Atsushi Aoki

Atsushi Aoki (青木 篤志) was a Japanese professional wrestler who worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as a wrestler, president of talent relations and head trainer at their dojo.

Aoki began wrestling in high school, winning the 69 kg weight division in 2000.

He joined the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force as part of the Aomori 5th General Division Regiment in 2000 where he continued to wrestle, and won the National Open Wrestling Championship in the 69 kg weight class.

Aoki began his career in Pro Wrestling Noah in 2005, where he went on to become a two time winner of the Global Junior Heavyweight Tag League and hold the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship twice during his 7 year run with the promotion.

In 2005, he applied to join the Pro Wrestling Noah dojo and was accepted.

Aoki began training under Jun Akiyama in the Pro Wrestling Noah Dojo in May 2005.

His professional wrestling debut came on December 24, 2005, during NOAH's NOAHful Gift in Differ '05 teaming up with Yoshiniro Ota, losing to NOAH founder Mitsuharu Misawa and Japanese wrestling legend Akira Taue.

Aoki spent most of 2006 gaining hard earned experience in the ring, mostly on the losing side of matches.

He would also make appearances for other Japanese promotions such as Zero-1 MAX and Dragon Gate.

A month later Aoki undertook a "learning excursion" to Europe where he wrestled for such promotions as Real Quality Wrestling and International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom in the United Kingdom and Westside Xtreme Wrestling in Germany for the two months the excursion lasted.

Following his return to NOAH he teamed up with American Rocky Romero to participate in the 2007 Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League.

The team ended up with just two points, winning only one match out of five when the team defeated Bryan Danielson and Davey Richards.

On September 3, 2007, Aoki teamed up with Ippei Ota for a match at an AAA / Pro Wrestling Noah co-promoted show called TripleSEM.

The team wrestled in the third match of the night and lost to AAA representatives Real Fuerza Aerea (Laredo Kid and Super Fly) in 08:15.

In November, 2007 Aoki took part in NOAH's Mauritius Cup tournament, earning 8 points in total by defeating Ippei Ota, Tsutomu Hirayanagi and Akihiko Ito while wrestling to a draw against Shuhei Taniguchi and Taiji Ishimori.

Despite not losing a single match in the tournament Shuhei Taniguchi managed to score 9 points to take the Mauritius Cup.

Unlike the 2007 and 2008 version of the Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League Aoki's 2009 participating alongside Kota Ibushi was much more successful as the team won all three round robin matches, defeating the teams of Kenta and Taiji Ishimori, Genba Hirayanagi and Kikutaro and the team of Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong.

In the semi-final match they defeated Eddie Edwards and Ricky Marvin but lost to Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the finals of the tournament.

On December 23, 2007, Aoki took on a "10 match challenge" designed to push him to the limit and earn experience against very experienced wrestlers.

The first match was against his mentor Jun Akiyama which he lost.

The match series was called the "Shining Magic 10 Match Series" and would stretch out over the next two and a half years.

In his second match he defeated Davey Richards, but went on to lose against Kenta, Bryan Danielson, Yoshinari Ogawa and Kaz Hayashi.

Aoki teamed up with Akihiko Ito to participate in the 2008 Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League.

The team earned only three points, one point more than Aoki's previous Nippon TV Cup league as the team only managed to defeat Kento Miyahara and Naomichi Marufuji and wrestle to a time-limit draw against Eddie Edwards and Ricky Marvin.

The Seventh match in the series took place on November 14, 2008, and saw Aoki lose to Yoshinobu Kanemaru.

In his eight Shining Magic 10 Match Aoki lost to Junior Heavyweight legend Jyushin Thunder Liger.

He was invited to be part of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's (NJPW) 2009 Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

Aoki earned eight points, ending in second place in "Block A" with victories over AKIRA, Black Tiger V, Jado and Milano Collection A.T. and only losing to "Block A" winner Prince Devitt (Block winner) and Tiger Mask IV.

In the semi-final of the tournament he was defeated by eventual tournament winner Koji Kanemoto.

In December, 2009 NJPW invited Aoki back, this time to compete in the 2009 Super J-Cup.

Aoki did not make it past the first round as he was defeated by Prince Devitt.

In his penultimate Sining Magic match Atsushi Aoki lost to Naomich Marufuji on December 6, 2009, almost two years after the 10 Match series begun.

His tenth and final match in the Shining Magic 10 Match series took place on February 28, 2010, which saw Aoki lose to Minoru Suzuki ending the series with one victory and nine defeats.

On October 30, 2010, Aoki and Kenta defeated Roderick Strong and Eddie Edwards in the finals of a tournament to win the 2010 Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League.

As a result, Aoki and Kenta received a shot at the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, but were defeated by the champions, New Japan Pro Wrestling representatives Koji Kanemoto and Tiger Mask IV, on November 23, 2010.

On December 24, 2010, Aoki and Naomichi Marufuji defeated Kanemoto and Tiger Mask IV to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, Aoki's first title in Noah.

Aoki and Marufuji were stripped of the title on April 29, 2011, after Marufuji suffered an injury.

Aoki jumped to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in December 2012 where he became the top star of the junior heavyweight division, winning the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship four times and the All Asia Tag Team Championship 3 times.

Aoki was killed in a motorcycle accident on June 3, 2019, at the age of 41.

At the time of his death, he was the reigning World Junior Heavyweight Champion.