8 Wrestlers Who Did Better Things In Retirement
3. Hiroshi Hase
Former Olympian Hiroshi Hase isn't spoken about in quite the same terms as his NJPW and AJPW contemporaries, probably because of his selfless propensity to put over the stars of the era at the expense of his own prominence. His most famous moment in the ring came when he caused The Great Muta to bleed all over it, creating the legendary 'Muta Scale', by which all future acts of wrestling phlebotomy would be measured.
A blood-letting background didn't necessarily make Hase an ideal candidate for politics (though some would cynically argue otherwise), but his prior life as a classics tutor perhaps did. In 1995, Hase followed mentor Antonio Inoki's footsteps in becoming the second wrestler elected to a the National Diet, and five years on he was voted into the House of Representatives. His political competence would eventually see him appointed in a cabinet role, given the portfolio at the Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
In 2015, he became a champion of Japan's LGBT community ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, following the open discrimination seen in Sochi's Winter version the year prior. Just as Hase always put himself on the line for the betterment of others in the ring, so too did he in government.