Puroresu Central

Akitoshi Saito

Birthdate: August 8th, 1965
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 242 lbs.
Debut: December 20th, 1990
Background: W*ING
Promotion History: Pioneer Senshi (1990 to 1991), W*ING (1991 to 1994), New Japan (1992 to 1998), and NOAH (2000 to present)
Alliances: Dark Agents
Ring Attire: Black pants
Card Position: Mid-Card
Major Tournaments Won: None
Championship History: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
Current Title Held: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship

Biggest Matches:
- February 8th, 1992 vs. Michiyoshi Ohara
- April 2nd, 1993 with Koshinaka, Kobayashi & Kimura vs. Fuyuki, Strong Machine, Hara & Ishikawa
- March 17th, 1996 vs. Hiro Saito
- September 23rd, 2002 with Akiyama vs. Morishima and Takeshi Rikio (title win)
- October 24th, 2004 vs. Kenta Kobashi (title challenge)

Pictures:
- Saito with a backdrop suplex
- Superplex by Saito
- Saito with a kick to Hashi
- Enzigieri by Saito

Signature Moves:
- Arm Trap Backdrop Suplex
- Death Brand (HQ)
- Death Cloak
- Death Landing
- Death Punish
- Lariat

Super Signature Moves:
- Death Cloak off the Apron

2005 Recap:
Not one of the bigger wresters of NOAH, Saito usually wrestles towards the bottom of the card in tag team matches. He is reasonably successful there, however, and picked up many wins over the course of the year. He did (somehow) get a GHC Heavyweight Championship match against Rikio, but he was a big underdog in the match and came up short of winning. He also went for the GHC Tag Team Championship with Takashi Sugiura in September, but again he was unsuccessful. While he will probably never be a serious threat to any major titles, Saito is a respected veteran that still brings a lot to the table.

2006 Recap:
Even though Saito is not considered a viable threat to the GHC World Heavyweight Championship, Saito did get a chance for a shot in April when Akiyama had a tournament to find his next challenger. Saito made it to the finals, but lost to Masao Inoue. Other then that Saito had a rather uneventful year, as on most cards he wrestled in multi-tag matches towards the bottom of the cards. He rarely got pinned however as he is a respected veteran of NOAH.

2007 Recap:
In 2007 Saito had a bit of a revival of sorts, picking up pinfall victories against major stars and getting a chance at the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. After wrestling in multi-man tag matches for the first half of the year, things picked up for Saito during the summer. On June 8th he defeated the younger Go Shiosaki, showing that he wasn't ready yet to give up his spot. In the GHC Heavyweight Title Next Challenger Tournament, Saito picked up pinfalls over Masao Inoue and Naomichi Marufuji before losing to Marufuji in the semi-finals. On November 25th, he would team with Bison Smith to try to take the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from Marufuji and Sugiura, but they would come up short.

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