HARUKA EIGEN
Born
on January 11, 1946
in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan Haruka Eigen began his
professional wrestling career in SUMO as part of the famed Tatsunami Stable.
Eigen would eventually turn to puroresu (the Japanese term for Pro Wrestling)
with Tokyo Puroresu and make his debut on October 12, 1966 against Masao (later
Rusher) Kimura. Tokyo Puroresu folded in 1967, after only one year of operation
and, at that time, Eigen joined Antonio Inoki and Katsuhisa Shibata (father of
currently Japanese star Katsuyori Shibata) in going to NIHON-Puroresu, Rikidozan’s
old Japan Wrestling Association.
Eigen came to wrestle in the United States in January 1973 and was active in the Central States territory and in Texas. Eigen wrestled as The Great Togo and teamed with Katsuji Adachi who would go on to later fame as Mr. Hito in Calgary but, at the time, was wrestling as Tokyo Joe. Coincidentally, Eigen and Adachi had met previously in the ring, in a match at the Kawasaki Baseball Stadium in 1968 which Eigen was the winner of. The two, managed by CAC stalwart Percival A. Friend, won the North American Tag Team Titles on March 8, 1973 from Bob Geigel and Rufus R. Jones. During the course of their reign, the titles were changed to the NWA World Tag Team Titles (Central States version) and were traded back and forth with Jones and Geigel once. Togo and Joe lost the belts for the final time to Mike George and Jim Brunzell on October 25, 1973.
Eigen
returned to Japan in the Fall of 1973 and joined Inoki in his New Japan Pro Wrestling
promotion where he stayed for 11 years before joining Japan-Puroresu which was
affiliated with Giant Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. This time
frame saw Eigen team with Strong Kobayashi to beat Mighty Inoue and Isamu
Teranishi to win the IWA World Tag Team Title in 1980. When Japan Puroresu
folded, Eigen finally joined AJPW in 1987 where he would stay for the next 14
years.
Following the 1999 death of Giant Baba, 2000 saw Mitsuharu Misawa lead a group of All Japan’s former biggest stars in forming the new Pro Wrestling NOAH promotion and Eigen was one of those stars. Eigen continued his career as an active wrestler until retiring, at age 60, on March 26, 2006. His final match saw him form a tag team with Jun Akiyama to face Akira Taue and Masao Inoue.
Today,
Eigen serves as one of the Managing Directors of Pro-Wrestling NOAH Co., Ltd.
The CAC is pleased to honor Mr. Eigen for his contributions to professional wrestling.
