History Wrestling / MinoruSuzuki

* FeelNoPain: Part of why he's so scary. He'll deliver one of his signature harite and send an opponent to the ropes, but if they try to return the favor, he'll just laugh and ask for them to BringIt.

* RedBaron: Many. "Sekaiichi Seikaku no Warui Otoko" ("The Man with the Worst Personality in the World"), "Hama no Keikaya" ("The Brawler from Hama"), "Kamisori Fighter" ("Razor Fighter"), "Seiaki Oja" ("The Ill-Natured Leader") and "[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Kaze]]" ("Wind").

* NobleDemon: Despite initially being led away by his cronies, he upheld the Hair vs. Hair stipulation in the match he lost against Hirooki Goto at Wrestle Kingdom 12. In his own prideful way, he chose to use his own chair and shaved his head himself.

* IKnowKarate: An Olympian amateur wrestler, who finished second nationwide and figured as an Olympic alternate (and also trained in UsefulNotes/{{kendo}}). Later learned UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling under Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara and Wrestling/KarlGotch and according to himself also took some sambo lessons under Victor Koga and a bit UsefulNotes/MuayThai under Singsak Sosiripan.

* IKnowKarate: An Olympian amateur wrestler, who finished second nationwide and figured as an Olympic alternate (and also trained in UsefulNotes/{{kendo}}). Later learned UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling under Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara and Wrestling/KarlGotch.

* TheDreaded: Regarded in kayfabe as one of, if not NJPW's most feared wrestler due to the amount of pain he will put his opponents through.
** He was regarded as one to the people who trained with him during his prime in Pancrase. Paul Lazenby once stated that the Lion’s Den members would refer to him as the "Evil Keebler Elf" (behind his back of course).

* {{Expy}}:
** His violence-loving shooter gimmick echoes his master Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara's old NJPW persona, even featuring the same signature attack shenanigans only replacing headbutts with slaps. The similarities are probably unintentional, as Suzuki's character mostly comes from his own fame of being an aloof guy, which is not little.
** Both his gimmick and his violent antics strongly reminisce of Wrestling/{{SUWA}} from Wrestling/{{Toryumon}}, another famous AxCrazy prone to thrash his opponents around and use illegal tactics. In fact, Suzuki and SUWA teamed up in three special occasions before the latter's retirement in 2007.
* EvilerThanThou: He and Taichi pulled this on CHAOS by singling out and beating up its champion and co-leader, "Rain Maker" Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada.

* GlassCannon / WeakButSkilled: In mixed martial arts. Though endowed with awesome shoot wrestling skills and a tough heart, Minoru was low in defense and durability, especially against opponents with good striking and/or counterattack abilities. He was also very prone to injuries, and the company's schedule didn't help it.
* GoodCounterpart: To Wrestling/{{TARU}} in AJPW. They both were wrestlers with martial arts background (MMA in Suzuki's case, karate in TARU's) who had come to reinvent themselves in mainstream pro wrestling after other tenures (Pancrase and Toryumon Japan, respectively), who led factions (Partisan Forces and Voodoo Murders), had good mic skills and violent personalities (Suzuki was a charismatic bully, TARU a psychotic yakuza), famously loved J-Pop singers (Ayumi Nakahara and Misato Watanabe) and enjoyed attacking ring crewmen at random (Suzuki for being a jerk, TARU for being evil).

* IKnowKarate: An Olympian amateur wrestler, who finished second nationwide and figured as an Olympic alternate. He also trained in UsefulNotes/{{kendo}}.

* OddFriendship: On the surface, his team with Naomichi Marufuji, an energetic high-flyer wrestler is this. On deeper inspection, Naomichi was also a high school amateur wrestler, received MMA training at the [[Wrestling/SatoruSayama Super Tiger Gym]], once took entrance exams for Pancrase and Kingdom, and even served as a training partner for Suzuki’s other friend Wrestling/YoshihiroTakayama when he was doing MMA.
** Also his alliance with Tokyo Gurentai, which is mainly composed by luchadores, garbage wrestlers and the like.

* WholesomeCrossdresser: His Minoru Nagayo getup for the "Crush Girls 25th Anniversary Memorial Match" at '' NOSAWA Bom-Ba-Ye #5 Rongai One Night Stand''
* WorkedShoot: His loss against Funaki and his second win against Wrestling/KenShamrock are known to be works, as well as rumoredly one of his losses to Frank Shamrock. However, being Pancrase, we will probably never know for sure.

