Hiro Matsuda

Yasuhiro Kojima
Born	(1937-07-22)July 22, 1937 Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Died	November 27, 1999(1999-11-27) (aged 62) Tampa, Florida
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Hiro Matsuda Ernesto Kojima (Peru)
Trained by	Diablo Velasco Rikidōzan Karl Gotch
Debut	1957

Yasuhiro Kojima (小島泰弘, Kojima Yasuhiro) (July 22, 1937 – November 27, 1999) was a professional wrestler and the trainer of Hulk Hogan, "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, Scott Hall, Lex Luger, Ron Simmons, Keiji Mutoh, and many other professional wrestlers. He was better known as Hiro Matsuda, an identity he adopted while competing in the southern U.S., inspired by earlier wrestlers Sorakichi Matsuda and Matty Matsuda. As a trainer, Matsuda was famous for being very stiff with his trainees to toughen them up and teach them to respect the business. His most famous story involved him being very tough on a young Hulk Hogan in his first day of training and breaking his leg. After Hogan healed, he came right back to Matsuda's school, looking to continue his training. Matsuda was so impressed by his display of "guts" that he trained him properly from that day on.

He initially debuted under his real name at Rikidōzan's Japanese Wrestling Association, but then left Japan to pursue wrestling in the Americas. Once in a while he would return to Japan, where he formed a tag team with Antonio Inoki that was only the outward reflection of the long-time friendship between the two men.

He came to work in Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987 as a heel to participate in a feud between Dusty Rhodes and Lex Luger. Matsuda was in Luger's corner. During the feud, he was billed as "The Master of the Japanese Sleeper", which was a Sleeper hold. He famously locked Johnny Weaver, who was in Rhodes' corner, in the hold. The prolonged application of the hold caused Weaver to bleed profusely from the mouth.

He later on worked briefly for World Championship Wrestling acting as the manager in early 1989 for the Yamasaki Corporation (a renamed 4 Horseman)and then being involved in Terry Funk's stable, The J-Tex Corporation as their business agent from Japan. He died in 1999 in Tampa, Florida of colon cancer.

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • Japanese Sleeper (Sleeper hold)

• Wrestlers managed
  • Yamasaki Corporation (Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Kendall Windham, Michael Hayes, Butch Reed)

• Nicknames
  • "The Master of the Japanese Sleeper"

Championships and accomplishments

• Championship Wrestling from Florida

• NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (4 times) - with Mr. Wrestling (1), Bob Orton (1), and the Missouri Mauler (2)
• NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (4 times)
• NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
• NWA World Tag Team Championship (Florida Version) (5 times) - with Duke Keomuka (4) and Dick Steinborn (1)

• Japan Wrestling Association

• JWA All Asia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Michiaki Yoshimura

• New Japan Pro Wrestling
  • NWA North American Tag Team Championship (Los Angeles/Japan version) (1 time) - with Masa Saito

• NWA Mid-America

• NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-America Version) (1 time) - with Kanji Inoki