Hiroaki Hamada, known as Gran Hamada from his exploits in Japan and around the world, has passed away. He was 74.
News broke on his death on February 15.
Hamada was one of the first people to be trained in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) dojo but struggled initially to experience success due to his small stature. Standing 5-foot-6 and weighing about 203 pounds, Hamada was undersized by wrestling standards in an era when expectations were centered on larger individuals. However, Hamada was one of the first beneficiaries of the foreign excursion mechanic and achieved much greater popularity and success in Mexico. He was so adored in Mexico that the local promoters took his Japanese ring name “Little Hamada” and turned him into “Gran Hamada”, with “Gran” meaning big.
After training in the NJPW dojo and rubbing shoulders with future greats like Tatsumi Fujinami and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Hamada went to the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) in Mexico where he honed his skills in lucha libre where he ended up in the ring with lucha legends like Ray Mendoza, Canek, Dr. Wagner, and the original El Santo.
This, combined with his background in Antonio Inoki’s original Strong Style, made Hamada a hybrid wrestler who, in some cases, is considered the pioneer and father of “Lucharesu”, the fusion of Japanese and Mexican styles that has become highly popular around the world and especially in promotions that feature smaller and more nimble wrestlers.
As the decades went by Hamada went on to wrestle or team with even more big names in wrestling: Negro Casas, Satoru Sayama/Tiger Mask I, Akira Maeda, Mando Guerrero, Antonio Inoki, Hulk Hogan, Los Brazos, and a slew of others. He even appeared on an All Japan Women show in 1990 in a trios match. And while he missed out on All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)’s golden age of the 1990s, he did have at least one match with key figures in that company’s history like Akio Sato and Toshiaki Kawada. He also returned to All Japan following the NOAH Exodus and remained there until 2005, all through an era known as “The Muto Years.”
Hamada’s popularity eventually brought him notice to promotions in America and he ended up working for WWF as part of their initial attempts to establish a junior heavyweight division. Through WWF’s working relationship with UWA at the time, Hamada reached the finals of a tournament to crown the inaugural WWF Light Heavyweight Champion. Though he lost in this final match to Perro Aguayo he would win this title a year later and hold it on two separate occasions before the title was deactivated. He was also an “undefeated champion” of sorts in WWF as he was the first and only WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Champion alongside Aguayo as WWF severed its ties with another promotion, UWF Japan, before that division could take off.
Throughout the decades Hamada would also collect accolades in promotions all around the world. He won singles and tag team gold in UWA, the NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship, the NWA World Middleweight Championship under Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre (now CMLL), and won a tag team tournament in AJPW. He also holds the unique distinction of being one half of a father-daughter duo to win tag team gold as he and his daughter Ayako Hamada won tag titles together in ARSION.
On his defunct website, the late Bad News Allen Coage talked about Hamada: “Even though he was with New Japan, the first time I met him was in Mexico. For a smaller wrestler he had a lot of fire, I loved working against him because the Mexican fans loved him which gave me more heat. The many times I worked in Mexico he always made me feel at home. He’d invite me to his house and feed me, he’s a great cook. There aren’t many guys in this business that care about anyone but he always looked after me.”
Hamada continued wrestling for 46 years wrestling mostly in tag matches, both standard and mixed, and the latter mainly with his daughter Ayako. His final match took place at a Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW) show in September 2018 that saw him team with Yoshiaki Fujiwara and The Great Sasuke and defeat Kesen Numajiro, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, and Mitsuo Momota.
Influential as he was, Hamada’s name will continue through later generations. Aside from the many wrestlers whom he inspired through his hybrid style he has several family members involved in the wrestling business as well. There’s his daughter Ayako, his other daughter Xóchitl Guadalupe Hamada Villarreal, his son-in-law Pentagón Black, and his two ex-sons-in-law Silver King and Tiger Mask IV.
