With a background in judo and football, Suzuki was trained in professional wrestling at the U.W.F. Snake Pit Japan dojo.[2][3] After four years of training under British wrestler Billy Robinson,[4] he made his debut for the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) promotion on November 24, 2008, losing to Hiromitsu Kanehara.[2][3] For the next three years, Suzuki worked undercards of IGF events.[2] His status finally began to rise in 2012 following a match with Peter Aerts.[2] On May 26, 2013, Suzuki won the second Inoki Genome tournament, defeating Akira Joh in the finals.[5] As a result, he received his first shot at the IGF Championship on October 26, but was defeated by the defending champion, Kazuyuki Fujita.[6] The following March, Suzuki left IGF to become a freelancer.[1][4]
Through the continued relationship between Zero1 and Wrestle-1, Suzuki began also making appearances for the latter promotion, where he found himself a rival in Kai. On March 8, 2015, after Kai had captured the Wrestle-1 Championship, Suzuki immediately confronted the new champion and challenged him to a title match.[15] The match took place on April 1 and saw Suzuki defeat Kai in just seven minutes to become the new Wrestle-1 Champion.[16][17] On May 5, Suzuki put both of his championships on the line at separate Zero1 and Wrestle-1 shows, losing the NWA United National Heavyweight Championship to Kamikaze and retaining the Wrestle-1 Championship against Ryota Hama.[18][19] On June 27, Suzuki returned to IGF for the first time since his departure from the promotion, first defeating Wang Bin in the opening round and then Daichi Hashimoto in the finals to win the Genome-1 2015 Nagoya tournament.[20] Following the win, Suzuki formed an "anti-IGF" stable with foreigners Erik Hammer, Kevin Kross and Knux.[21] On July 12, Suzuki lost the Wrestle-1 Championship back to Kai in his third defense.[22][23][24] On November 1, Suzuki defeated Kohei Sato to win Pro Wrestling Zero1's World Heavyweight Championship.[25] On February 26, 2016, Suzuki returned to IGF, when he was appointed the leader of a new stable named Hagure IGF Gundan ("Rogue IGF Corps"), which also included Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Kashin and Shogun Okamoto.[26] On March 27, Suzuki lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Kohei Sato.[27]
On March 5, 2017, Suzuki challenged Daisuke Sekimoto for the Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) World Strong Heavyweight Championship. After wrestling to a thirty-minute time limit draw, Suzuki and Sekimoto agreed to a rematch on March 30.[28][29] Suzuki went on to win the rematch to become the new World Strong Heavyweight Champion.[30][31] On September 14, Suzuki and Kohei Sato defeated Shogun Okamoto and Yutaka Yoshie to win the vacantNWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship.[32] After five successful title defenses, Suzuki lost the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship to Daichi Hashimoto on December 17.[33][34] Suzuki claimed that losing the title cost him most of his bookings and that he was facing unemployment heading into 2018.[35] On January 1, 2018, Suzuki and Sato lost the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship to Masayuki Okamoto and Yutaka Yoshie.[36]
In April 2021, Suzuki signed with WWE as a coach in the Performance Center.[37] Despite his work as coach, Suzuki would begin to work on NXT's weekly show as a pro wrestler under the name of Hachiman, as a part of the villainous stable Diamond Mine, alongside Roderick Strong, Tyler Rust (who was released several weeks later) and Malcolm Bivens.[38][39] Within the coming months, The Creed Brothers (Brutus and Julius Creed) and Ivy Nile would also join the stable. On January 5, 2022, Suzuki was released from his WWE contract.[40]
Pro Wrestling Noah (2022–current)
On February 24, 2022 it was announced that Suzuki would be returning to Japan to wrestle for Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah).[41] On March 13, 2022 Suzuki would team with Takashi Sugiura to win the GHC Tag Team Championship by defeating the team of Daiki Inaba & Kaito Kiyomiya at Noah Great Voyage In Yokohama 2022.[42]
Other media
Suzuki's first book, entitled Biru Robinson Den Kyatchi Azu Kyatchi Kyan Nyūmon (ビル・ロビンソン伝 キャッチ アズ キャッチ キャン入門, "Billy Robinson: Catch as Catch Can Primer"), was released on January 19, 2017. The book is about wrestling techniques taught to Suzuki by Billy Robinson.[43]
^Pollock, John (2021-04-23). "Hideki Suzuki joins WWE PC as a coach, other additions confirmed". POST Wrestling | WWE NXT AEW NJPW UFC Podcasts, News, Reviews. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
^Lambert, Jeremy (June 22, 2021). "Roderick Strong And Malcolm Bivens Lead Diamond Mine, Attack Kushida On 6/22 NXT". Fightful. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
^Wilkins, Rob. "WWE NXT Results For 6/22/21 O'Reilly vs. Kushida, Adam Cole in action, Diamond Mine debut, and Samoa Joe". Fightful.
^Guzzo, Gisberto (January 5, 2022). ""Hachiman" Hideki Suzuki Released By WWE". Fightful. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
^"Hideki Suzuki Returns to Pro Wrestling NOAH Following WWE Release". 24 February 2022.
^"NOAH Great Voyage In Yokohama 2022". CageMatch.
^鈴木秀樹やっと宣言 はぐれIGF軍団“放牧”. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
^★BJW認定世界ストロングヘビー級王座★. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 29, 2017. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
^"【大日本】鈴木秀樹が「一騎当千」初優勝". Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). April 16, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
^★BJW認定横浜ショッピングストリート6人タッグ王座★. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
^【年越しプロレス2017のまとめ】年忘れ!シャッフル・タッグトーナメントは関口組を下した竹下&鈴木のモースト・ストロンゲスト・コンビが優勝!/蘇る80年代ガイジン列伝! スタン、ブロディ、タケシータ、ブッチャーが大暴れ! カリスマバラモン、阿鼻叫喚の地獄絵図への誘い!/Taka、デビュー25周年記念試合で新年を迎えると同時にMaoにフォール負け!. DDT Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). January 1, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
^"DDT ProWrestling" 木高イサミのプロレス〜第三回新宿地上最大武道会~. Pro-Wrestling Basara (in Japanese). DDT Pro-Wrestling. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
^"Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2018". cagematch.net. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
^"GHC Tag Team Championship". CageMatch.
^【プロレス大賞】技能賞 初受賞の鈴木秀樹「コメント?書面でお願いします」. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). December 14, 2017. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
^「年越しプロレス2017」. Big Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). December 31, 2017. Archived from the original on January 1, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hideki Suzuki.
Inoki Genome Federation profile Archived 2017-09-15 at the Wayback Machine(in Japanese)
U.W.F. Snake Pit profile Archived 2016-04-25 at the Wayback Machine(in Japanese)