Riko Shirai (白井 理子, Shirai Riko) better known by her ring name Riko Kaiju is a retired Japanese professional wrestler.…Riko Shirai (白井 理子, Shirai Riko) better known by her ring name Riko Kaiju is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. She is best known for performing in the Japanese promotion Pure-J where she is a former Princess of Pro-Wrestling Champion. She is also known for her time in Seadlinnng and Sukeban
Nobuhiro Shimatani (島谷常寛, Shimatani Nobuhiro; born February 27, 1996), also known by his ring name Check Shimatani…Nobuhiro Shimatani (島谷常寛, Shimatani Nobuhiro; born February 27, 1996), also known by his ring name Check Shimatani (チェック・島谷, Chekku Shimatani), is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for his tenure with the Japanese promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling. As of July 2022, he predominantly works for Gleat as a member of the BULK Orchestra stable and Mexican Promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide.
Mayu Iwatani (岩谷 麻由, Iwatani Mayu; ring name: 岩谷 麻優) (born February 19, 1993) is a Japanese professional wrestler…Mayu Iwatani (岩谷 麻由, Iwatani Mayu; ring name: 岩谷 麻優) (born February 19, 1993) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Dream Star Fighting Marigold, where she is the current Marigold Super Fly Champion in her first reign. She is best known for her tenure with World Wonder Ring Stardom, where she was the leader of Stars. She also wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling, where she is a former IWGP Women's Champion, which was the longest reign in the title's history. Since making her debut in January 2011, she became a two-time World of Stardom Champion, two-time Wonder of Stardom Champion, one-time High Speed Champion, one-time SWA World Champion, two-time Goddesses of Stardom Champion, and a five-time Artist of Stardom Champion, while also having won the Cinderella Tournament back to back in 2015 and 2016, and the 2018 5Star Grand Prix. She also made appearances for Stardom's American partner Ring of Honor, where she is a former one-time Women of Honor World Champion. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has called Iwatani and fellow Japanese workers Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo "three of the best wrestlers in the world". She was also recognized as the "ace" of Stardom.
Kaori Housako (宝迫 香織, Hōsako Kaori; born September 23, 1988) is a Japanese professional wrestler and actress. She is…Kaori Housako (宝迫 香織, Hōsako Kaori; born September 23, 1988) is a Japanese professional wrestler and actress. She is best known for her two tenures in WWE, where she performed under the ring name Kairi Sane (カイリ・セイン, Kairi Sein). From 2012 to 2017, she wrestled for the Japanese promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom under the ring name Kairi Hojo (宝城 カイリ, Hōjō Kairi). Embodying a "Pirate Princess" persona, she became a one-time World of Stardom Champion, a one-time Wonder of Stardom Champion, a three-time Goddesses of Stardom Champion and a five-time Artist of Stardom Champion. She also won the 2015 5Star Grand Prix Tournament and the 2016 Goddesses of Stardom Tag League. In 2017, she signed with WWE, where she adopted the ring name Kairi Sane. She won the inaugural Mae Young Classic tournament the same year, and was then assigned to the NXT brand. She captured the NXT Women's Championship in 2018 and subsequently won the 2018 NXT Year-End Awards for Female Competitor of the Year and for Overall Competitor of the Year. In 2019, she debuted on WWE's main roster, where she became a one-time and the longest reigning WWE Women's Tag Team Champion, along with Asuka as part of the Kabuki Warriors. The team also received 2019 WWE Year-End Award for Women's Tag Team of the Year. In 2020, she returned to Japan to join her husband, and worked as a WWE ambassador and trainer in her native country until December 2021 when her contract expired. After her stint with WWE, she returned to World Wonder Ring Stardom in February 2022 and performed under ring name Kairi (stylized in all caps). She also performed for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) where she was a one-time and inaugural IWGP Women's Champion. She became a free agent in March 2023 and returned to WWE at Crown Jewel 2023 until her release in April 2026.
Minoru Fujita (藤田 穣, Fujita Minoru; ring name: 藤田 ミノル) (born September 5, 1977) is a Japanese professional wrestler who…Minoru Fujita (藤田 穣, Fujita Minoru; ring name: 藤田 ミノル) (born September 5, 1977) is a Japanese professional wrestler who works as a freelancer. He is known for working at Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling.
