He entered professional wrestling in Último Dragón's puroresu/lucha libre Toryumon circuit, where he graduated in the very first class along with future allies and enemies. After some months, he joined two of those to form Crazy MAX, a group of punks and thugs who became the first and most mythical villains of the promotion. Under the leadership of CIMA, the companionship of Don Fujii and the management of new member TARU, SUWA presented himself as an unpredictable psycho who lent style and heart to the group and acted as its second in command.
Through many years they ravaged Toryumon, fighting other gangs like Masaaki Mochizuki's M2K and Magnum TOKYO's Do FIXER, and SUWA in particular won every individual title in the company. This success only stopped when their mark broke away from Último Dragón in 2004 and became Dragon Gate, a new promotion with a Lighter and Softer outlook towards professional wrestling.
This drove SUWA to leave in disenchantment, only keeping ties with the similarly departing TARU, and join Pro Wrestling NOAH after a time in the search of greener pastures. SUWA remained as a heel mainstay of NOAH until his retirement in 2007, and he still did a brief return in 2013 before having to retire again.
"Scoundrel Tropes":
- Anti-Hero: Crazy MAX eventually turned babyface/tweener in the 2000s, but SUWA remained the same psycho as always, only barely tolerating their heroic alignement because his friends wanted to.
- The Apprentice: To Último Dragón and Animal Hamaguchi.
- Arch-Enemy: SUWA was an arch-enemy to everybody who was not his ally (and even some of his allies, like Mini Crazy MAX, weren't exactly safe from his rage either), but Dragon Kid was his favorite prey and most hated opponent in Toryumon, with Magnum TOKYO being the next by a wide margin. In Michinoku Pro Wrestling, he went after Tiger Mask IV because he reminded SUWA of Dragon Kid, and in NOAH, Kenta Kobayashi and Akira Taue.
- The Artifact: He stayed as Maybach Taniguchi Jr. in the No Mercy stable after the real Maybach Taniguchi had left the group.
- Artistic License – Martial Arts: One of his most famous signature moves is the "John Woo", a regular running dropkick which somehow knocks his opponents several feet away. The move was created during his feud against Dragon Kid, who used to sell his attacks like hit by a car, and was swiftly made canon.
- As Himself: After declaring he wanted to help NOAH to stay afloat in 2013, he intended to abandon his provisional Maybach Taniguchi Jr. character and intended to fight under his name again as a straight, humble wrestler, in a departure from his classical persona. However, it turned out to be a lie.
- Ax-Crazy: SUWA was Crazy MAX's most unstable member, and that is saying something next to punks like CIMA and dastards like TARU. He was perennially aggressive, cocky and angry, and coud snap and beat up someone at any time. Even his wrestling style was unsophisticated and raw compared to most lucharesu movesets, more based around brawling and high-impact than anything scientifical.
- Bald of Evil: He generally went bald, although at various times he grew and wore it in a topknot or dyed blonde. Also, in a special occasion he lost a Máscara vs. Cabellera match with Dragon Kid, which forced him to go bald again.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: During the war between Toryumon Japan and Toryumon 2000 Project, a second mark whose members were expert in the Mexican grappling style of llave, SUWA showed his own submission expertise by adopting a Catch Wrestling-like crooked headscissors as a finisher.
- Blood Knight: He loved to wrestle, brawl and beat up.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: SUWA could work some awesome technical moves, but he favored a lazy allrounder style with a lot of cheating and brawling.
- Bullying a Dragon: There is an anecdote in which Suwa and Katsumasa Kuroki (Magnum TOKYO's real name) caught a juvenile delinquent trying to rob their apartment in Mexico back when they were training there. Ironically, the two wrestlers were the ones who ended up temporally under arrest, as the Mexican police got in their head that they had actually kidnapped the boy.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He absolutely loved being evil and violent, and nothing in his career would make him refrain from it.
- Challenge Seeker: Burst into NOAH challenging KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji for their tag titles along with Ricky Marvin.
- Chairman of the Brawl: When he doesn't have his trusty blue box handy, a classical chair will od it fine.
- Cloudcuckoolander: He could become a bit too obssessed with violence at times, and he also had a truly wicked sense of humor. In order to lampshade his first retirement in NOAH, he started wearing pink attires and doing comedy spots on the ring to homage Haruka Eigen, who had retired the same year.
- Combat Commentator: Often worked as one in NOAH, with a bit of Cuckoolander Commentator thrown in due to his usual abrasive personality.
- Combat Referee: Became one in Pro Wrestling ZERO1 after retiring in 2007.
- Cool Mask: He wore a Mach Hayato mask in his last match before his first retirement, in Toryumon Mexico, as well as a Black Tiger one in a special appearance in 2012. Later, in his return to NOAH in 2013, he adopted Maybach Taniguchi's as part of his Legacy Character.
