History Wrestling / YoshiakiFujiwara

* CrypticBackgroundReference: Back when he was in the first UWF, he used to tell the press that his biggest dream was becoming the "PWF Champion". They never caught it until he founded Fujiwara-Gumi, when they realized he was referring to a future Pro Wrestling Fujiwara promotion (though some fans originally thought that he meant the Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) World Heavyweight Championship from Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling).

* CrypticBackgroundReference: Back when he was in the first UWF, he used to tell the press that his biggest dream was becoming the "PWF Champion". They never caught it until he founded Fujiwara-Gumi, when they realized he was referring to a future Pro Wrestling Fujiwara promotion.

** When Wrestling/KillerKhan returned to NJPW in March 1983, he gave Fujiwara a hard time because the latter would react against Khan's boasts of being a beast, and to make things worse, Inoki [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor joked they should just sort it out in the ring the next day]]. Said and done, when the two came out, Fujiwara punched Khan, pulled him to the ground and went for a joint lock, and at that point Wrestling/RikiChoshu and Masa Saito had to run in to stop the bout before Fujiwara wrecked further the returning star in front of the crowd. Fujiwara and Khan reconciled years later, though, when the former admitted the whole thing was an overreaction and a punk move on his part.

-->'''Masakatsu Funaki''': "When I first started training at 15, I didn’t know any wrestling. Fujiwara would tell me not to think about that, about techniques, but just to think about how to take my opponent down. For him, first off and more than technique, it was guts, the mindset that was important."

* RedBaron: "Showa no Terrorist" ("The Terrorist of the Showa Era"), "Fujiwara Kumicho" ("[[TheDon Don]] Fujiwara"), "Kansetsu-Waza no Oni" ("The Demon of Joint Locking"), "Mondo Muyo no Shigotoshi" ("The Practitioner of TortureFirstAskQuestionsLater"), "Inoki no Yojinbo" ("Wrestling/AntonioInoki's Bodyguard").

As usual, you can find the basics at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiaki_Fujiwara The Other Wiki]].

** When Wrestling/KillerKhan returned to NJPW in March 1983, he gave Fujiwara a hard time because the latter would react against Khan's boasts of being a beast, and to make things worse, Inoki [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor joked they should just sort it out in the ring the next day]]. Said and done, when the two came out, Fujiwara punched Khan, pulled him to the ground and went for a joint lock, and at that point Wrestling/RikiChoshu and Masa Saito had to run in to stop the bout before Fujiwara wrecked further the returning star in front of the crowd. Fujiwara and Khan reconciled years later, though, when the former admitted the whole thing was a punk move on his part.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: His style and persona makes him look a bit like a crazy old man, especially by shoot-style standards, but he is an excellent wrestling worker with an incredible knowledge of martial arts.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: His interviews tend to be pretty tongue-in-cheek, to say the least.

* CombatReferee: A notable time he was a special guest referee was at the Wrestling/{{Rikidozan}} Memorial Show in 2000, in an exhibition match between Wrestling/AntonioInoki and Hideaki Takizawa, a Japanese actor and member of the J-pop idol duo Tackey & Tsubasa. He was mostly there to prevent Inoki from going overboard in kicking the kid's ass, and even helped Hideaki "win" the match.

* HiddenDepths: Before he became the Terrorist of Showa, few people would have said Inoki's ugly assistant could come to be that charismatic. He is also a prolific artisan potter and was also a cook before his wrestling career.

* PerkyFemaleMinion: German wrestler Thundercrakk, who started out as his apprentice and then became his manager when not involved in her own matches and shoot fights.

* RedBaron: "Showa no Terrorist" ("The Terrorist of the Showa era"), "Fujiwara Kumicho" ("[[TheDon Don]] Fujiwara"), "Kansetsu-Waza no Oni" ("The Demon of Joint Locking"), "Mondo Muyo no Shigotoshi" ("The Practitioner of TortureFirstAskQuestionsLater"), "Inoki no Yojinbo" ("Wrestling/AntonioInoki's Bodyguard").

* SadistTeacher: A legendary one. Most of his trainees recall ending completely broken down after a single training session with him.

* HiddenDepths: Before he became the Terrorist of Showa, few people would have said Inoki's ugly assistant could come to be that charismatic. He is also a prolific artisan potter.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Fujiwara and judo champion Willem Ruska traded this dynamic in the NJPW Dojo back when Ruska arrived to the company. The first times they sparred for real, Ruska was capable to throw down Fujiwara even without judogis, but Fujiwara tapped him out from the bottom every time due to his superior submission game. However, Ruska later improved his own game and nobody in the dojo could beat him anymore.

