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193-661: In January 2015, Suzuki-gun, through a partnership between NJPW and Pro Wrestling Noah , took part in a storyline, where the stable invaded Noah, making it their primary promotion. Within two months, Suzuki-gun had captured all four of Noah's championships with Suzuki becoming the GHC Heavyweight Champion , K.E.S. the GHC Tag Team Champions , Taichi the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and El Desperado and Michinoku

386-696: A Hair vs. Hair match and had to have his head shaved bald as a result, choosing to shave his own hair in front of the live audience; his reign ended at 252 days with four successful defenses. Suzuki would quickly rebound from the loss, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi at the New Beginning in Sapporo on January 27 to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship . On April 29, at Wrestling Hi no Kuni in Kumamoto, Suzuki would lose

579-480: A heel hook , which Ken looked to reverse, but at that moment Suzuki transitioned it into a kneebar and extended his leg further. Shamrock reached for a rope escape as the Pancrase ruleset stipulated, but he was gravely injured by the hold and couldn't continue, thus losing the match. However, the bout was not without controversy. Ken Shamrock would claim years after that he had been asked not to injure Suzuki during

772-690: A mass exodus in which 24 of AJPW's 26 contracted wrestlers left the promotion to form Noah. Noah held its first shows in August 2000, and established the Global Honored Crown as the in-house governing body for its collection of championships. Throughout its 24-year history, Noah has had working relationships with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Ring of Honor (ROH), TNA (Formerly Impact Wrestling), Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA), All Elite Wrestling (AEW), and Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW). In January 2020,

965-462: A 7-0 winning streak, including a huge upset win over Pancrase's top fighter Ken Shamrock , who had already defeated Masakatsu Funaki in the first main event of the company. During the match, celebrated in January 1994, the two fighters traded positions, with Suzuki getting overpowered by the stronger Shamrock, but he was able to turn Ken over and initiate a leglock attack. The Japanese fighter locked

1158-441: A 75% stake in the company. This was followed the next month by the first major rebranding in company history. Pro Wrestling Noah not only changed their logo but also replaced the green mat with a white canvas. On July 26, 2019, Major League Wrestling announced a working agreement with Pro Wrestling Noah, which would include a talent-exchange agreement and content collaboration between the two promotions. On December 5, 2019, it

1351-456: A charity event co-produced by NJPW, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah, AJPW's Masayuki Kono made a one-time appearance representing Suzuki-gun. Archer and Takayama received their title shot on March 18, but were unable to dethrone the defending champions. On April 15, the recently debuted Black Tiger won the 2012 Road to the Super Jr. 2Days Tournament to earn a spot in

1544-755: A feud between Suzuki and Yano, however, Suzuki's attempt to avenge the loss led to another defeat on September 29, when he was counted out after being handcuffed to a ringside guard rail by Yano. Suzuki finally gained his revenge on Yano by defeating him on October 14 at King of Pro-Wrestling . Afterwards, Suzuki set his sights on the IWGP Intercontinental Championship , while also trying to convince champion Shinsuke Nakamura to leave Chaos and join Suzuki-gun. The match between Suzuki and Nakamura took place on November 9 at Power Struggle and saw Nakamura retain his title. From November 24 to December 7, Suzuki teamed with Suzuki-gun's newest member, Shelton X Benjamin , in

1737-566: A few hundred, so that all fans could sit close to the ring. Sem events usually took place in the Differ Ariake in Tokyo. No Sem events have been held since 2015. Domestic: Worldwide : Minoru Suzuki Minoru Suzuki ( 鈴木 実 , Suzuki Minoru , ring name : 鈴木 みのる ) (born June 17, 1968) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist , currently working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he

1930-525: A five-star rating from Wrestling Observer Newsletter ' s Dave Meltzer . From November 20 to December 1, Suzuki took part in the round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League , alongside Suzuki-gun's newest member Kengo Mashimo . The team finished with a record of three wins and three losses, failing to advance from their block. On January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome , Suzuki and Yuji Nagata once again reignited their old rivalry in

2123-480: A heated rivalry with Chaos member Tomohiro Ishii , which built to a singles match between the two on July 20 at the Kizuna Road 2013 pay-per-view , where Suzuki was victorious. From August 1 to 11, Suzuki took part in the 2013 G1 Climax . After five wins and three losses, Suzuki went into the final day leading his block, but a loss to Toru Yano cost him a spot in the finals of the tournament. This led to

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2316-491: A highly mobile, position-switching style of freestyle wrestling, specialized in capturing top position and flowing incessantly around his opponent in the search of an opening. Suzuki uses catch moves like headscissors , neck cranks and nelson hold variations to force openings, which he capitalized on with sharp submissions. The only lack in his game was striking, which, as noted by Ken Shamrock , he never quite developed. Though Shamrock may look down at his striking, Suzuki

2509-522: A losing effort. Suzuki made another return to New Japan on May 3, 2011, when he took over the Kojima-gun , after its members Taichi and Taka Michinoku had turned on their leader Satoshi Kojima. Later that same month, during New Japan's tour of the United States, the newly renamed Suzuki-gun was joined by Lance Archer . On July 18, Suzuki defeated Kojima in a singles match. The two had

2702-425: A losing effort. The following month at Capital Collision , Suzuki lost to Brody King . In June at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door , Suzuki teamed with Jericho Appreciation Society members, Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara to defeat the team of Wheeler Yuta , Shota Umino and Eddie Kingston. In November, Suzuki teamed with Lance Archer for the 2022 World Tag League , finishing with 8 points, failing to advance to

2895-713: A losing effort. On September 23, 2009, Suzuki and NOSAWA lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship at the hands of Akebono and Ryota Hama. On January 3, 2010, Suzuki and Kea lost the World Tag Team Championship at the hands of Masakatsu Funaki and Keiji Mutoh. On March 21, 2010, Suzuki lost to long-time rival Masakatsu Funaki in All Japan's first cage match. Suzuki then entered the Champion Carnival and won it for

3088-526: A main event, where K.E.S. defeated Haste and Nicholls with help from El Desperado to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. Noah's March 15 event saw Suzuki-gun featured in matches for all four of the promotion's titles. In the first two, Suzuki-gun captured both of Noah's junior heavyweight titles with El Desperado and Taka Michinoku defeating Choukibou-gun 's Hajime Ohara and Kenoh and No Mercy's Daisuke Harada and Genba Hirayanagi for

3281-643: A match against Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Sakura Genesis , which Okada accepted. On April 1 at Sakura Genesis, Desperado and Kanemaru made their first successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team championship in a 3-way rematch against Roppongi 3K and Los ingobernables de japon. In the main event, Sabre unsuccessfully challenged Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On April 29, at Wrestling Hinokuni, Suzuki lost

3474-549: A match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, however, without specifying who his partner would be. On August 13, Harry Smith was revealed as Archer's partner and the newest member of Suzuki-gun. Also in August, Michinoku and Taichi began blaming each other for their recent losses, which led to the two agreeing to a match, where the loser would be expelled from Suzuki-gun. The match took place on August 22 at Michinoku's Kaientai Dojo promotion, but ended without

3667-424: A match, where Makabe was victorious. On February 12 at The New Beginning , the five members of Suzuki-gun took a dominant 5–1 win over Kushida , Tiger Mask , Togi Makabe, Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata in a ten-man elimination tag team match, after which Archer and Takayama challenged Tencozy ( Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) to a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. On February 19 at All Together ,

3860-402: A match, where he successfully defended his title against Shinsuke Nakamura . Kojima continued teaming with Taichi during the following week's events, and on December 23, the two were also joined by freelancer Nosawa Rongai and Kaientai Dojo 's Taka Michinoku . On January 28, 2011, Kojima officially named the group "Kojima-gun". On February 20 at The New Beginning , the debuting MVP became

4053-425: A member of the stable. On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome , Suzuki received his first shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in seven years, but was defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of the evening. During Suzuki's chase for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Takayama momentarily took over his feud with Togi Makabe, but their rivalry also ended at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome in

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4246-421: A mere second. Only to be attacked by Iizuka and the rest of Suzuki-Gun immediately afterward. Iizuka then hit Tenzan with his signature iron glove for the final time before leaving it in the ring and storming off. At the end of the event, Iizuka's iron glove would be adopted by Taichi, who then left the ring with the glove and claiming it for himself. On March 8, Archer, Sabre, Smith, Suzuki, and Taichi all entered

4439-467: A new record for most successful defenses of the GHC Tag Team Championship by making three defenses on the American independent circuit. From April 21 to May 3, three teams representing Suzuki-gun took part in the 2016 Global Tag League ; K.E.S., Benjamin and Sugiura, and Suzuki and Iizuka. Suzuki and Iizuka finished the tournament with six points and Benjamin and Sugiura with eight points, while K.E.S. won

4632-420: A record of five wins and one loss, while Suzuki and Benjamin were eliminated with a record of three wins and three losses, after losing to Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano in their final round-robin match. On December 8, K.E.S. was also eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by their old rival team, Tencozy. On January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome , K.E.S. lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to

4825-407: A record of four wins and three losses. On November 23, K.E.S. regained the GHC Tag Team Championship from Naomichi Marufuji and Toru Yano. That same day, Suzuki defeated Masa Kitamiya in the final to win the 2016 Global League. Following his win, Suzuki challenged GHC Heavyweight Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima to a Loser Leaves Noah match on December 2. On December 2, Suzuki was defeated by Nakajima in

