El Samurai
| El Samurai | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 19, 1966 Hanamaki, Iwate, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
El Samurai Osamu Matsuda Edo Samurai |
| Billed height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Billed weight | 92 kg (203 lb) |
| Trained by | NJPW Dojo |
| Debut | July 24, 1986 |
Osamu Matsuda (松田 納 Matsuda Osamu?) (born April 19, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for his work in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and is better known by his stage name El Samurai.
Osamu Matsuda graduated from high school in 1985, and joined the NJPW Dojo. He debuted in July 1986 and spent a few years working at the bottom of the card, wrestling with the likes of Kensuke Sasaki, Kenichi Oya, and Takayuki Iizuka. In March 1991 he went on a learning excursion to Mexico, and while working for the UWA promotion, adopted a mask and the El Samurai stage name.
El Samurai returned to NJPW in March 1992. A month later, he made it to the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, in which he lost to Jushin Thunder Liger. Two months later, he defeated Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would lose the title to Ultimo Dragon in November 1992. During that time, he would constantly team with Takayuki Iizuka and Akira Nogami in multi-man tag team matches.
In April 1994, El Samurai took part in the Super J-Cup tournament; he defeated Masayoshi Motegi in the first round, before losing to The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals. In December 1995, he entered into the second Super J-Cup tournament, but he didn't fare as well as the year before, as he lost to Dos Caras in the first round. In August 1996, he took part in a tournament to determine the first J-Crown champion. At the time, El Samurai was the WWF World Light Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Gran Hamada in the first round, before losing to eventual winner The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals.
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