Jushin Liger

Keiichi Yamada (山田恵一), better known as Jushin Liger (獣神ライガー) and later Jushin Thunder Liger (獣神サンダー・ライガー), is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

Keiichi Yamada was born in Hiroshima on November 10, 1964.

He was an amateur wrestler during his high school years.

In his senior year, he lost to Toshiaki Kawada in the finals of a national championship tournament.

After graduating high school in the early 1980s, he would apply to New Japan Pro-Wrestling's (NJPW) dojo in the hope of becoming a professional wrestler.

He was not accepted because he did not meet the height requirements the dojo had at that time.

Yamada, determined not to give up his dream of becoming a professional wrestler, left for Mexico and began his training there.

By his own account, he was almost starving while studying in Mexico, due to this NJPW officials who were visiting took pity on him and asked him to come back to Japan to train in their dojo.

In the NJPW dojo, he trained alongside the likes of Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto.

He is the longest-tenured member of the NJPW roster, having wrestled for the company since his debut in 1984 until his retirement in January 2020.

Throughout his career, which spanned three-and-a-half decades, he wrestled over 4,000 matches and performed in major events for various promotions across the globe.

Debuting under his real name for NJPW in 1984, he was given the gimmick of Jushin Liger in 1989, based on the anime series of the same name.

Becoming Jushin "Thunder" Liger the following year, he saw unprecedented success in the junior heavyweight division when he won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship a record 11 times and set the record for its longest reign during his second reign, which lasted for 628 days.

While continuing his training, he had his debut match in March 1984 at the age of 19, wrestling against Shunji Kosugi.

He began studying various martial arts styles because he wanted to add something new and different to his wrestling style, which is how he learned his Abisegeri kick.

In 1985, Yamada participated in the Young Lion Cup and got to the final of the tournament before being defeated by Shunji Kosugi.

In the beginning of 1986, Yamada participated in the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship League but lost to Black Tiger.

Yamada won the 1986 Young Lion Cup by defeating Tatsutoshi Goto in the tournament final on March 26.

On July 19, 1986, Yamada faced Nobuhiko Takada in a losing effort in his first of many IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship matches.

After winning the Young Lion Cup in March 1986, he went on an excursion of Europe, where he wrestled for All Star Wrestling in England, under the name "Flying" Fuji Yamada.

He won the World Heavy Middleweight Championship twice, once in September 1986 and once in March 1987, both times defeating "Rollerball" Mark Rocco and both times losing it back to him, the last of these four title changes being televised on ITV.

Yamada went on an excursion in Canada, around May 1987, where he wrestled in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary under his real name.

He also trained under Hart in the legendary "Dungeon".

His experiences there led him to refer to Hart as a "very, very tough man."

Yamada returned to NJPW on August 19, 1987 against Nobuhiko Takada in a losing effort.

Yamada debuted his Shooting Star Press in a match against Masakatsu Funaki, for which he had gotten the idea from reading the manga Fist of the North Star.

Throughout 1987 and 1988, Yamada improved with each match, occasionally getting shots at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, most notably against Owen Hart on June 10, 1988, and against Shiro Koshinaka on December 9, 1988.

He would also take part in the first ever Top of the Super Juniors tournament where he earned 31 points, not enough to progress to the final.

Within months of his second Canadian excursion, NJPW called him back, as they needed him for a gimmick based on an extremely popular anime superhero, Jushin Liger, created by manga artist Go Nagai.

NJPW had done this previously with Tiger Mask, which had become a huge success.

Yamada was given a superhero-like full body costume, resembling the superhero type featured in tokusatsu and anime programs.

Yamada would later visit All Star again in 1989, with tag partner Flying Funaki.

During this period, he also worked for Orig Williams' BWF, making appearances on Williams's Reslo wrestling show for Welsh-language TV channel S4C.

Yamada as "Jushin Liger" returned to NJPW on April 24, 1989, at the Tokyo Dome.

Liger also wrestled the opening match for the first January 4 Tokyo Dome Show in 1992, as well as the first ever match on WCW Monday Nitro.

He is frequently cited as one of the greatest wrestlers of all time.

Liger was the first three-time Best of the Super Juniors tournament winner (a record eventually tied by Koji Kanemoto and Hiromu Takahashi), is a former six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, won the Super J Cup twice (in 1995 and 2000), and was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1999.

He returned to Britain in 2014 to work once again for All Star Wrestling, this time under his masked Jushin Liger identity.

He was also inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2020.

Liger had his retirement match at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 5, 2020, 35 years after his career began.