Kenta Kobayashi

Kenta Kobayashi (小林 健太), known mononymously as Kenta (stylised in all caps), is a Japanese professional wrestler.

He currently works for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a member of the Bullet Club stable.

A former amateur kickboxer, Kobayashi's wrestling style is based upon strong kicks and strikes.

Kobayashi pioneered both the Go 2 Sleep and Busaiku Knee kick finishing maneuvers, later popularized by CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, respectively.

Kobayashi started his career in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), before moving to Pro Wrestling Noah; through Noah's involvement in the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance (GPWA), a global organization of cooperative promotions that allow their competitors to travel abroad to other companies, he has wrestled extensively in American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH).

In Noah, he was a one-time GHC Heavyweight Champion, three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, and one-time GHC Tag Team Champion.

Kobayashi was born on March 12, 1981, in Sōka, Japan.

He trained under Kenta Kobashi and Yoshihiro Takayama.

Prior to wrestling professionally, Kobayashi had a variety of athletic backgrounds, practicing baseball and kickboxing; the latter came to be a strong foundation in his wrestling style often referred to as shoot style.

Kobayashi made his professional wrestling debut on May 24, 2000, against future ally and rival, Naomichi Marufuji, in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) to compete in their junior heavyweight division.

He did not remain in the company long as Mitsuharu Misawa, acting president of AJPW, decided to leave the company following a dispute, leading to Misawa forming his own company, Pro Wrestling Noah.

One of Misawa's focuses in his new promotion was the junior heavyweight division, which never was treated with high regard in AJPW despite the successes in other promotions.

Being sidelined with injuries for the majority of Noah's first year of operation, Kobayashi made his return in July 2001, simply named Kenta.

Kenta's first involvement in a championship situation came when Naomichi Marufuji was forced to vacate the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship after suffering a knee injury; Kenta entered into the tournament held to determine a new champion.

He advanced to the finals by defeating Kotaro Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi before losing to Yoshinobu Kanemaru on the Navigation with Breeze Tour in June 2002.

Following his relative success in the tournament, Kenta had an increase in his popularity, and he joined his mentor, Kenta Kobashi, in the faction Burning.

March 1, 2003, saw Kenta team with Naomichi Marufuji for the first time against Makoto Hashi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in a winning effort.

They began teaming regularly as the two entered into a tournament to christen the first GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions during the company's Accomplish Our Third Navigation tour; they went to win the tournament by defeating junior heavyweight veterans Jyushin Thunder Liger and Takehiro Murahama in the finals on July 16.

While defending the tag team title, Kenta continued his venture in hopes of winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight title once again on November 30, 2003, in an unsuccessful bid against Takashi Sugiura.

As part of a reward for the way Kenta performed, he earned himself a trial series of seven matches going into the next year, seeing Kenta able to challenge more established stars in an attempt to elevate his status.

Kenta began his trial series on the First Navigation tour, beating Juventud Guerrera.

This was followed by defeats to Yoshinari Ogawa and Jun Akiyama.

The final match of the series was a loss against Marufuji in October.

While the series was taking place, Kenta and Marufuji continued defending their title against a number of challengers: El Samurai and Ryusuke Taguchi, Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki, Suzuki and Ricky Marvin, Marvin and Suwa and, on Noah's first Tokyo Dome show, against Kendo Kashin and Takashi Sugiura.

Their reign as champions came to an end in June 2005 after almost two years by Kanemaru and Sugiura after the latter pinned Kenta.

Kenta's first major rivalry in singles competition began in March 2005 following a dispute with SUWA, which led to a series of confrontations between the two, including a violent match that ended in his opponent getting disqualified for assaulting the referee.

This led to Kenta getting one more chance to challenge for the Junior Heavyweight title against Yoshinobu Kanemaru at Destiny on July 18, which saw him win the title.

He made his first defense two months later against Suwa, then against Kotaro Suzuki as his alter ego, Mushiking Terry.

Simultaneously, Kenta began teaming with Katsuyori Shibata as The Takeover, challenging for the GHC Tag Team Championship, the heavyweight version of the company's tag team title.

On March 5, 2006, Kenta faced a major challenge in Kenta Kobashi, which saw him lose following a Burning Hammer.

This was followed by a loss of the Junior Heavyweight title on June 4 to Takashi Sugiura.

This saw Kenta shift his attention to the GHC Heavyweight Championship, challenging Naomichi Marufuji, losing in a match which won numerous awards and accolades from the wrestling media.

Kenta spent the majority of his 2007 time in Noah wrestling a variety of tag team and six-man tag team matches with protégé Taiji Ishimori and Akitoshi Saito as partners.

He saw most of his success with Ishimori as the two had critically acclaimed matches against a wide variety of competitors, including Ring of Honor (ROH) competitors on loan to the company due to the talent exchange agreement, the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance (GPWA), between ROH and Noah: the Briscoe Brothers, Davey Richards, and Bryan Danielson.

As Kenta and Ishimori progressed as a unit, they entered the first NTV Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Tournament; in the finals they beat Marufuji and Kota Ibushi to win the tournament.

He was also the winner of the 2012 Global League and the 2013 Global Tag League tournaments.

He is also well known for his tenure in American promotion WWE where he worked under the name Hideo Itami (ヒデオ・イタミ) in the company's developmental territory NXT and later in their cruiserweight exclusive brand 205 Live.

In 2019, he departed from WWE, and in May, appeared for NJPW, announcing his participation in that year's G1 Climax and aligned with former tag partner Katsuyori Shibata.

He turned on Shibata and joined the Bullet Club, and has since held the Strong Openweight Championship twice and NEVER Openweight Championship and the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship once each.

On the American independent circuit, he is the current DEFY Wrestling World Champion in his first reign.