Manabu Nakanishi

Manabu Nakanishi (中西 学) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler, who was primarily associated with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

He is a one-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, one-time G1 Climax winner and three-time IWGP Tag Team Champion.

Nakanishi has always stayed based in Japan, but has wrestled for various other promotions including World Championship Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Noah and Pro Wrestling Zero1.

Manabu Nakanishi began his amateur wrestling career in 1986, competing freestyle in the 220 lbs.

division.

In July 1986, Nakanishi competed in his very first tournament, the World Cup in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, where he placed fifth.

In October 1987, he participated in the Asian Championship in Bombay, India, where he placed fifth.

In June 1989, he participated in another Asian Championship in Ōarai, Ibaraki, Japan, and this time moved up to fourth place.

In September 1990, Nakanishi took part in two tournaments: On September 6, he participated in the World Championship in Tokyo, where he was placed tenth.

Over three weeks later, on September 30, he participated in the Asian Games in Beijing, China, where he placed fourth.

In October 1991, he took part in his second World Championship in Varna, Bulgaria, where he was placed eleventh.

In 1992, Nakanishi won bronze in freestyle wrestling at the Asian Championships.

Later that year, he competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and placed eleventh.

In April 1992, he took part in his third Asian Championship in Tehran, Iran, and was in third place, earning a bronze medal.

In his biggest tournament, Nakanishi participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, where he was placed eleventh.

Nakanishi debuted for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in October 1992, already taking part on NJPW's Super Grade Tag League, teaming up with Tatsumi Fujinami.

The team lost all but one match, this one where they beat the combination of Jim Neidhart and Z-Man, during the whole tournament.

He wrestled tag matches for the rest of his first year.

Nakanishi's first single match came in February 1993, when he lost to Takayuki Iizuka.

His in-ring style was very basic early in his career, as is standard for their trainees.

After winning the Young Lions Cup in 1995, in order to hone his skills and bulk up, he went on an excursion to North America and joined World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

12 days after his pro debut Nakanishi appeared at Halloween Havoc, as a spectator, sitting alongside NJPW and NWA President Seiji Sakaguchi at ringside.

Three years later he returned to WCW to wrestle, under the name Kurasawa as a member of The Stud Stable led by Colonel Robert Parker.

He frequently teamed with Meng, with whom he feuded against Sting and Road Warrior Hawk.

He broke the arm of Hawk using a seated armbar after their tag team match at Clash of the Champions XXXI, in which they lost it was at the event that he was billed as the Terror from the Far East He subsequently feuded with Hawk when Hawk returned from injury heading into Halloween Havoc, beating many local wrestlers on their B-shows, WorldWide and Pro, as well as a big win over Sgt. Craig Pittman on Nitro.

He was also known there for nearly defeating "Macho Man" Randy Savage on an episode of Nitro.

It was here that Nakanishi learned the infamous "Road Warrior Workout" from Hawk and Animal, who also taught this routine to Kenta Kobashi and Kensuke Sasaki.

When Nakanishi came back to NJPW in September 1996, he appeared more confident and stronger.

With his new change in attitude and in-ring style, he found instant success.

He formed The Bull Powers with Satoshi Kojima, who returned from Europe.

In May 1997, he and Kojima won the IWGP Tag Team Championship.

He had arguably the upset win of the decade in the 1999 G1 Climax, submitting then-IWGP Heavyweight Champion and nWo Japan leader Keiji Mutoh, to win the tournament.

As the years went by, Nakanishi was never able to capitalize on his win in the G1 Climax as he constantly came up short in big matches, and Antonio Inoki's focus on pushing MMA fighters from 2002 to 2005 made matters worse for him.

When the company suffered a massive exodus in main event talent (including Shinya Hashimoto, Shinjiro Otani, Sasaki, and Mutoh), it was considered that Nakanishi might finally live up to his potential, but once again he was overlooked, as NJPW started to look towards building their younger talent like Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Togi Makabe, and Hirooki Goto.

He formed the popular tag team, Wild Child, with Takao Omori in late 2006 and together they enjoyed another IWGP Tag Team title reign.

Nakanishi finally captured the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by pinning Hiroshi Tanahashi at Dissidence on May 25, 2009.

He went on to hold the title for nearly a month until losing it back to Tanahashi at Dominion 6.20.

For the 2010 G1 Tag League Nakanishi formed a tag team named Muscle Orchestra with Strong Man.

The team made it to the semifinals of the tournament and was at the end of the year named Tag Team of the Year by Tokyo Sports.

Nakanishi's career slowly declined after a spinal injury in 2011, but he continued to wrestle for a further nine years, before retiring on February 22, 2020.