Puroresu Central

Satoshi Kojima

Birthdate: September 14th, 1970
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 245 lbs.
Debut: July 16th, 1991
Background: Trained at the New Japan Dojo
Promotion History: New Japan (1991 to 2001) and All Japan (2002 to present)
Alliances: F4
Ring Attire: Orange short tights
Card Position: Main Event
Major Tournaments Won: G1 Climax Tag League (1998 and 2001), Champion Carnival (2003), the Real World Tag League (2002, 2003, and 2006), and Fire Festival (2003)
Current Championship Held: None

Championship History:

All Japan Triple Crown Championship:
- Defeated Toshiaki Kawada on 2/16/05 and lost to Taiyo Kea on 7/3/06

All Japan World Tag Team Championship with Taiyo Kea:
- Won the World's Strongest Tag Team League on 12/6/02 and Vacated on 5/8/03

All Japan World Tag Team Championship with Kaz Hayashi:
- Defeated Arashi and Keiji Mutoh on 1/18/04 and lost to Kendo Kashin and Nagata on 6/12/04

All Japan World Tag Team Championship with TARU:
- Defeated Kawada and Taiyo Kea on 8/26/07 and lost to Joe Doering and Keiji Mutoh on 1/3/08

IWGP Heavyweight Championship:
- Defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan on 2/20/05 and lost to Hiroyoshi Tenzan on 5/13/05

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Hiroyoshi Tenzan (Held 2 Times):
- Defeated Koshinaka and Tenryu on 1/4/99 and lost to Koshinaka and Sasaki on 3/22/99
- Defeated Nagata and Nakanishi on 7/20/00 and lost to Fujinami and Nishimura on 9/23/01

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Manabu Nakanishi:
- Defeated Riki Choshu and Sasaki on 5/3/97 and lost to Sasaki and Yamazaki on 8/10/97

Biggest Matches:
- May 3rd, 1997 with Nakanishi vs. Riki Choshu and Kensuke Sasaki (title win)
- December 11th, 2001 with Tenzan vs. Mike Barton and Jim Steele (tournament win)
- March 28th, 2003 vs. Arashi (tournament win)
- February 16th, 2005 vs. Toshiaki Kawada (title win)
- February 20th, 2005 vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (double title win)

Pictures:
- The Koji Cutter
- A lariat on Suzuki

Signature Moves:
- CCD
- Koji Cutter
- Lariat
- Rydeen Bomb
- Top Rope Elbow Drop

Super Signature Moves:
- Avalanche Koji Cutter

Career History:
written by Charles Schaeffer

Satoshi Kojima was born on September 14th, 1970, in Katsuyama City, Japan. He was pretty active in high school, and immediately sought out to enter the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo in February of 1991. He would be trained by Animal Hamaguchi and he would be taught by Stan Hansen to utilize the Lariat as his primary finisher. He would make his debut on July 16th, 1991, when he would face Hiroyoshi Yamamoto who you would now know as Hiroyoshi Tenzan. He would find only minor success, but during the 1994 Young Lion's Cup he would win the tournament when he defeated Manabu Nakanishi. Kojima would leave Japan for a while and pursue wrestling in Germany to hone in on his skills. He would return in January of 1996 with a bigger physique and more of an attitude. He would maintain a presence in New Japan and a little over a year later he would win his first title when he, and Manabu Nakanishi, would win the IWGP Tag Team Titles from Riki Choshu and Kensuke Sasaki. They would hold the titles till August 10th, 1997, when they would lose to Kensuke Sasaki and Kazuo Yamazaki. He would eventually brake away from Nakanishi and at the end of 1998 he would turn heel and join NWO Japan.

He would then partner with his old rival Tenzan, and they would call themselves TenKoji, and on January 4th, 1999, they would win the IWGP Tag Team Title against Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka. They would only hold the titles for two months when Kensuke Sasaki and Shiro Koshinaka would defeat them. There would be a no success in their title hunt for a while, but on July 20th, 2000, they would defeat Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata for their second run as IWGP Tag Team Champions. They would go on to dominate New Japan and signify themselves as one of the greatest tag teams of all time. They would even win the G1 Tag League of 2001 when they defeated Mike Barton and Jim Steele. It would not be till September 23, 2001, that they would lose the titles to Tatsumi Fujinami and Osamu Nishimura. At the start of 2002 Kojima would defect, with his mentor Keiji Mutoh and Kendo KaShin, to rival company All Japan Pro Wrestling. The move was in part do to the way New Japan was leaning towards making the company more shoot-style oriented.

The move only seemed to create even more success for him as a wrestler. On September 26th, 2002, during an oversees trip to the U.S., he would defeat Jerry Lynn to win his first Singles Heavyweight Championship the MLW World Heavyweight Title. Back in Japan he would find success back in the tag division as he, along with Taiyo Kea, would go on to win the Real World Tag League and the AJPW World Tag Team Titles on December 6th, 2002. Kojima would use around this time his other persona known as the Great Koji to take on Mutoh's other persona the Great Muta. In 2003, he would win the Champion Carnival 2003 when he defeated Arashi. He would then win The BAPE STA!! Tag Tournament when he and the APEMAN, defeated Arashi and Kendo Kashin in the finals. He would then go to ZERO-ONE-MAX to defeat Shinjiro Otani and win the 2003 Fire Festival. Lastly, he would win the 2003 Real World Tag League when he, and Kaz Hayashi, would defeat Jamal and Justin Credible. On January 2nd, 2004, Kojima would win the All Asia Tag Team Titles, with Shiryu, as the Great Kosuke, his persona based off of The Great Sasuke. Then only sixteen days later he would go on to win the AJPW World Tag Team Title, with Kaz Hayashi, against Keiji Muto and Arashi. He would hold onto both tag titles for around four months when he would lose them both less than a month apart from each another.

On February 16th, 2005, he won his first Heavyweight Title in Japan when he defeated Toshiaki Kawada. Then on February 20th, 2005, just four days after winning the Triple Crown, Kojima defeated former rival and ex-tag partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He would wear New Japan's title till May 14th when Tenzan would finally win it back. Kojima would continue though to carry the Triple Crown and it was not till over a year later on July 3rd, 2006, that he would lose the title to Taiyo Kea. After the lose he would go to wrestle in New Japan's G-1 Climax Tournament, where he would make it to the finals and lose against Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Kojima then announced that he would reform TenKoji, with Tenzan, and that they would compete in the 2006 Real World Tag League. At the end of the year TenKoji won the Tag League when they defeated Kohei Suwama and RO'Z during the finals.

2007 Recap:
2007 saw a major change in Kojima as he went from a crowd favorite to a member of the hated Voodoo Murderers. Before going to the dark side, on February 17th he went for Suzuki's Triple Crown Championship but Suzuki would come out victorious. At the Champion Carnival he defeated Minoru Suzuki and RO'Z but did not reach the finals. During the summer TARU began to recruit Kojima and after several weeks he finally succeeded as Kojima turned on Kensuke Sasaki and joined the Voodoo Murderers. After feuding with Sasaki, on August 26th he teamed with TARU to win the All Japan World Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Kea and Kawada. In the Real World Tag League he teamed with Suwama and they reached the finals before falling to Mutoh and Doering.

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