Ben-K

Ben-K in December 2022

###

Sakura, Chiba, Japan

**Futa Nakamura** (中村風太, *Nakamura Futa*, born October 19, 1991 in Sakura, Chiba, Japan) is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known by the ring name **Ben-K** (ベン-ケー, *Ben-Kē*), where he is currently signed to Dragon Gate, where he is a former one-time Open The Dream Gate Champion, a former two-time Open The Twin Gate Champion, a former three-time Open The Triangle Gate Champion, and the winner of the 2019 King of Gate.

Nakamura was trained by the Dragon Gate Dojo and made his debut in April 2016. He would work mostly on the midcard, wearing all black gear and with no particular ring character, all part of the structured learning process in Dragon Gate. Later that year, Nakamura was repackaged as "Ben-K" (ベン-K, *Ben-Kei*), with a completely new look. He would become known for his power and force as a powerhouse. In March of the following year, Ben-K along with Big R Shimizu and Naruki Doi won the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. Ben-K along with Shimizu formed a team dubbed Big Ben. In May, Ben-K, Doi, Shimizu, Masato Yoshino, and Kotoka formed a stable named MaxiMuM. Ben-K, Shimizu, and Doi held the titles for just three months. In April of the following year, Ben-K and Shimizu won the Open The Twin Gate Championship, which they would hold for three months. In September, Ben-K turned on MaxiMuM turning heel and winning the Open The Twin Gate Championship with Shimizu for the second time, holding it for four months.

In May of the following year, R.E.D turned on Ben-K and afterwards received a significant push as a main eventer winning the 2019 King of Gate and headlining Dragon Gate's biggest annual event, Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, defeating PAC to win the Open the Dream Gate Championship, holding it for four months, before losing the title to Naruki Doi. Afterwards, Ben-K he began lowering in the card, staying much of his time in the mid-card. Upon his addition to Gold Class, Ben-K repackaged himself into a gigolo character, who often carries a golden chain, with Minorita being positioned as his sidekick and mouthpiece.

## Professional wrestling career

### Dragon Gate (2015–Present)

#### Early career (2015–2016)

Nakamura trained for his professional wrestling career in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate's wrestling school called "Dragon Gate Nex" and wrestled several exhibition bouts before officially debuting against T-Hawk on April 22, 2016 in a losing effort. As is customary for most professional wrestlers, Watanabe spent most of his matches losing to other, more experienced wrestlers, which would help put over other wrestlers while at the same time give Inamura some in-ring, televised, experience. Nakamura then begun teaming together on a regular basis with fellow rookies Hyou Watanabe and Shun Watanabe.

On July 7, it was announced that Nakamura would take part in the Summer Adventure Tag League with Masaaki Mochizuki at block B in August. At the tournament, Nakamura and Mochizuki were forced to forfeit their matches, after Nakamura was sidelined with an shoulder injury, following an attack by VerserK. In the end, Nakamura and Mochizuki end up losing all of their qualifying matches. On November 11, Nakamura was repackaged as "Ben-K", meaning powerful person in Japanese. Afterwards, Dragon Gate's General Manager Takayuki Yagi granted Ben-K and Shun Skywalker a match against former Open the Twin Gate Champions Jimmyz (Jimmy Kagetora and Jimmy Susumu), facing them in a losing effort. Later that night, veteran CIMA challenged Ben-K, Skywalker, Watanabe and rookies Katsumi Takashima and Yuki Yoshioka to a match. This led on December 1, Ben-K, Skywalker, Watanabe, Takashima and Yoshioka being defeated by CIMA, Dragon Kid, Don Fujii, Gamma and Masaaki Mochizuki.

#### MaxiMuM (2016–2018)

Later that month, Ben-K began aligning himself with Kotoka and Masato Yoshino, with the trio taking part of a in a three-way match on December 25 at Final Gate, to crown the new Open The Triangle Gate Champions, which Jimmyz (Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy Kanda, and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito) ended up winning. On January 18, 2017 Ben-K, Yoshino and Kotoka took part in the New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament, being defeated in the finals by VerserK (El Lindaman, T-Hawk and Shingo Takagi) after the interference from VerserK. After the match, VerserK attacked Ben-K, Yoshino, and Kotoka until Dr. Muscle who was later revealed to be Naruki Doi made the save and the four made an alliance against VerserK. On March 4, Ben-K, Big R Shimizu and Naruki Doi challenged VerserK (Shingo Takagi, T-Hawk and Cyber Kong) to a title match for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. However, due to Kong being sidelined with an injury and he was replaced by "brother" YASSHI in a match for the vacant titles. On March 20, Ben-K, Shimizu and Doi defeated Takagi, T-Hawk and YASSHI to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. On April 7, Ben-K, Doi, Shimizu and Masato Yoshino formed a new stable, which was named MaxiMuM on May 4, upon the addition of Kotoka. On July 1, Ben-K, Shimizu, and Doi lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to Takashi Yoshida, El Lindaman, and Shingo Takagi. As part of MaxiMuM, Ben-K and Shimizu formed a tag team named "Big Ben", unsuccessfully challenging CK-1 for the Open the Twin Gate Championship on November 3 at Gate of Destiny.

