Masashi Aoyagi was born on December 27, 1956 in the Kasuya, Fukuoka and shortly after he was born moved to Toyota City, Aichi due to his father losing his coal miner job.

Aoyagi as a child excelled in swimming while in elementary and junior high school, but it was professional wrestling that Aoyagi wanted to become a professional in. Aoyagi realized that dream was impossible though as he was under 6 feet and he would not be accepted into either the New Japan or All Japan Dojo at that height.

Aoyagi continued to find great success with swimming and entered into Chukyo High School where he could focus on becoming an elite swimmer, but due to a family situation he would be forced to drop out of high school after three months to get a job to help his family financially.

Aoyagi would begin working for a transportation company where he would become a truck driver, and that's when he noticed that the Shito-ryu Karate Dojo had opened up in the same neighborhood as where his company was. Aoyagi would begin attending the Karate Dojo and begin to get really good at it.

Aoyagi would begin to win various tournaments including in 1978 the "10th Open All Japan Karate Championship Tournament" which was sponsored by the Kyokushin Kaikan. Aoyagi would train while still working his job as a truck driver as he would bring a dumb bell with him and lift it at every time he would come to a stop.

Aoyagi would eventually quit his job at the transportation company and move to Tokyo. Aoyagi would only train at the Kyokushin Kaikan for 6 months before quitting due to being a prodigy in karate, and not dealing well with others trying to teach and train him when he felt that he had already surpassed his teachers in skills and instead would end up moving back to Aichi to start up his own karate dojo.

Aoyagi would create the Seishin Kaikan in November 1979. This karate dojo would begin to grow through out the 1980s with Aoyagi becoming a well known name all through out Japan in karate including having a feature done on him in Karate Magazine.

The 100th Anniversary of Nara City in Nara Prefecture would hold a karate tournament in celebration with Aoyagi attending it and meeting Mitsuhiro Matsunaga who had also entered into the tournament. Matsunaga and Aoyagi who both unknowingly shared the goal of becoming a professional wrestler would meet in the waiting room and begin to talk.

This tournament would see Matsunaga lose to Masaaki Satake of Nara. Satake and Aoyagi shared the same amount of fame and they were known as the two best in the country with Satake defeating Aoyagi in the finals of the tournament.

Aoyagi afterwards would offer Matsunaga a spot at joining his Seishin Kaikan and eventually having him help train the students at Seishin Kaikan. Aoyagi's prodigy skills at karate made him one of the best karate fighters, but also not a good teacher as he just tried to have his students imitate him which they could not come close to his level.

The Seishin Kaikan would be split in half with Matsunaga taking over as lead teacher to one of the two branches two hours away from Aoyagi's branch with Matsunaga's students becoming more well rounded karate students after just six months due to Aoyagi struggling to actually be able to teach his students the sport he was so excellent at.

It would be announced in memory of the one year passing of Ikki Kajiwara who had created the Tiger Mask manga that a Martial Arts Festival would take place on April 2, 1988 at the Ryogoku Sumo Hall with a karate tournament being held as well as an All Japan Pro-Wrestling match taking place on the show as it would be the first time that a karate tournament would be held in a pro-wrestling ring.

Aoyagi would easily make into the second round of the tournament before coming up once again against Masaaki Satake with Aoyagi continually grabbing the rope of the pro-wrestling ring with the referee calling for time to have Aoyagi to let go of the rope and when the referee would start the fight back it would be instantly when Aoyagi would take a kick from Satake with Aoyagi going down and Satake posing over Aoyagi's fallen body.

Aoyagi felt after the loss that at 31 years old he could not be at the level of the younger top karate fighters although it would just be a couple of months later when Aoyagi would switch career paths.

Atsushi Onita who had just returned to professional wrestling had was working with a group called Martial Arts Union that were feuding with the UWF promotion. Onita wanted to show the UWF that a professional wrestlers were stronger than a martial arts fighter. Aoyagi would be called on to participate in a professional wrestler vs. karate fighter match for July 2, 1989 at Korakuen Hall.

