- Takeshi Morishima
-
Takeshi Morishima 
Ring name(s) Takeshi Morishima Billed height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[1] Billed weight 150 kg (330 lb)[1] Born October 15, 1978 [1]
Edogawa, Tokyo[1]Trained by AJPW dojo[2]
Akira Taue[2]
Mitsuharu Misawa[2]Debut March 22, 1998 against Kentaro Shiga[1] Takeshi Morishima (森嶋 猛 Morishima Takeshi) (October 15, 1978)[1] is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is currently performing for Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan and has performed for Ring of Honor in the United States in the past. He is a former Ring of Honor World champion. But Morishima also won the GHC Heavyweight Championship once in Pro Wrestling Noah.
Contents
Professional wrestling career
Morishima regularly performs for Pro Wrestling Noah. He frequently teamed with Takeshi Rikio as Wild II,[3] and the duo have previously held the GHC Tag Team Championship.[4] Morshima has also wrestled in the United States and United Kingdom. He competed in Harley Race's World League Wrestling promotion in 2003, defending the WLW Heavyweight Championship, which he had won from Ron Harris while Harris toured Japan.[5] Morishima returned to the United States in February 2007, wrestling four matches with Ring of Honor. He lost to Samoa Joe on February 16, 2007 before defeating Homicide in a match for the ROH World Championship on the subsequent evening, thus becoming the first non-American to hold the title.[1][6] On February 23, 2007, Morishima defeated B.J. Whitmer in his first title defense, and on the next night he and Nigel McGuinness defeated Samoa Joe and Homicide.[1] On March 4, 2007, he successfully defended the ROH Championship in Japan, defeating Kenta in the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.[1] Morishima could not return to the United States until almost a month and a half later when he and Chris Hero took on Nigel McGuinness and Doug Williams, and the next night when he successfully defended the belt against McGuinness for the first time.[1]
On April 21, Morishima was honored at the 42nd annual Cauliflower Alley Club banquet, being presented with the "Future Legend" award.[7][8] Back in ROH, Morishima went on a string of successful title defenses, defeating the likes of Austin Aries, Shingo, Jay Briscoe, and Roderick Strong.[1] Morishima also competed twice on ROH's first pay-per-view Respect Is Earned, defeating BJ Whitmer to retain the ROH Championship, and later teaming with Bryan Danielson to defeat Nigel McGuinness and Kenta.[1] At the second pay-per-view, Driven, Morishima again competed twice, retaining the title against Jimmy Rave and later Adam Pearce.[1] On July 16, 2007, Morishima wrestled in the main event of Ring of Honor's debut show in Japan and defeated Nigel McGuinness to retain the ROH Championship.[9] Morishima lost the title to McGuinness at Undeniable on October 6.[1]
On March 2, 2008, Morishima defeated Mitsuharu Misawa at the Budokan Hall Event of Pro Wrestling Noah's Second Navigation Tour to become the 12th GHC Heavyweight Champion.[1] Morishima has stated that while he plans on returning to ROH in the future, he has no intentions in regaining the ROH Championship, as he will be fully focused on NOAH's heavyweight scene. On June 14, 2008, Morishima made his very first defense of the GHC Heavyweight Title against Takashi Sugiura. Morishima prevailed after hitting a backdrop driver. Morishima's second defense happened on July 18, 2008 against former his tag team partner Takeshi Rikio. After about 13 and a half minutes, Morishima defeated Rikio with a backdrop suplex. On September 6, 2008 at the Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Morishima lost to Kensuke Sasaki, who gained a pin at the 22-minute mark with the Northern Lights Bomb. In August 2008 Morishima had a dark match tryout against Charlie Haas for WWE before a live Raw in Chicago, defeating Haas in 3 minutes with a missile dropkick.[1] He then beat Jamie Noble the following night in another dark match, this time for Friday Night SmackDown.[1] On December 7, 2008 Morishima faced Jun Akiyama for the number one contender's spot for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. He lost to Akiyama, then traveled back to the United States to face Bryan Danielson one last time for ROH's Final Battle 2008. He lost the "Fight Without Honor" to Danielson.[1] On September 21, 2009 in Nagoya, Japan, Morishima and Sasaki defeated Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith for the GHC Tag Titles.[10] However at on December 6, at the last show of Winter Navigation '09, Morishima and Sasaki lost the titles to Takeshi Rikio and Mohammed Yone.[10]
Through NOAH's working relationship with Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA), Morishima has made several trips to Mexico. On March 19, 2010 Morishima teamed up with Taiji Ishimori to defeat La Hermandad 187 ("The Brotherhood of 187"; Nicho el Millonario and Joe Lider) to win the AAA World Tag Team Championship, representing the AAA heel faction La Legión Extranjera ("The Foreign Legion").[11] On May 23, 2010 Morishima and Ishimori lost the AAA World Tag Team Championship to the team of Atsushi Aoki and Go Shiozaki during Pro Wrestling Noah's NOAH Navigation With Breeze - Day 1 show in Niigata, Niigata, Japan.[12]
Morishima was recently on this TV Drama in Japan, "Hesitation I Come" during his time off due to a foot injury. However on November 23 during (NOAH Winter Navigation 2010 - Day 4) Morishima returned to NOAH teaming with Kensuke Sasaki and defeating Shuhei Taniguchi & Takashi Sugiura.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
-
- Amaze Impact (Reverse chokeslam facebuster)[2]
- Backdrop Driver (High angle belly-to-back suplex)[1][2]
- Lariat[1][2]
- Signature moves
-
- Cartwheel into a corner bodypress or a hip attack to a cornered opponent[13]
- Cobra clutch backbreaker[10]
- Falling powerbomb, sometimes used outside of the ring
- Forearm clubs[10]
- Front missile dropkick[10]
- German suplex
- Hip attack
- Thesz press
- Moonsault
- Running arched big boot to standing opponent in corner
- Seated senton
- Spinning side slam[1]
- Suicide dive[10]
- Superkick
- Ura-nage
Championships and accomplishments
- 3 Count Wrestling
-
- 3CW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[14]
-
- GHC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[1]
- GHC Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Takeshi Rikio (1), Kensuke Sasaki (1) and Mohammed Yone (2)[16]
- One Day Heavyweight Six Man Tag Team Tournament Winner (2008) - with Mitsuharu Misawa and Mohammed Yone [17]
-
- ROH World Championship (1 time)[1]
- Tokyo Sports Grand Prix
-
- Fighting Spirit Award (2007)[15]
- World League Wrestling
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
-
- Best Brawler (2007)
- Match of the Year (2007) vs. Bryan Danielson at ROH Manhattan Mayhem II on August 25
- Most Improved (2006)
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y "Online World of Wrestling profile". Online World of Wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/t/takeshi-morishima.html. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ a b c d e f "Cagematch profile". Cagematch. http://cagematch.de/?id=2&nr=1213. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ "NOAH roster". http://noah.puroresufan.com/roster.php.
