Yuji Shimada

Yuji Shimada (島田 裕二, Shimada Yūji, born November 24, 1966 in Fukuyama, Hiroshima) is a Japanese mixed martial arts and professional wrestling referee, as well as professional wrestling booker, authority figure and occasional wrestler. He has refereed more than 1,000 contests in major MMA promotions including Pride Fighting Championships, Strikeforce, One, Rizin, M-1 Global in Russia, Dream, Deep and Super Fight League in India. He was formerly the head referee for Icon Sport, where he was also the head of the rules committee for Icon.

He started his career in combat sports when he moved to United States to learn catch wrestling after graduating from university. Shimada trained under Masami Soranaka, Karl Gotch's student and son-in-law, who also taught him the job of refereeing. After returning to Japan, he started his referee career for Soranaka's promotion Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, moving to Battlarts after its demise. Around this time, he also wored for K-1, Fighting Network Rings and All Japan Pro Wrestling.

With the establishing of Pride in 1997, Shimada became its main referee. He became known for his personal and controversial style, which included gesticulating and yelling his orders, demanding aggression from the fighters at all times, and asking insistently "give up?" every time one of them attempted a submission move. He was booed in every introduction.

Shimada appeared in professional wrestling promotion Hustle from its start in 2004. Playing a villainous character, he was introduced as a staff officer and spokesperson for the heel faction Takada Monster Army. He often appeared along with Commander An Jo and Generalissimo Takada, who typically tasked him with destroying the heroic faction Hustle Army. After many failures, Shimada was demoted to private in February 2005. He got to be chosen as Hustle's general manager in September 2008, passing his place to Private Shoji, but he left the promotion immediately due to a loss against Genichiro Tenryu in a special match.