Riki Choshu
| Riki Choshu | |
|---|---|
Choshu in 2006 | |
| Birth name | Kwak Gwang-ung |
| Born | December 3, 1951 Tokuyama, Yamaguchi, Japan |
| Alma mater | Senshu University School of Commerce |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Riki Choshu Yoshida |
| Billed height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) |
| Billed weight | 120 kg (265 lb) |
| Trained by | Masa Saito NJPW Dojo |
| Debut | August 8, 1974 |
| Retired | June 26, 2019 |
Mitsuo Yoshida (吉田 光雄, Yoshida Mitsuo, born Kwak Gwang-ung (Korean: 곽광웅; Hanja: 郭光雄), December 3, 1951), better known by his ring name Riki Choshu (長州 力, Chōshū Riki), is a South Korean-Japanese retired professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and a booker. He is considered one of Japan’s most influential wrestlers for his work in the 1980s and 1990s and is known as the first wrestler to popularize the Sasori-Gatame, better known in English as the Scorpion Deathlock or Sharpshooter. After leaving NJPW in 2002, he formed Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ), but eventually returned to New Japan in October 2005 as a site foreman, booker and part-time wrestler. Choshu once again left NJPW in 2010 and primarily worked in Tatsumi Fujinami’s Dradition, as well as his own self-produced Power Hall events as a freelancer. Choshu was a second generation Zainichi Korean. He was naturalized in 2016.