Hideo Itami

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kenta Kobayashi JapanJapan
WrestleMania 32 Axxess 2016-03-31 19-58-24 ILCE-6000 3927 DxO (26966819785) .jpg
Data
Ring name Halimao
Hideo Itami
KENTA
Kenta Kobayashi
height 174 cm
Fighting weight 82 kg
birth March 12, 1981
Sōka , Saitama , Japan
Trained by Gran Apache
debut May 24, 2000

Hideo Itami is the ring name of Kenta Kobayashi ( Japanese 小林 健 太 , Kobayashi Kenta ; born March 12, 1981 in Sōka , Saitama , Japan ) is a Japanese wrestler who competes under the name KENTA . He has been under contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling since 2019 . His greatest successes are winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship , as well as winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship and GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship three times .

Career

Pro Wrestling NOAH (2000-2014)

On August 6, 2000 Kobayashi played against Satoru Asako his first match at Pro Wrestling NOAH , which he lost. At first he competed under his real name, later only under his first name to avoid confusion with the wrestler Kenta Kobashi .

On July 16, 2003 he won a tournament with Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship after they were able to prevail in the final against Jushin Thunder Liger and Takehiro Murahama, with which the two became the first titleholders. On May 8, 2005, they won the Differ Cup. After 690 days of title reign, they lost the title on June 5, 2005 to Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Takashi Sugiura.

On July 18, 2005, he won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship from Yoshinobu Kanemaru . He lost the title on June 4, 2006 to Takashi Sugiura. On March 20, 2008, he won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Taiji Ishimori . They lost the title on July 13, 2008 to Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Kotaro Suzuki. On October 13, 2008, he defeated Bryan Danielson and won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship for the second time . On February 11, 2009 he lost the title to Katsuhiko Nakajima. He took the title back 18 days later on March 1, 2009. He had to give up the title on October 30, 2009 due to a knee injury.

Kobayashi returned on June 6, 2010 when he lost to Naomichi Marufuji. On March 5, 2011, Kobayashi betrayed Mohammed Yone and founded the stable No Mercý with Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Genba Hirayanagi . With Yoshinobu Kanemaru he won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on May 25, 2011 . They lost the title on October 16, 2011 to Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki.

On October 31, 2011, Kobayashi moved to the heavyweight division when they challenged the NJPW team Bad Intentions ( Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson ). On October 8, 2012, he and Maybach Taniguchi, who also joined No Mercy , won the GHC Tag Team Championship from Magnus and Samoa Joe . They lost the title on October 26, 2012 to SAT (Akitoshi Saito and Go Shiozaki).

On January 27, 2013, Kobayashi won the GHC Heavyweight Championship after defeating Takeshi Morishima. He lost the title again to Takeshi Morishima on January 5, 2014. On May 17, 2014, he played his last match for Pro Wrestling NOAH. In May 2014 he left Pro Wrestling NOAH and thus left the No Mercy stable.

World Wrestling Entertainment

NXT (2014-2017)

Kobayashi signed a contract with this promotion on July 12, 2014 during a WWE tour of Japan . He made his debut at the major NXT event NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way , where he was introduced by NXT General Manager William Regal . In the said segment he announced that he will henceforth compete under the ring name Hideo Itami . He was interrupted by The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor), with whom he then began a feud. He played his first match in WWE in the NXT edition on September 18, 2014, which he won against Justin Gabriel . In the course of the feud against The Ascension, Finn Bálor made his NXT debut and helped Kobayashi against The Ascension. The feud ended on December 11, 2014 on NXT TakeOver: R Evolution in a tag team match, where Kobayashi and Finn Bálor prevailed against The Ascension.

On March 17, 2015, Kobayashi won a tournament by defeating Adrian Neville in the final. With this victory he secured a place in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at Wrestlemania 31 . He was eliminated in this Battle Royal by Big Show , the eventual winner.

In May 2015, Kobayashi sustained a shoulder injury and was sidelined for over a year. On June 30, 2016, he made his return to the ring at an NXT Live event. He and TM-61 (Shane Thorne and Nick Miller) defeated Samoa Joe , Wesley Blake and Tino Sabbatelli in a six-man tag team match . He made his NXT TV return on the August 3rd edition by defeating Sean Maluta.

With a NXT live event on 12 October, Kobayashi moved to a neck injury, so he as previously planned, not with Kota Ibushi at Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic 2016 could participate. He celebrated his return after this injury break in the NXT edition of April 19, 2017, when he confronted and attacked the then NXT Champion Bobby Roode .

