Akihito Ito

Ito during a Noah show in 2010

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Kuwana, Mie, Japan

**Akihito Ito** (伊藤旭彦, *Itō Akihiko*) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his work in Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH). During his time in NOAH, he won the 2008 Mauritius Cup and the VolcanoxSEM Tag Team Tournament alongside Atsushi Aoki.

## Early life

Ito attended Kuwana Kogyo High School in Kuwana, Mie, where he was classmates with Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto. In High School Ito was in the National Athletic Meet and after he graduated from the Kokushikan University he would become a professional wrestler.

## Professional Wrestling Career

### Training

Ito was originally trained by Hidetada Irie in the Kingdom professional wrestling promotion. He also regulary competed at the promotion until it closed. He would then move to the Pro Wrestling NOAH dojo.

### Pro Wrestling Noah (2004–2010)

In January 2005, Ito began training in the Pro Wrestling NOAH dojo. He was there trained by Yoshinari Ogawa and Kenta Kobashi. After his fellow rookie Shuhei Taniguchi went missing, Ito would became the aprentice of Kenta Kobashi. After eleven months of training Ito made his in-ring debut teaming with Go Shiozaki in a losing effort against Mushiking Terry and Takeshi Rikio. As is customary for most professional wrestlers, Ito spent most of his matches losing to other, more experienced wrestlers, which would help put over other wrestlers while at the same time give Ito some in-ring, televised, experience.

Ito won his first singles match defeating fellow rookie Tsutomu Hirayanagi. In November Ito took part of the Mauritius Cup. The Mauritus Cup was a round-robin tournament to determine the top rookie of the promotion. Ito would finish the tournament with one win and four losses. In January Ito recieved his first title oppurtunity unsucessfully challenging Kishin Kawabata for the GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship. Ito teamed up with Atsushi Aoki to participate in the 2008 Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League. The team earned only three points, one point managing to defeat Kento Miyahara and Naomichi Marufuji and wrestle to a time-limit draw against Eddie Edwards and Ricky Marvin. In the following year of the Mauritius Cup, Ito won the tournament being undefeated in the round-robin matches, finishing the tournament with three wins and one draw. Ito followed up this tournament win, when he and Aoki defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima and Takashi Okita to win the VolcanoxSEM Tag Team Tournament.

On January 14, 2009 Ito unsucessfully challenged Makoto Hashi for the GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship. On April 25 Ito and Aoki unsucessfully challenged Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Ito then teamed up with Tsuyoshi Kikuchi to take part of the 2009 Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League. They finished the tournament losing all of their matches. Ito then lost to Genba Hirayanagi in a decision match to see who was going to take part of the Junior Heavyweight League. On February 7, 2010 Ito announced his retirement.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ Dragon Suplex
* **Signature moves**
	+ Mad Splash (Frog splash)
	+ Diving Crossbody
	+ Death Valley Bomb
	+ Inverted Gori Special
	+ Spin Kick
* **Entrance Music**
	+ "The Rock Show" by Blink 182

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Pro Wrestling Noah**
	+ Mauritius Cup (2008)
	+ VolcanoxSEM Tag Team Tournament (2008) – with Atsushi Aoki