Minoru Tanaka (wrestler)

This article is about the Japanese wrestler. For the American professional wrestler, see Professor Tanaka.
Minoru Tanaka
Born (1972-11-29) November 29, 1972 (age 51)[1][2]
Komaki, Aichi, Japan[1][2]
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 2002)​
Children2 (including Kizuna Tanaka)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)C.T.U Ranger Pink[3]
Heat
Minoru
Minoru Polnareff[4]
Minoru Tanaka
The Orange Prince
Tanaka
Trans-Am★Tanaka[5]
Watanabe no Tsuna[6]
Billed height1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1][2]
Billed weight85 kg (187 lb)[2]
Trained byYoshiaki Fujiwara
DebutJanuary 24, 1994[1][2]

Minoru Tanaka (田中稔, Tanaka Minoru, born November 29, 1972),[1][2] also known by the ring names Heat (ヒート, Hīto) and the mononymous Minoru (稔, Minoru), is a Japanese professional wrestler, shoot wrestler and mixed martial artist.[7] He is currently signed to Gleat, predominantly performing in its G Prowrestling and Lidet UWF divisions; he also serves as Gleat's UWF Rules Technical Officer.

Known as "The Special One", Tanaka first gained prominence in Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi (PWFG) and Fighting Investigation Team Battlarts (Battlarts) before moving on to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he became a four time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, a five time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and the winner of the 2006 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. After leaving NJPW, he joined All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he found continued success in the junior heavyweight and tag team ranks upon winning the World Junior Heavyweight Championship once and the All Asia Tag Team Championship twice. From 2013 to 2016, Tanaka worked for Wrestle-1. He also performed for Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah), where he held the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship twice and is a former GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, making him the second man (after Naomichi Marufuji) to hold all three major Japanese junior heavyweight singles titles as well as the only man to hold all five major junior heavyweight titles in Japan (counting the aforementioned tag team prizes).

  1. ^ a b c d e 稔. New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2014-05-02.
  2. ^ a b c d e f 田中 稔. Wrestle-1 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
  3. ^ "Last of C.T.U～C.T.U Farewell in Korakuen Hall～". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). Retrieved 2014-09-30.
  4. ^ 2月22日後楽園ホール直前情報. Dramatic Dream Team (in Japanese). 2009-02-20. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  5. ^ "DDT ProWrestling" 【伐折羅・参拾四～獅子奮迅～のまとめ】. Pro-Wrestling Basara (in Japanese). DDT Pro-Wrestling. 2017-04-30. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  6. ^ 魔界としては最後の新木場！娘を取り戻そうとする武吉に朝比奈が2m超えの大剣を振りかざす. Battle News (in Japanese). Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  7. ^ "Minoru Tanaka ("Heat") | MMA Fighter Page". Tapology. Retrieved 2023-08-25.