Gedo (wrestler)

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Gedo

Gedo in June 2011.
Ring name(s) Gedo
Bulldog K.T.
Crush
Billed height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1]
Billed weight 90 kg (200 lb)[1]
Born February 20, 1969 (1969-02-20) (age 43)[1]
Minato, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Debut 01989-03-19 March 19, 1989[1]

Keiji Takayama (高山 圭司, born February 20, 1969) better known as Gedo (外道), is a long time Japanese professional wrestler. He formed a long-lasting tag team with Jado. Due to his physique and charisma, he was called by some in the United States the Dusty Rhodes of Japan.

Contents

[edit] Professional wrestling career

Gedo debuted on March 19, 1989 for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) during the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan (TPG), NJPW's parody of World Wresting Federation's Rock 'n Wrestling era.[1] His debut match was against Magic Monkey Wakita, who would later be known as Super Delfin, on March 19, 1989. After TPG died out, Gedo, Wakita, and TPG comrade Jado left NJPW. Jado and Gedo went on to become one of the premiere tag teams in Japan.

Jado and Gedo headed to the Universal Wrestling Association in Mexico as Punish (Jado) and Crush (Gedo), and defeated Silver King and El Texano for the UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship on November 8, 1991. They would win these belts on two more occasions in 1992.[2] This led to their many tours with W*NG and were apart of the incident where Kanemura was burnt. Jado and Gedo headed to Wrestle Association "R" in 1994 and became one of the top tag teams there, winning the WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with "Kodo" Fuyuki, defeating Genichiro Tenryu, Animal Hamaguchi and Koki Kitahara on June 6, 1994. Gedo would win this belt four more times between 1994 and 1996.

Gedo, with the addition of being an accomplished tag team wrestler, was also one of the top junior heavyweights in Japan in the first half of the 1990s. Gedo reached the semi finals of the 1994 Super J Cup where he would lose to Wild Pegasus.[3][4] Gedo was in the 1995 Super J Cup and reached the finals, losing to Jushin Liger in his fourth match of the night.[5] Gedo won his first singles title when he defeated Lionheart for the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship on March 26, 1995. Gedo would win this belt again, defeating Último Dragón for it.

Jado and Gedo left WAR, which was declining, and headed to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, one of Japan's top independent promotions. Gedo, with Jado and Kodo Fuyuki, won the FMW World Street Fight 6 Man Tag Team Championship, defeating the Headhunters and Hisakatsu Oya on March 21, 1997. It was also in 1997 that Gedo toured North America, appearing at the 1997 WCW Halloween Havoc show wrestling Chris Jericho,[6] and winning the CRMW North American Mid-Heavyweight Championship defeating Ricky Fuji on August 31, 1997. During the Halloween Havoc show, Mike Tenay called Gedo the Dusty Rhodes of Japan. He further said that Gedo was a fan of 1970s U.S. Southern style brawling.[6]

Gedo won the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship not with Jado but with Koji Nakagawa when they defeated Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on June 13, 1999. Gedo would leave FMW in 2001 along with Masato Tanaka, Jado, Hideki Hosaka, and Kaori Nakayama with the group becoming freelancers with Gedo mostly working in Michinoku Pro. Gedo along with Jado would eventually return back to New Japan and win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship when they defeated Jushin Liger and El Samurai on July 20, 2001.[7] Gedo had a fierce rivalry with Liger after Jado and Gedo made a surprise appearance in NJPW when they both pulled Liger's mask off.[1] Jado and Gedo won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belts for a fourth time in 2003 after again defeating Liger and Samurai.[8] On November 13, 2010, Jado and Gedo returned to the top of New Japan's Junior Tag Team division by defeating their CHAOS team mates Davey Richards and Rocky Romero in the finals of a five day long tournament to win the 2010 Super J Tag League.[9] As a result of their victory, Gedo and Jado received a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, which took place at a Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) event on December 26, 2010, where they were defeated by the defending champions, the Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi).[10] At the end of 2011, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter named Gedo and Jado the bookers of the year.

