| Tetsuya Naitō | |
|---|---|
Naitō in November 2011. |
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| Ring name(s) | Tetsuya Naito Naito |
| Billed height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1] |
| Billed weight | 102 kg (220 lb)[1] |
| Born | June 22, 1982 [1] Adachi, Tokyo, Japan[1] |
| Trained by | Animal Hamaguchi[1] Takada Dojo[1] NJPW Dojo[1] |
| Debut | November 5, 2005[1] |
Tetsuya Naitō (内藤 哲也 Naitō Tetsuya) is a Japanese professional wrestler trained by and currently performing for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former IWGP Tag Team and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with former partner Yujiro Takahashi, with whom he teamed as No Limit.
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Tetsuya Naitō began training for a professional wrestling career in 2000, initially training under Animal Hamaguchi.[1] 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.[1]
Naito made his professional wrestling debut on November 3, 2005 in a "Test Match" at Korakuen Hall.[1] Following the match he returned to the Dojo for further training, not wrestling for NJPW regularly until five months later.[1] In 2007 Naito participated in the 2007 Best of the Super Juniors best of Super Juniors tournament, replacing a wrestler who was unable to compete due to injuries.[1] Naito finished last in Block B, earning 4 points by defeating Gedo and El Samurai, losing the four matches in the first round.
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 Yujiro pinned veteran Super Strong Machine in a trios match.[2] All of this led to a junior tag title challenge for the duo, facing Machine's Legend stablemates Jushin Liger and AKIRA, in which NO LIMIT came up short when AKIRA pinned Naito. Yujiro would then participate in the ongoing feud between New Japan and Pro Wrestling Zero1, teaming with Koji Kanemoto and Manabu Nakanishi in two separate tag team matches, losing to ZERO1's Masato Tanaka and Tatsuhito Takaiwa in the former, and defeating Takao Ōmori and Osamu Namiguchi in the latter.[3]
In May 2008, Yujiro and Naito 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.[4] A special sixth match in the series took place in ZERO1 on May 29, 2008, Yujiro and Naito defeated ZERO1's Osamu Namiguchi and Shito Ueda.[5] In June 2008, Yujiro entered the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, going winless in his first four matches before defeating Minoru in his final bout to finish with two points.[6] The following month, both Naito and Yujiro participated in a single-elimination tournament to decide the new holder of the recently vacated IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. Naito lost to Yujiro in the first round of the tournament.[7] On October 13, 2008, at Destruction '08 Yujiro and Naito defeated Devitt and Minoru to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. On January 4, 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome The Motor City Machine Guns of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin defeated them to win the tag team titles.[8]
Shortly after losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Yujiro and Naito traveled to North America for a "developmental tour", something often done with young Japanese wrestlers to expose them to other styles of wrestling and held 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 wasn't able to wrestle in JAPW due to an injury and was replaced by the team's TNA ally Sheik Abdul Bashir.[9] Yujiro and Naito worked for TNA approximately two months, receiving unsuccessful shots at both the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and the IWGP Tag Team Championship held by Team 3D.[10] No Limit's final appearance for TNA was a handicap match on the May 14, 2009, edition of Impact! against Kevin Nash, which the team lost.[11]
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 Yujiro (as Yujiro does not speak Spanish) for a "hair vs. hair" match with Garza.[12] 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.[13] Following the match No Limit's focus was on Black Warrior, who had turned on them during the cage match. When Jushin 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.[14] The following week Yujio teamed with Okumura to win the 2009 Gran Alternativa tournament, defeating Toscano and Rouge in the first round, Héctor Garza and Ángel de Plata in the second round and Místico and Ángel de Oro in the finals.[15] The storyline feud between No Limit and Black Warrior reached its conclusion on October 16, 2009 as Black Warrior faced Yujiro in a Lucha de Apuesta, hair vs. hair match that Yujiro won two falls to one, forcing Black Warrior to have his hair shaved off after the match.[16] 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.[17] While Yujiro has not returned to CMLL since their return to NJPW on January 4, 2010 Naito returned in January and has stated that he would like to work in Mexico between NJPW tours. Naito teamd up with Okumura and is expected to team up with Taichi, a NJPW rookie who will be travelling to Mexico to gain experience.[18]
