 Yamazaki in 2023 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1962-08-15)August 15, 1962 (age 63) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Billed height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Billed weight | 103 kg (227 lb) |
| Trained by | Satoru Sayama Yoshiaki Fujiwara |
| Debut | May 6, 1982 |
| Retired | January 4, 2000 |
Kazuo Yamazaki (山崎一夫,Yamazaki Kazuo; born August 15, 1962) is a Japanese retiredprofessional wrestler, wrestling instructor and commentator who is known for his work inNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and shoot-style promotionsUniversal Wrestling Federation (UWF) andUWF International (UWFi).[1] He is signed as a commentator for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Anamateur wrestler and high schooljudoka in his youth, Yamazaki's professional wrestling career began in May 1982 inNew Japan Pro-Wrestling. He wrestled his debut match on May 6 againstKuroneko. During this time, he was also a student ofSatoru Sayama, better known asTiger Mask, who trained Yamazaki extensively inshoot wrestling andkickboxing. He also trained under NJPW's headsubmission grappling instructorYoshiaki Fujiwara. WheneverKuniaki Kobayashi stripped Sayama of his mask, Yamazaki was always the first to help remask him.
In 1984, Yamazaki joined the shoot style promotionJapanese UWF, an early precursor to modernmixed martial arts. However, differences between his mentor Satoru Sayama andAkira Maeda over direction caused the promotion to fail.
He rejoined New Japan in 1985 as a junior heavyweight. Despite this, he found more success in tag teams in 1987, winning theIWGP Tag Team Championship with one of his mentors,Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
In 1988, however, the UWF was reconstituted as Newborn UWF and Yamazaki joined it, and stayed there until it folded in December 1990. During this time, he moved up to heavyweight.
In May 1991, Yamazaki joined UWF International. In UWF International, he supportedNobuhiko Takada, but after being overlooked several times for shots at Takada's UWFI World Heavyweight championship, he decided to quit and return to New Japan on his own in July 1995.
During the New Japan vs. UWFI feud in 1995-1996, Yamazaki participated on New Japan's side, but mostly as a behind-the-scenes supporter, trainingYuji Nagata and Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) in the use of the shoot-style. He won two more IWGP Tag Team Championships, first withTakashi Iizuka in June 1996 and withKensuke Sasaki in August 1997. In 1998, he participated in theG1 Climax tournament, defeatingTatsumi Fujinami, Kensuke Sasaki, andMasahiro Chono, before losing toShinya Hashimoto in the finals. Yamazaki retired from in-ring competition on January 4, 2000, losing to his student Yuji Nagata as his final opponent.
Kazuo Yamazaki now works as a wrestling instructor at theNJPW Dojo and sometimes acts as color commentator for the NJPW program onTV Asahi. He also works as a seitaishi in Ayase, Kanagawa.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