The match created a turmoil between the fans with so many professional wrestling fans as well as karate and kick boxing fans attending with the wrestling fans cursing and nearly getting into a fight with one another.

Aoyagi's skill would overwhelm Onita and frustrate him to the point where Onita would decide to begin headbutting Aoyagi which would bust Aoyagi open. Onita would then knock the referee down and continue to headbutt Aoyagi as the match would get thrown out with Aoyagi winning the match by DQ.

This would lead to the very first FMW show on October 6, 1989 with Onita taking on Aoyagi once again at the Nagoya Sports Center with Aoyagi once again winning by TKO after Monkey Magic Wakita the future Super Delfin would end up throwing in the towel for Onita during the match to give Aoyagi the win.

This would lead to the third and final battle between Onita and Aoyagi in FMW on October 10, 1989 at Korakuen Hall with Onita finally getting the win over Aoyagi after hitting him with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb with Onita and Aoyagi embracing afterwards as a show of respect that two had earned with one another between pro-wrestler and karate fighter..

Although it would seem like the Onita vs. Aoyagi feud would be over after the two had embraced it would actually be announced that Aoyagi would team up with Seishin Kaikan student Mitsuhiro Matsunaga to take on Atsushi Onita and Tarzan Goto on December 1, 1989 at Korakuen Hall in the very first Barbed wire Death Match in Japan. Aoyagi though would end up pulling out of the show just days before citing an injury with Jerry Blayman the future Jerry Flynn taking his spot.

Aoyagi would not return to an FMW ring after being just paid $400 dollars total for his two main event matches in October 1989 and then wanting $100 dollars a show for when FMW would begin to go on tour no matter the placement of him on the card with Onita refusing to pay Aoyagi that much. Aoyagi would leave FMW after those negotiations and he would take his student Mitsuhiro Matsunaga with him who did not want to leave FMW.

Aoyagi would begin to work with the other independent promotion Pioneer Senshi with Aoyagi making $2,000 dollars a match and getting Matsunaga a deal of $1,000 dollars a match. The problem with Pioneer Senshi though would be that they would only run one show every two months meaning Aoyagi was really only making a $1,000 dollars a month and Matsunaga was only making $500 dollars a month. Matsunaga would tell Aoyagi that he was not making enough money to live off with Aoyagi telling him he can leave if he wanted to, but to not go back to FMW because they won't make it the end of 1990 anyway.

The benefit for working with Pioneer Senshi though would be their connections with New Japan that would get Aoyagi booked to begin touring with them. This would include having a Different Style Match with Jushin Thunder Liger in Fukuoka on June 12, 1990 with Liger winning by referee's decision.

Aoyagi would be able able to live off the money he was making with New Japan but Mitsuhiro Matsunaga would continue to barely make any money from being booked so little with Pioneer Senshi.

Aoyagi also would have another student in Akitoshi Saito wanting to be a professional wrestler hoping to get booked by New Japan although he would have to settle for having to make his debut with Pioneer Senshi on December 20, 1990 against a student of theirs in Yukihiro Kanemura.

The financial struggles for Pioneer Senshi would continue as they would not be able to run anymore shows at the beginning of 1991 as they suffered the fate that Aoyagi had thought would be the case for FMW.

Seishin Kaikan would end up pulling out of Pioneer Senshi but not before taking Pioneer Senshi's Yukihiro Kanemura to join them and train at their dojo in the mean time with no Pioneer Senshi around any longer.

Aoyagi would continue to get booked on New Japan tours although this would just make Mitsuhiro Matsunaga more upset over Aoyagi making Matsunaga leave FMW with him at the start of 1990. Aoyagi would not go to bat and help bring in Matsunaga or Saito to New Japan with him resulting in Matsunaga leaving Seishin Kaikan and get a job as a construction worker.

Aoyagi would eventually go to bat for Matsunaga though, as a new promotion created called W*ING started by Mickey Ibaragi and Kazuyoshi Osako two men who had recently left FMW as Ibaragi would reach out to Aoyagi and asking him if there was anyone he would recommend for the promotion with Aoyagi letting him know he should contact Matsunaga who would go on to become the ace of the promotion. Aoyagi would also help get Saito a job with New Japan to team with him starting in March 1992.

