Tuesday, February 24, 1970

NAOKI FUKUDA (福田直樹)

Real Name: Naoki Fukuda
Nickname: "Invincible Mastodon," "The Modern Era's Strongest"
Birthplace: Sakai, Osaka Prefecture
Birthdate: October 06, 1982
Theme Music: "LAST FIGHT" by DAKK
Weight: 113kg (248lbs)
Height: 178cm (5'10")
Debut: October 01, 2003 (vs. Takao Ueshima)

Physical Appearance: Fukuda is over 110kg of suntanned muscled beef; though with less definition than in prior years. His legs in particular are still gigantic. Naoki has short dark hair with a bit of a mullet going.

Ring Costume: Naoki wears thigh-length trunks with an elaborate custom design pattern. The colors are traditionally dark red with gold and black, but he also has a big match set featuring a black-on-white scheme. Accessory-wise, Naoki wears white wrist tape, and knee pads and boots matching his trunks. Both pads, in addition to the back of Fukuda's trunks features an adorable "chibi" drawing of a mastodon with Fukuda's "likeness." The cartoon was a gift to Fukuda from a fan, revealing it to be his new mascot, "Masuto-kun." Likewise, Fukuda wears a ring jacket to the ring, with Masuto-kun featured prominently down the front-right side.

Title History:

* Asian Pacific Tag Team Titles
- (w/ Ryuichi Goto) Ryo Inoue & Katsumi Hirata (7/29/2004) /

* F-MAX Tag Team Titles
- (w/ TAKU) Yoshihiro Shimoda & Jin Hiroto (12/14/2007) / Akira Takayoshi & Naoyuki Watanabe (5/31/2009)

* F-MAX Unified Heavyweight Title
- Otsuo Kayusa (12/21/2009) / Norihiro Akashi (5/31/2012)

* HEC Heavyweight Title (2)
- Norihiro Akashi (10/25/2013) / Chikao Kessin (11/16/2013)
- Chikao Kessin (12/31/2013) / Vacated due to company inactivity (06/31/2014)

Tournament History:

* Asian Pacific Tag Title Tournament (WLJ - 7/29/2004): Ryuichi Goto & Naoki Fukuda beat Ryo Inoue & Katsumi Hirata (11:14) when Goto used a Shining Wizard on Hirata.
* 5th ANNIVERSARY CUP (FURY - 10/21/2007): Hiroaki Nakata, TAKU & Mastodon Fukuda beat Etsuya Kawachi, Kazumitsu Takemura & Hidaka Kamon (15:28) when TAKU used the Kinniku Buster on Kamon.
* F-MAX Summit (FURY - 2009): Naoki Fukuda beat Norihiro Akashi (31:01) with the Mastodon Hades.

Trademark Moves:

* Mastodon Crash (High-Impact Frog Splash. Has been Fukuda's main finisher for many years, winning him countless matches.)
* Mastodon Buster (Argentine Backbreaker Lift into a Cross-legged Michinoku Driver II. Sometimes done with a spin. Main finisher before the advent of the Mastodon Crash.)
* Mastodon Slam (Japanese-style Olympic Slam -- Rookie-era finishing move. Later renamed after becoming "Mastodon" Fukuda, but being relegated to a regular attack.)
* Mastodon Hades (Current-era Limit Breaker -- Electric Chair lift into a forward-falling Michinoku Driver II.)
* Mastodon Pump (Military Press with multiple reps, turned into an Oklahoma Stampede.)
* Lariat (Inherited early on in his career from Kazuma Fujita, but rarely ends matches.)

Biography: With a deep pedigree in amateur wrestling, Naoki Fukuda entered the prestigious Burning Spirit Pro-Wrestling dojo, where he learned the fundamentals under the legendary Yoshihiro Yujiro. Being eager to learn from the best, Naoki earned the favor of BSPW Ace, Kazuma Fujita. Showing amazing promise, Fujita took Naoki under his wing -- making him the product of two of Japan's best trainers. Naoki would use BSPW to gain seasoning -- facing the country's top heavyweights in a trial by fire. Surprisingly however, Naoki would use Japan's #1 company as a launching point to enter Pro-Wrestling FURY in 2007. Naoki would break out for the first time in his career by turning heel with best friend Taku Okamoto and others to form the very popular, yet villainous UPRISER'Z group. Now calling himself "Mastodon" Fukuda, Naoki rose to the top of FURY's tag team rankings with Okamoto (Now simply TAKU.) Together, the two formed the nearly invincible "Choujin Powers" team, and held the F-MAX Tag Team titles for well over a year. The end of their titantic reign as champions also saw the destruction of the team itself due to blame being thrown around (namely by TAKU.) The split inadvertently lead to Naoki's maturity as a heavyweight star as he won FURY's top tournament after extinguishing the flame of FURY's newest supernova, a young wrestler named Norihiro Akashi. Following the tournament win, Naoki capped the year off capturing the F-MAX Heavyweight Title in Kobe World Hall. Naoki would reign for the next two years as Ace of the company. After finally FURY ceased operations in late 2012, Naoki was signed to be a keystone member of KJPW upon its inception. Forging a strong team with long-time friend Riki Ichiro, the two  would trade the HEC Tag Team titles with Double Goodwins. In the final months of 2013 however, Naoki once again took the mantel of Ace -- winning the HEC Heavyweight Title in a bout against Norihiro Akashi to determine the 3rd champion. A short set back would see him losing the championship in his first defense against Chikao Kessin via underhanded means. However, Naoki ended the year by revenging the title loss to begin his second reign as champion. He would hold the title until being forced to vacate it due to company inactivity. Whether in a singles or in a tag, Naoki Fukuda is a perennial favorite never to be counted out.