Wrestling Inc. has reported that former NJPW and All-Japan legend Minoru Tanaka was at the WWE Performance Center last week in a guest trainer capacity. The 44-year old shooter taught several classes throughout the week, and also found some time to have a shoot fight against PC recruit Adrian Jaoude, a former Olympic wrestler for Brazil in the 2016 Olympic Games.
Minoru Tanaka made his wrestling debut in 1994, starting off in shoot style wrestling promotions like Fujiwara Gumi, BattleArts and Frontier Martial arts-Wrestling (FMW). In 1999, he headed to NJPW where he dominated the IWGP Junior Heavyweight division for a decade, capturing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on four separate occasions, and winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles five times, twice with current WWE Superstar Finn Balor. The Super Juniors tournament winner in 2006, he left NJPW in 2009.
Following his departure from NJPW, Tanaka headed to rival All-Japan, where he competed for the next three years, capturing the World Junior Heavyweight title and adding two All-Asia Tag Team titles with former NJPW partner Koji Kanemoto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF5Xk04hvD0
He left All-Japan in 2013, heading to Wrestle-1, once again proving his junior division dominance with winning the Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division championship, before departing the company last summer. He continues to wrestle as a freelance in Japan and internationally.
