Kazuyuki Fujita

Fujita in September 2021

###

Funabashi, Chiba, Japan

**Kazuyuki Fujita** (藤田 和之, *Fujita Kazuyuki*) (born October 16, 1970) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist, where he currently works for Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH), where he is a former one-time GHC Heavyweight and National Champion.

Fujita began his career as a professional wrestler in 1993, joining the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) dojo, while still competing as an amateur wrestler. Debuting in 1996, Fujita would put his wrestling career on hiatus in early 2000 to train in MMA. Returning the following year with a new shoot based offence, Fujita won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship immediately and went on to hold it two more times before leaving the promotion in 2005. After a six-year hiatus, Fujita returned to professional wrestling in 2011 for Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), while also making occasional appearances as a freelancer. In 2019, Fujita began working for Pro Wrestling NOAH, joining the Sugiura-gun stable.

He is best known for his adoption of the Inokism wrestling style, due to being a disciple of Antonio Inoki, he has fought in mixed martial arts and professional wrestling promotions including Pride Fighting Championships and K-1, where with the shoot style wrestling and puroresu, held notable victories over Ken Shamrock and Bob Sapp.

## Early life

Fujita practiced freestyle wrestling in high school. He participated in the FILA World Championships as a junior in 1988, placing sixth, and in the Espoir division in 1989, placing eleventh. In 1993, Fujita placed fifth at the Asian Championships at the senior level, and in 1993 and 1994, he represented Japan as a senior in the World Cup, a dual meet tournament. He was also a national champion in Japan in Greco-Roman wrestling. He missed making the Japanese Olympic team by 1 point in the Olympic qualifiers.

## Professional wrestling career

### New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1996–2005)

#### Early career (1996–2000)

Fujita was approached to join New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in 1993 whilst he was still competing in amateur wrestling. Fujita agreed to join, but because of his amateur career, his professional debut was delayed three years until 1996. Fujita made his in-ring debut on November 1, 1996, losing to Yuji Nagata. Fujita was trained in the NJPW dojo by Antonio Inoki and Satoru Sayama, who described him as a "monster". Regarded as a promising rookie for his natural athletic ability and strength, Fujita was pushed as a future star during his young lion days. In 1998, he was one of the wrestlers selected to face Riki Choshu in one of his retirement matches, and was also chosen as a training partner for former judoka Naoya Ogawa during his transition into professional wrestling. Despite being praised and touted as a future star, Fujita had doubts about a career in professional wrestling, and did not feel like he was adapting to it well enough. In addition, he struggled to find a regular position on the card behind more experienced rookies like Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi and Satoshi Kojima. In 1999, he requested to leave NJPW with the intention of joining Fighting Network Rings, a former shoot-style promotion that had recently changed itself to a full on mixed martial arts company. New Japan higher ups agreed to the move, as did Rings' owner Akira Maeda, but at the last minute, NJPW owner and Fujita's trainer Antonio Inoki intervened and stopped it. In a bid to keep Fujita in New Japan, Inoki sent him abroad to train for MMA, with the intention of sending him to Pride Fighting Championship as a representative of Team Inoki. Fujita's run in Pride was successful, and in 2001 he was brought back in to wrestle for New Japan.

#### Return and championship push (2001–2005)

After over a year away from pro-wrestling, Fujita's return to NJPW was announced in early 2001 for the Strong Style 2001 pay-per-view on April 9, where he was set to face Scott Norton for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Fujita dominated the match with his new shoot-based offence and quickly won the championship in just under 7 minutes. Fujita hled the title until January 2002, when he was forced to vacate the title due to an injury.

Fujita returned to New Japan on July 20, 2002, at Toukon Memorial Day, defeating junior heavyweight Masahito Kakihara. On August 29, at *Cross Road*, Fujita took part in a tournament for the vacated NWF Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated by eventual winner Yoshihiro Takayama, giving Fujita his first loss in New Japan since January 2000. On October 14, Fujita unsucessfully challenged Yuji Nagata for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

After spending most of 2003 in Pride, Fujita returned to NJPW once again in October 2003 at Ultimate Crush II, teaming with Minoru Suzuki, Bob Sapp, Yoshihiro Takayama and Shinsuke Nakamura as "Shin Inoki Gun" to defeat Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi and Seiji Sakaguchi. In June 2004, he defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship for a second time, before losing it to Kensuke Sasaki on October 9, 2004.

In 2005 he joined the Team JAPAN stable, and on July 18, 2005, and won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the third time, defeating Hiroyoshi Tenzan. In August 2005, Fujita took part in the 2005 G1 Climax, where he won all his matches in the round robin portion, but lost to Masahiro Chono in the finals. He lost the IWGP Championship to Brock Lesnar on October 8, 2005, at *Toukon Souzou New Chapter* in a three-way match including Masahiro Chono. Lesnar pinned Chono to win the title. In late 2005, he withdrew from a rematch with Lesnar, scheduled for January 4, 2006. Fujita was represented by Inoki Office, an agency originally started by Antonio Inoki, and had not been under a contract with NJPW.

