Tatsumi Fujinami

Tatsumi Fujinami
Born	(1953-12-28) December 28, 1953 Kunisaki, Ōita
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Tatsumi Fujinami "Honoo no Hiryū" Dr. Fujinami
Billed height	183 cm (6 ft)
Billed weight	104 kg (228 lb)
Trained by	Karl Gotch Antonio Inoki
Debut	May 9 1971

Tatsumi Fujinami (藤波 辰巳, Fujinami Tatsumi) is a Japanese professional wrestler who is famous for his gimmick as "The Dragon." He is the one who is credited for inventing the Dragon Sleeper and the Dragon Suplex. He is also the owner & founder of the Dradition wrestling promotion.

Career

Fujinami started in the old Japanese Wrestling Association under Antonio Inoki's wing. When Inoki was fired from JWA in 1971, Fujinami and a few others followed him in forming a new promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling. Inoki, Fujinami, Osamu Kido and Kotetsu Yamamoto are recognized as NJPW's founding fathers.

In those early days he served as opponent for debuting rookies, such as Mr. Pogo, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Gran Hamada. Fujinami, Fujiwara, Hamada and three other rookies competed in the 1974 Karl Gotch Cup (a tournament for rookies, forerunner to the later Young Lions Cup).

In the late 1970s Fujinami was sent abroad, to Mexico's Universal Wrestling Association and to Jim Crockett Promotions in the U.S. In the late 1970s he went to the WWWF where he first made a name for himself. He won the WWWF Junior Heavyweight Championship on January 23, 1978. and brought it back to Japan, establishing it as the premier junior heavyweight title in Japan. Fujinami would be the first wrestler to be successful in both the junior heavyweight and heavyweight divisions.

His "most remembered" match in the U.S. was when he defended his NWA World Heavyweight title against Ric Flair in a title vs. title re-match at the first ever WCW SuperBrawl in Florida after a controversial match in Japan. Flair retained his WCW Championship and regained Fujinami's title by a school boy pin with a handful of tights.

In recent years Fujinami has decreased his work load upon being named President of NJPW in 1999 (he was nevertheless ousted in 2004). His last title reign in NJPW was a IWGP Tag Team Championship with disciple Osamu Nishimura in October 2001, and his last title shot ever was a AJPW Triple Crown bout against Keiji Mutoh in December of the same year (Mutoh had not affiliated himself exclusively with AJPW at the time). Recently he and Nishimura began running their Muga promotion again, focusing on pure catch wrestling which seems to have been relegated by NJPW. In a tag team dream match, Fujinami, along with his close friend Nishimura beat Mitsuharu Misawa and Go Shiozaki in the main event of the first "Muga World" show. The name of Fujinami's new promotion has since been changed to Dradition.

In wrestling

• Finishing and signature moves
  • Dragon Sleeper - Innovated
  • Dragon Suplex - Innovated
  • Dragon Backbreaker (Back suplex backbreaker) - Innovated
  • Dragon screw - Innovated
  • Dragon Rocket (Suicide dive)
  • Abdominal stretch, sometimes to a grounded opponent
  • Enzuigiri
  • Figure four leglock
  • Front dropkick
  • Gory special
  • Running sitout powerbomb
  • Double arm DDT
  • Japanese leg roll clutch
  • Grapevined Boston crab

Championships and accomplishments

• Catch Wrestling Association
  • CWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• New Japan Pro Wrestling
  • IWGP Heavyweight Championship (6 times) (Most reigns)
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship (5 times) - with Kengo Kimura (4) and Osamu Nishimura (1) (First)
  • NWA International Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
  • WCWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • WWF International Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • WWF International Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Kengo Kimura (Last)
  • WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • G1 Climax (1993)
  • Super Grade Tag League (1991) – with Big Van Vader
• Pacific Northwest Wrestling
  • NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• Universal Wrestling Association
  • UWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• World Wide Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling Federation
  • WWF International Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • WWWF Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him # 31 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Best Technical Wrestler (1985, 1986, 1988)
  • Most Outstanding Wrestler (1988)
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)