All Japan Pro Wrestling (1998–2000) Morishima attended
Urayasu High School where he took part in judo. His instructor, Shoji Abe, was friends with
Mitsuharu Misawa, and managed to get Morishima a tryout with
All Japan Pro Wrestling, which he passed and shortly after began training with the promotion for a career in professional wrestling. Initially, Morishima was a protégé of Misawa, but after
Naomichi Marufuji joined the promotion and Misawa decided instead to focus solely on training Marufuji,
Akira Taue took Morishima under his wing and trained him. Morishima debuted for All Japan in 1998, but left in 2000 to join the newly formed
Pro Wrestling Noah (founded by Misawa), where he became a mainstay.
Pro Wrestling Noah (2000–2015) In Noah, he frequently teamed with
Takeshi Rikio as Wild II, and the duo have previously held the
GHC Tag Team Championship. On March 2, 2008, Morishima defeated
Mitsuharu Misawa at the Budokan Hall Event of Pro Wrestling Noah's Second Navigation Tour to become the
12th GHC Heavyweight Champion. However, on December 6, at the last show of Winter Navigation '09, Morishima and Sasaki lost the titles to Takeshi Rikio and
Muhammad Yone. Since this victory, Morishima has defended against Naomichi Marufuji, Maybach Taniguchi, Go Shiozaki, Akitoshi Saito, Kenta, Jun Akiyama, and Kohei Sato. After a year-long reign, Morishima lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Kenta on January 27, 2013. On January 5, 2014, Morishima defeated Kenta to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the third time. Post-match, Morishima quit Brave to form a new group with
Kenoh and Maybach Taniguchi, later named
Choukibou-gun, On January 25, Morishima and Taniguchi defeated
TMDK (
Mikey Nicholls and
Shane Haste), with help from Kenoh and new stablemate
Hajime Ohara, to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. On February 8, Morishima lost the GHC Heavyweight Championship to
New Japan Pro-Wrestling representative
Yuji Nagata in his first title defense. On May 31, Morishima and Taniguchi lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to
Masato Tanaka and Takashi Sugiura.
American promotions (2003–2008) Morishima has also wrestled in the United States. He competed in
Harley Race's
World League Wrestling promotion in 2003, defending the WLW Heavyweight Championship, which he had won from
Ron Harris while Harris toured Japan. Morishima returned to the United States in February 2007, wrestling four matches with Ring of Honor. He lost to
Samoa Joe on February 16, 2007 before defeating
Homicide in a match for the
ROH World Championship on the subsequent evening, thus becoming the first non-American to hold the title. On February 23, 2007, Morishima defeated
B. J. Whitmer in his first title defense, and on the next night he and
Nigel McGuinness defeated Samoa Joe and Homicide. Morishima could not return to the United States until almost a month and a half later when he and
Chris Hero took on Nigel McGuinness and
Doug Williams, and the next night when he successfully defended the belt against McGuinness for the first time. Back in ROH, Morishima went on a string of successful title defenses, defeating the likes of
Austin Aries,
Shingo,
Jay Briscoe, and
Roderick Strong. Morishima lost the title to McGuinness at
Undeniable on October 6.
Retirement (2015) In April 2015, Morishima was forced to pull out of the
2015 Global Tag League due to an injury. On April 21, Noah announced that a blood test had revealed that Morishima had an abnormally high
glycated hemoglobin, suggesting
diabetes. Following his doctor's recommendation, Morishima decided to immediately retire from professional wrestling. On December 28, 2015, Noah canceled Morishima's retirement ceremony, announcing that his contract with the promotion would expire at the end of the year. Later, Morishima recognized the diabetes wasn't the reason of his retirement, but a bad physical and mental state.
Canceled return to the ring (2018) On July 10, 2018, it was announced that Morishima was set to make his in-ring return in late 2018 at a show produced by
Riki Choshu. The show, initially named Genesis, was scheduled to take place on October 15, but was cancelled after Morishima announced he required emergency surgery for arthritis in his foot. == Personal life ==