History Wrestling / WataruSakata

* ThreeAmigos: Was part of the Japanese "A" team along with Wrestling/HiromitsuKanehara and Wrestling/YoshihisaYamamoto for the World Mega Battle Tournament of 1998.

Wataru Sakata (born March 11, 1973) is a Japanese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter. After a highschool Kyokushin UsefulNotes/{{Karate}} tenure, he trained for pro wrestling under Animal Hamaguchi and later joined Wrestling/AkiraMaeda's Fighting Network RINGS, where he became known as one of the most enthusiastic native trainees and a do-everything boy. Despite not being a really good real fighter, he would partake in mixed martial arts pretty early, having a multi-fight feud with fellow rookie Willie Peeters and a handful of valiant efforts. After RINGS folded, Sakata divided his time between sporadic MMA fights and a surprising career boost as a junior heavyweight ace in Wrestling/ProWrestlingZERO1, including a Tenka-Ichi tournament win. He also started appearing in the wacky Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE, which he quickly turned into his home promotion by becoming a mainstay of its storyline: a goofy rebel with a lot of emotional ups and downs, who eventually became a leader of the heroic HUSTLE Army alongside his famous wife Eiko Koike. He stayed with HUSTLE until the promotion's end in 2009, and even attempted to refloat it as HUSTLE Man's World for a couple years in 2012 before retiring from competition, though he did come back for a MMA fight in 2016 against Hayato Sakurai at a RIZIN event.
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!! LOVE & TROPES :
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: His career has bizarrely mirrored that of Wrestling/MasahitoKakihara, only for different promotions. They were both shoot-style wrestlers who at some point learned under Akira Maeda, later transitioned to traditional pro wrestling and achieved a big junior heavyweight tournament win, then switched to more gimmicky characters, and finally retired from main competition while relatively young. They even share the trait of having female relatives in the entertainment business.

* BoringButPractical: His style of wrestling and fighting was pretty generic, but he was pretty efficient.

* CoolTeacher: Had his own dojo called Evolution.

-->"I am not just out to win or lose. What I do is important for HUSTLE in any way. I will endure the result whatever it will be."

* EpicFail: He told Coleman he could do anything if the trusted himself, even picking up girls like Sakata did. Wataru then tried picking up some gyaru and failed miserably. In any case, he did his point still stood.
* EvilIsPetty: While the evil part is debatible, during Sakata's punkish run he would do things like insult people, attack random wrestlers and break things. He even apparently destroyed to Keiichi Sasahara's suit as a revenge for trying to punish him, forcing him to come out in a {{Fundoshi}}.

* HenpeckedHusband: Like Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada he has this reputation in Japanese pop culture towards his wife, Eiko Koike a Japanese actress, gravure idol, former ring side commentator and spokesperson for PRIDE, which has made his friends and Japanese media jokingly refer to him mainly as "Koike no Dan'na" ("Koike's Husband").

* IKnowKarate: Practised Kyokushin while in high school. Later trained in shoot-style.
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Introduced Takehiro Murahama, apparently a training partner of his, in HUSTLE, as the first member of his rebellious army. Ironically, Murahama would leave HUSTLE after a single match.

** He behaved even worse after being barred from joining the Monster Army, to the point even the normally neutral general manager Keiichi Sasahara was against him.

* MeleeATrois: Claimed he would crush both the HUSTLE Army and the Monster Army with his own Sakata Army.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Even at his moral lowest, Sakata was still a nice guy, so he was saddened when he saw Mark Coleman had been pushed more and more into alcoholism due to having failed to beat Sakata. He decided to help him, becoming a hero again.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After being beaten by Willie Peeters in a particularly wild shootfight in 1995, Sakata went SuperPersistentPredator for him and literally chase him to the other side of the world. His efforts were harsh, as he went to lose their rematch and rubber match by KO and north/south choke respectively, and even came short by decision in a fourth fight in RINGS Holland by an amazingly irregular refereeing. Sakata got finally his revenge in 1998 after submitting Peeters with a leglock in one minute. Wataru really wanted that tap out.

* StartMyOwn: Founded a SpinOff wrestling promotion to Wrestling/FightingOperaHustle; Hustle Man's World.

