Shifting The Spotlight: Masahiro Chono (2025)

Shifting The Spotlight: Masahiro Chono (2)

Chono, as seemingly all classic Japanese stars did, had a sporting background prior to wrestling, although unlike many of his contemporaries, Chono did not wrestle or practice judo; he was an avid soccer player during his youth, but decided to give pro wrestling a shot upon graduation.

He entered in the New Japan Dojo in the early 80’s, and graduated from the Dojo in 1984, with his class including Keiji Mutoh, Shinya Hashimoto, and Keichii Yamada, the latter of whom would don a full bodysuit in 1989 and become Jushin Thunder Liger. All were trained directly by Antonio Inoki in his image, alongside legendary shooter Karl Gotch.

Quite a class.

Mutoh and Chono had their first official match against each other, which Mutoh won. All three were sent on excursion in 1987, shortly after Chono won the Young Lion’s Cup. Mutoh and Hashimoto were sent straight to North America, while Chono was rewarded with one match in Germany’s Catch Wrestling Association, which he lost.

He soon moved on to the United States, wrestling for various NWA territories and other smaller promotions, winning the Continental Wrestling Federation tag team titles with Mike Davis, as well as the NWA Central States Television title and the WWA World Heavyweight title. He’d return to NJPW in 1988, but would split time between Japan and the CWF. His mid 1989 NJPW return came just in time to be squashed by Vader in the first Tokyo Dome show for New Japan during their IWGP Heavyweight title tournament. He’d go back to finish his US commitments and toured Australia.

His full time NJPW return came in October 1989. He and Hashimoto teamed to face Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi in the main event of New Japan’s second Tokyo Dome show in February 1990, which of course they lost, because Inokiwinslol. However, a few months later, he and Mutoh defeated Hashimoto and Masa Saito to win the IWGP Tag Team titles, which they’d defend for most of the year before losing them to Kensuke Sasaki and Hiroshi Hase in November.

December of 1990 saw Chono get the rub that would launch him to superstardom when he defeated Lou Thesz on the day after Christmas in a special match that Thesz came out of retirement for, and wound up being the last match of Thesz’s seven decade career. Masahiro Chono instantly became primed for stardom by retiring one of the biggest gaijin stars of pre-NJPW/AJPW Japanese wrestling.

The payoff and true acension to the stars came in August 1991, when he ran the table and defeated his frenemy Mutoh in a fantastic thirty minute G1 Climax final, culminating an undefeated run against Riki Choshu, Bam Bam Bigelow, and Shinya Hashimoto (twice including the decision match). This would be the beginning of the legend of “Mr. August,” as Chono would go on to win four more G1 Climax tournaments, including 1992, making himself and his future partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan the only men to win the G1 in back to back years (I’m only counting when it was actually called “G1 Climax,” Inoki won the MSG League two years in a row, four years in a row, and then the International Wrestling Grand Prix three times in a row).

The 1992 G1 also held the distinction of being for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight title, meaning when Chono defeated Rick Rude, he also won the title.

Hold the phone, Abigail Mae.

His reign was marred by two main problems. One was when he was defending against Stunning Steve Austin in one of Austin’s only Japanese matches. Chono and Austin were doing the spot everyone does with The Undertaker at WrestleMania: countering a tombstone position into one of your own. Austin would get the better of this exchange and spike Chono directly on top of his head, severely damaging his neck, if not outright breaking part of it. Turnabout got Austin in the form of Owen Hart about five years later, when Austin was on Chono’s end of things and was nearly paralyzed.

The second black mark was Chono’s terribly boring match for the title at Halloween Havoc 1992 against Rick Rude. The buildup was confusing. The two men had managers, and then handpicked referees on top of that, leading to Harley Race and Kensuke Sasaki to bicker over pinfalls, which never works. The match was just a long series of headlocks and restholds, and didn’t live up to the hype. WCW was struggling to pull itself out of the hole Jim Herd had dug, and on top of that, the main event of the show was Sting vs. Jake Roberts in the infamously horrible Coal Miner’s Glove match. The WON gave Chono/Rude at Halloween Havoc the Worst Worked Match award for 1992. Not because it was complicated or overbooked, but because it was boring, had dumb stipulations, and was far worse than what these two stellar talents were capable of doing.

He’d lose the title to The Great Muta at the 1993 Dome Show in a NWA vs. IWGP title match.

His three-peat attempt at the G1 didn’t work in 1993, as he was defeated by Hiroshi Hase in the semis. He also lost an IWGP title match against Hashimoto, but would rebound and defeat Kensuke Sasaki (as Power Warrior) in 1994 to win his third G1.

Before the third win, Chono had been a sort of generic looking babyface, looking like an almost exact copy of Kensuke Sasaki. However, when he won his third G1, he underwent a Tetsuya Naito-esque sudden heel turn; wearing all black, and wearing his infamous sunglasses.

As a side note, I’m not sure Chono ever truly had a “gimmick,” but based on his dress and demeanor ever sense he turned heel in 1995, it seems he’s supposed to be a member of the yakuza, but they obviously don’t want to say that. It seems especially obvious when you notice that the “Yakuza Kick” is only called that in America, and is called the “Kenka Kick” in Japan.

Anyway, he soon teamed with Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Hiro Saito as “Team Wolf,” with Chono and Tenzan becoming one of the most prolific tag teams in New Japan history, winning the IWGP tag titles five times and the Super Grade Tag League once.

The trio would become the foundation of nWo Japan, with Chono becoming the leader, soon joining the true nWo in America, where he and Tenzan soon began appearing regularly. His time in WCW was infamous for Goldberg allegedly shooting on him and dislocating his shoulder. He never really did much more in WCW, and returned full time to Japan, where he soon won the IWGP Heavyweight title in 1998, his only reign.

He won G1 #4 in 2002, which he followed up with a few appearances in NOAH, where he unsuccessfully challenged for the GHC Heavyweight title, being defeated by KENTA. October of 2003 saw him lose to Hulk Hogan in one of the latter’s first post-WWE matches.

As a side note, it was around this time that Chono adopted “Team 2000 Crash” as his entrance music, which I believe is one of the greatest themes of all time. Also, you now know why I didn’t finish the next line, and why Japan will allow anything to fly if they don’t know what it means.

He founded another Anti-New Japan stable after Team 2000 (FKA/AKA nWo Japan) disbanded, called Black New Japan, with himself as leader and Manabu Nakanishi and Scott Norton as his main dragons., with other luminaries such as Katsuyori Shibata, Don Frye, Don Frye’s moustache, and Minoru Suzuki rounding out the group. When Riki Choshu returned to power, he disbanded Black New Japan alongside many other stables. Chono won his fifth and final G1 in 2005, shortly before the disbanding, giving him the record for most wins and the “Mr. August” nickname.

Cho-Ten, as Tenzan and Chono were know known, were stripped in 2006 when they broke up and refused to defend the titles together. Chono then formed Chono-gun, a group of wrestlers looking to install Chono as the president of NJPW and make Shinsuke Nakamura the ace, replacing Tanahashi. That never happened.

Chono began to sort of recess into the background after 2007, when he began to promote shows and book cards at shows all over Japan. He also began making recurring appearances on the Japanese variety show Gaki no Tsukai, with his appearances usually involving him entering a room screaming “GOD DAMN!” and slapping the shit out of anyone he talks to, but more specifically co-host and wrestling fan Hosei Yamazaki. It’s brilliant.

Chono left New Japan in 2010, and has since bounced around almost every major Japanese promotion; booking for Inoki Genome Federation, teaming with his old friend Mutoh in All Japan during Mutoh’s run as All Japan’s president, and wrestling the son of his late friend Shinya Hashimoto in his debut match, where he defeated Daichi Hashimoto.

He worked as an advisor for All Japan in 2013 as an “advisor,” where he did wrestle a few matches, but seemingly left after Jun Akiyama took control.

He stated just last month that he will be returning to the ring for the first time since leaving All Japan sometime this autumn, perhaps at a peace festival he’s organizing.

Shifting The Spotlight: Masahiro Chono (2025)

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