** When Wrestling/KillerKhan returned to NJPW in March 1983, he gave Fujiwara a hard time because the latter would not play along Khan's boasts of being a beast, and to make things worse, Inoki [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor joked they should just sort it out in the ring the next day]]. Said and done, when the two came out, Fujiwara punched Khan, pulled him to the ground and went for a joint lock, and at that point Wrestling/RikiChoshu and Masa Saito had to run in to stop the bout before Fujiwara wrecked further the returning star in front of the crowd. Fujiwara and Khan reconciled years later, though, when the former admitted the whole thing was a punk move on his part.

* CoolVsAwesome: He featured an elite grappling match with sambo master Wrestling/VolkHan in Fighting Network RINGS.

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: His Fujiwara Armbar, a waki-gatame from a standing entry, is a nasty UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} technique designed more to maul than to submit. It can break the opponent's arm with terrifying ease, and the only way to leave him time to tap out safely is essentially doing it slow enough that he can block it, which makes the technique hard to utilize without killing intent. For this reason, this entry is forbidden in judo competition, and the waki-gatame itself is only legal if locked already on the ground (or in previous rulesets, if locked standing without ever dropping down). In fact, Fujiwara adopted it after watching a Korean player being disqualified for it.
* {{Determinator}}: A true testament to his toughness is that he had gastric cancer and beat it in 2007.

* {{Jerkass}}: His gimmick is that of a crazy old shooter who attacks people randomly and without a reason. He is pretty suave in real life, however.

* PassingTheTorch: Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki and Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki are his top trainees and the closest to him in wrestling ability, although it's up to debate how he would have fared in mixed martial arts had he started when young like them.

** When Wrestling/KillerKhan returned to NJPW in March 1983, he gave Fujiwara a hard time because the latter would not play along Khan's boasts of being a beast, and to make things worse, Inoki joked they should just sort it out in the ring the next day. Said and done, when the two came out, Fujiwara punched Khan, pulled him to the ground and went for a joint lock, and at that point Wrestling/RikiChoshu and Masa Saito had to run in to stop the bout before Fujiwara wrecked further the returning star in front of the crowd. Fujiwara and Khan reconciled years later, though, when the former admitted the whole thing was a punk move on his part.

* PerkyFemaleMinion: The German wrestler Thundercrakk, who started out as his apprentice and then became his manager when not involved in her own matches and shoot fights.

* BodyguardingABadass: Aside from wrestling, Yoshiaki worked for a long time as a real life bodyguard for Wrestling/AntonioInoki's thanks to his martial arts skills. He was at ringside during Inoki's match against UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, waiting for any signal to jump into the ring and turn somebody into a knot.

* RedBaron: "Showa no Terrorist" ("The Terrorist of the Showa era"), "Fujiwara Kumicho" ("[[TheDon Don]] Fujiwara"), "Kansetsu-Waza no Oni" ("The Demon of Joint Locking") and "Mondo Muyo no Shigotoshi" ("The Practitioner of TortureFirstAskQuestionsLater").

* AchillesHeel: Fujiwara definitely knew how to strike, but according to people in the business, he did not like to be hit, that being the reason he never indulged in MMA. Most of his matches played with it, with him assuming the role of matwork technician while his opponent worked as a striker.
** He has also admitted that he never had a good takedown game, which would probably explain why some of his students like Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki didn’t either.

[[quoteright:276:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fujiwara.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:276:The boss.]]
-->''"Fujiwara was a fun guy to be around. And I wasn't around, but just the stories in his younger days... There was nobody that could touch him when it came to ankle locks. He was a master at that. But I got there later on when he was a little bit older. He was a machine - he could train all day long."''
--->--'''Wrestling/KenShamrock'''

* UseYourHead: Uses ''continuously'' headbutts during his matches, even in a pragmatic and realistic style like shoot wrestling, and it's well known he has a freaking HardHead. He once feuded with Buffalo Allen (aka Wrestling/AllenCoage) around the issue of who had the strongest head, and Fujiwara often repeatedly banged his own head against the ringpost to scare him.

* BigDamnHeroes: He intruded in IGF before the match between Wrestling/NaoyaOgawa and Montanha Silva in order to save the former from a similar intrussion by Tadao Yasuda.

* CassandraTruth: When it was announced that Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki would face Rickson Gracie in 2000, many people in Japan thought that the great Funaki would win, but Fujiwara shocked them by telling Masa in a conference that he couldn't win if he wasn't cunning. Then the fight came, and Funaki lost by a failed gameplan and a blowed knee received during a LeeroyJenkins spot. Fujiwara's savviness was never disputed again.

* OldMaster: A renowned one in UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling. His grappling video instructionals are considered some of the best practical documentation about catch-as-catch-can we have today.

* RingOldies: 70 years old, has wrestled in four different decades and doesn't look like he is going to stop soon.

