Takeshi Morishima
Takeshi Morishima in 2008.
Born (1978-10-15) October 15, 1978[1]
Edogawa, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Takeshi Morishima
Billed height1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Billed weight130 kg (287 lb)[1]
Trained byAkira Taue[2]
All Japan Pro Wrestling[2]
Mitsuharu Misawa[2]
DebutMarch 22, 1998[1]
Retired2015[3]

Takeshi Morishima (森嶋 猛, Morishima Takeshi) (born October 15, 1978) is a Japanese former professional wrestler.

Morishima is best known for his work with Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a former three-time GHC Heavyweight Champion. He has also performed for Ring of Honor (ROH) in the United States in the past where he was a one-time ROH World Champion.

Professional wrestling career

All Japan Pro Wrestling (1998–2000)

Morishima attended Urayasu High School where he took part in judo. His instructor, Shoji Abe, was friends with Mitsuharu Misawa, and managed to get Morishima a tryout with All Japan Pro Wrestling, which he passed and shortly after began training with the promotion for a career in professional wrestling. Initially, Morishima was a protégé of Misawa, but after Naomichi Marufuji joined the promotion and Misawa decided instead to focus solely on training Marufuji, Akira Taue took Morishima under his wing and trained him. Morishima debuted for All Japan in 1998, but left in 2000 to join the newly formed Pro Wrestling Noah (founded by Misawa), where he became a mainstay.

Pro Wrestling Noah (2000–2015)

In Noah, he frequently teamed with Takeshi Rikio as Wild II,[4] and the duo have previously held the GHC Tag Team Championship.[5]

On March 2, 2008, Morishima defeated Mitsuharu Misawa at the Budokan Hall Event of Pro Wrestling Noah's Second Navigation Tour to become the 12th GHC Heavyweight Champion.[6] A veteran of American Ring of Honor promotion, Morishima has stated that while he plans on returning to ROH in the future, he has no intentions in regaining the ROH Championship, as he will be fully focused on Noah's heavyweight scene. On June 14, 2008, Morishima made his very first defense of the GHC Heavyweight Title against Takashi Sugiura. Morishima prevailed after hitting a backdrop driver. Morishima's second defense happened on July 18, 2008 against former his tag team partner Takeshi Rikio. After about 13 and a half minutes, Morishima defeated Rikio with a backdrop suplex. On September 6, 2008 at the Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Morishima lost to Kensuke Sasaki, who gained a pin at the 22-minute mark with the Northern Lights Bomb. On December 7, 2008, Morishima faced Jun Akiyama for the number one contender's spot for the GHC Heavyweight Championship; which he lost to Akiyama. On September 21, 2009 in Nagoya, Japan, Morishima and Sasaki defeated Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith for the GHC Tag Titles.[7] However, on December 6, at the last show of Winter Navigation '09, Morishima and Sasaki lost the titles to Takeshi Rikio and Muhammad Yone.[7]

Morishima appeared on the TV Drama in Japan, "Hesitation I Come" during his time off due to a foot injury. However, on November 23, during (Noah Winter Navigation 2010 - Day 4), Morishima returned to Noah teaming with Kensuke Sasaki and defeating Shuhei Taniguchi and Takashi Sugiura. On January 22, 2012, Morishima defeated Go Shiozaki to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the second time.[8] Since this victory, Morishima has defended against Naomichi Marufuji, Maybach Taniguchi, Go Shiozaki, Akitoshi Saito, Kenta, Jun Akiyama, and Kohei Sato. After a year-long reign, Morishima lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Kenta on January 27, 2013.[9] On January 5, 2014, Morishima defeated Kenta to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the third time.[10] Post-match, Morishima quit Brave to form a new group with Kenoh and Maybach Taniguchi, later named Choukibou-gun,[11] turning heel in the process.[12] On January 25, Morishima and Taniguchi defeated TMDK (Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste), with help from Kenoh and new stablemate Hajime Ohara, to win the GHC Tag Team Championship.[11][13] On February 8, Morishima lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship to New Japan Pro-Wrestling representative Yuji Nagata in his first title defense.[14] On May 31, Morishima and Taniguchi lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Masato Tanaka and Takashi Sugiura.[15]

