Daichi Hashimoto

Daichi Hashimoto (橋本 大地) is a Japanese professional wrestler.

He is currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), where he performs in the Strong BJ division.

In BJW, Hashimoto is a two-time BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion and three-time BJW Tag Team Champion.

He is the son of Shinya Hashimoto and started his career in his father's Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1) promotion.

The oldest of three children, Daichi Hashimoto grew up around full-contact sports, as his father Shinya was a famous pro wrestler, alongside his "uncles" Masahiro Chono and Keiji Muto.

Since the sixth grade, Hashimoto took up karate, and was part of his middle school's MMA team, Blue Sky.

When his father died in July 2005, Hashimoto decided he wanted to become a professional wrestler in order to honour his father's memory.

In September 2009, he took part in his father's 25th Anniversary show, hosted by Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1).

He competed in an exhibition kickboxing match against Satoshi Kobayashi.

The match was declared a draw after two two-minute rounds.

After the show, Hashimoto expressed his desire to become a professional wrestler and Masahiro Chono and Shinjiro Otani picked up on his desire and trained him for nearly a year and a half.

After nearly a year and a half of training, Hashimoto made his debut on March 6, 2011, at Pro Wrestling Zero1's 10th Anniversary show, where he wrestled Masahiro Chono in a losing effort.

After the match, he was given advice from his "uncles" Chono and Keiji Muto, and he was also embraced by his mother and his two younger sisters.

Fellow Zero1 rookie Yuichiro ☆Jienotsu☆ Nagashima came to congratulate him.

Fifteen days later, Hashimoto went to All Japan Pro Wrestling, wrestled Muto, and lost.

Over the next few months, Hashimoto would team up with Shinjiro Otani in various types of tag team match up and would even wrestle together at Inoki Genome Federation.

On August 27, Hashimoto received his first title shot ever, as he and Otani unsuccessfully challenged Kamikaze and Sato for the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship.

In December 2011, Hashimoto took part in the Furinkazan Tag Team League, teaming up with Akebono.

He and Akebono started the tournament strong on December 8, defeating Kohei Sato and Kamikaze.

Three days later on December 11, Hashimoto and Akebono continued their success by defeating NWA Team, which was revealed to be Schwarz and Weiss.

However, the team would go on to lose their next two matches which led to them being placed 3rd in Block B. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter awarded Hashimoto with the Rookie of the Year award for 2011.

Hashimoto began the new year with a bang on January 1, 2012, when he won his first singles match, defeating Yoshikazu Yokoyama.

On March 2 at Zero1's 11TH Anniversary Show, Hashimoto teamed with Otani and lost to Kensuke Sasaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima.

In April 2012, Hashimoto participated in Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah)'s Global Tag League with Otani as his partner.

On April 11, he and Otani started off strong by defeating Eddie Edwards and Colt Cabana.

They defeated the team of Go Shiozaki and Tamon Honda and Yoshihiro Takayama and Maybach Taniguchi.

The team lost the rest of their matches meaning that Hashimoto and Otani ended the Global Tag League in 5th place with six points.

Hashimoto and Otani teamed up together until July when they separated to take part in Fire Festival 2012.

Hashimoto lost all four of his tournament matches, including losing to Otani.

In September, Hashimoto participated in two tournaments Tenkaichi Junior Tournament 2012 at Zero1 where Hashimoto was defeated by Tatsuhito Takaiwa in the first round.

The second tournament he took part in was the Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League 2012 in block B at Noah.

Hashimoto teamed up with Ikuto Hidaka and won their block with six points but would lose the final to Atsushi Kotoge and Taiji Ishimori.

On December 2, he travelled to Hong Kong for his first overseas contest against Zero1 Hong Kong's Bitman.

Wrestling as a big heel from Japan, he defeated Bitman after a mist attack follow by a vertical drop DDT.

On January 4, 2013, Hashimoto was scheduled to make his debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), teaming with Keiji Muto at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome; however, on December 27, it was announced that he had fractured his left forearm and would be forced to pull out of the match.

Despite the injury, Hashimoto made an appearance at the event, having a confrontation with Hiroyoshi Tenzan, after he and Satoshi Kojima had defeated Muto and his replacement, Shinjiro Otani.

During the hiatus, Hashimoto bulked up to 95 kg, but eventually slimmed down to 90 kg. Hashimoto returned to the ring on April 15, 2013, when he was defeated by Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) representative Kota Ibushi in a singles match.

On May 2, Zero1 announced that Hashimoto had re-aggravated his forearm injury and would once again be sidelined from in-ring action.

On October 13, 2013, Hashimoto made his return to the ring, facing Nakajima in a losing effort.

On February 11, 2014, Hashimoto received the first singles title shot of his career, when he unsuccessfully challenged Tama Williams for the NWA United National Heavyweight Championship.