Career
Suzuki was the last person remaining of a grueling thirty person training class in Pro Wrestling Noah's dojo. He debuted on Noah's 2001 Christmas show, and started wrestling under his real name of Yasuhiro, but quickly changed it to Kotaro. He challenged twice for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in 2004, and was unsuccessful in both attempts.
In 2005, he ended up adopting the guise of "Mushiking Terry," a gimmick tying into the card/arcade game Mushiking: King of the Beetles, defeating 'Mushiking Joker' in his debut at DESTINY 2005 on July 18, 2005 at the Tokyo Dome, but his challenge for KENTA's GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship on October 28, 2005 was unsuccessful after KENTA started performing heel actions such as faking a low blow as well as mockingly joining in a Terry chant while applying a camel clutch. At the January 21, 2007 Budokan Hall show, he pinned Mark Briscoe to take the GHC Jr. Tag title for himself and Ricky Marvin. At the April 28, 2007 show, he defeated Tatsuhito Takaiwa to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship (as Mushiking Terry). At Noah's Budokan show! Autumn Navigation '07, Suzuki (As Mushiking Terry) lost his GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yoshinobu Kanemaru. He later betrayed Marvin by joining with Yoshinobu Kanemaru in tag team, which ended with they winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Suzuki and Kanemaru joined with Genba Hirayanagi, and later joined the stable Disobey with Takeshi Rikio and Mohammed Yone. When Mitsuharu Misawa died, Suzuki (who was one of his students) adopted not just a green attire resembling the green tights of his mentor but started to use some moves like elbows and the Tiger Driver to pay him tribute and became a face again. He was later expulsed from Disobey and started a rivalry with his former partner Kanemaru. Suzuki would regain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title from Kanemaru on December 5, 2010, ending his long title run. On July 30, 2011, Suzuki and Atsushi Aoki defeated Kenta and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the 2011 Nippon TV Jr. Heavyweight Tag League, making both of them two-time winners of the tournament. On September 23, 2011, Suzuki lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Katsuhiko Nakajima. On October 16, 2011, Suzuki and Aoki defeated KENTA and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Ricky Marvin and Super Crazy on July 22, 2012.
Read more about this topic: Kotaro Suzuki
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)