is a Japanese professional wrestler. He works as a freelancer, predominantly for Gleat and Pro Wrestling Zero1. He is best known for his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah.
Known as "The Mad Wolf" and "The Dark Assassin" (among other nicknames), he is best known for his time in Pro Wrestling Noah. He started his career in Riki Choshu's Fighting World of Japan Pro Wrestling (WJ) promotion before heading to Kensuke Sasaki's Kensuke Office/Diamond Ring dojo and promotion. In AJPW, he is a former World Junior Heavyweight Champion. An accomplished karateka, his style is based upon strong, fast kicks and strikes; his style has been dubbed by Nakajima as , which was later changed to "XX Style" following a copyright dispute with IGF.
Nakajima made his professional debut aged 15 in a mixed martial arts contest, and immediately made a name for himself in puroresu, earning the nickname "Supernova" and facing Hall of Famers, such as Kenta Kobashi, Satoru Sayama, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Tatsumi Fujinami. He has competed in several notable Japanese promotions, including New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Inoki Genome Federation, Pro Wrestling Zero1, Michinoku Pro, Dragon Gate, and Pro Wrestling Noah.
He set several age records throughout the first few years into his professional wrestling career, including being the youngest wrestler to compete in AJPW's Champion Carnival tournament, as well as the youngest to hold the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. He won the Tokyo Sports "Rookie of the Year" award in 2004 and the "Fighting Spirit" award in 2005. Having worked for Noah for most of his career, both as a representative of Diamond Ring and as a freelancer, he officially signed with the promotion in December 2015. He is a two-time GHC Heavyweight Champion, three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and a six-time GHC Tag Team Champion. He left Pro Wrestling Noah in 2023 and returned to working as a freelancer for AJPW, where he won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship before leaving that promotion in 2024, and for Gleat, where he became a one-time and longest-reigning Lidet UWF World Champion and a one-time G-Rex Champion.
Professional wrestling career
Kensuke Office/Diamond Ring and affiliates (2004–2015) An accomplished karateka, Nakajima was hired by Riki Choshu's World Japan promotion in December 2002 at the age of 14. He debuted for World Japan (WJ) in September 2003, facing American fighter Jason Leigh in an MMA fight, winning via knockout in one minute and thirty-five seconds. His true professional wrestling debut came on the main event of World Japan's "Resolution" card on January 5, 2004, losing via submission to Tomohiro Ishii.
Nakajima continued to wrestle for WJ for a short time, even wrestling the original Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama before signing with Kensuke Office in April. This led to his debut with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, facing legendary junior heavyweight Jushin Thunder Liger in the Tokyo Dome on May 3, 2004. He made his debut with All Japan Pro Wrestling the next day, successfully teaming with Toshiaki Kawada in a six-man tag team match. He continued to wrestle for both promotions extensively throughout 2004, even competing in Block B of NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors tournament, finishing with two points by defeating Curry Man and reaching the finals of the Young Lion Toukon (fighting spirit) tournament, losing to Ryusuke Taguchi.
On June 12, 2004, in AJPW, Nakajima received the first championship match of his career, teaming with Kensuke Sasaki to unsuccessfully challenge Masanobu Fuchi and Genichiro Tenryu for the All Asia Tag Team Championship. On September 17, 2004, Nakajima made his debut in Dragon Gate on their pay-per-view Gate of Sanctuary, losing to Masaaki Mochizuki. The following month, Nakajima entered the Osaka Pro Tenno-zan single-elimination tournament, losing to eventual winner Big Boss MA-G-MA in the first round. Nakajima and Sasaki teamed up in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in November and December 2004, finishing with four points in Block B.
Nakajima received his first opportunity at a singles championship on April 20, 2005, losing to World Junior Heavyweight Champion Taka Michinoku. His appearances in NJPW became much more sporadic around this time, with his final match to date taking place on April 24, 2005, a loss to 6-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami.
On May 7, 2005, Katsuhiko participated in the 2005 Differ Cup, a biennial cross-promotional junior heavyweight tag team tournament, teaming with Osaka Pro's Takehiro Murahama; the two lost to Super Shisa and Tiger Emperor in the first round. He also teamed with Tomoaki Honma in a tournament throughout June 2005 to decide the vacant All Asia Tag Team Championship, making it to the finals before losing to Shuji Kondo and "brother" Yasshi. Just over one month later on July 26, 2005, Nakajima and Kensuke Sasaki defeated Kondo and Yasshi for the titles in their second defense, giving Nakajima his first championship. They would continue to defend the titles through 2005, against such teams as Arashi and Ryuji Hijikata and Buchanan and D'Lo Brown.
On July 18, 2005, Nakajima made his debut in Pro Wrestling Noah, wrestling in a six-man tag team match in the Tokyo Dome. He would continue by teaming with Kensuke Sasaki against Kenta Kobashi and his own protégé Go Shiozaki in an inter-generation tag team match on November 5, 2005, with Sasaki pinning Shiozaki after a lariat. This match was rated 4 out of 5 stars by wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, one of only eight Noah matches to receive that or a higher rating.
