Sasuke made his debut in 1990 for the UWF, which was run by his trainer Gran Hamada. He initially wrestled as “Masa Michinoku,” Masanori Murakawa being his real name and Michinoku being the alternate name for Tohuko. A regionalist, that Sasuke. Taka Michinoku’s name and original character are meant as a parody/tribute of Sasuke’s original name, as Sasuke was his trainer.
One of his early opponents in the UWF (not the shoot-style one, they changed their name not so long after) was a man called Sakigake Gantetsu, who was another of Hamada’s star pupils in the next class after Sasuke. This man would, thankfully, later shorten his name to something equally easy to say and giggle inducing: Dick Togo. Togo and Sasuke would be regular tag partners later in their careers, after both returned from Mexico in 1992. Speaking of…
The UWF was closely connected to Ray Mendoza’s UWA, where Hamada had gone to become the first Japanese wrestler to bring the Lucha style to the country. Sasuke and Togo were sent to Mexico for seasoning in the Lucha style, as were all of Hamada’s students, with other names including Ultimo Dragon and Jinsei Shinzaki.
Sasuke never really fought with his fellow Japanese exchange students in UWA, almost exclusively facing the Luchadores that they’d learn from, with Sasuke often teaming with Dr. Wagner Jr., as well as teaming with the other Japanese wrestlers on excursion, regularly teaming with El Samurai and a mish mosh of other partners, as Mexico is wont to do. Sasuke had a single title match in UWA, losing to the legendary Negro Casas.
While in Mexico, Sasuke was given his mask and his long sleeved outfit and the name “Ninja Sasuke,” which he tweaked to “Great Sasuke” when he returned to Japan in late 1992.
When he did return, he immediately founded his own promotion at the ripe age of 22. Michinoku Pro Wrestling, also called North Eastern Wrestling, as it was also called, was the first Japanese wrestling promotion not centered in Tokyo, instead serving the north eastern area of the main Japanese island of Honshu, with it’s base in Sasuke’s home base of Morioka, Iwata.
M-Pro was an entirely lucha style promotion, which was direct competition for ULL, as Hamada’s promotion was now known, and that didn’t go over well, a rift torn even further by Jinsei Shinzaki and Taka Michinoku jumping to M-Pro, meaning Hamada lost all of his next big stars except Dick Togo, who jumped over soon enough.
They had a “pre-show” on November 27, 1992, but Hamada and Sasuke’s beef spilled over, and M-Pro had to be put on the shelf for a while. They eventually had the real opening show on March 16, 1993. ULL’s talent began leaving to go to M-Pro, and in 1995, Hamada closed the promotion and, with the hostility apparently gone, joined M-Pro full time.
Sasuke put M-Pro and FMW in a working relationship, as he had a respect for Onita’s deathmatch style, and Onita had a respect for Sasuke’s Japanese Lucha style. The two promotions would send their talent to the other, and Atsushi Onita and Sasuke would begin a rivalry that would end in one of FMW’s legendary more ridiculous than horrifying deathmatches, which ended when Onita, Sasuke, and the referee all were caught in a tremendous explosion. Sasuke would also capture the FMW Junior Heavyweight title during the crossover.
Sasuke would enter into the 1994 Super J Cup, and was granted a first round bye by virtue of being a champion. He’d beat Jushin Thunder Liger in a highly anticipated contest in the semis, defeated his old enemy from Mexico in El Samurai in the quarter finals, and was set to face Wild Pegasus, as Chris Benoit was called in New Japan, for the final, where he’d lose. He’d stay in the promotion throughout the year, having a great rematch with Liger before entering into the Junior Grade Tag League alongside Black Tiger II, which was Eddie Guerrero, the best incarnation of Black Tiger. They’d make it to the finals before being defeated by Shinjiro Otani and Wild Pegasus again. He, El Samurai, Hamada, and Shinjiro Otani were the winners of the One Night Eight Man tournament to close out the year.
Sasuke has appeared sporadically in New Japan since then, winning the Junior Grade Tag League with Black Tiger II in 1996, having a run with the Junior Heavyweight Title in 1996, as well, and also having a run with Liger as the Junior Tag champions in 1999.
