Sanshiro Takagi
Trained by the Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) promotion, Kudo, then working under a mask and the ring name Konica Man #2, made his professional wrestling debut on November 30, 2001, teaming with Tomohiko Hashimoto and Fushichu Crow in a six-man tag team match, where they were defeated by Fake Sanshiro Takagi, Issei Fujisawa and Tomohiro Ishii. Through the rest of 2001 and early 2002, he worked as a low-carder, often teaming with fellow masked wrestler Hero!. On April 25, 2002, Konica Man #2, in storyline poisoned by Poison Sawada Julie, turned on Hero!, unmasked and renamed himself Toguro Habukage. This started a storyline, where Habukage, under the spell of Sawada, feuded with his former partner Hero!, who was trying to get him to remember who he truly was. Habukage and Hero! faced off in a main event singles match on August 1, which was won by Hero! In late 2002, Poison Sawada Julie's control over Habukage and another minion, Hebikage, started to wear off, which led to dissension in the group and eventually to a match between Sawada and Hebikage. The over-the-top storyline continued with Sawada's "serpent god" decapitating him and turning his body into stone as punishment for his inability to create a cohesive army, while also taking away his minions, and finally concluded in January 2003, when Hero!, while supposedly on a business trip to Hong Kong, found Habukage disoriented and unable to remember anything from his past.