Kenoh

Daisuke Nakae (中栄 大輔) (born January 1, 1985) is a Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist, better known by the ring name Kenoh (拳王).

He currently wrestles in Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is currently the GHC Heavyweight Champion in his third reign.

He is also a former GHC National Champion.

Kenoh began his career in Michinoku Pro Wrestling after being scouted by Jinsei Shinzaki.

Later, in 2003, he was crowned as the youngest All Japan kenpo champion ever, and went to win the contest again in 2006 and 2007.

Nakae signed with Michinoku Pro Wrestling in 2007 after being scouted by Jinsei Shinzaki, wrestling several exhibition bouts before officially debuting against Alexander Otsuka.

He went under the name of "Kenoh" (拳王), a reference to the character Raoh from popular manga and anime Fist of the North Star.

He spent the year in low-profile matches against fellow trainees Rui Hiugaji and Takayuki Aizawa, and in late 2008 he was sent to hone his skills in Okinawa Pro Wrestling, where he adopted a parodic gimmick named "Kanmuriwashi Yoko" patterned after famous boxer Yoko "Kanmuriwashi" Gushiken.

Under this character, Nakae sported an afro hairstyle similar to Gushiken's, although complete with a lucha libre mask and kickboxing attire.

In September 2009, Kenoh made his return to Michinoku Pro, being introduced by Jinsei Shinzaki as a special ally to counter fellow shoot-style wrestler Fujita "Jr." Hayato and his heel stable Kowloon.

Kenoh declined an offer by Great Sasuke of having his redebut match against him and instead demanded a match against Hayato for the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion, which the champion accepted.

Shockingly, Kenoh won and captured the title, and went to enter in a heated feud with Fujita and his stablemates.

He slowly became the next ace of the promotion, a place vacated after Yoshitsune's departure.

The same year, Kenoh and Rui Hiugaji took part in the Michinoku Tag League, beating the teams of Munenori Sawa and Yuta Yoshikawa and Kowloon's Fujita Hayato and Rasse, but they were defeated at the finals by another Kowloon team, Takeshi Minamino and Maguro Ooma.

On the individual field, Kenoh retained the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight title before Hayato, Minamino and Taro Nohashi, until he lost it to Great Sasuke.

In 2011, Kenoh and Kenbai were sent to compete in Pro Wrestling Noah's NTV G Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League, where they got a big victory over heavy favourite team No Mercy (Kenta and Yoshinobu Kanemaru), with Kenoh personally pinning Kenta.

They also challenged ANMU (Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki) for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, but they were defeated.

Kenoh recaptured the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship from Rui Hiugaji in September 2011.

Started 2012, he claimed to have the goal to "change Michinoku Pro," which few understood, but it was all revealed when Taro Nohashi betrayed Fujita Hayato and expelled him from Kowloon, instead bringing Kenoh as the new leader.

This made Kenoh turn heel, adopting a more arrogant persona for himself, and they renamed the stable as Asura, replacing with Hiugaji the members that had followed Hayato.

They feuded with Hayato and his remnant group, called Bad Boy.

Kenoh and Fujita clashed again, and this time Kenoh lost the match and the title, but he retaliated eliminating Bad Boy from the Michinoku Tag League 2012 to win it with stablemate Hiugaji.

In 2013, Kenoh pinned Hayato to gain the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship back, but on December 13, he vacated it, announcing his intention of joining Pro Wrestling Noah.

Kenoh returned to Noah as a freelancer, joining the new Choukibou-gun stable in 2014 and forming a tag team with stablemate Hajime Ohara.

On August 2, 2014, Kenoh and Ohara won the 2014 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League by defeating Daisuke Harada and Quiet Storm in the finals.

On October 12, Kenoh and Ohara defeated Atsushi Kotoge and Taiji Ishimori to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

There, he would eventually go on to win the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Championship three times, before leaving Michinoku Pro and signing with Pro Wrestling Noah in 2015.

Initially competing as a junior heavyweight, he formed a popular tag team with Hajime Ohara, and the two went on to hold the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship two times.

They lost the title to El Desperado and Taka Michinoku on March 15, 2015.

On March 28, Kenoh signed a contract with Noah, officially ending his affiliation with Michinoku Pro.

On March 19, 2016, Kenoh and Ohara won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the second time by defeating Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada.

They lost the title back to Kotoge and Harada on April 5.

On July 5, Kenoh defeated Genba Hirayanagi in a four-man tournament final to win one of Noah's three spots in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's 2016 Super J-Cup.

On July 20, Kenoh defeated Gurukun Mask in his first round match in the tournament.

On August 21, he was eliminated from the tournament in the second round by reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Kushida.

On December 23, 2016, after losing to Takashi Sugiura and Alejandro Saez, Kenoh officially announced the break up of Kenohara.

Kenoh and Ohara wrestled their last match as a team on December 24, defeating Taiji Ishimori and Hitoshi Kumano.

He graduated to the heavyweight division in 2017, and would go on to win the Global League and the GHC Heavyweight Championship in the same year.

Nakae started training nippon kempo at the age of 3, and while in highschool won the championship of his category.

Kenoh's heavyweight debut was on January 7, 2017, in a tag team match where he and partner Masa Kitamiya defeated Akitoshi Saito and Muhammad Yone.