Masao Inoue
| Masao Inoue | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 6, 1970 Chūō, Yamanashi Prefecture |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Masao Inoue Naomichi Marufuji |
| Billed height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Billed weight | 106 kg (234 lb) |
| Debut | April 4, 1991 vs. Satoru Asako & Richard Slinger (with Mitsuo Momota) |
Masao Inoue (井上雅央 Inoue Masao?) is a professional wrestler who currently works for All Japan Pro Wrestling as a freelancer. He has previously worked for Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Masao Inoue spent the better part of his time with All Japan as an underling for Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue. He found little success until he started a regular tag team with Tamon Honda near the end of his All Japan stay. The tandem won the All Asia Tag Team Championship in 1999.
In mid-2000 Masao Inoue left All Japan Pro Wrestling along with all but two All Japan native workers to join Mitsuharu Misawa's newly formed Pro Wrestling Noah. Inoue and Honda were still the All Asia Tag Team champions so the titles were vacated when they left.
Inoue was a founding member of the Dark Agents stable along with Akitoshi Saito and Takashi Sugiura. He would be second-in-command to Saito. Inoue generally spent his time near the bottom card, not receiving very many high profile matches. After several years of struggling to make it up the card, Inoue and seven other NOAH wrestlers were given a huge opportunity to main event a Tokyo Nippon Budokan event. GHC Heavyweight Champion Jun Akiyama proposed a tournament to determine his next challenger. Masao Inoue shocked many wrestling fans by beating rookie Shuhei Taniguchi, Takuma Sano, and finally stablemate Akitoshi Saito to win the tournament. Inoue faced Akiyama in an emotional match and lasted over 23 minutes before falling to the wrist-clutch Exploder. After showing little promise in NOAH's early days, Masao Inoue greatly improved his stock in the company.
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