Kensuke Sasaki is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, and founder of the now-defunct wrestling promotion Diamond Ring.
38 Facts About Kensuke Sasaki
2.
Kensuke Sasaki competed in MMA and won both fights by submission, remaining undefeated in mixed martial arts competition.
3.
Kensuke Sasaki debuted in Riki Choshu's Japan Pro-Wrestling, a satellite of All Japan Pro Wrestling, in February 1986.
4.
Shortly afterwards, Kensuke Sasaki became a regular in AJPW for over a year.
5.
Kensuke Sasaki defected to rival promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling, following Choshu, who returned to NJPW in 1987.
6.
In January 1989, Kensuke Sasaki embarked on an excursion to North America.
7.
Kensuke Sasaki first started wrestling there in Puerto Rico in World Wrestling Council, where he held his very first championship, the WWC Caribbean Tag Team Championship, with Mr Pogo twice between January 14,1989 and April 1,1989.
8.
Kensuke Sasaki wrestled for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion in Canada, where he wrestled under the name Benkei Sasaki and was trained by Hart in 'The Dungeon'.
9.
Kensuke Sasaki wrestled for Otto Wanz's Catch Wrestling Association in tours of Austria and Germany under the name Kendo Sasaki.
10.
In December 1989, Stampede Wrestling closed its doors, and Kensuke Sasaki wrestled for the Canadian National Wrestling Alliance, until March 1990 when he was fired by Ed Whalen for kicking Mike Lozanski too stiff.
11.
Kensuke Sasaki returned to NJPW in March 1990, and formed a popular tag team with Hiroshi Hase, with whom he would have a long on-off tag team partnership.
12.
Two more tag title reigns followed when in late 1992, Kensuke Sasaki assumed the name "Power Warrior" and teamed with Road Warrior Hawk.
13.
Kensuke Sasaki dropped the Power Warrior persona in 1995 and began climbing the ranks in singles competition.
14.
Kensuke Sasaki won his first major title, the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship on November 13,1995, defeating Sting at a NJPW Event.
15.
Kensuke Sasaki soon lost the title to dubious circumstances however, losing to One Man Gang which was later claimed to be an official title match.
16.
Kensuke Sasaki solidified his dominance in the heavyweight division by defeating both Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh in his first two title defenses, thus defeating The Three Musketeers in three straight title matches.
17.
Kensuke Sasaki won the G1 Climax for the second time in August 2000 with a victory over last year's winner Manabu Nakanishi in the final, now holding both of New Japan's two heavyweight singles crowns.
18.
On October 9,2000, Kensuke Sasaki surrendered the IWGP title after he lost to Toshiaki Kawada in a non-title match at an All Japan vs New Japan event called Do Judge.
19.
In March 2001, Kensuke Sasaki lost the IWGP Heavyweight Title to Scott Norton and in late 2002 he resigned from the promotion after a falling out with company management.
20.
Kensuke Sasaki became the only WMG Heavyweight Champion; however, tensions between him and Choshu over financial issues caused Sasaki to withdraw and the company to die a slow death.
21.
Kensuke Sasaki later aligned himself with Manabu Nakanishi, who had recently begun his "lone wolf" character.
22.
Kensuke Sasaki dropped the title to Bob Sapp a little over two weeks later.
23.
In July 2006, Kensuke Sasaki suffered an injury and required time off, meaning he and Nakajima had to vacate the All Asia Tag Titles.
24.
Kensuke Sasaki made his first defense against Toshiaki Kawada on October 18,2007, and would go on to team with Kawada after Katsuhiko Nakajima suffered an injury on October 18 in the 2007 World's Strongest Tag Determination League.
25.
Kensuke Sasaki successfully defended the Triple Crown Championship against Satoshi Kojima.
26.
Kensuke Sasaki participated in the 2008 Champion Carnival over five straight shows in the Korakuen Hall from April 5 to April 9, scoring 4 points after 1 win, 1 loss and 2 draws.
27.
Kensuke Sasaki lost the Triple Crown Championship to Carnival Winner Suwama on April 29,2008, and left the promotion in June.
28.
Kensuke Sasaki debuted for Pro Wrestling Noah in 2005, losing to Kenta Kobashi at Destiny 2005.
29.
Kensuke Sasaki teamed up with regular tag partner Takeshi Morishima to participate in the Global Tag League of 2010, which ran from January 9 to January 24.
30.
Kensuke Sasaki participated in Pro-Wrestling NOAH's Global League of 2010 from March 28 to May 2.
31.
Kensuke Sasaki finished with a total of seven points, losing out to eventual winner Yoshihiro Takayama.
32.
In September 2006, Kensuke Sasaki Office was announced as a member of the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance.
33.
On February 11,2014, Kensuke Sasaki suffered his first loss to Katsuhiko Nakajima in the main event of a Diamond Ring event.
34.
Two days later, Kensuke Sasaki held a press conference to announce his retirement from professional wrestling.
35.
Between 2001 and 2003, Kensuke Sasaki took a couple hiatuses from pro-wrestling and focused on mixed martial arts.
36.
Kensuke Sasaki has two fights under his belt, winning both by submission in the first round beating Dan Chase in 2001 and future UFC fighter Christian Wellisch in 2003.
37.
Kensuke Sasaki married Akira Hokuto on October 1,1995, after proposing to her on their first date.
38.
Also, Kensuke Sasaki has a strong bond with his protege Katsuhiko Nakajima, whom he considers to be a member of the family.