Yuji Nagata

Blue Justice, Yuji Nagata made his debut in 1992 and has been a pillar of New Japan ever since; one of its greatest champions, and a proud leader and teacher to the next generation of competitors. One of the revered Third Generation of NJPW stars, Yuji Nagata has done it all in his long career. His accolades include the New Japan Cup, the 2001 G1 Climax, NEVER Openweight Championship, the IWGP Tag Team Championships twice and two IWGP Heavyweight Championship reigns, his first being the most dominant up to that point in history with ten defences. In 2020, in the wake of the global pandemic, Nagata was more fired up than ever. Entering New Japan Cup 2020 he made a huge impact in a fierce strike heavy contest with 233 blows landed in his gripping 1 st round match win over Minoru Suzuki. Though Nagata lost to Suzuki later in the summer, he showed his strength had no signs of diminishing and remained the ideal role model to the future generation of talent in both pro and amateur ranks, where he coaches NJPW's amateur wrestling team with designs on Olympic gold.