Yusuke Kodama

Yusuke Kodama (児玉裕輔) is a Japanese professional wrestler and currently wrestlers for All Japan Pro Wrestling as a freelancer.

Kodama is best known for his time with Wrestle-1 (W-1), where he is a former two time UWA World Trios Champion, two time Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Champion and one time Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champion with Shotaro Ashino.

Yusuke Kodama was trained by Tajiri and was set to debut in Hustle in September 2009; unfortunately, Hustle was forced to cancel all the upcoming shows due to economic issues, so Kodama followed Tajiri to the newborn Smash.

Kodama made his professional wrestling debut on April 23, 2010, at Smash.2, against Hajime Ohara and lost.

As is customary for most professional wrestlers, Kodama spent most of his matches losing to other, more experienced wrestlers, which would help put over other wrestlers while at the same time give Kodama some in-ring, televised, experience.

Kodama would take on some of Japan's great wrestlers such as Taka Michinoku, Akira and Último Dragón.

On August 24, 2010, Kodama made his New Japan Pro-Wrestling debut teaming up with fellow debutante Kazuhiro Tamura and were defeated by Ryusuke Taguchi and Taichi at Never.1.

At Smash.8, on September 24, Kodama picked up his first win ever against Atchii, another young wrestler.

In 2011, Kodama would begin to win more matches, including defeating experienced veteran Akira Shoji.

At Smash.18, on June 9, Kodama participated in the Smash Championship tournament but would be eliminated in the first round by Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Shinya Ishikawa.

Kodama would go on a three match winning streak in early 2012 which was ended at Smash.Final, on March 14, when Smash's biggest success, Kushida returned and defeated Kodama.

Smash closed after the event.

On April 5, 2012, Tajiri announced the follow-up promotion to Smash, Wrestling New Classic (WNC), which would hold its first event on April 26.

Prior to WNC's first show, Kodama returned to New Japan to participate in the Road to the Super Jr. 2Days Tournament and was eliminated in the first round by Black Tiger.

At WNC Before the Dawn, Kodama teamed up with Lin Byron to defeat Aki Shizuku and Koji Doi.

In May, Kodama went on his first tour of Mexico, wrestling under a mask as 14K.

14K debuted for International Wrestling Revolution Group on May 13, teaming up with Douki and Secret Sasuke and losing to Argenis, Fénix and Super Fly.

He also participated in Copa High Power Internacional Torneo Cibernetico which was a 16-man Mexico vs Japan match which Mexico won.

At WNC Starting Over, Kodama and Byron teamed up with Último Dragón to defeat Josh O'Brien, Tomoka Nakagawa and Yoshiaki Yago.

On May 26, Kodama teamed up with Yo-Hey to take on the reunited Unholy Alliance (Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck) in a hardcore match which the Unholy Alliance won.

Kodama would return to his jobber status, continuing to lose to more experienced opposition to gain experience.

In the semi-final of the Kito Cup 2012, Kodama teamed up with Daisuke Harada and Hoshito Takahashi to lose to Jiro Kuroshio, Lin Byron and Tsubasa.

With Ohara and Akira turning their back on WNC, Tajiri and Kana requested the aid of Kodama for a short period of time in August.

Tajiri and Kana would continue to lose at the hands of Akira and his followers, with Kodama often losing the fall, and therefore replaced him with Mikey Whipwreck.

On November 26, Kodama entered the WNC Championship tournament, but was defeated in his first round match by Tommy Dreamer.

In mid-2013, Kodama turned on Tajiri and the WNC Seikigun and jumped to Akira's Synapse stable.

On June 18, 2014, Tajiri announced that WNC would be going inactive following June 26.

Effective July 1, six former WNC wrestlers, Kodama included, transferred over to the Wrestle-1 promotion.

Kodama made his Wrestle-1 (W-1) debut on June 27, 2014, defeating Hiroki Murase in a singles match.

The following month, Kodama came together with three other former WNC wrestlers; Jiro Kuroshio, Koji Doi and Rionne Fujiwara, to form the Novus stable.

In September, Kodama took part in the Wrestle-1 Championship tournament, where he made it to the second round, before losing to Masayuki Kono.

In November, Kodama and Doi represented Novus in the First Tag League Greatest, a tournament to determine the inaugural Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champions.

The two finished last in their block with a record of one draw and three losses.

Novus was effectively dissolved on December 22, when Doi turned on the stable to jump to the Desperado stable, while Masakatsu Funaki took Kuroshio under his wing.

During the same event, Kodama ended his rivalry with Yasufumi Nakanoue, leading to the two forming a tag team together.

On April 30, 2015, Kodama announced he was leaving for an indefinite learning excursion in North America, starting with a three-month stay in Canada with Grand Prix Wrestling.

Kodama later relocated to the Northeastern parts of the United States, wrestling for such promotions as Pro Wrestling Rampage, Squared Cirlce Wrestling and House of Hardcore.

Kodama returned to Wrestle-1 on July 1, 2016.

On August 11, Kodama defeated Kotaro Suzuki to win his first title, the Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship.

On December 7, Kodama, Andy Wu, Daiki Inaba, Jiro Kuroshio, Seiki Yoshioka, Koji Doi, Kumagoro and Kohei Fujimura formed a stable named New Era (stylised in all caps).