Kenzo Suzuki

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Kenzo Suzuki


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Kenzo Suzuki
Billed height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Billed weight	118 kg (260 lb/18.6 st)
Born	July 25, 1974 (1974-07-25) (age 33) Hekinan, Aichi
Trained by	New Japan Dojo Riki Choshu
Debut	January 4, 2000

Kenzo Suzuki (鈴木健想) (born July 25, 1974) is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is perhaps best known for his appearances with New Japan Pro Wrestling and in the United States with World Wrestling Entertainment He is currently wrestling in the AAA promotion in Mexico, were he is part of a heel stable known as "La legion extranjera" (the foreign legion).

1 Career
2 Personal life
3 In wrestling
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Suzuki was a rugby union player prior to his professional debut as a wrestler in April 1999.

[edit] New Japan Pro Wrestling (2000–2003)

Suzuki debuted at New Japan Pro Wrestling's Wrestling World 2000 event at the Tokyo Dome, replacing Bill Goldberg and losing to Manabu Nakanishi. Later that year, Suzuki won New Japan's Young Lions Cup tournament, defeating Shinya Makabe. He also won Rookie of the Year honors from New Japan in the same year. In his years in New Japan, he was teamed with fellow rookie Hiroshi Tanahashi, who had debuted only four months before him. Their combination was known as The Kings of the Hills.

[edit] World Japan (2003)

In 2003, Suzuki resigned from New Japan, choosing to follow his mentor and trainer, Riki Chōshū, to Chōshū's World Japan promotion. Later in the year, he left to wrestle in the United States. It is speculated that he was forced to resign because a wrestler he was helping to train, Giant Ochiai, died while training on his watch.^[1]^[2] The World Japan promotion had been embroiled in controversy up to that point and this news was something that the promotion did not need. This led to him being blackballed,^{[citation needed]} thus venturing to wrestle in the United States. Suzuki wrestled for the Major League Wrestling (MLW) promotion in the United States during 2003. Nevertheless, citing lack of competition in the World Japan roster, he quit.

[edit] World Wrestling Entertainment (2004–2005)

In 2004, Suzuki debuted for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s SmackDown! brand, along with his geisha valet (and real-life wife) Hiroko. Dan Madigan created a Hirohito gimmick for his WWE debut, but the idea was dropped and he debuted under his real name. He made his WWE TV debut on the June 10, 2004 episode of SmackDown!. His first opponent was Scotty 2 Hotty, followed by Spike Dudley and a short feud with Billy Gunn which ended with a match at the Great American Bash, which Suzuki won. Generally, he worked as a heel with two humorous gimmicks. One was convincing fans he was pro-American by poorly singing popular songs; the other was an obsession with busty wrestling divas such as Torrie Wilson (often earning Hiroko's great ire). Often at house shows and television tapings, the crowd would chant "USA! USA!", while Kenzo covered his ears and got down on one knee.

On the episode of SmackDown! airing September 9, Kenzo, along with Rene Dupree won the WWE Tag Team Championship, defeating Billy Kidman and Paul London. They lost the titles to Rob Van Dam and Rey Mysterio on the December 9 airing of SmackDown!. Van Dam and Mysterio retained the titles in a rematch at Armageddon. In singles action, he briefly feuded with John Cena for the WWE United States Championship, getting into a battle rap with him at one point.

He was soon injured with a collapsed lung and was moved over to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) immediately after his recovery, where he continued his training until he was ready to return to the main roster. Suzuki and Hiroko were traded to RAW on June 30, 2005 at the end of the Draft Lottery. However, both of the Suzukis were released on July 5 before debuting on RAW.

[edit] HUSTLE (2005–present)

Kenzo and his wife have since returned to Japan, where he now competes for the off-beat Hustle promotion. In a match on December 25, 2005 both Kenzo & Hiroko were defeated by the team of Liosazer & Riser Glen. In one of his more humorous matches, he is defeated by Razor Ramon HG when he was pantsed during a Sunset Flip maneuver.

[edit] Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (2007)

On March 13, Kenzo was seen on Asistencia Asesoría y Administración after jumping from rival CMLL. He is a part of the Legion Extranjera with Konnan as the ring leader. On July 15, Suzuki lost his hair in the main event of AAA's TripleMania XV. Sean Waltman was also in the match with his fiancee, Alicia Webb.

With Marco Corleone

[edit] Dragon Gate (2007–present)

On November 7, 2007, Kenzo made his debut in Dragon Gate as the surprise member of the Muscle Outlaw'z unit. He came out to Anthony W. Mori's entrance theme to trick the Typhoon unit into believing one of their own betrayed them. Kenzo competed in a six-man tag team match with new teammates Genki Horiguchi, and Yasushi Kanda against CIMA, Dragon Kid, and Ryo Saito that resulted in a disqualification loss to his team for assaulting the referee. Afterward, he and the rest of the MO'z assaulted Dragon Kid and removed the ring ropes to be used against him. This set up a match between Kenzo and Dragon Kid at the big November 25 show in Osaka. His first official singles match in Dragon Gate is scheduled for November 18 against Keni'chiro Arai in Fukuoka.