* TimeToUnlockMoreTruePotential: He took up muay thai for a time under Yoshimitsu Tamashiro when he was 40 and had an injured knee, as it impeded him to roll or wrestle.

* UseYourHead: Uses ''continiously'' headbutts during his matches, even in a pragmatic and realistic style like shoot wrestling, and it's well known he has a freaking HardHead. He once feuded with Buffalo Allen (aka Wrestling/AllenCoage) around the issue of who had the strongest head, and Fujiwara often repeatedly banged his own head against the ringpost to scare him.

'''Yoshiaki Fujiwara''' (b. 1949) is a UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er who later took up acting and promoting. He debuted in 1972 for Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling as its first dojo graduate ever, learning UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling under the legendary Wrestling/KarlGotch. Thanks to his training and toughness, he was appointed NJPW founder Wrestling/AntonioInoki's bodyguard, but his lack of charisma kept him tied to the low card. This ended when he attacked native heel Wrestling/RikiChoshu before a match, gaining the crowd's cheers and becoming a famous face of the company. In 1984, he followed his students Wrestling/AkiraMaeda and Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada to found the Wrestling/UniversalWrestlingFederation, a promotion which featured a realistic wrestling style called shoot-style. After the UWF's demise, he returned along his pals to NJPW, where he competed for four more years, until Maeda left again to form the second UWF, and after negociating with Inoki, Fujiwara and his two new students Wrestling/MasakatsuFunaki and Wrestling/MinoruSuzuki were allowed to join it. They enjoyed an immense popularity, but the company fell apart again when its members took separate directions. Fujiwara and his trainees founded Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, where he put himself over as the company's ace, but again it was short-lived, as half of the roster left to form MMA promotion Pancrase and the other half (this time in good terms with him) to form Battlarts. Now going solo, Fujiwara became a freelancer and worked for feds like Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling and [[Wrestling/ProWrestlingZERO1 Pro Wrestling ZERO-ONE]], and got a great victory against gastric cancer in 2007. He remains as a free agent, is associated with the Scientific Wrestling organization, and occasionally works as a trainer for Inoki Genome Federation.

As usual, you can find the basics at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiaki_Fujiwara The Other Wiki]].

!!! "Showa no Tropes":

* TheHeavy: He was in charge of welcoming challenging martial artists in the NJPW Dojo, and he was nicknamed "Inoki no Kagemusha" ("Inoki's Body Double") because they always came looking for Wrestling/AntonioInoki. Reportedly, none of them ever managed to get through him.

* {{Yakuza}}: His company was called "Fujiwara Gumi" (where "Gumi" a word used to yakuza groups) and he put himself the title of "kumicho" (a word for yakuza boss or gang leader, pretty much like TheDon). In general, Yoshiaki enjoys making himself look like a yakuza, and given it's Japan we are talking about, who knows whether it is just a character or something more.

* IKnowKarate: Was a very succesful [[UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} judoka]] in high school. He also trained in UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}}, and later became Wrestling/KarlGotch's top UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling student. He also added UsefulNotes/MuayThai as well later in his life.

* BoringButPractical: Almost all of his moves are relatively basic submissions, but you have the assurance he could pull them off in a real fight. His trademark move is just a waki-gatame, which if you are knowledgeable in UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} you will known that it is both very simple and cringe-inducing devastating (see Dangerous Forbidden Technique).

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: His Fujiwara Armbar is an illegal technique in UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}, as it leaves little time to tap out and can break the opponent's arm with terrifying ease if the latter doesn't comply immediately (though only the way Yoshiaki does it, that is, transitioning from standing to prone; it is entirely safe and legal if locked already on the ground). Fujiwara adopted it after watching a Korean player being disqualified for using it.

* InformedLoner: According to himself, he is a bit of a loner in real life, and his wrestling persona has been tellingly an unaligned freelancer for most of his career. However, he ''has'' been a member of some stables, was part of an era of Japanese wrestling where RivalDojos were the norm, and has gone to say he got along very well with many NJPW names one would guess he would just clash with.

* BadassGrandpa: Has wrestled in four different decades and doesn't look like he is going to stop soon.

* [[IKnowKarate I Know]] UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}: Was a very succesful judoka in high school. He also trained in UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}}, and later became Wrestling/KarlGotch's top UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling student. He also added UsefulNotes/MuayThai as well later in his life.

* RingOldies: 70 years old, tons of ring wear, and still wrestling.

* BodyguardingABadass: Aside from wrestling, Yoshiaki worked for a long time as a real life bodyguard for Wrestling/AntonioInoki's thanks to his martial arts skills. (Contrary the popular belief, Fujiwara was not in Inoki's corner during his famous match with UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli, but it's easy to guess he was in backstage waiting for any signal to run to the ring and turn somebody into a knot).