Aoyagi and Saito would form a team on March 9, 1992 in the middle of Aoyagi as they would begin to feud with Shiro Koshinaka and Kuniaki Kobayashi which would see Koshinaka KO Aoyagi on May 1, 1992 before Aoyagi would have a No Contest with Kuniaki Kobayashi on June 9, 1992 at a Seishin Kaikan show that would see Aoyagi, Saito, Koshinaka, and Kengo Kimura form a group called the Anti-Players Association.

This group would see a new member on January 4, 1993 at the Tokyo Dome with New Japan working with the WAR promotion as WAR's Great Kabuki would team up with Aoyagi, Koshinaka, and Saito to defeat Hiro Saito, Norio Honaga, Super Strong Machine, and Tatsutoshi Goto.

The team of Masashi Aoyagi and The Great Kabuki would continue in the main event of WAR's January 8, 1993 Korakuen Hall show as they would team up to take on Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara with Hara getting the win over Aoyagi although Aoyagi would end up being on the front cover of Pro-Wrestling Weekly for the match.

The Anti-Players Association would work both New Japan and WAR shows through out 1993 and include Kuniaki Kobayashi and Michiyoshi Ohara before changing the name of the group to Heisei Ishingun on October 16, 1993 as they would eventually be known an outside group no longer affliated with New Japan.

Aoyagi's last match for New Japan for over a decade would take place on January 4, 1994 at the Tokyo Dome as he and Akitoshi Saito would defeat Yuji Yasuraoka and Nobukazu Hirai with Aoyagi becoming a freelancer afterwards.

Aoyagi would teaming up with Arashi and Kendo Nagasaki for a WAR 6 Man Tag Team Tournament on July 17, 1994 at Sumo Hall and they would make it to the semi-finals of the tournament before taking on Genichiro Tenryu, Atsushi Onita, and Bam Bam Bigelow with Aoyagi and Onita pointing at each other to start the match to renew their rivalry.

Onita and Aoyagi would face off for the first time since 1989 and would end up taking their brawl to the outside and eventually after Bigelow would pin Arashi to get the win, but the fight between Onita and Aoyagi would continue after the match. This would lead to Aoyagi showing up later that night at FMW's Korakuen Hall show on July 17, 1994 to setup another match with Onita.

Onita and Aoyagi would main event the Osaka Castle Hall on August 28, 1994 in a No Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Double Hell Death Match, with Onita once again getting the pin over Aoyagi with a Thunder Fire Powerbomb in a bloody but disappointment quality wise of a match. Aoyagi would continue to team with the heel Mr. Pogo lead W*ING group which would include him reuniting with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in some tag matches before Aoyagi would leave FMW once again at the end of 1994.

Aoyagi would find a home with the new Tokyo Pro promotion in 1995 which would include a series of singles matches against Mr. Pogo with Pogo getting the win every time. Tokyo Pro would end up going out of business in July 1995 and Aoyagi would find a new home in the small Wrestle Yume Factory promotion although would sometimes still get booked by WAR which would include Aoyagi win his first title belt in wrestling when he would team up with Gokuaku Umibozu to defeat Masaaki Mochizuki and Battle Ranger for the WAR International Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles on May 31, 1997 in Mie. They would end up losing those titles on October 12, 1997 to the team of Tomohiro Ishii and Yuji Yasuraoka in Hachioji.

Aoyagi continue his independent odyssey by working Wrestle Yume Factory through out 1998 before working the small independent promotions DDT, Onita Pro, and SPWF in 1999 and 2000.

Akitoshi Saito would end up getting Aoyagi booked for the newly created NOAH promotion in November 2000 as they would form a tag team with NOAH becoming Aoyagi's full time home and Saito becoming his full time tag partner as he would be just a full time mid and undercard worker working mostly nothing notable tag matches.

Aoyagi would make his return to New Japan on May 1, 2003 at the Tokyo Dome along with fellow Heisei Ishingun members Kengo Kimura and Kuniaki Kobayashi for a New Japan Alumni Battle Royal won by Kantaro Hoshino.

