Great Kusatsu
(1942/02/13 - 2008/06/21)

		Real Name:	Masatake Kusatsu
		Birth:	1942/02/13 Kumamoto
		Debut:	1966/03/21 vs. Kazuo Homma (JPWA)
		Death:	2008/06/21 Mishima, Shizuoka
		Organizations:	JPWA (65 - 66) IWE (66 - 81)
		Titles:	British Western Area Heavyweight [IWE] British Southern Area Heavyweight [IWE] European Tag Team IWE World Tag Team [9] AWA Midwest Tag Team AWA Midwest Heavyweight
		Links:	SLAM! Wrestling obituary

After being a member of the Japan national rugby union team, Kusatsu joined JPWA in 1965/08 and had his debut match on 1966/03/21. However, because of the dislike of the JPWA management, he jumped to IWE in the same year.

He was the top Japanese star of the IWE, but he was knocked out during a match against TWWA World champion Lou Thesz on 1968/01/03 and lost by forfeit. The match was aired during IWE's first televised card on TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting), and it was said to have traumatized not only Kusatsu's career as a wrestler but also the direction of the organization itself.

Kusatsu would eventually "recover" and again become one of the main eventers though never was the top star of the organization.

On 1974/11/28, the first ever Indian strap match was held at Culture Gym in Yokohama. Kusatsu defeated Wahoo McDaniel, an expert in this style of the match.

In 1980/06, he had the achilles' tendon split, and while he was on the disabled list, IWE closed down in 1981/08, and Kusatsu retired as a wrestler. He worked as a sales manager for different non-wrestling companies afterwards thoguh he was briefly a TV commentator in the early days of SWS.

His son, Kenji, was also in the combat sport as he was a K-1 fighter under the name "Great Kusatu" for a short while.

Kusatsu was hospitalized due to the esophageal cancer spreading into lung and liver in 2007/05 and passed away at the age of 66 on 2008/06/21.