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Weekly Pro Wrestler bio number 4 this weeks edition is on the only man to ever hold the IWGP Intercontinental, IWGP Heavyweight and NEVER Openweight Championship and the leader of Los Ingobernables De Japon Tetsuya Naito.
Career Summary: Tetsuya Naito was born June 22, 1982. He grew up a huge wrestling fan and always wanted to do it, when he was 18 he started training under renowned trainer Animal Hamiguchi. After 4 years of training he won a submission tournament where the winner would get to train at the NJPW dojo. After training for more than a year Naito passed a public audition officially allowing him to graduate from the NJPW dojo and become a Young Lion. Naito finally made his debut on May 27, 2006 in a losing effort to Takashi Uwano.
Naito got his first chance to prove himself in the summer of 2007 when he was placed in the Best Of The Super Juniors tournament winning 2 of his 6 matches both of which were over New Japan veterans El Samurai and Gedo. In February 2008 Naito formed a team with fellow rookie Yujiro Takahashi known as No Limit. No Limit immediately gained momentum going to time limit draws with multiple former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions leading to them getting a shot at then champions Jushin Thunder Liger and Akira, a match No Limit would come up short in.
After this loss No Limit attempted to prove themselves by having the "No Limit Generation Smash" where they would face some of the top teams in NJPW such as Jado and Gedo, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano and Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto. They lost 5 out of 6 matches the one win coming over Shito Ueda and Osamu Namiguchi. After the series ended they refocused on winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles which they would finally do defeating the team of Prince Devitt and Minoru on October 13, 2008.
The reign would be short lived however as No Limit would lose them to The Motor City Machine Guns on January 4 2009 less than 3 months later. After losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles No Limit went on a learning excursion to North America first wrestling for TNA in the United States then going to Mexico to wrestle for CMLL where they formed a team with fellow Japanese star Okumura called "La Ola Amarilla".
After there foreign excursion No Limit returned to NJPW as a Heavyweight tag team immediately winning the IWGP Tag Titles in there first match back at the January 4th, 2010 Tokyo Dome show defeating Team 3D and Bad Intentions in a 3 way. No Limit would lose them to Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata on May 3 2010 which would end up being the beginning of the end for No Limit.
After losing the IWGP Tag Team Titles Naito started breaking out on his own defeating Togi Makabe, Manabu Nakanishi, Karl Anderson in the 2010 G1 Climax and going to a 30 minute draw against Hiroshi Tanahashi in the tournamment as well. On May 26 of the following year No Limit officially broke up with Yujiro attacking Naito leading to a match at Dominion 6.18 which Yujiro would win. Naito rebounded by making it to the finals of the 2011 G1 Climax before losing to tournament winner Shinsuke Nakamura. Naito would go after a rematch against Nakamura defeating him at The New Beginning 2012 to become the number one contender to IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada a match Naito would ultimately lose.
During the G1 Climax Naito would suffer a serious knee injury which would require reconstructive surgery and keep him out of action for 8 months. Naito would return at Dominion 6.22 defeating Yujiro in his return match. Naito would go on to finally win the 2013 G1 Climax defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi in the finals and continue that momentum on the way to the Tokyo Dome offering to put up his title shot for a chance at Masato Tanaka's NEVER Openweight Title which Naito would also win. Naito's career would take a huge setback less than one month before the Tokyo Dome when Hiroshi Tanahashi announced he would be facing Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Title causing New Japa to put up a fan vote on which match would go on last at the Tokyo Dome, Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito or Shinsuka Nakamura vs Hiroshi Tanahashi. Nakamura vs Tanahashi won in a landslide meaning that Naito's dream of main eventing the Tokyo Dome would have to wait. Naito would go on to lose to Okada and his bad luck would continue as he lost the NEVER Championship to Okada's stablemate Tomohiro Ishii the following month.
Naito would spend the rest of 2014 and the first half of 2015 getting a few big wins but doing nothing of note, that all changed when he went on a tour of Mexico in the summer of 2015 where he became influenced by the group Los Ingobernables a group in Mexico made up of guys who tried being upstanding nice guys but the more they were like that the more the fans hated them so they decided "you wanna hate up we'll give you a reason to hate us". Naito decided to bring that mindset back to Japan and form his own version of Los Ingobernables which he would call Los Ingobernables De Japon.
Naito would return for the G1 Climax getting wins over AJ Styles and Hiroshi Tanahashi but failing to advance to the finals. Shortly after the tournament he introduced 2 new members of LIJ Takaaki Watanabe now known as EVIL and Bushi. Naito would go on to win the 2016 New Japan Cup defeating Yoshi Hashi, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano and Hirooki Goto allowing him to challenge for the IWGP Title at Invasion Attack 2016 a match Naito would win after debuting the newest member of LIJ Sanada. Naito's reign as IWGP Champion would be short lived as he would lose the belt back to Okada 2 months later at Dominion 6.19.
Naito rebounded by defeating Michael Elgin for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in September. Naito would go on to successfully defend the title against Jay Lethal, Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 11, Michael Elgin and Juice Robinson before losing it to Tanahashi at Dominion 6.11.
Naito rebounded by winning the 2017 G1 Climax defeating Kenny Omega in the finals earning the right to challenge for the IWGP Title at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th for the second time in his career. Naito would finally realize his dream of main eventing the Tokyo Dome only to lose to Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 12. And that is Tetsuya Naito's career so far
My opinion: When I first saw Naito I thought he was great but I never thought he'd be a star in New Japan I'm really glad I was wrong and that he not only became a star but became one of my favorite wrestlers not just in Japan but anywhere in the world
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