Wrestling / Minoru Tanaka

Minoru Tanaka (born August 5, 1972) is a Japanese Professional Wrestler and Mixed Martial Arts fighter. Originally a gymnast and shootboxer, he joined Yoshiaki Fujiwara's Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi and made his pro wrestling debut a year before the promotion folded. He moved with the rest of the staff to Battlarts, and from there he made appearances in several other promotions in both shoots and work, like Fighting Network RINGS, Big Japan Pro Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the last of which eventually scouted him. Tanaka became a junior heavyweight sensation, a mix of shoot-stylist and high-flyer, and also had a tenure as a masked video game character named HEAT. After a career with a couple record-breaking IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reigns and a heel stint in Jushin Thunder Liger's CTU faction, he left NJPW for All Japan Pro Wrestling, debuting surprisingly as a new member of TARU's Voodoo Murders. He later followed Keiji Mutoh to WRESTLE-1, until he left to become a freelance, moving his operations to Pro Wrestling NOAH.

He's unrelated to Masato Tanaka.

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"Black Prince Tropes":

• The Ace: Handsome, acrobatic, hard-hitting and technical. He was even called literally a tag team ace back when he teamed with Kanemoto.
• The Apprentice: To Caesar Takeshi and Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
• Combat Commentator: Has provided commentary for Battlarts.
• Cool Mask: As his other personas; Heat and CTU-J.
• Cool Teacher: Trained Alex Koslov.
• Expy: During their tenure together in NJPW, Tanaka and Kanemoto were officially considered the second coming of the old tag team of Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada. Of the two, Tanaka was the equivalent of Takada, another shoot-stylist with a lot of both athleticism and good looks. Their career paths also resemble each other, as they both trained under Fujiwara, had short and insuccessful MMA tenures, were great as conventional wrestlers, and later engaged in a more sports entertainment-oriented product where they were part of villainous stables.
• Finishing Move: Minoru Special (flying armbar), Minoru Special II (northern lights suplex bridged over into an armbar), HEAT Clutch (flying armbar into a weird pin), Santa Monica Pier (leg hook Death Valley driver), FIREBALL Splash (450º splash), several variations of fisherman buster, and kick to the head.
• First-Name Basis: In 2005, he dropped his surname, just being called Minoru. He got it back in 2011.
• Guest Fighter: Fought a few shoot matches in RINGS.
• I Know Shootboxing: Was a fighter before his transition into pro wrestling.
• Lightning Bruiser: Able to work both shoot-style and high-flying wrestling.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy / Mr. Fanservice: He was Battlarts's resident good-looking kid.
• Power Copying: He often adopts moves from his partners, like Masahito Kakihara's Kaki Cutter and Masaaki Mochizuki's Twister and Sankakugeri.
• Power Stable: Control Terrorism Unit (CTU) and RISE in NJPW, Voodoo Murders in AJPW.
• Red Baron: "Ude-Juji Shokunin" ("The Artisan of the Cross Armbar"), "Black Prince", "The Special One".
• Time to Unlock More True Potential: Created the Monster Cat Suplex, a hammerlock/tiger suplex, to counter Tiger Mask IV.
• Wrestling Family: Is married to former professional wrestler Yumi Fukawa.