Shoichi Funaki

Shoichi (Sho) Funaki (船木勝一) is a Japanese professional wrestler performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on the Smackdown! brand, in its cruiserweight division.

Career

Funaki started as a shoot style wrestler in Yoshiaki Fujiwara's Fujiwara Gumi promotion and moved to its successor promotion, BattlARTS, but found the lucha libre style more to his liking, so he moved to the Great Sasuke's promotion, Michinoku Pro Wrestling.

Related Topics:
Shoot style - Yoshiaki Fujiwara - Fujiwara Gumi - BattlARTS - Lucha libre - Great Sasuke - Michinoku Pro Wrestling

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Funaki has wrestled most of his career as a tag team competitor with Taka Michinoku and as part of Kai En Tai. After Michinoku left the WWE, Funaki found himself as a lower card wrestler and adopted the gimmick of "Smackdown's No.1 Announcer" performing backstage interviews in between matches until at WWE Armageddon 2004, where he defeated Spike Dudley to win his first WWE Cruiserweight Championship.

Related Topics:
Tag team - Taka Michinoku - Kai En Tai - Gimmick - WWE Armageddon 2004 - Spike Dudley - WWE Cruiserweight Championship

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