Yasuhiro Kojima (小島 泰弘, Kojima Yasuhiro) (July 22, 1937 – November 27, 1999), best known by his ring nameHiro Matsuda (ヒロ・マツダ, Hiro Matsuda), was a Japanese professional wrestler and trainer.
Kojima played an active role as an ace pitcheratbaseball in Nittai Ebara High School Baseball Club in Japan, and after graduating, he joined Japan Pro Wrestling in 1957, but left in 1960.[2] Matsuda then went to Peru, where he worked as Ernesto Kojima. Later, after moving to Mexico through the United States, the ring name was changed to Kojima Saito, Great Matsuda, and Hiro Matsuda.[2] The name “Matsuda” was a ring name given to two Japanese wrestlers active in the mainland of America, “Sorakichi Matsuda” in the 1880s and Manjiro "Matty" Matsuda in the 1920s. He initially debuted under his real name at Rikidōzan's Japanese Wrestling Association.
When wrestling in Mexico, he had matches against the legendary luchador El Santo, and he later studied with Karl Gotch in the United States in order to learn catch-as-catch-can and submission wrestling. During this period he learned one of his finishing maneuvers, the German suplex hold. Kojima adopted his Hiro Matsuda identity while competing in the southern United States, inspired by earlier wrestlers Sorakichi Matsuda and Matty Matsuda. Over this period he would also wrestle occasionally in Japan, where he formed a tag team with Antonio Inoki.
Matsuda settled in Florida in 1962 and trained neophytes at the old Sportatorium in Tampa, home of the Championship Wrestling from Florida television program.[4] Matsuda was famous for being very stiff with his trainees to toughen them up. His most famous student was Hulk Hogan, breaking his leg to show the seriousness of professional wrestling.[5] Matsuda wouldn't let wrestlers train with him unless they did 1,000 pushups and 1,000 squats.[6] Matsuda could also do hundreds of push-ups and squats in his 60s.[2] Other wrestlers he trained included B. Brian Blair, Bob Orton Jr., Dick Slater, Hercules, Mike Graham, Paul Orndorff, Riki Choshu, Ron Simmons, Scott Casey, Scott Hall, Ted DiBiase and The Great Muta.[2][4][7]
In 1987, he began working with Jim Crockett Promotions as a heel to participate in a feud between his disciple Lex Luger and Dusty Rhodes. During the feud, he was billed as "The Master of the Japanese Sleeper," a sleeper hold. During a match within the feud, Matsuda locked Johnny Weaver, who was in Rhodes' corner for one of the matches, in the hold, and the prolonged application of the hold caused Weaver to bleed profusely from the mouth.[2] In the coming years, Matsuda worked for World Championship Wrestling as the manager in early 1989 for the Yamasaki Corporation (a renamed Four Horsemen) as well as working with Terry Funk's stable, The J-Tex Corporation, as their business agent from Japan.[8] His last match was against Osamu Kido at the age of 53 on December 26, 1990, in Hamamatsu, Japan, in an event that also featured Lou Thesz, who also wrestled his last professional match, and Nick Bockwinkel.
^Madigan, Dan (2007). "Dorada de lucha libre: Las Leyendas, las peleas, los fósforos del resentimiento (the golden age of lucha libre: the legends, the feuds, the grudge matches): Diablo Velasco". Mondo Lucha A Go-Go: the bizarre & honorable world of wild Mexican wrestling. HarperCollins Publisher. pp. 203–205. ISBN978-0-06-085583-3.
