Seiki Yoshioka

Seiki Yoshioka (吉岡 世起), previously known as Seiki (stylized in all capital letters), is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a former GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, and a member of the Stinger stable, led by Yoshinari Ogawa.

Yoshioka is also known for his time in Wrestle-1, where he was a three-time Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Champion and UWA World Trios Champion and a one-time NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Champion in Pro Wrestling Zero1.

In Wrestle-1, Yoshioka was a member of the #Stronghearts stable, led by Cima.

In the past, Yoshioka has also toured Great Britain, as the final All Star Wrestling British Mid-Heavyweight Champion.

Yoshioka grew up in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto.

His father and two older brothers are all doctors.

After watching a pro-wrestling video while still in elementary school, he became inspired by Keiji Muto.

While in third year of junior high, he learnt about Triple H attempting to recover from a serious quad injury, and was so impressed he decided to become a pro-wrestler.

To supplement this, he attended a Taekwondo Dojo while attending Kumamoto Prefectural High School and learnt various techniques.

Yoshioka attended Okayama University as it was close to the Wrestle Gate dojo in Hiroshima, and after one unsuccessful attempt, was entered into the college on his second attempt.

He started in April 2007 and studied at their Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences for 6 years, earning a qualification as a pharmacist.

A day after starting at university, Yoshioka began training at Wrestle Gate, run by Hanzo, and would train there whilst also attending school.

After nearly a year, Yoshioka was given exhibition matches on Wrestle Gate pre-shows, whilst wearing a mask, On October 5, 2008, he made his official debut teaming with Susumu in a losing effort against Kindaichi Hogo & Minoru Fujita on Wrestle Gate's 5th Anniversary show.

Eventually, he changed his ring name to just Seiki (stylized in all capital letters).

In 2011, Seiki won his first belt, winning the Hakata Tag Team Championship (a championship managed by Pro Wrestling Kageki) with Susumu, in a team known as Scramble☆Time.

They successfully defended the belts 3 times before losing them to Hanzo & Victory Shanghai.

During this time, when All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) & Wrestling New Classic (WNC) were in Hiroshima & Okayama, Seiki would occasionally perform on their shows.

Seiki unsuccessfully challenged for the Hakata Light Heavyweight Championship (held by Cosmo Soldier) twice in 2012 while spending that year wrestling his final matches for Wrestle Gate & Pro Wrestling Kageki.

In April 2013, after finishing his pharmacist degree, Seiki decided to start wrestling full-time in Tokyo and graduate from Wrestle Gate in Hiroshima.

He wrestled his farewell match on May 26, 2013, teaming with Betcha Hogo in a winning effort against Daisuke Masaoka & Yuki Tanaka.

He was signed by All Japan Pro-Wrestling on May 1 as Seiki's trainer, Hanzo, is close with Kaz Hayashi who was a senior figure there at the time.

Seiki then again started going by his real name Seiki Yoshioka and begun retraining for AJPW.

In 2013, there was a mass exodus from All Japan Pro-Wrestling after issues with its new ownership, and Yoshioka was one of the many that joined Keiji Muto's new promotion, Wrestle-1 (W-1), He left AJPW on June 30 and transferred to W-1 on July 10.

He resumed his re-training, and debuted against Hiroshi Yamato on September 15 in a losing effort.

Yoshioka's first big win came in January 2014 when he pinned Kaz Hayashi in a singles match in just over 6 minutes after a Swanton bomb.

On March 2, he and Manabu Soya defeated Ryoji Sai & Kazma Sakamoto in Ryōgoku Kokugikan in an event co-promoted by partner company Total Nonstop Action (TNA).

Later that month, Yoshioka won a battle royal to face Seiya Sanada for the TNA X-Division Championship.

He would go on to unsuccessfully challenge for the title in a Korakuen Hall main event after Sanada pinned him following a Rounding Body Press.

Sanada said that he had 'changed so much in these two weeks'.

On June 22, Yoshioka defeated Jiro 'Ikemen' Kuroshio, then won another battle royal for a title opportunity, this time for All Star Wrestling (ASW)'s British Light Heavyweight Championship.

On July 6, in Ryogoku Kokugikan, he defeated Dean Allmark to win the belt with his signature Swanton Bomb.

Yoshioka was then immediately sent on a foreign learning excursion to Britain, where he lost the title back to Allmark on August 19 in Rhyl, Wales.

After a month, he returned to Japan.

On November 7 on Kassen ~ Battle Zero1vsW-1 Full Battle~ in Shinjuku Face, Yoshioka won Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1)'s NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship with Shuji Kondo from Takuya Sugawara and "brother" Yasshi, after Yoshioka pinned Sugawara.

Yoshioka entered W-1's First Tag League with Minoru Tanaka, but failed to win the tournament.

After one successful defence, Yoshioka & Kondo lost their belts back to Sugawara and Yasshi.

After two straight unsuccessful challenges for Minoru Tanaka's Wrestle-1 Cruiser Division Championship, he started teaming with Jiro 'Ikemen' Kushio.

This alliance eventually came to include Yasufumi Nakanoue, and the three became known as Jackets, as all three men wore jackets during their matches.

After only making sporadic appearances since signing with Wrestle-1, Yoshioka wrestled his first full tour in 5 years by participating in the Junior Battle of Glory 2019.

Yoshioka finished the league with a record of 3 wins, 1 loss and a draw, advancing to the final, where he was defeated by Koji Iwamoto.