Hiroyoshi Tenzan: Map

Categories: 1971 births > Living people > People from Kyoto (city) > Japanese professional wrestlers

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Hiroyoshi Yamamoto is a Japanese professional wrestler who currently works for New Japan Pro Wrestling, and is better known by his ring name Hiroyoshi Tenzan.

Career

Early years (1991-1994)

Hiroyoshi Yamamoto first worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He debuted in January 1991, wrestling Osamu Matsuda. In 1993, after winning the Young Lions Cup, NJPW sent Yamamoto on a European excursion; one of his stops was in the Catch Wrestling Association in Austria

, where in July 1993, he defeated Lance Storm to become the first CWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion. A few weeks later, he lost the title to Storm. Three months later, he would regain and lost the title back to Storm.

New Japan Pro Wrestling (1995-present)

After spending nearly two years in Europe, Yamamoto would finally make his return to NJPW on January 4, 1995, at the Tokyo Dome, this time under a new name: Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Tenzan then began teaming with Masahiro Chono as Team Wolf. In June 1995, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a tournament, which they held for a month until the title was vacated due to Chono missing a match when his father passed away.

Tenzan had a brief tenure in World Championship Wrestling, most notably being defeated by "Macho Man" Randy Savage at Starrcade '95: World Cup of Wrestling; Tenzan would get a rematch with Savage at NJPW's Battle Formation show on April 29, 1996, and again he lost.

In July 1996, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Title again, this time beating Kazuo Yamazaki and Takashi Iizuka. They held the titles for over 5 months before losing to Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura in January 1997. A few weeks later, Tenzan became a founding member of nWo Japan, as Chono joined the nWo in December 1996. For the rest of 1997, Tenzan and the rest of nWo Japan continued the nWo tradition of attacking their various enemies.

Tenzan got his third chance for the IWGP Tag Team Titles in July 1998, after Chono's former tag-team partner Keiji Mutoh was injured. Tenzan and Chono went on to win the tournament and the belts. A month later, they were defeated by Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka. Tenzan continued to feud with Tenryu and Koshinaka, eventually getting a new partner in Satoshi Kojima, thanks to Mutoh's leadership in nWo Japan. The two teams fought at the Tokyo Dome in January 1999, with Tenzan & Kojima coming through, defeating Koshinaka & Tenryu to get the IWGP Tag-Team belts. A few months later, Koshinaka retook the titles from Tenzan and Kojima, with his partner Kensuke Sasaki. For the next year, Tenzan continued to wrestle in NJPW, feuding with Koshinaka, Masahiro Chono, Manabu Nakanishi, and others. He defeated Wild Pegasus at the Tokyo Dome in January 2000.

In July 2000, Tenzan, still teamed with Kojima, got the IWGP Tag Team Titles for the 5th time, winning over Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata. Tenzan and Kojima feuded with Nakanishi and Nagata for the next few months, with Tenzan and Kojima coming out on top.

On February 24, 2002 Tenzan made a brief appearance at WWA The Revolution pay-per-view from Las Vegas, Nevada

where he choked Disco Inferno. Scott Steiner then attacked Disco in the ring. Tenzan could be seen sitting right behind the announcer's table when Disco joined commentary. He can be seen leaving the arena following Steiner's attack on Disco.

Tenzan also won the IWGP Tag Team Titles in March 2002 with Masahiro Chono (their title reign lasting over one year; it also tied the team record for most championships won with Fujinami & Kimura), and again in December 2003 with Osamu Nishimura.

In November 2003, Tenzan finally won the IWGP Heavyweight Title from Yoshihiro Takayama. He proceeded to win it three other times (in February 2004 from Genichiro Tenryu, December 2004 from Kensuke Sasaki and May 2005 from Satoshi Kojima).

He lost the championship to Kojima in a cross-promotional champion vs. champion match. Kojima held the AJPW Triple Crown Championship. The match ended when Tenzan was unable to get up, Kojima thus winning by a knock out. Tenzan got heat with the management of NJPW due to this, because he gave NJPW's most prestigious championship's control to the rival company, AJPW. This supports the speculation that the match didn't end the way it was booked to, and that Tenzan was really unable to get up and finish the match. Tenzan defeated Kojima in a rematch three months later, bringing the championship back to NJPW. He lost the championship to Kazuyuki Fujita on July 18, 2005.

Tenzan competed in the 2005 G1 Tournament, and almost made it to the semi-finals. In October 2005, Tenzan and Chono reunited to win the IWGP Tag Team Title for a fifth time from Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura.

On August 13, 2006 Tenzan defeated long time rival Satoshi Kojima in the final of the 2006 G1 Climax, becoming only the second wrestler to go undefeated in a round robin style G-1. This would be his third G1 title.

After severing ties with his old mentor Masahiro Chono, Tenzan founded the heel unit GBH ("Great Bash Heel", affectionatley referred to by fans as "Great Big Head"); it is composed of Tenzan, Togi Makabe, Shiro Koshinaka, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii and Tomoaki Honma. Recently, though, he has severed ties with GBH (Caused by Makabe first cutting ties with him, and the remaining members following him) and was feuding with GBH until October.

Since returning to New Japan in May 2009, he has split his time between reforming TenKoji and teaming with old GBH teammates Makabe and Honma against CHAOS. He is currently out of action due to nagging injuries and recent neck surgery.

Other media

Tenzan appeared in the video for "Yonaoshi Good Vibration" by Japanese metal band Sex Machineguns.

He has appeared on the Japanese television shows Sasuke and Ninja Warrior.

In wrestling

Finishing moves
- Anaconda vice, sometimes while trapping the opponent's other arm – innovated
- Diving headbutt
- Moonsault
- Original TTD – Original Tenzan Tombstone Driver (Cradle reverse piledriver)
- TTD – Tenzan Tombstone Driver (Scoop slam piledriver)