Gran Hamada

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Gran Hamada

Name Gran Hamada Real name Hiroaki Hamada Nicknames Iron Man Name history Little Hamada (debut - 05/75), Gran Hamada (05/75 - ), NG Hammer (MPW, 03/95), Mini Love Machine (2005) Family Ayako & Xóchitl Hamada (daughters), Pentagón Black (son-in-law) Maestro(s) Kotetsu Yamamoto, René Guajardo Birth date, location November 27, 1950 - Maebashi, Gunma, Japan Obituary date February 15, 2025 Debut, location March 16, 1972 - Ehime, Japan Lost mask to Height 5'6"/168 cm Weight 202 lbs/92 kg Signature moves Top-rope Hama-Chan (Diamond) Cutter, Standing Headbutt, Huracarrana, Flying Swinging DDT, Top Rope Frankensteiner Titles: BJW Heavyweight Championship, NWA World Middleweight Championship, APEX OF TRIANGLE Six–Man Tag Team Championship (w/The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV), NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship, UWA/UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (w/The Great Sasuke), UWF Super Middleweight Championship, WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (w/Perro Aguayo), UWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship (4), UWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (2), UWA World Middleweight Championship (3), UWA World Tag Team Championship (3) (1 w/Riki Choshu, 1 w/Perro Aguayo and 1 w/Kendo), UWA World Welterweight Championship, WWF Light Heavyweight Championship (2)

Wrestling Observer Hall Of Fame Member

LuchaBlog Obituary:

The legendary Gran Hamada (Hiroaki Hamada, 74) passed away on Saturday. Hamada had returned to Mexico a couple of years ago; he’d been in declining health and decided he wanted to spend what time he had left with his family who lived in Mexico. His daughter Ayako appeared to be his primary caregiver. She had celebrated when he was released from the hospital a couple of weeks ago and ended up being the one who had to post the note about him passing away. Ayako called Hiroaki the best wrestler and the best father. There was a service for Gran Hamada in San Luis Potosi, where the family was living, and there will be an additional service in Mexico City at a date to be announced.

Case Lowe has an excellent obituary you should read. There’s nothing I can do that’s going to be anything besides a lesser version of that, so I’ll just add some stray thoughts.

• Japanese wrestlers came through Mexico prior Gran Hamada, but they were largely cast-offs or wanderers. Japan was just another place with professional wrestlers, the same as the people who might have flowed through Mexico from Spain, the US, or various South American countries. Hamada is the point where Japanese wrestling starts to be held in high regard by Mexican fans and Mexican wrestlers as something beyond what Mexican wrestlers were doing. The generation of Mexican wrestlers that saw Hamada and Sayama after him were influenced by Japan – by going there and tracking down VHS tapes for some. Hamada brought Mexican influences to Japan, and he did the other way for Mexico as well.

• Promociones Mora (UWA) took great advantage of the availability of lighter-weight wrestlers, the ones that EMLL largely had no use for. My favorite example is always Blackman, a prelim wrestler under multiple identities who was never going to get pushed in EMLL, and became a touring singles champion because a second promotion opened. I will always wonder if the early success of Hamada gave them the confidence that the size issue wasn’t as big a deal as they thought. Maybe everyone would’ve gotten there eventually, but one successful short wrestler undoubtedly helped open the door for everyone who followed him.

• CMLL did not do a moment of applause for Gran Hamada on any of their shows. They did not put up a graphic to remember him. AAA did both. IWRG held a moment of applause, as did other groups. CMLL’s blunder will be corrected on Wednesday. NJPW will open the first show of the Fantastica Mania tour with Hamada’s photo in the ring. CMLL can say they’re part of it, too. Hamada wrestled sparingly in CMLL rings, and all of his appearances seem to be as a UWA representative, CMLL could argue he was never truly a CMLL wrestler. That does not matter. He’s a legend and a guy who connected Mexican and Japanese wrestling as they’re about to embark on their annual tour of Japanese wrestling. The cost of creating a graphic with someone’s name and two dates on it and pushing it out on social media is minimal. The cost of not doing the little things, of coming off cold and unfeeling, is much greater. You should always just do the graphic.

• This is fairly irrelevant, but I think Max Star is Max Star because of Gran Hamada. He was Little Star before CMLL officially brought him on board. Going Little to Max sounds like the old UWA wrestler who’s in charge of programming might have drawn from the past.

• Ayako wrestled as scheduled Sunday night in Nuevo Leon’s Arena Mezquital. That’s a luchador for you. I hope she can take some time for herself to grieve and recover. The stress and the emotional weight of caring for a family member who can no longer care for themselves is heavy and a weight you don’t totally comprehend until it’s no longer there (and feel guilty it’s no longer there). I hope she and her entire family find some peace.

Luchas de apuestas record

Date	Apuesta	Winner(s)	Loser(s)	Arena and/or Place
??/??/??	hair	Aníbal	Gran Hamada	unknown
??/??/??	hair	El Texano	Gran Hamada	unknown
??/??/??	hair	Gran Hamada	Coloso	unknown
??/??/??	hair	Gran Hamada	Astro Rey	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
??/??/??	hair	Gran Hamada	Flama Azul	unknown
??/??/??	hair	Gran Hamada	César Valentino	unknown
75/07/26	hair	Gran Hamada	René Guajardo	Plaza México - Mexico City
1975/11/12	hair	Gran Hamada & Hashi Masataka	El Vikingo & Renato Torres	Palacio de los Deportes Mexico City
78/12/17	hair	El Signo	Gran Hamada	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
79/05/24	hair	Gran Hamada	El Polaco	Arena Poza Rica
80/08/22	hair	Aníbal	Gran Hamada	Arena Neza - Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico State
81/06/07	hair	Gran Hamada, Enrique Vera & Kobayashi	El Signo, El Texano & Negro Navarro	El Toreo - Naucalpan, Mexico State
82/07/04	hair	Gran Hamada	Babe Face	Toreo de Cuatro Caminos
91/09/12	mask	Gran Hamada	Black Power	Korakuen Hall - Tokyo, Japan
92/02/29	hair	Gran Hamada	El Engendro	Arena Isabel - Cuernavaca, Morelos

Gallery

1984

Winning NWA World Middleweight Championship @ Toreo

1992

circa 2000

As Mini Love Machine