is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is working as a freelancer, primarily for Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is the leader of Los Tranquilos de Japon and the current GHC Heavyweight Champion in his first reign. He is best known for his 21-year run in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) from 2004 to 2025, and is largely regarded as one of the greatest and most popular wrestlers in the company's history.
Naito began training for a professional wrestling career in 2000, initially under Animal Hamaguchi before joining NJPW in 2004, where he underwent further training and progressively rose to main event status. Although NJPW aimed to establish him as a top star by 2014, his clean cut babyface persona caused significant fan backlash, leading to his planned main event match at Wrestle Kingdom, NJPW's biggest event, to be demoted. This, and a stay in the Mexican stable Los Ingobernables through NJPW's partnership with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), would lead Naito to reinvent himself as an antihero leading his own stable, Los Ingobernables de Japon. Despite its villainous tendencies, this new gimmick immediately led him to new heights of popularity, and he would win the company's top prize, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship five times, while finally main-eventing Wrestle Kingdom five separate times. He departed NJPW in 2025 and proceed to continue to work as a freelancer on the independent scene and for Pro Wrestling Noah, where formed the spin-off stable Los Tranquilos de Japon.
In NJPW, Naito is also the winner of the 2013, 2017 and 2023 editions of the G1 Climax, NJPW's premier singles tournament, and of the 2016 New Japan Cup. Other accomplishments include being the first person to hold the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at the same time, a feat he accomplished twice, and being together with partner Yujiro Takahashi as No Limit the first team to have held both the company's heavyweight and junior heavyweight tag titles. He was awarded Tokyo Sportss MVP Award, the publication's highest honor, in 2016, 2017, 2020, and 2023.
Professional wrestling career
Training (2000–2004) Naito began training for a professional wrestling career in 2000, initially under Animal Hamaguchi. In 2004 Naito won the "Takeda Dojo Submission" tournament, which landed him a contract with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) to train in their dojo.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2005–2026) Young Lion and foreign excursion (2005–2010) After a year in NJPW's Dojo on November 3, 2005, Naito passed a public audition held by NJPW in Korakuen Hall, graduating from the dojo and earning a spot on the promotion's roster. After half a year of further training, Naito wrestled his debut match on May 27, 2006, losing to Takashi Uwano. He picked up his first win on October 29 over Mitsuhide Hirasawa. In 2007, Naito participated in the 2007 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, replacing a wrestler who was unable to compete due to injuries. Tetsuya finished last in Block B, earning four points by defeating Gedo and El Samurai, losing the other four matches in his block.
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 Takahashi pinned veteran Super Strong Machine in a trios match. All of this led to a junior tag title challenge for the duo, facing Machine's Legend stablemates Jyushin Thunder Liger and Akira, in which No Limit came up short when Akira pinned Naito.
In May 2008, Naito and Takahashi 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. A special sixth match in the series took place in Zero1 on May 29, 2008, Naito and Takahashi defeated Zero1's Osamu Namiguchi and Shito Ueda. In July, Naito and Takahashi participated in a single-elimination tournament to decide the new holder of the recently vacated IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. Naito lost to Takahashi in the first round of the tournament. On October 13, 2008, at Destruction '08, Naito and Takahashi defeated Devitt and Minoru to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. On January 4, 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III, the Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) defeated them to win the tag team title. Shortly after losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Naito and Takahashi traveled to North America for a "developmental tour", something often done with young Japanese wrestlers to expose them to other styles of wrestling and help them develop into better wrestlers.
No Limit (2010–2011)
On December 5, 2009, NJPW announced that Naito and Takahashi were returning to Japan as part of their annual January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, Wrestle Kingdom IV. At the event Naito and Takahashi 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. No Limit had their first title defense on February 14, 2010, defeating El Texano Jr. and El Terrible to retain the title. On April 4 at New Dimension No Limit joined New Japan's top heel stable Chaos, led by the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. On May 3, 2010, at Wrestling Dontaku 2010 Naito and Takahashi lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue of Seigigun in a three-way match, which also included Bad Intentions.
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. On October 24 No Limit entered the 2010 G1 Tag League. After three wins and two losses, they finished first in their block and advanced to the semifinals. On November 7, after defeating Nakanishi and Strong Man in the semifinals, No Limit was defeated in the finals of the tournament by Nagata and Inoue. 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. On January 4, 2011, at Wrestle Kingdom V, Naito unsuccessfully challenged Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. 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.
In May 2011 Naito took part in New Japan's first tour of the United States, the Invasion Tour 2011. 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. The following day in New York City, Naito was eliminated from the tournament in the semifinal stage by MVP. Upon their return to Japan, Takahashi turned on Naito on May 26, effectively dissolving No Limit and turning Naito face.
Singles success (2011–2015) On June 18 at Dominion 6.18, Takahashi defeated Naito in the first match between the former members of No Limit. On June 28, Naito returned to CMLL for a one-month stint. Upon his return to Japan, Naito faced Takahashi during the first day of the 2011 G1 Climax, with Takahashi once again emerging victorious. 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. On September 19, Naito defeated Takahashi in the third singles match between the two, after which he made an official challenge towards Tanahashi and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On October 10 at Destruction '11, Naito failed in his attempt to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Tanahashi.
On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI, Naito faced All Japan Pro Wrestling's Keiji Muto in a losing effort. From late 2011 to early 2012, Naito was involved in a feud with Nakamura, which built to a singles match on February 12 at The New Beginning, where Naito was victorious and in the process became the number one contender to new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada. Naito received his title opportunity on March 4 in the main event of New Japan's 40th anniversary event, but was defeated by Okada. During the next months, Naito began having problems with Tanahashi, after he was chosen over Naito as the next challenger for Okada. In August, Naito took part in the 2012 G1 Climax tournament, during which he picked up a big win over Okada. However, a loss to Hirooki Goto on the final day of the tournament meant that Okada managed to overtake him in the standings, causing him to get eliminated from the tournament. Despite suffering a legitimate knee injury during the tournament, Naito continued wrestling regularly afterwards. On October 8 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Naito was defeated by Yujiro Takahashi, when the referee ended the match due to Takahashi punishing Naito's injured knee. Following the match, Naito was stretchered out of the arena. Naito underwent reconstructive knee surgery on October 16 and was expected to miss eight months of in-ring action.