1996 would also see Sasuke enter the J Crown tournament, a tournament that saw the Junior Heavyweight/Cruiserweight champions from eight promotions: WWF, NJPW, M-Pro, NWA, CMLL, UWA, WAR, and WWA, compete against each other, with the winner winning all 8 titles. Sasuke would defeat Ultimo Dragon to become the inaugural J Crown champion, which he lost to Dragon a little over two months later. The J Crown would be dissolved in 1997 when the WWF found out that WCW wrestlers had technically held their title, and they were ready to re-introduce the title in America, but remembered that the physical belt was gallivanting around the world.
Speaking of the WWF, Sasuke made a deal with WWF to come in and compete on RAW, along with Taka. The two would wrestle each other on RAW a few times, with the announce team of Vince, JR, and Lawler being completely lost as to what was going on, mainly because they were going a thousand miles a minute, leaving Lawler to just make racist jokes. Sasuke and Taka were entered into the tournament to crown the new Light Heavyweight champion. It was evident that Sasuke was supposed to win, but he told Japanese media that he would only defend the title in Japan and would not lose the title on WWF TV. Vince was in desperation mode as Nitro was clobbering him in the ratings, but he’d be damned if he was going to have a guy not under contract talk like that about his belt. Sasuke was pulled from the tournament before it began and fired, while TAKA went on to win the tournament and the title, and would stay in WWF for essentially the rest of the Attitude Era. M-Pro did have some WWF talent in Japan, such as Shinzaki facing The Undertaker, but his mouth screwed that deal.
As a side note, Kaientai was an export from M-Pro, with Funaki and Togo appearing at first, but the stable was whittled down to Funaki and TAKA after Yamaguchi-san tried to cut off Val Venis’ dick.
Moving on.
Sasuke would continue to bounce around Japan for the rest of the century, also having a few ventures into Mexico for the CMLL Grand Prix, and was still top dog in M-Pro.
However, in 2003, Sasuke entered into politics, being elected as a legislator in the Iwate Prefecture Assembly, becoming the fourth Japanese wrestler to be elected to office, joining Hiroshi Hase (the current Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), Antonio Inoki, and Atsushi Onita, though they were all elected to the national diet. He faced stiff criticism for refusing to take off his mask during legislative sessions and continuing to wrestle while elected, as well as facing harsh condemnations that he only ran for office to increase the profile of M-Pro, since the attendance wasn’t great.
In a move perhaps motivated by said criticism, but more likely because he simply didn’t have the time, he handed the reigns over to Jinsei Shinzaki, who brought in Ultimo Dragon and the students from his Toryumon Dojo to shake things up. He cut back his overall wrestling, as he had numerous nagging injuries to tend to.
Let me go off on a tangent about that. Sasuke is known for being incredibly resilient, and that is well earned, since he’s cracked his skull twice, among numerous other injuries. And it’s no wonder why when he’s willing to take crotch-first falls onto exploding barbed wire, or crack his head on concrete.
When Sasuke did come back to wrestling, he did a lot of work for Nobuhiko Takada’s HUSTLE promotion. If pro wrestling is a soap opera on steroids, HUSTLE is Monty Python on acid. His most notable incident in HUSTLE was attacking his “opponent” with a barrel and nearly breaking his ankle running away whilw still in said barrel.
Sasuke is still a mainstay in M-Pro, where he’s essentially turned into a crazed cult leader that can throw Shoryukens. He’s in the twilight years of his career, and if he doesn’t continue to do insane shit, he could probably make it into his fifites.
But asking Sasuke not to do insane shit is like asking a raccoon not to wash his food before he eats it; it is his nature.
And before I end the bio, as an addendum to Sasuke’s insanity, he was arrested for assaulting a man in a train station for taking his picture with a phone camera. Sasuke served 40 hours in jail and apologized to the gent. The man who took his picture did not know who he was, and was taking his picture because he thought Sasuke was just a crazy person who wore a lucha mask in public.
Come to think of it, he’s kind of right.
But seriously, Sasuke is definitely one of the most influential junior heavyweights in history and is in large part responsible for guys like Mascara Dorada to be accepted in Japan, and for guys like Naito to be able to go to Mexico and reinvent themselves.