5018-646: A rematch against Bushi and Takagi. All three title matches took place on the second night of The New Beginning in Sapporo on February 3 , where all of Suzuki-Gun were defeated in their respective title matches. On January 7, 2019, NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced that Takashi Iizuka would retire from professional wrestling the following month in a press conference, with his retirement match taking place on February 21. During this period, Hiroyoshi Tenzan , whom Iizuka turned on in 2008, made repeated attempts to reform Iizuka back to his normal self, failing to do so each time. Despite this setback, Tenzan declared that he

5211-503: A rematch at Bloodsport. This time losing the match by referee stoppage, his first loss in the promotion. He would return to GCW with victories over Effy , Blake Christian , Mike Bailey and 2 Cold Scorpio . At Ring of Honor 's Supercard of Honor XV on April 1, 2022, Suzuki won the ROH World Television Championship after defeating Rhett Titus , winning his first championship in the United States. On

5404-414: A rematch on August 1 during the first day of the 2011 G1 Climax , where Kojima managed to pick up the win. Suzuki then went on a six match win streak, but losses to Strong Man and Shinsuke Nakamura on the last two days of the tournament, caused him to narrowly miss advancing to the finals. On October 10 at Destruction '11 , Suzuki defeated Kojima's number one ally, Togi Makabe , in a grudge match. In

5597-501: A rematch on November 12 at Power Struggle . During the same event, fellow Suzuki-gun member Taka Michinoku failed in his attempt to take the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Prince Devitt . Power Struggle was also the start of a relationship between Suzuki-gun and Suzuki's close friend, Pro Wrestling Noah representative Yoshihiro Takayama , who began making semi-regular NJPW appearances as

5790-652: A rematch to make his first successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship. On June 9, Suzuki-gun produced their own show in Korakuen Hall , entitled We Are Suzuki-gun , where K.E.S. made their third successful defense of the NWA World Tag Team Championship against Tencozy. On June 15, Suzuki made his second successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Maybach Taniguchi , after which he

5983-417: A singles match, where Nagata was victorious. Afterwards, Suzuki led Suzuki-gun to a war with New Japan's other villainous stable , Chaos, which built to a singles match on February 10 at The New Beginning , where he defeated Kazuchika Okada . On March 11, Suzuki entered the 2013 New Japan Cup , defeating Yuji Nagata in yet another match between the old rivals. Six days later, Suzuki was eliminated from

Suzuki-gun - Misplaced Pages Continue

6176-401: A six-man tag team match and Suzuki, Benjamin, Michinoku and Taichi defeated Brave (Marufuji, Kotoge, Muhammad Yone and Taiji Ishimori ) in an eight-man tag team main event. Over the next four weeks, all eight members of Suzuki-gun also worked all subsequent Noah events. The first big event of the storyline was on February 11 with a card full of matches between members of Suzuki-gun and Noah and

6369-782: A stateside wrestling championship in Kanagawa Prefecture, and also finished second nationwide. He has a background in kendo as well. As an amateur wrestler, Suzuki first met future professional wrestling rival Yuji Nagata . In 1986, when they both were seniors, Suzuki beat Nagata first in a Tokyo high school tournament and again at the Japanese sectionals. Suzuki trained at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) dojo and made his pro wrestling debut on June 23, 1988, against Takayuki Iizuka , but soon after left with catch wrestling mentor Yoshiaki Fujiwara for

6562-440: A surprise return to Noah, leading his Suzuki-gun stable to attack GHC Heavyweight Champion Naomichi Marufuji and GHC Tag Team Champions TMDK ( Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste ). On March 15, Suzuki defeated Marufuji to become the new GHC Heavyweight Champion. Over the next months, Suzuki successfully defended the title against Marufuji, Maybach Taniguchi , Yoshihiro Takayama, and Takashi Sugiura . On December 23, Suzuki lost

6755-471: A tag team in NJPW's junior heavyweight tag team division. Suzuki's feud with Kojima culminated on July 18 in a grudge match, where Suzuki was victorious, after which he transitioned to feuding with Togi Makabe. From late October to early November, Suzuki and Archer represented Suzuki-gun in the 2011 G1 Tag League , where they finished second in their round-robin block with four wins and one loss, advancing to

6948-588: A title match. Throughout NJPW The New Beginning tour, Suzuki-Gun would be in multiple big matches, with Sabre defeating Will Ospreay to retain the British Heavyweight Championship, Taichi losing to Kazuchika Okada in a singles match, Desperado and Kanemaru unsuccessfully challenging Roppongi 3K for the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, and Suzuki unsuccessfully challenging Moxley for

7141-419: A winner as Minoru Suzuki interrupted the match and got the two men to make peace with each other. Harry Smith made his debut as a member of Suzuki-gun on September 7 in an eight-man tag team match, where he, Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki and Taka Michinoku were defeated by Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Togi Makabe and Yuji Nagata via disqualification, when Michinoku's Kaientai Dojo trainee Kengo Mashimo entered

7334-745: A year, he lost the title to Kensuke Sasaki on August 26, 2007, at AJPW's Pro Wrestling Love in Ryogoku. At the All Japan Fan Appreciation Day on December 16, 2007, the Mexico Amigos teamed with "Ray Suzuki" and defeated Ryuji Hijikata, Kikutaro, T28 and Ryuji Yamaguchi. After the match, Ray Suzuki revealed himself as Minoru Suzuki and vowed that El Nosawa Mendoza would throw his Amigos tights away and return as Nosawa Rongai , and then kidnapped him to start early training. On March 1, 2008, Minoru Suzuki made an appearance at

7527-419: Is a former one-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion , former two-time NEVER Openweight Champion , former one-time IWGP Tag Team Champion , former one-time NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion (with former Suzuki-gun stablemates El Desperado and Ren Narita ) and a former Provisional KOPW Champion . He also makes appearances for Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is a member of Contra Unit and

7720-770: Is also known for his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is two-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion , and Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion and a former GHC Tag Team Champion along with Naomichi Marufuji . A mixed martial arts pioneer, Suzuki is well noted for his excellence in catch wrestling , and has been praised many times by elite fighters such as Josh Barnett , Bas Rutten , and Ken Shamrock for his outstanding grappling and submission skills. Suzuki trained in wrestling since high school, in part inspired by Antonio Inoki and other professional wrestlers, in part to paliate his own physical condition. He won

7913-458: Is one-half of the current MLW World Tag Team Champions , with Ikuro Kwon. Suzuki was the co-founder of Pancrase , one of the first mixed martial arts organizations in the world. During the 1990s, he was widely considered one of the best fighters in the world and was the second King of Pancrase world champion. Suzuki returned to puroresu in 2003, when he has become a perennial top contender for all major Japanese heavyweight championships . He

Suzuki-gun - Misplaced Pages Continue

8106-468: Is something that Giant Baba had forbid. Noah also features a strong junior heavyweight division, which was something that AJPW had been relatively lacking in the 1990s due to lack of pushes for the younger stars (such as Yoshinobu Kanemaru , Kenta and Naomichi Marufuji , who quickly became Noah's junior aces). October 12, 2007 Baseball Magazine Sha, the publisher of Puroresu Shukan released Noah trading cards . The Wrestling Observer named Noah as

8299-462: Is the only man to hold two wins over Shamrock in the Pancrase era. Over time, Suzuki's body became damaged and worn down from various injuries and resulted in his skills diminishing. He then decided to focus on the business and training side of Pancrase. He collaborated with the Tekken series of fighting video games as a motion actor for the character King . His last non-worked fight for Pancrase

8492-501: The Gotch-Style Piledriver , his stablemates attacked everyone who tried to enter the ring to stop him, including new GHC Tag Team Champions TMDK and GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Atsushi Kotoge . The members of Suzuki-gun made their Noah in-ring debuts at the January 12 event, where El Desperado defeated Hitoshi Kumano in a singles match, Archer, Iizuka and Smith defeated TMDK (Nicholls, Haste and Jonah Rock) in

8685-476: The 2011 G1 Tag League , Suzuki teamed with Lance Archer and, after four wins and one loss, the team finished second in their block, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On November 6, Suzuki and Archer first defeated the Chaos Top Team (Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano ) in the semifinals and then IWGP Tag Team Champions Bad Intentions ( Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson ) in the finals to win

8878-557: The 2012 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. After his win, Michinoku and Taichi welcomed Black Tiger to Suzuki-gun, while also hinting that the man under the mask was a former associate of Minoru Suzuki. On May 23, Kazushige Nosawa, a former member of Kojima-gun and Suzuki's prior stable Suzuki Gundan, was arrested under suspicion of smuggling marijuana from Mexico to Japan. Though all charges against Nosawa were later dropped, NJPW immediately acknowledged that he had been portraying

9071-430: The 2012 G1 Climax tournament , where he picked up big wins over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi and former tag team partner Naomichi Marufuji, but was eliminated after losing to Yuji Nagata in his final round-robin match on August 12. On October 8 at King of Pro-Wrestling , Suzuki received a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated by Tanahashi. The match received rave reviews, including

9264-413: The 2013 World Tag League , where they finished with a record of three wins and three losses, with a loss against Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano on the final day costing them a spot in the semifinals. The rivalry between Suzuki and Yano led to a match on January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome , where Suzuki and Benjamin were defeated by Yano and The Great Muta, with Yano pinning Suzuki, after he

