Koji Iwamoto

###

Kuwana, Mie, Japan

**Koji Iwamoto** (岩本煌史, *Iwamoto Koji*, born March 20, 1990) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as freelancer.

Iwamoto is best known for his work with for his work in Sportiva Entertainment until he signed with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in December 2016, where he would become a former two-times All Asia Tag Team Champions and a four-times World Junior Heavyweight Champion and the winner of 2017 and 2019 Jr. Battle of Glory.

## Early Life

Iwamoto is a native of the Japanese region Nagoya and he as a highly skilled background in judo.

## Professional Wrestling Career

### Independent Circuit (2012–2017)

In 2012 Iwamoto began training with Shinya Ishida at the Sportiva Entertainment promotion. The two would make their debuts together and become rivals throughout the coming years.

In 2013, Iwamoto primarily competed in Pro Wrestling HEAT UP and Dramatic Dream Team more specifically Hard Hit DDT's brand as well as other promotions from time to time along. On February 28 Iwamoto competed in his first professional wrestling tournament at Hard Hit at the Second Grappling Tournament where he lost at the semifinals to Atsushi Aoki. On March 15, 2014, Iwamoto would receive is first ever title shot in a three-way match between him, Hiroshi Fukuda and PSYCHO for the World Nice Guy Championship where PSYCHO came out victorious. On August 23 Iwamoto competed at the Next Contenders One Day Tournament defeating Kenta Hattori at the finals.

On March 22, 2015 Iwamoto participated at the Powerful Tag Tournament with Daisuke Kanehira where the duo was eliminated at the semifinals to Amigo Suzuki and Kazuhiro Tamura.

On January 2016 at Pro Wrestling Basara Iwamoto formed a stable name Kibatai with Ryota Nakatsu and Ryuichi Sekine. On February 6, 2016 at Heat-Up Iwamoto participated at the 2016 Powerful Tag Tournament this time with Minoru Tanaka losing in the first round to Kazuhiro Tamura and Mineo Fujita. On June 16 Iwamoto defeated Daisuke Kanehira to become the #1 Contendership to the Heat-Up Universal Championship. On July 19 to August 16, Iwamoto participated in a tournament to crown the vacant GWC Six-man Tag Team Championship. His partners were Daisuke and Joji Otani they would lose at the finals to Amigo Suzuki, Masao Orihara and Ryan Upin. On August 31 Iwamoto unsuccessfully challenged Tamura for the Heat-Up Universal Championship. On October 5 at Basara Iwamoto and his friend Fuminori Abe participated at the Iron Fist Tag Tournament but lost to FUMA and Yusuke Kubo in the first round.

### All Japan Pro Wrestling (2016–2021, 2023–Present)

In 2016, Iwamoto started to compete in All Japan Pro Wrestling later on November Iwamoto would take part in the 2016 Jr. Tag Battle of Glory with Fuminori Abe. The would finish the tournament with only two points defeating Axe Bombers (Daichi Kazato and Kazuhiro Tamura) on the last day of the tournament. Due to Iwamoto hard work and effort on December 26, 2016, he was signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling. In January 2017 it was announced that Iwamoto was going to participate in the 2017 Jr. Battle of Glory which he won on February 26 defeating Hikaru Sato at the finals, with this Iwamoto won the tournament in his first appearance. On March 12 Iwamoto unsuccessfully challenged Keisuke Ishii for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. In February 2018, Iwamoto took part of the Jr. Battle of Glory, finishing in first place with a record of three wins, one draw and one loss, advancing to the finals. In the finals, Iwamoto lost to the returning Shuji Kondo. On June 13, Sato formed a new stable named Sweeper alongside Jake Lee, Dylan James, Keiichi Sato and Ryoji Sai. In August, Iwamoto and TAJIRI won the 2018 Jr. Tag Battle of Glory. On August 26, Iwamoto defeated Atsushi Aoki to win the World Junior Heavyweight Championship. On September 22, Iwamoto lost the title to Shuji Kondo, but regained it on November 29. On May 5, Iwamoto and Lee lost the All Asia Tag Team Champions to Kazumi Kikuta and Ryuichi Kawakami. On May 20, Iwamoto lost the World Junior Heavyweight Champion to Atsushi Aoki. On June 18, Iwamoto and Lee defeated Kazumi Kikuta and Ryuichi Kawakami to regain the All Asia Tag Team Championship. In July, Iwamoto and Keiichi Sato took part of the 2019 Jr. Tag Battle of Glory, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament.

In December 2019, following the 2019 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, Lee and Naoya Nomura decided to disband to disband Sweeper, after feeling a lack of unity within the stable due to Sai teaming with Zeus in the tournament. On December 21, Lee, Nomura and Iwamoto announced the formation of a new stable called "Jin", literally translated to "Team". On March 23, Iwamoto and Lee lost the All Asia Tag Team Chmapionship to Yankii Nichokenju (Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto). On July 25, 2020 Iwamoto defeated Susumu Yokosuka to win World Junior Heavyweight Championship for third time in his career. From November 22 until December 7, Iwamoto and Lee took part in the 2020 World's Strongest Tag Determination League, finishing the tournament, with a record of four wins and three losses, failling to win the tournament, due to losing to Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoyagi on the final day of the tournament.

On February 20, 2021, Iwamoto lost the World Junior Heavyweight Championship to CIMA. Three days later, Jin was disbanded after Lee turned on him to join Enfants Terribles. Afterwards, Iwamoto and Shotaro Ashino were recruited by Suwama to join Evolution. On June 9, Iwamoto regained the World Junior Heavyweight Champion from CIMA for the fourth time in his career. On June 26, Iwamoto lost the World Junior Heavyweight Champion to Francesco Akira. On December 6, Iwamoto announced that he was going to leave to AJPW on December 31 when his contract expires with last match teaming with Black Menso～re against Atsuki Aoyagi and Rising HAYATO with Iwamoto later revealing in an interview that he couldn't achive some goals within the promotion by the time he was 30 years old that would ultimately led to his decison to depart from the promotion on December 31. On December 31, Iwamoto made his last match in AJPW, teaming with Black Menso～re in a losing effort Aoyagi and HAYATO.

On September 8, 2023, Iwamoto made his return to AJPW, teaming with Fuminori Abe, Takuya Nomura and Ryo Inoue in a losing effort to El Lindaman, Shigehiro Irie, T-Hawk and Junjie. From November 12 and December 6, Iwamoto took part of the 2023 Jr. Battle of Glory, finishing the tourmanent with a record of two wins, three draws and two losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament.

## Personal life

On September 6, 2021, Iwamoto tested positive for COVID-19 amid its pandemic in Japan.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ Bridging high-angle German suplex
	+ Japanese leg roll clutch
	+ *Koko no Geijutsu* (Harai goshi)
	+ Triangle choke

* **Signature moves**
	+ Cross armbreaker
	+ Camel clutch
	+ Elevated sitout powerbomb
	+ Soccer kick to the chest of a seated opponent

* **Entrance themes**
	+ **Birth Battle (Kamen Rider OOO's Soundtrack)**

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Hard Hit**
	+ The Next Contenders One Day Tournament (2014)
* **All Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ World Junior Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
	+ All Asia Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Jake Lee
	+ Jr. Battle of Glory (2017, 2019)
	+ Jr. Tag Battle of Glory (2018) – with Tajiri

* ***Pro Wrestling Illustrated***
	+ PWI ranked him #**307** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2021