Nagisa Nozaki (野崎 渚,Nozaki Nagisa; born November 22, 1990)[2] is aJapaneseprofessional wrestler. She started her career in theNEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestlingpromotion in November 2006. After the promotion folded in December 2010, she worked forindependent promotions such asPro Wrestling Wave andWorld Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana. Throughout her career, Nozaki has suffered several injuries, which eventually led to her taking a thirteen-month break from professional wrestling to undergo a shoulder surgery. She finally returned in August 2012, working forWrestling New Classic (WNC). After another injury, Nozaki went inactive in January 2013, eventually returning withPro Wrestling Wave in 2017.
Trained byEtsuko Mita at the NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling dojo, Nozaki made herprofessional wrestling debut for the promotion on November 3, 2006, teaming withKyoko Inoue in a tag team match, where they were defeated byDynamite Kansai andTakako Inoue, with Inoue pinning Nozaki for the win.[4] Nozaki started her career with a losing streak typical for rookies inpuroresu, suffering defeats against the likes ofYuki Miyazaki,[5] Haruka Matsuo,[6]Toshie Uematsu,[7]Etsuko Mita,[8] andArisa Nakajima.[9] In early 2007, Nozaki formed the Seishun Midori ("Youth Green")tag team withIce Ribbon representativeAoi Kizuki.[10] On April 4, NEO andIce Ribbon co-promoted an event, which featured a tournament to determine the inauguralInternational Ribbon Tag Team Champions. Seishun Midori entered the tournament, but was eliminated in the first round by the NEO Machineguns (Tanny Mouse andYuki Miyazaki), who would go on to win the entire tournament.[11] On May 5, Nozaki won her first professional wrestling match, though she did not score the deciding pinfall, when she teamed with Kizuki in a tag team match, where they defeatedEmi Sakura andHikari Minami.[12] Nozaki finally scored her first direct pinfall win on July 22, when she defeated Ice Ribbon representativeMakoto in a singles match.[13] Nozaki continued teaming with Kizuki into 2008,[14][15] before being sidelined with ananterior cruciate ligament injury following March 2.[16]
Nozaki finally returned on April 19, 2009, when she was defeated by Aya Yuki in a singles match.[17] Afterwards, Nozaki began teaming with Yuki,[18][19] and was scheduled to team with her in the Mid Summer Tag Tournament VIII, but on June 27, shefractured her orbital floor,[20] during a six-woman tag team match, where she, Yuki andYoshiko Tamura were defeated by Revolucion Amandla (Atsuko Emoto,Kyoko Kimura andTomoka Nakagawa).[19] Nozaki returned on September 20, but injured her shoulder during a match, where she and Yuki were defeated byHiroyo Matsumoto and Kyoko Inoue.[21][22] Nozaki wrestled a comedicbattle royal on October 24 as "Etsuko Nozaki",[1] but was unable to wrestle any regular matches due to her injury; most notably, she was forced to pull out of her trainer Etsuko Mita's retirement match and give her spot over to Makoto.[23] Nozaki underwent surgery on her shoulder on November 26, 2009.[24]
During Nozaki's hiatus from in-ring action, NEO Japan Ladies Pro-Wrestling announced on May 5, 2010, that the promotion would be folding at the end of the year.[25][26] Nozaki returned on August 1, 2010, losing toSmash representativeSyuri in a singles match.[27] Six days later, Nozaki was defeated in her second match since her return byNanae Takahashi. The match was ended prematurely, when Takahashi dislocated Nozaki's right shoulder.[28] Nozaki, however, did not miss any NEO events as a result of her latest injury.[29] With NEO having announced its folding, Nozaki began looking for a new home promotion and, on September 24, made her debut for Smash, losing toKana in a singles match atSmash.8.[30] In her second Smash match on October 30 atSmash.9, Nozaki teamed with Syuri in a tag team match, where they defeatedTomoka Nakagawa and Toshie Uematsu.[31] Nozaki also teamed with Syuri back in NEO; the two were defeated by Toshie Uematsu andYuu Yamagata on November 21.[32] The following day, Nozaki teamed withAkira,Kaoru andScotty 2 Hotty in an eight-person tag team match atSmash.10, where they defeatedNunzio,Taka Michinoku, Tomoka Nakagawa and Toshie Uematsu.[33][34] On December 11 atSmash.11, Nozaki, in her final Smash appearance, and Syuri were defeated in a tag team match by theJWP Joshi Puroresu team ofCommand Bolshoi andKaori Yoneyama.[35] On December 26, Nozaki picked up a rare win, defeating rookieMika Iida at NEO's third to last ever event.[36] NEO held its final event on December 31, 2010, during which she teamed with Hiroyo Matsumoto andMima Shimoda in a six-woman tag team match, where they were defeated by the Ice Ribbon trio of Emi Sakura,Hikaru Shida andTsukasa Fujimoto.[37] Later that same event, in the final match ever promoted by NEO, Nozaki, Mika Iida and Aya Yuki wrestled Tanny Mouse, Yoshiko Tamura and Yuki Miyazaki to a ten-minute time limit draw.[37]