[edit] In wrestling

  • Finishing moves
  • Signature moves
  • Entrance themes
    • Temple of the Dragon by Focus Music (WCW)
    • Sharp Dressed Man by FMW

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

  • Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling
  • CRMW North American Mid-Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[1]
  • PWI ranked him #146 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2001
  • Tokyo Sports Grand Prix
  • Best Tag Team (2001) - with Jado

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Wrestler Profiles: Gedo". Online World of wrestling. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/g/gedo.html. Retrieved June 17, 2010. 
  2. ^ a b Tanabe, Hisaharu. "U.W.A./U.W.F. Intercontinental Tag Team Title". Wrestling-Titles.com. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/uwa/uwa-ic-t.html. Retrieved 2007-07-14. 
  3. ^ "Super J Cup Tournament 1994". Pro Wrestling History. http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/japan/newjapan/miscjr.html. Retrieved 2008-01-04. 
  4. ^ "Sumo Hall 4/94". Pro Wrestling History. http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/supercards/japan/newjapan/sumo95.html#0494. Retrieved 2008-01-04. 
  5. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Japan; WAR Super Junior Heavyweight (Super J) Cup Tournament Champions". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 386. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 
  6. ^ a b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts". Wrestling’s Historical Cards (Kappa Publishing): pp. 146–147. 2007. 
  7. ^ a b "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: 1998 - 2001" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/histry/jr_tag_main01.html. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
  8. ^ a b "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: 2005 - 2008" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/histry/jr_tag_main03.html. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
  9. ^ a b "(Results) New Japan, 11/13/10". Strong Style Spirit. 2010-11-13. http://www.puroresufan.com/njpw/?p=2276. Retrieved 2010-11-13. 
  10. ^ "Ibushi & Omega retain IWGP Jr. Tag Title". 2010-12-27. http://www.puroresufan.com/njpw/?p=2482. Retrieved 2010-12-27. 
  11. ^ "B.J.W. Tag Team Title". Wrestling Titles. April 28, 2010. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/bigjapan/bj-t.html. Retrieved June 17, 2010. 
  12. ^ "FMW Flashover 2000: Day 6" (in German). Cagematch. http://www.cagematch.de/?id=1&nr=46154. Retrieved April 2, 2010. 
  13. ^ "World Street-Fight 6-Man Tag Team Title". Wrestling Titles. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/japan/fmw/fmw-6.html. Retrieved June 17, 2010. 
  14. ^ "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: 2002 - 2004" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/histry/jr_tag_main02.html. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
  15. ^ "U.W.A. World Trios Title". Puroresu Dojo. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/mexico/uwa/uwa-6.html. Retrieved February 27, 2008. 
  16. ^ "Dragon Gate I-J Heavyweight Tag Team Championship title history". Solie's Title Histories. http://solie.org/titlehistories/whtwar.html. Retrieved 2008-04-20. 
  17. ^ Meltzer, Dave (January 30, 2012). "Jan 30 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Gigantic year-end awards issue, best and worst in all categories plus UFC on FX 1, death of Savannah Jack, ratings, tons and tons of news". Wrestling Observer Newsletter (Campbell, CA). ISSN 10839593. 

[edit] External links
Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa  · Dr. Wagner, Jr. and Kendo Kashin  · Jushin Liger and Great Sasuke  · Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka  · El Samurai and Jushin Liger  · Gedo and Jado  · Jushin Liger and Minoru Tanaka  · Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru  · Jushin Liger and Koji Kanemoto  · American Dragon and Curry Man  · Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue  · Hirooki Goto and Minoru  · El Samurai and Ryusuke Taguchi  · Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku  · Minoru and Prince Devitt  · Legend (Akira and Jushin Liger)  · No Limit (Tetsuya Naitō and Yujiro)  · The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin)  · Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi)  · El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto  · Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi)  · No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) (current)
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