American promotions (2003–2008)

Morishima has also wrestled in the United States. He competed in Harley Race's World League Wrestling promotion in 2003, defending the WLW Heavyweight Championship, which he had won from Ron Harris while Harris toured Japan.[16] Morishima returned to the United States in February 2007, wrestling four matches with Ring of Honor. He lost to Samoa Joe on February 16, 2007 before defeating Homicide in a match for the ROH World Championship on the subsequent evening, thus becoming the first non-American to hold the title.[6][17] On February 23, 2007, Morishima defeated B. J. Whitmer in his first title defense, and on the next night he and Nigel McGuinness defeated Samoa Joe and Homicide.[6] On March 4, 2007, he successfully defended the ROH Championship in Japan, defeating Kenta in the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.[6] Morishima could not return to the United States until almost a month and a half later when he and Chris Hero took on Nigel McGuinness and Doug Williams, and the next night when he successfully defended the belt against McGuinness for the first time.[6]

On April 21, 2007, Morishima was honored at the 42nd annual Cauliflower Alley Club banquet, being presented with the "Future Legend" award.[18][19] Back in ROH, Morishima went on a string of successful title defenses, defeating the likes of Austin Aries, Shingo, Jay Briscoe, and Roderick Strong.[6] Morishima also competed twice on ROH's first pay-per-view Respect Is Earned, defeating B. J. Whitmer to retain the ROH Championship, and later teaming with Bryan Danielson to defeat Nigel McGuinness and Kenta.[6] At the second pay-per-view, Driven, Morishima again competed twice, retaining the title against Jimmy Rave and later Adam Pearce.[6] On July 16, 2007, Morishima wrestled in the main event of Ring of Honor's debut show in Japan and defeated Nigel McGuinness to retain the ROH Championship.[20] Morishima lost the title to McGuinness at Undeniable on October 6.[6]

In August 2008 Morishima had a dark match tryout against Charlie Haas for WWE before a live Raw in Chicago, defeating Haas in 3 minutes with a missile dropkick.[6] He then beat Jamie Noble the following night in another dark match, this time for SmackDown.[6] Later in 2008, he traveled back to the United States to face Bryan Danielson for ROH's Final Battle 2008, which he lost.[6] This marked Morishima's last appearance in America.

AAA (2008–2010)

Through Noah's working relationship with AAA, Morishima has made several trips to Mexico. On March 19, 2010, Morishima teamed up with Taiji Ishimori to defeat La Hermandad 187 ("The Brotherhood of 187"; Nicho el Millonario and Joe Líder) to win the AAA World Tag Team Championship, representing the AAA heel faction La Legión Extranjera ("The Foreign Legion").[21] On May 23, 2010, Morishima and Ishimori lost the AAA World Tag Team Championship to the team of Atsushi Aoki and Go Shiozaki during Pro Wrestling Noah's Navigation with Breeze show in Niigata, Niigata, Japan.[22]

Retirement (2015)

In April 2015, Morishima was forced to pull out of the 2015 Global Tag League due to an injury. On April 21, Noah announced that a blood test had revealed that Morishima had an abnormally high glycated hemoglobin, suggesting diabetes. Following his doctor's recommendation, Morishima decided to immediately retire from professional wrestling.[3][23] On December 28, 2015, Noah canceled Morishima's retirement ceremony, announcing that his contract with the promotion would expire at the end of the year.[24] Later, Morishima recognized the diabetes wasn't the reason of his retirement, but a bad physical and mental state.[25]

Canceled return to the ring (2018)

On July 10, 2018, it was announced that Morishima was set to make his in-ring return in late 2018 at a show produced by Riki Choshu.[26][27] The show, initially named Genesis, was scheduled to take place on October 15, but was cancelled after Morishima announced he required emergency surgery for arthritis in his foot.[28]

Personal life

On November 4, 2018, Morishima was arrested at 11:30pm local time in Kabukichō, Tokyo after assaulting a taxi driver. Morishima allegedly refused to pay the 18,000 Yen the driver asked for and then punched him in the face, breaking both of his cheekbones. Morishima accepted the charges, saying "there is no doubt there was an argument".[29]

