Japanese professional wrestler
Michael Knockitthefoff Nakazawa in 2018
Birth name Masatsugu Knockitthefoff[1] Born (1975-10-08 ) October 8, 1975 (age 46) [2] Kawasaki , Kanagawa, Japan [3] Ring name(s) AbnormalMichael Nakazawa [3] MT Nakazawa Nakazawa Magic Iker Billed height 5 ft 11 in (180 cm) Billed weight 203 lb (92 kg) Trained by DDT Dojo Debut October 23, 2005[4]
Masatsugu Nakazawa (中澤 公胤 , Nakazawa Masatsugu , born October 8, 1975) ,[5] better known by the ring name Michael Nakazawa (中澤マイケル , Nakazawa Maikeru ) , is a Japanese professional wrestler and judoka signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW).[6]
Early life
Nakazawa attended Tokai University before studying abroad in the United States were he obtained an MSc Sports Science at the United States Sports Academy (USSA) Graduate School.[7] Nakazawa's father, Kazunari Nakazawa, is an associate professor at Tokai University and director of the American Football club.
Professional wrestling career
Independent circuit
Nakazawa is best known for his tenure with DDT Pro-Wrestling where he is a former KO-D Tag Team Champion (with Kenny Omega ), Jiyūgaoka 6-Person Tag Team Champion and DDT Extreme Champion .[8] Throughout his career he has also wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling ,[9] Michinoku Pro , Big Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro-Wrestling . Nakazawa studied in the United States and is a fluent speaker of English . He often acted as an interpreter for English-speaking foreign wrestlers in Japan and through this relationship he met Kenny Omega, a now-Executive VP at AEW, with whom he has shared a ring 35 times, both as an opponent and as a tag team partner.[10]
All Elite Wrestling (2019–present)
Nakazawa was announced as a new signee of All Elite Wrestling (AEW) in early 2019.[6] He debuted at Double Or Nothing , the promotion's inaugural event, taking part in a 21-man Casino Battle Royale . He was the first man to be eliminated by Sunny Daze.[11] The following month at Fyter Fest , Nakazawa defeated Alex Jebailey in a hardcore match .[12] On the November 13 episode of Dynamite , Nakazawa made his debut quickly losing to Jon Moxley .[13] Following this, Nakazawa would mainly wrestle on AEW's secondary show Dark , facing the likes of Shawn Spears , Trent Beretta and Matt Sydal in losing efforts.[14] [15] [16] On the January 20, 2021 episode of Dynamite , Nakazawa was seen in Kenny Omega 's house welcoming in The Young Bucks thus establishing his affiliation with Omega in AEW.[17] On the March 10 episode of Dark: Elevation , Omega set up a match between Nakazawa and Matt Sydal where if Sydal won, he would receive an AEW World Title Eliminator match against Omega. During the match, Nakazawa displayed villainous tactics such as choking Sydal with his lanyard but he would eventually go on to lose the match.[18]
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All Elite Wrestling
Personnel
Male wrestlers Female wrestlers Other on-air personnel Stables and tag teams Referees Broadcast team Backstage personnel Khan family
Programming Championships
Accomplishments Sister promotion Partnerships
See also
Ironman Heavymetalweight Champions
Individual champions
Collective champions (teams, groups) Objects, animals, etc.
UWA World Trios Champions
1980s 1990s 2000s
Crazy-Max (Cima , Suwa and Big Fuji )
M2K (Darkness Dragon , Yasushi Kanda and Susumu Mochizuki )
Dragon Kid , Magnum Tokyo and Ryo Saito
M2K (Darkness Dragon, Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Mochizuki )
Italian Connection (Milano Collection A.T. , Yossino and "brother" Yassini )
Do Fixer (Genki Horiguchi , Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka )
Shin M2K (Kenichiro Arai , Dragon Kid and Masaaki Mochizuki )
Italian Connection (Milano Collection A.T. , Condotti Shuji and Yossino )
Hagure Gundam/Aagan Iisou (Toru Owashi , Condotti Shuji and Yassini )
Kenichiro Arai , Dragon Kid and Second Doi
Gedo , Jado and Katsushi Takemura
Los Salseros Japoneses (Takayasu Fukuda , Pineapple Hanai and Takeshi Minamino )
Hell's Demons (Takuya Sugawara , Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei )
Nobutaka Araya , Toru Owashi and Takuya Sugawara
The Italian Four Horsemen (Francesco Togo , Piza Michinoku and Antonio Honda )
Belt Hunter×Hunter (Danshoku Dino , Hikaru Sato and Masa Takanashi )
2010s
Tokyo Gurentai (Fujita , Mazada and Nosawa Rongai )
Atsushi Kotoge , Daisuke Harada and Takoyakida
Ebessan (III) , Kanjyuro Matsuyama and Kuishinbo Kamen
Hikaru Sato , Keisuke Ishii and Yoshihiko
Great Kojika , Mr. #6 and Riho
Shit Heart♥Foundation (Hikaru Sato , Michael Nakazawa and Tomomitsu Matsunaga )
Disaster-Box (Harashima , Toru Owashi and Yukihiro Abe)
Jackets (Jiro Kuroshio , Seiki Yoshioka and Yasufumi Nakanoue )
Real Desperado (Kazma Sakamoto , Koji Doi and Nosawa Rongai )
Kaz Hayashi , Minoru Tanaka and Tajiri
Andy Wu , Daiki Inaba and Seiki Yoshioka
Jun Kasai , Nosawa Rongai and Shuji Kondo
New Era (Daiki Inaba , Kohei Fujimura and Yusuke Kodama )
Kaz Hayashi , Masayuki Kono and Shuji Kondo
New Era (Andy Wu , Koji Doi and Kumagoro)
Kaz Hayashi , Manabu Soya and Shuji Kondo
Jay Freddie, Jiro Kuroshio and Kumagoro
Ganseki Tanaka, Manabu Soya and Nosawa Rongai
New Era (Jiro Kuroshio , Koji Doi and Kumagoro)
Enfants Terribles (Seigo Tachibana , Shotaro Ashino and Yusuke Kodama )
New Era (Koji Doi, Kumagoro and Takanori Ito )
Sento Minzoku (Daiki Shimomura , Isami Kodaka and Ryuichi Sekine )
Takato Nakano, Takumi Tsukamoto and Yasu Urano
Sparky (Ryota Nakatsu , Naoki Tanizaki and Akiyori Takizawa)
2020s