Takuya Sugi

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Takuya Sugi (杉卓也)
Statistics
Ring name(s) El Blazer
Shanao
Yoshitsune
Mini CIMA
Little Dragon
HUSTLE Kamen Ranger Red
Michinoku Ranger Gold
AHII
The★ZEST (2nd generation)
Catfish Man
Rabbit Boy
Uwai # 32
NOIZ
Billed height 165 cm (5'4")
Billed weight 65 kg (143 lbs.)
Born October 6, 1983(1983-10-06)
Shizuoka, Japan
Billed from Hustling Nebula (as HUSTLE Kamen Ranger Red)
Trained by Ultimo Dragon
Toryumon Wrestling School
Debut May 11, 2003 in Toryumon Mexico

Takuya Sugi (杉卓也) is a Japanese professional wrestler from Shizuoka. He currently wrestles as a freelancer in the Japanese independent circuit; he uses many aliases, most commonly Yoshitsune and El Blazer. He is mainly known for his high-flying abilities.

Contents

[edit] Career

He has worked for many Japanese federations: immediately after graduating in the 11th Toryumon school class term, he debuted in 2003 in Toryumon Mexico and later in Toryumon X with the gimmick of Mini CIMA (ミニCIMA), a little version of the Japanese wrestler CIMA, teaming up with SUWAcito and Small Dandy Fuji, forming the Mini CMAX stable. In 2004 he joined Michinoku Pro Wrestling, originally as Michinoku Ranger Gold during the Michinoku Pro Futuritabi Tag Team Tournament 2004, later changing his name and gimmick to Shanao (遮那王), gaining a major success by feuding with Kagetora. In late 2005 Sugi changed his stage name to Yoshitsune (義経), like the famous samurai Yoshitsune Minamoto. Yoshitsune gained a title shot for the Tohoku Jr. Heavyweight Title, losing to TAKA Michinoku, and another title match for the Tohoku Tag titles, teaming up with Rasse, losing to Great Sasuke & Dick Togo. Yoshitsune qualified to the Michinoku Pro Mask League Tournament 2007 (also known as Fukumen League), where he achieved the most important victory of his career by defeating Jushin Thunder Liger in the quarter finals and was later eliminated in the semifinals by Atlantis. After this strong push, he finally captuted the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship, on November 9th 2007, by defeating GAINA; on January 14th he captured the Tohoku Tag Team Championship too, teaming with Great Sasuke and defeating Rasse and Kagetora. He also appeared as Yoshitsune in some shows of Big Mouth LOUD and several others Japanese independent promotions, including the LOCK UP NJPW brand.

He worked for Dragondoor as Little Dragon (リトル・ドラゴン), a character of the same lineage of Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid and Darkness Dragon, who wrestled in a blue outfit, but his character remained in low-carding and never won a single match, until the promotion failed.

He wrestled also in HUSTLE, where he debuted in 2004, as HUSTLE Kamen Ranger Red, leading the Kamen Rangers in their feud against the Monster Army; Kamen Rangers disappeared from HUSTLE after the show HUSTLEmania'06 and it is not currently known if their character will be used again in the future.

In 2006 Sugi joined the newborn El Dorado, wrestling as El Blazer (エルブレイザー), a legendary bird-like creature in a blue outfit; he was proposed as one of the original characters of the promotion. He originally used an outfit with blue feathers, later abandoned because of the fact they were often lost during the matches. Sugi wrestled as El Blazer also in GPWA, and in the Indy Summit 2006 as one of the El Dorado representatives. In February 2007, Takuya Sugi officially quit El Dorado as a full time roster member, thus becoming a freelancer, and he continues using the El Blazer gimmick as his main freelancing character. Soon after becoming a freelancer, Sugi continued appearing randomly in several japanese promotions as El Blazer, including IGF, finally joining ZERO-1 Max as a member of the Masato Tanaka stable, called "Sword".

