 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(September 2019) |
 Tanaka in 2022 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1973-02-28)February 28, 1973 (age 52)[1][2] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Masa Tanaka Masato Tanaka SWORD |
| Billed height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 95 kg (209 lb)[2] |
| Billed from | Tokyo |
| Trained by | Atsushi Onita |
| Debut | July 23, 1993[1] |
Masato Tanaka (田中 正人, ring name: 田中 将斗,Tanaka Masato; born February 28, 1973)[3][4] is a Japaneseprofessional wrestler, best known for his appearances withFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was aone-timeFMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and aone-timeWEW World Heavyweight Champion and inExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the United States where he was aone-timeECW World Heavyweight Champion. He is currently splitting his time wrestling for bothPro Wrestling Noah (Noah) andPro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). He is overall a ten-timeworld champion in majorprofessional wrestling promotions.
Originally a trainee forGeorge andShunji Takano's Pro Wrestling Crusaders (PWC), Tanaka transferred toFrontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW), where he trained underAtsushi Onita. Tanaka debuted on July 23, 1993, inSaga City, facingRicky Fuji. He quickly began moving up the card in FMW, widely regarded as the tophardcoreprofessional wrestling promotion in Japan. Wrestling in matches featuringexplosions andbarbed wire, Tanaka earned a variety of scars, and the nickname "Dangan", which he would often shout during his matches. By 1996 he was one of the promotion's major stars, and hadfeuded with fellow wrestlers Mr. Pogo, Mr. Gannosuke,Terry Funk andMike Awesome. His feud with Awesome would eventually span ten years and two continents. In December 1999, he left FMW for ECW, after he and Tetsuhiro Kuroda lost toH andMr. Gannosuke.
 | This section of abiography of a living persondoes notinclude anyreferences or sources. Please help by addingreliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately. Find sources: "Masato Tanaka" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) ownerPaul Heyman became interested in Tanaka through ECW's working relationship with FMW, and eventually hired him. Tanaka debuted in ECW on March 1, 1998, atLiving Dangerously, defeatingDoug Furnas in a match that, compared to Tanaka's extremely well-received future matches, was very much hated by the fans in attendance, who greeted the unusually sloppy wrestlers with a chorus of boos throughout their fumbled offense. In July 1998 he reprised his feud with Awesome, who he defeated atHeat Wave 1998.
Tanaka formed a short-livedtag team withBalls Mahoney, and atNovember to Remember on November 1, 1998, they defeatedThe Dudley Boyz to win theECW World Tag Team Championships. In doing so, he became the first person to ever kick out of the Dudleys'3D finisher. The Dudley Boyz would regain the titles five days later, and Tanaka returned to Japan to attend the wedding of his friendSabu in December and eventually returning to FMW in January 1999.
| This section of abiography of a living persondoes notinclude anyreferences or sources. Please help by addingreliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately. Find sources: "Masato Tanaka" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Tanaka returned to ECW in the summer of 1999, this time vying for theECW World Heavyweight Championship. On September 19 atAnarchy Rulz, Taz, about to leave ECW for theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF), defended the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against the returning Mike Awesome and Tanaka in athree-way dance. After just two minutes Taz was eliminated by a combined assault at the hands of his opponents. After a further eleven minutes of brawling, Awesome pinned Tanaka with aKamikaze Awesome Bomb to become the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion.
Tanaka faced Awesome for the title at November to Remember on November 7, but was defeated once more. He finally overcame Awesome on December 17, 1999, at anECW on TNN TV Taping inNashville, Tennessee, becoming the first ECW World Heavyweight Champion not to be an American citizen. After the match, Awesome shook Tanaka's hand and fastened the belt around his waist in a show of respect, then attacked him as he left the ring andpowerbombed him through atable. Awesome would regain the title at the next weeks TV Taping inWhite Plains, New York, on December 23.