* WorthyOpponent: He considered Wrestling/{{Jon Moxley}} this, as he said thay he is " a lot of fun " and he jad been waiting for them to fight.

Minoru Suzuki (born June 17, 1968) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter, co-founder of the proto-MMA company Pancrase along Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki. He debuted in 1988 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, being a Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara trainee along with Funaki. When Fujiwara left for the shoot-style promotion [[Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation UWF Newborn]], Funaki and Suzuki got a permission to follow him, and they became part of the UWF roster. The promotion fell afterwards and his faction, led by Fujiwara, formed Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, but it was short-lived as well. Funaki and Suzuki realized that Japanese crowds really would pay for see "real" matches with non-worked outcomes and launched Pancrase, the second MMA promotion in history. Using the catch wrestling roots they had learned from Fujiwara, which they called "hybrid wrestling", the two became the aces of Pancreas and had legendary fights with names like Wrestling/KenShamrock, Creator/BasRutten and Guy Mezger, with Minoru gaining the King of Pancrase title against Shamrock. While not as famous or successful as his partner Funaki, Minoru made himself known for his brutality and aloofness in and out of the ring, an aura he would keep the rest of his career. Nonetheless considered a great wrestler, Suzuki retired due to injuries making him lose fights and returned to pro wrestling, becoming a main eventer for Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling and later Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. In 2015, he'd win the GHC Heavyweight title in Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH.

Minoru Suzuki (born June 17, 1968) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter, co-founder of the proto-MMA company Pancrase along Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki. He debuted in 1988 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, being a Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara trainee along with Funaki. When Fujiwara left for the shoot-style promotion [[Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation UWF Newborn]], Funaki and Suzuki got a permission to follow him, and they became part of the UWF roster. The promotion fell afterwards and his faction, led by Fujiwara, formed Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, but it was short-lived as well. Funaki and Suzuki realized that Japanese crowds really would pay for see "real" matches with non-worked outcomes and launched Pancrase, the second MMA promotion in history. Using the catch wrestling roots they had learned from Fujiwara, which they called "hybrid wrestling", the two became the aces of Pancrase and had legendary fights with names like Wrestling/KenShamrock, Creator/BasRutten and Guy Mezger, with Minoru gaining the King of Pancrase title against Shamrock. While not as famous or succesful as his partner Funaki, Minoru made himself known for his brutality and aloofness in and out of the ring, an aura he would keep the rest of his career. Nonetheless considered a great wrestler, Suzuki retired due to injuries making him lose fights and returned to pro wrestling, becoming a main eventer for Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling and later Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. In 2015, he'd win the GHC Heavyweight title in Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH.

** Every time somebody talks about Funaki and Suzuki, it's a matter of time that they mention Funaki as the best fighter of the two, which is not too illogic considering that Funaki was bigger, less injury prone and more open-minded about crosstraining.
** Also Manabu Yamada, a Wrestling/SatoruSayama trainee who cleanly defeated both Funaki and Suzuki in their primes. He is pretty much the only pancraseist who has managed to outgrapple Suzuki through pure skill and not by size or strength.

** Maurice Smith, who defeated Suzuki in a different style fight in UWF Newborn and later again in a kickboxing bout in Pancrase. It took a third match under mixed rules fot Minoru to get the revenge. The thing was so personal that Suzuki admitted that their first fight left him traumatized. He seems to have gotten over it as they were recently seen hanging out together.

** While he certainly has the ''[[TheDreaded aura]]'' of a major threat in NJPW (to the point where Wrestling/KennyOmega is legitimately terrified of him), outright ''destroyed'' Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, arguably ''the'' babyface of NJPW at New Beginning in Sapporo for the IWGP Intercontinental title, leaving the latter too weakened to even stand on his own power, and was effectively the company's KnightOfCerebus upon his 2017 return, his track record has been consistently lacking as far as top title results, especially compared to the {{Big Bad}}s of the other main factions. Wrestling/LosIngobernablesDeJapon leader Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito, as well as Wrestling/BulletClub aces Wrestling/AJStyles, Wrestling/JayWhite, and the aforementioned Omega, have all managed to claim victory over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada, and both LIJ and Bullet Club have all directly threatened the champion in several high profile programs against his CHAOS faction. In fact, before Okada became the top face of the company and turned CHAOS face with him, both he and Nakamura led the group in capturing said championship as the company's top heels, with Okada toppling Tanahashi while Nakamura knocked off Togi Makabe, his own predecessor as the BigBad. Meanwhile, for all of Suzuki-gun's aura of terror and midcard championship success, Minoru Suzuki has had only ''one'' program with Okada, which he lost.

