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Jushin Liger
Japanese professional wrestler / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Keiichi Yamada (山田恵一, Yamada Keiichi, born November 10, 1964) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler better known under the ring names, Jushin Liger and Jushin "Thunder" Liger.
Jushin Liger | |
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![]() Liger at the Nakayama Racecourse on December 28, 2019 | |
Born | (1964-11-10) November 10, 1964 (age 59) Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | C.T.U Ranger Yellow Fuji Yamada Jushin Liger Jushin Thunder Liger Keiichi Yamada Kishin Liger Liger |
Billed height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) |
Billed weight | 95 kg (209 lb) |
Trained by | Kotetsu Yamamoto Tatsumi Fujinami Yoshiaki Fujiwara Stu Hart |
Debut | March 3, 1984 |
Retired | January 5, 2020 |
He mainly worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He worked for them from 1984 until he retired in 2020. He has competed many different professional wrestling companies in Japan and North America.
Liger worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1991 to 1999. During his time in WCW, he won the WCW Light Heavyweight Championship when he defeated then-champion Brian Pillman during a house show in Atlanta, Georgia on December 25, 1991.[1] He held the title for 2 months and was defeated Pillman at SuperBrawl II.[1][2] He also challenged Konnan for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship at Slamboree '96 but lost the match.
He also competed for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) from 2005 to 2006. Liger captained the New Japan team in the TNA 2006 World X Cup Tournament. They defeated Petey Williams, captain of Team Canada at TNA Sacrifice on May 14, 2006 using a Crash Thunder Buster when Williams was distracted by the rest of Team Japan.[3] Liger was eliminated in the X-Cup Gauntlet later in the same night and Team Japan was not able to gain any points in the match as it was won by Team Canada with Team Mexico as runners up.[3]
On March 7, 2019, Liger said that he was going to retire after Wrestle Kingdom 14. [4] At Wrestle Kingdom 14, Liger wrestled in his last match. He teamed with Naoki Sano and they lost to Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee.[5]
Liger was the innovator of the Shooting star press.[6] The Jushin Liger gimmick is based on an extremely popular anime superhero, Jushin Liger.[1]