9457-415: The 2014 G1 Climax , where he finished fourth in his block with a record of five wins and five losses. Following the tournament, Suzuki transitioned into a new rivalry with Kazushi Sakuraba , who had come to Yano's aid after Iizuka had turned on him. The rivalry culminated in a match on January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome , where Suzuki defeated Sakuraba. On January 10, 2015, Suzuki made

9650-406: The 2015 Global Junior Heavyweight League , wrestling in separate blocks. Although both managed to secure early wins, losses on the final day of the tournament prevented them from making it to the final. The winner, Daisuke Harada, issued a challenge to Taichi afterwards. On September 19, after Suzuki had made his fourth successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Takashi Sugiura, he

9843-424: The 2015 Global League . In block A, Archer and Smith both finished their tournament with a record of three wins and four losses with Smith winning the head-to-head match between the K.E.S. members. In block B, Iizuka finished with a record six losses and one draw, wrestled against Suzuki on the final day, which eliminated Suzuki from advancing to the final with a record of five wins and two draws. Instead, Benjamin won

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10036-550: The Chaos stable with Suzuki laying out IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada. In his return match on January 27, Suzuki, Michinoku and Taichi defeated Okada, Rocky Romero and Beretta . On February 5 at The New Beginning in Sapporo , Suzuki unsuccessfully challenged Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On April 27, Suzuki defeated Hirooki Goto to win the NEVER Openweight Championship for

10229-775: The Contra Unit teaming with Mads Krule Krügger and Ikuro Kwon to defeat Satoshi Kojima , Matt Riddle , and Akira in a six-man tag team match . Suzuki and Kwon would then defeat CozyMax to win the MLW World Tag Team Championships at Summer of the Beasts on August 29. Endowed with excellent wrestling ability, Suzuki was primarily a grappler on the MMA game, completing his amateur wrestling positional advancements with devastating catch wrestling submissions and hooks. He compensates his average size with

10422-720: The Dory Funk Jr. retirement show, providing commentary for the Triple Crown Championship main event (between Kensuke Sasaki and Satoshi Kojima), as well as pledging to participate in the upcoming Champion Carnival. From April 5 to 9, Suzuki competed in Block B of All Japan's annual Champion Carnival, finishing the league with 2 wins (over Kensuke Sasaki and Suwama ) and 2 losses (to Osamu Nishimura and Joe Doering ), as well as teaming with Takemura to defeat Toshiaki Kawada and Nobutaka Araya on Day 2 (April 6) of

10615-691: The GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions . Suzuki-gun dominated Noah for the rest of 2015 until losing all but the GHC Tag Team Championship at the end of the year. The invasion storyline continued in 2016 with Suzuki-gun adding two new members; Noah originals Takashi Sugiura and Yoshinobu Kanemaru , who quickly brought the GHC Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight Championships back to the stable. The invasion storyline concluded in December 2016, resulting in

10808-600: The GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and Taichi defeating Atsushi Kotoge, with help from El Desperado and Michinoku, for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. The third saw K.E.S. defeat TMDK in a rematch to make their first successful defense of the GHC Tag Team Championship. Finally, in the main event, Suzuki completed Suzuki-gun's clean sweep by defeating Naomichi Marufuji to become

11001-773: The GHC Tag Team Championship from 2 Cold Scorpio and Doug Williams on June 18, 2005. After losing the belts to Muhammad Yone and Takeshi Morishima in October, Suzuki challenged for the GHC Heavyweight Championship shot against champion Jun Akiyama on March 5, 2006, but he was once again unsuccessful. On March 10, 2006, Suzuki made a surprise appearance in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), attacking then Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima after he had just defended his title against The Great Muta. Suzuki participated in

11194-513: The Gotch-Style Piledriver . Suzuki then declared war on all of NJPW, including top stables Chaos, Bullet Club, and Los Ingobernables de Japón , stating that Suzuki-gun was going to take over all of the promotion's championships. The angle led to multiple title matches the following month. On February 5 at The New Beginning in Sapporo , Michinoku and Taichi unsuccessfully challenged Roppongi Vice ( Beretta and Rocky Romero) for

11387-670: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for a second time by beating Bushi and Hiromu Takahashi in a tournament final, thus making 5/7 members of this stable champions. At Power Struggle (2020) , Suzuki lost the NEVER Openweight Championship back to Takagi. After which Sabre and Taichi lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to the Guerillas of Destiny at Wrestle Kingdom 15 , and Desperado and Kanemaru lost

11580-554: The IWGP Tag Team Championship from the Guerrillas of Destiny . At All Elite Wrestling's All Out on September 5, Suzuki made his AEW debut by confronting Jon Moxley. On the episode of Dynamite following All Out on September 8, Moxley beat Suzuki in his debut match for the promotion. The next day, it was announced that he would reunite with Lance Archer under the Suzuki-gun name to confront Moxley again on

11773-641: The IWGP United States Championship . At Wrestle Kingdom 14 , Archer would lose the United States Championship to Jon Moxley , Taichi, Kanemaru, and Desperado would fail to win the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championship in a gauntlet match, Sabre would defeat SANADA to retain the British Heavyweight Championship, and Suzuki would attack Moxley after he defeated Juice Robinson, challenging him to

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11966-722: The IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship twice. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru also saw much success in the junior heavyweight division, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships four times and Desperado winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship two times, including holding both junior titles simultaneously. In September 2021, Suzuki debuted for NJPW's American partner promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), and realigned himself with Lance Archer, bringing him back into

12159-480: The Invasion Tour 2011 , NJPW's first tour of the United States, Lance Archer made his debut for the promotion, attacking Kojima after a match, before being chased away by former Kojima-gun member MVP. The following day, Archer was officially named a member of Suzuki-gun. During the following months, Suzuki continued his feud with Kojima, while Archer went up against Togi Makabe and Michinoku and Taichi became

12352-550: The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship . The day after Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, Suzuki-gun declared war on Naomichi Marufuji and TMDK for them coming to Yano's aid at the event. On January 10, the entire Suzuki-gun made a surprise appearance for Pro Wrestling Noah, occupying the ring after the main event where Marufuji had successfully defended his GHC Heavyweight Championship . While Suzuki hit Marufuji with his finishing move,

12545-543: The NWA World Tag Team Championship . On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2013 , K.E.S. lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship back to Tencozy in a four-way match, which also included the Chaos team of Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano, and Muscle Orchestra ( Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man ), ending their reign at 207 days. Later in the event, Shelton X Benjamin unsuccessfully challenged Shinsuke Nakamura for

12738-832: The Provisional 2022 KOPW trophy . On Night 3, Suzuki-gun lost to Pro Wrestling Noah's Sugiura-gun ( Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba ) and Toru Yano. In February during the NJPW New Years Golden Series, Suzuki lost the Provisional KOPW 2022 trophy to Toru Yano in a Dog Cage match . The following month, Suzuki competed in the New Japan Cup , receiving a bye to the second round, but lost to Hiromu Takahashi . On April 1 at Lonestar Shootout , Suzuki defeated Killer Kross . In April at Windy City Riot , Suzuki faced Tomohiro Ishii in

12931-676: The ROH World Championship at Death Before Dishonor XV . At the following day's Ring of Honor Wrestling tapings, Suzuki teamed with the Beer City Bruiser and Silas Young to unsuccessfully challenge The Hung Bucks ( Hangman Page , Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson ) for the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship . On January 4, 2018, at Wrestle Kingdom 12 , Suzuki lost the NEVER Openweight Championship to Hirooki Goto in

13124-587: The "Gotch-Style Piledriver". On January 7, a match was arranged for the United States Championship between Suzuki and Moxley at The New Beginning in Osaka on February 9, where Suzuki lost. On August 29, 2020, at Summer Struggle in Jingu , Suzuki defeated Shingo Takagi to win the NEVER Openweight Championship for a second time. From September 19 until October 13, Suzuki took part in the G1 Climax 30 , finishing

13317-531: The 15 September episode of Dynamite, thus bringing Archer back into the stable. On the September 29 episode of Rampage , Archer and Suzuki lost to the team of Eddie Kingston and Moxley in a lights out tag-team match , after the interruption of Homicide . Archer and Suzuki faced the duo again the following month on NJPW Strong in a Philledelphia Street Fight , where they were victorious. On January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 16 , El Desperado, successfully retained

13510-521: The 2006 Champion Carnival , and made it to the semifinals where he was eliminated by Taiyō Kea , the eventual winner. On September 3, Suzuki defeated Kea, who had won the Triple Crown from Kojima in July to become the new Triple Crown Champion. Suzuki went on to successfully defend the belts against RO'Z , Yuji Nagata, Kojima, Tajiri and Keiji Mutoh . After holding the Triple Crown for just short of

13703-550: The 2011 G1 Tag League. On November 12 at Power Struggle , Suzuki and Archer failed in their attempt to capture the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Bad Intentions. After defeating Giant Bernard in a singles match on December 4, Suzuki challenged IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi to a title match at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome . At the event on January 4, 2012, Suzuki was unsuccessful in his title challenge. On February 12 at The New Beginning , Suzuki led Lance Archer, Taichi, Taka Michinoku and Yoshihiro Takayama of

