 Suzuki in April 2023 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Yasuhiro Suzuki (1978-06-18)June 18, 1978 (age 47)[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Kevin Mask Kotaro Suzuki Mushiking Terry Tiger Emperor Yasuhiro Suzuki |
| Billed height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1][2] |
| Billed weight | 86 kg (190 lb)[1][2] |
| Trained by | Mitsuharu Misawa Pro Wrestling Noah |
| Debut | December 24, 2001[1][2] |
Yasuhiro Suzuki (鈴木 康弘,Suzuki Yasuhiro; born June 18, 1978), better known by thering nameKotaro Suzuki (鈴木 鼓太郎,Suzuki Kotarō), is aJapanese professional wrestler[1][2] currently signed toGleat. He is best known for working for thePro Wrestling Noah andAll Japan Pro Wrestling promotions, where he was a four-timeGHC Junior Heavyweight Champion for Noah and a one-timeWorld Junior Heavyweight Champion for AJPW.
Suzuki was the last person remaining of a grueling thirty person training class in Pro Wrestling Noah's dojo.[citation needed] He debuted on Noah's 2001 Christmas show, and started wrestling under his real name ofYasuhiro Suzuki, but quickly changed it toKotaro Suzuki.[citation needed] He challenged twice for theGHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in 2004, and was unsuccessful in both attempts.[citation needed]
In 2005, he ended up adopting the guise ofMushiking Terry, a gimmick tying into the card/arcade gameMushiking: King of the Beetles, defeating "Mushiking Joker" in his debut at DESTINY 2005 on July 18, 2005 at the Tokyo Dome, but his challenge forKENTA's GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship on October 28, 2005 was unsuccessful after KENTA started performing heel actions such as faking a low blow as well as mockingly joining in a Terry chant while applying a camel clutch.[citation needed] At the January 21, 2007 Budokan Hall show, he pinnedMark Briscoe to take the GHC Jr. Tag title for himself andRicky Marvin.[citation needed] At the April 28, 2007 show, he defeatedTatsuhito Takaiwa to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship (as Mushiking Terry).[citation needed] At Noah'sBudokan show! Autumn Navigation '07, Suzuki (As Mushiking Terry) lost his GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship toYoshinobu Kanemaru.[citation needed] He later betrayed Marvin by joining with Yoshinobu Kanemaru in tag team, which ended with them winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship.[citation needed] Suzuki and Kanemaru joined with Genba Hirayanagi, and later joined the stable Disobey withTakeshi Rikio andMuhammad Yone.[citation needed] WhenMitsuharu Misawa died, Suzuki (who was one of his students) adopted not just a green attire resembling the green tights of his mentor but started to use some moves like elbows and the Tiger Driver to pay him tribute and became a face again.[citation needed] He was later expulsed from Disobey and started a rivalry with his former partner Kanemaru.[citation needed] Suzuki would regain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title from Kanemaru on December 5, 2010, ending his long title run.[citation needed] On July 30, 2011, Suzuki andAtsushi Aoki defeated Kenta and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the2011 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League, making both of them two-time winners of the tournament. On September 23, 2011, Suzuki lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship toKatsuhiko Nakajima. On October 16, 2011, Suzuki and Aoki defeated KENTA and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win theGHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Ricky Marvin andSuper Crazy on July 22, 2012. On December 19, 2012, Noah announced that Suzuki would be leaving the promotion, after refusing to re-sign afterKenta Kobashi was fired.[3][4][5] On December 24, Suzuki defeatedGenba Hirayanagi in his final Noah match.[6][7]
On January 26, 2013, Suzuki, Atsushi Aoki,Go Shiozaki,Jun Akiyama and Yoshinobu Kanemaru, all of whom had quit Noah at the same time, announced that they had joinedAll Japan Pro Wrestling, forming the "Burning" stable.[8] Suzuki and Aoki received their first shot at theAll Asia Tag Team Championship on March 17, but were defeated by the defending champions,Koji Kanemoto andMinoru Tanaka.[9] On April 7, Suzuki and Aoki defeatedHikaru Sato andHiroshi Yamato to win the2013 Junior Hyper Tag League and earn another shot at Kanemoto and Tanaka.[10] On April 25, Suzuki and Aoki defeated Kanemoto and Tanaka in a rematch to become the new All Asia Tag Team Champions.[11] On May 11, Suzuki made a one night return to Noah to take part in Kenta Kobashi's retirement event,Final Burning in Budokan, during which he and Aoki defeatedKentaro Shiga andTamon Honda in a tag team match.