Hashimoto was a very rare specimen in the Japanese wrestling world for a number of reasons. He was a native monster heavyweight, he was the biggest draw in the entire country for a whole decade, he was beloved by the fans, and he was probably the best wrestler of the Three Musketeers. He did all that while looking like a bag of microwaved biscuit dough.
A well versed judo player in his teenage years, Hashimoto joined the New Japan Dojo at only 19 years old in the spring of 1984, where he was trained personally by Antonio Inoki. He made his debut in September of the same year in a loss to Tatsutoshi Goto. For the next three years, he’d spend his time in numerous contests against Goto, as well as various tag and singles matches with combinations of the other three star pupils of his Dojo class: Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono, and a young man who’d been training in Mexico named Keiichi Yamada, who would be put in a Demon Power Ranger outfit by the end of the decade and become the most famous of the four as Jushin Thunder Liger.
It was obvious that Hashimoto was destined to be a fantastic performer, even at only a few months in, as New Japan allowed him to win a lot more matches than is usual for a Young Lion, even if it was over his fellow Young Lions. Inoki soon sent Hashimoto, Yamada, Chono, and Mutoh out on excursion to season them in different styles, as is common for young, promising talent.
Hashimoto’s first stop would be in Calgary, where he was further seasoned stretched in the Dungeon by Stu Hart and Mr. Hito, who was Stu’s right hand trainer, having had a hand in training Bret Hart, The Dynamite Kid, The British Bulldog, and Chris Benoit, among others. He would be rechristened as “Hasif Khan” in Stampede, despite looking nothing like anyone you’d expect to be named Hasif or Khan. He spent the majority of 1988 in Calgary, where he finally began to win after losing nearly all of his matches in 1987. He had a handful of tag title shots in Stampede, of course losing every time, as well as losing a Mid-Heavyweight title match to Chris Benoit in one of their only two singles matches against each other, even when Benoit was in New Japan. Also, how anyone could see Shinya Hashimoto, a man with some of the most prominent love handles in wrestling history, as a “Mid-Heavyweight” is beyond me.
His next stop was in Memphis, for the Jarrett/Lawler run USWA. He was renamed SHOGUN, probably because Tennesseeans would butcher his real name. He was teamed with Shinju Sasazaki, another grad of the 1984 Dojo, but one who would leave wrestling in 1990. They had feuds with John Paul and Tracy Smothers over the tag titles, which resulted in only one match for the titles. Hashimoto’s last two matches saw he and Samurai get fed to resident Memphis monster Lord Humongous, and then losing in a tag match with PY Chu-Hi (former Dennis Condrey partner Phil Hickerson) against Jerry Lawler (Lalwerwins…LAWL) and Austin Idol. At some point in 1988, while in Puerto Rico with Mutoh and Chono, they officially dubbed themselves as “The Three Musketeers.”
Hashimoto returned to New Japan full time (or at least close to it, his USWA run came during this return) in July of 1988. He was entered into the IWGP Heavyweight title tournament in Aprilof 1989, which was the first New Japan show at the Tokyo Dome. He defeated Riki Choshu and Victor Zangiev (yes, that was his real name, and yes he is the real life inspiration for the Street Fighter character) at the Dome, with his finals match against Vader seeing a hoss battle that Vader came out on top of. Later in the year, he and Masa Saito won the IWGP Tag titles, with a second failed title match with Vader coming the very next day. They’d hold the titles into the next year, when Mutoh and Chono defeated them.
The Three Musketeers made their bones and became the stars of the decade during the 1991 G1 Climax, with Hashimoto being the one to overthrow Riki Choshu as the Musketeers blew by Inoki, Choshu, and Fujinami as the aces to lead the company through the new decade. Hashimoto and Chono were tied with 5 points at the end of the tournament, after which Chono won a B Block decision match and went on to defeat Mutoh in the finals, with the new aces shining as the bright stars on the horizon.
1992 saw Hashimoto get a little bit of US exposure, as he was substituted in to be Hiroshi Hase’s partner in the tournament for the NWA Tag titles. They defeated the Freebirds, but then lost in the semis to Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes.
1993 was full of tag bouts in the first half of the year, but Hashimoto made his bones in the fall, defeating The Great Muta, Mutoh’s brandy new devil wizard character from America, for the IWGP Heavyweight title. He defended the title from September to April 4, 1994, defeating Mutoh, Kensuke Sasaki, and Scott Norton before losing to Tatsumi Fujinami. However, that would last less than a month, as Hashimoto defeated Fujinami in May in just over 6 minutes.
The second reign would be both the impetus for his immense popularity, leading NJPW to keep the title on Hashimoto for over a full year, with Hashimoto defending successfully nine times, a record at that time, one that would only be broken by Yuji Nagata and later Hiroshi Tanahashi. Chono, Steven Regal, Kensuke Sasaki, Hiroshi Hase, and his old adversary Choshu all fell before the Mighty Gut of Shinya.
He lost the title to Mutoh 2 days after making a full year reign. Hashimoto didn’t fret, as he teamed with Junji Hirata to win the vacant IWGP Tag titles. They held the titles for 335 days, defeating the likes of Cho-Ten (Chono and Hiroyoshi Tenzan), The Hell Raisers (Power Warrior and Road Warrior Hawk), and Harlem Heat. They’d lose the belts to Kazuo Yamazaki and Takashi Iizuka in June 1996. However, Hashimoto had no reason to fret, as he still had the IWGP Heavyweight title, which he’d won from Nobuhiko Takada, who’d beaten Mutoh, two months before.
