 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michiharu Sadano (1931-03-21)March 21, 1931[1] |
| Died | July 1, 1998(1998-07-01) (aged 67)[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Mr. Zero Toyonobori |
| Billed height | 5 ft 9 in (175 cm) |
| Billed weight | 251 lb (114 kg) |
| Trained by | Rikidōzan |
| Debut | December 12, 1954 |
| Retired | February 20, 1973 |
Michiharu Sadano (定野 道春,Sadano Michiharu; March 21, 1931 – July 1, 1998), known insumo andprofessional wrestling asMichiharu Toyonobori (豊登道春,Toyonobori Michiharu) or simply by hisshikonaToyonobori (豊登,Toyonobori; "Riser fromToyo"), was a Japaneseprofessional wrestler andsumo wrestler.
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Toyonobori performed as a sumo wrestler from 1947 to 1954.
After retiring as arikishi from sumo, Toyonobori became aprofessional wrestler. He debuted on December 12, 1954 with theJapanese Wrestling Association, which was the top wrestling promotion inJapan from 1953 until 1972 and the only male significant Japanese wrestling promotion from 1953 until 1966, when its predominance began to be challenged byInternational Wrestling Enterprise.
The top wrestler of the JWA wasRikidōzan, the founder of the promotion; he dominated the Japanese wrestling scene. As a result, few Japanese wrestlers were able to get into the spotlight. The more recognizable among them was Toyonobori himself, who dominated the tag team scene in Japan, forming a successful tag team with Rikidōzan, with whom he became a four-time winner of theAll Asia Tag Team Championship, which was the top tag title in Japan and which is now contested inAll Japan Pro Wrestling.
AfterRikidōzan's death on December 15, 1963, Toyonobori, along with Yoshinosato, Koukichi Endo and Michiaki Yoshimura announced their intention to continue the JWA on January 10, 1964. Therefore, he became the president of the JWA and its top wrestler, as he had been the second most important wrestler of the promotion during the Rikidozan era.
Toyonobori formed two successful tag teams with Michiaki Yoshimura and thenGiant Baba, with whom he won theAll Asia Tag Team Championship three more times. Yoshimura and Baba were among the young wrestlers the JWA was trying to push to the top, so they were paired with the top wrestler of the JWA, a strategy the promotion followed before pairing Toyonobori himself with the popular Rikidōzan.
On December 12, 1964, Toyonobori won theWorld Heavyweight Championship ofWorldwide Wrestling Associates fromThe Destroyer at the Tokyo Gym; the title was universally recognized as a world title back then and had been held by Rikidōzan himself (it has been the first world title to be held by an Asian wrestler). Toyonobori was therefore the first Japanese wrestler to win a world title inProfessional Wrestling as Rikidōzan was Korean (although the true ethnicity of Rikidōzan emerged only long after his death). WWA did not recognise the title change, while the JWA recognized it. Because of this, there were two WWA world heavyweight champions, defending their titles respectively in Japan and in theUnited States of America. On September 20, 1965, Toyonobori was defeated by disqualification byLuke Graham at theLos Angeles Olympic Auditorium to end the dispute over the WWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Toyonobori began losing power in the JWA, which then started pushingGiant Baba to the top of the promotion, leading him to win its top single title, theNWA International Heavyweight Championship (which had been held up after Rikidōzan's death), in 1965. After Rikidōzan's death, the JWA did not have one single title; theJapanese Heavyweight Championship, theAll Asia Heavyweight Championship and theNWA International Heavyweight Championship, which were held by Rikidōzan himself, were all recognized and only the last two titles were later revived (respectively in 1968 and in 1965).
On January 5, 1966, the JWA announced the resignation and departure of Toyonobori as the company president; he was later expelled from the JWA along withAntonio Inoki on March 21, 1966.
On April 23, 1966, Toyonobori announced the formation ofTokyo Pro Wrestling; on the same day Inoki announced his intention to join the company, as Toyonobori has privately promised Inoki to make him the promotion's top star.
On October 12, 1966, Tokyo Pro had its first card at theSumo Hall with Inoki in the main event. However, on April 6, 1967, the JWA announced the return of Antonio Inoki to the promotion. Therefore, Tokyo Pro folded, having lost its top star.
Along with most of the former Tokyo Pro wrestlers, Toyonobori joinedInternational Wrestling Enterprise, which had been founded in the meantime on October 21, 1966, by Isao Yoshiwara andHiro Matsuda and which had its first card in Osaka on January 5, 1967, in conjunction with Tokyo Pro. IWE then started surpassing the dominance of the JWA in Japanese wrestling.
On December 19, 1968, Toyonobori was defeated byBilly Robinson in a round-robin tournament to become the firstIWA World Heavyweight Champion, the first Japanese-based world heavyweight championship in professional wrestling history.
On May 18, 1969, Toyonobori andShozo Kobayashi, nicknamedStrong Kobayashi, defeated Ivan Strogoff andJean Ferré in theÉlysée Montmartre inParis, France, to become the inauguralIWA World Tag Team Champions.
On February 11, 1970, Toyonobori announced his retirement at an IWE event.
In March 1972, when Inoki left JWA to formNew Japan Pro-Wrestling, Toyonobori came out of retirement to help give the promotion name value. His last match was on February 20, 1973, a win overBruno Bekkar in Yokohama, more than three years after his original retirement ceremony.
Toyonobori died on July 1, 1998, due to heart failure.
In 2024,Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling established thePWA Champions Grail, a championship merging the lineage of Toyonobori and Rikidozan's 1962 Toyonaka trophy with theWrestling Retribution Project trophy won byKenny Omega in Hollywood in 2011.
| - | Spring Haru basho,Tokyo | Summer Natsu basho,Tokyo | Autumn Aki basho,Tokyo | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Not held | Shinjo 3–2 | East Jonokuchi #5 3–3 | |||
| 1948 | Not held | East Jonidan #18 4–2 | West Jonidan #3 4–2 | |||
| 1949 | East Sandanme #15 9–3–P | West Makushita #20 9–6 | West Makushita #11 9–6 | |||
| 1950 | West Makushita #6 7–8 | West Makushita #6 11–4 | West Jūryō #11 2–13 | |||
| 1951 | East Makushita #5 8–7 | West Makushita #3 10–5 | East Jūryō #11 7–8 | |||
| 1952 | East Jūryō #13 7–8 | East Jūryō #14 7–8 | East Jūryō #15 5–10 | |||
| Record given aswins–losses–absences Top division champion Top division runner-up Retired Lower divisions Non-participation Sanshō key:F=Fighting spirit;O=Outstanding performance;T=Technique Also shown:★=Kinboshi;P=Playoff(s) | ||||||
| - | New Year Hatsu basho,Tokyo | Spring Haru basho,Osaka | Summer Natsu basho,Tokyo | Autumn Aki basho,Tokyo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | East Makushita #2 10–5 | West Jūryō #15 9–6 | East Jūryō #13 6–3–6 | East Jūryō #13 12–3 Champion | ||
| 1954 | West Jūryō #4 11–4 | East Maegashira #20 9–6 | East Maegashira #17 6–4–5 | East Maegashira #15 Retired 6–9 | ||
| Record given aswins–losses–absences Top division champion Top division runner-up Retired Lower divisions Non-participation Sanshō key:F=Fighting spirit;O=Outstanding performance;T=Technique Also shown:★=Kinboshi;P=Playoff(s) | ||||||
,Internet Wrestling Database
Media related toToyonobori at Wikimedia Commons