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Wataru Sakata (born March 11, 1973) is a Japanese Professional Wrestler and Mixed Martial Arts fighter. After a school Kyokushin Karate tenure, he trained for pro wrestling under Animal Hamaguchi and later joined Akira Maeda'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 Pro Wrestling ZERO1, including a Tenka-Ichi tournament win. He also started appearing in the wacky Fighting Opera HUSTLE, 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. Currently works as his wife's agent.

LOVE & TROPES:

  • Alternate Company Equivalent: His career has bizarrely mirrored that of Masahito Kakihara, 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 sporting buzzcuts and having female relatives in the entertainment business.
  • Anti-Hero: In HUSTLE, he was fickle, emotionally volatile and a bit of a pervert, as well as a not entirely faithful husband. However, barring some low moments, he was sincerely dedicated to HUSTLE and really loved his wife.
  • The Apprentice: To Akira Maeda. He also started his pro wrestling training under Animal Hamaguchi and trained at Kiyoshi Tamura’s U-File Camp.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • In MMA, Willie Peeters.
    • In pro wrestling, Generalissimo Takada and his cronies.
  • Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Became one due to his frustration during his rebel tenure in HUSTLE, to the point he toyed with the possibility of joining the Takada Monster Army.
  • Ascended Extra: And how. He went from a lowly MMA fighter in RINGS to the junior ace of ZERO-ONE and later the main hero in HUSTLE.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: Exactly a third party wannabe. He wanted to be the big third faction in HUSTLE, but although he found some initial success, his Sakata Gundan failed and he re-joined the HUSTLE Army.
  • Boring, but Practical: His style of wrestling and fighting was pretty generic, but he was generally efficient with both.
  • Canon Immigrant: Despite he was the junior heavyweight ace in ZERO-ONE for a time, he moved to HUSTLE and got most of his career and fame there. Then again, ZERO-ONE and HUSTLE had a working agreement.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Light yellow tights and boots in RINGS and ZERO-ONE. Later adopted blue trousers, which he changed to red in HUSTLE.
  • Cool Teacher: Used to have his own dojo, called Sakata Dojo or Evolution.
  • Determinator: Especially against Peeters, who usually had the upper hand in their matches. Later had it as a defining trait in HUSTLE.
    "I am not just out to win or lose. What I do is important for HUSTLE in any case. I will endure the result whatever it is."
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: After finding a drunk Mark Coleman while driving around Fukuoka, Sakata tried to lift him up by telling him to think on his family, but this only ashamed Coleman further.
  • Epic Fail: He told Coleman he could do anything if the trusted himself, even picking up girls like Sakata did. Wataru then tried picking up some nearby gyaru and failed miserably.
  • Evil Is Petty: While the evil part is debatable, during Sakata's punkish run he would insult people, attack random wrestlers and cause property damage. 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.
  • Expy: Somewhat to Minoru Suzuki, 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 HUSTLE about the matter.
  • Fallen Hero: Disappointed with the HUSTLE Army and his own failure while being on it, Sakata abandoned it in HUSTLE Vol.4 and went out as a rogue rebel, becoming much more arrogant and bitter in the process. He almost joined the Monster Army at this point before Toshiaki Kawada impeded it.
  • The Fighting Narcissist: During his rebel tenure, he would flirt with female fans and insult the audience for being ugly, uncouth people. Takada would literally describe him as a narcissist.
  • Finishing Move: Cross armbar, rear naked choke and kick to the head. In 2004 he added a diving double foot stomp, and in 2007 the superkick.
  • Flipping the Bird: Did this once to Herman Renting after Sakata submitted him.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Many people attempted to do this to Sakata after deserting, among them Shamoji Fujii, The Great Sasuke and Toshiaki Kawada, but all failed regardless of whether they beat him or not. Even general manager Sasahara decided to hire Mark Coleman to do it, but Coleman was Drowning His Sorrows and not only lost to Sakata, later joined him in his Sakata Gundan.
  • Good Is Not Nice: When Yuji Shimada offered him to be part of the Takada Monster Army due to his shoot-style background, Sakata's answer was giving him a tombstone piledriver.
  • Henpecked Husband: Like Nobuhiko Takada, 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, for which his friends and Japanese media jokingly refer to him mainly as "Koike no Dan'na" ("Koike's Husband").
