10 Greatest Japanese Wrestlers In WWE History, Ranked

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WWE has really improved over the past few years when it comes to how it presents international wrestling stars. Names like Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, and Dragon Lee all wear their nationalities on their sleeves, but they are not a caricature like old stars and WWE treats them like the stars they are. When it comes to Japanese superstars, there are not as many currently in WWE. However, Shinsuke Nakamura proves that WWE now knows how to treat its international stars better than ever before, as he is a legitimate world title contender, although names from the past stand up well with any wrestling promotion.

Thanks to the past, WWE has a bad track record with international superstars. When a wrestler is from Russia, they are almost always portrayed as a foreign heel. When a wrestler is from Japan or Mexico, despite both countries' celebrated wrestling legacy, they receive a gimmick based on their nationality. Mexican stars have portrayed lawn workers. Japanese superstars are often comedy relief due to their accents.

Thankfully, that has changed a lot in recent years. Wrestlers such as Shinsuke Nakamura, Gunther, and Rey Mysterio prove that when WWE realizes what they have, and utilizes their international superstars to an extent, they can often reach the level of their homegrown United States superstars. While their success has not been great in past years, here is a look at some of the greatest Japanese wrestlers in WWE history.

UPDATE: 2023/11/09 14:30 EST BY SHAWN S. LEALOS

WWE has really improved over the past few years when it comes to how it presents international wrestling stars. Names like Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, and Dragon Lee all wear their nationalities on their sleeves, but they are not a caricature like old stars and WWE treats them like the stars they are. When it comes to Japanese superstars, there are not as many currently in WWE. However, Shinsuke Nakamura proves that WWE now knows how to treat its international stars better than ever before, as he is a legitimate world title contender, although names from the past stand up well with any wrestling promotion.

10 Tiger Mask Was The WWE Junior Heavyweight Champion

Tiger Mask Worked In WWE In 1982

Date of Birth	November 27, 1957
Years Active	1976-2016
Highlights In WWE	2-time WWF Junior Heavyweight Champion
Career Highlights	NWA World Middleweight Champion, NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion

There has been a long and successful history of the Japanese legend known as Tiger Mask. One of the best wrestlers in Japanese history, Mitsuharu Misawa, was the second Tiger Mask while Yoshihiro Yamazaki was Tiger Mask IV for the longest. However, it was the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, who is on this list.

Sayama, as Tiger Mask, battled Dynamite Kid in what many people consider the match that helped create the light heavyweight and cruiserweight style of wrestling a decade before it took off. As Tiger Mask, Sayama is the only man to hold both the WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship and NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship at the same time. He worked in WWE in 1982.

9 Kota Ibushi Worked The WWE Cruiserweight Classic

Kota Ibushi Made It To The Semifinals

Date of Birth	May 21, 1982
Years Active	2004-present
Highlights In WWE	Semifinals of Cruiserweight Classic, 2nd round of Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
Career Highlights	IWGP World Champion, IWGP Heavyweight Champion, 2-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion, 3-time IWGP Junior Champion, IWGP Tag Team Champion, Never Openweight Champion, Best of the Super Juniors (2011)

Kota Ibushi never signed a contract with WWE, but he did work in WWE during a time when some of the best independent wrestlers in the world competed in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. In that tournament, Ibushi beat Sean Maluta, Cedric Alexander, and Brian Kendrick before losing to the eventual winner, TJ Perkins.

Kota Ibushi even got an NXT match, where he beat Buddy Murphy. Ibushi later worked in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, where he teamed with TJ Perkins, making it to the second round where Sanity beat them. Ibushi is a one-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion, three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, one-time NEVER Openweight Champion, and one-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team champion with Kenny Omega. Kota Ibushi has since signed with AEW.

8 Hideo Itami Worked For NXT

Hideo Itami Had An Injury-Filled WWE Career

Date of Birth	March 12, 1981
Years Active	2000-present
Highlights In WWE	Finals of Andre the Giant Battle Royal Qualifying Tournament (2015)
Career Highlights	IWGP United States Champion, NEVER Openweight Champion, New Japan Cup USA (2020), 2-time Strong Openweight Champion, GHC Heavyweight Champion, 3-time GHC Junior Champion, 3-time GHC Junior Tag Team Champion, GHC Tag Team Champion

Sadly, Kenta Kobayashi's stint in WWE was uneventful. That is a massive disappointment since WWE signing Kenta was a huge moment, the company even sent Hulk Hogan to Japan to make the announcement. Kenta debuted on NXT with a new name of Hideo Itami, and WWE earmarked him for stardom.