- Delinquent Hair: Whenever he had it dyed blonde.
- Early-Bird Cameo: He wrestled a few matches for WCW in the late 90s - he even got some props from WCW's website for showing raw talent.
- Finishing Move:
- The FFF (a lifting double-underhook face buster), the Sweeter Bomb (a sunset flip powerbomb used to counter hurricanranas), Twitter Lock (reverse rocking horse), a diving elbow drop and a Kimura with neckscissors.
- As Maybach Taniguchi Jr., he used the Majin Fusha-Gatame (a hammerlock suplex, bizarrely not a move used by the real Maybach Taniguchi).
- Game-Breaking Injury: He has had a lot, and it was said he had a jinx with Dragon Kid in which he always got injured after a match with him. He retired in 2013 by a grave neck injury too.
- Groin Attack: One of his favorite tag team moves was a diving elbow drop onto his opponent's groin while two allies kept the dude's legs apart. He has other similar moves, which he calls "Nanairo no Kokanwaza" ("Seven Colors Groin Technique").
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Literally anything can lead this guy to proceed to blows with someone.
- Heel: A solid one: arrogant, aggressive and prone to cheat.
- I Know Karate: Subverted. His first ring name was Judo Suwa, which went in the line of Sumo Fujii's, but unlike Fujii, who had a real Sumo Wrestling background, Suwa had never trained in Judo.
- Improbable Weapon User: A big, blue-colored plastic box which they used to store gear in Toryumon. After moving to NOAH, he liked to use too other pieces of gear, among them a duralumin G+ box.
- Initialism Title: His finishing move, the FFF. There used to be several interpretations of what did the acronym mean, with the most popular being "Flying Face Fucker", until it was revealed to be "Full Face Flat".
- I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Invoked. Back when he was doing his Haruka Eigen parody, doing all but stating he was going to retire soon, he contacted TARU and apologized to him because, despite all the years he had wrestled outside of Dragon Gate, he had never gone to All Japan Pro Wrestling so he could join him. After hearing the message, TARU and all his Voodoo Murders invaded NOAH and teamed up with SUWA in two events in order to fulfill his wish in a way or another. A few months later, TARU and SUWA finally did it the proper way when the latter became a honorary member of Voodoo Murders and wrestled a match with them in All Japan.
- Jack of All Stats: He had no clear focus on his wrestling style, using body drops, submissions, aerial moves and cheapshots in accord to every moment's need. He did have a fixation for facebusters and groin attacks, though.
- Jerkass: His wrestling character described with a single word. He is reputed to be a Nice Guy in real life, though it is also rumored he has some bad blood with the Dragon Gate guys.
- Kick the Dog: In many ways, like mistreating his Mini Crazy MAX underlings in Toryumon X and being generally an ass to everybody.
- The Last Dance: Did it in his last match for NOAH, in true SUWA fashion, by suddenly turning on his own partners and starting wreaking havoc with his blue box. Naturally, opponent and partners joined forces to beat him up afterwards, but he ultimately left the ring satisfied with his performance.
- Legacy Character: As Maybach Taniguchi Jr. in NOAH.
- Lightning Bruiser: He was fast, strong and could jump.
- Loophole Abuse: In order to participate in the NOAH Christmas tounament 2005, which is restricted to only wrestlers trained in the NOAH dojo, SUWA came up with impersonating Makoto Hashi as "Makoto Hasuwa". It actually worked.
- Mundane Made Awesome: His John Woo move, which is basically an incredibly hard dropkick.
- Pet the Dog: Before his retirement, he thanked NOAH for "helping him to make memories" in a rare moment of honesty.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Not exaggeratedly, but he was still a junior heavyweight who held his own against full-fledged heavyweights all the time in NOAH.
- Power Stable:
- In Toryumon, Crazy MAX.
- In NOAH, No Mercy.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He is a fashion collector in real life. Also, he literally wore pink during his short-lived Haruka Eigen impersonation.
- Red Baron: "Akuto" ("Scoundrel"), "Toryumon no Tsuyosa no Shocho" ("The Symbol of Toryumon's Strength").
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: He was the red to almost everybody he teamed up, but in Crazy MAX he was particularly opposed to the serene Don Fujii, whom he used to clash against until they settled it down.
- Sadist Teacher: To the Mini Crazy MAX wrestlers.
- Serious Business: SUWA has made many, many derogatory remarks about the comparatively light hearted nature of Dragon Gate as compared to other federations like Pro Wrestling NOAH.
- Signature Move: The John Woo (the mentioned high-impact dropkick), Jet Pool (electric chair facebuster), Issen (a modofied pin) and a jumping lariat.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: He started wearing pants printed with skeleton legs after teaming up with the Voodoo Murders.
- Unnecessary Combat Roll: Usually after his lariat.
- Villainous Friendship: With Crazy MAX, at least in the Toryumon days.