* BreakupBreakout: Surprisingly, despite being always the second to Funaki, Suzuki got a return to pro wrestling ''far'' more succesful than him. While Masakatsu has slowly faded to darkness during his AJPW and W-1 tenures, Minoru remains as a big draw for every promotion he works and is now considered one of the most populars wrestlers in Japan.

** The same year, muay thai fighter Lawi Nabataya was invited to PWFG to face Yusuke Fuke in a mixed rules shootfight, which he won after oiling up his legs between the rounds to avoid Fuke's takedowns. The thing was technically legal at the time, but was still considered a very dirty tactic, so the company threw Suzuki at him in the next fight. The result, as expected, was Minoru taking him down with oil and all and submitting him.

* GoodCounterpart: To Wrestling/{{TARU}} in AJPW. They both were wrestlers with martial arts background (MMA in Suzuki's case, karate in TARU's) who had come to reinvent themselves in mainstream pro wrestling after other tenures (Pancrase and Toryumon Japan, respectively), who led factions (Partisan Forces and Voodoo Murders), had good mic skills and violent personalities (Suzuki was a charismatic bully, TARU a psychotic yakuza), famously loved J-pop singers (Ayumi Nakahara and Misato Watanabe) and enjoyed attacking ring crewmen at random (Suzuki for being a jerkass, TARU for being evil).

* LoonyFriendsImproveYourPersonality: Both in real life and kayfabe, Suzuki had always been a jerkass and a somewhat antisocial person, but his partnership with NOSAWA Rongai and Tokyo Gurentai seemed to give him a more positive light. For a guy who was mainly known for hitting people backstage and getting frustrated for not being a better fighter, it was pretty heartwarming to see him having fun with those crazy guys.
* MyKungFuIsStrongerThanYours: Aside from his known dislike towards foreigners, Suzuki notoriously used to hate UsefulNotes/BrazilianJiuJitsu, to the extent he once forbade his students to learn it. He also openly critized Funaki and Shamrock when they went to the Machado school to spar, especially after they gave a poor performance against the brothers due to their unfamiliarity with gi grappling. He probably got this from his master Wrestling/KarlGotch.
* MurderousThighs: He once submitted Vernon White with a crook headscissors, a catch wrestling move in which the user presses the head or neck of his opponent with the legs while armlocking him. Not counting similar but different techniques, it appears to be the only time the move has been succesfully used in MMA.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: One of the reasons he became a pro wrestler and a shooter was to take revenge on Wrestling/HulkHogan, who had knocked out his idol Inoki at their famous match on June 2, 1983 by attacking him out of the ring. The incident was staged, but people in Japan didn't know it, and many, like Suzuki himself, took offence for it. Unfortunately (or rather fortunately), Suzuki and Hogan never shared a ring.

* BadassGrandpa: Able to go toe-to-toe with younger wrestlers and put on 4-5 star matches despite pushing 50.

* ManInWhite: In contrast with his recent black wrestling attire, he used to wear white tights and boots in UWF and Pancrase. He does don white attire on special occasions though.

** While he certainly has the ''[[TheDreaded aura]]'' of a major threat in NJPW (To the point where other BigBad Wrestling/KennyOmega is legitimately terrified of him), outright ''destroyed'' Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, arguably ''the'' babyface of NJPW at New Beginning in Sapporo for the IWGP Intercontinental title, leaving the latter too weakened to even stand on his own power, and was effectively the company's KnightOfCerebus upon his 2017 return, his track record has been consistently lacking as far as top title results, especially compared to the {{Big Bad}}s of the other main factions. Wrestling/LosIngobernablesDeJapon leader Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito, as well as Wrestling/BulletClub aces Wrestling/AJStyles, Wrestling/JayWhite, and the aforementioned Omega, have all managed to claim victory over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada, and both LIJ and Bullet Club have all directly threatened the champion in several high profile programs against his CHAOS faction. In fact, before Okada became the top face of the company and turned CHAOS face with him, both he and Nakamura led the group in capturing said championship as the company's top heels, with Okada toppling Tanahashi while Nakamura knocked off Togi Makabe, his own predecessor as the BigBad. Meanwhile, for all of Suzuki-gun's aura of terror and midcard championship success, Minoru Suzuki has had only ''one'' program with Okada, which he lost.