Injuries caused him to end up on the shelf for well over a year of his time in WWE, and he never won a title for the company. However, Kenta has held eight titles in Pro Wrestling Noah and is the current NEVER Openweight Champion in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

7 TAKA Michinoku Was The First WWF Light Heavyweight Champion

TAKA Led The Stable Kai En Tai In WWE

Date of Birth	October 26, 1971
Years Active	1992-present
Highlights In WWE	WWE Light Heavyweight Champion
Career Highlights	2-time IWGP Junior Tag Team Champion, GHC Junior Tag Team Champion, All Asiaa Tag Team Champion, AJPW World Junior Champion

TAKA Michinoku is one of the wrestlers that WWE took seriously for short stints and turned into a Japanese caricature for the rest of his career. Many people may remember TAKA from the ridiculous backstage sketch with Val Venis and Kai En Tai. The entire stable of Kai En Tai (TAKA, Funaki, and Dick Togo) was played as a joke most of the time.

However, at other times, TAKA was allowed to show why he was one of the best light heavyweights in WWE. He was a former WWE Light Heavyweight Champion, winning the tournament in 1997 when the company revived the title and he held it for 314 days. He also won 23 championships in Japan over his career.

6 Tatsumi Fujinami Worked For WWE And NWA In The 1970s

Funinami Is In The WWE Hall Of Famer

Date of Birth	December 28, 1953
Years Active	1971-present
Highlights In WWE	3-time WWF International Champion, 2-time WWWF Junior Champion, WWE Hall of Fame (2015)
Career Highlights	6-time IWGP Champion, 5-time IWGP Tag Team Champion, 2-time NWA International Junior Champion, NWA World Champion, WCWA World Champion, WWF International Tag Team Champion, WWF Junior Champion, G1 Climax

WWE inducted Tatsumi Fujinami into their Hall of Fame in 2015, and he was very deserving of the honor. Fujinami started his professional wrestling career in 1971 at the age of 17. Antonio Inoki trained him, and that meant, when Inoki founded New Japan Pro Wrestling, Fujinami followed his mentor.

In the '70s, Fujinami worked for both Jim Crockett Promotions and the WWE. It was in WWE that he won his first title, the WWWF Junior Heavyweight Championship in 1978 in a match at Madison Square Garden. That title became one of Japan's premiere titles. Over his career, he was also a six-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and a five-time IWGP tag team champion.

5 Aja Kong Was A Pre-Attitude Era WWE Star

Aja Kong Was Supposed To Win WWF Women's Championship

Date of Birth	September 25, 1970
Years Active	1986-present
Highlights In WWE	Survivor Series Sole Survivor (1995)
Career Highlights	AJW Champion, AJW Tag Team Champion, All Pacific Champion, 2-time WWWA World Champion, 4-time WWWA Tag Team Champion, Japan Grand Prix (1992, 1996)

All Elite Wrestling fans are getting the chance to see how awesome Aja Kong is. She is very different from the female superstars of today, who rely on athletic skills and fast movements to compete in their matches. Instead, Aja Kong is a 227-pound monster who goes out to the ring and beats the hell out of her opponent.

Aja Kong made her wrestling debut in 1986 at the age of 16. In 1995, Kong made her WWE debut and started a feud with Alundra Blayze. Right before she was supposed to get the title shot, WWE chose to end their women's division (via Pro Wrestling Stories). Aja Kong is now one of the top trainers of women's wrestlers in Japan and has held 33 titles over her career.

4 TAJIRI Was A Multi-Time Champion In WWE

TAJIRI Made His Name In ECW Before Joining WWE

Date of Birth	September 29, 1970
Years Active	1994-present
Highlights In WWE	WCW United States Champion, WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, 3-time WCW/WWE Tag Team Champions, WWE Tag Team Champion, World Tag Team Champion
Career Highlights	ECW World Champion, ECW World Tag Team Champions, CMLL World Champion, 2-time AJPW Junior Champion, All Asia Tag Team Champion, CZW World Champion

TAJIRI has been a mid-level star every time he showed up in WWE, and part of that was due to him cutting his teeth initially in ECW. TAJIRI worked in WCW from 1998-2001, where he won the ECW TV title and the tag team titles with Mikey Whipwreck. He worked with ECW until they shut down.

