| Hiroshi Hase | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | Hiroshi Hase Viet Cong Express #1 |
| Billed height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
| Billed weight | 233 lb (106 kg; 16.6 st) |
| Born | May 5, 1961 Oyabe, Toyama, Japan |
| Billed from | Ho Chi Minh City, North Vietnam (as Viet Cong Express #1) |
| Trained by | Riki Chōshū Stu Hart |
| Debut | February 28, 1986 |
| Retired | August 27, 2006 |
Hiroshi Hase (馳 浩, born on May 5, 1961 in Oyabe, Toyama, Japan) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler who worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling, prior to transitioning to a position in the Japanese parliament. He currently holds the position of chairman for the PWF, which is the governing body for all championships in All Japan Pro Wrestling. [1]
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Hase started his career as an amateur wrestler, representing Japan at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He placed ninth in the Greco-Roman wrestling tournament, making him one of the Top 10 Olympic wrestlers that year.
He began his professional wrestling career in February 1986, in Calgary for Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion, under a mask, in a tag team known as the Viet Cong Express with Fumihiro Niikura, with whom he held the Stampede International Tag Team Championship. He would also wrestle for Carlos Colón's World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico, also teaming with Niikura. By 1987, he started to wrestle under his name and unmasked in Stampede Wrestling. By the end of 1987, Hase would return to Japan.
When he returned to Japan, Hase wrestled for NJPW's junior heavyweight division, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship twice between December 1987 and March 1989. He is one of a handful of wrestlers, Japanese or American, to successfully graduate from the junior heavyweight to heavyweight class. In the 1990s, Hase had many memorable encounters with famous Japanese talents first in New Japan, and later All Japan. Hase would form a successful tag team with Kensuke Sasaki in March 1990, winning the IWGP Tag Team Championship twice between November 1990 and March 1991. Hase was involved in a classic December 1992 encounter with The Great Muta, in which the "Muta Scale" was created, due to the incredible amount of blood shed by Muta.
Hase and Keiji Mutoh were also regular tag team partners; they won the IWGP Tag Team Championship twice between November 1991 and November 1994, including a victory over The Steiner Brothers, and won the Super Grade Tag League twice in 1993 and 1994. As Mutoh became established as a singles wrestler through his holding of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, however, Hase was left behind, and was only able to hold the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (which briefly replaced the NWA World Heavyweight Championship) for eight days in March 1994.
In July 1995, Hiroshi Hase was elected into the Japanese House of Councillors as the Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Hase is one of a number of professional wrestlers to transition into politics, other notables being predecessor Antonio Inoki, and later Atsushi Onita and Great Sasuke. The following year he announced his retirement from New Japan, only to jump to the rival All Japan Pro Wrestling. His last New Japan bout as a New Japan wrestler was against Kensuke Sasaki on January 4, 1996.
After a brief hiatus, he made his return to the ring in All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1997. In All Japan, Hase did not contend for titles again despite his name recognition, as he made politics his full-time job. In 2001 he was re-elected by his constituency in Ishikawa Prefecture. The same year he founded the multi-promotional Bad Ass Translate Trading stable with Mutoh, Taiyō Kea and Jinsei Shinzaki; Hase and Mutoh reformed their team to battle Jun Akiyama and Yuji Nagata on October 8, the rising stars of their respective promotions (NOAH and NJPW), and were defeated in a ceremonial passing of the torch match that highlighted the advancement of professional wrestling in Japan since it was permanently established in 1951.
When Mutoh (along with Satoshi Kojima and Kendo Ka Shin) jumped to All Japan the following year, Hase was seen as having influenced them (if not Mutoh at least) in their decision. Antonio Inoki, who had once preceded Hase to the Japanese Diet, blasted Hase and suggested that he resign his position in the Diet, but nothing came out of this.
Hase's final match occurred on August 27, 2006. He tagged with Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kojima to face TARU, Kohei Suwama, & "brother" YASSHI of the Voodoo Murderers. He pinned YASSHI with a Northern Lights Suplex for the victory, ending his in-ring career after 20 years. A week later, he was elected into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.
On July 10, 2007, Hase took over the duty of the PWF chairman, after Stan Hansen (who held the position since 2000) voluntarily resigned from the position. [2] In August 2009, Hase lost his seat in the Japanese Diet.
1The championship was won in Tokyo, Japan as part of an interpromotional card between New Japan Pro Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling.
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