He would end up winning his first and only singles title belt on December 8, 2007 when he would win the DEP Openweight Title against Tomokazu Fukaya in Kariya before losing it to Tatsutoshi Goto on April 27, 2008 in Kariya.

Heisei Ishingun would return once again for New Japan as the team of Koshinaka, Aoyagi, and Goto would lose to Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata, and Manabu Nakanishi on August 26, 2008 at Korakuen Hall. They would work another New Japan show on March 6, 2009 with the team of Aoyagi, Koshinaka, and Akira Nogami losing to Riki Choshu, Hiro Saito, and Super Strong Machine at Korakuen Hall.

Aoyagi would start to slow down and begin to only take selective bookings around Southern Japan or specific Sapporo shows for NOAH in 2010.

In November 2012, Aoyagi would be awarded the Higashikubemiya Cultural Award for his many years in cultural education actives in karate.

The Heisei Ishingun team of Aoyagi, Shiro Koshinaka, and Great Kabuki would reunite for a Kintaro Kanemura promoted show on June 18, 2014 as they would defeat the team of Atsushi Onita, Hideki Hosaka, and Shingo Takagi with Aoyagi delivering delivering a Enzuigiri to Onita's head and getting his first ever pinfall win over Onita. This would lead to a No Ropes Exploding Barbed wire Death Match on August 1, 2014 in Nagoya as the team of Onita and KAI would defeat Masashi Aoyagi and Shiro Koshinaka with Onita pinning Aoyagi.

Aoyagi would then make his All Japan debut on February 7, 2015 teaming up with Masa Fuchi defeating the team of Soma Takao and Yuma Aoyagi in Osaka with Masashi Aoyagi nailing Yuma Aoyagi with an Enzuigiri for the win.

Aoyagi would work a show on May 5, 2015 for the small Shinshu Pro-Wrestling promotion teaming with Shiro Koshinaka at the Ina Civic Gym. Then on May 9, 2015, Aoyagi would be riding his motorcycle when he would end up in a serious accident after being hit by a sports car when the car merged into Aoyagi's lane illegally. Aoyagi would be knocked unconscious and taken to the hospital where he would 30 broken bones below his right knee. The doctors would tell the 58 year old Aoyagi that his pro-wrestling career was over.

Aoyagi would announce his retirement on June 1, 2015 with his retirement ceremony taking place at NOAH's October 4, 2015 show in Nagoya

Aoyagi would return to pro-wrestling on September 19, 2016 for Fire Pro-Wrestling as after Onita's match Aoyagi would come out and with the help of Raijin Yaguchi and Dump Matsumoto attack Onita and declare his new heel stable the Aoyagi Mayo-gun and that he would return to the ring once again and finally win the war between him and Onita.

The Onita and Aoyagi feud would continue through out 2017 with Aoyagi interfering in Onita's matches before a return to the ring for Masashi Aoyagi would take place on October 29, 2017 in Nagoya with the team of Atsushi Onita, KAI, and Yoshitatsu defeating Aoyagi, Minowaman, and NOSAWA Rongai in a Exploding Baseball Bat and Exploding Ankle Brace Death Match with Aoyagi using the ankle brace and delivering an exploding kick to Onita before Onita would end up turning on the exploding bat and with Aoyagi encouraging him to do it, he would hit Aoyagi with the exploding bat and knock him out to pin him. Onita afterwards would pour water on Aoyagi and the two would embrace once again like they had in 2017 as it would seem that their 28 year rivalry was over with Onita retiring once again two days later.

Aoyagi would appear at Onita's retirement ceremony on October 31, 2017 at Korakuen Hall with Aoyagi tossing his cain out of the way and going over and hugging his long time rival Onita.