- ^ "NOAH official website title lineages". http://www.noah-usa.cc/GHC%20Heavyweight%20Tag%20Team%20Champ%20sub%20title%20page.html.
- ^ "Takeshi Morishima - New WLW World Champion". Archived from the original on February 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070228112356/http://www.harleyrace.com/morishima.htm. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
- ^ "Ring of Honor Title". Ring of Honor. http://www.rohwrestling.com/rohworldtitle.php. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
- ^ Johnson, Steven (22 April 2007). "That’s entertainment! CAC banquet ranges from songs to stories to spoofs". Slam! Sports. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2007/04/22/4103026.html.
- ^ "Cauliflower Alley Club 42nd Annual Banquet & Awards". http://www.noah-usa.cc/honoluluoffice1.html.
- ^ "Ring of Honor Results From Japan". Ring of Honor. 16 December 2007. http://www.rohwrestling.com/news/article.aspx?id=1503. "ROH World Title Match: Takeshi Morishima defeated Nigel McGuinness to retain the belt in his 12th title defense"
- ^ a b c d e f "Puroresu Central profile". Puroresu Central. http://www.puroresucentral.com/morishima.html. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ a b "Ya estamos en la Casa" (in Spanish). AAA. March 19, 2010. http://www.luchalibreaaa.com/tripleaeneljuandelabarrera.html. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
- ^ "De última hora: En Japón los cinturones AAA cambian de manos, los nuevos campeones vienen a Triplemania 18" (in Spanish). SuperLuchas Magazine. May 23, 2010. http://superluchas.net/2010/05/23/de-ultima-hora-en-japon-los-cinturones-aaa-cambian-de-manos-los-nuevos-campeones-vienen-a-triplemania%c2%a018/. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
- ^ Radican, Sean (2007-09-30). "RADICAN'S ROH DRIVEN PPV REPORT: Full report on show (Danielson-McGuinness, Briscoes-Generico & Steen)". PWTorch. http://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/PPV_Reports_5/article_22895.shtml. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ "3 Count Wrestling Title Histories". titlehistories.com. http://www.titlehistories.com/3_Count_Wrestling.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ a b "Cagematch award history". Cagematch. http://cagematch.de/?id=2&nr=1213&view=awards#awards. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ a b "Cagematch title history". Cagematch. http://cagematch.de/?id=2&nr=1213&view=erfolge#erfolge. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
- ^ http://www.purolove.com/noah/profiles/takeshimorishima.php
AAA World Tag Team Champions IWC AAA The Black Family (Dark Cuervo and Dark Ozz) · The Mexican Powers (Crazy Boy and Joe Líder) · La Familia de Tijuana (Halloween and Extreme Tiger) · La Hermandad 187 (Joe Lider and Nicho El Millonario) · La Legión Extranjera (Taiji Ishimori and Takeshi Morishima) · Atsushi Aoki and Go Shiozaki · Los Maniacos (Silver King and Último Gladiador) · Extreme Tiger and Jack Evans · La Legión Extranjera (Abyss and Chessman) (current)GHC Heavyweight Champions Mitsuharu Misawa · Jun Akiyama · Yoshinari Ogawa · Yoshihiro Takayama · Kenta Kobashi · Takeshi Rikio · Akira Taue · Naomichi Marufuji · Takeshi Morishima · Kensuke Sasaki · Go Shiozaki (current) · Takashi SugiuraROH World Champions Low Ki · Xavier · Samoa Joe · Austin Aries · CM Punk · James Gibson · Bryan Danielson · Homicide · Takeshi Morishima · Nigel McGuinness · Jerry Lynn · Tyler Black · Roderick Strong · Eddie Edwards · Davey Richards (current)Categories:- 1978 births
- Japanese professional wrestlers
- Living people
- Sportspeople from Tokyo
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
