Takeshita, with a sports background in
track and field, began training for a career in
professional wrestling in 2011 with the
DDT Pro-Wrestling promotion.[5] Takeshita had been a professional wrestling fan since childhood and as a 12-year old had attended a DDT show, where he was kissed by wrestler
Danshoku Dino.[6][7] On April 1, 2012, DDT announced that Takeshita would be debuting for the promotion on August 18 in
Tokyo's
Nippon Budokan.[5] Prior to his debut match, Takeshita took part in exhibition matches.[8] During one of these matches on August 4, Takeshita scored an upset win over
Hiroshi Fukuda, winning the
Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship in the process.[9] The title had a 24/7 rule, where it could be won anytime and anywhere.[10] As Takeshita was being congratulated by DDT general manager Amon Tsurumi for winning his first match before his debut, Fukuda hit him with a
low blow and then pinned him to regain the title.[9]
On August 17, Takeshita took part in a high-profile interpromotional match, when he was defeated by
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) representative
Hiroshi Tanahashi at DDT's annual
Ryōgoku Kokugikan event.[18][19] On September 28, Takeshita and Endo defeated Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship for the first time.[1][20] Afterwards, Omega dubbed Takeshita the "Future of DDT".[1] Takeshita and Endo went on to lose the title to
Daisuke Sekimoto and
Yuji Okabayashi on February 15, 2015.[1][21] The following June, Takeshita made it to the finals of the 2015 King of DDT tournament, but was defeated there by Yukio Sakaguchi.[1][22] On December 23, Takeshita and Endo defeated
Shigehiro Irie and Yuji Okabayashi in the finals of a tournament to regain the
vacant KO-D Tag Team Championship.[1][23]
With Kudo sidelined with an injury and Kota Ibushi announcing his resignation from DDT, Takeshita was poised to take a larger role in the promotion.[23][24] On January 3, 2016, he received his first shot at DDT's top title, the
KO-D Openweight Championship, but was defeated by the defending champion, Isami Kodaka.[1] On March 21, Takeshita and Endo lost the KO-D Tag Team Championship to
Daisuke Sasaki and
Shuji Ishikawa.[1] On May 29, his 21st birthday, Takeshita defeated Daisuke Sasaki to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the first time.[25][26] With the win, Takeshita became the youngest KO-D Openweight Champion in history,[27] beating the previous record held by
Nosawa Rongai by three years and six months.[24] On June 15, Takeshita made his debut for
All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), teaming with Tetsuya Endo in a tag team match, where they defeated
Jun Akiyama and
Yuma Aoyagi.[28][29] On July 17, Takeshita successfully defended the KO-D Openweight Championship against his tag team partner Tetsuya Endo. After the match, Endo turned on Takeshita and joined Daisuke Sasaki's
Damnation stable.[30][31] After three successful title defenses, Takeshita lost the KO-D Openweight Championship to Shuji Ishikawa on August 28 at DDT's biggest event of the year,
Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2016.[32][33] On December 4, Takeshita and
Mike Bailey defeated Daisuke Sasaki and Tetsuya Endo to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship.[34] They lost the title to
Masakatsu Funaki and Yukio Sakaguchi in their second defense on January 9, 2017.[35]
On January 29, Takeshita defeated Kudo in the finals of a tournament to become the number one contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship.[36][37] At
Judgement 2017: DDT 20th Anniversary event, Takeshita defeated
Harashima to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the second time.[38][39] The following month, Takeshita and
Akito formed a new tag team named "All Out".[40] On August 20 at the 2017
Ryōgoku Peter Pan show, Takeshita made his seventh successful defense of the KO-D Openweight Championship against
2017 King of DDT winner Tetsuya Endo.[41][42] On October 22, Takeshita set a new record for most successful defenses of the KO-D Openweight Championship by making his ninth defense against Danshoku Dino.[7] On November 2, Takeshita became a double champion, when he and his All Out stablemates Akito and