  • Heroic BSoD: Was in such shame for losing his hair that he abandoned the HUSTLE Army and became a bitter loner, trying to found his own army to fight Generalissimo Takada.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: A minor one. When the HUSTLE Army manager Kantoku Nakamura lost a hair vs. hair match against Commander An Jo, in which Kantoku was represented by Sakata given that he wasn't a wrestler, Sakata volunteered to shave his own head instead to expiate for his loss.
  • Hidden Depths: Once owned a restaurant that he started in 2006, it closed in 2010. He later owned a salad bar, but it also closed in 2016.
  • Hot-Blooded: Deconstructed in HUSTLE, where some of his failures (and he had many) had the effect to turn his energy into bitterness.
  • I Know Karate: Practised Kyokushin while in middle school. Later trained in shoot-style.
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Introduced his training partner Takehiro Murahama in HUSTLE as the first member of his rebel army. Ironically, Murahama would leave HUSTLE after a single match.
  • Jack of All Stats: A pretty well rounded wrestler, especially for a ex-RINGS fighter. His finishing moves were kicks, submissions, suplexes and aerial moves.
  • Keet: A darker version of this.
  • Kick the Dog:
    • Losing his hair in HUSTLE let Sakata very irritable, especially after seeing Kantoku being Innocently Insensitive about it, 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. After deserting the HUSTLE Army, he gave another beatdown to Fujii, who had vowed to take down Sakata.
    • He behaved even worse after being barred from joining the Monster Army, to the point even the normally neutral general manager Keiichi Sasahara turned against him.
  • Kid-Appeal Character: In RINGS. Young, handsome, recklessly brave and often clad in yellow.
  • The Lancer: Was one for Kiyoshi Tamura for a brief time during the beginnings of Tamura’s U-FILE Camp, being often in his corner for his RINGS matches.
  • Loony Fan: He was the self-proclaimed "world's best Akira Maeda fan", and often wrote about him in his blog.
  • Manly Tears: After besting Chris Haseman in a shoot.
  • Mêlée à Trois: Claimed he would crush both the HUSTLE Army and the Monster Army with his own Sakata Army. Needessly to say, he failed, though.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Even at his moral lowest, Sakata was still a nice guy, so he was saddened when he saw Mark Coleman had been driven more and more into alcoholism due to his failure at beating Sakata. He decided to help him, becoming a hero again.
  • Odd Friendship: With Nobuhiko Takada, as they became friends while Sakata was still with RINGS, a rival promotion to Takada. This is one of the reasons Sakata later got into Fighting Opera HUSTLE.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: He eventually become a very decent MMA fighter in RINGS, defeating the uber-dangerous Valentijn Overeem and going to the judges against some really good people, but at that era you had to be much more than decent to shine.
  • Power Copying: He adopted Shinjiro Otani's facewash move after teaming up with him in HUSTLE.
  • Power Stable: HUSTLE Army. Also his own Sakata Gundan.
  • Power Trio: Was part of the Japanese "A" team along with Hiromitsu Kanehara and Yoshihisa Yamamoto for the World Mega Battle Tournament of 1998.
  • Red Baron: In HUSTLE, he started as "HUSTLE Prince", which changed into "Hangyaku no Prince" ("The Prince of Rebellion") when he deserted the HUSTLE Army, a time in which he also went as "Hangyaku no Ippikiōkami" ("The Rebellious Lone Wolf"). After his return, he became "HUSTLE Aniki" ("HUSTLE Big Brother"), "LOVE & HUSTLE" and, embarrassingly, "Koike no Danna" ("Koike's husband").
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After being beaten by Willie Peeters in a particularly wild shootfight in 1995, Sakata went Super-Persistent Predator for him and literally chased 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 lost again by decision in a fourth fight in RINGS Holland by fault of 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.
  • Smug Snake: Made the "get smart" head tap gesture to a defeated Willie Peeters.
  • Spectacular Spinning: Though not as much as fellow RINGS wrestler Masayuki Naruse, he threw jumping spinning kicks on occasion.
  • Start My Own: Founded a Spin-Off wrestling promotion to Fighting Opera HUSTLE; Hustle Man's World.
  • Took a Level in Badass: One of the most improved native shooters at the end of his career in RINGS.
  • Would Hit a Girl: He spanked Kevin Randleman's valet Ute Waner after she tried to attack him in their match.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Did a speech of this kind to Mark Coleman after they lost a match due to Coleman being drunk.
    "Hey, gramps, what are you doing? This was just our first tag match, it’s too soon to give up! Remember when you won the PRIDE GP, man! If you trust yourself, you can do everything."

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