[12] On July 5, following a mass exodus led byKeiji Mutoh, it was announced that Suzuki, along with the rest of Burning, had signed an exclusive contract with All Japan.[13] On October 29, Suzuki quit Burning in order to challenge Kanemaru for theWorld Junior Heavyweight Championship.[14] On November 21, Suzuki and Aoki, along withKento Miyahara, joined Go Shiozaki's newXceed stable.[15] On January 26, 2014, Suzuki and Aoki lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship to former Burning stablemates Jun Akiyama and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.[16] On February 5, Suzuki's longtime partnership with Aoki came to an end, when Aoki quit Xceed to go solo.[17] Immediately afterwards, Suzuki went on a win streak, which culminated with him defeatingMasaaki Mochizuki on February 16 to win the2014 Jr. Battle of Glory.[18] As a result, Suzuki received a shot at the World Junior Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated by the defending champion,Último Dragón, on February 23.[19] On May 17, Suzuki defeatedSushi to win theGaora TV Championship.[20] On August 16, Suzuki and Kento Miyahara defeatedKeisuke Ishii andShigehiro Irie to win the All Asia Tag Team Championship. On December 14, Suzuki lost the Gaora TV Championship toKenso.[21] On January 3, 2015, Suzuki and Miyahara lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship toMitsuya Nagai andTakeshi Minamino.[22] On February 20, Suzuki won his second Jr. Battle of Glory in a row, defeating reigning World Junior Heavyweight Champion Atsushi Aoki in the finals.[23] This led to a rematch on March 27, where Suzuki defeated Aoki to become the new World Junior Heavyweight Champion.[24] On November 16, while he was still the World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Suzuki announced he would be leaving All Japan on November 30. He had signed a new one-year contract the previous July, but when the contract was afterwards changed twice, he decided to instead leave the promotion.[25] Following the announcement, the World Junior Heavyweight Championship was vacated and Xceed disbanded.[26]
On January 10 at Wrestle-1 Sunshine Tour afterHiroshi Yamato's title celebration Suzuki appeared and he set his sights on theWrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship belt.[27][unreliable source?] On January 22, he made an appearance inPro Wrestling Zero1 by attackingShinjiro Otani after his match and made a statement that he wants his belt and he makes alliance withMineo Fujita. On February 10, he defeatedAndy Wu on hisWrestle-1 debut. On February 22, Suzuki appeared on FMW in a tag team match when he andMasato Tanaka defeated Tomohiko Hashimoto andBuffalo. On March 12, Suzuki defeated Minoru Tanaka in the finals of a tournament to win the vacantWrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship.[28] Suzuki would be the first man to defend the championship outside of Japan, defending the belt on two occasions, one at4 Front Wrestling againstMark Haskins, and secondly atPro Wrestling Pride againstUltimo Tiger.[29] After six successful defenses, Suzuki lost the title toYusuke Kodama on August 11.[30] On September 18, Suzuki andKaz Hayashi won the vacantWrestle-1 Tag Team Championship.[31] On February 3, 2017, Suzuki defeated Shinjiro Otani to win Zero1'sInternational Junior Heavyweight andNWA World Junior Heavyweight Championships.[32] On March 20, Suzuki and Hayashi lost the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship to Koji Doi and Kumagoro.[33] On October 26, Suzuki lost his Zero1 titles toSean Guinness.
On September 1, 2018, Suzuki returned to Noah at Naomichi Marufuji's 20th anniversary show, where he teamed withHI69 and Minoru Tanaka to defeat Seiya Morohashi, Hitoshi Kumano andHajime Ohara and afterwards brawled with them. This led to him competing in the 2018 Global Junior Heavyweight League, where he finished with a record of four wins and one loss, including a win over reigning GHC Junior Heavyweight ChampionDaisuke Harada and defeatedYo-Hey in the finals. This led to a match on October 30, where Suzuki defeated Harada to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship for the third time. He later won theGHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship withYoshinari Ogawa and formed a stable named Stinger later joined byAtsushi Kotoge and Chris Ridgeway.
On September 22, 2024, it was announced that Suzuki had joinedGleat as part of the Black Generation International stable.[34]
| Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiger Emperor (mask) | Ricky Marvin (hair) | Tokyo, Japan | Encountering Navigation 2005 | April 2, 2005 |
Links to related articles | |
|---|---|
