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The Great Sasuke

The Great Sasuke
Great Sasuke 2.jpg
The Great Sasuke, at the Hustle event in Yokohama on May 4, 2009
Birth name Masanori Murakawa
Born (1969-07-18) July 18, 1969 (age 47)
Morioka, Tōhoku, Japan
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) The Great Sasuke
Masa Michinoku
Ninja Sasuke
Sasuke
Black Ninja
Sasuke The Ram
Billed height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Billed weight 82 kg (181 lb)
Trained by Kotetsu Yamamoto
Gran Hamada
Debut March 1, 1990

Masanori Murakawa (村川 政徳 Murakawa Masanori?), (born July 18, 1969), is a Japanese professional wrestler and politician who is best known by his stage name The Great Sasuke, as well as a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly legislator. He has wrestled in Japan and in the United States in various professional wrestling promotions. He is said to have an incredible tolerance for pain, mainly in reference to the injuries he has had including a cracked skull on two occasions.

In his early career, Murakawa wrestled under the name Masa Michinoku. Masa, from his given name Masanori, and Michinoku, after the alternate name for his Japanese home region, Tōhoku. Taka Michinoku adopted a similar gimmick to parody him. Later, on a tour of Mexico, Murakawa adopted the mask, uniform, and name Ninja Sasuke. This was the predecessor to the Great Sasuke gimmick he would adopt upon returning to Japan.

Murakawa is also the owner, and founder, of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, the first Japanese independent promotion not to be based around the Tokyo area. Instead, it was centered around the northern area of Honshu Island. The 2 prefectures in the northern area of Honshu are Iwate Prefecture and Aomori Prefecture.


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