Koji Kanemoto

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Koji Kanemoto
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Koji Kanemoto Tiger Mask III^[1]
Billed height	180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Billed weight	90 kg (198 lb)
Born	October 31, 1966 (1966-10-31) (age 41)^[2] Kobe, Hyōgo
Trained by	Masanobu Kurisu NJPW
Debut	November 7, 1990 vs Michiyoshi Ohara)

Kōji Kanemoto (金本浩二, Kōji Kanemoto^?, born October 31, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler.

1 Career
2 In wrestling
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 References
5 External sources

[edit] Career

Kanemoto practiced Judo during his high school days and won a few championships as a professional before being recruited by the New Japan Dojo. He portrayed Tiger Mask in its third incarnation, succeeding Mitsuharu Misawa.^[1] In 1994, he famously lost a "mask vs. mask" match against popular cruiserweight Jushin Liger during a New Japan Pro Wrestling show. Since 1994 he has wrestled under his own name for New Japan Pro Wrestling. His style used to be the classic junior heavyweight wrestling, but repeated high-flying moves and inherent damage put an incentive on him to use shoot style, largely as a modification of his wrestling persona. Hard shoot kicks combined with scientific wrestling are his current trademark along with the Facewash, which always gets the crowd going in a football stadium like chant.

Kanemoto was the first man to defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in the United States, a match against Alex Wright at Starrcade 1995 (although World Championship Wrestling did not announce it as such). He also holds a victory over revered MMA fighter Kazushi Sakuraba in shoot-style wrestling.

On May 3, 2006, Kanemoto defeated Tiger Mask IV to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title for the fifth time.

In the 2006 G-1 Climax, Kanemoto reached the semi final, the first junior heavyweight to achieve this feat. He also (with Hiroshi Tanahashi made it to the finals of the G-1 Tag League two years in a row. Also in 2006 he became the first junior heavyweight since Bas Rutten to receive a IWGP Heavyweight Title match. Although he lost this match against his tag team partner Hiroshi Tanahashi he was revered for his performance, especially after kicking out of Tanahashi's Dragon Suplex finish after only a 1 count. After this match it was regarded that Kanemoto was not only the top junior heavyweight but one of top talents that New Japan has in its entirety.