60 Facts About Katsuhiko Nakajima

1.

Katsuhiko Nakajima is a Japanese professional wrestler, signed to Pro Wrestling Noah.

2.

Katsuhiko Nakajima has wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is a former World Junior Heavyweight Champion.

3.

Katsuhiko Nakajima has competed in several notable Japanese promotions, including New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Inoki Genome Federation, Pro Wrestling Zero1, Michinoku Pro, Dragon Gate, and currently, Pro Wrestling Noah.

4.

Katsuhiko Nakajima has set several age records throughout his career, including being the youngest wrestler to compete in AJPW's Champion Carnival tournament and the youngest to hold the World Junior Heavyweight Championship.

5.

Katsuhiko Nakajima won the Tokyo Sports "Rookie of the Year" award in 2004 and the "Fighting Spirit" award in 2005.

6.

Katsuhiko Nakajima is a two-time GHC Heavyweight Champion, three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and a six-time GHC Tag Team Champion.

7.

An accomplished karateka, Katsuhiko Nakajima was hired by Riki Choshu's World Japan promotion in December 2002 at the age of 14.

8.

Katsuhiko Nakajima debuted for World Japan in September 2003, facing American fighter Jason Leigh in an MMA fight, winning via knockout in one minute and thirty-five seconds.

9.

Katsuhiko Nakajima made his debut with All Japan Pro Wrestling the next day, successfully teaming with Toshiaki Kawada in a six-man tag team match.

10.

Katsuhiko Nakajima continued to wrestle for both promotions extensively throughout 2004, even competing in Block B of NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors tournament, finishing with two points by defeating Curry Man and reaching the finals of the Young Lion Toukon tournament, losing to Ryusuke Taguchi.

11.

On September 17,2004, Katsuhiko Nakajima made his debut in Dragon Gate on their pay-per-view Gate of Sanctuary, losing to Masaaki Mochizuki.

12.

Katsuhiko Nakajima received his first opportunity at a singles championship on April 20,2005, losing to World Junior Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku.

13.

On May 7,2005, Katsuhiko Nakajima participated in the 2005 Differ Cup, a biennial cross-promotional junior heavyweight tag team tournament, teaming with Osaka Pro's Takehiro Murahama; the two lost to Super Shisa and Tiger Emperor in the first round.

14.

On July 18,2005, Katsuhiko Nakajima made his debut in Pro Wrestling Noah, wrestling in a six-man tag team match in the Tokyo Dome.

15.

Katsuhiko Nakajima would continue by teaming with Kensuke Sasaki against Kenta Kobashi and his own protege Go Shiozaki in an inter-generation tag team match on November 5,2005, with Sasaki pinning Shiozaki after a lariat.

16.

Katsuhiko Nakajima made his debut for Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX on July 9,2005, winning a six-man junior tag team match.

17.

Katsuhiko Nakajima held it until June 24,2006, losing the title to premier ZERO1-MAX junior Tatsuhito Takaiwa.

18.

On February 11,2006, at a Kensuke Office show celebrating Kensuke Sasaki's 20th career anniversary, Katsuhiko Nakajima teamed with Genichiro Tenryu against the "dream team" of Kenta Kobashi and Kensuke Sasaki, falling to a Sasaki lariat.

19.

On March 21,2006, Katsuhiko Nakajima won a three-way elimination match in AJPW, defeating both Tomoaki Honma and NOSAWA Rongai to earn a spot in Block B of the prestigious 2006 Champion Carnival, becoming the youngest man to participate in the tournament.

20.

Katsuhiko Nakajima finished in last place in the block with two points by defeating D'Lo Brown.

21.

Nakajima then participated in the 2006 Junior League tournament from June 25,2006, to July 3,2006, to decide a challenger for the Junior Heavyweight Championship; Katsuhiko won his block with five points, before losing in the final to Kaz Hayashi.

22.

On November 14,2006, Katsuhiko Nakajima wrestled in the main event of the debut show of the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance, a cooperation of several different promotions, teaming with NOAH's Go Shiozaki and El Dorado's Takuya Sugawara to defeat ZERO1-MAX's Ryouji Sai, Dramatic Dream Team's HARASHIMA and Kaientai Dojo's KAZMA.

23.

Katsuhiko Nakajima made his challenge on February 17,2007, defeating Kondo to end his 16-month reign, and becoming the youngest junior heavyweight champion in history.

24.

Katsuhiko Nakajima made his first defense of the title on April 30,2007, defeating Kondo's Voodoo Murders partner "brother" YASSHI, as well as Ryuji Hijikata on May 27,2007.

25.

Katsuhiko Nakajima participated in the Junior League in June 2007, finishing in third place for his block with four points, behind Hijikata and Kondo.

26.

On September 1,2007, Katsuhiko Nakajima challenged Pro Wrestling Noah's Takeshi Morishima for his ROH World Championship in the main event of a Kensuke Office show, putting up a good fight but losing in the end.

27.

On September 19,2007, Katsuhiko Nakajima was pinned in a tag team match by visiting luchador Silver King, who then challenged Katsuhiko Nakajima to a future junior heavyweight title match.

28.

The match was made official for October 18,2007, at All Japan's 35th anniversary show; on October 8,2007, Katsuhiko Nakajima suffered a fractured navicular bone in his right hand, forcing him off of several shows on the tour, though he defended the title as scheduled.

29.

Katsuhiko Nakajima then took time off to nurse his injured hand.

30.