Nakajima made his debut for Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max on July 9, 2005, winning a six-man junior tag team match. He went on to defeat Osamu Namiguchi on August 31 for his first singles title, the WWA World Junior Light Heavyweight Championship, though whether this can be considered part of the title's official lineage is disputed. He held it until June 24, 2006, losing the title to premier Zero1-Max junior Tatsuhito Takaiwa. This is to date Nakajima's last appearance with the promotion.
On February 11, 2006, at a Kensuke Office show celebrating Kensuke Sasaki's 20th career anniversary, Nakajima teamed with Genichiro Tenryu against the "dream team" of Kenta Kobashi and Kensuke Sasaki, falling to a Sasaki lariat. On March 21, 2006, Nakajima won a three-way elimination match in AJPW, defeating both Tomoaki Honma and Nosawa Rongai to earn a spot in Block B of the prestigious 2006 Champion Carnival, becoming the youngest man to participate in the tournament. Nakajima finished in last place in the block with two points by defeating D'Lo Brown. On April 19, 2006, Nakajima entered Big Mouth Loud (BML), losing to company ace Katsuyori Shibata. The following month, Nakajima and Kensuke Sasaki battled in Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), defeating Big Japan's Daisuke Sekimoto and DDT Pro-Wrestling's Daichi Kakimoto in a tag team match when Nakajima pinned Kakimoto.
Nakajima then participated in the 2006 Junior League tournament from June 25, 2006, to July 3, 2006, to decide a challenger for the Junior Heavyweight Championship; Katsuhiko won his block with five points, before losing in the final to Kaz Hayashi. On July 2, 2006, Nakajima's partner Kensuke Sasaki suffered a left eye fracture in a match against Katsuyori Shibata in BML, taking him out of action for the foreseeable future and forcing the team to vacate the All Asia Tag Team Championship on October 29, 2006, after holding the titles since July 2005.
On October 15, 2006, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kaz Hayashi were announced as one of seven teams in the 2006 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, to take place in December 2006. They had a strong showing in the tournament, defeating such teams as Nosawa Rongai and Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Minoru Suzuki and RO'Z and Suwama and drawing with Taiyō Kea and Taka Michinoku, finishing with 5 points overall. On November 14, 2006, Nakajima wrestled in the main event of the debut show of the Global Professional Wrestling Alliance, a cooperation of several different promotions, teaming with Noah's Go Shiozaki and El Dorado's Takuya Sugawara to defeat Zero1-Max's Ryouji Sai, Dramatic Dream Team's Harashima and Kaientai Dojo's Kazma. Kensuke Sasaki made his return from injury on January 2, 2007, teaming with Nakajima to defeat Taru and "brother" Yasshi. The following day Nakajima faced Yasshi in a match to determine Shuji Kondo's next challenger for the Junior Heavyweight Championship, winning via disqualification when Kondo himself interfered. He made his challenge on February 17, 2007, defeating Kondo to end his 16-month reign, and becoming the youngest junior heavyweight champion in history. Nakajima made his first defense of the title on April 30, 2007, defeating Kondo's Voodoo Murders partner "brother" Yasshi, as well as Ryuji Hijikata on May 27, 2007.
Nakajima once again participated in the Junior League in June 2007, finishing in third place for his block with four points, behind Hijikata and Kondo. The league was won by American wrestler Chris Sabin, setting up a title match between Sabin and Nakajima on August 26, 2007, in which Nakajima was victorious. On September 1, 2007, Nakajima challenged Pro Wrestling Noah's Takeshi Morishima for his ROH World Championship in the main event of a Kensuke Office show, putting up a good fight but losing in the end. On September 19, 2007, Nakajima was pinned in a tag team match by visiting luchador Silver King, who then challenged Nakajima to a future junior heavyweight title match. The match was made official for October 18, 2007, at All Japan's 35th anniversary show; on October 8, 2007, Nakajima suffered a fractured navicular bone in his right hand, forcing him off of several shows on the tour, though he defended the title as scheduled. When the match came, Nakajima and Silver King fought to a no contest, forcing PWF commissioner Hiroshi Hase to hold up the title belt, although Nakajima remained the official champion. Katsuhiko then took time off to nurse his injured hand.
Nakajima returned from injury on February 11, 2008, at Kensuke Office's first anniversary show, defeating fellow Kensuke Sasaki protégé Ryuji Yamaguchi; he would follow this up with victories over two more Kensuke trainees in Kento Miyahara and Takashi Okita on February 16, 2008, and March 9, 2008, respectively, held in the Kensuke Office exercise hall. On March 1, 2008, in a rematch from their October encounter, Nakajima lost to Silver King in a match to decide the vacant junior heavyweight title. Later that month, Nakajima teamed with Ryuji Hijikata to participate in the six-team Junior Tag League, winning the tournament with six points by defeating the teams of Silver King and Shuji Kondo, MAZADA and Nosawa Rongai, and T28 and KUSHIDA, as well as Kaz Hayashi and El Samurai in the final, who had defeated them in the group stage. On March 28, 2008, Nakajima faced and defeated Osaka Pro and Dragon Gate wrestler Magnitude Kishiwada on Kensuke Office's first event in the Fukuoka region.