Satoru Asako

Satoru Asako (浅子覚, Asako Satoru; born March 2, 1971) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler who worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah.

Asako made his debut in a tag team match with Richard Slinger, losing to Masao Inoue and Mitsuo Momota. Since his debut he spent most of his time in the opening matches and as an enhancement talent, as us customary for rookie wrestlwes in Japan. As he improved, Asako won his first and only achievement by winning the January 3 Korakuen Hall Junior Heavyweight Battle Royal on January 3, 1994. Early in his career he joined the Super Generation Army, where he would team up with wrestlers such as Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Asako continued to show progression in his wrestling skills putting on classic 6 Man Tag Team Matches, often alongside his fellow Super Generation Army members. One of these matches even received a "5 Star Match" rating from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. In 1998 he entered in the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title League and made it to the finals but was unable to win as he lost to Yoshinari Ogawa.^[1] In 1999, Asako would join NO FEAR alongside Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama, which would result in him rising up the card into an upper mid card role with him even receiving the nickname of "Leader". Asako suffered a knee injury in January of 2000, and would be out of action until August of 2000. He remained in All Japan until June 2000, when he followed Misawa and 24 other wrestlers to form Pro Wrestling Noah. Asako returned from his knee injury in time for NOAH's inaugural event.

In 2000 Asako wrestled his first match for Noah in a 6-man tag team match with Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama but was defeated by Daisuke Ikeda, Masahito Kakihara & Yoshinari Ogawa. As a singles wrestler Asako continued improving his wrestling ability in a last few years of his career and showed great progress in his singles matches including the Junior Heavyweight division. In 2001 he qualified for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament, as he defeated Matt Murphy on the first night but lost to Juventud Guerrera. Asako's star kept rising through 2001, with him competing in several main event matches teaming with his NO FEAR partners Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama. And on September 5th 2001, on the Semi-Main Event of Pro Wrestling NOAH's Departure 2001 event he challenged Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, but would lose to Kanemaru after a grueling, back and forth 23 minute long matchup. Sadly, two months later in November of 2001 he would suffer a neck injury that would lead to the end of his career.

On July 26, 2002, Asako would announce his retirement due to a neck injury. He wrestled his last match in a 6-man tag team match with his Super Generation Army partners Kobashi and Misawa picking up the victory by defeating Akira Taue, Makoto Hashi and Masao Inoue. After the match there was a retirement ceremony held, where the entire NOAH roster came out to congratulate him on his career. Asako gave his retirement speech, and left the ring with his son and his NO FEAR partner Yoshihiro Takayama.

Following his retirement from in ring competition, Asako would occasionally serve as a commentator for NOAH events throughout the 2000s, as well as being present at ringside as he became the company's head medical trainer, as well as a road agent.

After his retirement, Asako became a trainer and road agent for Pro Wrestling Noah, as well as a judoka instructor.^[2]

He also now runs an Orthopedic Clinic in Gyotoku, Ichikawa City Japan, which he has operated since 2011.^[3]

After his retirement, Asako would still show up at Wrestling Events every now and then. Most notably, he was former NO FEAR partner and personal friend Takao Omori's manager at Fortune Dream 7 in 2022, where Omori defeated GLEAT wrestler Issei Onitsuka.

• All Japan Pro Wrestling

• January 3 Korakuen Hall Junior Heavyweight Battle Royal (1994)^[4]

• Satoru Asako at Wrestling Data