Masaya Suzuki (鈴木雅也, Suzuki Masaya born on January 12, 1991) is a Japanese professional wrestler, known by the ring name Kuma Arashi (熊嵐 Kuma Arashi) is currently working as a freelancer. He is known for his time in Wrestle-1, where he is a former one-time Wrestle-1 Result Champion former four-time Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champion and a four-times UWA World Trios Champion and the winner of the 2017 Wrestle-1 Tag League. At the end of 2017, Wrestle-1 named Kumagoro and Koji Doi the best tag team of the year.
Professional wrestling career
Early career
Suzuki as introduced to the Animal Hamaguchi dojo at the age of 20 and he spent two years training. This led to him receiving a try out in NJPW Dojo but he failed to pass an introductory test. Afterwards, he would move to train on the Wrestle-1 Dojo.[1]
Wrestle-1 (2014–2020)
In 2014 Suzuki entered in an introductory test to train in Wrestle-1 and he passed. After 10 months of training on February 13, 2015 Suzuki made his debut as Kumagoro and he lost to Daiki Inaba. On March 8 Kumagoro had his first victory in Wrestle-1 when he defeated Shotaro Ashino. On May 16 Kumagoro participated at the Road to Keiji Mutoh Tournament and he lost at the first round to Jay Freddie. Manabu Soya and Akira were looking to transform new Wild order into a stable. This led to an evaluation match on June 18, after which Kumagoro and Jun Kasai were accepted as the third and fourth members of new Wild order, turning it from a tag team into a stable.[2] On August 2 Kumagoro participated at the Wrestle-1 Grand Prix and he lost at the first round to Ryota Hama. On September 6 Kumagoro and his new Wild order stablemate Akira unsuccessfully challenged the others new Wild order stablemates Manabu Soya and Jun Kasai for the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship. On October 9 Kumagoro, Akira and Jun Kasai failed to become the first UWA World Trios Championship under the Wrestle-1 management.
On February 10, 2016 Kumagoro, Soya and Akira challenged Kaz Hayashi and Minoru Tanaka and Tajiri for the UWA World Trios Championship. On February 27 Kumagoro, Soya and Akira unsuccessfully challenged Kaz Hayashi and Minoru Tanaka and Tajiri for the UWA World Trios Championship. On August 11, Wrestle-1 presented an interpromotional six-man tag team match, which saw AJPW president Jun Akiyama take on former AJPW president Keiji Mutoh. In the match, the AJPW trio of Akiyama, Naoya Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi was victorious over the Wrestle-1 trio of Kumagoro, Keiji Mutoh and Koji Doi.[3][4] After the that Kumagoro who also left new Wild order, and formed an alliance with Doi who left Real Desperado. On October 2 Kumagoro, Doi and Yusuke Kodama unsuccessfully challenged Andy Wu, Daiki Inaba and Seiki Yoshioka for the UWA World Trios Championship. After the match, Doi, Kumagoro and Kodama would form an alliance with Wu, Inaba, Yoshioka, Jiro Kuroshio and Kohei Fujimura. On December 3 through December 18 Doi and Kumagoro participated at the 2016 World's Strongest Tag Determination League at Block B. During the tournament Doi, Kuroshio, Wu, Inaba, Kodama, Yoshioka, Kumagoro and Fujimura formed a stable named NEW ERA.[5] Two days later Doi and Kumagoro unsuccessfully challenged Kaz Hayashi and Kotaro Suzuki for the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship. At the end of the tournament, Kumagoro and Doi finished the tournament with only two points defeating Nextream (Yuma Aoyagi and Naoya Nomura) and lost the rest of the matches in their block.
