10 Things To Know About Minoru Suzuki

Of all the debuts at All Elite Wrestling’s 2021 pay-per-view All Out, the most surprising wasn’t any ex-WWE star -- the rumor mill had made all those well-known -- but rather that of Minoru Suzuki of New Japan Pro Wrestling. As soon as Jon Moxley put away Satoshi Kojima in a singles match, a music familiar to NJPW fans hit, and out came Suzuki to “holy [expletive]” chants.

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A vicious heel in Japan, Minoru Suzuki is very popular with New Japan fans in the West. But there are certainly many fans who don’t follow NJPW who might be unaware of Suzuki and why he’s such a big deal. Here’s what you need to know.

10 Shoot Style

Minoru Suzuki embarked on his wrestling career in 1988, training in the New Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo under Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Suzuki would defect along with Fujiwara to shoot-style innovator Universal Wrestling Federation, and later Fujiwara’s own shoot-style Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi.

During this period, Suzuki wrestled some surprising names like Ken Shamrock, Norman Smiley, and Jerry Flynn, all of whom worked shoot style before becoming known to Western wrestling fans in the late 1990s.

9 Trained by Karl Gotch

In addition to Fujiwara, Minoru Suzuki received training in the NJPW dojo from german suplex innovator Karl Gotch, who is nicknamed the “God of Wrestling” for his influence on pro wrestling in Japan. Gotch was a huge influence on NJPW founder Antonio Inoki, and went on to train a number of NJPW talent including the original Tiger Mask, Fujiwara, and Tatsumi Fujinami.

In honor of his trainer, Minoru Suzuki uses another move that Gotch innovated as a finisher, the Gotch-style piledriver.

8 King of Pancrase

In 1993, Minoru Suzuki and fellow wrestler Makasatsu Funaki left Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi and founded their own promotion, Pancrase, bringing Ken Shamrock and other PWFG roster members with them. Distinct from UWF and PWFG, Pancrase was a legitimate MMA organization, credited with being the first of its kind.

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Suzuki was a competitor in Pancrase as well, racking up a 9-1 record within his first year fighting. In May of 1995, he scored a win over Ken Shamrock, winning the King of Pancrase title in the process. Suzuki would fight from 1993 until 2002 -- with the exception of a single bout in 2013 -- with a final record of 30 wins and 19 losses.

7 Took A Decade Away From Wrestling

During his time in MMA, Minoru Suzuki had stepped away from pro wrestling entirely until his then-final MMA match in 2002. He returned to New Japan over the summer of 2003, and by early 2004 would capture the IWGP Tag Team Title alongside Yoshihiro Takayama.

He’d also wrestle for Pro Wrestling NOAH during this period, where he and Naomichi Marufuji would capture the GHC Tag Titles and also unsuccessfully challenge Jun Akiyama and Kenta Kobashi for the GHC Heavyweight Title on separate occasions.

6 AJPW Run

In 2006, Suzuki debuted for All Japan Pro Wrestling, and eventually would become a two-time champion with the company’s top belt, the Triple Crown Title. Along with a couple of tag title reigns, Minoru Suzuki would also take part in several iterations of AJPW’s round robin tournament, Champion Carnival, winning back to back tournaments in 2009 and 2010.

It was also during this run that Suzuki wrestled his first-ever cage match -- and AJPW’s -- against his Pancrase co-founder Makasatsu Funaki.

5 Decorated Champion

The IWGP Heavyweight Championship has always eluded Minoru Suzuki, but he’s held a number of titles in New Japan Pro Wrestling regardless. In addition to the aforementioned Tag Title reign, Suzuki has managed two runs with the NEVER Openweight Championship, which is the perfect title for him, given his fierce style.

On top of that, Suzuki won two titles with NJPW’s partner, the UK-based Revolution Pro Wrestling: the Undisputed British Tag Team Title (with Zack Sabre Jr.) and the top singles belt, the Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship.

4 Suzuki-Gun

After wrestling a couple odd matches for NJPW in 2010, Minoru Suzuki made a big return in early 2011, overthrowing Satoshi Kojima as leader of his Kojima-Gun stable and renaming it Suzuki-Gun in the process. With founding members Taka Michinoku and Taichi at his side, Suzuki-Gun would recruit new members including Lance Archer, Shelton Benjamin, Zack Sabre Jr., and El Desperado, among others.

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During this run, Suzuki would make several challenges for the IWGP Heavyweight Title, including one against Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom IV.

3 Invading NOAH

After Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 2015, Suzuki-Gun staged an invasion of Pro Wrestling NOAH, winning every title in the company as well as getting NOAH’s Takashi Sugiura and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to join its ranks. During this run, Minoru Suzuki would finally capture the GHC Heavyweight Title for a 283-day run, but would eventually be ousted from the promotion after Sugiura betrayed the team, defecting back to NOAH.

Lasting nearly two years, this angle was hated by NOAH fans and ultimately contributed to a breakdown in the promotion’s relationship with NJPW.

2 Feud With Jushin 'Thunder' Liger

The joy of Minoru Suzuki in NJPW these days is seeing him get into the meanest singles feuds with the other veterans of NJPW, which seems to always result in awesome matches. One of his best of recent years was against Jushin 'Thunder' Liger, who Suzuki actually beat in an MMA fight in 2002.

In 2019, Suzuki began antagonizing the legend, who was soon to retire, to the point of eliciting the return of Liger’s evil alter-ego, Kishin Liger. This led to a great match at October’s King of Pro-Wrestling, which Suzuki won.

1 Kaze Ni Nare

Minoru Suzuki’s theme song, “Kaze Ni Nare” by Ayumi Nakamura, is a rousing, catchy pop song that gets the typically polite Japanese wrestling crowds to shout the eponymous lyrics at the top of their lungs during Suzuki’s entrance. That tradition has carried on to Western fans who seem to love the heel wrestler way more than the audiences in his native country.

It’s the equivalent to AEW crowds singing the chorus to “Judas,” so much that fans were legitimately incensed when time constraints forced them to cut Suzuki’s entrance short during his appearance on Dynamite.