Yoshinobu Kanemaru

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Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Kōfu, Yamanashi[1][2]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Masked Burning #2[3]
Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Billed height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1][2]
Billed weight85 kg (187 lb)[1][2]
Trained byAll Japan Pro Wrestling dojo
DebutJuly 6, 1996[1][2]

Yoshinobu Kanemaru (金丸義信, Kanemaru Yoshinobu, born September 23, 1976) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is a member of Bullet Club, and its sub-group House of Torture. He also works as a backstage producer. Kanemaru was a member of the Suzuki-gun stable from 2016 till the stable disbanded in 2022. Kanemaru joined the Just 5 Guys stable with former Suzuki-gun members before defecting to join House of Torture. Kanemaru is best known for his work in Pro Wrestling Noah, where he holds the record for the most reigns with the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Professional wrestling career

All Japan Pro Wrestling (1996–2000)

Kanemaru debuted in 1996 for All Japan Pro Wrestling, in the last years of owner Giant Baba's regime, which had isolated the promotion from outsider wrestlers at the expense of the younger, lighter-weight talent. His first high-profile match in 1997 saw him team with New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Koji Kanemoto (Tiger Mask III) to battle freelancer Satoru Sayama, the original Tiger Mask, and his disciple, Michinoku Pro Wrestling's Yoshihiro Yamazaki (who would go on to become Tiger Mask IV), in a battle of Tiger Masks (as Mitsuharu Misawa, who once portrayed Tiger Mask II, was now a heavyweight and fully focused on the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, Kanemaru had to substitute for him in this interpromotional bout.)

Despite Baba's death in 1999, Kanemaru rarely had further opportunities to go into other promotions. It was only in 2000, after Misawa broke with AJPW to create Noah that his experience began widening. In a brief promotional alliance with

WEW Tag Team Championship, with heavyweight Masao Inoue
.

Pro Wrestling Noah (2000–2013)

In 2001, Kanemaru underwent a transformation. His simple

Jyushin Thunder Liger. In tag teams his experience widened as well, teaming with Tsuyoshi Kikuchi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, and with Takashi Sugiura to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship twice.[4]
His win of the NJPW title served as a catalyst for the creation of the equivalent Noah title.

Kanemaru in 2007

In 2008, Kanemaru showed a serious shift in his attitude after the "SugiKane" team of himself and

KENTA and Taiji Ishimori
. The new team would defeat the champions for their titles two weeks later after Kanemaru pinned KENTA after using his "Touch-Out" brainbuster.

On October 31, 2009, he defeated Jyushin Thunder Liger in the finals of the Junior Heavyweight League to win the vacant GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship for a fifth time.

On March 28, 2010, he retained his title against Taiji Ishimori, on 25 April 2010 he beat Delirious and on his third defense on 10 July he kept his title after a victory on Naomichi Marufuji.

On September 2, 2010, in Xtreme Wrestling Entertainment defeat José Vargas Jr., to win the XWE Cruiserweight Championship for first time. On December 5, 2010, Kanemaru lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Kotaro Suzuki, ending his reign at 400 days, the longest in the title's history. On May 9, 2012, Kanemaru defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship for the sixth time. He lost the title to All Japan Pro Wrestling's Shuji Kondo on September 29, 2012. On December 19, 2012, Noah announced that Kanemaru would be leaving the promotion, after refusing to re-sign following the firing of Kenta Kobashi.[5][6][7] Kanemaru wrestled his final Noah match on December 24, teaming with Akitoshi Saito in a tag team match, where they were defeated by Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura.[8][9]

Return to All Japan (2013–2015)

On January 26, 2013, Kanemaru,

Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) event on April 29.[16] Kanemaru regained the title from Mitsuya Nagai and Takeshi Minamino on March 22, 2015, now teaming with Último Dragón.[17] They vacated the title on October 14.[18] On November 20, Kanemaru announced he would be leaving All Japan and becoming a freelancer following December 15.[19]

Return to Noah (2016)

In January 2016, Kanemaru returned to Pro Wrestling Noah, initially forming a partnership with Go Shiozaki, before turning on him on January 31 and joining

Kushida in the finals of the tournament.[24] On September 23, Kanemaru lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Atsushi Kotoge.[25] Kanemaru had a chance to regain the GHC Junior title when he faced Kotoge at Great Voyage in Yokohama vol. 2 on October 23, but failed. Suzuki-gun's Noah invasion storyline concluded in December 2016.[26]

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2017–present)

Kanemaru in February 2017

On January 5, 2017, Suzuki-gun, Kanemaru included, returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi. In May, he entered the 2018 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He finished the tournament with 3 wins and 4 losses, failing to advance to the finals. Between October and November, he and Desperado took part in the Super Junior Tag League, advancing to the finals thanks to a record of five wins and two losses. After months of reigning, they fought against Roppongi 3K and the team of Bushi and Shingo Takagi, a match won by the latter on January 4, 2019, at Wrestle Kingdom 13, in a triple threat tag team match, ending their reign at 304 days. Kanemaru would enter the 2019 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, ending with a record of 3 wins and 6 losses, including wins over SHO and long time rival Taiji Ishimori
, however failing to advance from the block.

In June 2020, Kanemaru would enter the New Japan Cup tournament for the first time in his career, defeating Yuya Uemura in the first round, before losing to Taiji Ishimori in the second. On September 11, 2020, Kanemaru and Desperado won a tournament to win the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship by last defeating the team of Bushi and Hiromu Takahashi.[31] Kanemaru signed a full-time contract with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, that would see him continue to perform as a wrestler, as well as becoming a producer for the company. On January 4, 2021, at Wrestle Kingdom 15, Desperado and Kanemaru successfully defended the titles against Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato.[32]

In January, Kanemaru and Desperado lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships to Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo, ending their second reign at 134 days.

Zack Sabre Jr lost to Pro Wrestling Noah's Naomichi Marufuji and Yoshinari Ogawa.[43]

On February 19 during the NJPW New Years Golden Series, Kanemaru and Desperado competed in a four-way tag-team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, but the match was won by Six or Nine (Master Wato and

AEW All-Atlantic Championship, however Kanemaru was defeated by Tomohiro Ishii in the qualifying round.[49] Six days later, Kanemaru and Desperado teamed on the buy-in of AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, against Swerve in our Glory (Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland), in a losing effort.[50] In October, Kanemaru competed in another tournament to crown the inaugural NJPW World Television Championship, but lost to David Finlay in the first round.[51] In November, Kanemaru competed in the Super Junior Tag League, this time teaming with Douki. The duo ended the tournament campaign with 8 points failing to advance to the finals.[52] At the World Tag League & Best of the Super Juniors finals, Minoru Suzuki announced the disbandment of Suzuki-gun by the end of the year.[53] The final match between the faction took place on December 23, where the team of Taichi, Sabre Jr, Kanemaru and Douki defeated Suzuki, Lance Archer, Desperado and Taka Michinoku. After the match, each of the Suzuki-gun members spoke about their memories as a part of the group and thanked leader Suzuki. The night ended with all members posing with the Suzuki-gun flag, only to be interrupted by former member Takashi Iizuka, causing all 9 men to pose in the ring, behind the Suzuki-gun flag.[54]

On January 4 at

New Japan Rambo, but failed to last till the final 4.[55] The following day at New Year Dash!!, Kanemaru reunited with former Suzuki-gun stablemates, Taka Michinoku, Douki and Taichi to form a stable known as, Just 4 Guys.[56][57] In February at The New Beginning in Sapporo, Kanemaru and Douki, challenged Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira and TJP) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, but were defeated.[58] During the New Japan Cup, the stable added cup winner Sanada to the faction, thus changing their name to Just 5 Guys.[59] Following Sanada winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Sakura Genesis, he was confronted by former stablemate Hiromu Takahashi, who sought a shot at the world title. Sanada accepted, however only on the basis that Kanemaru was granted a title shot at Takahashi's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, which Takahashi accepted. On April 27, Kanemaru was unsuccessful in defeating Takahashi.[60] In May, Kanemaru competed in the Best of the Super Juniors, competing in the B Block.[61] Kanemaru finished the tournament with a score of 6 points, failing to advance to the semi-finals.[62]

Following the 2023 G1 Climax, Kanemaru suffered a supposed knee injury while fighting the House of Torture and went on a small hiatus for the remainder of the month of August. A month later, during Taichi's defense match against Sho for the KPOW Championship, Kanemaru returned seemingly to help Taichi defend himself. But, as soon as Kanemaru would put whiskey on his mouth and perform his whiskey spit, he spat it on Taichi's face instead and hit him with his Touch Out. Afterwards, Evil announced Kanemaru was leaving Just 5 Guys to join House of Torture.

Championships and accomplishments

References

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Yoshinobu Kanemaru.
Preceded by Super Junior Tag League winner
2021
With: El Desperado 		Succeeded by
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