Continuing his rivalry with Awesome, Tanaka joined forces with Tommy Dreamer to faceRaven and Awesome. Dreamer and Tanaka defeated theImpact Players for the ECW World Tag Team Championship on February 26, 2000, in Cincinnati, but lost them to Mike Awesome and Raven on March 4, 2000, at The ECW Arena. This led to a tag team three-way dance atLiving Dangerously on March 12, with Tanaka and Dreamer facing ECW World Tag Team Champions Mike Awesome and Raven and the Impact Players. Tanaka pinned Awesome, who had already defended his ECW World Heavyweight Title earlier that night beating Kid Kash, costing Awesome and Raven the tag team titles, but lost the match after Dreamer was pinned by the Impact Players.
Tanaka's feud with Awesome was brought to an abrupt end when Awesome left ECW for WCW in April 2000. He faced Balls Mahoney in at ECW on TNN and at Hardcore Heaven 2000. He remained with ECW until mid-2000 before returning to Japan.
Tanaka returned to FMW in the spring of 2000, briefly feuding with H, before joining forces with H (by now back under the Hayabusa persona) to feud with Team No Respect, until leaving in February 2001, allegedly as a result of animosity between him and the owner of FMW,Shoichi Arai, mostly overKodo Fuyuki's role as booker. Before departing FMW, Tanaka formed the "Complete Players" stable with former Fuyuki protégésGedo andJado, as well as real-life sweetheart Kaori Nakayama. They would work on the Japaneseindependent circuit, making appearances forPro Wrestling ZERO-ONE (ZERO-ONE) andAll Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). Tanaka wrestled Shinya Hashimoto on the March 2 ZERO-ONE anniversary show, impressing ZERO-ONE officials and earning himself a job.
In January 2002 Tanaka formed a tag team named "Emblem" withShinjiro Otani, with whom he twice won the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championships. In February 2004, heturnedheel and sided with the "Apache Army". In September 2004 he formed his ownstable, "Team Erotics", continuing his feud with Otani. In late 2007, he was chosen to lead a new stable named "Sword Army", the name was chosen by fans in a contest.Takao Omori was also given a stable named "Axe Army" to compete against Tanaka.
In mid-2009 Tanaka returned toNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as an outsider. He reformed the Complete Players with Jado and Gedo, and he participated in the 2009 G1 Climax tournament, although he failed to advance past the block stages. In New Japan, he's an ally of the stable,Chaos, especially Jado, Gedo andYujiro Takahashi. On October 10, 2011, atDestruction '11, Tanaka defeatedMVP to win theIWGP Intercontinental Championship, becoming only the second champion in the title's history.[5] He would make his first successful title defense on November 12 atPower Struggle againstHirooki Goto.[6] On December 4, Tanaka defeated MVP in a rematch, with help from Yujiro Takahashi, to retain the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.[7] On January 4, 2012, atWrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, where Tanaka and Takahashi were defeated by MVP andShelton Benjamin in a tag team match.[8] On February 12 atThe New Beginning, Tanaka lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Hirooki Goto in his fourth defense.[9]
On November 15, 2012, Tanaka entered a tournament to determine the inauguralNEVER Openweight Champion. After wins overKushida,[10]Taishi Takizawa andTomohiro Ishii, Tanaka defeatedKarl Anderson in the finals of the tournament on November 19 to become the inaugural NEVER Openweight Champion.[11] Tanaka made his first successful title defense on January 4, 2013, atWrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome, where he defeated Shelton Benjamin.[12] Tanaka's second successful title defense took place on February 3, when he defeated Chaos stablemate Tomohiro Ishii.[13] On May 3 atWrestling Dontaku 2013, Tanaka made his third successful title defense againstTomoaki Honma.[14] On July 20, Tanaka made his fourth successful title defense againstTetsuya Naito.[15] On September 29 atDestruction, Tanaka lost the NEVER Openweight Championship in a rematch with Naito, ending his reign at 314 days.[16]
After forming theDangan Yankies stable in Zero1, Tanaka began working forPro Wrestling Noah (Noah) in early 2014, teaming with stablemateTakashi Sugiura. On April 27, the two defeatedKatsuhiko Nakajima andNaomichi Marufuji to win the2014 Global Tag League.[17] On May 6, Tanaka and Sugiura won the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship.[18] On May 31, Tanaka and Sugiura became double champions, when they defeatedMaybach Taniguchi andTakeshi Morishima for Noah'sGHC Tag Team Championship.[19] They lost the GHC Tag Team Championship toTMDK (Mikey Nicholls andShane Haste) on January 10, 2015.[20] On May 4, Tanaka and Sugiura won their second Global Tag League in a row.[21]
In June 2017, he competed for the theater-based promotion MAKAI in the "iZANAGI" series, where he took up the ring name "SWORD". He facedJun Kasai, who was under the ring name of X1112.
