Akira Tozawa
| Akira Tozawa | |
|---|---|
Akira Tozawa in 2016
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| Birth name | Akira Tozawa (戸澤 陽 Tozawa Akira?) |
| Born |
July 22, 1985 Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Akira Tozawa Tozawa Tozawa Kengai |
| Billed height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) |
| Billed weight | 80 kg (180 lb) |
| Billed from | Kobe, Japan |
| Trained by |
Kenichiro Arai Masaaki Mochizuki |
| Debut | April 3, 2005 |
Akira Tozawa (戸澤 陽 Tozawa Akira?, born July 22, 1985) is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to WWE where he performs on their Raw brand in the cruiserweight division. He is best known for his twelve-year run in Dragon Gate and his year-long excursion to the United States, during which he performed for promotions such as Chikara, Dragon Gate USA, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
Akira Tozawa was the third graduate of the Dragon Gate dojo to debut. He was being groomed to enter the stable M2K, but he did not progress very well. After debuting, he underwent a 10 match trial series, but lost all 10 matches and was banished back to the DG dojo.
Tozawa returned in October 2005, teaming with fellow rookie Yuki Ono/Katsuo. However, he ended up teaming with Vangelis, a wrestler with a Nazi stripper gimmick. Kenichiro Arai intervened, much to Tozawa's resentment. When Tozawa scored the biggest win of his career so far by beating Naruki Doi during the Brave Gate League, the impressed Arai offered him a spot in M2K. Tozawa, however, refused, and stated his intention to run a stable of his own, and created a cram school based stable called Tozawa-juku.
Even though Tozawa-juku bore his name, he was not necessarily the leader. Because of his backstage reputation as a troublemaker at the time, he was regularly held off of shows, progressed little, and was far beneath his stablemates Taku Iwasa, Kenichiro Arai, and even fellow troublemaker Yuki Ono in rank.
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