Ashikaga University Affiliated High School: 6 people
Shooto Watanabe is a Japanese male mixed martial artist who competed in the Bantamweight division.
Masakazu Fukuda (福田 雅一, Fukuda Masakazu) (May 17, 1972 – April 19, 2000) was a Japanese professional wrestler who is…
Masakazu Fukuda (福田 雅一, Fukuda Masakazu) (May 17, 1972 – April 19, 2000) was a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for his appearances in WAR and NJPW. He also joined a short-lived stable known as Fighting Club G-EGGS, the stable included Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, Brian Johnston and Yutaka Yoshie.
Shoichi Maruyama (丸山 昭一, Maruyama Shōichi), better known by his ring name Kamikaze (sometimes stylized in capital…
Shoichi Maruyama (丸山 昭一, Maruyama Shōichi), better known by his ring name Kamikaze (sometimes stylized in capital letters as KAMIKAZE), is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for his tenure with the Japanese promotions Pro Wrestling Zero1 and Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW).
Toshiaki Kawada (川田 利明, Kawada Toshiaki) (born December 8, 1963) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is…
Toshiaki Kawada (川田 利明, Kawada Toshiaki) (born December 8, 1963) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), whom he worked for from his debut in 1982 up until 2008. In the promotion, he was a five-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, a nine-time World Tag Team Champion, three-time winner of the Real World Tag League and a two-time winner of the Champion Carnival. He was also recognized as the ace of the promotion from 2000 to 2005. A years-long contemporary of Mitsuharu Misawa, they made their debut in AJPW together in the 1980s. Kawada became the understudy of Genichiro Tenryu, one of the top stars of the promotion at the time, and was so until 1990 when the Revolution stable disbanded in the event of the SWS exodus. From then on, he became one of their top rising stars alongside Misawa and Kenta Kobashi, and would be the founding members of the Super Generation Army (超世代軍, Chou Sedai-gun). In 1993, he broke away from the stable and joined Tsuruta-accomplice Akira Taue as a unit, coining themselves as the Holy Demon Army (聖鬼軍, Sei Ki Gun). Their rivalry with Misawa and Kobashi was a huge turning point for AJPW in the 1990s, and the individual rivalry between Kawada and Misawa was considered the defining storyline of the 1990s in AJPW and Japan all-together. That same year, he had been coined as a member of the Four Heavenly Kings (プロレスの四天王, Puroresu no shiten'nō; also called the Four Pillars of Heaven) line-up, alongside Misawa, Kobashi, and Taue. When Misawa ended his relationship with AJPW and formed Pro Wrestling Noah, Kawada stayed loyal to AJPW, and was then picked by Motoko Baba (the widow of Giant Baba, the company founder) to be the leading wrestler on the roster. He had the longest individual reign of any Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion in the 2000s, and was tied (with Kento Miyahara's fourth reign) for the most defenses of any individual reign with 10. In the midst of the division between AJPW and Noah, he made several appearances with other promotions, most notably New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he competed for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling World 2001 in the Tokyo Dome against Kensuke Sasaki. He became a freelancer in 2005, and made his first in-ring appearance for Noah at the Destiny 2005 pay-per-view, losing to Misawa. He also competed for Hustle, where he assumed many comedic roles. He won his last world title, the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship, in October 2009, defeating Masato Tanaka and losing it to Kohei Sato the next year. After the death of Misawa in June 2009 in a freak ring accident, Kawada slowed down his role as a pro wrestler, and had his final match on August 15, 2010 during the G1 Climax XX tournament, unbeknownst to the majority of his contemporaries and fans. After his final match, he began to collaborate more with his contemporaries outside the ring, including Kobashi and Taue (the surviving Heavenly Kings), Jushin Liger, Katsuhiko Nakajima, and student Taichi. Known by fans and his contemporaries as "Dangerous K" (デンジャラス K, Denjarasu kei) for his extremely stiff wrestling style and martial arts strikes, he is widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. His matches against Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama, Akira Taue, and Kenta Kobashi in the 1990s are argued by many fans and experts in the industry as some of the greatest professional wrestling matches of all time. He also has the distinction of having three Tokyo Sports Best Bout awards, which too brought him the distinction of being nicknamed the "Best Match Machine" (名勝負製造機, Mei shōbu seizō-ki).
Yuichi Watanabe (渡部 優一, Watanabe Yūichi; born November 9, 1962) is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional…
Yuichi Watanabe (渡部 優一, Watanabe Yūichi; born November 9, 1962) is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. He competed in Shooto's Lightweight division and was the inaugural Shooto Lightweight Champion defeating Kazuhiro Kusayanagi. As a pro wrestler he competes for Real Japan Pro Wrestling under the name Super Rider (スーパーライダー, Sūpā Raidā). He has also wrestled for notable promotions such as W*ING, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, IWA Japan, Battlarts, Dramatic Dream Team, Pro Wrestling Kageki, Pro Wrestling Zero1 and Diamond Ring.
Yoshiaki Yatsu (谷津嘉章 Yatsu Yoshiaki, born July 19, 1956) is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler and amateur…
Yoshiaki Yatsu (谷津嘉章 Yatsu Yoshiaki, born July 19, 1956) is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler and amateur wrestler and former mixed martial artist. He is known for being one-half of the first-ever All Japan Pro Wrestling World Tag Team Champions with Jumbo Tsuruta, having won the NWA International Tag Team Championship and the PWF Tag Team Championship, and unifying the two titles.