 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Daiki Inaba (1988-02-28)February 28, 1988 (age 37)[1] |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Daiki Inaba Tokyo Inaba Hiroki Inaba America VIP |
| Billed height | 172 cm (5 ft7+1⁄2 in) |
| Billed weight | 82 kg (181 lb) |
| Trained by | Emile Duprée Keiji Mutoh El Pantera Shuji Kondo Bobby Sharp |
| Debut | May 3, 2013 |
Daiki Inaba (稲葉 大樹,Inaba Daiki; born February 28, 1988) is a Japaneseprofessional wrestler who currently competes as afreelancer, majorly forPro Wrestling Noah. He's best known for his time inWrestle-1, where he was a two-timeWrestle-1 Champion, and the winner of the2019Wrestle-1 Grand Prix.[3] His nickname isMad Dog and he currently works as ababyface (hero).[4]
Inaba participated inAmateur wrestling andJudo while attending college. After college, he continued his training while working for formerNew Japan Pro-Wrestling wrestler and medical trainerTakeshi Misawa's osteopathic clinic.[5]
In January 2012, Inaba successfully passed a public audition forAll Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and began training full-time in theirdojo.[4][6] After training for 17 months, he was sent on an overseas learning excursion and made his professional wrestling debut on May 3, 2013, for anindependentMexican wrestling promotion under thering nameHiroki Inaba in a match that fellow AJPW wrestlerAndy Wu was also involved in.[7] On May 24, Inaba made his debut forEmile Duprée'sAtlantic Grand Prix Wrestling (AGPW) inCanada under the ring nameTokyo Inaba. Wrestling mainly in losing efforts againstBobby Sharp and wearing facepaint during his matches, he continued to work for the promotion during their summer tour until June 22.[5][8][9] Inaba also teamed with AJPW wrestlerSeiya Sanada to take on Sharp and another AJPW wrestler,René Duprée. Inaba briefly returned to Mexico on August 18 to work a tag team match forInternational Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) under the nameAmerica VIP.[10] During this time, there was amass exodus from AJPW, and while abroad, Inaba made the decision to join new promotionWrestle-1 (W-1) run by one of his AJPW trainers,Keiji Muto.[4][6]
Inaba returned to Japan and made his debut for Wrestle-1 at the promotion's inaugural eventWrestle-1 Hataage Sen on September 8, 2013. In W-1's first ever match, he teamed withHiroshi Yamato in a winning effort againstTokyo Gurentai (Mazada andNosawa Rongai).[11]
On March 2, 2014, atKaisen: Outbreak, Inaba teamed with Andy Wu and Hiroshi Yamato in a losing effort againstKazushi Miyamoto and Tokyo Gurentai (Mazada and Nosawa Rongai).[12] On March 15, Inaba competed in abattle royal to determine the number one contender for theTNA X Division Championship, which was won bySeiki Yoshioka.[13]
On July 29, 2016, Inaba along with Andy Wu and Seiki Yoshioka defeatedKaz Hayashi,Minoru Tanaka andTajiri to win theUWA World Trios Championships.[14] On August 24, Inaba defeatedKai to become theWrestle-1 Champion.[15] Three days later, he, along with Andy & Yoshioka successfully defended their UWA World Trios belts against Hiroki Murase, Kai & Shota.[6] He would defend the Wrestle-1 Championship against Kai a month later inKorakuen Hall.[6] On October 2, after again defending the UWA World Trios Championship with Andy & Yoshioka, this time against Koji Doi, Kumagoro &Yusuke Kodama, all six men formed an alliance, it would later be namedNewera.[6] On November 2, 2016, Inaba lost the Wrestle-1 Championship toMasayuki Kono during the Wrestle-12016 Autumn Tour on the first night of the tour.[16] A month later, he also lost the UWA World Trios Championship toJun Kasai, Nosawa Rongai &Shuji Kondo, with Kondo pinning Inaba after aKing KongLariat.[6]
On February 22, 2017, Inaba again won the UWA World Trios Championship, this time with Kohei Fujimura (who had recently joinedNewera) & Yusuke Kodama. The three would hold the belt for 46 days, defending successfully once before losing them toTrigger representatives (Masayuki Kono & Shuji Kondo) & Kaz Hayashi.[17]
In 2018,Newera broke up after repeated infighting.
On July 2, 2019, Inaba won the Wrestle-1 Grand Prix, in his third attempt. He defeatedShotaro Ashino in the final and on September 1, 2019, atW-1 Pro-Wrestling Love In Yokohama 2019, Inaba defeatedT-Hawk to become a two time Wrestle-1 Champion.[18] He would defend the title successfully against Kuma Arashi before losing it toKatsuhiko Nakajima ofPro Wrestling Noah on January 12, 2020.[6]
On February 21, 2020, Wrestle-1 announced it would be indefinitely suspended on April 1 and that all wrestlers would be immediately released from their contracts.[6] On March 15, Inaba and Koji Doi became the finalWrestle-1 Tag Team Champions after defeating Shotaro Ashino & Yusuke Kodama. On April 1, Wrestle-1 held its to-date final show,Wrestle-1 Tour 2020 Trans Magic in Korakuen Hall, and Inaba was part of the winning team in an 8-man tag team match opposing Wrestle-1 executives Keiji Muto & Kaz Hayashi.[6] His W-1 Tag Team Championship was retired immediately afterward.
After finishing up with Wrestle-1, Inaba was now a freelancer. He appeared in Pro Wrestling Noah on theirNoah New Hope show on May 31, challengingKaito Kiyomiya after the main event.[19] On July 5, the two had a match, and Kiyomiya was victorious. Afterwards though, Kiyomiya agreed to team with him, and Inaba officially welcomed into Noah's Home Team, while not being a contracted wrestler.[20]
In February 2021, Inaba suffered an injury. After 5 months, Inaba returned as a surprise tag partner of Kiyomiya &Masa Kitamiya atNoah Up To Emotion 2021 in Korakuen Hall. They were unsuccessful against Kongo (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima &Manabu Soya), with Inaba being pinned by Soya, who was also a part of Wrestle-1 throughout its entire history, after aPowerbomb.[21] Inaba wished to face Kiyomiya one-on-one again, and he accepted. Their match was scheduled for July 27 atNoah Sanctuary inKawasaki, and Kiyomiya won with aTiger Suplex.[22] On August 6, Inaba was announced as a participant in the2021 N-1 Victory, where he would fight in B Block againstKenoh,Masaaki Mochizuki &Kazunari Murakami.[23]
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