Masanori Toguchi

Masanori Toguchi (戸口 正徳, Toguchi Masanori), also known by his Korean name and ring name Kim Duk (Korean: 김덕; Hanja: 金徳; キム・ドク), is a retired Zainichi Korean professional wrestler. He was also known by the name Tiger Chung Lee in WWE.

Early life

Masanori Toguchi was a basketball player and jūdōka during his high school days. After graduation, he joined the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance dojo with the recommendation from Kintarō Ōki. Since Seiji Sakaguchi, another jūdōka, joined the JWA during the same time, it caused a conflict between the jūdō and puroresu industries. Toguchi was sent to South Korea for half a year with "special training" as an excuse until the issue died out.

Professional wrestling career

1960s–1970s

Masanori Toguchi debuted for Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance on August 30, 1968, against future NJPW referee Katsuhisa Shibata. During his rookie year, he was also trained by Karl Gotch. In his days in JWA, he was Ōki's student. When JWA folded in 1972, Toguchi went to the United States, where he developed himself as a heel under his Korean real name, Kim Duk. He spent the next four years roaming around NWA territories and in the American Wrestling Association. In 1976, he returned to Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling, while wrestling for the NWA's Mid-Atlantic territory in the States. He was managed by Boris Malenko in the Mid-Atlantic area, often teaming with another Malenko protege, The Masked Superstar. During his Mid-Atlantic run, Duk had a short-lived feud with then-reigning Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Wahoo McDaniel. In AJPW, he had a heated rivalry with Jumbo Tsuruta. In 1979, he would defect to International Wrestling Enterprise, before defecting to New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1981.

1980s–1990s

In 1982, Kim Duk began wrestling for the NWA's Kansas City territory, before moving to WWE in 1983 under the name Tiger Chung Lee. After leaving the WWE in 1988, he went back to the Kim Duk name and wrestled for World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. Upon his return to Japan in 1991, he balanced wrestling for various promotions including New Japan Pro-Wrestling between 1991 and 1992, W*ING between 1992 and 1993, and WAR in 1994. Between 1993 and 1994, he would wrestle in Mexico for Universal Wrestling Association under the name YAMATO. By 1995, he retired from wrestling.

On May 31, 2022, Duk would wrestle his last match on at the Jumbo Tsuruta tribute show at Korakuen Hall, officially retiring after nearly fifty four years.

Acting career

In 1986, while wrestling in the U.S. for the WWF, Kim Duk made his acting debut as a henchman of Charles Dance's character, Sardo Numspa, in The Golden Child, which starred Eddie Murphy. Two years later, he portrayed a Georgian mobster named Andrei 'The Mongol Hippie' in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Red Heat. A year later, he acted in two more films, Blind Fury starring Rutger Hauer, and Cage, starring Lou Ferrigno. In 2012, after a long hiatus from acting, Kim Duk portrayed Lee in the film, Mountain Mafia.