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 won the
WWWF Junior Heavyweight Championship 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 World 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. Fujinami is set to take part in a tag team dream match along with his close friend Nishimura to take on
Mitsuharu Misawa &
Go Shiosaki at the end of September.
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