Shinjiro Otani (大谷晋二郎, Ōtani Shinjirō; born July 21, 1972) is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler and the…Shinjiro Otani (大谷晋二郎, Ōtani Shinjirō; born July 21, 1972) is a Japanese semi-retired professional wrestler and the current acting president of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). He is currently inactive from pro-wrestling competition due to a cervical spine injury sustained in April 2022. A product of the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) dojo, Otani is best known for his longtime association with Zero1, a promotion he founded in 2001 along with Shinya Hashimoto. Starting his career in NJPW as a junior heavyweight, Otani gained a reputation as a gutsy underdog and would go on to hold several championships during his nine-year run with the promotion, including the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and the J-Crown, as well as forming a successful tag team with dojo classmate Tatsuhito Takaiwa, twice holding the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. After jumping to the heavyweight division in 2001, Otani would leave New Japan the same year, joining Shinya Hashimoto as one of the founders of Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). Following the departure of Hashimoto in 2004, Otani was pushed as one of the promotions top stars, becoming a six time Intercontinental Tag Team Champion, a one time World Heavyweight Champion and a four-time winner of the Fire Festival. In addition to his role as a wrestler, Otani has also served as acting company president since 2007.
Satoru Sayama (佐山 聡, Sayama Satoru; born November 27, 1957), best known as the original Tiger Mask, is a Japanese…Satoru Sayama (佐山 聡, Sayama Satoru; born November 27, 1957), best known as the original Tiger Mask, is a Japanese writer, retired professional wrestler, martial artist, mixed martial arts (MMA) and wrestling promoter, and trainer. He is the founder of Shooto, a pre-Ultimate Fighting Championship MMA promotion, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential masked Japanese wrestlers of all time (alongside his contemporaries Jushin Thunder Liger and Último Dragón). The only man to hold the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship simultaneously, Sayama became widely known in the wrestling world for his all-round prowess of high-flying, technical abilities, and martial combat skills (as he was a practitioner of judo and freestyle wrestling in his youth). Primarily trained under New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) founder Antonio Inoki and his mentor Karl Gotch, Sayama made his professional wrestling debut in 1976 at 18 years old. He was sent on an excursion to Europe for World of Sport Wrestling and Mexico for Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre, where he not only found his ground as a technical wrestler, but also found his niche in Lucha libre. Sayama became Tiger Mask in 1981, brought from Ikki Kajiwara's 1968 manga series of the same name and the popular anime of the decade. He became involved in highly publicized feuds with Black Tiger (portrayed by Mark Rocco), Dynamite Kid, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who was one of Sayama's own trainers. He left NJPW at the height of his popularity in 1983 due to political disenfranchisement, and later became a founding member of the UWF brand in Japan. He then became dissatisfied with wrestling as a whole, leading him to write Kay Fabe (1985), which detailed the kayfabe and secrets of puroresu at the time. After declaring retirement from professional wrestling in 1985 after the collapse of UWF, he founded Shooto, one of the first MMA organizations in the world. Sayama also started mixed martial arts training and developed his own Shooto syllabus for learning what could be considered the first put together MMA training of its kind, with a focus on striking from arts like boxing, muay thai, and karate, and grappling from wrestling, judo, and sambo. The curriculum would help produce the first well rounded fighters of MMA several years before the first UFC event. While on Shooto, Sayama promoted the Vale Tudo Japan events, more rules free events inspired by Brazilian Vale Tudo and early UFC, helping to popularize MMA in Japan. He retired from his post in Shooto in 1996, and returned to professional wrestling soon after. In 2005, Sayama founded his own promotion, Real Japan Pro-Wrestling (RJPW), which later became Strong Style Pro-Wrestling. Sayama likened the promotion to include wrestlers from the past, as well as martial artists, Sayama's students, and modern stars from the likes of Battlarts, Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJPW), and more. Although he hasn't officially declared retirement, Sayama last wrestled on December 7, 2016. It was announced in 2020 that he had several health problems, which linked him to Parkinson's disease and immobility.
Mitsuo Yoshida (Japanese: 吉田 光雄, romanized: Yoshida Mitsuo, born Kwak Kwang-Woong [Korean: 곽광웅]; December 3, 1951)…Mitsuo Yoshida (Japanese: 吉田 光雄, romanized: Yoshida Mitsuo, born Kwak Kwang-Woong [Korean: 곽광웅]; December 3, 1951), better known by his ring name Riki Choshu (長州 力, Chōshū Riki), is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and amateur wrestler, who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a performer and a booker. He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestlers for his work in the 1980s and 1990s and is known as the first wrestler to popularize the Sasori-Gatame, better known in English as the Scorpion Deathlock or Sharpshooter. A second-generation Zainichi Korean from Yamaguchi Prefecture, Choshu won titles in Freestyle wrestling at the National Sports Festival of Japan, before (under his birth name) representing South Korea at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He also won collegiate titles in Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling as captain of the Senshu University team. He made his professional wrestling debut for NJPW in 1974, becoming a major star as a heel during the following decade. After leaving NJPW in 2002, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ), but eventually returned to New Japan in October 2005 as a site foreman, booker and part-time wrestler. Choshu once again left NJPW in 2010 and primarily worked in Tatsumi Fujinami’s Dradition, as well as his own self-produced Power Hall events as a freelancer.