* CombatPragmatist: He once said that the objective of a shoot match is "damaging the opponent so he can never fight again".

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Averted in pro wrestling, where few things are forbidden, but Fujiwara's favorite armbar technique is a grave foul in its original context of UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} (at least the way Yoshiaki does it, that is, transitioning from standing to prone; it is entirely legal if locked already on the ground). The reason is that it can break the opponent's arm with terrifying ease if the latter doesn't comply immediately, leaving pretty much zero time to try to tap out.

* [[IKnowKarate I Know]] UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}: Was a very succesful judoka in high school. He also trained in UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}}, and later became Wrestling/KarlGotch's top UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling student. Some sources have him training UsefulNotes/MuayThai as well, but this is dubious.

-->''"Fujiwara was a fun guy to be around. And I wasn't around, but just the stories in his younger days... There was nobody that could touch him when it came to ankle locks. He was a master at that. But, I got there later on when he was a little bit older. He was a machine- he could train all day long."''

* CombatReferee: A notable time he was a special guest referee was at the Wrestling/{{Rikidozan}} Memorial Show in 2000, in an exhibition match between Wrestling/AntonioInoki and Hideaki Takizawa, a Japanese actor and member of the J-pop idol duo Tackey & Tsubasa. He was mostly there to prevent Inoki from going overboard in kicking the kid's ass and even helped Hideaki "win" the match.

* DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Averted in pro wrestling, where few things are forbidden, but Fujiwara's favourite armbar technique is a grave foul in its original context of UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} (at least the way Yoshiaki does it, that is, transitioning from standing to prone; it is entirely legal in judo if locked already on the ground). The reason is that it can break the opponent's arm with terrifying ease if he doesn't comply immediately, leaving pretty much zero time to try to tap out.

* TheDreaded: His shooting skills were so feared that Wrestling/KillerKhan once abandoned a match with him after feeling him out, fearing Fujiwara might get angry on him.

* EvilIsPetty: Antiheroic example. One of his customs before the matches is disrespectfully throwing his commemorative bouquet to the crowd.
* {{Expy}}: Sort of zig-zagged with Osamu Kido, another shoot-style wrestler who trained under Gotch and used a waki-gatame as a finisher too. Kido debuted well before Fujiwara, but Fujiwara became popular much earlier than Kido (who never turned out a hot prospect anyways) and he popularized the wrestling style Kido would go to showcase.

* HiddenDepths: Before he became the Terrorist of Showa, few people would have said Inoki's ugly-looking assistant could come to be that charismatic. He is also a prolific artisan potter.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Yoshiaki was Wrestling/AntonioInoki's cornerman and bodyguard. According to Wrestling/KarlGotch, he was about ten times better fighter than him, and Inoki was supposedly no slouch neither.
* [[IKnowKarate I Know]] UsefulNotes/{{Judo}}: Was a very succesful judoka in high school. He also trained in UsefulNotes/{{Kendo}}, and later became Wrestling/KarlGotch's top UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling student. Some sources have him training UsefulNotes/MuayThai as well as all this, but it is dubious.
* InformedLoner: Subverted. According to himself, he is a bit of a loner in real life, and his wrestling persona has been tellingly an unaligned freelancer for most of his career. However, he ''has'' been a member of some stables, was a part of a famously factionalistic era of Japanese wrestling, and has gone to say he got along very well with many NJPW names one would guess he would clash with.

* OldMaster: A renowned one in UsefulNotes/CatchWrestling. His grappling video instructionals are considered the best documentation about catch-as-catch-can we have today.

* RingOldies: 66 years old, tons of ring wear, and still wrestling.

* UseYourHead: Uses ''continiously'' headbutts during his matches, even in a pragmatic and realistic style like the shoot wrestling, and it's well known he has a freaking HardHead. He once feuded with Buffalo Allen (aka Wrestling/AllenCoage) around the issue of who had the strongest head, and Fujiwara often repeatedly banged his own head against the ringpost to scare him.

* BadassGrandpa: One of the longest careers in professional wrestling and one of the most feared names both in rings and gyms.

* OutdoorBathPeeping: According to himself, back when they were doing tours for NJPW, Fujiwara, Wrestling/SatoruSayama and Don Arakawa used to peep in the women's bath of the hotels they were hosted in. Accordingly to Don Arakawa, Wrestling/AkiraMaeda would sometimes join in.

* OutdoorBathPeeping: According to himself, back when they were doing tours for NJPW, Fujiwara, Wrestling/SatoruSayama and Don Arakawa used to peep in the women's bath of the hotels they were hosted in.

* OldMaster: A renowned one in Wrestling/CatchWrestling. His grappling video instructionals are considered the best documentation about catch-as-catch-can we have today.

* RealSongThemeTune: "Die Walküre" by Music/RichardWagner.