Mitsuo Momota
| Mitsuo Momota | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 21, 1948 Tokyo, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Mitsuo Momota Rikidōzan Jr. Man of 6:30 |
| Billed height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| Billed weight | 100 kg (220 lb) |
| Trained by | Shohei Baba |
| Debut | November 17, 1970 |
Mitsuo Momota (百田 光雄 Momota Mitsuo?) is a Japanese professional wrestler and executive, known for his work in the Japanese promotions All Japan Pro Wrestling and later in Pro Wrestling NOAH. He is the son of wrestler Rikidōzan.
In 1972, Momota helped establish All Japan Pro Wrestling. Despite this and being the son of Rikidozan, Momota never enjoyed much success as a wrestler as he spent the majority of his career opening matches and working with young talent. In 1974 he showed up in Mexico's Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre as Rikidozan Jr., and learned the Tope Suicida maneuver, putting it into practice in Japan long before Gran Hamada from the rival New Japan Pro Wrestling became the first Japanese wrestler to use Lucha-inspired aerial maneuvers regularly in his matches.
His only title victory came on April 20, 1989 where he won the World Junior Heavyweight Championship defeating Shinichi Nakano, he would hold the title for over 2 months successfully defended it 2 times against Johnny Smith and Isamu Teranishi before losing it to Joe Malenko on July 1, 1989. After losing the title, Momota returned to opening matches, by the 1990s his role began to change as he began wrestling mostly in comedic tag matches with fellow aging wrestlers. Despite not finding much success as a wrestler, Momota made a bigger impact behind the scenes as a co-Vice President and member of the All Japan directory. After numerous years on the All Japan Pro Wrestling roster, he left in 2000 to join Pro Wrestling NOAH.
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