Profiles: Tatsumi Fujinami

A legend of professional wrestling, Tatsumi Fujinami is one of the most respected and popular wrestlers ever to come out of Japan.

In his homeland, where professional wrestling is one of the most watched forms of entertainment, Fujinami is a household name.

Fujinami is the Vice-President of Japan’s biggest wrestling organisation New Japan Pro Wrestling, which was established by the legendary Antonio Inoki with whom Fujinami had many memorable matches.

He became known to many outside of Japan through New Japan’s collaboration with the WWF, following a ‘talent exchange’ agreement in 1975.

Fujinami held the WWF International Heavyweight Championship twice and the WWF International Tag Team Championship.

Riley’s gym rose to an almost mythical status in the Far East thanks to the exploits of, Belgian wrestler, Karl Gotch (known in Japan as 'the Godfather' of pro-wrestling) who trained under Billy Riley. The Japanese saw Gotch's style, effectively 'catch', as being more effective and authentic than anything they had ever seen.

Fujinami has travelled to Wigan on numerous occasions to learn traditional catch from Billy’s protégé Roy Wood, with whom he has become close friends.

He has invited Roy over to Japan a number of times to hold specific ‘Lancashire’ events, in an effort to spread the word about the origins of professional wrestling and its forgotten roots.

Click here to learn more about Fujinami & New Japan Pro Wrestling
www.njpw.com

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