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Morishima Takeshi (profile)" (in Japanese). Pro Wrestling NOAH. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 "Cagematch profile". Cagematch. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
  3. 1 2 "森嶋猛選手 引退のご報告". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). 2015-04-21. Retrieved 2015-04-21.
  4. ↑ "NOAH roster". Archived from the original on 2007-03-03.
  5. ↑ "NOAH official website title lineages". Archived from the original on 2013-04-21.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Online World of Wrestling profile". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
  7. 1 2 "Puroresu Central profile". Puroresu Central. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
  8. ↑ "Great Voyage 2012 in Osaka". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved 2012-01-22.
  9. ↑ 2013年1月27日(日). Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved 2013-01-28.
  10. ↑ "New Year Navig.2014 ～新春ノア初め～". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved 2014-01-05.
  11. 1 2 "森嶋がGHCタッグ奪取でヘビー級二冠王に 新軍団名は「超危暴軍」に決定". Sports Navi (in Japanese). Yahoo!. 2014-01-26. Retrieved 2014-01-26.
  12. ↑ ＧＨＣ強奪・森嶋が暴君と化す. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). 2014-01-06. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  13. ↑ "The First Navig.2014". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved 2014-01-25.
  14. ↑ "The Second Navig. 2014". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  15. ↑ "Navig. with Breeze 2014". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). Retrieved 2014-05-31.
  16. ↑ "Takeshi Morishima - New WLW World Champion". Archived from the original on February 28, 2007. Retrieved March 26, 2007.
  17. ↑ "Ring of Honor Title". Ring of Honor. Archived from the original on 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  18. ↑ Johnson, Steven (22 April 2007). "That's entertainment! CAC banquet ranges from songs to stories to spoofs". Slam! Sports.
  19. ↑ "Cauliflower Alley Club 42nd Annual Banquet & Awards". Archived from the original on 2007-04-30.
  20. ↑ "Ring of Honor Results From Japan". Ring of Honor. 16 December 2007. ROH World Title Match: Takeshi Morishima defeated Nigel McGuinness to retain the belt in his 12th title defense
  21. 1 2 "Ya estamos en la Casa" (in Spanish). AAA. March 19, 2010. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
  22. ↑ "De última hora: En Japón los cinturones AAA cambian de manos, los nuevos campeones vienen a Triplemania 18" (in Spanish). Super Luchas Magazine. May 23, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
  23. ↑ "ノア森嶋が電撃引退 「糖尿病」が原因". Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). 2015-04-21. Retrieved 2015-04-21.
  24. ↑ "契約期間満了に関するご報告". Pro Wrestling Noah (in Japanese). 2015-12-28. Retrieved 2015-12-29.
  25. ↑ Solowrestling. "Takeshi Morishima anuncia su regreso a los cuadriláteros tras tres años retirado". Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  26. ↑ ""Retired due to illness?" Did not! Noah's former monster, Takeshi Morishima, returns on the 15th October for the first time in three and a half years". Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  27. ↑ "(NOAH) Former Noah, Takeshi Morishima announces return at 15th October at Korakuen Hall for the first time in three and a half years". Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  28. ↑ "森嶋猛 化膿性関節炎手術の影響で復帰戦が中止「しょっぱくてごめんなさい」（東スポWeb） - Yahoo!ニュース". Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  29. ↑ "プロレスラーに殴られ...タクシー運転手の男性が重傷（テレビ朝日系（ANN）） - Yahoo!ニュース". Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  30. ↑ "3 Count Wrestling Title Histories". titlehistories.com. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
  31. ↑ "Nikkan Sports Awards - 2006". wrestlingscout. February 23, 2016.
  32. ↑ "Nikkan Sports Awards - 2007". wrestlingscout. February 26, 2016.
  33. 1 2 "Cagematch award history". Cagematch. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
  34. 1 2 "Cagematch title history". Cagematch. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
  35. ↑ "PUROLOVE.com". www.purolove.com. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  36. ↑ 「２０１２年度プロレス大賞」受賞者. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). 2012-12-11. Retrieved 2012-12-10.
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