Great Sasuke

Great Sasuke
Great Sasuke, at the Hustle event in Yokohama on May 4, 2009
Ring name(s)	The Great Sasuke Masa Michinoku Ninja Sasuke SASUKE Black Ninja Sasuke The Ram
Billed height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Billed weight	82 kg (180 lb)
Born	July 18, 1969 (1969-07-18) (age 42) Morioka, Iwate Prefecture[1]
Trained by	Kotetsu Yamamoto Gran Hamada
Debut	March 1, 1990

Masanori Murakawa (村川 政徳, Murakawa Masanori^?), (born July 18, 1969 in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture^[1]), is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known by his stage name The Great Sasuke, as well as a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly legislator. He has wrestled in Japan and in the United States in various wrestling promotions. He is said to have an incredible tolerance for pain, mainly in reference to the injuries he has had including a cracked skull on two occasions.

Professional wrestling career

In his early career, Murakawa wrestled under the name Masa Michinoku. Masa, from his given name Masanori, and Michinoku, after the alternate name for his Japanese home region, Tōhoku. Taka Michinoku adopted a similar gimmick to parody him. Later, on a tour of Mexico, Murakawa adopted the mask, uniform, and name Ninja Sasuke. This was the predecessor to the Great Sasuke gimmick he would adopt upon returning to Japan.

Murakawa is also the owner, and founder, of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, the first Japanese independent promotion not to be based around the Tokyo area. Instead, it was centered around the northern island of Hokkaido.

As part of an agreement between Michinoku Pro Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation, the Great Sasuke was part of the tournament to crown the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion in 1997. Although Sasuke was heavily pushed to be the winner of the tournament, he would later brag to the Japanese media how he would only defend the title in Japan had he won the title and would refuse to drop the title on WWF television. When the WWF heard of Sasuke's comments, he was fired as well as his working agreement with them terminated, although a former member of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Taka Michinoku, would end up winning the title.

In 1998 he and Tiger Mask IV began feuding with the heel (villainous) clones of their respective gimmicks: Masked Tiger (Takeshi Ono) and Sasuke the Great (Masao Orihara).

In 1999 he won the NWA World Middleweight Championship vacated by old rival Ultimo Dragon. Although the tournament was promoted by Ultimo's Toryumon Japan promotion, Sasuke took the title to his base at Michinoku and styled himself a "traveling world champion" in the style of NWA World Heavyweight Champions from the 1960-80s.

In 2002, Sasuke briefly turned into a heel and started using the name SASUKE, using blue stripes on his mask instead of the red stripes. However, he later turned into a face (fan favorite) when Jinsei Shinzaki "brought him back from the dark side" by "exorcising the evil out of him".

Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki and Dick Togo at Chikara King of Trios in April 2011.

Sasuke still currently wrestles in Michinoku Pro Wrestling, although he left the running of the promotion to Shinzaki in 2003 to focus on his political career. In 2003 he lost the NWA title to Ultimo Dragon, who then vacated it and returned the belt to CMLL in Mexico, in preparation for his WWE career.

On April 15, 2011, Sasuke returned to the United States to wrestle for Chikara in the 2011 King of Trios tournament, where he would represent Michinoku Pro with Dick Togo and Jinsei Shinzaki. In their first round match Team Michinoku Pro defeated Team Minnesota (1-2-3 Kid, Arik Cannon and Darin Corbin).^[2] The following day, Team Michinoku Pro defeated Jigsaw, Manami Toyota and Mike Quackenbush to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.^[3] On April 17, Team Michinoku Pro was eliminated from the tournament in the semifinal stage by F.I.S.T. (Chuck Taylor, Icarus and Johnny Gargano).^[4]

Other media

In 1999, Sasuke performed on Sasuke, the popular Japanese obstacle course competition. In the Third Competition, he got stuck at the Rolling Log and timed out on the Hill Climb. When the name SASUKE was translated into "Ninja Warrior" for the United States, the translators ignored his wrestling background and called him "The Great Ninja Warrior".

Sasuke is also part of the rock band Crazy Crew with Ricky Fuji and Ken45°.

Political career

On April 13, 2003, Sasuke won election to the Iwate Prefectural Assembly, making him the first actual masked legislator in history. He is the fourth Japanese wrestler to get elected to office. Antonio Inoki, Hiroshi Hase and Atsushi Onita preceded him, though all of them were elected to the Japanese Diet at the national level.

Sasuke lost in his bid to become governor of Iwate in a recent election.^[5]

2009 arrest

On February 19, 2009, Sasuke was arrested for assault after kicking a 36-year old man and grabbing him by the shirt collar. Sasuke was reported to be angry because his picture was being taken with a cellphone camera. The incident happened on a JR Joban Line train at Minamisenju Station.^[6] However, all charges were dropped and was released from jail on February 21, after serving 40 hours in jail, after Sasuke apologized to the man.^[7] The man who took Sasuke's photograph was said to not have known who he was and thought he was just some crazy person wearing a mask in public.^[7]

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • High-angle senton bomb
  • Michinoku Driver (Double underhook brainbuster) - innovated
  • Thunder fire powerbomb

• Signature moves
  • Asai moonsault
  • Enzuigiri
  • Low-angle savate kick off the apron to an opponent on the floor
  • Mule kick
  • Multiple suplex variations
    • Cradle
    • Dragon
    • German
    • Tiger
  • Rider Kick
  • Sasuke Special (Cartwheel into an over the top rope corkscrew suicide senton or suicide plancha)
  • Sasuke Special II (Cartwheel into an over the top rope corkscrew moonsault)

Championships and accomplishments

• Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling
  • FMW Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Michinoku Pro Wrestling
  • British Commonwealth Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
  • Tohoku Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Dick Togo (1) and Yoshitsune (1)

• New Japan Pro Wrestling
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Jushin "Thunder" Liger
  • J-Crown (1 time)
  • NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • NWA World Middleweight Championship (1 time)¹
  • NWA World Welterweight Championship (1 time)
  • UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Osaka Pro Wrestling
  • Osaka Pro Wrestling Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Asian Cooger

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him # 92 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.

• Universal Wrestling Association / Universal Wrestling Federation
  • UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Gran Hamada (1) and Sasuke the Great (1)
  • WWF Light Heavyweight Championship (2 times)²

• World Wrestling Association
  • WWA World Middleweight Championship (1 time)

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • 5 Star Match (1994) vs. Wild Pegasus at Super J Cup
  • 5 Star Match (1994) vs. Jushin Liger on July 8
  • Best Flying Wrestler (1994)
  • Best Wrestling Maneuver (1994) The Sasuke Special

• Other titles
  • Big China Nakahara Unified Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ricky Fuji

¹This championship is promoted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), it was on loan to them from New Japan Pro Wrestling when he won it. Also, despite the title still using the NWA initials, it is no longer recognized or sanctioned as a world title by the National Wrestling Alliance. The same goes for the NWA World Middleweight Championship.
²Despite winning the title twice, neither of the reigns are recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment. No reigns with the title prior to December 1997 are recognized by the WWE.^[8]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Masanori Murakawa at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ Radican, Sean (2011-05-04). "Radican's Chikara KoT Night 1 DVD Review 4/15 - Team Michinoku Pro vs. Team 1-2-3 Kid, Quackenbush & Toyota & Jigsaw vs. SAT's". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/DVDs_-_VGames_-_Books_25/article_49808.shtml. Retrieved 2011-05-14. 
3. ^ Radican, Sean (2011-05-13). "Radican's Chikara DVD review series - "King of Trios 2011 Night 2" 4/16: F.I.S.T. vs. Osaka Pro, RDV tournament, Quackenbush & Toyota & Jigsaw vs. Michinoku Pro". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/DVDs_-_VGames_-_Books_25/article_50050.shtml. Retrieved 2011-05-14. 
4. ^ Radican, Sean (2011-06-05). "Radican's Chikara DVD review series: "KOT 2011: Night 3 4/17 - Kid vs. Generico, Toyota vs. Eagles, KOT tournament Finals". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/DVDs_-_VGames_-_Books_25/article_50557.shtml. Retrieved 2011-06-05. 
5. ^ The Japan Times Online Articles
6. ^ http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=8919
7. ^ ^{a b} Gerweck, Steve (February 27, 2009). "News on Kevin Nash, Booker T, Team 3D, and The Great Sasuke". http://web.archive.org/web/20090302050704/http://www.gerweck.net/news/1235759626.shtml. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
8. ^ WWE: Inside WWE > Title History > Light Heavyweight

External links

Professional wrestling portal

• Masanori Murakawa at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography at Gerweck.net

Persondata
Name	Sasuke, Great
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 18, 1969
Place of birth	Morioka, Iwate Prefecture
Date of death
Place of death