Konosuke Takeshita

Konosuke Takeshita (竹下幸之介) is a Japanese professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to both the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) where he is a member of the Don Callis Family, and the Japanese promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT).

On May 29, his 21st birthday, Takeshita defeated Daisuke Sasaki to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the first time.

With the win, Takeshita became the youngest KO-D Openweight Champion in history, beating the previous record held by Nosawa Rongai by three years and six months.

On June 15, Takeshita made his debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), teaming with Tetsuya Endo in a tag team match, where they defeated Jun Akiyama and Yuma Aoyagi.

On July 17, Takeshita successfully defended the KO-D Openweight Championship against his tag team partner Tetsuya Endo.

After the match, Endo turned on Takeshita and joined Daisuke Sasaki's Damnation stable.

Takeshita, with a sports background in track and field, began training for a career in professional wrestling in 2011 with the DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion.

Takeshita had been a professional wrestling fan since childhood and as a 12-year old had attended a DDT show, where he was kissed by wrestler Danshoku Dino.

On April 1, 2012, DDT announced that Takeshita would be debuting for the promotion on August 18 in Tokyo's Nippon Budokan.

Prior to his debut match, Takeshita took part in exhibition matches.

During one of these matches on August 4, Takeshita scored an upset win over Hiroshi Fukuda, winning the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship in the process.

The title had a 24/7 rule, where it could be won anytime and anywhere.

As Takeshita was being congratulated by DDT general manager Amon Tsurumi for winning his first match before his debut, Fukuda hit him with a low blow and then pinned him to regain the title.

On August 18, 2012, Takeshita was defeated by El Generico in his official debut match.

On November 25, Takeshita pinned Poison Sawada Julie in his retirement match, a six-man tag team match.

He was named the Rookie of the Year by Tokyo Sports in 2013 and is the youngest KO-D Openweight Champion in history, having won the title on his 21st birthday.

In DDT, he has also held the KO-D Tag Team Championship, the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship, and the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship.

He signed with AEW in November 2022 and is currently managed by Don Callis.

At the end of 2013, Tokyo Sports named Takeshita Japanese professional wrestling's Rookie of the Year, with him becoming the first wrestler still in high school to win the award.

He also finished second in Wrestling Observer Newsletter's award category for Rookie of the Year, losing to Yohei Komatsu by four votes (906–902).

On January 26, 2014, Takeshita received his first-ever shot at one of the King of DDT (KO-D) titles, when he and Tetsuya Endo challenged for the KO-D Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, which was won by the Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) and also included Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto.

On May 6, Takeshita came together with Antonio Honda to form the "Happy Motel" stable.

The two were eventually joined by Tetsuya Endo, with whom they went on to win the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship by defeating Shuten-dōji (Kudo, Masa Takanashi and Yukio Sakaguchi) on July 13.

They lost the title back to Shuten-dōji seven days later.

On August 17, Takeshita took part in a high-profile interpromotional match, when he was defeated by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) representative Hiroshi Tanahashi at DDT's annual Ryōgoku Kokugikan event.

On September 28, Takeshita and Endo defeated Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship for the first time.

Afterwards, Omega dubbed Takeshita the "Future of DDT".

Takeshita and Endo went on to lose the title to Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi on February 15, 2015.

The following June, Takeshita made it to the finals of the 2015 King of DDT tournament, but was defeated there by Yukio Sakaguchi.

On December 23, Takeshita and Endo defeated Shigehiro Irie and Yuji Okabayashi in the finals of a tournament to regain the vacant KO-D Tag Team Championship.

With Kudo sidelined with an injury and Kota Ibushi announcing his resignation from DDT, Takeshita was poised to take a larger role in the promotion.

On January 3, 2016, he received his first shot at DDT's top title, the KO-D Openweight Championship, but was defeated by the defending champion, Isami Kodaka.

On March 21, Takeshita and Endo lost the KO-D Tag Team Championship to Daisuke Sasaki and Shuji Ishikawa.

After three successful title defenses, Takeshita lost the KO-D Openweight Championship to Shuji Ishikawa on August 28 at DDT's biggest event of the year, Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2016.

On December 4, Takeshita and Mike Bailey defeated Daisuke Sasaki and Tetsuya Endo to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship.

They lost the title to Masakatsu Funaki and Yukio Sakaguchi in their second defense on January 9, 2017.

On January 29, Takeshita defeated Kudo in the finals of a tournament to become the number one contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship.

At Judgement 2017: DDT 20th Anniversary event, Takeshita defeated Harashima to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the second time.

The following month, Takeshita and Akito formed a new tag team named "All Out".