Taiyō Kea in 2010
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Birth name | Maunakea Mossman |
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Born |
Honolulu, Hawaii |
November 18, 1975
Residence | Japan |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Maunakea Mossman Taiyō Kea Agnes Kamen |
Billed height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) |
Billed weight | 234 lb (106 kg) |
Trained by |
All Japan Pro Wrestling Giant Baba Yoshinari Ogawa Keiji Mutoh Kenta Kobashi |
Debut | November 26, 1994 |
Maunakea Mossman (born November 18, 1975) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler, better known under his stage name Taiyō Kea (太陽ケア). Although he was born in Hawaii, he has spent nearly his entire career as a member of the Japan-based All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion. He is the only wrestler to have held the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, the World Tag Team Championship and the World Junior Heavyweight Championship.
Mossman was a Hawaiian state amateur wrestling champion, and after he graduated high school, was persuaded by his uncle King Curtis Iaukea to write an athletic resume, which Iaukea gave to Lord James Blears, who then gave it to Giant Baba. Mossman met with Baba, his wife and referee Kyohei Wada during a trip to Hawaii, where Baba offered Mossman a job as a trainee with All Japan Pro Wrestling. Mossman began training 4 days later, and debuted in November 1994 as a junior heavyweight under his real name, Mossman was pushed as a babyface almost immediately, and defeated Yoshinari Ogawa to win the World Junior Heavyweight Championship in August 1997. He vacated the title in 1998, after graduating to the heavyweight division. Upon his graduation, he took part in a series of 7 matches designed to test his mettle as a heavyweight competitor, dubbed the Mossman Trial Series. Mossman won three of the matches, defeating Johnny Smith, Wolf Hawkfield and Giant Kimala, but lost to Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa.