Suwama
Suwama in August 2023 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Kohei Suwama November 23, 1976 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Kohei Suwama Suwama |
| Billed height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Billed weight | 120 kg (265 lb) |
| Trained by | AJPW Dojo Hiroshi Hase Kaz Hayashi |
| Debut | October 11, 2004 |
Kohei Suwama (諏訪間 幸平, Suwama Kōhei; born November 23, 1976), also known mononymously as Suwama (諏訪魔, Suwa Ma; literally translated to "Suwa Evil Spirit"), is a Japanese professional wrestler and executive. He is the founder and president of Pro Wrestling Evolution, which was created in 2023. He is also signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is a former record eight-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and an eight-time World Tag Team Champion. He was also part of AJPW's board of directors until his departure in early 2025 to focus on Evolution.
Debuting in 2004 at the age of 27 under Hiroshi Hase and Kaz Hayashi in the AJPW Dojo, Suwama was seen as the spiritual successor to then-president Keiji Muto, until he turned on him in 2006 to join Voodoo Murders (VDM). Upon dropping his first name and joining VDM, he teamed with both leader Taru and Satoshi Kojima on numerous occasions. He left VDM in 2008 to represent AJPW, and, after winning the Champion Carnival that year, won his first Triple Crown title against Osamu Nishimura.
In the years following his first Triple Crown title, he rose to become the legitimate ace of the promotion, winning multiple more Triple Crown and Tag championships. His meteoric rise led to him becoming known in AJPW as both The Emperor and the Next Jumbo. He founded the Evolution stable, which was first known as Last Revolution, in 2012. Within this time, he had been quietly dropped as the ace of AJPW, being replaced by the younger Kento Miyahara. The rivalry between Suwama and Miyahara between 2016 and 2019, and again in 2022, was a pivotal point in AJPW's successes in the mid-to-late 2010s. He formed the Violent Giants (暴走大巨人, Bōsō Dai Kyojin; Japanese for "Runaway Giants") with former DDT and BJW star Shuji Ishikawa; they won four World Tag Team titles and three consecutive Tokyo Sports Best Tag Team Awards between 2017 and 2019 during their run as a tag team.
He won the 2016 and 2017 Ōdō Tournaments, and won three World's Strongest Tag Determination Leagues (once with Joe Doering, once with Miyahara, and once with Ishikawa). Since 2008, he has won eight Triple Crown titles and eight World Tag Team titles, becoming one of the winniest competitors in AJPW, surpassing even Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada for championships combined.