Konosuke Takeshita. A name that little to nobody recognized. That is until the April 20th, 2022 edition AEW Dark: Elevation. Takeshita made quick work of Brandon Cutler on that episode of AEW Dark: Elevation, defeating him in only 4 mins & 57 secs.
This left the AEW audience interested in seeing more of this Takeshita. Before we continue on further with Takeshita’s U.S.A. excursion that led to AEW, amongst other places.
Let’s back up just a little bit on just who Konosuke Takeshita is. Takeshita was trained by DDT Pro-Wrestling and made his debut for the promotion on August 18th, 2012. Dubbed the “Future of DDT”, Takeshita was named the Rookie of the Year by Tokyo Sports in 2013.
During his time in DDT he made a number of astounding accomplishments, one of which was becoming the youngest KO-D Openweight Champion in history, which he did on his 21st birthday. He is also a former KO-D Tag-Team Champion, a KO-D 6-man Tag-Team Champion, and Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion.
Now fast forward roughly a decade later and Takeshita is one of the most popular Japanese wrestlers in the States! After the high praise from fans around the world regarding the AEW Dark: Elevation match with Cutler, Takeshita found himself scheduled for a one-on-one match with Jay Lethal on the May 4th, 2022 edition of AEW Rampage. This would be Takeshita’s AEW TV debut. Once again, Takeshita continued to wow the audience but on a much bigger scale this time, because this wasn’t just a YouTube show. This was a national television broadcast that allowed Takeshita to be seen by hundreds of thousands new potential fans, a lot of them for the first time.
After a very successful AEW Rampage debut, Takeshita landed himself a match against Hangman Adam Page 2 weeks later on the May 18th, 2022 edition of AEW Dynamite. Now was Takeshita’s real chance to shine. Not only was he making his AEW Dynamite debut, but it was against the AEW World Heavyweight Champion. Once again, Takeshita put on a stellar performance in a match that had the pro-wrestling world buzzing. The match even earned itself a 4 1⁄2 star rating from WON.
Now with all of these incredible performances from this seemingly unknown talent from Japan, he has now found himself wrestling for promotions from AEW, to Prestige to Defy to JCW to even PWG where he wrestled Daniel Garcia for the PWG World Heavyweight Championship. Even Kenny Omega cracked a joke on twitter not long after everyone was hopping on the Takeshita train (screenshot below).
At such a young age, and with how great this young professional wrestler already is, the sky is the limit for him. I look forward to continue to see this man flourish in this business.
Author: Alexsi Cartagena
Photo Credit: AEW