Kantaro Hoshino
Kantaro Hoshino was born in Kōbe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan on October 9th, 1943 and is the Zainichi Korean Professional Wrestler And Manager. At the age of 67, Kantaro Hoshino biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 67 years old, Kantaro Hoshino has this physical status:
Hoshino began his wrestling career after previously attempting a professional boxing career. He was trained by the father of Puroresu: Rikidozan. Using the name Kantaro Hoshino, he wrestled his debut match on December 22, 1961, against Atsuhide Koma (Masio Koma, future NWA World Middleweight Champion). The godfather of the ring name is Toyonobori.
Over the next few years, Hoshino worked his way up the card and paid his dues. In 1967, he was sent on a learning visit to the United States with fellow up and comer Kotetsu Yamamoto, with the two forming the tag team: The Yamaha Brothers with Hoshino using the name Great Yamaha. While in America, Hoshino enjoyed championship success. On August 3, 1967, the Yamaha Brothers won the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship. They would hold the titles for a week before losing them on August 10 to Bad Boy Hines and Len Rossi. Nine days later, Hoshino won the NWA Southern Junior Heavyweight Championship, he would hold the title until August 31.
By the end of the decade Hoshino returned to the JWA. In 1970, Hoshino teamed with Antonio Inoki in the first NWA World Tag League tournament which they won defeating Nick Bockwinkel and John Quinn in the finals. Hoshino was also the first opponent of Mexico's Mil Máscaras in Japan.
Following the JWA closing in 1973, Hoshino jumped to New Japan Pro-Wrestling where he remained for the rest of his career. By the mid-1970s, he and Yamamoto reformed the Yamaha Brothers team, although going individually by their Japanese ring names instead of their American gimmicks.
On January 21, 1979, The Yamaha Brothers entered the International Wrestling Enterprise and defeated Animal Hamaguchi and Great Kusetsu to win the IWA World Tag Team Championship. They would hold the titles for a month before dropping them to Hamaguchi and Mighty Inoue on February 23.
In 1980, Yamamoto retired from wrestling, ending the Yamaha Brothers. Hoshino spent the remainder of his in-ring career in the low to midcard, rarely competing for championships or tournaments, only winning the Six-Man Tag Team Cup League with Antonio Inoki and Riki Choshu on December 7, 1988, after the trio defeated Tatsumi Fujinami, Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto to win the cup. Hoshino would only wrestle with fellow young talents in tag and singles action for the remainder of his career, most notably against Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Norio Honaga and Shiro Koshinaka. After a few more years of wrestling, Hoshino retired on February 19, 1995, wrestling Osamu Kido to a 10-minute draw.