 Tanabe as Hi69 in 2016 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hiroki Tanabe (田辺 裕喜,Tanabe Hiroki) (1981-12-13)December 13, 1981 (age 44) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Hi69 Hiroki Panda[1] Nioh |
| Billed height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2] |
| Billed weight | 95 kg (209 lb)[2] |
| Trained by | Kaientai Dojo Taka Michinoku |
| Debut | November 19, 2000[2] |
Hiroki Tanabe (田辺 裕喜,Tanabe Hiroki; born December 13, 1981) is aJapaneseprofessional wrestler better known by his ring nameHi69 (pronounced as Hiroki). He is currently signed toPro Wrestling Noah. Since debuting in 2000, Tanabe has frequently worked forKaientai Dojo,Michinoku Pro Wrestling,Apache Pro Wrestling andFreedoms.
Tanabe originally trained in Puerto Rico and was a member of the first graduating class ofTaka Michinoku'sKaientai Dojo (K-Dojo). He made his debut on November 19, 2000 under the ring name Hi69. Eventually, he returned to Japan, where he became a regular in bothMichinoku Pro Wrestling andAll Japan Pro Wrestling during the first two years of his career. Throughout 2002 he took part in AJPW'sGiant Baba Cup, finishing last in Block A with zero wins and zero points.[3] Whilst also competing in AJPW, he debuted in Kaientai Dojo where he would become a mainstay for the majority of his career, winning theUWA World Middleweight Championship in October.[4] Throughout 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, he competed regularly in a large number of different promotions, includingBig Japan Pro Wrestling,Apache Pro Wrestling,Muga,Real Japan Pro Wrestling,Hustle, and eventually became a regular onNew Japan Pro-Wrestling's Lock Up cards. After resigning from K-Dojo in April 2006, he primarily competed in Apache Pro Wrestling. On October 11, 2007, Hi69 was teaming withTetsuhiro Kuroda andMammoth Sasaki as Apache Army againstGBH (Togi Makabe,Toru Yano andTomohiro Ishii)[5] when Ishii countered afrankensteiner from Hi69 into apowerbomb which caused him to land awkwardly, suffering a fracture as well as a dislocation to histhoracic vertebrae. After the match, it was announced that the injury was possibly career threatening and that he would require surgery.
After over two years of surgery, rehabilitation and medical procedures, Hi69 announced his return to the ring in February 2010, stating that he would be splitting his time between K-Dojo andPro Wrestling Freedoms, and would now be wrestling asHiroki (stylised in all capital letters), his birth name. In his return match, he teamed withMiyawaki in a loss to his trainer Taka Michinoku and the man he made his debut against,Yasu Urano.[6] On May 26 at a Freedoms show, Hiroki faced Tomohiro Ishii in a match billed as a "revenge match", with Ishii portraying the heel and claiming responsibility for Hiroki's serious injury. The match was won by Ishii.[7] On August 15, Hiroki andKengo Mashimo captured theStrongest-K Tag Team Championship, defeatingKaji Tomato andTaishi Takizawa.[8] On September 29, Hiroki defeatedTiger Shark to win theTenryu Project International Junior Heavyweight Championship.[9] On December 14, he dropped the title toRyuji Hijikata.[10] In early 2011, he teamed withRicky Fuji in the 2011 Kaientai Dojo Tag League, finishing in Block A with 2 points and failing to advance to the next round.[11] On October 9, after holding them for over a year, Hiroki and Mashimo lost the Strongest-K Tag Team Championship toRyuichi Sekine and Saburo Inematsu.[12] On November 6, he defeatedDaigoro Kashiwa to capture theIndependent World Junior Heavyweight Championship.[13] Hiroki held the championship for over a year before losing it to Ricky Fuji in January 2013.[14] On March 2, 2014, Hiroki won the Strongest-K Tag Team Championship once again, teaming withYuji Hino to defeat Kaji Tomato and Taka Michinoku.[15] In September 2014, he once again began competing as Hi69. In December 2016, he competed inPro Wrestling Noah for the first time since 2005, teaming with Ricky Fuji in a loss toDaisuke Harada andAkitoshi Saito.[16] After impressing new president Masayuki Uchida, he was offered a regular position with the promotion and began competing with them as a full-time roster member later that month. In January, he began teaming withTaiji Ishimori, dubbing themselves "XX". The duo captured theGHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on February 18, defeatingHayata andYo-Hey to win the vacant championship.
On July 4, Noah officially announced that Hi69 had signed with the promotion.[17] On August 26, XX lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Hayata and Yo-Hey.[18] On January 27, 2018, regained the tag team titles. However, they lost the titles once again againstYoshinari Ogawa andMinoru Tanaka on March 11, 2018. Ogawa and Tanaka vacated the titles after Ishimori announced his departure from the promotion. On April 15, 2018, Hi69 and Minoru Tanaka defeated Hayata and Yo-Hey to win the vacant GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They lost the title toHajime Ohara andHitoshi Kumano on December 16.
On December 12, 2019, Hi69 and Junta Miyawaki lost to former partner Minoru Tanaka andNaomichi Marufuji. Two days later, Hi69 was repackaged asNioh (仁王,Niō) and teamed withHaoh to defeat Hajime Ohara andKinya Okada. The team has appeared in Noah on a regular basis but were unable to win the GHC junior tag team title, and they turned on each other on January 16, 2022 during a tag team match. On April 29, Haoh defeated Nioh in a "loser must change his name" match.