13896-502: The 2019 edition of the New Japan Cup . With Smith being eliminated in the first round (in what would ultimately end up being his final tour with New Japan, leaving the company and by extension the stable in June), Archer, Suzuki, and Taichi eliminated in the second while Sabre Jr managed to secure a spot into the quarter-finals, only to defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi. Sabre would go on to face Tanahashi once more at G1 Supercard , this time with

14089-416: The 2020 New Japan Cup, with Suzuki losing to Yuji Nagata in the first round, Sabre losing to Kota Ibushi in the first round, Desperado losing to Tomohiro Ishii in the first round, Kanemaru defeating Yuya Uemura in the first round, before losing to Taiji Ishimori in the second, and Taichi making it the farthest, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi in the first round, Ibushi in the second, before losing to SANADA in

14282-578: The April 13, 2022 episode of AEW Dynamite, Suzuki's reign ended after he lost the title to Samoa Joe . On October 14, 2023, at Slaughterhouse , Suzuki made his Major League Wrestling debut, in a winning effort against Jacob Fatu . On February 29, 2024, at Intimidation Games , Suzuki unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship . On June 1, 2024, at Battle Riot VI , Suzuki joined

14475-473: The British Heavyweight Championship on the line. At the event, Sabre successfully retained the title against Tanahashi. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku, Taichi defeated Jeff Cobb to win the NEVER Openweight Championship for the second time. The following night on May 4, Taichi would nominate Tomohiro Ishii as the next challenger for his title, On May 10, 2019, El Desperado was pulled from the Annual Best of

14668-486: The British Heavyweight Championship. The following day at New Years Dash, Suzuki-Gun faced Los ingobernables de Japon in a ten man tag team match, which was won by Suzuki-Gun after Taichi pinned the newly crowned IWGP Intercontinental champion Tetsuya Naito, and immediately challenged him for the title afterward. Backstage, Suzuki & Sabre also issued a challenge to Evil and Sanada for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, while Desperado and Kanemaru followed suit and demanded

14861-717: The Carnival. During the Hold Out tour, Suzuki confronted a Taiyo Kea, who was on a losing streak at the time, about joining Suzuki's stable Gurentai (alongside Nosawa, Mazada and Takemura), which resulted in Kea joining and focusing on winning the tag titles with Suzuki. On June 28, 2008, Suzuki and Kea won the World Tag Team Championship from Joe Doering and Keiji Mutoh. On September 28, 2008, he attacked The Great Muta after Muta had successfully defeated Suwama for

15054-457: The February events. After working exclusively against each other in multi-man tag team matches for the first part of February, the rivalry between Suzuki-gun and Chaos built to two singles matches on February 10 at The New Beginning pay-per-view , where Kengo Mashimo was defeated by Shinsuke Nakamura, while Minoru Suzuki defeated Kazuchika Okada with help from Taichi. Meanwhile, K.E.S. retained

15247-622: The G1. At the event, Tanahashi would defeat Sabre, and Okada would defeat Suzuki. Shortly thereafter during the NJPW Destruction 2019 tour, Sabre would defeat Tanahashi to win back the British Heavyweight Championship. At King of Pro Wrestling , El Desperado returned from injury and along with Kanemaru would defeat Roppongi 3K, Suzuki would defeat Jushin Thunder Liger in a singles match and Archer would defeat Juice Robinson to win

15440-516: The GHC Heavyweight Championship to Katsuhiko Nakajima in his third defense. The following month, five members of Suzuki-gun took part in the 2016 Global League with Suzuki, Archer and Iizuka in block A and Smith and Sugiura in block B. Suzuki advanced to the final of the tournament by winning his block with a record of six wins and one loss, while Archer finished with a record of four wins and three losses and Iizuka with one win and six losses. Meanwhile, both Smith and Sugiura finished their block with

15633-399: The GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. In the semi-main event, K.E.S. avenged their Global Tag League loss against Dangan Yankies by defeating them to retain the GHC Tag Team Championship, albeit following outside interference from Benjamin. The main event featured Kenta Kobashi making sure that the rest of Suzuki-gun did not interfere in the match, but nonetheless Suzuki defeated Marufuji in

15826-581: The GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from Kotoge and Harada, while Taichi lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Taiji Ishimori, ending his nine-month reign in his fifth defense. Out of the six matches they were involved in, Suzuki-gun won only one, which saw K.E.S. make their fifth successful defense of the GHC Tag Team Championship against Big in USA. In the main event, with Noah's future supposedly on

16019-614: The IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Tetsuya Naito in his second defense. On July 1,at Revolution Pro Wrestling Strong Style Evolved,Suzuki defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win the RPW British Heavyweight Championship for the first time, making him a dual champion in the process. Both Suzuki and Sabre would represent Suzuki-Gun again in the 2018 G1 Climax , wrestling in separate blocks once more, both failed to advance to

16212-499: The IWGP Intercontinental Championship, while the main event saw Minoru Suzuki fail in his challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. Suzuki then got involved in a rivalry with Chaos member Tomohiro Ishii, which built to a singles match between the two on July 20 at the Kizuna Road 2013 pay-per-view, where Suzuki was victorious. That same event, Taichi and Michinoku unsuccessfully challenged Chaos members Forever Hooligans ( Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero ) for

16405-661: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Hiromu Takahashi and Suzuki won the Provisional KOPW 2022 trophy , although Dangerous Tekkers lost the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles to Bishoman . In February during the NJPW New Years Golden Series, Suzuki lost the Provisional KOPW title to Toru Yano . In March, Sabre Jr defeated Tetsuya Naito in the New Japan Cup 2022 final, to win his second New Japan Cup for

16598-522: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Taiji Ishimori. Desperado attempted to rebound in the Best of the Super Juniors , where he competed in the B Block. Desperado finished top of his block, with 12 points. However, in the finals, Desperado once again lost to Hiromu Takahashi. In June at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door , El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru lost to Swerve in our Glory's Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland and Lance Archer defeated Nick Comoroto on

16791-419: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to the stable. From July 21 to August 8, four members of Suzuki-gun took part in the 2014 G1 Climax with Benjamin and Smith wrestling in block A and Suzuki and Archer in block B. All four failed to advance from their blocks with Benjamin finishing tied fifth and Smith eighth in their block of eleven and Suzuki finishing fourth and Archer tied sixth in their block. Following

16984-592: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship back to Roppongi Vice in their second defense. During the following summer, Suzuki and Sabre represented Suzuki-gun in the 2017 G1 Climax , wrestling in separate blocks. Both failed to advance to the final with Suzuki finishing with a record of four wins, four losses and one draw and Sabre finishing with five wins and four losses. On September 24 at Destruction in Kobe , K.E.S. won

17177-518: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the first time, when they, replacing Kushida and the injured Alex Shelley , who had earlier defeated them in a number one contender's match, defeated the Forever Hooligans for the title. Meanwhile, after avenging his G1 Climax loss against Toru Yano that same event, Suzuki made a challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship with the added stipulation that should Shinsuke Nakamura lose

17370-425: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from Roppongi 3K ( SHO and YOH ) in a 3-way match which also included Los Ingobernables de Japón ( Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI ) . Through March, Taichi, Archer, Smith and Sabre would enter the 2018 New Japan Cup. While Taichi,Archer and Smith were eliminated in the first round, Sabre would go on to the final and win the tournament, and upon his victory, requested

17563-504: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida). On October 13 at King of Pro-Wrestling , K.E.S. defeated Tencozy to regain the NWA World Tag Team Championship. Later that same event, El Desperado unsuccessfully challenged Ryusuke Taguchi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, despite outside interference from Taichi and Michinoku. The Suzuki-gun Junior trio continued chasing

17756-416: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Bullet Club's Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo , however they regained the tag titles back from them at road to Castle Attack . On February 28 at Castle Attack , Desperado won the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Bushi & Phantasmo in a 3 way match, making him a double champion. On June 1 at Road to Dominion Sabre and Taichi regained

17949-484: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. From August 1 to 11, Suzuki, Archer, Benjamin and Smith took part in the 2013 G1 Climax , with Archer and Smith wrestling in block A and Benjamin and Suzuki in block B. Both Suzuki and Smith entered the final day with a chance to advance to the final, however, Suzuki was eliminated after losing to Toru Yano, while Smith was eliminated after a loss against Archer. On October 14 at King of Pro-Wrestling , Taichi and Michinoku won

18142-475: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Later that same event, K.E.S. unsuccessfully challenged Ishii and Yano for the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, also involving Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma . In the main event of the show, Suzuki unsuccessfully challenged Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Six days later at The New Beginning in Osaka , Smith and Iizuka, replacing an injured Archer, unsuccessfully challenged Ishii and Yano for

18335-420: The IWGP Tag Team Championship against Sword & Guns, while Minoru Suzuki was defeated by Yuji Nagata in another chapter of their long rivalry. Afterwards, Suzuki-gun began feuding with NJPW's other villainous stable, Chaos. In late January, Taichi was sidelined with a knee injury following a traffic accident, which led to Suzuki-gun recruiting another Taka Michinoku trainee, Hiro Tonai, as his replacement for

18528-440: The IWGP Tag Team Championship against Tencozy, after which Archer challenged Nakamura to a match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship . Archer went on to fail in his title challenge on March 3 at NJPW's 41st anniversary event. During the same event, Suzuki-gun and Chaos faced off in a four-on-four elimination tag team match, where Suzuki-gun was victorious after Suzuki scored the final elimination over Okada. The rivalry between

