Eita Kobayashi

Eita Kobayashi (小林 瑛太), known mononymously as Eita, is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to Dragon Gate, where he is best known as the former leader of the villainous Real Extreme Diffusion (R・E・D) stable, in which he led the stable for nearly its entire run.

As part of his current persona as a narcissist, he is known as Numero Uno (number one in Spanish).

He also had the chance to represent IWRG's wrestling school in a series of matches against Fuerza Guerrera's Gimnasio Konkreto school at the Arena Naucalpan 35th Anniversary Show and again at the IWRG 16th Anniversary Show, with Gimnasio Konkreto winning both matches.

Kobayashi trained for his professional wrestling career in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate's wrestling school called "Dragon Gate Nex" and made his debut on January 26, 2011, at Dragon Gate Nex's Sanctuary.71 show in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, wrestling to a draw against fellow trainee Yosuke Watanabe.

He later "graduated" to the main Dragon Gate shows as a low ranking rookie.

On February 20, 2012, he was one of 10 wrestlers fighting to become the number one contender for the Open the Dream Gate Championship, but saw himself defeated by Pac.

A few weeks later he was involved it yet another number one contenders match for the Dream Gate title, but this time the match was won by Cyber Kong.

While Kobayashi did not win a lot of matches he made a name for himself with his ability to execute the knife edge chop on opponents with such force that it makes a very loud sound on impact, partially by actually hitting opponents with full force instead of the normal, more "theatrical" version used in professional wrestling.

His Chopping prowess and that of other Dragon Gate wrestlers led Dragon Gate to hold a "King of Chop" tournament, which was not a wrestling tournament but a tournament where two wrestlers used the knife edge chop on each other and the fans determined the winner of each match up.

Kobayashi defeated Mondai Ruy, Cyber Kong and Don Fujii on his way to the finals where he also overcame Tomahawk T.T. to become Dragon Gate's "King of Chop".

As a result of his victory Eita Kobayashi was allowed to compete in Dragon Gate's annual "King of Gate" tournament, where he was eliminated in the second round by Masaaki Mochizuki.

On May 27, 2012, Eita Kobayashi teamed up with Don Fujii to lose to Akatsuki, the team of Shingo Takagi and Yamato in what turned out to be his last Dragon Gate match of 2012.

Four days after his last match for Dragon Gate Eita made his debut for the Mexican International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) promotion as part of their annual Rey del Ring ("King of the Ring") tournament.

His ring name was shortened to simply "Eita" as he worked as a masked heel, a wrestler who portrays the bad guys, while in Mexico to gain experience with more styles of wrestling, something not uncommon for young Japanese wrestlers.

He began carrying a green drum with him to the ring that he would bang before the match to annoy his opponents and also use as an actual weapon during the match.

Eita worked a number of IWRG's annual featured shows, such as the 2012 Legado Final ("Final Legacy") where he teamed up with Imposible to defeat Centvrion and Charly Madrid.

He was also part of IWRG's 2012 Festival de las Máscaras, he, Imposible and Comando Negro defeated the team of Centvrion, Matrix, Jr. and Panterita.

He also began to work for Desastre Total Ultraviolento (DTU) that promoted shows around the same area as IWRG did.

On August 17, 2012, he participated in the DTU Rey del Raquetazo ("King of the Chop") tournament.

In the first round he defeated Gemelo Fantastico I but lost to Comando Negro in the second round of the tournament.

A few weeks later he won the vacant DTU Alto Rendimiento ("High Performance") Championship as he outlasted Dinastía, Eterno, Flamita, Principe Halcón, Rocky Lobo and Tribal.

In late 2012 Eita worked for Dragon Gate's North American sister company Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), appearing on three of their Pay-per-view (PPV) events on October 21 and November 2 through 4th, losing all four matches including a match for Dragon Gate's Open the Brave Gate Championship against champion Dragon Kid.

A few weeks later he participated in an IWRG promoted tournament for the vacant WWS World Welterweight Championship.

He defeated Alan Extreme in the first round but was defeated by eventual tournament winner Cerebro Negro in the second round.

The following day he challenged for the Cruiserweight Championship against champion Daga but did not win the match.

For IWRG's 2012 Prison Fatal show he teamed up with Alan Extreme and Carta Brava, Jr. to defeat the team of Avisman, Cerebro Negro and Dinamic Black.

On January 17, 2013, Eita was teamed up with longtime wrestler Negro Navarro for IWRG's annual El Protector tournament, a tournament where a rookie and a "veteran" are teamed up for a tag team tournament designed to give the rookie the spotlight.

The duo defeated Canis Lupus and Pirata Morgan in the first round, then defeated Centvrion and Veneno in the semi-finals of the tournament only to lose to Carta Brava, Jr. and X-Fly in the finals.

Eita also worked for DGUSA again, working three PPV tapings from January 25 to January 27, losing all three matches.

On February 19, 2013, Flamita defeated Eita to win the DTU Alto Rendimiento Championship.

In late February "King of Chop" rival Tomahawk came to IWRG to train, the same way Eita had come to Mexico 9 months previous and the two began to work as a regular team on IWRG events.

On March 16, 2013, Eita, Fénix, Freelance and Mike Segura defeated the tema of Cerebro Negro, Dr. Cerebro, Kaving and Kortiz on a show that was supposed to be the retirement of Kaving and Kortiz's father Ray Mendoza, Jr. On July 19, Eita made an appearance for AAA, representing the Los Perros del Mal stable in a six-man tag team match, where he, Daga and Psicosis were defeated by Dark Cuervo, Dark Espíritu and Dark Ozz.

On July 21, 2013, Eita, T-Hawk and U-T, forming a new stable named Millennials, announced their impending return to Dragon Gate.

The stable made its debut appearance on August 23 at The Gate of Generation.

During September, Eita and T-Hawk won the 2013 Summer Adventure Tag League, defeating BxB Hulk and Yamato in the finals on September 28 to become the interim Open the Twin Gate Champions.

On November 3, Eita and T-Hawk defeated previous champions, Dragon Kid and K-ness, to become the official Open the Twin Gate Champions.

On December 5, Eita, T-Hawk and one of Millennials' newest members, Mexican wrestler Flamita, defeated Mad Blankey (BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong and Yamato) to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship.

However, just three days later, Eita and T-Hawk lost the Open the Twin Gate Championship to Naruki Doi and Yamato.

In Dragon Gate, he has been a one-time Open the Dream Gate Champion, a two-time Open the Brave Gate Champion, five-time Open the Twin Gate Champion, two-time Open the Triangle Gate Champion, as well as the 2020 King of Gate winner.

Outside of Dragon Gate, Kobayashi has worked matches for their United States-based sister company Dragon Gate USA, and as part of his wrestling training, for Mexican promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG).