Great Sasuke

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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 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Billed weight 180 lb (82 kg; 13 st)
Born July 18, 1969 (1969-07-18) (age 40)
Morioka, Iwate Prefecture[1]
Trained by Satoru Sayama
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.

Contents

[edit] 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.

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 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 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.

[edit] 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".

[edit] 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.[2]

[edit] 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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[4]

[edit] In wrestling

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

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.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Masanori Murakawa at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ The Japan Times Online Articles
  3. ^ http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=8919
  4. ^ a b Gerweck, Steve (February 27, 2009). "News on Kevin Nash, Booker T, Team 3D, and The Great Sasuke". http://www.gerweck.net/news/1235759626.shtml. Retrieved February 27, 2009. 
  5. ^ WWE: Inside WWE > Title History > Light Heavyweight

[edit] External links

Professional wrestling
portal
v • d • e
WWF Light Heavyweight Champions
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