On December 5, 2009, NJPW announced that Yujiro and Naito were returning to Japan as part of their annual January 4 Tokyo Dome show called Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome.[19] At the event Yujiro and Naito defeated Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) and Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) in a three-way hardcore match to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[20] No Limit had their first title defense on February 14, 2010, defeating El Texano, Jr. and El Terrible to retain the title.[21] On April 4 at New Dimension No Limit joined New Japan's top heel stable CHAOS, led by the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura.[22] On May 3, 2010, at Wrestling Dontaku 2010 Naito and Takahashi lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue of the Blue Justice Army in a three-way match, which also included Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson).[23] After losing the title, Naito began breaking out on his own, scoring pinfall victories over the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Togi Makabe, IWGP Tag Team Champion Karl Anderson and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Manabu Nakanishi and wrestling four-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi to a 30 minute time limit draw during the 2010 G1 Climax tournament, while also having another strong showing against Tanahashi in a losing effort at Destruction '10 on October 11.[24][25][26][27][28] On October 24 No Limit entered the 2010 G1 Climax Tag League.[29] After three wins and two losses, they finished first in their block and advanced to the semifinals.[30] On November 7, after defeating Manabu Nakanishi and Strong Man in the semifinals, No Limit was defeated in the finals of the tournament by Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue.[31] On December 11, 2010, No Limit picked up a major win by defeating the TNA World Tag Team Champions, The Motor City Machine Guns, in a non–title match.[32] On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, Naitō unsuccessfully challenged Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.[33][34] On May 3, No Limit failed in their attempt to regain the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Bad Intentions. After the match Takahashi walked out on Naito.[35][36] In May 2011 Naito took part in New Japan's first tour of the United States. On May 13 in Rahway, New Jersey, he entered the tournament to determine the first ever IWGP Intercontinental Champion, defeating local worker Josh Daniels in his first round match.[37] The following day in New York City, Naito was eliminated from the tournament in the semifinal stage by MVP.[38] Upon their return to Japan, Takahashi turned on Naito on May 26, effectively dissolving No Limit and turning Naito face.[39]
On June 18 at Dominion 6.18, Takahashi defeated Naito in the first match between the former members of No Limit.[40] On June 28, Naito returned to CMLL for a one month stint.[41] Upon his return to Japan, Naito faced Takahashi during the first day of the 2011 G1 Climax, with Takahashi once again emerging victorious.[42] Naito then went on to win six out of his eight remaining matches, including picking up big wins over Giant Bernard, Yoshihiro Takayama and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, to win his block and advance to the finals of the 2011 G1 Climax. However, in the end, Naito failed to win the tournament as he was defeated in the finals by Shinsuke Nakamura.[43] On September 19, Naito defeated Takahashi in the third singles match between the two, after which he made an official challenge towards Hiroshi Tanahashi and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.[44] On October 10, Naito failed in his attempt to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Tanahashi.[45] On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, Naito faced All Japan Pro Wrestling's Keiji Mutoh in a losing effort.[46]
| Wager | Winner | Loser | Location | Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hair | Naito | Toscano | Mexico City, Mexico | July 31, 2009 | This was a 15-man steel cage elimination match, also including Yujiro, Shocker, Héctor Garza, Negro Casas, Black Warrior, El Terrible, El Texano, Jr., Shigeo Okumura, Blue Panther, Máximo, Ray Mendoza Jr., Heavy Metal and Mictlán, held at the 2009 Infierno en el Ring show.[13] |
| Hair | El Texano, Jr. and El Terrible | No Limit (Yujiro and Naito) | Mexico City, Mexico | December 4, 2009 | Main event of CMLL's Sin Salida show.[17] |
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