WWE hired TAJIRI a short time after ECW shut down as a comedy wrestler — as was typical for WWE with their Japanese stars. However, he soon found success and beat X-Pac for the WWF light heavyweight title but lost to X-Pac in a title unification match with the WCW cruiserweight title on the line as well. TAJIRI would win three more WWE cruiserweight titles as well as the U.S. title and tag team titles in WWE. TAJIRI left WWE in 2008 after just five years.

3 Bull Nakano Is A Former WWE Women's Champion

Bull Nakano Beat Alundra Blayze For Women's Title

Date of Birth	January 8, 1968
Years Active	1983-1997
Highlights In WWE	WWF Women's Champion, Slammy Award (Most Devastating)
Career Highlights	AJW Champion, AJW Junior Champion, All Pacific Champion, WWWA World Single Champion, 3-time WWWA World Tag Team Champion, Japan Grand Prix (1988), CMLL World Women's Champion

Before WWE closed down its women's division after Madusa Miceli left the company for WCW, Bull Nakano was one of their top stars. The Japanese wrestling star initially made her name in All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling, winning her first title at the age of 16.

After leaving All Japan in 1992, she went to Mexico and then to the WWE. In 1994, Nakano won the WWE Women's Championship from Blayze in a match in Tokyo. Nakano held the title for five months. At the age of 29, Nakano retired from wrestling due to injuries, but she was a massive star in her decade in the ring.

2 Shinsuke Nakamura Is One Of WWE's Biggest Stars

Shinsuke Nakamura Is A Royal Rumble Winner

Date of Birth	February 24, 1980
Years Active	2002-present
Highlights In WWE	NXT Champion, WWE United States Champion, WWE Intercontinental Champion, WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champion, Men's Royal Rumble (2018)
Career Highlights	IWGP 3rd Belt Champion, 3-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, 5-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion, IWGP Tag Team Champion, IWGP U-30 Openweight Champion, NWF Heavyweight Champion, 10,000,000 Yen Tag Tournament (2004), G1 Climax (2011)

Shinsuke Nakamura was a massive Japanese professional wrestling star when WWE convinced him to leave Japan and join them. While in New Japan, Nakamura was one of the top stars in the promotion, winning the IWGP Heavyweight title three times, the tag titles once, and the IWGP Intercontinental title five times.

When Nakamura arrived in WWE, he was an instant star in NXT. He won the NXT title twice and was one of the top stars on the gold brand. However, his move to the main roster has been hit-and-miss. He has held the U.S. title twice and the IC title once, but also disappeared from TV for long periods.

1 Antonio Inoki Is An Unrecognized WWE Champion

Antonio Inoki Is One Of The Best Japanese Wrestlers In History

Date of Birth	February 20, 1943 - October 1, 2022 (79)
Years Active	1960-1998
Highlights In WWE	WWF Heavyweight Champion (unrecognized), 2-time WWWF/WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Champion, WWE Hall of Fame (2010)
Career Highlights	4-time NWF Heavyweight Champion, IWGP Heavyweight Champion, 2-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, NWA North American Tag Team Champion, NJPW Real World Champion, NJPW IWGP League (1984, 1986, 1987, 1988), NJPW Japan Cup Tag Team League (1986), MSG League (1978–1981), MSG Tag League (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984), Six Man Tag Team Cup League (1988), World League (1974, 1975)

Next to Rikodozan, there is not a more prominent figure in Japanese wrestling history than Antonio Inoki. He is the man who created New Japan Pro Wrestling, which is now the preeminent wrestling promotion in Japan. He has held well over 20 titles from around the world, including the WWE world title, although the company does not officially recognize his reign after beating Bob Backlund.

Inoki fought in the legendary boxer vs. wrestler match with Muhammad Ali, a fight that ended up influencing the creation of Mixed Martial Arts, and eventually, the UFC. In 1995, Inoki and Ric Flair headlined two shows in North Korea that had the highest attendance in wrestling history. In 2010, WWE inducted Inoki into the Hall of Fame

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