18721-420: The IWGP Tag Team Championship for the first time in three years and eight months by defeating War Machine ( Hanson and Raymond Rowe ) and Guerrillas of Destiny ( Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa ) in a tornado tag team match . On January 4, 2018, at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome , K.E.S. lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Los Ingobernables de Japón ( Evil and Sanada ). Later that same event, Suzuki lost

18914-415: The IWGP Tag Team Championship in another three-way match involving Makabe and Honma. On March 6 at NJPW's 45th anniversary show, Kanemaru and Taichi defeated Roppongi Vice to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Later that same event, Suzuki and Smith helped Zack Sabre Jr. defeat Katsuyori Shibata for Revolution Pro Wrestling 's British Heavyweight Championship with Sabre becoming

19107-416: The IWGP Tag Team Championship, bringing Suzuki-gun its first title. Later, in the main event of the evening, Minoru Suzuki unsuccessfully challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. From November 20 to December 1, K.E.S. took part in the round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League , finishing with a record of four wins and two losses, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament in

19300-507: The Intercontinental Championship to Tetsuya Naito . Suzuki then competed in the 2018 G1 Climax, where he finished with a record of five wins and four losses with an upset loss to Hangman Page costing him a chance to make it to the finals. between November and December 2018, Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka entered the 2018 World Tag League , where they finished with a record of 5 wins and 8 losses, failing to advance to

19493-626: The NEVER Openweight Championship back to Hirooki Goto in a Hair vs. Hair match . On January 20 at Revolution Pro Wrestling High Stakes, Suzuki and Sabre would win the RPW Undisputed British Tag Team Championships by defeating Moustache Mountain ( Trent Seven and Tyler Bate ). A week later at The New Beginning in Sapporo, Suzuki would capture the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for the first time by defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi. On March 6 at NJPW's 46th anniversary show, Desperado and Kanemaru would capture

19686-433: The NWA World Tag Team Championship to The IronGodz, but came back in the second to defeat Tencozy for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Also during the event, Suzuki failed in his IWGP Intercontinental Championship challenge against Nakamura. On November 24, two Suzuki-gun teams entered the 2013 World Tag League , competing in two separate blocks; K.E.S. in block A and Suzuki and Benjamin in block B. K.E.S. won their block with

19879-495: The October 28 episode of Impact! , brawling with Josh Alexander before security pulled them apart. The following week on Impact! , Suzuki made his in-ring debut, teaming with Moose and W. Morrissey to defeat Alexander, Eddie Edwards , and Matt Cardona . Suzuki then defeated Kaleb with a K on the November 11 episode of Impact! , but lost to Alexander the following week on Impact! , in what would be his final match in

20072-409: The Pancrase promotion. He had his debut in professional fighting on the very first card of the company, facing Katsuomi Inagaki in a bout which showed Suzuki's top grappling prowess, with Minoru winning by rear naked choke in 3:25. He continued his beginnings with a victory over Lion's Den trainee Vernon White , in which Suzuki made him submit to a catch wrestling-inspired crooked headscissors. At

20265-487: The September 8 episode of AEW Dynamite , where Suzuki was defeated. He also reunited with his former tag team partner Lance Archer . On October 15, Suzuki lost to Bryan Danielson on the AEW Rampage Buy-In pre-show. On the October 14, 2021 episode of Impact! , a vignette aired promoting Suzuki arriving to Impact Wrestling as part of a partnership between Impact and NJPW. Suzuki made his debut on

20458-551: The Super Juniors Tournament due to injury, and Taichi revealed Suzuki-gun's newest member Douki to take his place. Douki would finish with only 2 points in the Tournament. Kanemaru and Taka Michinoku would also participate in the Tournament. Kanemaru finishing with 6 points, and Taka finishing with 0 after suffering an injury. Ishii defeated Taichi to win the title on June 9 at Dominion . Following this, it

20651-545: The Suzuki-gun flag, only to be interrupted by former member Takashi Iizuka , causing all 9 men to pose in the ring, behind the Suzuki-gun flag. Kojima-gun Pro Wrestling Noah Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Pro Wrestling Noah ( プロレスリング・ノア , Puroresuringu Noa ) (stylised as Pro Wrestling NOAH ) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion , founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa after he had led

20844-434: The Suzuki-gun flag, only to be interrupted by former member Takashi Iizuka, causing all 9 men to pose in the ring, behind the Suzuki-gun flag. Starting in September 2021, Suzuki spent one month in the United States, working most notably for All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling . On September 5, at AEW's All Out pay-per-view event, Suzuki made his debut by confronting and attacking Jon Moxley . Both face each other in

21037-435: The Suzuki-gun to a dominant 5–1 win over Kushida , Tiger Mask , Togi Makabe, Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata in a ten-man elimination tag team match. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012 , Suzuki pinned Makabe in a tag team match, where he and Takayama faced Makabe and Yuji Nagata. The feud between Suzuki and Makabe ended on June 16 at Dominion 6.16 , where Suzuki was defeated in a singles match. In August, Suzuki took part in

21230-466: The Triple Crown Championship, setting up a match between the two in which he lost on November 3, 2008. On January 3, 2009, Suzuki and stablemate Nosawa Rongai won the restored All Asia Tag Team Championship , over the course of a two-day tournament. Later in the year, Suzuki won the 2009 Champion Carnival beating Kaz Hayashi in the finals. He would end up challenging the then Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, Yoshihiro Takayama, on May 30, 2009, albeit in

21423-660: The United States Championship. Sabre would lose the British Heavyweight Title to Ospreay in a rematch. After Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi won the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship , Sabre and Taichi would attack Tanahashi and Ibushi, setting themselves up as the next challengers. It was also during this time that Archer would quietly leave Suzuki-Gun and New Japan as a whole to move to All Elite Wrestling . Suzuki, Sabre, Taichi, Desperado, and Kanemaru all entered

21616-445: The best promotion in 2004 and 2005, as well as having the best weekly television show in 2003. On June 13, 2009, Misawa teamed with Go Shiozaki against Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith at Hiroshima Green Arena . After taking a belly to back suplex from Saito, Misawa lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital. He was pronounced dead in the hospital at 10:10 p.m. JST due to spinal damage . On June 27, 2009, Akira Taue

21809-475: The block and advanced to the final with a record of six wins and one draw, wrestled against Suzuki. On November 8, Benjamin was defeated in the final of the tournament by Naomichi Marufuji. Noah ended their 2015 on December 23 with the promotion's 15h anniversary event, Destiny 2015 , where all members of Suzuki-gun were involved in big matches. The stable's members were defeated in both junior heavyweight title matches with El Desperado and Michinoku failing to regain

22002-498: The buy-in. On the main show, Suzuki teamed with the Jericho Appreciation Society's , Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara to defeat the team of Eddie Kingston , Wheeler Yuta and Shota Umino and Zack Sabre Jr lost to Claudio Castagnoli . In July, Archer, Sabre Jr and Taichi all competed in the G1 Climax 32 tournament, competing in the A, C and B blocks respectively, though no men were able to advance to

22195-430: The company was purchased by CyberAgent , parent company of DDT Pro-Wrestling , with DDT's executives taking over Noah's operations and Noah's content appearing on DDT's streaming service Wrestle Universe . In January 1999, AJPW founder and promoter Giant Baba died, leaving the company in the hands of his widow Motoko Baba as owner and Misawa as president. However, disheartened with Motoko Baba's proposed direction for

22388-484: The company, Misawa departed the promotion on May 28, 2000 to form a new promotion called Pro Wrestling Noah. All but two native stars ( Masanobu Fuchi and Toshiaki Kawada ) and eight gaijin ( Maunakea Mossman , Johnny Smith , George Hines , Mike Barton , Jim Steele , Mike Rotunda , Stan Hansen and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams ) followed Misawa. The promotion's name alludes to the Biblical story of Noah , in which

22581-602: The company. On April 5, Suzuki made his debut at Game Changer Wrestling GCW Bloodsport , defeating Matt Riddle . He would return to Bloodsport the following year to face off with Josh Barnett . Suzuki was set to return to face Orange Cassidy at their annual "Spring Break" event in 2020 until that was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Suzuki would return to GCW in 2021 having matches with Jonathan Gresham , Homicide , Joey Janela , Chris Dickinson and Nick Gage . Suzuki would return to GCW in 2022, taking on Dickinson in

22774-489: The end of the year. On June 13, 2016, freelancer Go Shiozaki officially re-signed with Noah, three and a half years after his resignation from the promotion. On November 1, 2016, it was announced that Noah had been sold to IT development company Estbee, Co, Ltd. As a result, former AJPW president Masayuki Uchida took over as the new Noah president. On November 7, Estbee officially changed its name to "Noah Global Entertainment kabushiki gaisha ". On December 27, Noah announced

22967-401: The fallout. On December 4, 2012, Noah released Kenta Kobashi from his contract, reportedly leading to Atsushi Aoki , Go Shiozaki , Jun Akiyama , Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru all announcing that they were not going to re-sign with the promotion after their own contracts expired in January 2013. On December 19, Noah confirmed that the five men had indeed refused to re-sign with

23160-490: The fifth member of Kojima-gun, in storyline being brought to the group by Nosawa using his American connections. However, prior to MVP's debut, Nosawa took a hiatus from professional wrestling altogether, after being arrested under suspicion of stealing a taxi. After losing the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome , Kojima suffered another big loss against longtime rival Togi Makabe on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2011 . Following