Raw & 205 Live (2017-2019)

On November 21, 2017, it was announced that Kobayashi would soon make his main roster debut and perform live for 205 . This made him part of the cruiserweight division and the raw roster. On December 18, 2017, he made his official main roster debut on Raw by rushing to the aid of Finn Bálor when he was attacked by Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel . On the same evening he played a tag team match against Dallas and Axel alongside Finn Bálor, which he won together with Finn Bálor. A day later, Itami also made his debut on 205 Live in a match against Colin Delaney . Itami participated unsuccessfully in a tournament for the vacant WWE Cruiserweight Championship in early 2018 and formed a team with Akira Tozawa for some time . He was also unable to take advantage of other title chances in the further course of 205 Live, most recently on January 27, 2019 at Royal Rumble.

On January 29, 2019, Itami asked for his release from the WWE after five years

On February 22, 2019, WWE confirmed that Itami had been fired.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Kobayashi then returned to Japan and made his debut on June 9, 2019 on the Dominion 6.9 show on New Japan. He was introduced by Katsuyori Shibata. Kobayashi then expressed his willingness to participate in the 2019 G1 Climax, New Japan's largest and most prestigious tournament for individual wrestlers. This was confirmed on June 16, 2019. Although he was eliminated in the group stage, he still caused a stir on the final day, which took place on August 12th. Kobayashi competed alongside CHAOS members Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI against Bullet Club members Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa in a Six Men Tag Team match. During this match he did gymnastics against his partners and joined the Bullet Club.

Others

  • He dropped his surname Kobayashi in July 2001 to avoid confusion with Kenta Kobashi .
  • He is the inventor of the famous wrestling attack Go to Sleep (Fireman's Carry Kneestrike) , which was also used by the famous former wrestler Phil Brooks , who was known under the ring name CM Punk.

Achievements and Awards

title

Tournaments

  • Pro wrestling NOAH
    • Differ Cup (2005) (as KENTA with Naomichi Marufuji )
    • 2 Days Tag Tournament (2011) (as KENTA with Yoshihiro Takayama)
    • Global League Tournament (2012) (as KENTA)
    • Global Tag League (2013) (as KENTA with Yoshihiro Takayama)

Awards

  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter
    • The best wrestling maneuver (2006 and 2007) with the Go to Sleep (GTS)
    • Tag Team of the Year (2003 and 2004) with Naomichi Marufuji

Web links

Commons : Kenta Kobayashi  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NOAH Accomplish Our Third Navigation - Day 12 cagematch.de, accessed on February 16, 2017
  2. ^ NOAH Navigation with Breeze 2005 - Day 15 cagematch.de, accessed on February 16, 2017
  3. ^ NOAH Destiny 2005 cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  4. ^ NOAH Northern Navigation '06 - Day 12 cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  5. ↑ NOAH Autumn Navigation '08 - Day 5 cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  6. ^ NOAH Great Voyage In Yokohama 2012 Vol.2 cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  7. ^ NOAH Great Voyage 2013 In Osaka cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  8. ^ NOAH New Year Navigation 2014 cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  9. ↑ WWE: KENTA finally signs on tour in Japan cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  10. ↑ WWE NXT "Takeover: Fatal 4 Way" results + report from Winter Park, Florida from September 11, 2014 (including the complete pre and post shows + highlight videos) wrestling-infos.de, accessed on February 17 2017
  11. ↑ WWE NXT # 236 results + report from Winter Park, Florida from September 18, 2014 (including videos) wrestling-infos.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  12. ↑ * Update * WWE NXT "Takeover: R Evolution" results + report from Winter Park, Florida from December 11, 2014 (including video of the pre-show - update: more videos added) wrestling-infos.de, accessed on 17. February 2017
  13. ^ Wrestlemania 31 results and report wrestling-infos.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  14. ↑ WWE: Hideo Itami is also injured from cagematch.de, accessed on February 17, 2017
  15. ↑ WWE NXT # 365 results + short report from Winter Park, Florida from April 19, 2017 (including videos) wrestling-infos.de, accessed on April 19, 2017
  16. ↑ WWE Monday Night RAW # 1282 Results + Report from Providence, Rhode Island from December 18, 2017 (including videos) wrestling-infos.de, accessed December 20, 2017
  17. ↑ WWE 205 Live # 56 report + results from Newark, New Jersey from December 19, 2017 (including videos) wrestling-infos.de, accessed on December 20, 2017
  18. ↑ Phillip Martinez On 1/30/19 at 11:43 AM: Hideo Itami reportedly asked and was granted his release from WWE. January 30, 2019, accessed February 8, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Martin Hoffmann On 6/9/19 at 2:43 PM: Sport1.de: NJPW Dominion: KENTA after WWE-Aus with a surprise appearance. June 9, 2019, accessed June 18, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Itami, Hideo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 伊丹 英雄 (Japanese, ring name); KENTA (ring name); Kobayashi Kenta (real name); 小林 健 太 (real name, Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH Sōka , Saitama , Japan