Kaizen Inagawa

Kaizen is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to a contract at Sin City Wrestling. He is presently signed to their developmental system while he learns the American Style of pro wrestling in readiness for when he is moved to their main roster.

## Early Career

Kaizen was born in Yokohama, Japan. He was the only child of Kumiko and Natsuo Ogawa. Kumiko was a kindergarten teacher while Natsuo was a mechanic working on the many ships that stopped in the port town.  They weren't prosperous, but they got by and had an apartment just large enough for the young family.

That was, until a fateful evening in '93 when an argument was heard coming from the apartment next door. Noise from the neighbours wasn't uncommon but this particular argument escalated quickly, getting steadily louder until suddenly it became very quiet, then a series of gunshots echoed around the building.  Sadly for Kaizen, stray bullets coming through the wall killed Natsuo on the spot and mortality wounded Kumiko.  Her cries for help, mixed with Kaizen's crying got the attention of the shooters who moments later burst through the door of the apartment.

Realising that they were responsible for this, the leader of the group took the child from it's dying mother and, despite her cries in protest, left.  They returned to their Honbu where they met with their Kaicho, Yūkō Inagawa.  Inagawa was furious when he heard of how things had gotten out of hand but knew that the clan had a responsibility for the child now.  Inagawa vowed to raise the boy as he had his own son, Hideki.  Kaizen was younger than Hideki by nearly 20 years but was still welcomed with open arms into the family.  Being too young to remember his birth parents or the circumstances of his "adoption", he spent the next 12 years of his life as any other child would have; blissfully unaware of the business his family was a part of.

That came to an end in May of 2005 when Inagawa fell ill with a fever. He hadn't ever been a frail man so despite his age everyone expected him to pull through but over the course of the next two weeks he got progressively worse until he finally passed away.  The loss of the man Kaizen saw as his father was devastating to him and he withdrew into himself, barely talking to anyone until weeks after the funeral.  It was at this point, that Hideki suggested that Kaizen began learning martial arts as a way of helping him think of something other than his loss.  Initially his mother was opposed to the idea but seeing Kaizen slip into depression she eventually relented.  Over the coming weeks, business associates of his father visited in the evenings after Kaizen finished school and introduced him to several different arts, from Judo to Kendo to Karate, but he never truly clicked with any of them.  That was until he was introduced to Omakura Kazuya, Kazuya was a police officer that was close friends with Inagawa and when he began teaching Kaizen about Yoshinkan Aikido, the boy finally started to come out of his shell; he finally found an outlet.

Inagawa was replaced in the business by Yoshio Tsunoda but the widow and sons of Inagawa were still looked after, and over the coming years, as he traversed high school Kaizen grew rather popular.  It was at this time that Hideki, explained to Kaizen the nature of the family business; their father had been the head of a group called Inagawa Kai, they were Yakuza.  Initially Kaizen didn't want to believe it but the more he thought about it, the more things fell into place.  Worried, he asked if he would have to be a member but he was told no; he would always be a part of the family, but he would never need to be actively involved.

In 2007, after seeing adverts on television he and his brother attended Wrestle Kingdom, the first event of it's kind run by New Japan Pro Wrestling.  He was immediately enamoured by the spectacle; while he didn't understand the significance of seeing Keiji Mutoh and Masahiro Chono wrestle together (something Hideki later explained), he adored every minute of what he saw. He was particularly smitten with both Minoru Suzuki and Hiroshi Tanahashi, seeing them both win their respective title matches.  Kaizen saw a lot of parallels with the Aikido he was studying and secretly harboured dreams of stepping into the squared circle himself.  Attending the event became a tradition for the brothers with them watching from ringside every year from then on.

Upon finishing high school, Kaizen asked his family if he would be able to look into wrestling as a career, but while they recognised his passion for the sport, they asked for a compromise first.  Unfortunately that same year Tsunoda was killed in a shooting, leaving the business in a precarious state.  To better enable Kaizen to protect himself, and to keep him temporarily away from the business, they encouraged him to enrol in the Senshuhei, an 11 month training course in Aikido which would have him learning alongside the Tokyo Metropolitan Riot Police.

For the next year, Kaizen trained at the dojo from 7:30 until 2, building on the knowledge he'd already attained in his 5 years of training.  He spent his evenings with his brother socialising, spending time with idols, actors and models.  Hideki had always travelled in these circles but the business was starting to pull him away.  As the year drew on, he showed up at the parties less and less until eventually he stopped coming altogether.  Kaizen kept going to show face, to keep his family's social position but his heart wasn't in it.

The course was long and arduous, Kaizen felt at many times as though he wanted to quit but he persevered; growing stronger, learning to better control his body and also the bodies of the people he was fighting.  As the year drew to a close, he left the dojo with both a confidence in his abilities, but also a sense of apprehension about what to do next.  Hideki would always have a place for him in the business but this isn't what Kaizen wanted, so on a whim he decided to try out at the New Japan Dojo.  He didn't tell the family what he was doing, but wrestling had been a part of his life for so long, and with the years he'd spent studying martial arts, he was going to do something that HE wanted to do.

## New Japan Pro Wrestling (2012 - 2015)

Kaizen joined the New Japan Dojo with an array of knowledge relating to martial arts but without the flair needed to truly succeed in the industry. His trainers felt that while he could fight and in many cases lock down an opponent within seconds of a match starting, he would be unable to engage with the audience. Initially they suggested that he look into transitioning into MMA, but Kaizen was adamant that pro wrestling was where his heart lay so in an attempt to utilise the skillset that he already had, the trainers set to work developing him into a "Strong Style" combatant in the mold of Nakamura and NJPW founder Antonio Inoki.

After two and a half years in the Dojo, and numerous appearances at ringside during NJPW matches, Kaizen finally had his first match as a Young Lion in a losing effort against Yohei Komatsu. Over the next 9 months, Kaizen had dozens more matches where he managed to gain a few notable wins, including one against Komatsu and another against his future Roppongi 3k tag partner Sho Tanaka. At the end of this 9 months, it was considered time for Kaizen to enter his sabbatical where he would work for companies all over the world to gain experience before eventually returning to New Japan as a more rounded performer.

## In Wrestling

**Finishing Moves**

* Brainbuster
* Guillotine

**Signature Moves**

* Patella Brainbuster
* GTFO