Tetsuya Naito

Tetsuya Naito (内藤哲也) is a Japanese professional wrestler.

He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in his first reign.

He is also the leader of the Los Ingobernables de Japón stable.

Naito began training for a professional wrestling career in 2000, initially under Animal Hamaguchi before joining NJPW in 2004, where he underwent further training.

He is a former NEVER Openweight Champion, and a former IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with former No Limit partner Yujiro Takahashi.

He also had a short reign as IWGP Tag Team Champion with Sanada.

Naito began training for a professional wrestling career in 2000, initially under Animal Hamaguchi.

In 2004 he won the "Takeda Dojo Submission" tournament, which landed him a contract with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) to train in their dojo.

On November 3, 2005, Naito passed a public audition held by NJPW in Korakuen Hall, graduating from the dojo and earning a spot on the promotion's roster.

After half a year of further training, Naito wrestled his debut match on May 27, 2006, losing to Takashi Uwano.

He picked up his first win on October 29 over Mitsuhide Hirasawa.

In 2007, Naito participated in the 2007 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, replacing a wrestler who was unable to compete due to injuries.

Tetsuya finished last in Block B, earning four points by defeating Gedo and El Samurai, losing the other four matches in his block.

In February 2008, Naito formed a tag team with fellow rookie Yujiro Takahashi called No Limit.

In March, the two went to fifteen-minute time limit draws with former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship teams such as Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue, and Minoru and Prince Devitt, and Takahashi pinned veteran Super Strong Machine in a trios match.

All of this led to a junior tag title challenge for the duo, facing Machine's Legend stablemates Jyushin Thunder Liger and Akira, in which No Limit came up short when Akira pinned Naito.

In May 2008, Naito and Takahashi underwent a five-match series with some of New Japan's top tag teams, dubbed "No Limit Generation Smash", held in the various Zepp clubs across Japan.

The teams included Jado and Gedo, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano, Wataru Inoue and Koji Kanemoto, Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto, and Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi.

No Limit lost all five matches.

A special sixth match in the series took place in Zero1 on May 29, 2008, Naito and Takahashi defeated Zero1's Osamu Namiguchi and Shito Ueda.

In July, Naito and Takahashi participated in a single-elimination tournament to decide the new holder of the recently vacated IWGP Junior Heavyweight title.

Naito lost to Takahashi in the first round of the tournament.

On October 13, 2008, at Destruction '08, Naito and Takahashi defeated Devitt and Minoru to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

On January 4, 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III, the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) defeated them to win the tag team title.

Shortly after losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Naito and Takahashi traveled to North America for a "developmental tour", something often done with young Japanese wrestlers to expose them to other styles of wrestling and help them develop into better wrestlers.

No Limit worked mainly for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), while also making an appearance for both Team 3D's wrestling academy and Jersey All Pro Wrestling, although Naito was not able to wrestle in JAPW due to an injury and was replaced by the team's TNA ally Sheik Abdul Bashir.

Naito and Takahashi worked for TNA approximately two months, receiving another unsuccessful shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

No Limit's final appearance for TNA was a handicap match on the May 14, 2009 episode of Impact! against Kevin Nash, which the team lost.

No Limit made their debut for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in Mexico City, Mexico on May 29, 2009 teaming with Dos Caras Jr. to defeat Héctor Garza, La Sombra and Volador Jr. No Limit were presented as "Anti-Mexican" heels ("bad guys") and soon began teaming with Okumura under the team name La Ola Amarilla (Spanish for "The Yellow Wave"), in matches against Mexicans.

On July 10, 2009 No Limit teamed with Black Warrior to defeat the team of Héctor Garza, Toscano and El Sagrado, After the match Black Warrior made a challenge on behalf of Takahashi (as he does not speak Spanish) for a "hair vs. hair" match with Garza.

This led to all men being involved in a 15-man steel cage Luchas de Apuestas match at Infierno en el Ring that Naito won by pinning Toscano, forcing him to have his hair shaved off.

Following the match No Limit's focus was on Black Warrior, who had turned on them during the cage match.

When Jyushin Thunder Liger toured Mexico in September, 2009 he joined the "Anti-Mexico" faction, teaming with No Limit and Okumura to defeat Team Mexico (Último Guerrero, Atlantis, Black Warrior and Héctor Garza) at the CMLL 76th Anniversary Show on September 18, 2009.

The storyline feud between No Limit and Black Warrior reached its conclusion on October 16, 2009 as Black Warrior faced Takahashi in a Lucha de Apuesta, hair vs. hair match that Takahashi won two falls to one, forcing Black Warrior to have his hair shaved off after the match.

After the storyline with Black Warrior ended, No Limit began working with the team of El Texano Jr.. and El Terrible in a feud that led to a Lucha de Apuesta hair vs. hair match between the two teams that was the main event of CMLL's Sin Salida show on December 4, 2009.

After being successful throughout the summer and fall No Limit finally lost to Texano Jr.. and Terrible at Sin Salida and were both shaved completely bald after the match per Lucha Libre traditions.

In addition, Naito is the winner of the 2013, 2017 and 2023 editions of the G1 Climax, NJPW's premier singles tournament, and of the 2016 New Japan Cup.

Regarded as one of the most popular and greatest wrestlers in NJPW history, Tokyo Sports awarded Naito with the MVP Award, the publication's highest honor, in 2016, 2017, 2020, and 2023.

In 2020, Naito became the first person to hold both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at the same time, accomplishing that feat twice, becoming a three-time IWGP Heavyweight and record six-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion.

In addition, he is the only person to win back the double gold, doing so at Summer Struggle in Jingu.