Masa Saito

Amateur wrestling career Saito competed in freestyle wrestling for Japan in the 1964 Summer Olympics, placing seventh.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1965–1968) Recruited to the professional game along with fellow Olympian Koji Sugiyama, Saito began his pro wrestling career in 1965 and quickly established himself in both Japan and the United States. Nicknamed "Mr. Torture" for his punishing and sadistic style, Saito held numerous titles while wrestling in North America and Japan.

National Wrestling Alliance (1968–1981) On July 13, 1968, Saito won his first title, teaming with Kenji Shibuya to win the San Francisco version of the World Tag Team Championship. The following year, he defeated Dale Lewis to win the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship. After losing the title to Jack Brisco on February 10, 1970, he continued to team with Shibuya in the Los Angeles-based NWA Hollywood Wrestling, winning the NWA Americas Tag Team Championship three times in 1971 and 1972.

World Wrestling Federation (1981–1982) Later in the year, Saito signed with the World Wrestling Federation. He formed a tag team with Mr. Fuji, which was managed by Captain Lou Albano. They began a feud with tag champions Tony Garea and Rick Martel, whom they defeated on edition of October 17, 1981, of Championship Wrestling to win their first WWF Tag Team Championship, though it was Fuji's fourth individual reign. They began feuding with The Strongbows (Chief Jay and Jules) in the fall of 1981. This culminated in a title match on June 28, 1982, at Madison Square Garden (MSG) where Strongbows won the titles. On the July 13, 1982, edition of Championship Wrestling, they defeated Strongbows in a two out of three falls match for Fuji's fifth and Saito's second WWF Tag Team Championship. The feud of these two teams ended after Fuji and Saito lost the titles to Strongbows on the October 30, 1982, edition of Championship Wrestling.

American Wrestling Association (1983–1990) In June 1983, Saito went to Minneapolis and began wrestling for American Wrestling Association. While there, he formed a tag team with Jesse Ventura called the Far East-West Connection. After Ventura left for the WWF, Saito was aligned with Nick Bockwinkel and Bobby Heenan, before Heenan left for the WWF as well. He would remain with them until May 1985 when he began serving his sentence. After being released for good behavior, Saito returned to the AWA in 1986 on Christmas night, aligning himself with Larry Zbyszko and Super Ninja. He remained with the AWA until April 1987. He briefly returned alone in February 1988, but brought Riki Choshu with him three months later. It would not be until November 1989 that Saito would come back and would bring Koji Kitao over with him to train. In February 1990, at 48 years of age, he won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Larry Zbyszko at Super Fight in Tokyo Dome. His victory made headlines on newspapers, but was eclipsed by the Buster Douglas victory over Mike Tyson the next night at the same arena. He would hold onto the title until April when Zbyszko regained the title at SuperClash IV.

All Japan Pro Wrestling (1985) Saito wrestled two tours for All Japan Pro Wrestling as part of Japan Pro Wrestling in January and May 1985.

Return to NJPW (1987–1997) In 1987, Saito returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he became involved in a feud with Antonio Inoki. On June 12, Saito faced Inoki in the finals of the IWGP League 1987 to determine the first ever IWGP Heavyweight Champion, which Inoki won. To settle the feud, the two competed in an Island Death match on October 4, 1987. They were placed on Ganryujima Island and wrestled a match that lasted two hours and spread across the island. Ultimately, Inoki was victorious, defeating Saito by technical knockout. His last match for the company aired on May 18, 1996, on WCW Pro, teaming with Masahiro Chono, wrestling Harlem Heat to a double disqualification.

Last Match NJPW (1999) On February 14, 1999, Saito wrestled his last match, which was a loss to Scott Norton.

Retirement Upon retiring in 1999, he stayed in NJPW as a commentator, until leaving the company in January 2003 and joined Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling until its collapse a year later. In 2005, after accepting an invitation from Kensuke Sasaki, Saito worked with the Diamond Ring promotion as a supervisor and manager/advisor to the promotion's younger talent. Diamond Ring ran its last show in February 2014. After Diamond Ring, Saito moved back to his home in Tokyo.

Professional wrestling style and persona Saito's style is considered "very physical style that included lots of suplexes [...]" and "brought hard physicality with his clotheslines". One of these suplexes is known as the Saito Suplex. During his time in prison, he created a hold, which was named "Kangokugatame", translated as Prison Hold or Prison Lock. During his career, Saito played the stereotypical salt-throwing Japanese heel, a role usually performed by Hawaiians in the 60s.

Personal life and death In 2000, Saito was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He died from complications of the disease on 14 July 2018 at the age of 76.

At the time of his death, Saito had been training to be a torchbearer for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.

Arrest According to police, on April 6, 1984, Ken Patera was refused service at a McDonald's restaurant after the restaurant had closed, and threw a boulder through the restaurant's window in retaliation. The responding officers testified that later, when they arrived at Saito and Patera's hotel room to investigate someone matching Patera's description in connection with the criminal damage report, Saito was uncooperative and both wrestlers assaulted the officers, taking turns beating them until other officers arrived to subdue them. As a result of the incident, in June 1985, Saito and Patera were convicted of battery of a police officer and sentenced to serve two years in prison.

Championships and accomplishments American Wrestling Association AWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Big Time Wrestling (San Francisco) NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) (2 times) – with Kenji Shibuya NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (2 times) – with Mr. Sato George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Class of 2008 New Japan Pro-Wrestling IWGP Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Riki Choshu (1) and Shinya Hashimoto (1) IWGP Tag Team Title Challenger Decision League (1989) - with Shinya Hashimoto NWA North American Tag Team Championship (Los Angeles/Japan version) (1 time) – with Hiro Matsuda NWA All-Star Wrestling NWA Canadian Tag Team Championship (Vancouver version) (2 times) – with Gene Kiniski (1) and Dale Lewis (1) NWA Hollywood Wrestling NWA Americas Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Kenji Shibuya NWA "Beat the Champ" Television Championship (2 times) Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #89 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003 Southeastern Championship Wrestling NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Tokyo Sports Service Award (1999) Special Grand Prize (1987) World Wrestling Federation WWF World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Mr. Fuji Wrestling Observer Newsletter Best Technical Wrestler (1984) Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2009)