On January 1, 2021, Tanaka won his 5th Zero1 World Heavyweight Championship.[22]
By late 2021, Tanaka was wrestling regularly for Pro Wrestling Noah.[23] In 2022, Tanaka would begin to achieve significant success in the promotion. He challenged for the GHC Heavyweight Title against Kazuyuki Fujita and participated in the N1 Victory League singles tournament. In this round robin tournament, Tanaka pinned then-GHC Heavyweight ChampionKenoh among a star studded list of opponents.
On November 9, 2002, Tanaka debuted forRing of Honor (ROH), wrestling on ROH'sAll Star Extravaganza show, where he teamed with Shinjiro Otani to defeatSteve Corino andLow Ki.
On June 12. 2005 Tanaka revived his feud withMike Awesome at theWorld Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) producedECW One Night Stand 2005 reunion PPV. He was defeated after Awesome delivered a runningAwesome Bomb through a table outside the ring and followed up with anAwesome Splash. He returned to WWE one year later atECW One Night Stand 2006, losing toBalls Mahoney. On October 26, 2007, Tanaka beat Takao Omori for theAWA World Heavyweight Championship.
On January 23, 2010, Tanaka made his debut forJersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) at the promotion's 12th Anniversary Show, where he was defeated byHomicide.[24]
On April 4, 2014, Tanaka returned to the United States, he performed at his firstWrestleCon defeating Kevin Steen. Later in the night he defeatedChris Hero at aDragon Gate USA event.[25]
In December 2018 Tanaka made another return to the United States. He would facePCO in a match for theGame Changer Wrestling Extreme Title at GCW's The Dynasty event.
On September 15–16, 2023, Tanaka competed in local Cleveland Promotion Absolute Intense Wrestlings 10th JT Lightning Invitational Tournament making it to the Semi-finals.
On November 12, 2023, Tanaka made his debut forDeadlock Pro-Wrestling (DPW), wrestling on DPW'sWorld's Strongest event, where he teamed withBryan Keith andCalvin Tankman to defeatTom Lawlor,Jorel Nelson, andRoyce Isaacs. He would return the next year at the promotion'sNo Pressure event where he was defeated byColby Corino, son of his former rivalSteve Corino, in a no disqualification match.
On January 9, 2024, Tanaka made his debut for Wrestling Revolver at theVybe Check event in Dayton Ohio.
On October 13, 2024, Tanaka challenged pro wrestlerAdam Priest for the DPW National Championship at DPW'sSuper Battle, but failed to take the title.On October 17 at Timebomb Pro Forever Masato wrestled Jordan for vacant Timebomb Title, but was unsuccessful. Later, on October 18, Tanaka facedMike Santana in theHouse of Glory World Championship, with Santana pinning Tanaka to win the fight after 15 minutes.
1This title is not to be confused with theNWA United National Championship, an NWA singles title that has been integrated into and is now part of theTriple Crown Heavyweight Championship.
