Kazuo Yamazaki
| Kazuo Yamazaki | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 15, 1962 Tokyo, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Billed height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Billed weight | 103 kg (227 lb) |
| Trained by | Satoru Sayama |
| Debut | May 6, 1982 |
| Retired | January 4, 2000 |
Kazuo Yamazaki (born August 15, 1962) is a Japanese former professional wrestler, who is known for his work in New Japan Pro Wrestling and UWF International.
Yamazaki's wrestling career began in May 1982 in New Japan Pro Wrestling. He wrestled his debut match on May 6 against Tatsutoshi Goto. During this time, he was also a student of Satoru Sayama, better known as Tiger Mask. Whenever Kuniaki Kobayashi strip Sayama of his mask, Yamazaki was always the first one to help remask him.
In 1984, Yamazaki joined the Japanese UWF. However, differences between his mentor Satoru Sayama and Akira Maeda over direction caused the promotion to fail.
He rejoined New Japan in 1985 as a junior heavyweight. Despite this, he found more success in tag teams in 1987, winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship with one of his mentors, Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
In 1988, however, the UWF was reconstituted as Newborn UWF and Yamazaki joined it, and stayed there until it folded in December 1990.
In May 1991, Yamazaki joined UWF International. In UWF International, he supported Nobuhiko Takada, but after being overlooked several times for shots at Takada's UWFI World Heavyweight championship, he decided to quit and return to New Japan on his own in July 1995.
During the New Japan vs. UWFI feud in 1995-1996, Yamazaki participated on New Japan's side, but mostly as a behind-the-scenes supporter, training Yuji Nagata and Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) in the use of the shoot-style. He won two more IWGP Tag Team Championships, first with Takashi Iizuka in June 1996 and with Kensuke Sasaki in August 1997. In 1998, he participated in the G1 Climax tournament, defeating Tatsumi Fujinami, Kensuke Sasaki, and Masahiro Chono, before losing to Shinya Hashimoto in the finals. Yamazaki retired from in-ring competition on January 4, 2000, losing to his student Yuji Nagata as his final opponent.
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