Yoshinari Ogawa (小川良成,Ogawa Yoshinari) (born November 2, 1966) is a Japanese retiredprofessional wrestler, best known for his appearances withAll Japan Pro Wrestling andPro Wrestling Noah. He earned thenickname of "Rat Boy" from the English-speakingPuroresu fanbase due to his sneaky, clever in-ring tactics and baiting his opponents into quick pins, as well as the dishevelled, greasy appearance he cultivated during the late-1990s.
Yoshinari Ogawa debuted inAll Japan Pro Wrestling in 1985, working on the undercard, until joiningGenichiro Tenryu's groupRevolution, which helped him elevate higher on the card. He remained in the group until it disbanded in 1990 upon Tenryu's abrupt departure from AJPW.
After Tenryu left, Ogawa became one of the top stars in AJPW's junior heavyweight division in the 1990s, winning the junior heavyweight championship three times. He also reigned as tag team champion with his mentor,Mitsuharu Misawa.
Ogawa left AJPW for Misawa's newly formedPro Wrestling Noah in 2000, where he continued his tag team with Misawa, even winning theGHC Tag Team Championship becoming the second ever champions by defeating the team ofScorpio andVader, holding the titles for nine days before losing the titles toTakao Omori andYoshihiro Takayama. On April 7, 2002, he scored a huge upset, beatingJun Akiyama very quickly to become theGHC Heavyweight Champion. Ogawa held the title for 153 days, defending his championship twice againstAkira Taue andTakeshi Rikio, before ultimately losing it to Takayama on September 7, 2002. On January 10, 2004, Ogawa and Misawa won theGHC Tag Team Championship for a second time, this time defeatingHiroshi Tanahashi andYuji Nagata at the Great Voyage 2004 show. The team held the championship for a then-record 379 days while defending the belts seven times, another record at the time. They lost the championships to the team ofScorpio andDoug Williams on January 23, 2005.
Ogawa became a mainstay in the junior heavyweight division forming a partnership withZack Sabre Jr. starting in 2013 as the pair joined to take part in theNTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League for the vacantGHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The team came in second place in their block losing to eventual block and league winnersJyushin Thunder Liger andTiger Mask IV on the final day. However, the team defeated Liger and Tiger Mask on December 7, 2013, at 'Great Voyage in Tokyo Vol. 2' to become the tag team champions for the first time.[1] The pair defended their titles for the first, and only, time on March 8, 2014, defeatingKenoh andHajime Ohara at 'Great Voyage in Tokyo' show.[2] The team lost the titles on March 21, 2014, to the team ofAtsushi Kotoge andTaiji Ishimori, but Ogawa and Sabre became two-time champions less than a month later by defeating Kotoge and Ishimori for the championships. Yet again, on July 5, 2014, after just one defense overHiro Tonai andShiori Asahi which occurred on May 3, Ogawa and Sabre lost the titles to Kotoge and Ishimori at 'Great Voyage in Tokyo Vol.2'.[3]
The pair entered the 2014 NTV G+ Junior Tag League and finished last in their four-team block with four points. On May 10, 2015, Ogawa and Sabre received a title match against the championsEl Desperado andTaka Michinoku at Great Voyage in Yokohama. This match was a losing effort from the team and Ogawa, in the summer of 2015, took part in his first singles tournament since 2008, theGlobal Junior Heavyweight League. Ogawa finished fifth in the block of seven with six points and victories over Desperado,Hitoshi Kumano, andSho Tanaka. Ogawa and Sabre took part in their third straight NTV G+ Junior Tag League and finished second, again losing to the eventual block winners, Desperado and Michinoku, on the final day of the league. This match was their final match as a team and on November 30, 2015, Ogawa's six-man team of Hitoshi Kumano andMuhammad Yone defeated Sabre's team ofGenba Hirayanagi andCaptain Noah with Ogawa scoring the decision over Sabre in what was Sabre's final match in Pro Wrestling Noah.[4]
Ogawa, alongside several Noah company-mates, took part in the first twoNew Japan Pro-Wrestling 'Lion's Gate Project' shows where he defeatedJay White on the first show on February 25, 2016, then defeated David Finlay on the second show which took place on May 19.[5][6] Ogawa took part in the qualifying for the 2016Super J-Cup defeating Hitoshi Kumano in his first qualifier but losing toTaiji Ishimori in the final of his qualifying region.
On August 13, 2024, it was announced that Ogawa would be retiring due to a neck injury suffered in an eight-man tag team match on August 4, in which his team withDaga,Super Crazy and Yu Owada lost toTadasuke,HAYATA,AMAKUSA andYO-HEY.[7]
,Internet Wrestling Database