At the beginning of 2018, Ben-K stated that the future of Dragon Gate depended on him being at the top. On February 11, Ben-K defeated Masaaki Mochizuki in a non-title match in just two minutes. After a brief confrontation between the two, Ben-K challenged Mochizuki into a rematch but for the Open The Dream Gate Championship, in which Mochizuki accepted. On March 4, at Champion Gate in Osaka, Ben-K unsucessfully challenged Mochizuki for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. On May 6 at Dead or Alive, Ben-K and Shimizu defeated Eita and T-Hawk to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship. They lost the titles to Tribe Vanguard (YAMATO and BxB Hulk) on July 22 at Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival.

#### Heel Turn (2018–2019)

On September 6, Ben-K turned on MaxiMuM and joined ANTIAS, reforming Big Ben with Shimizu who had previously had turn on MaxiMuM to join ANTIAS. Shortly after, ANTIAS renamed themselves to R.E.D. On September 24 at Dangerous Gate, after Masato Yoshino defended his Open The Dream Gate Championship against Naruki Doi, R.E.D came to the ring and attacked MaxiMuM and his R.E.D stablemate Big R Shimizu nominated Ben-K to challenge Yoshino for his title. On November 4 at Gate of Destiny, Ben-K unsuccessfully challenged Masato Yoshino for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. On December 23 at Final Gate, Ben-K and Shimizu defeated Tribe Vanguard (Kagetora and YAMATO), Speed Muscle (Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi) and MexaBlood (Bandido and Flamita) in a four-way elimination tag team match to regain the Open The Twin Gate Championship.

Since January 16, 2019, during a match between R.E.D and MaxiMuM, Shimizu accidentally attacked Ben-K on two occasions which caused some tension between them. Shimizu had previously cost R.E.D a match, with the rest of R.E.D leaving the arena without him. Shimizu's mistakes would repeat during R.E.D's matches, leading Eita to accuse him of doing it on purpose, and blamed Ben-K and Shimizu for the loses and accused them of being incompetent. On February 5, tensions would come ahead between R.E.D and the rest of the others stables in Dragon Gate except MaxiMuM, Eita would criticize each stable weak points and agreed to a match with each other on March 7. Eita would nominate himself, PAC, Kazma Sakamoto and Yasushi Kanda for the match, leaving Shimizu arguing that Ben-K and himself should be in the match due to holding the Open The Twin Gate Championship. Five days later, Eita would accidentally hit Ben-K with a chair, costing his match against U-T. Shimizu blamed Eita for Ben-K's loss and demanded an explanation, but he refused claiming they were the ones who lost the match. Ben-K and Shimizu errors led Eita to threat them that he would kick them out of the stable. Despite Big Ben, retaining the Open The Twin Gate Championship on March 3 at Champion Gate in Osaka, Eita warned them that he had no problems of kicking them out. On March 7, Tribe Vanguard won the four-way eight-man tag team elimination match, after Ben-K accidentally attacked Kanda. Shimizu would beg Eita to not kick them out of the stable, YAMATO would provoke Eita, leading him to berate the other units. General Manager Takayuki Yagi capitalized on the opportunity and announced the rules for the Steel Cage Survival match at Dead or Alive on May 6, as well multiple tag team matches between members of the respective units to decide, which member would enter in the match. Eita would select Yoshida as his partner and their opponents would be Big Ben. On April 10, Big Ben defeated Eita and Yoshida, with Shimizu pinning Eita, to represent R.E.D in the match. Afterwards, Shimizu dared Eita to kick him out of the stable. Yoshida declared that he was not on Eita's side causing tensions in R.E.D, leading Sakamoto and Kanda to choose Eita's side, dividing the stable. On April 28, Ben-K and Shimizu lost the Open the Twin Gate Championship to KAI and YAMATO, after Eita cost them the match.

#### Open The Dream Gate Champion (2019–2020)

On May 6 at Dead or Alive, Ben-K and Eita lost to Kaito Ishida and Masato Yoshino. During the match, Ben-K refused to cooperate with Eita and later after some miscommunication, Ben-K attacked Eita, allowing Ishida and Yoshino to win the match. Later that night, after Shimizu lost the "Bonds" steel cage survival five-way match, Shimizu along with the rest of R.E.D turned on Ben-K, revealing that he was never planning on kicking Eita out, they were working together all this time, while also claiming that Eita was the leader. Later that month, Ben-K took part in the 2019 King of Gate, where he won his block with a clean record of five wins, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On June 6, Ben-K defeated Kzy to advance to the finals of the tournament. Two days later, Ben-K defeated his former R.E.D stablemate Eita in the finals to win the tournament. After the match, Ben-K challenged PAC to a title match for his Open The Dream Gate Championship. General Manager Takayuki Yagi announced the title match for the main event of the 2019 Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival on July 21. The following day, Ben-K would be attacked by R.E.D but Shun Skywalker made the save, with the two making an alliance against R.E.D.