Aoyagi would then once again reform the Heisei Ishingun with Akitoshi Saito and Shiro Koshinaka on February 16, 2018 at Korakuen Hall as they would lose to the team of Great Kojika, Mitsuo Momita, and Tiger Toguchi. The Heisei Ishingun would form again on August 21, 2018 with Aoyagi, Koshinaka, Saito, and AKIRA losing to the team of Hiroshi Hase, Jinsei Shinzaki, Shinjiro Otani, and Taiyo Kea. Aoyagi, Koshinaka, and Siato would then get a win on February 15, 2019 at Korakuen Hall against Great Kojika, KY Wakamatsu, and Tiger Toguchi.

The rivalry between Onita and Aoyagi would even continue as on August 25, 2019 for Big Japan in Nagoya the team of Atsushi Onita and Great Kojika would defeat Masashi Aoyagi and Masaya Takahashi with Kojika pinning Aoyagi.

The final Heisei Ishingun match with Masashi Aoyagi a member would take place on February 28, 2020 at Korakuen Hall as Aoyagi, Koshinaka, Saito, and AKIRA would defeat The Great Sasuke, Jinsei Shinzaki, Dick Togo, and HANZO.

Aoyagi would pretty much stop taking bookings all together after COVID would hit but he would end up teaming up with Akitoshi Saito one last time as along with Masao Inoue they would lose to the team of Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya, and Masa Kitamiya on December 19, 2020 in Nagoya for Aoyagi's final NOAH match.

In what would end up being Aoyagi's final match of his career would take place for the new FMW-E promotion in Osaka as he would team up with Shadow WX going by the name of Mr. Pogo and Isami Kodaka as they would defeat Atsushi Onita, HASEGAWA, and Tsuyoshi Okada on August 15, 2021 in Osaka for a Exploding Barbed wire, Bat, Chair, Table and Barricade Death Match. It would mark 32 years of the Onita and Aoyagi rivalry although Aoyagi would have little to no interaction with Onita during the match at all, and the only notable spot Aoyagi would do during the match was get thrown in the exploding barbed wire moments after Shadow WX had gone into it to avoid feeling any of the explosion.

Aoyagi had done an interview in January 2022 stating that his left eye had almost become blind due to retinal detachment due to so many years of being hit so hard in the head and that even laser surgery would not be able to fix it, but he still could see out of his right eye and planned on returning to the ring again and facing Onita one more time.

Aoyagi also made mention that he even though he was in the passenger seat that he made sure when he was traveling in a vehicle to bring a concrete block to practice punching it during red light stops like when he would lift a dumb bell as a truck driver during red light stops.

Masashi Aoyagi would end up passing away on July 6, 2022 although no cause of his passing has ever been announced and it does not look like it will ever be announced. Aoyagi had attended a Seishin Kaikan training session on July 4, 2022 so his passing was not expected.

Masashi Aoyagi's wake would be held on July 8, 2022 in his hometown of Toyota City, Aichi with around 300 people from professional wrestling and karate attending including Atsushi Onita, Kuniaki Kobayashi and Shiro Koshinaka. His funeral would take place on July 9, 2022 with Mitsuhiro Matsunaga attending it.

The Seishin Kaikan Karate Dojo will still continue without Aoyagi as Aoyagi's disciple Daisuke Suzuki has taken over looking over the school which now has branched off into ten different schools in the Aichi Prefecture as well as one in Kanagawa and one in Okayama with over 500 students as it looks to continue Aoyagi's legacy in karate.

Not only will Aoyagi's legacy in karate continue on, but his legacy in professional wrestling will always remain being a key factor with Onita in helping get FMW started followed by then going to New Japan to help create the Heisei Ishingun and then having a 20 year off and on career in NOAH on top of being the reason that Mitsuhiro Matsunaga and Akitoshi Saito would end up in professional wrestling. He also has a family legacy as Aoyagi had recently become a grandfather after he his eldest daughter gave birth to girl two years ago and a boy last year.

Masashi Aoyagi's Title History

WAR International Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship w/ Gokuaku Umibozu

Defeated: Masaaki Mochizuki & Battle Ranger 5/31/97
Lost to: Tomohiro Ishii & Yuji Yasuraoka 10/12/97

DEP Openweight Championship

Defeated: Tomokazu Fukaya 12/8/07
Lost to: Tatsutoshi Goto 4/27/08