* BaldOfAwesome: He often had a buzzcut or a shave in RINGS, though he later let it grow. Then subverted in HUSTLE, where he asked to be shaven instead of Kantoku after losing a bet match.

As usual, you can find the basics at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wataru_Sakata The Other Wiki]].

* ThreeAmigos: Was part of the Japanese "A" team along with Wrestling/HiromitsuKanehara and Yoshihisa Yamamoto for the World Mega Battle Tournament of 1998.

!! Tropes:

* MyGodWhatIHaveDone: Even at his moral lowest, Sakata was still a nice guy, so he was saddened when he saw Mark Coleman had been pushed more and more into alcoholism due to having failed to beat Sakata. He decided to help him, becoming a hero again.
* OddFriendship: With Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada as they became friends while Sakata was still with RINGS. This is one of the reasons Sakata got into Wrestling/FightingOperaHustle.

[[quoteright:249:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d3032f82_5a0c_4c54_8aee_e549f6abfd98.jpeg]]

* {{Keet}} / [[PluckyGirl Plucky Guy]]: Characteristically.

Wataru Sakata (born March 11, 1973) is a Japanese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter. After a highschool Kyokushin UsefulNotes/{{Karate}} tenure, he trained for pro wrestling under Animal Hamaguchi and later joined Wrestling/AkiraMaeda's Fighting Network RINGS, where he became known as one of the most enthusiastic native trainees and a do-everything boy. Despite not being a really good real fighter, he would partake in mixed martial arts pretty early, having a multi-fight feud with fellow rookie Willie Peeters and a handful of valiant efforts. After RINGS folded, Sakata divided his time between sporadic MMA fights and a surprising career boost as a junior heavyweight ace in Wrestling/ProWrestlingZERO1, including a Tenka-Ichi tournament win. He also started appearing in the wacky Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE, which he quickly turned into his home promotion by becoming a mainstay of its storyline: a goofy rebel with a lot of emotional ups and downs, who eventually became a leader of the heroic HUSTLE Army alongside his famous wife Eiko Koike. He stayed with HUSTLE until the promotion's end in 2009, and even attempted to refloat it as HUSTLE Man's World for a cuple years in 2012 before retiring from competition.

* HiddenDepths: Once owned a restaurant that he started in 2006, it closed in 2010. He currently owns a salad bar.

* MyGodWhatIHaveDone: Even at its moral lowest, Sakata was still a nice guy, so he was saddened when he saw Mark Coleman had been pushed more and more into alcoholism due to having failed to beat Sakata. He decided to help him, becoming a hero again.

* SpectacularSpinning: Not as much as Naruse, he threw jumping spinning kicks on occasion.

* RealSongThemeTune: "Welcome to the Gorky Park" by Gorky Park.

* AntiHero: In HUSTLE, he was fickle, emotionally volatile and a bit of a pervert, as well as a not entirely faithful husband, but he was sincerely against Generalissimo Takada and would do anything on his hand to defeat him, and he really loved his wife.

* ArchEnemy: Willie Peeters.

* {{Expy}}: Somewhat to Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki, as both had feuds against legit guys in which they were screwed by the rules at first but won at the end, and also because they were quite lookalike when younger. In fact, they had some confrontation in Wrestling/FightingOperaHUSTLE about the matter.

* KickTheDog: Losing his hair in HUSTLE let Sakata very irritable, so much that the next event he tossed a lit cigar to a rookie, broke a door and attacked Shamoji Fujii for celebrating a win he didn't participate in.
* KidAppealCharacter: Young, handsome, recklessly brave and often clad in yellow.
* TheLancer: Was one for Wrestling/KiyoshiTamura for a brief time, during the beginnings of Tamura’s U-FILE Camp and was often in his corner for his RINGS matches.

* WouldHitAGirl: He spanked Kevin Randleman's valet Ute Waner after she tried to attack him in their match.

* {{Determinator}}: Especially against Peeters, who usually had the upper hand in their matches.

* PowerCopying: He adopted Wrestling/ShinjiriOtani's facewash move after teaming up with him in HUSTLE.

* RedBaron: "Hangyaku no Ippikiōkami" ("Rebellious Lone Wolf"), "HUSTLE Aniki" ("HUSTLE Big Brother"), "LOVE & HUSTLE".

* TookALevelInBadass: One of the most improved native shooters at the end of his career in RINGS.