Early years (1986–1992) Osamu Matsuda graduated from high school in 1985, and joined the
NJPW Dojo. He debuted on July 24, 1986 in a losing effort against
Masaharu Funaki, and spent a few years working at the bottom of the card, wrestling with the likes of
Kensuke Sasaki,
Kenichi Oya, and
Takayuki Iizuka. In March 1991 he went on a learning excursion to
Mexico, and while working for the
UWA promotion, adopted a mask and the El Samurai stage name.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1992–2008) El Samurai returned to NJPW in March 1992. A month later, he made it to the finals of the
Best of the Super Juniors tournament, in which he lost to
Jushin Thunder Liger. Two months later, he defeated Liger for the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would lose the title to
Ultimo Dragon in November 1992. During that time, he would constantly team with Takayuki Iizuka and
Akira Nogami in multi-man tag team matches, naming themselves the "Toukon Trio". In April 1994, El Samurai took part in the
1994 Super J-Cup tournament; he defeated
Masayoshi Motegi in the first round, before losing to The
Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals. In December 1995, he entered into the second Super J-Cup tournament, but he didn't fare as well as the year before, as he lost to
Dos Caras in the first round. In August 1996, he took part in a tournament to determine the first
J-Crown champion. At the time, El Samurai was the WWF World Light Heavyweight Champion. He defeated
Gran Hamada in the first round, before losing to eventual winner The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals. In 1997, El Samurai adopted a new attire and won the Best of the Super Junior tournament, defeating
Koji Kanemoto in the final match, during which his mask was torn completely off his face. The match was later given
five stars by Wrestling Observer's
Dave Meltzer. One month later, he defeated Liger to win the
J-Crown, which at that time consisted of seven unified junior heavyweight championships due to Liger losing one of the eight titles (the
WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship) before the title match with El Samurai. In March 2001, he and Liger won the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. In April 2004 El Samurai unmasked willingly for the first time since adopting the character, going by his real name, Osamu Matsuda, for a match against
Osamu Nishimura, but it was for one night only. Up until at the end of January 2005, he was unmasked again in a
MUGA-style match against
Shinsuke Nakamura. Samurai began to slow down in the mid-late 2000s, however, still managed to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team titles once again, this time with rookie
Ryusuke Taguchi. On February 1, 2008, NJPW agreed to let El Samurai leave the company after his contract expired, due to him suffering from many injuries that limited his appearances in late 2007 and early 2008.
Freelance (2008–2013) On February 17, El Samurai appeared in All Japan Pro Wrestling, aiding
Kaz Hayashi and
Shuji Kondo by fending off
NOSAWA Rongai and MAZADA. On May 8, 2010, El Samurai returned to New Japan to take part in the tournament contested for the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. El Samurai and his partner, former rival Koji Kanemoto, advanced to the finals of the tournament, where they defeated the team of
Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the titles. On July 19, Kanemoto and El Samurai lost the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Devitt and Taguchi. ==Championships and accomplishments==