Profile of Masato Tanaka on Famous Like Me

Masato Tanaka
Statistics
Stage names	"Dangan" Masato Tanaka "The Enforcer" Masato Tanaka Masa Tanaka
Height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	102 kg (224 lb)
Born	February 28, 1973
Hometown	Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture
Billed from	Tokyo
Trained by	Atsushi Onita
Debut	July 23, 1993

Masato Tanaka (born February 23, 1973 in Wakayama City, Wakayama Prefecture) is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in Japan with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling and in America with Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Career

Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling

Tanaka trained under Atsushi Onita, and debuted on July 23, 1993 in Saga City, facing Ricky Fuji. He quickly began working for FMW, widely regarded as the most hardcore professional wrestling promotion in Japan. Wrestling in matches featuring explosions and barbed wire, Tanaka earned a variety of scars, and the nickname "Dangan", which he would often shout during his matches. By 1996 he was one of the promotion's major stars, and had feuded with such luminaries as Mr. Pogo, Mr. Gannosuke, Terry Funk and "Awesome" Mike Awesome. His feud with Awesome would eventually span ten years and two continents.

Extreme Championship Wrestling

ECW owner Paul Heyman became interested in Tanaka, and eventually hired him. Tanaka debuted in ECW on March 1, 1998 at Living Dangerously, defeating Doug Furnas. In July 1998 he reprised his feud with Awesome, who he defeated at Heatwave 1998.

Tanaka formed a short-lived tag team with Balls Mahoney, and at November To Remember on November 1, 1998 they defeated The Dudley Boyz to win the ECW World Tag Team Championships. The Dudley Boyz would regain the titles five days later, and Tanaka returned to Japan to attend the wedding of his friend Sabu in December.

Tanaka returned to ECW in 1999, this time vying for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. On September 19 at Anarchy Rulz, Taz, about to leave ECW for the WWF, defended the ECW World Heavyweight Championship against Awesome and Tanaka in a three way dance. After just two minutes Taz was eliminated by a combined assault at the hands of his opponents. After a further eleven minutes of brawling, Awesome pinned Tanaka with a top-rope powerbomb to become the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion.

Tanaka faced Awesome for the title at November to Remember on November 7, but was defeated once more. He finally overcame Awesome on December 17, 1999 at a house show in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first ECW World Heavyweight Champion not to be an American citizen. After the match, Awesome shook Tanaka's hand and fastened the belt around his waist in a show of respect, then attacked him as he left the ring and powerbombed him through a table. Awesome would regain the title at another house show in White Plains, New York on December 23.

Continuing his rivarly wth Awesome, Tanaka joined forces with Tommy Dreamer to face Raven and Awesome. Dreamer and Tanaka defeated the Impact Players for the ECW World Tag Team Championships on February 26, 2000, but lost them to Awesome and Raven on March 4, 2000. This led to a tag team three way dance at Living Dangerously on March 12, with Tanaka and Dreamer facing ECW World Tag Team Champions Mike Awesome and Raven and the Impact Players. Tanaka pinned Awesome, costing him the tag titles, but lost the match after Dreamer was pinned by the Impact Players.

Tanaka's feud with Awesome was brought to an abrupt end when Awesome left ECW in April 2000. He remained with ECW until mid-2000 before returning to Japan.

Japan

Tanaka continued to wrestle with FMW, feuding with Team No Respect, until leaving in 2001, allegedly as a result of animosity between him and the owner of FMW, the late Shoichi Arai, mostly over Hiromichi Fuyuki's role as booker. After departing FMW, Tanaka formed the Complete Players stable with former Fuyuki proteges Gedo and Jado, as well as real-life sweetheart Kaori Nakayama. They worked on the Japanese independent circuit, making appearances for Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Tanaka wrestled Shinya Hashimoto on the March 2 ZERO-ONE anniversary show, impressing Z-1 officials and earning himself a job.

In January 2002 Tanaka formed a tag team named Emblem with Shinjiro Ohtani, with whom he twice won the Intercontinental Tag Team Championships. In February 2004, he turned heel and sided with the Apache Army. In September 2004 he formed his own stable, the Erotic Textile faction, continuing his feud with Otani.

United States

On November 9, 2002 Tanaka wrestled at Ring Of Honor's All Star Extravangaza show, teaming with Shinjiro Ohtani to defeat Steve Corino and Low-Ki.

On June 12, 2005 Tanaka revived his feud with Mike Awesome at the WWE produced ECW One Night Stand reunion PPV. He was defeated after Awesome delivered a running Awesome Bomb through a table outside the ring and followed up with an Awesome Splash.

Finishing moves

• Diamond Dust
• Tornado DDT onto a chair
• Complete Dust (inverted sitout side powerslam)
• Roaring Elbow (discus elbow smash)

Signature moves

• Running Death Valley driver
• Frog splash
• Lariat
• Dangan Elbow (running elbow smash)
• The Tanaka Blaster (sitout powerbomb)
• Thunderfire powerbomb (one shoulder powerbomb)
• La Tapatia (modified surfboard)
• The Shotgun (vertical suplex into stunner)
• Dangan Bomb

Signature illegal attacks

• Running jumping chair shot

Championships/Accomplishments

Extreme Championship Wrestling

• 1-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion
• 2-time ECW World Tag Team Champion (1-time with Balls Mahoney, 1-time with Tommy Dreamer)

Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling

• 2-time FMW Independent World Heavyweight Champion
• 1-time FMW World Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion
• 2-time FMW World Brass Knuckles Tag Team Champion (1-time with Hayabusa, 1-time with Tetsuhiro Kuroda)
• 3-time FMW World Street Fight Six-Man Tag Team Champion
  • 1-time with Hayabusa and Hisakatsu ÅŒya
  • 1-time with Hayabusa and Kōji Nakagawa
  • 1-time with Tetsuhiro Kuroda and Kōji Nakagawa

Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling — World Entertainment Wrestling

• 1-time FMW WEW World Heavyweight Single Champion
• 1-time FMW WEW World Tag Team Champion (with Gedō)
• 1-time FMW WEW Six Man Tag Team Champion (with Gedō and Jadō)

ZERO-ONE

• 1-time Z-1 United National Heavyweight Champion
• 3-time Z-1 Intercontinental Tag Team Champion (2-time with Shinjiro Ohtani, 1-time with Wataru Sakata)
• 1-time HUSTLE Hardcore Hero Champion

Pro Wrestling World-One

• 1-time PWW-1 Heavyweight Champion

Premier Wrestling Federation

• 1-time PWF Universal Tag Team Champion (with Shinjiro Ohtani)

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Masato Tanaka