Akira Tozawa (born July 22, 1985) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to WWE.
Before that, he wrestled for Dragon Gate, where he was an Open the Brave Gate, Open the Twin Gate, Open the Triangle Gate and Open the Owarai Gate champion and the winner of the 2011 and 2012 Summer Adventure Tag League. He also toured the US for a while and wrestled for other promotions, including Pro Wrestling Guerilla and CHIKARA.
In 2016, he signed on with WWE's cruiserweight division.
Tropes:
- Always Someone Better: As part of the "Big Six" of Dragon Gate, alongside Hulk, Yoshino, Doi, Yamato and Shingo. Despite being generally regarded as awesome and being a fan favorite in Japan and abroad, he's arguably the one whose career took the longest to take off, and he's also the only one to not have won the Open the Dream Gate title.
- Arch-Enemy: Brian Kendrick & Neville.
- Big Eater: On the July 4, 2022 edition of Raw, Tozawa manages to finish 48 hot dogs in a hot dog eating contest, a big number when compared to Otis and Angelo Dawkins' low 20's, what with Tozawa's small stature when compared to Otis and Dawkins.
- Butt-Monkey: He filled this role in the promotion for years.
- Catchphrase: Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
- Giant Mook: Produced one in his new 2020 gimmick, where he now has a massive black ninja armed with a sword. This guy towers visibly over the Viking Raiders and Street Profits, none of whom are small men.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Uhaa Nation.
- Hot-Blooded: His constant screaming and intensity shows how fired up he always is.
- Lightning Bruiser: Tozawa was claimed by Daniel Bryan to be the fastest participant in the Cruiserweight Classic, and he's remarkably strong, known both for strong blows and his picture-perfect German suplexes.
- Mundane Made Awesome: His German suplexes. Many wrestlers use it, but he claims to have the best German suplex in the world, and he has the normal, release, deadlift, high speed, and arm-trap versions of it as well.
- No Inside Voice: He's almost always yelling. At times, he's so loud he begins screaming.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He embodies this, with his uber-release German suplexes.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: As the leader of Tozawa-Juku. Nobody paid him any attention, and on those occasions Tozawa-Juku needed a leader, they turned to Keni'chiro Arai rather than Tozawa.
- Power Stable: Titus World Wide and Alpha Academy.
- Put on a Bus: Finally spent nearly a year and a half away from Dragon Gate, touring in the USA.
- Red Baron: "Mr. High Tension", "Tozawa-juku Ichigo Sei Hitto" ("Tozawa-juku's Number One").
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to, well, pretty much everyone else's blue.
- Shout-Out: His new 2020 gimmick(?) is of a leader of a ninja motorcycle gang and seems to be a parody of villains in old-school martial arts movies.
- Small Name, Big Ego: During his rookie years and as the self-proclaimed leader of Tozawa-Juku.
- Stock Shōnen Hero: Probably one of the purest examples in professional wrestling. He's hot-blooded, always ready for a fight, fiercely protective of his friends, often throws caution to the wind and has a tendency to make a fool out of himself.... but he's also one of the best at what he does, and his allies are well aware of that.
- Suplex Finisher: His finisher is a slow but solid German suplex. He has an upgraded version of it where he bearhugs the opponent's arms to his sides while delivering the suplex.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- After he finally returned to DG, he went from being The Millstone for whatever stable he was in, to being able to pin Shingo Takagi cleanly.
- Since he decided to sign with WWE's new Cruiserweight division, they've been referring to him as "graduating" from Dragon Gate.
- Troll: After several weeks of Brian Kendrick costing him matches under the guise of 'mentoring' him, Tozawa got wise and turned it around on Kendrick, punctuating his own interference with little "lessons" just to piss Kendrick off.
