Professional Wrestling Career
Anjo debuted as a professional wrestler in the first incarnation of the Japanese UWF, on July 6, 1985 against Osamu Hoshina. UWF's collapse later in the year led him into New Japan Pro Wrestling along with Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada and the rest of the roster. He competed in the NJPW junior heavyweight division but did not have success at all. In 1988 he moved to the second version of the UWF and in 1991 he joined UWF International.
In UWFI, he had success as the top native heel. He feuded with Takada and Kazuo Yamazaki, and had also a match with the Iron Sheik. It was Anjo who had the idea of co-promoting events with NJPW in 1995, and earned a victory over Masahiro Chono in an interpromotional match. He and young wrestlers Yoshihiro Takayama and Kenichi Yamamoto formed a stable called the "Golden Cups" to feud in tag team and six-man matches against Super Strong Machine as the masked 200% Machines. They also forayed into WAR to feud with Genichiro Tenryu and others.
In a bid to regain credibility, Yoji Anjoh travelled to California to challenge Rickson Gracie in the latter's own dojo, only to be swiftly and brutally defeated before the assembled Japanese press that had followed him there. With the UWFi's formerly fearsome reputation in tatters, its attendance numbers swiftly decreased, with the federation closing its doors once and for all in December 1996. In their final show it was Kazushi Sakuraba who at long last headlined, defeating Yoji Anjoh by submission.
Following UWFI's collapse he joined Kingdom but then wandered into independent promotions and also began competing in MMA matches (see below). In 2000 he resurfaced to help out All Japan Pro Wrestling's rebuilding, and won the Double Cup tag team titles with old foe Genichiro Tenryu. He then wandered again, joining HUSTLE run by old comrade Takada for a few gimmick matches.
Read more about this topic: Yoji Anjo
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