and accomplishments

Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima as the IWGP Tag Team Champions in February 2012.
  • Fighting Spirit (2004) [25]
  • Tag Team of the Year (1995)- with Masahiro Chono [26]
  • Tag Team of the Year (1996)- with Masahiro Chono & Hiro Saito [26]
  • Tag Team of the Year (2000)- with Satoshi Kojima [25]
  • PREMIUM
  • PWI ranked him #10 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2005
  • PWI ranked him #223 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the PWI Years in 2003[27]
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References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j PWI Staff (October 2004). "Pro Wrestling llustrated 500 - 2004 :11 Hiroyoshi Tenzan". Pro Wrestling Illustrated (Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, USA: Sports and Entertainment publications LLC). p. 22. December 2004. 
  2. ^ a b Staff, Powerslam. "Power Slam". Looking at: NJPW at the Dome (SW Publishing LTD). pp. 22–23. 132. 
  3. ^ "(Results) NEVER.4, 11/18/10; Hiroyoshi Tenzan returns!". Strong Style Spirit. 2010-11-18. Retrieved 2010-11-18. 
  4. ^ "(Results) New Japan, 12/11/10 & Liger wins another title in USA". Strong Style Spirit. 2010-12-11. Retrieved 2010-12-11. 
  5. ^ "レッスルキングダムⅤ ｉｎ 東京ドーム". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2011-01-04. 
  6. ^ Gerweck, Steve (2011-01-04). "1/4 TNA-NJPW Results: Tokyo, Japan". WrestleView. Retrieved 2011-01-04. 
  7. ^ "ブシロード Presents G1 Climax XXI ～The Invincible Fighter～". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). 2011-08-14. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  8. ^ "New Japan Alive 2011". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2011-12-04. 
  9. ^ "NJPW 40th anniversary Tour. レッスルキングダムⅥ in 東京ドーム". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-01-04. 
  10. ^ "NJPW 40th anniversary レスリングどんたく 2012". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2012-05-03. 
  11. ^ "NJPW 40th anniversary Tour Kizuna Road". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-07-22. 
  12. ^ "NJPW 40ｔｈ anniversary King of Pro-Wrestling". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-10-08. 
  13. ^ "NJPW 40ｔｈ anniversary Tour World Tag League 2012". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-12-01. 
  14. ^ "NJPW 40ｔｈ anniversary Tour World Tag League 2012". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-12-01. 
  15. ^ "NJPW 40ｔｈ anniversary Tour World Tag League 2012". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-12-02. 
  16. ^ "レスリングどんたく 2013". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2013-05-03. 
  17. ^ http://www.puroresucentral.com/tenzan.html
  18. ^ "Sonny Onoo profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2009-09-10. 
  19. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Japan: New Japan G-1 (Grade-1) Climax Tag Tournament Champions". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 374. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 
  20. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Japan: New Japan Young Lions Cup Tournament Champions". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 375. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 
  21. ^ a b "2003 New Japan Awards". Strong Style Spirit. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  22. ^ a b c "2004 New Japan Awards". Strong Style Spirit. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  23. ^ "2000 New Japan Awards". Strong Style Spirit. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  24. ^ "2002 New Japan Awards". Strong Style Spirit. Retrieved 2011-04-28. 
  25. ^ a b http://www.puroresu.com/awards/2000s.html
  26. ^ a b http://www.puroresu.com/awards/1990s.html
  27. ^ http://www.100megsfree4.com/wiawrestling/pages/pwi/pwi500yr.htm
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External links

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Champions recognized by
New Japan Pro Wrestling
Champions recognized by
Inoki Genome Federation
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Last modified on 5 May 2013, at 16:29