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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1982-05-21)May 21, 1982 (age 43) |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Jumping Kid Okimoto Rasse HUSTLE Kamen Blue Michinoku Ranger Silver Small Dandy Fuji Hayabusacito |
| Billed height | 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) |
| Billed weight | 75 kg (165 lb) |
| Billed from | HUSTLE Nebula (as HUSTLE Kamen Blue) |
| Trained by | Último Dragón Jorge "Skayde" Rivera |
| Debut | July 21, 2002 |
Masaki Okimoto (沖本 摩幸,Okimoto Masaki)[1] (born May 21, 1982) is a Japaneseprofessional wrestler fromNeyagawa, Japan; he's a current member of theMichinoku Pro Wrestling roster asRasse (ラッセ). He mainly uses a high-flying style.
A former highschoolamateur wrestler, Okimoto trained in the Último Dragón Gym and graduated in the 9th Toryumon school class term, debuting inToryumon Mexico in 2002. He performed under the name ofSmall Dandy Fujii, a mini version of Toryumon Japan wrestlerSumo Dandy Fujii, and was a part of the Mini Crazy MAX stable along withSUWAcito andMini CIMA. After a short individual participation in theYoung Dragons Cup 2002, where he was eliminated byCondotti Shuji at the first round, Small Dandy and SUWAcito competed at theYamaha Cup tag tournament, taking outHenry III Sugawara andNaoki Tanizaki at the first round before falling to Sailor Boys (Kei Sato and Shu Sato) at the second. Mini Crazy MAX developed afeud with Sailor Boys, led byTaiji Ishimori, and they kept it when the class term was moved to the Toryumon X promotion in Japan. Fujii was a comedic figure, and in October 2004, he got his head partially shaven by stipulation after being pinned byManabu Murakami.[2] That would be the last Toryumon X show, and its wrestlers were transferred toMichinoku Pro Wrestling.
He also wrestled in asHUSTLE Kamen Blue, a member of HUSTLE Kamen alongHUSTLE Kamen Red andHUSTLE Kamen Yellow.
Okimoto's first apparition in M-Pro was at theFutaritabi Tag Team League, wrestling under the mask ofMichinoku Ranger Silver withMichinoku Ranger Gold as his partner, doing asuper sentai gimmick not unlike they did inHUSTLE. The duo got important victories over Los Salseros Japoneses (Pineapple Hanai andMango Fukuda) andJinsei Shinzaki andShinjitsu Nohashi, but they did not win the league, which was taken byThe Great Sasuke and GARUDA. In December, the team was dissolved and Okimoto adopted the gimmick ofRasse, a masked character representing theAomori Nebuta Matsuri. He first teamed up with the former Ranger Gold, now known asShanao, and the two gained a title shot for the Tohoku Tag Titles against Great Sasuke andDick Togo, but were beaten.
Starting 2005, Rasse formed an alliance with GARUDA, first at theMichinoku Trios League (completing the trio withMaguro Ooma) and then in theFutaritabi Tag Team Tournament, but they were unsuccessful, getting eliminated at the latter by the eventual winning team of Shanao andKagetora. Rasse spent the year as a low-ranked member of the Michinoku Seikigun against theheel stable Los Salseros Japoneses, though he had some victories, upsetting Kagetora andGamma during theIron Man Tournament. However, he ascended the scale in 2006, reaching the finals of a tournament for the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight title before LSJ leaderTakeshi Minamino and actually winning the nextIron Man after pinningHayato Fujita with the Mabataki. Doing this, he won a title short against the next junior heavyweight champion,Osaka Pro Wrestling'sSuper Delfín, but was defeated. Rasse then returned to the midcard, teaming up with Yoshitsune until end of 2006.
The next year, Rasse teamed up with the recently turned face Kagetora to win theTohoku Tag Team Championship against Kei and Shu Sato, eventually unifying it with theOsaka Pro Wrestling Tag Team Championship from Hideyoshi andMasamune at the Pro Wrestling Summit 2007 independent event. They retained it successfully for the rest of 2007, even winning the next tag league while having the titles, but they finally lost the two titles against Osaka Pro representativesGaina and Zero and MPW homologues Great Sasuke and Yoshitsune. The same year, Rasse competed individually at the prestigiousFukumen World League, but was eliminated at the first round by another Osaka Pro wrestler,Tigers Mask. Now titleless, Rasse struggled through 2008, but despite a good performance at theIron Man and another tag team with Kagetora, he was frustrated. After a failed title shot against Hayato Fujita, now leader of the Kowloon heel stable, Rasse shockingly turned heel and joined them, later pledging his alliance to who revealed as the true leader of the group, their masterÚltimo Dragón.
In 2008, Okimoto joined the newborn El Dorado, wrestling asJumping Kid Okimoto, a masked character dressed in black and white who came to the ring injumping stilts. He initially was an integrant of theTaiji Ishimori's face army inherited from Dragondoor, but after Ishimori broke from El Dorado and left, Okimoto went solo and feuded withbrother YASSHI. Okimoto got the revenge for a loss to him by showing an embarrassing photo of Yasshi in his high school days, as Okimoto and he had been both in the same school, but the brother got it back defeating him again. They then reconciled and resolved to form an amateur wrestling-themed stable, which also featuredYuji Hino and was called Nanking Fucking Wrestling Club. During that time, Okimoto competed both under his real name in said stable, using a realistic, mat wrestling based style, and also as Jumping Kid Okimoto, featuring his common high-flying. After Nanking Fucking Wrestling Club folded up, Okimoto competed solo and unaligned again, and for a second time in Masaki's career he lost a hair vs hair match, this time againstKen45º. In 2008, Jumping Kid Okimoto andKAGETORA fought Speed of Sounds (Tsutomu Oosugi andHercules Senga) for the vacated UWA Tag Team Championship, but were defeated. Shortly after, El Dorado ended its run.