* VillainTeamUp: With the Killer Elite Squad when the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance returned to Japan under new owner Bruce Tharpe's ownership to invade former member NJPW.

** While he certainly has the ''[[TheDreaded aura]]'' of a major threat in NJPW (To the point where other BigBad Wrestling/KennyOmega is legitimately terrified of him), outright ''destroyed'' Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, arguably ''the'' babyface of NJPW at New Beginning in Sapporo for the IWGP Intercontinental title, leaving the latter too weakened to even stand on his own power, and was effectively the company's KnightOfCerebus upon his 2017 return, his track record has been consistently lacking as far as top title results, especially compared to the {{Big Bad}}s of the other main factions. Wrestling/LosIngobernablesDeJapon leader Wrestling/Tetsuya Naito, as well as Wrestling/BulletClub aces Wrestling/AJStyles, Wrestling/KennyOmega, and Wrestling/JayWhite, have all managed to claim victory over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada, and both LIJ and Bullet Club have all directly threatened the champion in several high profile programs against his CHAOS faction. In fact, before Okada became the top face of the company and turned CHAOS face with him, both he and Nakamura led the group in capturing said championship as the company's top heels, with Okada toppling Tanahashi while Nakamura knocked off Togi Makabe, his own predecessor as the BigBad. Meanwhile, for all of Suzuki-gun's aura of terror and midcard championship success, Minoru Suzuki has had only ''one'' program with Okada, which he lost.

** While he certainly has the ''[[TheDreaded aura]]'' of a major threat in NJPW (To the point where other BigBad Wrestling/KennyOmega is legitimately terrified of him), outright ''destroyed'' Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, arguably ''the'' babyface of NJPW at New Beginning in Sapporo for the IWGP Intercontinental title, leaving the latter too weakened to even stand on his own power and was effectively the companies KnightOfCerebus upon his 2017 return, his track record has been consistently lacking as far as top title results, especially compared to the {{Big Bad}}s of the other main factions. Wrestling/LosIngobernablesDeJapon leader Wrestling/Tetsuya Naito, as well as Wrestling/BulletClub aces Wrestling/AJStyles, Wrestling/KennyOmega, and Wrestling/JayWhite, have all managed to claim victory over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada, and both LIJ and Bullet Club have all directly threatened the champion in several high profile programs against his CHAOS faction. In fact, before Okada became the top face of the company and turned CHAOS face with him, both he and Nakamura led the group in capturing said championship as the company's top heels, with Okada toppling Tanahashi while Nakamura knocked off Togi Makabe, his own predecessor as the BigBad. Meanwhile, for all of Suzuki-gun's aura of terror and midcard championship success, Minoru Suzuki has had only ''one'' program with Okada, which he lost.

** While he certainly has the ''[[TheDreaded aura]]'' of a major threat in NJPW (To the point where other BigBad Wrestling/KennyOmega is legitimately terrified of him), outright ''destroyed'' Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, arguably ''the'' babyface of NJPW at New Beginning in Sapporo for the IWGP Intercontinental title, leaving the latter too weakened to even stand on his own power and was effectively the companies KnightOfCerebus upon his 2017 return, his track record has been consistently far below the other two [[BigBad Big Bads]] in terms of actual ''results''. Both Kenny Omega and Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito have managed to claim victory over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada, and have both been involved in several high profile programs with the champion, while Minoru Suzuki has had only ''one'' program with Okada, which he lost.

* AchillesHeel: In MMA, striking. His kickboxing skills were very low, as he was never really interested in learning to hit and trade properly like some of his colleagues, and was also notoriusly fragile overall. He often would crumble down to some well placed strikes after having dominated with his grappling up to that point.

