 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Norio Honaga" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Honaga in 2019 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1955-08-11)August 11, 1955 (age 70) Tokyo, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name | Norio Honaga |
| Billed height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) |
| Billed weight | 92 kg (203 lb) |
| Debut | April 25, 1980 |
| Retired | April 30, 1998 |
Norio Honaga (保永 昇男,Honaga Norio) (born August 11, 1955) is a Japanese retiredprofessional wrestler andreferee.
Norio Honaga debuted forNew Japan Pro-Wrestling on April 25, 1980, againstHiro Saito. In November 1982, after over two years on the undercard, Honaga was sent to on an excursion to Mexico, wrestling forUniversal Wrestling Association. He returned to NJPW in March 1984, but political turmoil within the promotion forced Honaga to leave the promotion six months later.
After leaving NJPW, Honaga joinedRiki Choshu'sJapan Pro-Wrestling group, which joined forces withAll Japan Pro Wrestling. In July 1985, Honaga won his only title in AJPW, theAll Asia Tag Team Championship, withIsamu Teranishi, asAnimal Hamaguchi gave his half to Honaga due to injury. He and Teranishi would hold on to the belts for over three months, before losing them toTakashi Ishikawa andMighty Inoue in October 1985. Honaga remained with AJPW until March 1987.
Honaga returned to NJPW in May 1987. Upon his return, he formed a tag team with Hiro Saito. In August 1987, Honaga took part in a tournament for the vacantIWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, asShiro Koshinaka vacated the title earlier that month due to injury; he lost toTatsutoshi Goto in the first round. In January 1988, Honaga took part in the first-everTop of the Super Juniors tournament, but he would place dead last with no points. In April 1989, Honaga took part in theYoung Lion Cup tournament, despite being 33 years old with nine years of experience; he defeated Hirokazu Hata in the first round, but lost to eventual winnerNaoki Sano in the semifinals. By the summer of 1989, Honaga and Saito formed the Blond Outlaws with Goto, andSuper Strong Machine joined the group in 1990.
In April 1991, Honaga took part in the second TOSJ tournament, the first in three years, and this time, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title was on the line, asJyushin Thunder Liger vacated the title for the tournament, and Honaga defeated Liger in the finals to win the title. He would hold on to the title for nearly a month and a half before losing the title to Liger in June 1991. In November 1991, Honaga regained the title, defeatingAkira Nogami. He would hold onto the title for exactly three months, before losing the title back to Liger in a match, where Liger'sWCW World Light Heavyweight Championship was also on the line. In April 1992, Honaga took part in the TOSJ tournament, in which he made he tied for second place with Jyushin Thunder Liger, forcing a match between the two to determine who wrestlesEl Samurai later that night; Honaga lost to Liger.
By the spring of 1992, Blond Outlaws had evolved into Raging Staff. In November 1992, Honaga and the rest of Raging Staff sided withGenichiro Tenryu's WAR promotion in their rivalry withHeisei Ishingun. In May 1993, Honaga took part in another TOSJ tournament, in which he placed third place in a tie withFit Finlay. In September 1994, Honaga took part in another tournament for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title, as Jyushin Thunder Liger vacated the title due to injury. He defeatedGran Hamada,Shinjiro Otani andWild Pegasus to win the title for the third time. A month later, he took part in another tournament, the Super Grade Junior Heavyweight Tag League, with Gran Hamada as his partner; they would make it to the semifinals, before losing toBlack Tiger II andThe Great Sasuke. In November 1994, Honaga added another title by defeatingEl Hijo del Santo to win theUWA World Welterweight Championship, making him a double champion. He would lose the UWA World Welterweight title to Otani in December 1994, after nearly a month as champion, and lose the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title toKoji Kanemoto in February 1995, after nearly five months as champion.
In June 1995, Honaga took part in another TOSJ tournament, which had since changed its name to theBest of the Super Juniors tournament; however, during the tournament, he suffered a rib injury after facingDean Malenko, so he placed dead last with four points after forfeiting his remaining matches. A year later, he took part in another BOSJ tournament; he placed dead last at four points on Block B. Days later, he teamed withEl Samurai to win theWAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship fromLance Storm andYuji Yasuraoka, but failed. In November 1996, he teamed withJunji Hirata for a one-night tag team tournament; they lost toTakashi Iizuka andYuji Nagata in the first round. After eighteen years in the ring, Honaga decided to retire from the ring in April 1998. His first retirement match was a loss to Jyushin Thunder Liger; later that night, he and Liger teamed with El Samurai for his second retirement match and defeated Koji Kanemoto, Shinjiro Otani, andTatsuhito Takaiwa.
Upon retiring from the ring in 1998, he became a referee. He stayed with NJPW until joining Riki Choshu's short-livedFighting of World Japan Pro Wrestling.
In 2007, Honaga was in a serious car wreck. He pulled out of a driveway when he was hit in the driver's door by another car. He spent 8 days and 16 hours in a coma at theJapanese Hospital (Rota). Since then, Honaga is aborn-again Christian and has left the Japanese Wrestling world due to both his physical state, he lost the use of his left leg, and his love forJesus Christ. It is rumoured in Japan that he intends to found either a church or a Christian hospital, to express his feelings as a Christian to the world.[citation needed]
Having lost the use of his left leg and 80% of his vision in the right eye, Honaga gave up ontrap shooting, a hobby he vigorously enjoyed while he trained withGreat Kojika from 1984 till 1986.
| Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norio Honaga andMasa Saito (hair) | Dragón Negro and Braulio Flores (hair) | Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico | Live event | March 27, 1983 |
Media related toNorio Honaga at Wikimedia Commons
,Internet Wrestling Database