### Inoki Genome Federation (2011–2015)

After almost 6 years away from the ring, Fujita returned to professional wrestling in 2011 with his longtime associate and mentor Antonio Inoki's Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) promotion where he competed for the next few years. He won the IGF Championship from Jerome Le Banner in early 2012, and made successful defences against Bobby Lashley, Hideki Suzuki, Erik Hammer and Atsushi Sawada before dropping it to Satoshi Ishii in a worked shoot fight in December 2013. Fujita made a rare appearance outside of IGF in November 2015, competing for Genichiro Tenryu's Tenryu Project retirement show, where he teamed with Daisuke Sekimoto in a loss to Suwama and Yuji Okabayashi. Shortly after, Fujita left IGF and became inactive in pro wrestling once again.

### Freelancer (2017–2020)

After two more years away from wrestling, Fujita once again returned to the ring in October 2017, now a freelancer. He formed an alliance with fellow IGF and NJPW alumni Kendo Kashin, with Nosawa Rongai also aligning himself with the pair. They began a feud with Atsushi Onita during the lead up to Onita's retirement match in Korakuen Hall, where the three lost to Onita, KAI and Shingo Takagi on October 31. In early 2018, the trio invaded All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) for a short lived run, starting a feud with Suwama's Evolution stable. In their only official match in the promotion, they defeated Suwama, Hikaru Sato and Yusuke Okada by referee's decision on March 25. Fujita would also make a one-off appearance for Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in July 2018, teaming with Daisuke Sekimoto to defeat Daichi Hashimoto and Hideyoshi Kamitani.

After another extended period of absence, Fujita returned to the ring in June 2019, debuting for Real Japan Pro Wrestling (RJPW). Still aligned with Kendo Kashin, Fujita began a feud with RJPW ace Super Tiger, challenging him to a match for the Legend Championship. In a prelude match, Fujita and Kashin defeated Tiger and Masakatsu Funaki. In their official title match on September 19, Fujita defeated Tiger to win the title, before losing it back to him on December 17, 2020.

### Pro Wrestling NOAH (2019–Present)

On September 16, 2019, Fujita made his debut for Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH), defeating Yoshiki Inamura. On October 3, Fujita was announced as the newest member of Sugiura-gun. Shortly after, Fujita announced his intentions to challenge for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. On January 30, 2020, Fujita and reigning GHC Heavyweight Champion Go Shiozaki faced each other in a six-man tag team match, which Fujita's team won. Afterwards, Fujita and Shiozaki continued fighting after the match, before Shiozaki proclaimed Fujita as his next challenger. Before their title match, on February 16, Fujita faced Shiozaki in a tag team match, that ended by referee stoppage, after Fujita choked Shiozaki. The title match was originally scheduled for March 8, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the match was postponed to March 29. At the event, Fujita unsuccessfully challenged Go Shiozaki for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. At 57 minutes and 47 seconds, the match was one of the longest matches in the history of the promotion, and was highly praised by fans and critics.

The following March, Fujita was nominated by Kenoh to be his next challenger for the GHC National Championship, after he had defeated Fujita's Sugiura-gun stablemate Kendo Kashin. On March 21, Fujita defeated Kenoh to win the GHC National Championship. After the match, Fujita's Sugiura-gun stablemate Takashi Sugiura challenged him to a title match, which he accepted. This led to on April 29 at Noah The Glory, Fujita lost the GHC National Championship to Sugiura. In September, Fujita took part in the 2021 N-1 Victory, finished the tournament with a record of two wins and one loss, failling to advance to the semifinals of tournament.

On January 16, 2022, at Bumper Crop In Sendai, Fujita confronted Katsuhiko Nakajima, after he had successfully defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Masa Kitamiya. The title match was announced to take place in February 23 at Gain Control In Nagoya. At the event, Fujita defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Hours after the event it was reported that Fujita had signed with the promotion. The following day, Noah confirmed that Fujita had signed with Noah full-time. On April 27, Fujita returned the GHC Heavyweight Championship to NOAH after testing positive for COVID-19. In August, Fujita took part in the 2022 N-1 Victory, finishing the tournament, with a record of five wins and two losses, failing to advance to the finals. On April 16, 2023, at Green Journey in Sendai, Sugiura-gun disbanded.

## Personal life

On April 27, 2022, Fujita tested positive for COVID-19 amid its pandemic in Japan.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Beast Bomb* (Folding powerbomb)
	+ High knee
	+ Punt kick
	+ Rear-naked choke
* **Signature moves**
	+ Double leg slam
	+ Fisherman suplex
	+ Guillotine choke
	+ Multiple knee strikes to the opponent's chest
	+ Snap suplex
	+ Spear
	+ Standing arm triangle choke

* **Nicknames**
	+ **"Ol' Ironhead"**
	+ **"Antonio Inoki no Saigo no Deshi"** (Japanese for the "Last Disciple of Antonio Inoki")
	+ **"Beast"**
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye (Orchestral Version)" (NJPW/IGF/Freelance/NOAH)
	+ **"Wild Beast"** by Takahiro "Anija" Nakamura (NOAH)

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Inoki Genome Federation**
	+ IGF Championship (1 time)
* **New Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ IWGP Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
	+ Singles Best Bout (2005) vs. Masahiro Chono on August 14
* ***Nikkan Sports***
	+ Fighting Spirit Award (2000)
* **Pro Wrestling Noah**
	+ GHC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
	+ GHC National Championship (1 time)
* **Real Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ Legend Championship (1 time)
* **Tokyo Sports**
	+ Match of the Year (2001) vs. Yuji Nagata on June 6, 2001
	+ Rookie of the Year (1997)