Qustions for Hisa about Shiro Koshinaka

[El Negro Magnifico]

Hi there, Hisa...I was wondering what you could tell me about Shiro Koshinaka. I was watching a tape on the history of the IWGP Jr. Championship and was impressed by him. What exactly was his "gimmick"? And does he still wrestle? Also...on this same tape was a match with the Cobra facing off against Don Arakawa. Shiro was wearing this horrible plaid jacket, but that's beside the point...he was pointing at Cobra's belt and I'm assuming that he was looking for a title shot. He then went to shake Cobra's hand, and Cobra obliged. He then offered Don his hand, but Don refused. Was there heat between these two?

[Ganso]

Shiro Koshinaka is injured as of the moment. He injured his arm during the tour where the IWGP Tag Title Tournament was held. I am not sure when he will be returning.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Originally posted by El Negro Magnifico
What exactly was his "gimmick"?

Basically, no gimmick.

he was pointing at Cobra's belt and I'm assuming that he was looking for a title shot. He then went to shake Cobra's hand, and Cobra obliged. He then offered Don his hand, but Don refused. Was there heat between these two?

I'm not sure, but I believe that's when Shiro jumped from All Japan to New Japan.

In '83 (I believe it was, but I can't clearly remember), All Japan held a rookie round-robin tournament "Lou Thesz Cup" and sent the top two winners to EMLL in Mexico to get more experiences. Shiro won the tournament, and Misawa was the second. In '84, Baba brought Misawa back as Tiger Mask while leaving Koshinaka alone in Mexico. New Japan took advantage of this and got Koshinaka.

Prior to this, Koshinaka (Baba's boy) vs. Nobuhiko Takada (Inoki's) was considered as a dream match. So, when Koshinaka jumped to New Japan, it was kinda big news even though he wasn't a main eventer.

[Peru-Yakuza]

In EMLL he was called "Samurai Shiro". His given name is written with the characters reading Shi-rou, ("rou" means guy and it's a common masculine suffix), but he also wears white in reference to the alternate similar-sounding word "shiro(i)", meaning white.

He moved up to heavyweight around 1990 I believe, and had another match against Takada in 1996 when Takada was IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT champion.

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Originally posted by Peru-Yakuza
In EMLL he was called "Samurai Shiro". His given name is written with the characters reading Shi-rou, ("rou" means guy and it's a common masculine suffix), but he also wears white in reference to the alternate similar-sounding word "shiro(i)", meaning white.

Yes, that should be "Shirou", not "Shiro". His name has nothing to do with the color.

When romanized, the longer vowel is usually ignored. That's why I tend to spell "Ohnita" instead of "Onita", and "Yuuji Nagata" instead of "Yuji Nagata". I guess Shiro should be either "Shiroh" or "Shirou". Bu then, if it's written "Shirou", many English speakers tend to pronounce it "sha-ee-roo".