Michiharu Sadano, known in sumo and professional wrestling as Michiharu Toyonobori or simply by his shikona Toyonobori, was a Japanese professional wrestler and sumo wrestler.
12 Facts About Toyonobori
1.
2.
Toyonobori performed as a sumo wrestler from 1947 to 1954.
3.
Toyonobori debuted on December 12,1954 with the Japanese Wrestling Association, which was the top wrestling promotion in Japan from 1953 until 1972 and the only male significant Japanese wrestling promotion from 1953 until 1966, when its predominance began to be challenged by International Wrestling Enterprise.
4.
Toyonobori formed two successful tag teams with Michiaki Yoshimura and then Giant Baba, with whom he won the All Asia Tag Team Championship three more times.
5.
On December 12,1964, Toyonobori won the World Heavyweight Championship of Worldwide Wrestling Associates from The Destroyer at the Tokyo Gym; the title was universally recognized as a world title back then and had been held by Rikidozan himself.
6.
Toyonobori was therefore the first Japanese wrestler to win a world title in Professional Wrestling as Rikidozan was Korean.
7.
On September 20,1965, Toyonobori was defeated by disqualification by Luke Graham at the Los Angeles Olympic Auditorium to end the dispute over the WWA World Heavyweight Championship.
8.
Toyonobori began losing power in the JWA, which then started pushing Giant Baba to the top of the promotion, leading him to win its top single title, the NWA International Heavyweight Championship, in 1965.
9.
On December 19,1968, Toyonobori was defeated by Billy Robinson in a round-robin tournament to become the first IWA World Heavyweight Champion, the first Japanese-based world heavyweight championship in professional wrestling history.
10.
On February 11,1970, Toyonobori announced his retirement at an IWE event.
11.
In March 1972, when Inoki left JWA to form New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Toyonobori came out of retirement to help give the promotion name value.
12.
Toyonobori died on July 1,1998, due to heart failure.