Minoru Tanaka (wrestler)

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Minoru Tanaka (wrestler) bigraphy, stories - Japanese professional wrestler

Minoru Tanaka (wrestler) : biography

November 29, 1972 –

Career

Early career

Minoru Tanaka was originally a shootboxer. He started his career as a wrestler in Fujiwara Gumi, trained by its owner, Yoshiaki Fujiwara. In late 1995 Tanaka and everyone else in the promotion abandoned Fujiwara and formed their own promotion, BattlARTS, led by Yuki Ishikawa. Despite being a simulated shoot style professional wrestling promotion, BattlARTS, like its predecessor, often cooperated with other federations and styles, such as RINGS, Kingdom, Michinoku Pro and Big Japan Pro Wrestling. Tanaka’s first championship, the UWA World middleweight title (originally based in Mexico and introduced in Japan through Universal Lucha Libre and Michinoku), came in 1996. He later won FMW’s Independent junior heavyweight title (which was outsourced to Battlarts after Hiromichi Fuyuki abolished all previous FMW titles and replaced them with WEW titles).

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Early success (1999-2002)

Tanaka made his New Japan Pro Wrestling debut on April 10, 1999 and would proceed to take part in Best of the Super Juniors in block B.http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=76&page=4&gimmick=Minoru%20Tanaka&promotion=7&s=300 Tanaka would reappear for New Japan in late 1999 to early 2000 before he joined the New Japan roster as a full-time competitor. His natural talent enabled him to immediately rise in the junior heavyweight ranks and win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in July with Koji Kanemoto, who used a similar but more ground-oriented style.http://representingpuroresu.wordpress.com/new-japan-pro-wrestling/iwgp-junior-heavyweight-tag-team-championship-history/ The Kanemoto-Tanaka combination was reminiscent of the old Akira Maeda-Nobuhiko Takada combination in 1987. In October, Tanaka won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship – thus becoming the first man to hold both junior titles at the same time.http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/newjapan/iwgp-j.html In March 2001, Tanaka and Kanemoto lost their titles to El Samurai and Jushin Liger, in June he lost in the finals of 2001’s Best of the Super Juniors to Liger and in July he lost his singles title. Even with all these losses, Tanaka finished 2001 strong, winning the G1 Jr. Six Man Tag Team Tournament Masahito Kakihara and Masayuki Naruse. For a second time in his career, Tanaka held both junior titles, defeating Masahito Kakihara for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and defeating Gedo and Jado with Jushin Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. After Koji Kanemoto defeated Tanaka in 2002’s Best of the Super Juniors, Kanemoto defeated Tanaka once again for his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, and a month later lost his tag team championship to Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.

Control Terrorism Unit (2002-2007)

In late 2002 Tanaka began wearing a mask and calling himself "HEAT" (ヒート) after the GBA video game Toukon Heat. In only his second match under the persona, Tanaka took on Kanemoto to reign his singles title but failed.http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=76&page=4&gimmick=Heat&promotion=7&s=200 Like the game, the HEAT character often floundered in his early years with the only positie being when he won the Naeba Cup Tag Tournament Manabu Nakanishi. Heat’s true success came after turning heel and joining Jushin Liger’s new faction, Control Terrorism Unit (C.T.U.). Having only been in C.T.U. for only a few months, Heat defeated Jado in December 2003 to become a three time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. After losing to Tiger Mask IV in the semi final of the 2004 Best of the Super Juniors, he found his new rival and defeated Tiger Mask. Their rivalry continued over the year and culminated at Toukon Festival: Wrestling World where Heat lost his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Tiger Mask. After this loss, he dropped the mask and began wrestling as Minoru Tanaka until dropping his surname, calling himself simply Minoru (稔). He also competed as Masked CTU-J sporadically from this point forward.http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=76&view=&page=4&gimmick=Masked+CTU-J&year=&promotion=7&region=&location=&arena=&showtype=&worker=&text= On May 14, Minoru teamed up with new CTU recruit Hirooki Goto and defeated Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue to become a three time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and would lose them to El Samurai and Ryusuke Taguchi in early 2006.