On July 21, at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Ben-K defeated PAC to win the Open The Dream Gate Championship for the first time in the main event of the show, establishing himself as one of Dragon Gate's leading figures. On August 7, Ben-K teamed with Shun Skywalker in a losing effort against YAMATO and KAI. Afterwards, YAMATO would sarcastically challenge Ben-K to a match for his title, which he accepted. On August 31 at Dangerous Gate, Ben-K defeated YAMATO to make his first successful title defense. Ben-K next challenger was Masaaki Mochizuki, who won a #1 contender battle royal match. Mochizuki was also impressed with Ben-K's recent victories over PAC and YAMATO. On October 8, Ben-K defeated Masaaki Mochizuki to make his second successful title defense. Afterwards, Ben-K called out Masato Yoshino and Yoshino challenged him to a match for the Open The Dream Gate Championship on November 4 at Gate of Destiny. At the November 4 event, Ben-K defeated Yoshino to make his third successful title defense. Afterwards, Yoshino's MaxiMuM stablemate Naruki Doi came to the ring and proclaimed as the next challenger for Ben-K's title, leading Ben-K to accept the challenge. Three days later, Ben-K and Shun Skywalker lost to Doi and Yoshino. After the match, Skywalker challenged Ben-K to match on December 4, in which Ben-K defeated Skywalker, after the match, Ben-K went for a handshake but Skywalker refused it, ending their partnership. On December 15, at Final Gate, Ben-K lost the Open The Dream Gate Championship to Naruki Doi, in his fourth title defense, ending his seven months undefeated streak.

#### Generation War and High-End (2020–2022)

Three days later, Ben-K began an alliance with YAMATO to form the Dragon Gate stable in order to unite all Dragon Gate generation of wrestlers against Toryumon and R.E.D in a "Generation War". In January 2020, Ben-K and YAMATO took part in a tournament to crown the new Open The Twin Gate Champions, losing to the R.E.D duo of BxB Hulk and Kazma Sakamoto in the finals of the tournament on January 15. On February 29 on the first night of the Champion Gate in Osaka, Ben-K, Strong Machine J, and Dragon Dia defeated Toryumon's Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito, and Kenichiro Arai to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. From May 17 until May 24, Ben-K took part in the 2020 King of Gate, losing in the second round to eventual winner Eita, eliminating him from the tournament. On September 21, at Dangerous Gate, Ben-K, Dia and Machine lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to R.E.D's Diamante, Kazma Sakamoto and Takashi Yoshida. On November 15 at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, after Shun Skywalker won the Open The Dream Gate Championship, Ben-K challenged him to a title match. On December 20 at Final Gate, Ben-K unsucessfully challenged Skywalker for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. Following the match, it was announced that Ben-K had suffured a concussion during the match. Seven days later, after R.E.D forced Toryumon to disband, YAMATO decided to disband the Dragon Gate Generation stable, ending the "Generation War".

Ben-K made his return from injury on January 31 taking part of the Open the Twin Gate #1 Contender's One Night Tournament alongside Shuji Kondo. Ben-K and Kondo made into finals of the tournament, losing to Masaaki Mochizuki and Takashi Yoshida. On February 5, Ben-K formed a stable with Keisuke Okuda, Dragon Kid, and YAMATO, with the name of the stable being revealed on March 4. At the event, the new stable was named High-End. In May, Ben-K was supposed to take part in the 2021 King of Gate. On May 15, it was announced that Ben-K had registred a slight fever, leading him to be pulled from the tournament until the results of a PCR test. Three days later, it was announced that Ben-K had tested positive for COVID-19, leading him to be pulled out of the tournament. On November 5, High-End stablemates, Ben-K and YAMATO faced each other in a tag team match, with Ben-K teaming with Dragon Kid and YAMATO with Kagetora. After Ben-K picked up the win for his team, he challenged YAMATO to a title match for the Open The Dream Gate Championship at Gate of Origin, which he accepted. At the event, on November 27, Ben-K unsuccessfully challenged YAMATO for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. In May 2022, Ben-K took part in the 2022 King of Gate, being eliminated in the first round to Jason Lee.

