Jado

Shoji Akiyoshi (秋吉 昭二) (born September 28, 1968) is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Jado (邪道).

He is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as part of a tag team with his partner Gedo.

In April 1991, Akiyoshi and Takayama began wrestling for the Universal Wrestling Association in Mexico, as "Punish" and "Crush" respectively.

On November 8, 1991, they won their first championship, defeating Silver King and El Texano for the UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship.

After holding the championship for over 200 days, they lost it to Shu El Guerrero and Scorpio, Jr., and regained it six days later.

On June 21, 1992, they split up and vacated the championship.

After leaving UWA, they joined Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre for a few months, wrestling mostly in six or eight-man tag team matches.

Jado and Gedo's careers have largely paralleled each other, except for a brief period Jado spent in Universal Lucha Libre in 1993, a stint in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in 1997 where they were on opposing sides, and Jado not having emulated Gedo's tour of North America with World Championship Wrestling.

The World Class Tag team has held numerous championships in wrestling, including NJPW's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, the Universal Wrestling Association's UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Title, and Dragon Gate's International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, as well as having won NJPW's Super J Tag League once.

Jado and Gedo are co-head bookers of NJPW.

Under his real name, Akiyoshi debuted for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, losing to Masanobu Kurisu.

He joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as part of the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan (TPG) stable (NJPW's parody of the World Wrestling Federation's "Rock 'n Wrestling" era).

After TPG disbanded, Akiyoshi and TPG comrade Keiji Takayama left NJPW.

Akiyoshi and Takayama debuted for Wrestling International New Generations (W*ING) on July 11, 1993 (as "Jado" and "Gedo"), teaming with Freddie Krueger to defeat Miguelito Perez, Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Yukihiro Kanemura in a WarGames match.

On September 26, Jado won his first singles championship by defeating Yukihiro Kanemura for the WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship.

While champion, he and Gedo defeated The Headhunters to win the vacant W*NG World Tag Team Championship, but lost it back to them days later.

Jado then unsuccessfully challenged W*NG Heavyweight Champion, Crypt Keeper.

In their final month at W*ING, they faced The Headhunters again, and lost.

When they left, Jado vacated the Caribbean Heavyweight Championship.

Jado and Gedo debuted for Wrestle Association R (WAR) in 1994, and became a top tag team.

They teamed with Hiromichi Fuyuki in the WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship tournament, defeating Genichiro Tenryu, Animal Hamaguchi and Koki Kitahara in the final to win the title, on June 6, 1994.

On August 26, the trio lost the championship to Bob Backlund, Scott Putski and Warlord, and regained it a month later.

They won this championship three more times, in 1995 and 1996.

Jado and Gedo left WAR, for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, one of Japan's top independent promotions.

Jado, Gedo, and Fuyuki (now called "Kodo" Fuyuki) won the FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, defeating The Headhunters and Hisakatsu Oya on March 21, 1997.

They vacated it on July 8.

On January 16, 1998, Jado won the FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Mr. Gannosuke and Yukihiro Kanemura, and lost it to Atsushi Onita, Koji Nakagawa and Tetsuhiro Kuroda a month later.

Jado participated in the FMW Double Championship number one contender tournament, losing in the semifinals to Hayabusa.

He began teaming with Gedo again in the spring of 1998.

They unsuccessfully challenged Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka for the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship.

On December 11, 1999, Jado and Gedo teamed with Koji Nakagawa to win the WEW 6-Man Tag Team Championship.

In April 2000, they lost it to Kodo Fuyuki, Kyoko Inoue and Chocoball Mukai, regained it a month later, then lost it back again 20 days later.

On July 14, 2000, Jado and Gedo defeated H and Tetsuhiro Kuroda for the WEW World Tag Team Championship, losing it to Masao Inoue & Yoshinobu Kanemaru.

Jado left FMW in 2001, along with Masato Tanaka, Gedo, Hideki Hosaka, and Kaori Nakayama.

The group became freelancers and Jado and Gedo eventually returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

They became IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions by defeating Jyushin Thunder Liger and El Samurai on July 20, 2001.

In the G1 Junior Tag League 2001, they reached the final before losing to Liger and Samurai.

In the Teisen Hall Cup Tag Team Tournament, they teamed with Koji Kanemoto and lost to Liger, Osamu Nishimura and Tatsumi Fujinami.

Liger once again got the better of Jado and Gedo when he and Minoru Tanaka beat them for the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

Jado participated in the Best of the Super Juniors IX with little success, winning only one match and therefore not progressing.