** While he certainly has the ''[[TheDreaded aura]]'' of a major threat in NJPW (To the point where other BigBad Wrestling/KennyOmega is legitimately terrified of him), and was effectively the companies KnightOfCerebus upon his 2017 return, his track record has been consistently far below the other two [[BigBad Big Bads]] in terms of actual ''results''. Both Kenny Omega and Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito have managed to claim victory over IWGP Heavyweight Champion Wrestling/KazuchikaOkada, and have both been involved in several high profile programs with the champion, while Minoru Suzuki has had only ''one'' program with Okada, which he lost. It really shows that while Naito and Omega were both involved in two of the most high-profile feuds in the company, Minoru Suzuki was busy losing matches to ''[[JokeCharacter Toru Yano]]'' of all people.
*** Yano is a WildCard. He can beat literally ANYONE. And while Suzuki's record isn't fantastic, his opponents know one thing. They'll never leave the match the same as they entered it.

** As of January 2018, this has started to be averted as Suzuki proceeded to not just defeat but outright ''destroy'' Wrestling/HiroshiTanahashi, arguably ''the'' babyface of NJPW at New Beginning in Sapporo for the IWGP Intercontinental title, leaving the latter too weakened to even stand on his own power and thus had to be carried out on a stretcher.

'''Minoru Suzuki''' (b. 1968) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts fighter, co-founder of the proto-MMA company Pancrase along Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki. He debuted in 1988 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, being a Wrestling/YoshiakiFujiwara trainee along with Funaki. When Fujiwara left for the shoot-style promotion [[Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation UWF Newborn]], Funaki and Suzuki got a permission to follow him, and they became part of the UWF roster. The promotion fell afterwards and his faction, led by Fujiwara, formed Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, but it was short-lived as well. Funaki and Suzuki realized that Japanese crowds really would pay for see "real" matches with non-worked outcomes and launched Pancrase, the second MMA promotion in history. Using the catch wrestling roots they had learned from Fujiwara, which they called "hybrid wrestling", the two became the aces of Pancrase and had legendary fights with names like Wrestling/KenShamrock, Creator/BasRutten and Guy Mezger, with Minoru gaining the King of Pancrase title against Shamrock. While not as famous or succesful as his partner Funaki, Minoru made himself known for his brutality and aloofness in and out of the ring, an aura he would keep the rest of his career. Nonetheless considered a great wrestler, Suzuki retired due to injuries making him lose fights and returned to pro wrestling, becoming a main eventer for Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling and later Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling. In 2015, he'd win the GHC Heavyweight title in Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH.

* BeatThemInTheirOwnGame: Suzuki once ended up in the shorter end of his own violent antics when Wrestling/{{SUWA}}, his retiring predecessor and homologue at this field, decided to end his last match in NOAH in trademark way by attacking everybody, including those who like Suzuki were teaming up with him that night. Naturally, Suzuki wasn't amused at this, and when he recovered from the gear box shot KO he had received from SUWA, he ganged up on him and beat him up along with everybody. (It seems Suzuki didn't harbor ill feelings, however, as he still teamed up with SUWA one more time in Mexico in the latter's retirement match.)

* BrokenAce: Very much like Funaki, Suzuki was the kind of fighter who looked to be the best and never gave up no matter what, which ultimately played against him. His stubbornness to keep up with the grueling Pancrase schedule through injuries that weren't healed up (including a ''herniated disk'') and against bigger opponents (it was an openweight competition, and he was one of the smallest guys) granted him a much worse MMA record than he would have probably had if he had fought in a more protecting environment.

** Both his gimmick and his violent antics strongly reminisce of SUWA from [[Wrestling/DragonGate Toryumon Japan]], another famous AxCrazy prone to thrash his opponents around and use illegal tactics. In fact, Suzuki and SUWA teamed up in two special occasions, in 2006 and 2008, with sounding results every time.

** Both his gimmick and his violent antics strongly reminisce SUWA from [[Wrestling/DragonGate Toryumon Japan]], another famous AxCrazy prone to thrash his opponents around and use illegal tactics. In fact, Suzuki and SUWA once teamed up in an indy event with sounding results.

* GlassCannon: In mixed martial arts. Though endowed with awesome shoot wrestling skills and a tough heart, Minoru was low in defense and durability, especially against opponents with good striking and/or counterattack abilities. He was also very prone to injuries, and the company's schedule didn't help it.

* OddFriendship: His team with Naomichi Marufuji, an energetic high-flyer wrestler. Also his alliance with Tokyo Gurentai, which is mainly composed by luchadores, garbage wrestlers and the like.

* ManInWhite: In contrast with his recent black wrestling attire, he used to wear white tights and boots in UWF and Pancrase.