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Former Japanese Sumo star turned professional wrestler Koji Kitao passed away on 2/10 at the age of 55, it was announced today in Japan.
Kitao was a well known Sumo wrestler who gained the rank of Yokozuna but ended up on the outs in that sport and turned to professional wrestling in 1989, where he was trained by Masa Saito. Kitao worked under a mask as Monster Machine in Verne Gagne's AWA to gain experience and keep his name out of the Japanese media, since he was so well known. He later returned to Japan, where he trained at the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo. He debuted for the promotion at the first Tokyo Dome event in February 1990, defeating Bam Bam Bigelow. His run in NJPW didn't last long as he was fired following an incident with Riki Choshu.
Kitao migrated over to SWS, which was being run by Genichiro Tenyru, and added to Tenyru's Revolution group as his partner. SWS had a working relationship with WWF at the time, leading to the pair working Wrestlemania VII against Demolition and doing a backstage vignette with Regis Philbin.???????
Kitao lasted about a year with the promotion. He was fired following an incident on 4/1/91 in Kobe, Japan. Kitao was wrestling John "Earthquake" Tenta when the match began to break down. Kitao began no selling and wouldn't work with Tenta. He began shooting on Tenta. When the referee began to intervene, Kitao kicked him and the match was thrown out. Kitao grabbed the ring mic and began telling the audience Tenta couldn't really beat him and that wrestling was fake. He was besieged at ringside as the mic was turned off.
Amazingly, Kitao returned to pro wrestling for the shoot-wrestling based UWFi. In an ironic twist, Kitao was facing the promotion's top talent Nobuhiko Takada, a massive star at the time, in what was scheduled to be a time limit draw. Instead, Takada ended up showing him how real pro wrestling could be, knocking Kitao out with a kick to the head. After coming to, Kitao shook Takada's hand and was welcomed back into professional wrestling.
Kitao even worked for Tenyru again, this time for his WAR promotion, where he held the promotion's Six Man Tag Team titles with Nobukazu Hirai and Mochizuki. He later opened his own dojo and ran events under the Kitao Dojo banner. He returned to New Japan in the mid-1990s for an appearance and also worked for Antonio Inoki on different martial arts-themed events.
Kitao shifted over to MMA, including a win over former WWE star Nathan Jones at PRIDE 1. He officially retired in 1998 during the fourth PRIDE event.
On behalf of everyone at PWInsider.com, I'd like to pass along our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Koji Kitao.
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