Naoya Ogawa

Naoya Ogawa (小川 直也) (born 31 March 1968) is a Japanese Olympic and world champion judoka, retired professional wrestler, and mixed martial artist.

He won a total of seven medals at the All-Japan Judo Championships (second only behind Yasuhiro Yamashita), and set a record of seven medals at the World Judo Championships.

He continued on in college attending Meiji University in 1986.

In his second year at school he became a world freeclass champion, the youngest in the history of judo.

He won many more championships before graduating from the College of Business Administration at Meiji University, setting a record of seven medals at the World Judo Championships.

He also gained a total of seven medals at the All-Japan Judo Championships in two separate winning streaks, from 1989 to 1993 and from 1995 to 96, second only to Yasuhiro Yamashita's nine medals.

Ogawa is also known for his career in professional wrestling, where he primarily worked for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and took part in one of the promotion's most high-profile feuds of the 1990s with Shinya Hashimoto.

In professional wrestling, Ogawa was a two-time National Wrestling Alliance World's Heavyweight Champion.

Ogawa first started in judo in his high school years.

Ogawa won the silver medal in the +95 kg judo weight class at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Ogawa was a silver medalist in judo of 1992 Summer Olympics and fifth at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

He was known for his slow, cerebral style of judo, nicknamed "Three Minutes Judo" (3分間柔道) due to his usual strategy of investing the first three minutes in pressing on his opponent before trying to score.

Due to this, Japanese specialized press often criticized him as lacking heart.

When finding an opening, Ogawa would favor uchi mata, kosoto gari, kosoto gake, sasae tsurikomi ashi, tai otoshi and sukui nage, sometimes using a controversial standing ude gatame entry to set up sasae tsurikomi ashi and hiza guruma.

He was not a user of newaza, preferring to attempt only osaekomi-waza from failed throws.

His performance at the 1996 Olympics would be criticized and led to Ogawa's retirement from professional judo.

Ogawa runs a judo school in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, where he trains potential Olympians and Paralympians in his network of dojos.

In 1997, Ogawa was recruited by Antonio Inoki, chairman of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, for his UFO (Universal Fighting-Arts Organization) project.

He was put to train under Satoru Sayama, legendary professional wrestler and mixed martial arts pioneer.

Ogawa made his debut in NJPW on April 12, 1997 at the Tokyo Dome, replacing the stipulated Ken Shamrock as the opponent for Shinya Hashimoto, then IWGP Heavyweight Championship titleholder.

In a shocking upset, Ogawa defeated Hashimoto by choke, which put him in the spotlight and gained him a title shot at May 3.

This time Ogawa was defeated by kick to the head, with Shinya retaining his title.

This marked the beginning of their feud, which would extend for years.

Through 1997 and 1998, Ogawa wrestled for NJPW as part of "Different Style Fights", meeting wrestlers with legit backgrounds like Ogawa and Hashimoto themselves.

He defeated shoot-style wrestler Kazuo Yamazaki, arm wrestler Scott Norton, Ultimate Fighting Championship exponents Brian Johnston and Don Frye, and Dutch martial artist Erwin Vreeker.

His only loss came from The Great Muta, via Muta's signature Asian mist dirty trick.

In March 1998, Ogawa took part in the Inoki Final Tournament, but he was eliminated by Frye at the finals after beating Johnston and Dave Beneteau.

In order to bounce back from the defeat, he started a special training, and ditched his trusted judogi for black tights, boots and fingerless gloves.

On January 4, 1999, Ogawa was involved with one of the most controversial moments in NJPW history.

During his anticipated rubber match with Shinya Hashimoto, Ogawa broke kayfabe and shot on Hashimoto, attacking him for real and leaving him downed and bloodied with kicks and stomps.

The NJPW and UFO crews flooded the ring and a legitimate fracas erupted, with Ogawa's cornerman Kazunari Murakami having to be hospitalized by a beatdown by Takashi Iizuka and Naoya himself being slapped by NJPW executive Riki Choshu.

During all the brawl, Ogawa taunted the crowd and the wrestlers, having to be accompanied out of the arena by his bodyguard Gerard Gordeau.

Many years later, in August 2021, Ogawa confessed he had been pressed by Antonio Inoki into shooting on Hashimoto in order to hijack the match and increase his popularity.

In May, Ogawa traveled to United States and defeated Gary Steele to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Hashimoto followed him to the country and attacked him (kayfabe this time) in a press conference, challenging him to a title match in Japan with Tatsumi Fujinami as special referee.

Naoya toured through United States, retaining the title before Dan Severn, Doug Gilbert and Biggie Biggs, trading it with Steele in a three-way match that also involved Brian Anthony on September 25, 1999, and finally coming back to Japan to meet Hashimoto.

They faced on October 10 at the Tokyo Dome, with Ogawa winning the bout.

On January 4, 2000, one year after their incident, Ogawa and Murakami faced off against Hashimoto and Takashi Iizuka in a special match.

Unfortunately, it became a real fight again when Murakami knocked Iizuka out legitimately with a stiff head kick, causing the teams to brawl in the ring again.

Under Antonio Inoki's eye, the match was restarted, with Ogawa's team losing when Iizuka choked out Murakami.