*anese professional wrestler

Akihito Sawafuji (澤藤 章人, Sawafuji Akihito, born August 27, 1976), is a *anese color commentator and retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Milano Collection A.T. (ミラノコレクションA.T., Mirano Korekushon A.T.). As Milano, Sawafuji adopted the gimmick of an Italian fashion aficionado/supermodel, reflected in his ring attire. Milano is also known for walking to the ring with an invisible dog known as Mikeru. After retiring from in-ring compe*ion in 2010, Milano began working as a color commentator for New *an Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), a position he maintains to this day.

Contents

• 1 Professional wrestling career
• 2 Championships and accomplishments
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Professional wrestling career

Sawafuji debuted in 2000 in Toryumon, where he later adopted the persona and ring name of Milano Collection A.T., an Italian fashion aficionado/supermodel, wearing lavish coats and trunks and walking to the ring with an invisible dog named Mikeru to much more success, and upon his arrival in *an, he was the ace of Toryumon's T2P cl*. In 2002, he won the T2P Strongest Merit *essment League defeating Masato Yoshino and received the NWA International Light Heavyweight Championship for the win. He then went on to form the Italian Connection with YOSSINO and Y*INI. The unit eventually added members Pescatore Yagi, Condotti Shuji and mascot Venezia. With the closure of T2P in July 2003, he joined the Toryumon main roster. In mid-2006, he began training at the Texas Wrestling Academy in San Antonio, Texas at the urging of WWE's Shoichi Funaki, and trained under Rudy Boy Gonzalez. During his tenure in the TWA, he held the Television Championship for 8 months. He also wrestled for many other American wrestling federations, including East Coast Wrestling *ociation, Ring of Honor (ROH), NWA Anarchy, Chikara and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he took part in the 2008 World X Cup as part of Team *an, winning his first and only singles match for TNA against Curry Man, gaining 2 points for his team. He then competed at Victory Road in the third round, which was a four team triple elimination match, dominating early in the match before getting eliminated.

After returning to *an full time in 2007, he began working for New *an Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as a part of the R.I.S.E. faction. He received his first *le opportunity in New *an on November 6, 2006, unsuccessfully challenging Tiger Mask IV for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He achieved his greatest success in both New *an and as a professional wrestler in 2007 when he won New *an Pro-Wrestling's Best of the Super Juniors tournament, defeating Wataru Inoue in the final. In August, he took part in the G1 Climax, finishing with 2 wins and 4 points. In November, he teamed with Hirooki Goto as R.I.S.E in the G1 Tag League, making it to the semi-finals where they were eliminated by Hiroshi Tanahashi and Koji Kanemoto.

On January 18, 2010, Sawafuji announced his retirement from professional wrestling because of inferior oblique muscle palsy, brought on by an excessively strong thrust kick to the eye by Gedo. A retirement ceremony was held on February 14.

Sawafuji remains with New *an as a member of the IWGP Championship Committee and a color commentator.

Championships and accomplishments

• Chikara

• ICW/ICWA Tex-Arkana Television Championship (1 time)

• Dragon Gate

• Open the Triangle Gate Championship (1 time) – with Anthony W. Mori and YOSSINO

• NWA Florida

• Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup (2006)

• New *an Pro-Wrestling

• Best of the Super Juniors (2007)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him #61 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2007

• Texas Wrestling Entertainment

• TWE Television Championship (1 time)

• Toryumon

• NWA International Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• UWA World Trios Championship (2 times) – with Brother Y*INI and YOSSINO (1), and YOSSINO and Condotti Shuji (1)
• T2P Strongest League (2002)
• Young Dragons Cup (2000)

References

External links

• Puroresu Central profile

Staff

• Hiro Saito
• Jushin Thunder Liger
• Kazuo Yamazaki
• Kevin Kelly
• Kuniaki Kobayashi
• Milano Collection A.T.
• Red Shoes Unno
• Seiji Sakaguchi
• Super Strong Machine
• Takaaki Kidani
• Tiger Hattori
• Wataru Inoue

Stables and tag teams

• Bullet Club
• Chaos
• FinJuice
• G・B・H
• Guerrillas of Destiny
• Los Ingobernables de *on
• Suzuki-gun
• Team Filthy
• Tencozy
• United Empire