Masao Inoue

This article is about the wrestler Masao Inoue. For the actor, see Masao Inoue (actor).

Masao Inoue
Ring name(s)	Masao Inoue
Billed height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Billed weight	106 kg (230 lb)
Born	March 6, 1970 (1970-03-06) (age 41) Naka-Koma-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture
Debut	April 4, 1991

Masao Inoue (井上雅央, Inoue Masao^?) is a professional wrestler who currently works for Pro Wrestling Noah as a member of Dark Agents. He has previously worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling.

Career

All Japan Pro Wrestling

Masao Inoue spent the better part of his time with All Japan as an underling for Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue. He found little success until he started a regular tag team with Tamon Honda near the end of his All Japan stay. The tandem won the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship in 1999.

In mid-2000 Masao Inoue left All Japan Pro Wrestling along with all but two All Japan native workers to join Mitsuharu Misawa's newly formed Pro Wrestling Noah. Inoue and Honda were still the All Asia Tag Team champions so the titles were vacated when they left.

Pro Wrestling Noah

Inoue was a founding member of the Dark Agents stable along with Akitoshi Saito and Takashi Sugiura. He would be second-in-command to Saito. Inoue generally spent his time near the bottom card, not receiving very many high profile matches. After several years of struggling to make it up the card, Inoue and seven other NOAH wrestlers were given a huge opportunity to main event a Tokyo Nippon Budokan event. GHC Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama proposed a tournament to determine his next challenger. Masao Inoue shocked many wrestling fans by beating rookie Shuhei Taniguchi, Takuma Sano, and finally stablemate Akitoshi Saito to win the tournament. Inoue faced Akiyama in an emotional match and lasted over 23 minutes before falling to the wrist-clutch Exploder. After showing little promise in NOAH's early days, Masao Inoue greatly improved his stock in the company.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves

• Backbreaker rack

• Signature moves

• Cobra clutch suplex
• Forward Russian legsweep

Championships and accomplishments

• All Japan Pro Wrestling

• AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tamon Honda
• All Asia Tag Team League (1999) - with Tamon Honda

• Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling

• WEW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Yoshinobu Kanemaru

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him #241 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI 500 in 2006^[1]

• Pro Wrestling NOAH

• GHC Title Shot Tournament (2006)^[2]
• Global Tag League Techinque Prize (2011)- with Bison Smith^[3]

References

1. ^ http://www.100megsfree4.com/wiawrestling/pages/pwi/pwi500.htm
2. ^ http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/
3. ^ http://www.purolove.com/noah/history/globaltagleague11.php

• Profile at Purolove.com

Persondata
Name	Inoue, Masao
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 6, 1970
Place of birth	Naka-Koma-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture
Date of death
Place of death