Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Hiroyoshi Yamamoto (山本 広吉) is a Japanese professional wrestler who currently works for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and is better known by his ring name Hiroyoshi Tenzan (天山 広吉).

He debuted in January 1991, wrestling Osamu Matsuda.

In 1993, after winning the Young Lions Cup, NJPW sent Yamamoto on a European excursion; one of his stops was in the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany, where in July 1993, he defeated Lance Storm to become the promotion's first World Junior Heavyweight Champion.

A few weeks later, he lost the title to Storm.

Three months later, he would regain and lose the title back to Storm.

After spending nearly two years in Europe, Yamamoto would finally make his return to NJPW on January 4, 1995, at the Tokyo Dome, this time under a new name, Hiroyoshi Tenzan (天山 広吉).

The name was given to him by Tokyo Joe, who derived the name from the Tien Shan mountains.

A month later, he received his very first shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a losing effort against Shinya Hashimoto.

Tenzan then began teaming with Masahiro Chono as Team Wolf.

In June 1995, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a tournament, which they held for a month until the title was vacated due to Chono missing a match when his father died.

In July 1996, Tenzan and Chono won the IWGP Tag Team Title again, this time beating Kazuo Yamazaki and Takashi Iizuka.

A few weeks later, Tenzan became a founding member of NWO Japan, as Chono joined the nWo in December 1996.

They held the titles for over 5 months before losing to Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura in January 1997.

For the rest of 1997, Tenzan and the rest of nWo Japan continued the nWo tradition of attacking their various enemies.

Tenzan got his third chance for the IWGP Tag Team Titles in July 1998, after Chono's former tag-team partner Keiji Mutoh was injured.

Tenzan and Chono went on to win the tournament and the belts.

A month later, they were defeated by Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka.

Tenzan continued to feud with Tenryu and Koshinaka, eventually getting a new partner in Satoshi Kojima, thanks to Mutoh's leadership in nWo Japan.

The two teams fought at the Tokyo Dome in January 1999, with Tenzan and Kojima coming through, defeating Koshinaka and Tenryu to get the IWGP Tag-Team belts.

A few months later, Koshinaka retook the titles from Tenzan and Kojima, with his partner Kensuke Sasaki.

For the next year, Tenzan continued to wrestle in NJPW, feuding with Koshinaka, Masahiro Chono, Manabu Nakanishi, and others.

He defeated Wild Pegasus at the Tokyo Dome in January 2000.

In July 2000, Tenzan, still teamed with Kojima, got the IWGP Tag Team Titles for the 5th time, winning over Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata.

Tenzan and Kojima feuded with Nakanishi and Nagata for the next few months, with Tenzan and Kojima coming out on top.

On February 24, 2002, Tenzan made a brief appearance at WWA The Revolution pay-per-view from Las Vegas, Nevada, where he choked Disco Inferno.

Scott Steiner then attacked Disco in the ring.

Tenzan could be seen sitting right behind the announcer's table when Disco joined commentary.

He can be seen leaving the arena following Steiner's attack on Disco.

Tenzan also won the IWGP Tag Team Titles in March 2002 with Masahiro Chono (their title reign lasting over one year; it also tied the team record for most championships won with Fujinami & Kimura), and again in December 2003 with Osamu Nishimura.

After he and Chono lost the IWGP Tag Team titles to Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yutaka Yoshie, Tenzan went on a brief excursion to Canada in the summer of 2003, training with Tokyo Joe Daigo.

When he returned for the G1 Climax, he transformed his wrestling style from a buffalo to an anaconda.

The excursion worked, as he won his first G1 Climax, defeating NOAH's Jun Akiyama in the finals.

In November 2003, Tenzan finally won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Yoshihiro Takayama.

He would go on to drop the title less than a month later to unlikely victor Shinsuke Nakamura, who, at the young age of 23, became the youngest world champion in company history.

Tenzan proceeded to win it three other times (in February 2004 from Genichiro Tenryu, December 2004 from Kensuke Sasaki and May 2005 from Satoshi Kojima).

He lost the championship to AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Kojima in a cross-promotional champion vs. champion match.

With Satoshi Kojima, in 2008, they won the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the G1 Tag League in NJPW, becoming the only tag team which has done both.

He is a four-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and a record twelve-time IWGP Tag Team Champion.

He is also a former National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Champion.

Hiroyoshi Yamamoto first worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling.