Isami Kodaka

is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Pro-Wrestling Basara (Basara). He originally started his career in the Kaientai Dojo (K-Dojo) promotion in July 2002, but later left the promotion to become a freelancer, before signing with Union Pro Wrestling (Union Pro) in 2005. Through Union Pro's working relationship, Kodaka also began working for Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), where he adopted his current, hardcore wrestling-based style. Kodaka remained affiliated with Union Pro until the promotion folded in October 2015, after which he became a founding member of Pro-Wrestling Basara (Basara).

Kodaka is currently in his fourth reign as the Union Max Champion, and his second reign as BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Champion, while also being a former one-time KO-D Openweight Champion and three-time DDT Extreme Champion. He is also known as one half of the tag team with Yuko Miyamoto. The two are former one-time All Asia Tag Team Champions, two-time BJW Tag Team Champions, one-time KO-D Tag Team Champions and one-time Wave Tag Team Champions and have also won the Saikyo Tag League three times. Kodaka has also won both the BJW Tag Team Championship and the Saikyo Tag League once with Masashi Takeda.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2002–2005)

Kodaka was trained in professional wrestling by Taka Michinoku at his Kaientai Dojo (K-Dojo) promotion's training school. Kodaka, using only his given name as his ring name, made his professional wrestling debut for the promotion on July 18, 2002, facing Daisuke Matsumoto. Kodaka left Kaientai Dojo shortly afterwards to become a freelancer.

Union Pro (2005–2015)

In 2005, Isami ended his freelancing days, when he signed a contract with the Union Pro Wrestling (Union Pro) promotion. Through Union Pro's working relationship with the Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) promotion, Isami also made appearances for BJW, where he started a storyline with Jaki Numazawa and Mad Man Pondo, which led to him evolving his mixed martial arts-based wrestling style into a more deathmatch-based style. He was trained in the deathmatch style by Numazawa and Jun Kasai at their BJW affiliated School of Death training school. He made his deathmatch debut in 2006 and has retained the style ever since. In the deathmatch circles, Isami found himself a generational rival in Yuko Miyamoto.

In June 2007, Kodaka suffered a cervical disc herniation, which would sideline him for eleven months. Upon his return to the ring, Kodaka, now working under his full name, won his first professional wrestling title, when he and Masashi Takeda defeated Takashi Sasaki and Yuko Miyamoto on May 28 to win BJW's 2009 Saikyo Tag League and become the new BJW Tag Team Champions. The duo held the title for two months, before losing it to Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi, after which Kodaka formed a new tag team named "Deathmatch Nichokenju", later renamed "Yankii Nichokenju", with longtime rival Yuko Miyamoto. In 2010, Kodaka made several appearances for women's wrestling promotion Ice Ribbon, where he and Chii Tomiya won the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship by defeating Jun Kasai and Miyako Matsumoto on August 7. On June 25, Kodaka also made an appearance for Smash, losing to Kushida in a "World Tryout" match. On January 3, 2011, Kodaka won his first singles title and his first title in his home promotion of Union Pro, when he defeated Kim Nan Pun for the DDT Extreme Championship in a six-man tag team captain's fall match, where he, Keita Yano and Survival Tobita faced Nan Pun, Cao Zhang and Choun Shiryu. On May 5, Yankii Nichokenju won their first title together, when they defeated Jaki Numazawa and Jun Kasai for the BJW Tag Team Championship. After an eight-month reign, Kodaka lost the DDT Extreme Championship to El Generico on September 19. Kodaka regained the title from El Generico on January 3, 2012, only to lose it to his own tag team partner, Yuko Miyamoto, on March 29 as part of an interpromotional rivalry between Union Pro and BJW. On April 1, Kodaka and Miyamoto also lost the BJW Tag Team Championship to Shinobu and Yoshihito Sasaki. The two bounced back on November 22 by winning the 2012 Saikyo Tag League and becoming the new BJW Tag Team Champions. On January 14, 2013, Kodaka won the DDT Extreme Championship for the third time, after defeating Keisuke Ishii. However, his reign lasted only thirteen days, before losing the title to Kenny Omega in a match also contested for Union Pro's parent promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling's top title, the KO-D Openweight Championship. On August 18 at ''Ryōgoku Peter Pan 2013'', DDT's biggest event of the year, Kodaka and Miyamoto defeated Hikaru Sato and Yukio Sakaguchi to win the KO-D Tag Team Championship for the first time and become double tag team champions. Following their win, Kodaka and Miyamoto vowed to successfully defend their double crown hundred times. Yankii Nichokenju went undefeated for most of 2013, before losing to Speed of Sounds (Hercules Senga and Tsutomu Oosugi) in a non-title match on October 18.

On November 4, Kodaka defeated Shuji Ishikawa to win BJW's top title, the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship, becoming the lightest champion in the title's history. On November 22, Yankii Nichokenju avenged their loss against the Speed of Sounds in the finals of the 2013 Saikyo Tag League to retain the BJW Tag Team Championship and become the first team to win the tournament twice in a row. Kodaka dominated Samurai TV's year-end independent wrestling awards ceremony, winning the Best Unit Award with Yuko Miyamoto, the Best Bout Award with Shuji Ishikawa and the MVP Award. Yankii Nichokenju's reign as double tag team champions came to an end on January 26, 2014, when they lost the KO-D Tag Team Championship to the Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) in a three-way match, also involving the team of Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo. On March 23, Kodaka defeated Ivan Markov to become the second Union Max Champion. On May 5, Yankii Nichokenju faced off in a 300 fluorescent light tube TLC deathmatch for the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship. Kodaka won the match, making his fourth successful title defense. On May 18, Kodaka lost the Union Max Championship to Hikaru Sato in his first defense. On May 25, Kodaka also lost the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship to Ryuji Ito. Six days later, Yankii Nichokenju lost the BJW Tag Team Championship to Twin Towers (Kohei Sato and Shuji Ishikawa), ending their eighteen-month reign at seventeen successful title defenses.

On June 29, Kodaka defeated Kudo in the finals to win the 2014 King of DDT tournament and become the number one contender to the KO-D Openweight Championship for DDT's biggest event of the year, ''Ryogoku Peter Pan''. On July 27, Yankii Nichokenju won women's wrestling promotion Pro Wrestling Wave's Tag Team Championship by defeating Las Aventureras (Ayako Hamada and Yuu Yamagata). On August 17 at ''Ryogoku Peter Pan 2014'', Kodaka failed in his attempt to capture the KO-D Openweight Championship from Harashima in a three-way elimination match, which also included Kenny Omega. On August 24, Yankii Nichokenju lost the Wave Tag Team Championship to Sakuragohan (Kyusei Sakura Hirota and Mika Iida) in a three-way match, which also included Las Aventureras. Back in Union Pro on August 31, Kodaka and Fuma defeated Hiroshi Fukuda and Men's Teioh to win the UWA World Tag Team Championship. On October 2, Kodaka made an appearance for Pro Wrestling Noah, teaming with Yuko Miyamoto and Daisuke Sekimoto in a six-man tag team main event, where they defeated Atsushi Kotoge, Hitoshi Kumano and Naomichi Marufuji. After finishing second in the Dramatic Sousenkyo ("general election"), Kodaka was granted another shot at the KO-D Openweight Championship, but was defeated by Harashima in the title match on October 26. On November 21, Yankii Nichokenju defeated Abdullah Kobayashi and Ryuji Ito in the finals to win their third Saikyo Tag League in a row. On December 31, Yankii Nichokenju took part in Toshikoshi Puroresu, an annual new year's collaboration event between BJW, DDT and Kaientai Dojo, winning the Tenka Toitsu! tournament, held for the first time in a tag team format. On January 24, 2015, Kodaka and Fuma lost the UWA World Tag Team Championship to Masato Shibata and Shuji Ishikawa in their fourth defense.

Shortly after losing to UWA World Tag Team Championship, Kodaka and Fuma began feuding with each other, starting on February 22, when Fuma defeated Kodaka in the finals of the Get the Glory 2015 tournament, following outside interference from Kazushi Miyamoto and Sagat, with whom he went on to form a new villainous stable. On March 1, Kodaka unsuccessfully challenged Fuma for the Union Max Championship. On April 12, Kodaka returned to Kaientai Dojo, defeating Hi69 to win the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship. In July, Kodaka made it to the finals of Pro Wrestling Zero1's 2015 Tenkaichi Jr. tournament, but was defeated there by Ikuto Hidaka. On August 30, Kodaka defeated Fuma to win the Union Max Championship for the second time. On October 4, Union Pro held its tenth anniversary event, which also marked the promotion's final event before folding. The main event of the show saw Kodaka make his first successful defense of the Union Max Championship against Shuji Ishikawa, retiring the title immediately afterwards.

Pro-Wrestling Basara (2015–present)

On October 7, 2015, Kodaka, along with five other former Union Pro wrestlers, announced the formation of a new promotion named Pro-Wrestling Basara (Basara), set to launch in January 2016. That same day, Kodaka won the 2015 Dramatic Sousenkyo, DDT's annual general election, to earn a shot at the KO-D Openweight Championship. In October, Yankii Nichokenju took part in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)'s Jr. Tag Battle of Glory, where they finished second with a record of two wins, one draw and one loss, suffered against Atsushi Aoki and Hikaru Sato in their last round-robin match, the ''de facto'' final of the tournament. On November 1, Kodaka lost the Independent World Junior Heavyweight Championship to Shiori Asahi. On November 15, Kodaka and Miyamoto defeated Kotaro Suzuki and Yohei Nakajima in a decision match to win the vacant All Asia Tag Team Championship. On November 28, Kodaka defeated Yukio Sakaguchi to win the KO-D Openweight Championship for the first time. After three successful defenses, he lost the title to Harashima on March 21, 2016, at Judgement 2016: DDT 19th Anniversary. After six successful title defenses, Kodaka and Miyamoto lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship to Atsushi Aoki and Hikaru Sato on July 24 at a BJW event. On November 30, Kodaka and Takumi Tsukamoto defeated Ikuto Hidaka and Hayato Fujita at a Basara event to win Pro Wrestling Zero1's NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship