Morishima Takeshi (October 15, 1978) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan and for Ring of Honor in the United States where he is a former ROH World Champion.
Career History
Morshima has also wrestled in the United States and United Kingdom. He competed in Harley Race's World League Wrestling promotion in 2003, defending the WLW Heavyweight Championship, which he had won from Ron Harris while Harris toured Japan.
Morishima returned to the United States in February 2007, wrestling four matches with Ring of Honor. He lost to Samoa Joe on February 16, 2007 before defeating Homicide for the ROH World Championship on the subsequent evening, thus becoming the first non-American to hold the title. On February 23, 2007, Morishima defeated B.J. Whitmer in his first title defense, and on the next night he and Nigel McGuinness defeated Samoa Joe and Homicide. On March 4, 2007, he successfully defended the ROH World Championship in Japan, defeating KENTA in the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. Morishima could not return to the United States until almost a month and a half later when he and Chris Hero took on Nigel McGuinness and Doug Williams, and the next night when he successfully defended the belt against McGuinness in a very stiff match-up.
On April 21 Morishima was honored at the 42nd annual Cauliflower Alley Club banquet, being presented with the "Future Legend" award.
On April 27 he took on Austin Aries for the belt and was once again successful in retaining it when Aries could not put away Morishima even after hitting him with the Brainbuster and the 450 splash. The following night, Morishima successfully defended against Shingo.
In April 2015, Morishima was forced to pull out of the 2015 Global Tag League due to an injury. On April 21, Noah announced that a blood test had revealed that Morishima had an abnormally high glycated hemoglobin, suggesting diabetes. Following his doctor's recommendation, Morishima decided to immediately retire from professional wrestling.
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
-
- Was his finishing move before switching to the Saito suplex. After that a signature move.
- Scrap Buster (Spinning side slam)
- Cartwheel into a stinger splash or a hip attack to an opponent in the ring corner
- Electric chair facebuster
- Forearm club
- Front missile dropkick
- German suplex
- Lariat
- Lou Thesz press
- Running hip attack
- Ura-nage
- Since mid-2005.
Championships and accomplishments
- 3 Count Wrestling
- 3CW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Asistencia Asesoría y Administración
- AAA World Tag Team Championship (1 time, current) - with Taiji Ishimori (1)
- Pro Wrestling NOAH
- GHC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- GHC Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Takeshi Rikio (1) & Mohammed Yone (2)
- Ring of Honor
- ROH World Championship (1 time)
- World League Wrestling
- WLW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
See also
- Takeshi Morishima's event history
