El Samurai Osamu Matsuda ( April 19 , 1966 ) is a Japan ese professional wrestler who is best known for his work in New Japan Pro Wrestling , and is better known by his stage name El Samurai . Career . Early years ( 1986 - 1992 ) . Osamu Matsuda graduated from high school in 1985 , and joined the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo . He debuted in July 1986 and spent a few years working at the bottom of the card , wrestling with the likes of Kensuke Sasaki , Kenichi Oya , and Takayuki Iizuka . In March 1991 he went on a learning excursion to Mexico , and while working for the UWA promotion , adopted a mask and the El Samurai stage name . New Japan Pro Wrestling ( 1992 - 2008 ) . El Samurai returned to NJPW in March 1992 . A month later , he made it to the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament , in which he lost to Jushin Liger . Two months later , he defeated Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . He would lose the title to Ultimo Dragon in November 1992 . During that time , he would constantly team with Takayuki Iizuka and Akira Nogami in multi - man tag team matches . In April 1994 , El Samurai took part in the Super J Cup tournament ; he defeated Masayoshi Motegi in the first round , before losing to The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals . In December 1995 , he entered into the second Super J Cup tournament , but he didn ' t fare as well as the year before , as he lost to Dos Caras in the first round . In August 1996 , he took part in a tournament to determine the first J - Crown champion . At the time , El Samurai was the WWF World Light Heavyweight Champion . He defeated Gran Hamada in the first round , before losing to eventual winner The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals . In 1997 El Samurai adopted a new costume and won the Best of the Super Junior tournament , defeating Koji Kanemoto in the final match , during which his mask was torn completely off his face . The match was later given five stars by Wrestling Observer ' s Dave Meltzer . Only a month later he defeated Liger , winning the unified J - Crown which at that time consisted of 7 junior heavyweight championships , due to Liger losing one of the eight titles ( the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship ) before then . In March 2001 , he and Liger won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship . In April 2004 El Samurai unmasked willingly for the first time since adopting the character , going by his real name , Osamu Matsuda , for a match against Osamu Nishimura , but it was for one night only . Up until at the end of January 2005 , he was unmasked again in a MUGA - style match against Shinsuke Nakamura . Though El Samurai has not been a top contender in the NJPW Junior Heavyweight division for a few years , he still continues to be a veteran in it , recently winning a second IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team title , this time with rookie Ryusuke Taguchi . On February 1 , 2008 New Japan agreed to let El Samurai leave the company after his contract expired . He had been hit by injuries , which caused him not to be seen much in the ring in late 2007 & early 2008 . His departure comes as some surprise as he leaves as one of New Japan ' s longest serving mainstays . Freelance ( 2008 - present ) . On February 17 , El Samurai appeared in All Japan Pro Wrestling , aiding Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo by fending off NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA . On May 8 , 2010 , El Samurai returned to New Japan to take part in the tournament contested for the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship . El Samurai and his partner , former rival Koji Kanemoto , advanced to the finals of the tournament , where they defeated the team of Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the titles . Just over two months later , on July 19 , Kanemoto and El Samurai lost the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Devitt and Taguchi .