1. Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Extreme Championship Wrestling in the United States where he was a one-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion.
Masato Tanaka is currently splitting his time wrestling for both Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero1.
Masato Tanaka is overall a ten-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions.
Originally a trainee for George and Shunji Takano's Pro Wrestling Crusaders, Tanaka transferred to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, where he trained under Atsushi Onita.
Masato Tanaka debuted on July 23,1993, in Saga City, facing Ricky Fuji.
Masato Tanaka quickly began moving up the card in FMW, widely regarded as the top hardcore professional wrestling promotion in Japan.
Masato Tanaka debuted in ECW on March 1,1998, at Living Dangerously, defeating Doug Furnas in a match that, compared to Masato Tanaka's extremely well-received future matches, was very much hated by the fans in attendance, who greeted the unusually sloppy wrestlers with a chorus of boos throughout their fumbled offense.
Masato Tanaka formed a short-lived tag team with Balls Mahoney, and at November to Remember on November 1,1998, they defeated The Dudley Boyz to win the ECW World Tag Team Championships.
The Dudley Boyz would regain the titles five days later, and Masato Tanaka returned to Japan to attend the wedding of his friend Sabu in December and eventually returning to FMW in January 1999.
Masato Tanaka returned to ECW in the summer of 1999, this time vying for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
Masato Tanaka finally overcame Awesome on December 17,1999, at an ECW on TNN TV Taping in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first ECW World Heavyweight Champion not to be an American citizen.
Dreamer and Masato Tanaka defeated the Impact Players for the ECW World Tag Team Championship on February 26,2000, in Cincinnati, but lost them to Mike Awesome and Raven on March 4,2000, at The ECW Arena.
Masato Tanaka pinned Awesome, who had already defended his ECW World Heavyweight Title earlier that night beating Kid Kash, costing Awesome and Raven the tag team titles, but lost the match after Dreamer was pinned by the Impact Players.
Masato Tanaka faced Balls Mahoney in at ECW on TNN and at Hardcore Heaven 2000.
Masato Tanaka remained with ECW until mid-2000 before returning to Japan.
Masato Tanaka returned to FMW in the spring of 2000, briefly feuding with H, before joining forces with H to feud with Team No Respect, until leaving in February 2001, allegedly as a result of animosity between him and the owner of FMW, Shoichi Arai, mostly over Kodo Fuyuki's role as booker.
In January 2002 Masato Tanaka formed a tag team named "Emblem" with Shinjiro Otani, with whom he twice won the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championships.
In mid-2009 Masato Tanaka returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling as an outsider.
Masato Tanaka reformed the Complete Players with Jado and Gedo, and he participated in the 2009 G1 Climax tournament, although he failed to advance past the block stages.
On October 10,2011, at Destruction '11, Masato Tanaka defeated MVP to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, becoming only the second champion in the title's history.
On November 15,2012, Masato Tanaka entered a tournament to determine the inaugural NEVER Openweight Champion.
Masato Tanaka made his first successful title defense on January 4,2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome, where he defeated Shelton Benjamin.
On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2013, Masato Tanaka made his third successful title defense against Tomoaki Honma.
On January 1,2021, Masato Tanaka won his 5th Zero1 World Heavyweight Championship.
In 2022, Masato Tanaka would begin to achieve significant success in the promotion.
Masato Tanaka challenged for the GHC Heavyweight Title against Kazuyuki Fujita and participated in the N1 Victory League singles tournament.
On November 9,2002, Masato Tanaka debuted for Ring of Honor, wrestling on ROH's All Star Extravaganza show, where he teamed with Shinjiro Otani to defeat Steve Corino and Low Ki.
Masato Tanaka was defeated after Awesome delivered a running Awesome Bomb through a table outside the ring and followed up with an Awesome Splash.
Masato Tanaka returned to WWE one year later at ECW One Night Stand 2006, losing to Balls Mahoney.
On October 26,2007, Masato Tanaka beat Takao Omori for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.
On January 23,2010, Masato Tanaka made his debut for Jersey All Pro Wrestling at the promotion's 12th Anniversary Show, where he was defeated by Homicide.
In December 2018 Masato Tanaka made another return to the United States.
On November 12,2023, Masato Tanaka made his debut for Deadlock Pro-Wrestling, wrestling on DPW's World's Strongest event, where he teamed with Bryan Keith and Calvin Tankman to defeat Tom Lawlor, Jorel Nelson, and Royce Isaacs.