On February 3, 2011, Nozaki wrestled her first match since the folding of NEO, teaming with Aya Yuki at a T-1 event, where they wrestled Futami President andGreat Sasuke to a no contest.[38] On April 17, Nozaki made her debut for former NEO worker Kyoko Inoue's new World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana promotion, losing to Nanae Takahashi in a singles match.[39] After suffering another loss toYumi Ohka on April 24,[40] Nozaki picked up her first Diana win five days later, defeatingSareee.[41] On May 1, Nozaki was defeated in a singles match byGami.[42] The following day, Nozaki made her debut for Gami'sPro Wrestling Wave promotion, entering the2011 Catch the Wave tournament and defeating Yumi Ohka in her openinground-robin match.[43] On May 4, Nozaki was booked for a Diana event, but ended upno-showing the event.[44] Six days later, Diana publicly fired Nozaki for a "serious breach of contract".[45] Nozaki quickly apologized for her actions and revealed that she was considering retiring from professional wrestling as a result of her firing.[46] On May 17, Nozaki continued her Catch the Wave tournament with a win overMio Shirai,[47] however, she would lose her two remaining matches againstMisaki Ohata on June 15,[48] and againstAyumi Kurihara on July 6, and, as a result, finished third in her block and failed to advance from her block.[49] Nozaki wrestled her final Wave match on July 24, when she, Bambi and Yumi Ohka, all representing thevillainous Black Dahliastable, defeated Ayumi Kurihara,Ryo Mizunami and Sakura Hirota in a six-woman tag team match.[50] Afterwards, Nozaki announced that she was taking an indefinite break from professional wrestling to heal her shoulder.[51] Nozaki underwent surgery on her shoulder on February 2, 2012.[52]
On August 2, 2012, Nozaki made a surprise debut forWrestling New Classic (WNC), the follow-up promotion to Smash, attacking Makoto with ashinai and aligning herself withHajime Ohara. The appearance marked Nozaki's first professional wrestling appearance in thirteen months.[53][54] Dubbing herself "Nozabitch",[55] Nozaki began working in WNC as avillain for the first time in her career, adopting theshinai as her signature weapon.[56] The following day, Nozaki managed Ohara at another WNC event, where he was victorious overEl Hijo del Pantera in a singles match.[57] Nozaki made her in-ring debut for WNC on August 30 inKorakuen Hall, defeating Makoto via referee stoppage with thesleeper hold.[58][59] The two had two rematches the following day days; Nozaki was also victorious in both of them with the sleeper hold.[60][61] During the weekend, Nozaki and Ohara were also joined by rookieJiro Kuroshio.[58] On September 17, Nozaki earned yet another sleeper hold win over Makoto in a tag team match, where she teamed with Kuroshio and Makoto withYusuke Kodama.[62] On October 19, Nozaki, Ohara and Kuroshio named their stable "Kabushiki gaisha DQN"[55] On November 27, Nozaki returned to Pro Wrestling Wave, teaming with Hikaru Shida in a five-way tag team match, which was used to determine the number one contenders to theWave Tag Team Championship and won by Makoto andMoeka Haruhi.[63][64] The following day, after receiving a first roundbye, Nozaki entered theWNC Women's Championship tournament in the semifinal stage, defeating Kana with help from Jiro Kuroshio.[65][66] Following the upset win, Nozaki began using Kana's nickname, "World Famous".[67] Prior to the final match, Nozaki began making appearances wearing crutches, claiming that she had broken her leg, having fallen over drunk.[68][69] During the tournament final on December 27, Nozaki revealed that her supposed injury had been a bluff as she started the match off by attacking her opponent, Syuri, from behind. Despite this, Nozaki was eventually defeated, suffering her first direct loss in WNC.[70][71][72][73] Nozaki suffered her second loss in a row at WNC's first event of 2013 on January 4, when she was defeated by Makoto.[74][75] On January 25, Nozaki was, for the second time in her career, sidelined with an orbital floor fracture, suffered during a six-person tag team match, where she, Hajime Ohara and Jiro Kuroshio defeated Lin Byron,Yo-Hey and Zeus.[76][77] While Nozaki was recovering from her injury, Hajime Ohara legitimately quit WNC, effectively ending DQN K.K.[78]
After over four years of inactivity, it was announced on June 4, 2017, that Nozaki would be returning to the ring with Pro Wrestling Wave on August 12.[79][80] In her return match, Nozaki teamed withAoi Kizuki with the two losing to Mika Iida andYuki Miyazaki.[81] On September 14, it was announced that Nozaki had officially signed with Zabun, the parent company of Wave.[82] In November, Nozaki defeatedMiyuki Takase,Rina Yamashita andMio Momono to win the Next Tournament, earning a shot at Wave's top title, theWave Single Championship.[83][84][85] She went on to unsuccessfully challenge Misaki Ohata for the title on November 26.[86] On December 29, 2019, Nozaki defeatedTakumi Iroha to win the Wave Single Championship for the first time.[87] On December 27, 2020, Nozaki lost the title toSakura Hirota, ending her reign at 364 days.[88]
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(in Japanese)