On January 15, 2017 Kumagoro participated in a tournament to crown the inaugural Wrestle-1 Result Championship defeating Seigo Tachibana in the first round. Ten days later Kumagoro and Doi had their own produce show losing to Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi in the main event. On February 22 Kumagoro lost to Hiroki Murase in the semifinals of the Wrestle-1 Result Championship. On March 20, Kumagoro and Doi defeated Kaz Hayashi and Kotaro Suzuki to win the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship. On April 16 Kumagoro, Doi and Andy Wu defeated Kaz Hayashi, Shuji Kondo and Masayuki Kono to win the UWA World Trios Championship, becoming a double crown champion in the process. On May 4 Kumagoro and Doi lost the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship to Masayuki Kono and Takanori Ito. On May 6 Kumagoro, Doi and Wu lost the titles to Kaz Hayashi, Shuji Kondo and Manabu Soya. On June 4 Kumagoro, Jiro Kuroshio and Jay Freddie defeated Kaz Hayashi, Shuji Kondo and Manabu Soya for the UWA World Trios Championship. They lost the tiles on June 18 to Nosawa Rongai, Manabu Soya and Ganseki Tanaka. On June 24 Kumagoro and Doi defeated Masayuki Kono and Takanori Ito to regain the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles to Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo on September 2. On September 18 Kumagoro, Doi and Jiro Kuroshio defeated Manabu Soya, Nosawa Rongai and Ganseki Tanaka to win the UWA World Trios Championship. In September until October Kumagoro and Doi took part of the Wrestle-1 Tag League, finishing the tournament with one win, one loss and one draw, advancing to the semifinals. On October 11 Kumagoro and Doi defeated Yuji Hino and Jake Omen in the semifinals and later that night Daiki Inaba and Kuroshio to win the tournament. Afterwards, Kumagoro with the approval of Doi challenged Shotaro Ashino for the Wrestle-1 Championship. On October 21 Kumagoro, Doi and Kuroshio lost the titles to Shotaro Ashino, Yusuke Kodama and Seigo Tachibana. On November 5 Kumagoro unsuccessfully challenged Ashino for the Wrestle-1 Championship. Kumagoro and Doi won the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship back on November 19. Following the win, Kumagoro and Doi regained the UWA World Trios Championship alongside Takanori Ito defeating Ashino, Kodama and Tachibana on December 2, becoming a double crown champion in the process. At the end of 2017, Wrestle-1 named Kumagoro and Doi the best tag team of the year. On March 14, 2018 Kumagoro, Doi and Ito lost the titles to Mazada, Nosawa Rongai and Fujita. On April 18 Kumagoro and Doi lost the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship to AKIRA and Manabu Soya. After the match, Kumagoro turned on him and joined Enfants Terribles. On May 6, Kumagoro and Shotaro Ashino defeated Soya and AKIRA to win back the Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship. Before the match, Kumagoro announced that he would change his ring name to "Kuma Arashi" meaning Bear Storm. They lost the titles to Jiro Kuroshio and Masato Tanaka on June 22. On November 17, Arashi defeated Tanaka to win the Wrestle-1 Result Championship. On June 5, 2019 Arashi would later vacate the title due to dissatisfaction.
On March 31, 2020, Arashi was released by Wrestle-1, after the promotion suspended its activities on the following day.
All Japan Pro Wrestling (2020–Present)
Following the closure of Wrestle-1, Arashi made his debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling on May 5, in a tag team match with stablemate Shotaro Ashino defeating Jin (Jake Lee and Koji Iwamoto) in a winning effort.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Diving Senton Bomb
- Kumagoro Bomb (Powerbomb)
- Finishing moves
- Backdrop
- Diving Body Splash
- Lariat
- Noon-Sun Breaker (Boston Crab)
- Pop-up Powerbomb
- Running jumping splash
- Samoan Drop
- Shoulder Tackle
- Springboard splash
- Sitout inverted front powerslam
- Standing senton bomb
- With Koji Doi
- Electric Chair (Kumagoro) followed by a facebuster (Koji Doi)
- Chop block (Kumagoro) and lariat (Koji Doi) combination
- Doi body slams Kumagoro into an opponent
- Double Backdrop
- Simultaneous sanding Leg drop (Doi) and Senton bomb (Kumagoro)
Championships and accomplishments
- Wrestle-1
- Wrestle-1 Result Championship (1 time)
- Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship (4 times) - with Koji Doi (3) and Shotaro Ashino (1)
- UWA World Trios Championship (4 times) - with Koji Doi and Andy Wu (1), Jiro Kuroshio and Jay Freddie (1), Jiro Kuroshio and Koji Doi (1) and Koji Doi and Takanori Ito (1)
- Wrestle-1 Tag League (2017) - with Koji Doi
- Best Tag Team Award (2017) - with Koji Doi
References
- ↑ 18歳のヤングライオン・川人拓来はこういう選手！ (in Japanese). Enuhito (2015-06-18). Retrieved on 2015-12-26.
- ↑ W-1「Wrestle-1 Tour 2015 Outbreak」 (in Japanese). Sports Navi. Yahoo! (2015-06-18). Retrieved on 2015-06-18.
- ↑ ja:Ｗ－１ 秋山が武藤との“全日社長対決”勝利も若手に激怒！ (in Japanese). Daily Sports Online. Kobe Shimbun (2016-08-11). Retrieved on 2016-08-11.
- ↑ ja:【Ｗ―１】武藤vs秋山３年ぶり対戦 それぞれの思惑 (in Japanese). Tokyo Sports (2016-08-12). Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
- ↑ 「Wrestle-1 NEW ERA」 (in English). Wrestle-1 (2016-12-08). Retrieved on 2016-12-08.