Minoru Suzuki

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Minoru Suzuki


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Minoru Suzuki (given name written in hiragana)
Billed height	178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Billed weight	100 kg (220 lb)
Born	June 17, 1968 Yokohama, Kanagawa
Debut	June 23, 1988 vs Takayuki Iizuka

Minoru Suzuki (鈴木実, Suzuki Minoru^?, ring name: 鈴木みのる) is a Japanese professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. During the 1990s he was known as one of the best fighters in the Pancrase promotion, but returned to regular puroresu in 2003, where he has become a perennial top contender for all major Japanese heavyweight championships. He is the current AJPW Triple Crown World Heavyweight Champion.

[edit] Career

Trained at the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo, he made his debut in 1988, but pretty soon left with mentor Yoshiaki Fujiwara for the newborn UWF. He then joined Fujiwara's Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi but then formed Pancrase in 1993 with Masakatsu Funaki. In Pancrase he was one of the most successful fighters, winning the King of Pancrase (now KOP Open-Weight) title. Though he dropped bouts to Bas Rutten, Frank Shamrock and Funaki, he twice defeated Ken Shamrock and is the only man to hold two wins over Shamrock in the Pancrase arena.

He was known as one of the smaller fighters and one that brought an attitude to the ring with him. Suzuki witnessed the transition Pancrase made from the so-called "hybrid wrestling" style to that of regular MMA.

Eventually, Suzuki's body became damaged and worn down from various injuries. He tried to keep working through the gruelling schedule of Pancrase, but the pace coupled with the fact that he had passed his physical prime lead to him losing key matches. He decided to focus on the business and training side of Pancrase. He collaborated with the Tekken series of fighting video games as a motion actor. His last non-worked fight for Pancrase was against a professional wrestler, Jushin Liger, whom Suzuki had known as Keiichi Yamada in his first NJPW stint. At the time he competed in grappling matches almost exclusively.

In 2003 Suzuki and Takaku Fuke announced their plan to return to puroresu and invade promotions under the stable name Pancrase Mission. Suzuki began competing for his old turf, NJPW, as a freelancer. He allied with Yoshihiro Takayama and they won the IWGP Tag Team Titles from Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Osamu Nishimura on February 1, 2004. Nevertheless, they were stripped of the title later in the year after Takayama was injured.

In 2005 Suzuki jumped to Pro Wrestling NOAH to challenge the talent there. He received a shot at GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi but was defeated. Again turning to tag teams, he found an unlikely ally in Naomichi Marufuji, whose style was Lucha Libre rather than shoot-style. Nonetheless, Suzuki taught Marufuji some of what he knew and they clicked, winning the GHC Tag Team Titles from 2 Cold Scorpio and Doug Williams on June 18, 2005. After losing the belts to Muhammad Yone and Takeshi Morishima in October, Suzuki challenged Jun Akiyama for the GHC Heavyweight Title on March 5, 2006, although he failed to win it.

On March 10, 2006, Suzuki made a surprise appearance in All Japan Pro Wrestling, attacking Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima after he had just defended his title against The Great Muta. Pundits at once considered Suzuki to have issued a challenge for the Triple Crown.

Suzuki participated in the 2006 Champion Carnival, and made it to the semifinals before being defeated by Taiyō Kea. On September 3, Suzuki challenged Kea, who had won the Triple Crown from Kojima in July. He was successful in his bid to become the new Triple Crown Champion.

Despite his shoot-style bad attitude, Suzuki is at heart a traditional wrestler, inspired by the Strong Style that once made Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami famous.