Trivia / Koji Kitao

• What Could Have Been:
  • Before his regular pro wrestling venture, there were talks about a different style fight between Kitao and Antonio Inoki in 1988. However, although it drew a large amount of hype, it never happened.
  • after his sumo career he apparently got offers to do boxing and American Football before he settled on pro wrestling
  • His ring name was originally going to be "Thunderstorm Kitao", but it was abandoned. It instead became his nickname.
  • His SWS run was supposed start with him being the ace representative of a group based on the recently closed down Pioneer Senshi promotion. There was a lot of opposition to this from the Pioneer Senshi wrestlers so the idea was dropped and Kitao was put into Genichiro Tenryu's Revolution faction instead.
  • After getting fired from SWS, Kitao met with Yoshiaki Fujiwara for a possible appearance at PWFG, but Fujiwara left the meeting disgusted when Kitao spent the whole meeting time trying to sell himself to Fujiwara by explaining how he wants to do his matches in PWFG.
  • Kitao had intended to participate in Ultimate Fighting Championship in its earliest events, but his schedule didn't allow it and he was forced to wait until UFC 9. He was also considered to fight in UFC Japan in 1997 as a WAR representative, but the promoters rejected the offer, as the only WAR wrestler they wanted in the event was Genichiro Tenryu himself (who declined the offer due to his advanced age).
  • There were talks of bringing back Kitao to UWF-I back after his bout with Takada for a proposed match against Gary Albright, but it never came to pass.
  • Kitao was scheduled to wrestle Akira Taue at the Tokyo Dome in All Japan Pro Wrestling, but it was cancelled when Koji announced his retirement.