He’d hold his third and final IWGP Heavyweight title for almost 500 days, defending seven times against Satoshi Kojima, Ric Flair, Naoya Ogawa (he comes back up soon), Mutoh, and Hiroyoshi Tenzan, before losing the title to Kensuke Sasaki in August 1987.
Hashimoto also won his only G1 in 1998, defeating Kazuo Yamazaki in the finals, then immediately losing his match against Genichiro Tenryu for the J-1 title, the main belt of WAR, Tenryu’s promotion. He also was counted out against Scott Norton later in the year in an IWGP Heavyweight title match.
I said Ogawa would come back up. In 1997, Naoya Ogawa joined New Japan, choking out Hashimoto when he had to replace Ken Shamrock. He earned a title shot, but was defeated by Hashimoto, sparking a feud that would continue for years. Hashimoto had been engaged for years in what Inoki branded “Different Style Fights,” basically semi-MMA fights that could end in decision or knockout or whatever else. Ogawa seemed a natural opponent, as he was an Olympic Judoka, winning the silver medal for Japan at the 1992 Barcelona Games. The two would go their own ways for a while, with Ogawa competing in the Different Style fights, beating the likef of Scott Norton and Don Frye. I’m not sure if he defeated Don Frye’s moustache, though.
The two would reconvene at the 1999 Tokyo Dome show in what has become an infamous “match.”
Though there is no definite cause, some say Inoki had a problem with Hashimoto, either being due to his alleged laziness, or perhaps because his MMA fighters, who were fit and looked it, weren’t getting over and this fat man was still the biggest star in the company. So, before Ogawa went out to fight Hashimoto, Inoki told him to shoot on Hashimoto to increase his credibility. Hashimoto, of course, was not expecting this, and had the shit beaten out of him, being legitimately stomped and kicked and punched, which left Hashimoto bloodied and bruised on the ground. A huge brawl broke out as officials from the back stormed out, with Riki Choshu notably slapping the piss out of Ogawa, as well as Ogawa’s cornerman being hospitalized by Iizuka. Ogawa wound up having to be escorted from the building. Hashimoto and Iizuka faced Ogawa and Kazunari Murakami, his beaten cornerman and a former MMA fighter, faced off in a tag match at the 2000 Dome Show, which again devolved into a brawl when Murakami knocked Iizuka out with a head kick.
Hashimoto faced Ogawa in a loser leaves town match in April 2000, which he lost, leading him to leave NJPW, only to return on a crossover show. In truth, the match was a cover for Hashimoto being fired from NJPW, presumably for creative differences.
ZERO-1
In November of 2000, Hashimoto announced that he was going to form his own promotion, titled ZERO-1, which became the Japanese affiliate of the NWA. Their first show was in March 2001, with the main event being a controversial finish, as NWA World champion Steve Corino was declared the loser when he was unable to continue following a head injury. The title was held up, with Corino, Hashimoto, and Gary Steele doing a three man round robin tournament that Hashimoto wound up winning, making himself, Satoshi Kojima, and Keiji Mutoh, one of only three men to hold the NWA, IWGP, and AJPW Triple Crown titles. He lost the NWA title in March 2002 when a referee fast counted and Dan Severn won the title, which would soon become exclusive to NWA-TNA.
Hashimoto defeated Mutoh for the Triple Crown titles in 2003, as well as winning the NWA Intercontinental Tag titles with Ogawa, who’d joined ZERO-1, as apparently there was no legitimate animosity between the two. However, because the NWA still uses that ridiculous Bill Watts rule that throwing someone over the top rope is a DQ, they were stripped of the titles. Hashimoto soon had to vacate the Triple Crown, as he injured his knee and would be out of action.
Hashimoto became a part time wrestler as his injuries mounted, mainly sticking in tag matches where he could take a break. He wound up leaving the promotion he started due to “financial problems.” He had racked up three Intercontinental Tag reigns in his time there, two with Ogawa and one with Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
Rumors swirled that Hashimoto left ZERO-1 to fully rehab from his injuries, and that he would return to NJPW and reunite the Three Musketeers, as Inoki was about to be forced out of NJPW due to Yuke’s buying the majority share of the company.
Unfortunately, Hashimoto wouldn’t return to wrestling at all in 2005, as he recovered from a major shoulder surgery. On July 11, 2005, he suffered a sudden brain aneurysm just over a week after his 40th birthday, and died en route to the hospital. His sister stated that he had been complaining of chest pains and rapid heartbeat around his birthday, but that he refused to go to the doctor. He had been on a medication for a heart issue he’d been diagnosed with in 2004, but he had apparently stopped taking the medication after his shoulder surgery, which agitated his hypertension.
Tributes poured in, with NJPW retiring the second IWGP title, as Hashimoto first wore it, and created a new design. However, Brock Lesnar took the third one and refused to give it back, so the second one had to come back, but a fourth was created and the third one was regained, they retired it again, with Shinsuke Nakamura defending it at ZERO-1’s anniversary show, and giving Hashimoto’s son Daichi the second belt. His close friends in Mutoh and Chono would wear his headband and come out to his theme song when they next tagged, as Chono had used Hashimoto’s theme during the 2005 G1, which he won.
Mutoh and Chono also trained Daichi Hashimoto to wrestle, with his debut coming against Chono at the 10th Anniversary Show for ZERO-1. He’s become a freelancer for BJW and the Inoki Genome Federation, with his star steadily rising; with Daichi himself probably being the most pointed-to star-in-waiting in all of Japanese wrestling, with the WON naming him 2011’s Rookie of The Year. Daichi uses the implant DDT and the brainbuster as his finishers in tribute to his father.