#### Gold Class (2022–Present)

In August, Z-Brats began trying to convince Ben-K to join them. Meanwhile, Gold Class began tempting YAMATO to join them. Ben-K and YAMATO began having a rift with each other, following a Open The Twin Gate Championship number one contenders match, where both lost to Dragon Dia and Madoka Kikuta, after Ben-K unitencionally attacked YAMATO. On September 9, during a match, between High-End and Gold Class, Ben-K chased Minorita to the backstage, before returning in a Gold Class themed ring attire, turning on YAMATO and deffecting to Gold Class. On January 22, 2023, Ben-K, BxB Hulk and Kota Minoura defeated KAI, Shun Skywalker and ISHIN to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. The following month, Ben-K and Minorita took part in the 2023 Rey de Parejas, losing all off their matches. On May 20, Ben-K, Hulk and Minoura lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to Natural Vibes (Big Boss Shimizu, Jacky "Funky" Kamei and Kzy). On December 20, after D'Courage relinquished the Open The Twin Gate Championship, Ben-K and Kota Minoura announced their intentions of taking part in the match for the vacant titles. On December 24, at Final Gate, Ben-K and Minoura were defeated by Pro Wrestling NOAH's Kaito Kiyomiya and Alejandro.

## Personal life

Besides wrestling, Nakamura is a fan of Mixed Martial Arts. Nakamura was also friends with fellow professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist Keisuke Okuda, who also worked for Dragon Gate. However, Okuda left the promotion, following a real-life dispute between them. On May 18, 2021, Nakamura tested positive for COVID-19 amid its pandemic in Japan.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Ben-K Bomb* (Deadlift gutwrench powerbomb, while sometimes spinning)
	+ *Masakari* (Jackhammer)
	+ *Sodegarami* (Grounded full nelson sleeper)
	+ Spear
* **Signature moves**
	+ Argentine backbreaker rack, sometimes dropped into a facebuster
	+ Bearhug
	+ *Ben-K Crush* (Headbutt)
	+ *Ben-K Drop* (Sit-out full nelson bomb)
	+ *Ben-K Lift* (Tawara gaeshi)
	+ Canadian backbreaker rack, sometimes flipped into a gutbuster
	+ Dropkick
	+ *Doujime Sleeper* (Choke sleeper)
	+ Enzuigiri
	+ Gutwrench slam
	+ Lariat
	+ Multiple elbow variations
		- Back elbow
		- Elbow
		- Elbow stamp
	+ Multiple knee variations
		- Knee drop
		- Knee lift
	+ Multiple strike variations
		- Neck punch
		- Slap
	+ Multiple suplex variations
		- Back to belly, sometimes while bridging
		- Belly to belly
		- Brainbuster, somtimes avalanche or with delay
		- Dragon
		- Front
		- German
		- Gutwrench
		- Vertical
	+ Missile dropkick
	+ Olympic slam
	+ Overhead gutwrench backbreaker rack drop
	+ Running shoulder tackle
	+ Sitout swinging side slam
* **With Big R Shimizu**
	+ **Double team finishing moves**
		- Belly to belly suplex (Ben-K) followed by an *OTAKEBI* (Shimizu)
		- Double spear
		- Pop-up (Shimizu) into a spear (Ben-K)
* **With Minorita**
	+ Aided spear
* **With Kota Minoura and Minorita**
	+ Double octopus strech (Ben-K and Minoura) while Minorita steps over the back of an opponent, while taunting)
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"Soul Shouter"**
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Dragon Storm 2007 (Instrumental Version)" by JAM Project
	+ **"Oriental Weapon"** by TUSK
	+ "1st FINGER" by 21g (used as part of MaxiMuM)

## Championships and Accomplishments

* **Dragon Gate**
	+ Open The Dream Gate Championship (1 time)
	+ Open The Twin Gate Championship (2 times) – with Big R Shimizu
	+ Open The Triangle Gate Championship (3 times) – with Big R Shimizu and Naruki Doi (1) and Dragon Dia and Strong Machine J (1) and BxB Hulk and Kota Minoura (1)
	+ King of Gate (2019)
	+ Ashiyanikki Cup 6 Man Tag Team Tournament (2020) – with Dragon Dia and Strong Machine J
	+ Fourteenth Triple Crown Champion
* **Ryukyu Dragon Pro Wrestling**
	+ Ryuo Championship (1 time)
* **Wrestling Observer Newsletter**
	+ 4½ Star Match (2019) vs. PAC on July 21
	+ 4¼ Star Match (2020) vs. Shun Skywalker on December 20

### Luchas de Apuestas record

1 **^**  This was a five-way steel cage match, also involving Kzy, YAMATO, and Shun Skywalker, where Shimizu lost and as per the stipulation Shimizu decided to kick Ben-K out of R.E.D.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/ben\_k\_1019/status/1257608166860193793
2. ↑ Ben-K  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Dragon Gate. Retrieved on 2016-11-14.