Gedo (wrestler)

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Gedo
Gedo at BCW East Meets West cropped.jpg
Gedo in May 2014
Birth name Keiji Takayama (高山 圭司 Takayama Keiji?)
Born (1969-02-20) February 20, 1969 (age 55)[1][2]
Musashimurayama, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Bulldog K.T.
C.T.U Ranger Green[3]
Crush
Gedo
Billed height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Billed weight 86 kg (190 lb)[1]
Debut March 19, 1989[1][2]

Keiji Takayama (高山 圭司 Takayama Keiji?, born February 20, 1969) is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known as Gedo (外道 Gedō?). He formed a long-lasting tag team with Jado.

Professional wrestling career

Gedo debuted on March 19, 1989 for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) during the Takeshi Puroresu Gundan (TPG), NJPW's parody of World Wrestling Federation's Rock 'n Wrestling era.[2] His debut match was against Magic Monkey Wakita, who would later be known as Super Delfin, on March 19, 1989. After TPG died out, Gedo, Wakita, and TPG comrade Jado left NJPW. Jado and Gedo went on to become one of the premiere tag teams in Japan.

Jado and Gedo headed to the Universal Wrestling Association in Mexico as Punish (Jado) and Crush (Gedo), and defeated Silver King and El Texano for the UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship on November 8, 1991. They would win these belts on two more occasions in 1992.[4] This led to their many tours with W*NG and were apart of the incident where Kanemura was burnt. Jado and Gedo headed to Wrestle Association "R" in 1994 and became one of the top tag teams there, winning the WAR World Six-Man Tag Team Championship with "Kodo" Fuyuki, defeating Genichiro Tenryu, Animal Hamaguchi and Koki Kitahara on June 6, 1994. Gedo would win this belt four more times between 1994 and 1996.

Gedo, with the addition of being an accomplished tag team wrestler, was also one of the top junior heavyweights in Japan in the first half of the 1990s. Gedo reached the semi finals of the 1994 Super J Cup where he would lose to Wild Pegasus.[5][6] Gedo was in the 1995 Super J Cup and reached the finals, losing to Jushin Thunder Liger in his fourth match of the night.[7] Gedo won his first singles title when he defeated Lionheart for the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship on March 26, 1995. Gedo would win this belt again, defeating Último Dragón for it.

Jado and Gedo left WAR, which was declining, and headed to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, one of Japan's top independent promotions. Gedo, with Jado and Kodo Fuyuki, won the FMW World Street Fight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, defeating the Headhunters and Hisakatsu Oya on March 21, 1997. It was also in 1997 that Gedo toured North America, appearing at the 1997 WCW Halloween Havoc show wrestling Chris Jericho,[8] and winning the CRMW North American Mid-Heavyweight Championship defeating Ricky Fuji on August 31, 1997. During the Halloween Havoc show, Mike Tenay called Gedo the Dusty Rhodes of Japan. He further said that Gedo was a fan of 1970s U.S. Southern style brawling.[8]

Gedo in June 2011

Gedo won the FMW Brass Knuckles Tag Team Championship not with Jado but with Koji Nakagawa when they defeated Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda on June 13, 1999. Gedo would leave FMW in 2001 along with Masato Tanaka, Jado, Hideki Hosaka, and Kaori Nakayama with the group becoming freelancers with Gedo mostly working in Michinoku Pro. Gedo along with Jado would eventually return to New Japan and win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship when they defeated Jushin Thunder Liger and El Samurai on July 20, 2001.[9] Gedo had a fierce rivalry with Liger after Jado and Gedo made a surprise appearance in NJPW when they both pulled Liger's mask off.[2] Jado and Gedo won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight belts for a second time in 2003 after again defeating Liger and Samurai.[10] In 2007, Gedo was offered a contract by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), but turned it down because he would have been required to portray a stereotypical Japanese character.[11] On November 13, 2010, Jado and Gedo returned to the top of New Japan's Junior Tag Team division by defeating their CHAOS team mates Davey Richards and Rocky Romero in the finals of a five-day-long tournament to win the 2010 Super J Tag League.[12] As a result of their victory, Gedo and Jado received a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, which took place at a Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) event on December 26, 2010, where they were defeated by the defending champions, the Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi).[13] At the end of 2011, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter named Gedo and Jado the bookers of the year. They have won the award three more times since then. While they are mostly focused on booking the promotion, Gedo remains prominent as the manager of Kazuchika Okada. On July 5, 2013, Gedo received his first shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in nearly a decade as he attempted to stop Prince Devitt from earning a shot at Okada's IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Gedo, however, failed in his challenge and Devitt advanced to the match with Okada.[14] On November 1, Gedo and Jado received their first shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in three years, but were defeated by the defending champions, Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku).[15] In early 2015, Gedo became the primary booker of New Japan, when Jado took over as the new booker of Pro Wrestling Noah.[16]

In wrestling

Gedo in September 2013

Championships and accomplishments

  • Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling
    • CRMW North American Mid-Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ http://www.puroresufan.com/njpw/results02.html
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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