Legendary Japanese wrestler Kendo Kashin joins WWE Performance Center coaching staff

August 14, 2019
Legendary Japanese wrestler Kendo Kashin joins WWE Performance Center coaching staff

The WWE Performance Center has added one of Japan’s most decorated junior heavyweight wrestlers to its coaching ranks.

Tokimitsu Ishizawa, who made his name in the squared circle as masked grappler Kendo Kashin, is the newest coach to join WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Fla.

An accomplished freestyle wrestler in his youth, Ishizawa turned pro in the early 1990s and went on to hold junior heavyweight titles in New Japan Pro Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling. A feared submission specialist, Ishizawa also fought in professional mixed martial arts, including for the now-defunct PRIDE Fighting Championships league.

Ishizawa also competed in Europe and the United States during his in-ring career. In 2002, “Pro Wrestling Illustrated” named him the 22nd best wrestler in the world in its annual PWI 500 rankings.

Ishizawa was invited to be a guest coach at the WWE Performance Center last February. At the time, Finn Bálor posted a photo of himself alongside Ishizawa and noted that the Japanese legend was his first trainer upon arriving to the Land of the Rising Sun.

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