Osamu Matsuda

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Osamu Matsuda


Statistics
Ring name(s)	El Samurai Osamu Matsuda
Billed height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Billed weight	92 kg (203 lb)
Born	April 19, 1966 Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan
Trained by	New Japan Dojo
Debut	July 24, 1986 against Yuji Funaki

Osamu Matsuda is a Japanese professional wrestler who currently works for New Japan Pro Wrestling, and is better known by his stage name El Samurai.

1 Career
- 1.1 Finishing and signature moves
2 Championships and accomplishments
3 References

[edit] Career

Matsuda graduated from high school in 1985, and joined the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo. He debuted a year later and spent a few years working at the bottom of the card. In March 1991 he went to Mexico, and while there adopted a mask and the El Samurai stage name. He returned to NJPW in early 1992, and quickly defeated Jushin Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in June. In 1997 he adopted a new costume and won the Best of Super Junior tournament. Only a month later he defeated Liger, winning the unified J-Crown Championship which at that time consisted of 7 junior heavyweight championships. In April 2004 Matsuda unmasked for the first time since adopting the El Samurai character, for a match against Osamu Nishimura, but it was for one night only. Up until at the end of January 2005, Matsuda was unmasked again in a MUGA-style match against Shinsuke Nakamura. Though Matsuda has not been a top contender in the NJPW Junior Heavyweight division for a few years, he still continues to be a veteran in it, recently winning a second IWGP Junior tag team title, this time with rookie Ryusuke Taguchi.