Minoru Tanaka Minoru Tanaka ( November 29 , 1972 ) is a Japanese professional wrestler and shootboxer . Career . Minoru Tanaka was originally a shootboxer . He started his career as a wrestler in Fujiwara Gumi , trained by its owner , Yoshiaki Fujiwara . In late 1995 Tanaka and everyone else in the promotion abandoned Fujiwara and formed their own promotion , BattlARTS , led by Yuki Ishikawa . Despite being a simulated shoot style professional wrestling promotion , BattlARTS , like its predecessor , often cooperated with other federations and styles , such as RINGS , Kingdom , Michinoku Pro and Big Japan Pro Wrestling . Tanaka ' s first championship , the UWA World middleweight title ( originally based in Mexico and introduced in Japan through Universal Lucha Libre and Michinoku ) , came in 1996 . He later won FMW ' s Independent junior heavyweight title ( which was outsourced to Battlarts after Hiromichi Fuyuki abolished all previous FMW titles and replaced them with WEW titles ) . In 2000 Tanaka joined New Japan Pro Wrestling . His natural talent enabled him to immediately rise in the junior heavyweight ranks and win the IWGP junior tag team title in July with Koji Kanemoto , who used a similar but more ground - oriented style . The Kanemoto - Tanaka combination was reminiscent of the old Akira Maeda - Nobuhiko Takada combination in 1987 . In October , Tanaka won the IWGP junior heavyweight title - thus becoming the first man to hold both junior titles at the same time . In 2002 Tanaka began wearing a mask and calling himself " HEAT " after the GBA video game " Toukon Heat " . Like the game , the HEAT character often floundered , and could only attain success after turning heel and joining Jushin Liger ' s new faction , " Control Terrorism Unit ( C . T . U . ) " Earlier in the year he married recently retired female wrestler Yumi Fukawa . In 2005 , after losing his third IWGP junior heavyweight title to new rival Tiger Mask IV , HEAT unmasked but dropped his surname and began calling himself simply Minoru . With new CTU recruit Hirooki Goto he won the IWGP junior tag team titles for a third time . In 2006 , Minoru joined the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling promotion as a member of Team Japan ( consisting of Hirooki Goto , Jushin " Thunder " Liger , Black Tiger IV and Minoru ) , one of the four teams competing in the TNA 2006 World X - Cup Tournament . He debuted in TNA on April 23 , 2006 at TNA Lockdown 2006 , where he teamed with Hirooki Goto against Team USA members Sonjay Dutt , Jay Lethal and Alex Shelley . Team Japan defeated USA when Black Tiger pinned Lethal . On the April 27 , 2006 episode of TNA iMPACT ! , Goto and Minoru lost to Dutt and Shelley , giving a first round victory and two points to Team USA . Later that year , Tanaka won the Best of the Super Junior XIII tournament , defeating Tiger Mask IV in the final . In WRESTLE LAND , Minoru and Tanaka are separate , rival characters . On December 24 , 2006 , Minoru defeated old partner and rival Kanemoto to become IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion for the fourth time . In late 2007 , Minoru joined the stable Shinsuke Nakamura ' s stable RISE . Unhappy with his status in the company & unable to come to terms on a new contract . Minoru left New Japan after nearly a decade with the company January 31 , 2008 . In a shocking move , He quickly signed with rival promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling in late February & made his presence felt by joining the hated " VooDoo Murders " stable , replacing the recently retired brother YASSHI in the group .