23353-427: The final of the 2015 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League , but were defeated there on September 22 by Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada. This led to a match on October 4, where Suzuki-gun's title monopoly was broken, when El Desperado and Michinoku lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Kotoge and Harada in their fifth defense. From October 16 to November 6, five members of Suzuki-gun took part in

23546-484: The final with Suzuki finishing with a record of five wins and four losses and Sabre finishing with six wins and two losses, with the latter narrowly missing the final due to head-to-head losses against eventual runner-up Kota Ibushi and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega . On September 17 at Destruction in Beppu , Taichi defeated Hirooki Goto to win the NEVER Openweight Championship, his first singles title in NJPW. At

23739-477: The finals. On December 14, 2022, at the Super Junior Tag League & World Tag League Finals, Suzuki announced that Suzuki-gun will disband by the end of the year. At JTO 50th Anniversary for TakaTaichi Together, Taichi told his valet and long Suzuki-gun affiliate Miho Abe, "There is no need for you to stand next to such a pathetic man anymore," ending their relationship and her affiliation to

23932-502: The finals. On January 5, 2019, Suzuki and Suzuki-Gun Stablemate Zack Sabre Jr challenged newly crowned IWGP tag team champions Evil and Sanada to a match for their titles at New Beginning in Sapporo, which they were unsuccessful in doing so. Suzuki entered the 2019 New Japan Cup, where he defeated Satoshi Kojima in the first round, but was eliminated by Sanada in the second round. On August 31, 2019, Suzuki faced Kazuchika Okada at New Japan's Royal Quest event, where he lost in

24125-508: The finals. At the World Tag League and Super Junior Tag League finals, Suzuki announced that Suzuki-gun will disband at the end of 2022. The factions final match took place on December 23, where the team of Douki, Kanemaru, Sabre, and Taichi defeated Archer, Desperado, Michinoku, and Suzuki. After the match, all members spoke about their memories as a part of the group and thanked Suzuki. The night ended with all members posing with

24318-417: The first four months of 2017. On February 7, 2017, Noah announced a business alliance with American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), which was extended in July, after TNA had been renamed Global Force Wrestling (GFW). In March 2017, Noah formed another partnership with Canadian promotion Border City Wrestling (BCW). On February 1, 2019, Noah was purchased by Lidet Entertainment, acquiring

24511-427: The first round, but was eliminated by Kenta in round 2. In July at Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome , Suzuki competed for the Provisional KOPW 2021 trophy , in a 22 Man New Japan Rambo match , but the match was won by Chase Owens . On September 25, Suzuki made his debut for NJPW's American show, NJPW Strong , defeating Fred Rosser . The following month on NJPW Strong, Suzuki reunited with Lance Archer to defeat

24704-544: The first time, winning his first ever singles title in NJPW. During the following summer, Suzuki took part in the 2017 G1 Climax , where he finished with a record of four wins, four losses and one draw, wrestled against IWGP Heavyweight Champion Okada. Through a partnership between NJPW and the American Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion, Suzuki made his first appearance in the United States for 25 years on September 22, 2017, when he unsuccessfully challenged Cody for

24897-646: The founding members of the United Japan Pro-Wrestling alliance, a joint effort to further develop professional wrestling in Japan through promotion and organization, with Seiji Sakaguchi being named as the chairman of the project. Similar to New Japan Pro-Wrestling's International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP), Noah has its own title governing body, the Global Honored Crown (GHC) system. Noah also holds annual tournaments to decide

25090-530: The group prior to the group's disbandment. Suzuki-gun's final match as a faction took place on December 23, where the team of Douki, Kanemaru, Sabre, and Taichi defeated Archer, Desperado, Michinoku, and Suzuki. After the match, all members spoke about their memories as a part of the group and thanked leader Suzuki. Sabre Jr. specifically mentioned that this would be the end of the Dangerous Tekkers tag team too. The night ended with all members posing with

25283-414: The group, however, he once again lost to IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada at Hyper Battle . In April at Ring of Honor's Supercard of Honor XV , Suzuki defeated Rhett Titus to win the ROH World Television Championship , his first American Professional Wrestling Championship. Suzuki lost the belt 12 days later to Samoa Joe on AEW Dynamite . In May at Wrestling Dontaku , Desperado lost

25476-528: The junior heavyweight titles during the 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament . Though El Desperado and Taichi were eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by The Young Bucks, Taichi managed to pin Ryusuke Taguchi in the opening round of the tournament, with help from both Desperado and Taka Michinoku, putting himself in line for the next shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Taichi received his title shot on November 8 at Power Struggle , but

25669-539: The latest Black Tiger and severed their ties with him. Meanwhile, Michinoku and Taichi had set their sights on the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship , but were, on June 16 at Dominion 6.16 , defeated by Jyushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask in a match for the vacant title. On July 22, Suzuki, Archer, Michinoku and Taichi picked up another dominant win over Prince Devitt, Ryusuke Taguchi , Togi Makabe and Yuji Nagata in an eight-man elimination tag team match, after which Archer again challenged Tenzan and Kojima to

25862-417: The line, Suzuki lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship back to Global League winner Naomichi Marufuji in his fifth official title defense. During Marufuji's victory celebration, Takashi Sugiura turned on him and Noah and joined Suzuki-gun. On January 31, 2016, Sugiura defeated Marufuji with help from Archer and Suzuki to bring the GHC Heavyweight Championship back to Suzuki-gun. Prior to the event, Suzuki teased

26055-406: The main event. Suzuki and IWGP United States Champion Lance Archer entered the 2019 World Tag League, where they finished with a record of 9 wins and 6 losses, failing to advance to the finals. At Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 5, 2020, Suzuki confronted Jon Moxley who had just successfully retained the IWGP United States Championship against Juice Robinson and would incapacitate Moxley with

26248-481: The match for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Following the match, Suzuki-gun entered the ring to show support for Suzuki, but this led to Sugiura turning on Suzuki-gun, attacking each of his stablemates and quitting the stable. The following day, K.E.S. lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Go Shiozaki and Maybach Taniguchi in their first defense, while in the main event, Suzuki was defeated by Sugiura. With Suzuki-gun having been defeated in all ten of their matches during

26441-401: The match, Michinoku and Taichi entered the ring and attacked Kojima, who, however, quickly took care of both of them. This led to the surprise return of freelancer Minoru Suzuki , who appeared behind Kojima and locked him in a sleeper hold , before leaving the ringside area with Michinoku and Taichi, who proclaimed Suzuki as their new leader and renamed the stable "Suzuki-gun". On May 15, during

26634-428: The match, Suzuki defeated Hama to claim his second Triple Crown championship. He would go on to lose the title to Suwama on August 29, 2010. In May 2007, he embarked on his first tour of Mexico with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) along with Takayama. On December 12, 2010, Suzuki returned to NJPW, attacking old rival Yuji Nagata. On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome , Suzuki faced Nagata in

26827-455: The match, as he was already affected by a back injury, and that he had accepted only to find himself deliberately injured himself by Suzuki in return. Suzuki did not lose a match until he lost to Bas Rutten via Liver shot KO due to a knee to the body. In 1995, he won the King of Pancrase (now KOP Open-Weight) title to become the second ever King of Pancrase. Suzuki twice defeated Shamrock and

27020-454: The new GHC Heavyweight Champion. Suzuki-gun's dominance led to a storyline, where all of Noah's stables, villainous ones included, came together in order to reclaim the titles. As part of the storyline, Yoshihiro Takayama officially broke off his affiliation with Suzuki-gun by announcing his loyalty to Noah on March 28. In April, Suzuki-gun entered the 2015 Global Tag League with two teams; Suzuki and Iizuka and K.E.S. Benjamin also took part in

27213-416: The new head booker of Noah. On April 21, one of Noah's bigger stars, Takeshi Morishima , was forced to retire from professional wrestling due to issues with his blood. On December 24, 2015, Noah announced the signing of freelancer Katsuhiko Nakajima . Four days later, Noah announced the departures of Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste and Takeshi Morishima, following their contracts with the promotion expiring at

27406-494: The newborn Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). He joined Fujiwara's Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi but then left the organization to form Pancrase , one of the first mixed martial arts organizations in the world, in 1993 with Masakatsu Funaki . Suzuki's career in MMA originated after his departure from the Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi promotion along with Masakatsu Funaki and other wrestlers to found

27599-486: The newest member of Suzuki-gun in the process. The following day, Sabre was set up as the next challenger for Hirooki Goto's NEVER Openweight Championship . Sabre went on to fail in that challenge on April 9, despite help from El Desperado and Minoru Suzuki, the latter of whom afterwards brawled with Goto. This led to Suzuki defeating Goto on April 27 to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion, winning his first ever singles title in NJPW. That same day, Taichi and Kanemaru lost

27792-509: The next few months, leading to a tag team match at Back to the Yokohama Arena on May 25, where Yano's longtime tag team partner Takashi Iizuka turned on him during a tag team match, where they faced Suzuki and Benjamin, and jumped to Suzuki-gun. On June 9, NJPW suspended Taichi for two months with a 30% pay cut, after he had been caught cheating on his wife. On July 4, El Desperado joined Suzuki-gun, announcing his intention of bringing