On August 20, 2006, Sugi debuted a new character, called AHII, in AJPW, the result of a cooperation between Sanrio Company Ltd. and the AJPW; on August 27 he wrestled his first match in AJPW, defeating Voodoo Mask and continued to work sporadically for the company during the next months, until February 2007, when the character was apparently dropped. AHII is a comedy character, whose gimmick resembles Curry Man, the character interpreted by Christopher Daniels, since AHII is inspired to the Mexican "Habanero" pepper.

Starting from June 3, 2007, Sugi appears in Kensuke Office as Catfish Man (なまずマン, pronounced Namazu Man).

On July 16, 2007, Sugi debuted a new gimmick in ZERO-1 Max during the "Fire Festival" tour: the character, named The★ZEST, is sponsored by the omonimous japanese pachinko company and has already been used in 2006, but was interpreted by KAMIKAZE.
On July 24th, The★ZEST captured the WWA Junior Lightweight Championship by defeating Osamu Namiguchi. On April 6th, 2008 The★ZEST would lose the title in a match vs NOIZ; curiosly NOIZ was Takuya Sugi and, for this match only, The★ZEST was someone else.

Another gimmick he used in 2007 is UWAI # 32, a robot character only used in UWAI Station.

In February 2008 he appeared AJPW as a one night stand character, called Rabbit Boy

Sugi made his North American debut (as El Blazer) for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla on May 17, 2008.

[edit] Wrestling Facts

[edit] Finishing and signature moves

As Yoshitsune

As El Blazer

As The★ZEST

As Catfish Man

As NOIZ

As HUSTLE Kamen Ranger Red

As AHII

As Little Dragon

As Shanao

As Michinoku Ranger Gold

As Mini CIMA

As any persona

[edit] Stage names

Takuya Sugi's ring attires: Shanao, Yoshitsune, Michinoku ranger Gold, Mini CIMA, HUSTLE Kamen Ranger Red, El Blazer, AHII, Little Dragon, The★ZEST, Catfish Man, UWAI # 32 and Rabbit Boy
Takuya Sugi's ring attires: Shanao, Yoshitsune, Michinoku ranger Gold, Mini CIMA, HUSTLE Kamen Ranger Red, El Blazer, AHII, Little Dragon, The★ZEST, Catfish Man, UWAI # 32 and Rabbit Boy
Name Promotion Year
NOIZ ZERO-1 Max April 2008 - current
Rabbit Boy AJPW February 2008
The★ZEST (2nd generation) ZERO-1 Max July 2007 - November 2007
Catfish Man Kensuke Office June 2007 - current
UWAI # 32 UWAI Station February 2007 - July 2007
AHII AJPW August 2006 - February 2007
El Blazer El Dorado, ZERO-1 Max, Japanese indies April 2006 - current
Yoshitsune Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Japanese indies December 2005 - current
Little Dragon Dragondoor July 2005 - February 2007
HUSTLE Kamen Ranger Red HUSTLE July 2004 - December 2006
Shanao Michinoku Pro Wrestling December 2004 - December 2005
Michinoku Ranger Gold Michinoku Pro Wrestling October 2004 - December 2004
Mini CIMA Toryumon X, Toryumon Mexico May 2003 - October 2004

[edit] Nicknames

  • "Blue Legend" (as El Blazer)
  • "Legend of Eternity" (as El Blazer)
  • "HUSTLE Justice" (as Kamen HUSTLE Ranger Red)
  • "HUSTLE Emissary from the Stars" (as Kamen Ranger Red)
  • "Mardi Gras Ninja" (as Yoshitsune)
  • "Legend of Hiraizumi" (as Yoshitsune)

[edit] Tag team Partners

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

[edit] Entrance Themes

  • I Like COLA by Jesus Believes Me (as Mini CIMA)
  • Kazabayasi Volcano (as Yoshitsune)

[edit] External links

Languages