Kota Ibushi

Kota Ibushi (飯伏幸太) is a Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist who is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW).

He is best known for his tenure with New Japan-Pro Wrestling (NJPW).

His career began with the Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) promotion in 2004 and over the next eleven years became a three-time KO-D Openweight Champion, five-time KO-D Tag Team Champion and a two-time KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champion.

Two of the KO-D Tag Team title reigns was with Kenny Omega as the Golden☆Lovers; their combined total of 351 days is still a DDT record.

On July 1, 2004, Ibushi made his professional wrestling debut for Dramatic Dream Team (DDT), losing to Kudo.

In 2005, Ibushi won his first championship, when he and Daichi Kakimoto defeated Darkside Hero! and Toru Owashi to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship.

On June 25, 2006, he lost to Danshoku Dino in a match for the Championship and spent most of later 2006 competing in multiple tag team matches.

In 2007 Ibushi's fortunes fared better and he began to win more matches, including defeating BxB Hulk at a co-promoted event held by DDT and Dragon Gate.

Later in 2007, Ibushi defeated Madoka to win the vacant Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

In February 2008, Ibushi defeated Tanomusaku Toba to retain the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship and win the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship.

He would go on to lose the Ironman championship to Danshoku Dino.

On July 20, 2008, Ibushi would defeat Kudo in the Next KO-D Openweight Championship One Day Tournament finals but would ultimately lose to the KO-D champion Dick Togo a month later.

In 2009, Ibushi started working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and eventually signed with the promotion in 2013.

In NJPW, Ibushi is a former NEVER Openweight Champion, three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a one-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.

Ibushi would start teaming up with Kenny Omega as the "Golden☆Lovers" and on January 24, 2009, they defeated Harashima and Toru Owashi to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship and lost them in May to Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku.

In the summer of 2009, Ibushi won the first KO-D Openweight Championship Contendership Tournament and went on to win the KO-D Openweight Championship from Harashima.

During his time as champion he also won the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship and would lose the Openweight Championship to Shuji Ishikawa.

After winning the Best of the Super Juniors in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) his matches in DDT were mostly tag team matches with his partner Kenny Omega or matches involving IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

Ibushi has also won several tournaments for NJPW, including the 2011 Best of the Super Juniors, the 2015 New Japan Cup and the 2019 and 2020 editions of the G1 Climax, being the only wrestler to have won all three tournaments.

He is also one of only four wrestlers to win two consecutive G1 Climax tournaments alongside Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Kazuchika Okada, as well as the only wrestler to reach the finals stage of four consecutive G1 Climax tournaments.

Ibushi's fortunes in 2011 were better, he teamed up with Danshoki Dino to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship, however after dislocating his shoulder he vacated the title.

Ibushi made his return at a DDT event on May 4, 2012, losing to El Generico.

On June 24, Ibushi defeated Yuji Hino to win DDT's KO-D Openweight Championship for the second time.

On August 18, Ibushi defeated Kenny Omega in the main event of Budokan Peter Pan to retain the KO-D Openweight Championship.

On September 30, Ibushi lost the title to El Generico.

On October 3, Ibushi won the third annual DDT48 general election and, as a result, earned an immediate rematch with El Generico.

Ibushi received his rematch on October 21, but was again defeated by El Generico.

On May 26, Ibushi, Gota Ihashi and Kenny Omega defeated the Monster Army (Antonio Honda, Daisuke Sasaki and Yuji Hino) to win the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship.

Their reign lasted 28 days, before they lost the title back to the Monster Army, now represented by Honda, Hino and Hoshitango.

On August 18 at DDT's annual Ryōgoku Peter Pan event, Ibushi faced New Japan representative and reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada in a losing effort in a special non-title match.

On January 26, 2014, Ibushi and Kenny Omega defeated Yankii Nichokenju (Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto) and Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo in a three-way match to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship.

On April 12, Ibushi and Omega became double champions in DDT, when they teamed with Daisuke Sasaki to defeat Team Drift (Keisuke Ishii, Shigehiro Irie and Soma Takao) for the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship.

Their reign, however, lasted only 22 days, before they lost the title to Shuten-dōji (Kudo, Masa Takanashi and Yukio Sakaguchi) on May 4.

On September 28, Ibushi and Omega lost the KO-D Tag Team Championship to Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo.

On February 15, 2015, Ibushi won the KO-D Openweight Championship for the third time, defeating Harashima.

He lost the title back to Harashima on April 29.

On August 23, Ibushi won the KO-D Tag Team Championship for the fifth time, when he and Daisuke Sasaki defeated Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi for the title.

He resigned from both DDT and NJPW in February 2016 and has performed in several different organizations as a freelancer, including both DDT and NJPW as well as WWE, where he participated in the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic tournament.

After continuing to perform as a freelancer for NJPW after 2016 (including as Tiger Mask W, the protagonist of the anime of the same name, from 2016 to 2017), he signed a new full-time contract with NJPW in early 2019, winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first and only time in his career in 2021 before unifying it with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to become the inaugural IWGP World Heavyweight Champion later that year.

Ibushi is also a former IWGP Tag Team Champion.