27985-424: The people and animals in the ark survive the flood and make a new beginning in the world, a story which was seen as a parallel to the wrestlers' departure from AJPW. Noah's original logo, an ark with a dove holding an olive branch, referred to this. Pro Wrestling Noah is essentially a continuation of AJPW's promotional system in the 1990s, with a slight leeway to allow wrestlers from other promotions to compete, which

28178-515: The possibility of there being another traitor within Noah. During his match with Go Shiozaki , Yoshinobu Kanemaru revealed himself as the traitor by turning on Shiozaki, helping Suzuki win the match and joining Suzuki-gun. On February 24, Kanemaru defeated Taiji Ishimori with help from his new stablemates to become the new GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion. On March 27, Suzuki-gun produced the second We Are Suzuki-gun event. The following month, K.E.S. set

28371-592: The promotion and would be wrestling their final matches for the promotion on December 23 and 24. The following month, all five men joined AJPW. Kobashi returned to wrestle his retirement match in a Noah ring on May 11, 2013, at Final Burning in Budokan . On May 12 at Noah's "New Chapter" show held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo , Akira Taue announced the signings of Daisuke Harada , Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste of The Mighty Don't Kneel (TMDK) as full-time members of

28564-478: The promotion as had been hoped, but without Suzuki-gun, Noah's attendance numbers fell significantly further. On January 5, 2017, Suzuki-gun made its return to NJPW after two years away with all eight members attacking the ring following a ten-man tag team match between the Chaos stable and NJPW's main army. The attack saw K.E.S. target IWGP Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano and concluded with Suzuki laying out IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada with

28757-521: The promotion. Taue also announced his retirement from in-ring competition to focus on his duties as the Chairman of the promotion and his retirement match would take place on December 7, 2013 at the Ariake Coliseum . On April 30, 2014, Noah's arguably biggest star and ace Kenta announced his resignation from the promotion to sign with WWE . In early 2015, NJPW wrestler Jado took over as

28950-454: The quarter-finals. On July 12, at Dominion , Taichi and Sabre defeated Tanahashi and Ibushi to win their IWGP Tag Team Championships . On August 29, at Summer Struggle in Jingu , Suzuki would win the NEVER Openweight Championship once again by beating Shingo Takagi , meanwhile Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. would retain the IWGP Tag Team Championship by beating Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi . On September 11, Desperado and Kanemaru won

29143-471: The relocating of its offices from Ariake, Tokyo to Kanda-Misakichō due to Differ Ariake 's scheduled closing in June 2018. At the end of 2016, NJPW pulled all of its wrestlers, including the entire Suzuki-gun stable, from Noah with reports stating that the relationship between the two promotions had turned "extremely sour". Having lost the NJPW relationship, Noah's attendance numbers went down by 29% during

29336-425: The ring and attacked Makabe, revealing himself as the newest member of Suzuki-gun. On September 23 at Destruction , Makabe ended his rivalry with Suzuki-gun by defeating Mashimo in a singles match. The following day, Harry Smith was renamed Davey Boy Smith Jr., after his father . On October 8 at King of Pro-Wrestling , Smith and Archer, now known collectively as Killer Elite Squad (K.E.S.), defeated Tencozy to win

29529-465: The same event, Suzuki was defeated by Tetsuya Naito in a special singles rematch. On November 3 at Power Struggle , Taichi lost the NEVER Openweight Championship back to Goto in his first defense, ending his reign at 47 days. From November 17 to December 9, three Suzuki-Gun teams would participate in the World Tag League , K.E.S, Suzuki and Iizuka and Taichi and Sabre. With each team finishing

29722-439: The second place in their block, while Suzuki and Mashimo failed to advance from the other block with three wins and three losses. On December 2, K.E.S. defeated Always Hypers (Togi Makabe and Wataru Inoue) to advance to the final of the tournament, where, later that same day, they were defeated by Sword & Guns ( Hirooki Goto and Karl Anderson). On January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome , K.E.S. successfully defended

29915-504: The second round of the New Japan Cup, and then Smith unsuccessfully challenged Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. The event concluded with Suzuki confronting new IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada, seemingly as his first challenger for the title. Following the event, Taka Michinoku announced that Suzuki-gun had recruited a new member to take on Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, noting that he

30108-428: The second straight year, being the third man to do so by beating Funaki in the final – weeks removed from their cage match. After the final, Suzuki buried the hatchet with Funaki by shaking his hand, thus ending the decade-long rivalry. Suzuki then declared his Gurentai stable on hiatus. As a result of his Champion Carnival victory, Suzuki earned a Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship match versus Ryota Hama on May 2. In

30301-404: The semi-final round. In October, Sabre Jr competed in a tournament to crown the inaugural NJPW World Television Championship , he defeated Alex Zayne , David Finlay and Evil to advance to the tournament finals, where he will face Ren Narita at Wrestle Kingdom 17 . In November, Archer and Suzuki teamed together in the World Tag League , where they finished with 8 points failing to advance to

30494-417: The semifinals. On November 6, Suzuki and Archer first defeated Chaos representatives Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano in the semifinals and then the reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions , Bad Intentions ( Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson ), in the final to win the 2011 G1 Tag League. As a result, Suzuki and Archer were granted a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but were defeated by Bad Intentions in

30687-478: The semifinals. Smith, the final Suzuki-gun member left in the New Japan Cup, was eliminated from the tournament by Hirooki Goto in their semifinal match on March 23. On April 5, K.E.S. made their fourth successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship against Chaos representatives Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii . The rivalry between Suzuki-gun and Chaos continued two days later at Invasion Attack , where Suzuki first defeated Toru Yano to avenge his loss from

30880-426: The single block tournament with 18, 10 and 16 points respectively, with K.E.S narrowly missing the final after a head-to-head loss against Evil and Sanada. On January 4, 2019, at Wrestle Kingdom 13 , Desperado and Kanemaru lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Bushi and Shingo Takagi , in a 3 way rematch which also included Roppongi 3K. At the same event, Sabre defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win back

31073-445: The single round-robin block with ten points, advancing to the final. On May 4, Archer and Smith were defeated in the final of the tournament by Naomichi Marufuji and Toru Yano. On May 28, Archer and Smith lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Marufuji and Yano, ending their 15-month title reign in their 11th defense. Later that same day, Sugiura lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Go Shiozaki in his second title defense. On July 26, it

31266-719: The stable after he previously departed both it and NJPW in 2020. In AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), Suzuki won his first American Championship, the ROH Television Championship . In 2022 at the World Tag League finals, Suzuki announced that Suzuki-Gun would disband at the end of 2022. The stable's final match, an eight-man tag-team match, between the members took place on December 23, 2022. On December 12, 2010, Taichi returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) from his latest excursion to Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), accompanying IWGP Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima to

31459-603: The stable's return to NJPW in January 2017. Since their return to New Japan, the stable saw much success, adding Zack Sabre Jr. , who brought the British Heavyweight Championship to the group and won the New Japan Cup tournament twice in 2018 and 2022. Sabre Jr and now heavyweight Taichi teamed as Dangerous Tekkers, winning the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships on three occasions. Lance Archer captured

31652-538: The team of Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston in a Philadelphia street fight . In November, Suzuki reunited with Taka Michinoku to team for the World Tag League , although the team finished bottom of the block with 0 points, failing to win a single match. On January 4, 2022, on night 1 of Wrestle Kingdom 16 , Suzuki once again competed in the New Japan Rambo , this time lasting till the final 4. On Night 2, Suzuki defeated Toru Yano , Chase Owens and Cima , to win

31845-502: The third Pancrase event in November 1993, Suzuki had his debut in kickboxing rules against American champion Maurice Smith , in a rematch of a "different style fight" celebrated back in UWF where Smith defeated Suzuki. Naturally outclassed, Minoru was knocked down several times and finished shortly after. He had a third match with Smith in May 1994, this time under a special ruleset: the first and

32038-407: The third round would be fought wearing kickboxing gloves, the second and fourth without them and the fifth under a combination of the two. Suzuki finally got his revenge, submitting Smith at the third round with an armbar despite the disadvantage of the gloves. Despite his significant size disadvantage against most competitors, Suzuki became one of the most successful fighters in Pancrase. He amassed

32231-412: The title back to Marufuji. On November 23, 2016, Suzuki defeated Masa Kitamiya in the finals to win the 2016 Global League . On December 2, Suzuki unsuccessfully challenged Katsuhiko Nakajima for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Three days later, it was announced that Suzuki-gun was out of Noah, concluding the invasion storyline. The entire Suzuki-gun returned to NJPW on January 5, 2017, attacking

32424-578: The title later in the year, following Takayama's mounting injuries. In 2005, Suzuki began competing in Pro Wrestling Noah , and would receive a GHC Heavyweight Championship shot against then Champion Kenta Kobashi , but he was defeated. After this, he found an unlikely ally in Naomichi Marufuji , whose style was Lucha Libre (rather than shoot-style). Nonetheless, Suzuki taught Marufuji some of what he knew and they clicked, winning

32617-406: The title to him, he would have to join Suzuki-gun. After a reign of 26 days, Taichi and Michinoku lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) on November 9 at Power Struggle . Later that same event, K.E.S. took part in a two-fall three-way match against Tencozy and The IronGodz ( Jax Dane and Rob Conway ). In the first fall, they lost

