Kota Ibushi

Kota Ibushi is a Japanese professional wrestler and former martial artist who signed with All Elite Wrestling AEW in 2023 Widely praised by fans and critics for his explosive athleticism striking ability and willingness to take extreme physical risks he built a reputation for delivering some of the highestrated matches of his era particularly through his work in New Japan ProWrestling NJPW His accolades include the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Best Flying Wrestler award in 2009 2010 2012 and 2013 Pro Wrestling Match of the Year in 2015 against Shinsuke Nakamura and induction into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2022 Ibushi began his career in 2004 with DDT ProWrestling where he became one of the companys top stars During his time there he won the KOD Openweight Championship three times the KOD Tag Team Championship five times and the KOD 6Man Tag Team Championship twice Two of those tag title reigns came alongside Kenny Omega as the GoldenLovers whose combined 351 days as champions remain a DDT record He first appeared for NJPW in 2009 before officially signing in 2013 Across his time with the promotion he won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship three times the NEVER Openweight Championship once and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Ibushi later won the Best of the Super Juniors in 2011 and the New Japan Cup in 2015 After leaving both NJPW and DDT in 2016 to work as a freelancer he competed for multiple promotions and took part in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic Returning to NJPW fulltime in 2019 Ibushi won the G1 Climax in 2019 and 2020 becoming the first wrestler to win the tournament in consecutive years since Hiroyoshi Tenzan in 2003 Those victories made him the only wrestler to win all three of NJPWs major singles tournaments In 2021 he captured the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and unified it with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to become the inaugural IWGP World Heavyweight Champion while ranking No 5 in the PWI 500