Katsuhiko Nakajima returned from injury on February 11,2008, at Kensuke Office's first anniversary show, defeating fellow Kensuke Sasaki protege Ryuji Yamaguchi; he would follow this up with victories over two more Kensuke trainees in Kento Miyahara and Takashi Okita on February 16,2008, and March 9,2008, respectively, held in the Kensuke Office exercise hall.

31.

On March 1,2008, in a rematch from their October encounter, Katsuhiko Nakajima lost to Silver King in a match to decide the vacant junior heavyweight title.

32.

Later that month, Katsuhiko Nakajima teamed with Ryuji Hijikata to participate in the six-team Junior Tag League, winning the tournament with six points by defeating the teams of Silver King and Shuji Kondo, MAZADA and NOSAWA Rongai, and T28 and KUSHIDA, as well as Kaz Hayashi and El Samurai in the final, who had defeated them in the group stage.

33.

On March 28,2008, Katsuhiko Nakajima faced and defeated Osaka Pro and Dragon Gate wrestler Magnitude Kishiwada on Kensuke Office's first event in the Fukuoka region.

34.

On June 29,2008, Katsuhiko Nakajima wrestled what would be his last match in AJPW for the time being, teaming with Kaz Hayashi to defeat Ryuji Hijikata and T28.

35.

Katsuhiko Nakajima began to wrestle consistently with NOAH starting July 2,2008, and it was announced the following week that he and the rest of Kensuke Office would be lending their support to NOAH instead of All Japan for the foreseeable future.

36.

The match originally went to a 20-minute time limit draw, but was restarted and Katsuhiko Nakajima pinned Honda shortly thereafter.

37.

On September 14,2008, Katsuhiko Nakajima participated in American promotion Ring of Honor's second tour of Japan, teaming with Naomichi Marufuji against Kenta and Kota Ibushi in a special tag match.

38.

Danielson would retain his title, making Katsuhiko Nakajima submit to the Cattle Mutilation.

39.

On September 23,2011, Katsuhiko Nakajima defeated Kotaro Suzuki to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship for the second time.

40.

On May 9,2012, Katsuhiko Nakajima lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yoshinobu Kanemaru, ending his third reign at 164 days.

41.

Katsuhiko Nakajima then took part in a brief feud with Maybach Taniguchi which culminated at the NOAH "GREAT VOYAGE 2013 IN TOKYO" event.

42.

On February 11,2014, Katsuhiko Nakajima earned his first win over his mentor Kensuke Sasaki in the main event of a show celebrating his tenth anniversary in professional wrestling.

43.

On December 24,2015, Noah held a press conference announcing that Katsuhiko Nakajima would be ending his days as a freelancer and officially joining the promotion on January 1,2016.

44.

On February 24,2016, Katsuhiko Nakajima picked up the biggest win of his career by defeating Minoru Suzuki in the main event of Noah's show in Korakuen Hall.

45.

From July 22 to August 13,2016, Katsuhiko Nakajima took part in NJPW's 2016 G1 Climax, where he finished tied third in his block with a record of five wins and four losses, failing to advance to the finals.

46.

Katsuhiko Nakajima made his first title defense in a match against the 2016 Global League winner, Minoru Suzuki, at One Night Cruise in Korakuen on December 2.

47.

Katsuhiko Nakajima defeated Go Shiozaki at "Great Voyage in Yokohama" on March 12,2017, marking his fourth title defense.

48.

On June 4,2017, at "Navigation with Breeze", Katsuhiko Nakajima made his fifth title defense against Muhammad Yone.

49.

Katsuhiko Nakajima followed it up with his sixth successful defense against Atsushi Kotoge on June 25,2017.

50.

Katsuhiko Nakajima participated on the 2018 Global League, winning 4 matches and losing 2, failing to advance to the finals.

51.

Backstage, Katsuhiko Nakajima said that his Tag Team with Go Shiozaki has a name, and it is AXIZ.

52.

Katsuhiko Nakajima accepted Kiyomiya and Taniguchi's challenge for their titles on the condition that Kiyomiya would defend the GHC Heavyweight Championship against him.

53.

Six days later, Katsuhiko Nakajima unsuccessfully challenged Kaito Kiyomiya for the GHC Heavyweight Championship.

54.

From September 18 and October 11, Katsuhiko Nakajima took part in the 2020 N-1 Victory, finishing the tournament with a record of four wins, and one loss to advance to the finals of the tournament.

55.

On October 11, Katsuhiko Nakajima defeated Kaito Kiyomiya in the finals to win the 2020 N-1 Victory.

56.

At the event Cage War, Katsuhiko Nakajima was forced to shave his hair after being defeated by his former partner Kitamiya and would instruct his KONGOH stablemate Kenoh to fully shave his head.

57.

In September, Katsuhiko Nakajima took part in the 2021 N-1 Victory, winning his block with a record of two wins and one loss, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament.

58.

At the event, Katsuhiko Nakajima faced Kenoh in a 60-minute time limit draw to retain the GHC Heavyweight Championship and unsuccessfully challenging Kenoh for the GHC National Championship.

59.

At the event, Katsuhiko Nakajima successfully defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Shiozaki, forcing him to abandon his "I am Noah" catchfrase.

60.

On June 12,2022, at CyberFight Festival 2022, Katsuhiko Nakajima teamed with Atsushi Kotoge and Yoshiki Inamura, facing off against Burning and Kazusada Higuchi in a six-man tag team match, where in the match, Katsuhiko Nakajima delivered a slap to Endo that knocked Endo out, causing the match to be called off.