 Kamikaze in February 2013 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1971-11-01)November 1, 1971 (age 54)[2] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | 150% Machine Aniki "GK" Kamikaze KAMIKAZE Kuro Kaiser Matsuyama Monster °C Tengu Kaiser |
| Billed height | 185 cm (6 ft 1 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 115 kg (254 lb) |
| Debut | 1993 |
Shoichi Maruyama (丸山正一,Maruyama Shoichi) better known by hisring nameKamikaze (sometimes stylized in capital letters asKAMIKAZE) is a Japaneseprofessional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for his tenure with the JapanesepromotionsPro Wrestling Zero1 andBig Japan Pro Wrestling.[3]
He competed in various of the promotion's signature events such as theSaikyo Tag League, making his first appearance in the first-ever edition of the event from 1999, where he teamed up with Shunme Matsuzaki and scored a total of two points after going against the teams ofTomoaki Honma andRyuji Yamakawa,Shadow WX and The Winger, andMike Samples andJun Kasai.[4] At the 2000 edition, he teamed up withAbdullah Kobayashi and placed themselves in the block A where they failed to score any points after competing against the teams ofAbdullah the Butcher and Shadow WX,Men's Teioh andDaisuke Sekimoto, andDaikokubo Benkei and Shunme Matsuzaki.[5] At the 2001 edition. he teamed up withHideki Hosaka and scored a total of five points after going against the teams of Fantastik andRyuji Ito, Men's Teioh and Daisuke Sekimoto, Abdullah Kobayashi and Daikokubo Benkei, andMasato Tanaka and Shunme Matsuzaki.[4]
Maruyama also competed in a variety ofdifferent tournaments hosted by BJW. Between March 18 and 20, 2001, he took part in a tournament to determine the first everBJW Heavyweight Champion which he won after defeatingMad Man Pondo in the quarterfinals,Wifebeater in the semifinals, andJohn Zandig in the finals.[6] A week after, he competed in a tournament for the vacantBJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship, where he defeated Jun Kasai in the first rounds but fell short toJustice Pain in the quarterfinals.[7] At the 2001 edition of the Six-Man Maximum Tag League, he teamed up with Hideki Hosaka and Shunme Matsuzaki and won the whole tournament by topping the only block with a totl of five point after competing against the teams of Men's Club (Men's Teioh, Daisuke Sekimoto and Ryuji Ito), Jun Kasai, Mad Man Pondo andRuckus, and Skinheads (Daikokubo Benkei, Abdullah Kobayashi andNaoki Numazawa).[8]
Maruyama made his debut inPro Wrestling Zero1 on the second night of theZERO-ONE Creation 2002 from June 29, where he teamed up withYoshiaki Fujiwara to defeat Rapid Fire andSteve Corino in atag team match.[9] During his sixteen-year tenure with the company, he has been a formerWorld Heavyweight Champion, a two-timeUnited National Heavyweight Champion, and a three-timeNWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champion with two different partners. However, he has also competed for other titles, such as the vacantAll Asia Tag Team Championship atZERO-ONE Rebel Z 2003 on December 25, where he teamed up with Jun Kasai to unsuccessfully challengeMr. Gannosuke andTetsuhiro Kuroda for them.[10]
He is known for competing in various of the promotion's signature events such as theFire Festival in which he made his first appearance at the 2008 edition where he placed himself in the block A where he scored a total of two points after competing againstTogi Makabe,Masaaki Mochizuki, Shinjiro Otani and Kohei Sato.[11][12] At the 2012 edition, he placed himself in the block B where he scored a total of two points after going against Masato Tanaka, Daisuke Sekimoto, Kohei Sato andMuhammad Yone. At the 2015 edition, he placed himself in the block A where he scored a total of six poinsta after going against Kohei Sato, Masato Tanaka,Yusaku Obata,Fujita Hayato and Masakado.[13][14] At the 2016 edition of the events, he scored a total of fifteen points in the only active block after going against Shinjiro Otani, Yusaku Obata, Masato Tanaka,Ryota Hama,James Raideen, Kohei Sato,Shogun Okamoto,Hayato Fujita and Buffa.[15]
As for theFurinkazan, he made his first appearance at the 2009 and first-ever editinon of the tournament, where he teamed up with long-time tag team partner Kohei Sato, placing themselves in the block B, where they scored a total of five points after competing against the teams of Masato Tanaka and Masaaki Mochizuki,Shiro Koshinaka andHajime Ohara, Rikiya Fudo and Shito Ueda, andTsutomu Oosugi andHercules Senga.[16] He scored his best result at the 2010 edition in which he alongside Sato came out victorious by toppling the block A with eight points after outmatching the teams ofAkebono and Shinjiro Otani, Phil Davis and Sean Davis,Hikaru Sato andMunenori Sawa, andKintaro Kanemura andTakuya Sugawara.[17] At the 2011 edition, he teamed up with Sato again in the block B and scored five points against Fujita Hayato and Masato Tanaka, Akebono andDaichi Hashimoto, Schwarz and Weiss, andMineo Fujita and Shito Ueda.[18] At the 2013 edition, he and Sato defeatedTank Nagai andYoshikazu Yokoyama in the first rounds, obtained awalkover victory in the second ones, but fell short to Daisuke Sekimoto andYuji Okabayashi in the third rounds.[19] At the 2014 edition, Maruyama teamed up with Daemon Ueda to defeatAtsushi Onita andMasashi Aoyagi in the first rounds and then fell short to Masato Tanaka andTakashi Sugiura in the second ones.[20] At the 2016 edition, he teamed again with Kohei Sato and fell short toKai andYusaku Obata in the first rounds.[21]
Maruyama made sporadic appearances inNew Japan Pro Wrestling. He began in theNJPW Super Grade Tag League IV, a tournament which took place between October 15, 1994, in which he teamed up withMasayoshi Motegi and failed to score any points after competing against the teams ofEl Samurai and2 Cold Scorpio,Black Tiger andThe Great Sasuke,Super Delfin andTaka Michinoku, Shinjiro Otani andWild Pegasus,Gran Hamada andNorio Honaga, andDean Malenko andTokimitsu Ishizawa.[22] AtNJPW Toukon Souzou New Chapter on October 8, 2005, where he teamed up with Kohei Sato,Ryouji Sai and Shinjiro Otani in a losing effort againstHiroyoshi Tenzan,Naofumi Yamamoto,Takashi Iizuka andYutaka Yoshie as a result of aneight-man tag team match.[23] AtToukon Shidou Chapter 1 on January 4, 2006, he teamed up with Daisuke Sekimoto, Kohei Sato,Riki Choshu,Takashi Uwano andYoshihito Sasaki to defeatHirooki Goto,Hiroshi Nagao,Osamu Nishimura, Takashi Iizuka,Tatsumi Fujinami andToru Yano in aTwelve-man tag team match.[24] AtNJPW Lock Up on February 24, 2008, he teamed up with Yoshihito Sasaki in a losing effort againstGreat Bash Heel (Togi Makabe and Toru Yano).[25]