32810-610: The top wrestler or tag team in the promotion: Pro Wrestling Sem was the junior affiliate of Pro Wrestling Noah launched in 2006. Its name came from the biblical figure Sem , the eldest son of Noah. Sem was originally headed by Naomichi Marufuji and Kenta, acting as coaches for the rookie competitors. Mitsuharu Misawa's inspiration for the venture came from the German Westside Xtreme Wrestling promotion, where he wrestled in March 2005. The seats are limited to

33003-464: The tournament by winning a round-robin tournament, contested between the four Suzuki-gun junior heavyweight wrestlers. Both made it to the final day on August 21, where both were defeated by reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kushida with Taichi losing to him in the semifinals and Kanemaru in the final. Back in Noah, Kanemaru lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Atsushi Kotoge in his fifth defense on September 23. On October 23, Sugiura lost

33196-458: The tournament in the second round by Chaos member Toru Yano. Suzuki avenged his loss to Yano by defeating him in a rematch on April 7 at Invasion Attack and, later that same event, confronted new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, accepting a title shot offered to him by Okada's mouthpiece, Gedo . On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2013 , Suzuki unsuccessfully challenged Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Suzuki then got involved in

33389-401: The tournament with 6 points. On the final day of the tournament, during a tag match Suzuki would pin current Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, he then would challenge Okada for the title. It was later announced that Okada and Suzuki would meet at Royal Quest . Sabre and Tanahashi would also meet for Sabre's British Heavyweight Championship, after Tanahashi earned the match by beating Sabre in

33582-428: The tournament with a record of three wins and six losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament. On November 7 at Power Struggle (2020) , Suzuki lost the NEVER Openweight Championship back to Shingo Takagi . At Wrestle Kingdom 15 on January 4, 2021, Suzuki competed in the New Japan Rambo , but failed to last til the final 4. In March, Suzuki competed in the New Japan Cup , defeating Tomoaki Honma in

33775-542: The tournament, Suzuki transitioned from Yano, who was busy feuding with Iizuka, to a new rivalry with Kazushi Sakuraba , who had come to Yano's aid in the aftermath of Iizuka's turn. During September's Destruction tour, Suzuki-gun's three junior heavyweight members, referred to collectively as "Suzuki-gun Junior", set their sights on both of NJPW's junior heavyweight titles. On September 23 at Destruction in Okayama , El Desperado and Taichi failed in their attempt to capture

33968-503: The tournament, teaming with Brian Breaker. K.E.S. eventually made it to the final of the tournament, where, on May 4, they were defeated by Dangan Yankies ( Masato Tanaka and Takashi Sugiura ). All four of Suzuki-gun's titles were put on the line on May 10 and all were defended successfully. First El Desperado and Michinoku successfully defended the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Yoshinari Ogawa and Zack Sabre Jr. and then helped Taichi defeat Atsushi Kotoge to retain

34161-522: The two Suzuki-gun teams. The rivalry between Suzuki and Sakuraba culminated in a "knockouts and submissions only" match on January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome , where Suzuki was victorious. Also during the event, the Suzuki-gun quartet of Iizuka, Archer, Benjamin and Smith were defeated in an eight-man tag team match by Yano and Pro Wrestling Noah's Naomichi Marufuji and TMDK ( Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste ). The following day, El Desperado unsuccessfully challenged Jyushin Thunder Liger for

34354-442: The two events, Noah announced on December 5 that the stable was gone from the promotion, concluding the two-year-long storyline. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that Suzuki-gun had originally been sent to Noah to help sustain the promotion, but the relationship between Noah and NJPW had turned "extremely sour", leading to NJPW pulling its wrestlers from the promotion. Suzuki-gun's entry into Noah had not led to increased business for

34547-497: The two stables continued during the 2013 New Japan Cup , with Okada defeating Archer and Smith defeating Nakamura in their first round matches on March 11. Meanwhile, Suzuki also advanced in the tournament with a win over old rival Yuji Nagata, avenging the loss from Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome. The second round of the tournament on March 17 saw two more matches between Suzuki-gun and Chaos, when Smith eliminated Yujiro Takahashi , while Toru Yano eliminated Minoru Suzuki to advance to

34740-415: The way for mixed martial arts in Japan. In 2003, Suzuki and Yusuke Fuke announced their plan to return to puroresu and invade promotions under the stable name Pancrase Mission. Suzuki began competing for NJPW as a freelancer, where he aligned himself with Yoshihiro Takayama and won the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Osamu Nishimura on February 1, 2004. They were stripped of

34933-408: The winners of the tournament, Bullet Club ( Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson). Also during the event, Michinoku and Taichi unsuccessfully challenged The Young Bucks for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a four-way match and Suzuki continued his feud with Toru Yano, with him and Benjamin losing to Yano and The Great Muta in a tag team match. Suzuki and Yano continued their rivalry for

35126-410: Was again challenged for the GHC Heavyweight Championship by Naomichi Marufuji, prompting Suzuki to present an added stipulation for their match; should Marufuji lose, Noah would be dissolved. Uniting the entire Noah roster together, Marufuji stated he was prepared to dissolve Noah if any member of Suzuki-gun was able to win the upcoming Global League . Meanwhile, El Desperado and Taka Michinoku made it to

35319-421: Was against a professional wrestler, Jushin Thunder Liger (who replaced his original opponent, Kensuke Sasaki , due to injury), whom Suzuki had known under his real name Keiichi Yamada in his first NJPW stint. At the time he competed in grappling matches almost exclusively. Suzuki witnessed the transition Pancrase made from the so-called "hybrid wrestling" style to that of regular MMA and was instrumental in paving

35512-550: Was announced Noah and DDT would merge in a new company, CyberFight . Both companies would run as separate brands under the CyberFight banner. On November 19, 2021 Noah re-established its relationship with NJPW with Noah wrestlers being involved at the third night of NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 16 event, with a portion of proceeds donated to the Japanese Red Cross. On December 15, 2023, Noah was announced as one of

35705-734: Was announced that Noah and the Mexico-based International Wrestling Revolution Group had entered into a talent-sharing partnership. In January 2020, Noah was acquired by CyberAgent , parent company of DDT Pro Wrestling . DDT's President Sanshiro Takagi was named the President of Pro Wrestling Noah and Naomichi Marufuji the Vice President. Noah's events began airing on DDT's streaming service DDT Universe starting with Noah Global Jr. League 2020 on January 30. On July 27, 2020, it

35898-403: Was announced that Shelton Benjamin was returning to WWE , signaling the end of his run as a member of Suzuki-gun. On July 30, Sugiura regained the GHC Heavyweight Championship from Go Shiozaki in the first lumberjack match in Noah history. Also in July, Suzuki-gun returned to NJPW, when Taichi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru represented the stable in the 2016 Super J-Cup . The two had earned the spots in

36091-503: Was announced that Taichi would be participating in the G1 Climax 29, making it his first appearance in the tournament. Archer would also be making an appearance in the tournament for the first time in five years. Sabre would also make his 3rd consecutive appearance in the tournament. And Minoru Suzuki was left out of the tournament. Sabre finished the tournament with 8 points, Taichi finished the tournament with 8 points, and Archer finished

36284-540: Was attacked by former stablemate Takayama, who issued a challenge for a title match. On July 18 at Noah's 15th anniversary event, Suzuki defeated Takayama, following outside interference from El Desperado, K.E.S. and Iizuka, to make his third successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Afterwards, Takashi Sugiura, who earlier in the event had defeated Shelton X Benjamin in their personal grudge match, stepped up as Suzuki's next challenger. Through late July and early August, both El Desperado and Michinoku took part in

36477-446: Was blinded by a green mist from Muta. Suzuki finally got his win over Yano on March 15 in the first round of the 2014 New Japan Cup . Suzuki eventually made it to the semifinals of the tournament, before losing to Shinsuke Nakamura. On May 25 at Back to the Yokohama Arena , Suzuki got another win over Yano, when Takashi Iizuka turned on him during a tag team match and joined Suzuki-gun. From July 21 to August 8, Suzuki took part in

36670-427: Was defeated by Taguchi. Later in the month, two Suzuki-gun teams took part in the same block in the 2014 World Tag League ; K.E.S. and Suzuki and Iizuka. Both teams narrowly missed the final of the tournament due to losses on the final day; K.E.S. with a record of four wins and three losses and Suzuki and Iizuka with a record of three wins, one draw and three losses. K.E.S. was victorious in the head-to-head match between

36863-419: Was named as Misawa's successor, taking over as President of Pro Wrestling Noah. Also in 2009, Noah lost their weekly television show on Nippon TV . In March 2012, it was revealed that Noah management had ties to a yakuza crime syndicate, which resulted in the promotion demoting General Manager Ryu Nakata and Counselor Haruka Eigen and enforcing new anti-yakuza protocols; Noah also lost its TV show as part of

37056-527: Was not going to settle until Iizuka's final match. On February 21, at New Japan Road, Tenzan, along with Toru Yano and Kazuchika Okada, defeated the team of Suzuki, Taichi and Iizuka in Iizuka's retirement match, with Tenzan pinning Iizuka with the Moonsault for the victory. Post match, Tenzan made one final effort to bring the old Iizuka back momentarily, which resulted in Iizuka giving in and shook his hand for

37249-538: Was suitable to challenge for said title. On April 20, the newest member was revealed as former multi-time WWE Intercontinental Champion Shelton X Benjamin . Later that same day, Archer and Smith took part in a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) event in Houston, Texas , where they defeated The Kingz of the Underground (Ryan Genesis and Scot Summers) to not only retain the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but to also win

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