Animal Hamaguchi
Japanese retired professional wrestler (born 1947)
Heigo Hamaguchi (濱口 平吾, Hamaguchi Heigo; born August 31, 1947) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Animal Hamaguchi (アニマル浜口, Animaru Hamaguchi). During his career he was recognized as a talented tag team wrestler despite his relatively small size for a heavyweight, and today he is recognized as a trainer in both professional and amateur wrestling.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Animal Hamaguchi (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Aug 31, 1947.1
About
He is the father of freestyle wrestler Kyoko Hamaguchi.
From Wikipedia’s article on Animal Hamaguchi, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Career
Occupation: professional wrestler.5
- Date not recordedWorked at Musashino Gakuin University3
- Date not recordedFounded Animal Hamaguchi Wrestling Dōjō4
Hamaguchi debuted in 1969 with International Wrestling Enterprise. He was a regular midcarder although his teams with Sueo Inoue and Rusher Kimura were main event. He also made forays into North American wrestling in the late 1970s, winning titles in Puerto Rico's World Wrestling Council and Canada's Stampede Wrestling.
In 1981, when IWE collapsed, Hamaguchi teamed with Kimura and Isamu Teranishi in an "invasion" angle in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. When the angle was dropped, Hamaguchi joined Riki Choshu in forming the original Ishin Gundan rebel stable.
In 1984 Ishin Gundan left NJPW and formed Japan Promotion, which eventually became a mere stable of All Japan Pro Wrestling. AJPW promoter Giant Baba ordered Choshu to replace Hamaguchi, who was rather small-sized, with rookie Yoshiaki Yatsu in order to feud with Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu in the upper card. Hamaguchi thus reformed his team with Inoue in the lower card.
After Japan Pro Wrestling broke up and Choshu and others went back to NJPW in 1987, Hamaguchi chose to retire.
In 1990 he returned as Big Van Vader's partner against Antonio Inoki and Tiger Jeet Singh in Inoki's 30th anniversary match. Hamaguchi competed sporadically until settling in Tenryu's WAR in 1993. In his last earnest comeback he teamed with Tenryu and Koki Kitahara to win his last title, the WAR 6-Man Tag Team Championship.
From Wikipedia’s article on Animal Hamaguchi (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Personal life
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataAnimal Hamaguchi on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaAnimal Hamaguchi on Wikipedia
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- 9Wikimedia CommonsAnimal Hamaguchi photo by 椎林 隆夫, CC BY-SA 3.0