Masato Tanaka (田中 正人, ring name: 田中 将斗, Tanaka Masato, born February 28, 1973)[3][4] is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) in the United States where he was a one-time ECW World Heavyweight Champion.
He quickly began moving up the card in FMW, widely regarded as the top hardcore professional wrestling promotion in Japan.
By 1996 he was one of the promotion's major stars, and had feuded with fellow wrestlers Mr. Pogo, Mr. Gannosuke, Terry Funk and Mike Awesome.
After the match, Awesome shook Tanaka's hand and fastened the belt around his waist in a show of respect, then attacked him as he left the ring and powerbombed him through a table.
Tanaka returned to FMW in the spring of 2000, briefly feuding with H, before joining forces with H (by now back under the Hayabusa persona) to feud with Team No Respect, until leaving in February 2001, allegedly as a result of animosity between him and the owner of FMW, Shoichi Arai, mostly over Kodo Fuyuki's role as booker.
Before departing FMW, Tanaka formed the "Complete Players" stable with former Fuyuki protégés Gedo and Jado, as well as real-life sweetheart Kaori Nakayama.
He reformed the Complete Players with Jado and Gedo, and he participated in the 2009 G1 Climax tournament, although he failed to advance past the block stages.
On October 10, 2011, at Destruction '11, Tanaka defeated MVP to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, becoming only the second champion in the title's history.
[7] On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, where Tanaka and Takahashi were defeated by MVP and Shelton Benjamin in a tag team match.
After wins over Kushida,[10] Taishi Takizawa and Tomohiro Ishii, Tanaka defeated Karl Anderson in the finals of the tournament on November 19 to become the inaugural NEVER Openweight Champion.
[11] Tanaka made his first successful title defense on January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome, where he defeated Shelton Benjamin.
[18] On May 31, Tanaka and Sugiura became double champions, when they defeated Maybach Taniguchi and Takeshi Morishima for Noah's GHC Tag Team Championship.
In this round robin tournament, Tanaka pinned then-GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenoh among a star studded list of opponents.
2005 Tanaka revived his feud with Mike Awesome at the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) produced ECW One Night Stand 2005 reunion PPV.
On January 23, 2010, Tanaka made his debut for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) at the promotion's 12th Anniversary Show, where he was defeated by Homicide.
On September 15-16, 2023 Tanaka competed in local Cleveland Promotion Absolute Intense Wrestlings 10th JT Lightning Invitational Tournament making it to the Semi-finals.