Diego defeated Damnation (Daisuke Sasaki,
Mad Paulie and Shuji Ishikawa) to win the vacant
KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship.[43] On November 28, Takeshita and
Yuki Ueno won the cross-promotional
2017 Differ Cup by defeating the
Pro Wrestling Noah team of
Hitoshi Kumano and
Katsuhiko Nakajima in the finals. This marked the first Differ Cup held in 10 years.[44] On December 10, All Out lost the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship to Shuten-dōji.[45]
On February 17, 2019, Takeshita defeated Daisuke Sasaki to win his third KO-D Openweight Championship. On April 4, at
DDT Is Coming to America, Takeshita lost the title to Daisuke Sasaki. Later on, Tetsuya Endo cashed in his "Right To Challenge Anytime, Anywhere" contract to win the title.[47] On May 19, Takeshita defeated
Soma Takao in the finals of the
2019 King of DDT tournament and thus became the number one contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship then held by Endo. On June 24, along with his All Out stablemates
Shunma Katsumata and
Yuki Iino, he won the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship by defeating
Chihiro Hashimoto,
Dash Chisako and
Meiko Satomura.[48] On July 15, at
Wrestle Peter Pan 2019, he won the KO-D Openweight Championship by defeating Tetsuya Endo.[49]
On March 22, 2020, he lost the 6-man title to the team of Tetsuya Endo,
T-Hawk and
El Lindaman.[50]
In early 2021, Takeshita announced that All Out would disband with their last match taking place on March 12 in a special All Out produced event. Their farewell match was a
tag team match that Takeshita and Akito won against Katsumata and Iino.[51] On March 28, in the pre-show of the
Judgement 2021: DDT 24th Anniversary event, Takeshita and Katsumata were announced as entrants in the
Ultimate Tag League 2021 where they would represent their new stable
The37Kamiina.[52] They won the league by defeating Daisuke Sasaki and
Yuji Hino in a tie-breaker match on May 27.[53]
Takeshita returned to AEW on the April 25, 2022 episode of AEW Dark: Elevation where he defeated
Brandon Cutler. On the May 4 episode AEW Dynamite, he was challenged by Jay Lethal to wrestle him on the next episode of AEW Rampage. On the May 6, 2022 episode of Rampage, Lethal would defeat Takeshita following assistance from his manager
Sonjay Dutt and
Satnam Singh.[56] On
AEW Dynamite on May 18 he was defeated by AEW World Champion
"Hangman" Adam Page in a non-title singles match, which was heavily praised by wrestling critics.[57] Takeshita continued to gather wins on Elevation. On the July 6th episode of AEW Rampage, Takeshita lost to
Eddie Kingston in a hard-hitting match.[58] Takeshita's impressive matches up to this point earned him an
AEW Interim World Championship Eliminator match against then interim champion
Jon Moxley on the July 13 special episode of Dynamite titled Fyter Fest, which he lost.[59] At
Battle of the Belts III in August, Takeshita fought
Claudio Castagnoli for his
ROH World Championship, and was defeated.[60] On November 19, it was confirmed that Takeshita had signed with the company, after his match against Eddie Kingston and Ortiz, while keeping his contract with DDT.[61][62]
At
Double or Nothing on May 28, Takeshita aligned with
Don Callis after they attacked Kenny Omega in the final moments of his match against
Blackpool Combat Club, turning
heel in the process.[63] At
Blood and Guts, Takeshita, along with
PAC and the Blackpool Combat Club were defeated by
The Elite at the events' eponymous match. Takeshita would later go on to defeat Omega twice on pay per view in the span of a week - In a six man tag team match at
All In and in a singles match at
All Out.
^Samurai TV [@samuraitv] (December 31, 2021).
「輝く!日本インディー大賞 2021」の結果は以下となりました。 [The results of the "Japan Indie Awards 2021" results are as follows.] (
Tweet) (in Japanese) – via
Twitter.
^Meltzer, Dave (February 2023). "February 2023 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Results of the 2022 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards". Wrestling Observer Newsletter.