Trained and skilled in martial arts and kickboxing, Katsuji Ueda was brought into Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) by Atsushi Onita, who created the promotion to prove that professional wrestling was better than martial arts and held many fights between wrestlers and martial artists.[2] Ueda's first professional wrestling match in FMW took place in the Battle Resistance Tournament on January 7, 1990, where he lost to Mitsuhiro Matsunaga in the opening round.[3] Initially a villain, Ueda headlined the July 16 show against company's top star Atsushi Onita in a martial arts match, which FMW dubbed "different style fight". At Summer Spectacular in Shiodome, Ueda teamed with Mr. Pogo and Ricky Fuji to defeat the team of Kim Hyun Han, Lee Gak-soo and Sambo Asako.[4][5] He scored a major victory over Tarzan Goto on August 25.[6] On September 25, Ueda defeated The Shooter, Ricky Fuji and Jimmy Backlund to win a tournament for the vacant AWA World Light Heavyweight Championship.[7] This began a feud with Backlund, which culminated in a mixed fight at the 1st Anniversary Show.[8] Ueda turnedfan favorite and joined forces with Atsushi Onita on the FMW team.
Ueda continued to perform in the mid-card, usually getting wins over lower and lesser-known talent. He knocked out Katsutoshi Niiyama in a different style fight at 5th Anniversary Show on May 5, 1994.[20] He continued to perform in FMW's mid-card for the next one year. His last major different style fight took place at the 6th Anniversary Show on May 5, 1995, in which he knocked out Tetsuhiro Kuroda.[21] His last match was a loss to Katsutoshi Niiyama on June 27.[22]
Independent circuit (1998–2016)
Katsuji Ueda retired from active competition after quitting FMW and competed occasionally. He returned to wrestling after three years on January 18, 1998 by losing to George Takano for a Tokyo Pro Wrestling show.[23] He would then work for Atsushi Onita's promoted shows between 1998 and 2002. On November 23, 2004, Ueda appeared for a Pro Wrestling Zero-One event, where he teamed with Koji Ishinnki to defeat Rikiya Fudo and Shinsuke Z Yamagasa in a tag team match.[24] On March 14, 2016, Ueda defeated The Shooter in a mixed martial arts match at an Atsushi Onita–promoted show. He then competed in two matches for Cho Sento Puroresu FMW.[25]
Death
Ueda died from a heart attack on April 20, 2017. He was 71 years old.