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Jun Kasai

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Jun Kasai
Kasai in July 2023
Born (1974-09-09) September 9, 1974 (age 50)
Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan[1]
Spouse(s)Michiyo Kasai
Children2
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Jun Kasai
Crazy Monkey[2]
Ape The Man
Junko Kasai[3]
Nazo Fukumen KJ[4]
Son Goku[5]
Kuki Yoshitaka[6]
X1112
Billed height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Billed weight88 kg (194 lb)
Billed fromHiladelhia, America
DebutAugust 23, 1998[1]

Jun Kasai (葛西 純, Kasai Jun) (born September 9, 1974) is a Japanese professional wrestler, primarily competing for Pro Wrestling Freedoms. Dubbed the Crazy Monkey (クレイジーモンキー, Kureijī Monkī) for his violent and often self-harmful style of hardcore wrestling, Kasai is considered a breakthrough talent in Japanese wrestling, able to work both hardcore and technical styles. Outside Freedoms, Kasai has worked for the original Pro Wrestling Zero-One, Hustle, Ice Ribbon, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW).

Professional wrestling career

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Kasai in 2007

In 1998, Kasai made his debut in a Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) event in Osaka during the Deathmatch Wrestling boom of the late 90s. As BJW established a working relationship with American promotion Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) at the turn of the millennium, Kasai joined the stable "CZW Warriors" (CZW Army) and feuded against the "BJW Warriors". Kasai formed the stable "Big Dealz" in 2001, with John Zandig, Nick Mondo, Wifebeater, Z-Barr and Trent Acid.[2]

Since then Kasai has wrestled mainly for BJW and occasionally for other promotions such as Pro Wrestling Zero-One, K-Dojo and Apache Pro-Wrestling Army. Kasai's body is covered in scars, from all the hardcore wrestling he has done. This includes a Fans Bring the Weapons Match from the CZW show "Un F'n Believable", in which he took a bump onto a light tube board which ripped open his left elbow, exposing bone.[7] In 2006 he won the first-ever IWA East Coast Masters of Pain after defeating Toby Klein, Mad Man Pondo and J. C. Bailey.[8]

Kasai has participated five times in an extremely bloody "Razor Deathmatch"; a hardcore match where boards are fitted with many razor blades. The first of these deathmatches was held in 2005 with Jaki Numazawa, in which Jun took a powerbomb onto the razor bladed board. In the second one, held in 2008, Kasai's match was against the American wrestler Masada. On November 20, 2009, he defeated Ryuji Ito in another razor match after a double underhook facebuster on a cactus.

The fourth time was on April 5, 2010 where Kasai competed in a Barbwire Treaty Death Match that pitted Team CZW (Kasai, D. J. Hyde and Nick Gage) against Team BJW (Jaki Numazawa, Isami Kodaka and Masashi Takeda) in which a razor blade board was used in several bumps. On June 21, 2010 Kasai competed against the Necro Butcher in a Hardcore match for the Freedoms promotion; the razor blade board came into play mid way through the match.

In 2012, Kasai teamed regularly with American pro-wrestler/rapper One Man Kru. Together, they defeated the team of The Great Sasuke and Kesen Numajiro in a fluorescent light tubes death match at the September 9, 2012 Freedoms event in Iwate, Japan.

Kasai in April 2023

On January 3, 2021, Kasai defeated Yoshitatsu to win the All Japan Pro Wrestling's Gaora TV Championship.[9]

On July 4, 2023 Kasai made his New Japan Pro Wrestling debut at Independence Day in a winning effort in the main event teaming with El Desperado against Jon Moxley and Homicide.

Personal life

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Kasai is married to his wife Michiyo; the couple have a daughter together.[10] Kasai also has a son from a previous relationship.

He was born in Hokkaido and now lives in the mainland, but claims on his official website that he is from "Hiladelhia, America" as a joke;[11] he has described Philadelphia as his second homeland. While Kasai wrestled in the United States, he was a lodger in Matthew Prince, better known as the wrestler Wifebeater's house. He has described Prince as a real madman, unlike many deathmatch wrestlers who are in fact gentlemen outside the ring.[12]

Championships and accomplishments

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Since 2005, there have been "razor blade board" deathmatches in BJW, Apache Pro Wrestling and Freedoms, and all of them have involved Kasai.
In Pro Wrestling Freedoms, Kasai is a former King of Freedom World Champion

References

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  1. ^ a b CAGEMATCH:Jun Kasai (in German)
  2. ^ a b WrestlingZone.ru : Jun Kasai (in Russian)
  3. ^ "11・9 まこかなプロ <新宿Face・ 326人>". Wrestling New Classic (in Japanese). November 10, 2012. Retrieved November 15, 2012.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "【横浜リポート2】Pの正体は福田…謎覆面との抗争は終結". Union Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). Archived from the original on September 23, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
  5. ^ "新北京プロレス Japan Tour 2009 in Shinjuku Face". Dramatic Dream Team (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved February 19, 2014.
  6. ^ 魔界陰陽師軍大逆転！ギター3本TVカメラ6台！超満杯場内大興奮～魔界錬闘会『魔界再臨』. Miruhon (in Japanese). May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2015.
  7. ^ Online World of Wrestling : Combat Zone Wrestling - CZW Un F'n Believable
  8. ^ Cagematch : IWA East Coast Masters Of Pain 2006 (in German)
  9. ^ "'Twas The Night Before Wrestle Kingdom, All Japan Returns To Korakuen Hall And Tons More From Japan". PWInsider.com. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
  10. ^ Petry, Jeff Lee; Drillot, Nathan; Abraham, Damian (16 March 2018). "Death Match". The Wrestlers. Season 01. Episode 04. Viceland.
  11. ^ Official profile Archived 2012-10-01 at the Wayback Machine (in Japanese)
  12. ^ The Weekly Proresu Directory: 15 years Chronicle Archived 2009-03-18 at the Wayback Machine ISBN 4-583-61261-3 (in Japanese)
  13. ^ "【試合結果】11･26 ダブプロレス新木場大会 【Dove世界ヘビー級】Hayatavs谷嵜なおき 【Doveタッグ】Yo-Hey＆近野剣心vsグンソ＆葛西純". Battle News (in Japanese). November 27, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  14. ^ "H26.9.15 岩手・一関市総合体育館ﾕｰﾄﾞｰﾑﾒｲﾝｱﾘｰﾅ大会". Freedoms (in Japanese). Retrieved September 20, 2014.
  15. ^ "H27.12.25 後楽園ホール大会「葛西純プロデュース興行」". Freedoms (in Japanese). Retrieved December 25, 2015.
  16. ^ "H28.5.2 後楽園ホール". Freedoms (in Japanese). Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  17. ^ "H26.9.23千葉・東武ｽﾎﾟｰﾂｸﾗﾌﾞ ﾌﾟﾚｵﾝ船橋ｱﾘｰﾅ大会". Freedoms (in Japanese). Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  18. ^ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2022". The Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  19. ^ 東京スポーツ プロレス大賞 (in Japanese). 24 May 2023.
  20. ^ "「Wrestle-1 Tour 2016 Shining Winter」". Wrestle-1 (in Japanese). 2016-12-09. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  21. ^ "Wrestle-1 Tour 2015 Symbol". Wrestle-1 (in Japanese). 2015-07-12. Archived from the original on 2015-07-13. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  22. ^ "「Wrestle-1 Tour 2016 Symbol」". Wrestle-1 (in Japanese). 2016-07-29. Archived from the original on 2016-07-03. Retrieved 2016-07-29.
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