is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . He is perhaps best known for his work in the

Wrestle-1 was a Japanese ''puroresu'' or professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion, founded in July 2013 by Keiji Mutoh following his resignation from All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). The core of the promotion's roster was formed by ...

promotion, where he was a former two-time

UWA World Trios Championship The UWA World Trios Championship is a tag team professional wrestling championship created by the Mexican Universal Wrestling Association and defended there until the UWA closed in 1995. Since then, the championship has been defended in various p ...

holder before leaving the promotion in January 2019. He is currently signed to

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

, performing for the

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * ''WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * ''NXT UK'', the British spin- ...

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

under the ring name Ikemen Jiro. Higuchi portrays an ''

ikemen The term is a portmanteau neologism derived from the Japanese words (いける) or and (メンズ). and mean "cool", "good" and "exciting", while is the Japanization of "men". This term has been used to reference good looking men featured ...

'' character, reflected in his ring name, ring attire and mannerisms.

Early life

Higuchi was born in

Adachi, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward located in Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It is located to the north of the heart of Tokyo. The ward consists of two separate areas: a small strip of land between the Sumida River and Arakawa River (K ...

. When he was young, he often attended professional wrestling events with his father, who was a fan. His father became friends with the elder brother of

Yoshihiro Tajiri is a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter primarily known under the ring name Tajiri (sometimes stylized as "TAJIRI"), he has also competed under his real name as well as under the names Aquarius and Kikkoman and briefly worked as the ...

, which in turn led to a friendship with Tajiri himself. He started training with Tajiri's Hustle promotion when he was 14. However, without a definite plan towards making a professional debut plus other commitments beyond wrestling such as school, Higuchi's interest in wrestling waned and at one time he moved away from the sport. He eventually returned to wrestling by joining the Smash promotion's training camp.

Professional wrestling career

Early career

Using the ring name Jiro Kuroshio, Higuchi made his professional wrestling debut on December 30, 2011 against fellow camp attendee Koji Doi at the "Smash 24" event. He adopted the name "Kuroshio" from the name of the

nabemono ''Nabemono'' (鍋物, なべ物, ''nabe'' "cooking pot" + ''mono'' "thing"), or simply ''nabe'', is a variety of Japanese cuisine, Japanese steamboat (food), hot pot dishes, also known as one pot dishes and "things in a pot". Description Nab ...

restaurant operated by his parents, "Nabeya Kuroshio". The Smash promotion folded in March 2012 and on April 5, 2012 Kuroshio, along with Tajiri and all other wrestlers, referees and trainees, moved to the spin-off

Wrestling New Classic was a Japanese ''puroresu'' or professional wrestling promotion, founded in April 2012 by Yoshihiro Tajiri. WNC was the follow-up promotion to Smash, which folded in March 2012. History On April 5, 2012, Tajiri held a press conference to annou ...

promotion. At WNC Before the Dawn, Kuroshio wrestled the very first match for

, losing to Josh O'Brien. At an event at

Korakuen Hall is a famous sports arena in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan, which has hosted many notable boxing, professional wrestling, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and Lethwei matches. History On April 16, 1962, the Korakuen Hall was officially opened with ...

on August 30, 2012, after defeating Koji Doi, Kuroshio announced he had become an apprentice of

Hajime Ohara is a Japanese professional wrestler. Ohara worked for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in Mexico for several years as part of his training, mixing the ''lucha libre'' style of Mexico with the Japanese Puroresu style of wrestling. In Japan, ...

and joined Ohara's unit "DQN". On July 16, Kuroshio, Lin Byron and Tsubasa defeated The Bodyguard,

Mio Shirai is a Japanese former professional wrestler and current professional wrestling referee. She started her career in March 2007, working alongside her sister Io Shirai on the Japanese independent circuit for promotions such as Ice Ribbon, JWP Jo ...

and Takuya Kito in the finals of a one night six person tournament to win the 2012 Kito Cup, with Byron pinning the tournament's creator Kito for the win. He also participated in 2012's Dave Finlay Cup, losing to Koji Doi in the semi final. In 2013 he changed his ring name to "Jiro Ikemen Kuroshiro" and adopted an "

" character. Like the year before, he participated in the Dave Finlay Cup, losing to Kaji Tomato. On July 1, 2014 Kuroshio moved to the

Wrestle-1 (2014–2020)

Making his Wrestle-1 debut in April 2014, Kuroshio became an official member of the roster on July 1, when Kuroshio along with Tajiri, Akira,

Yusuke Kodama is a Japanese professional wrestler and currently wrestlers for All Japan Pro Wrestling as a freelancer. Kodama is best known for his time with Wrestle-1 (W-1), where he is a former two time UWA World Trios Champion, two time Wrestle-1 Cruiser ...

, Koji Doi and Rionne Fujiwara left WNC. Kuroshio quickly formed the stable Novus with fellow WNC alumni Kodama, Doi and Fujiwara. In August, he defeated

Andy Wu is a Japanese professional wrestler better known by his ring name who worked for Wrestle-1 until its closure in 2020. He is currently a freelancer. Professional wrestling career All Japan Pro Wrestling (2012–2013) Andy Wu debuted for All Ja ...

in a qualification bout, earning the right to enter the inaugural

Wrestle-1 Championship The was the top professional wrestling title owned by the Wrestle-1 (W-1) promotion. In Japanese the title's name includes the katakana term for "championship", , derived from the English language instead of the more common kanji term . The title ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, he would go on to lose to Masayuki Kono in the first round. In November, he formed the "Ikemen Samurai" tag-team partnership with

Masakatsu Funaki is a Japanese actor, mixed martial artist and professional wrestler known professionally as , who has previously wrestled in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi (PWFG), Newborn UWF (UWF), ...

and competed in the inaugural Wrestle-1 Tag-Team Championship

. With Kuroshio teaming with Funaki and Doi joining Desperado, Novus quietly disbanded. On May 30, 2015, Kuroshio would win the "Road to

Keiji Mutoh is a Japanese professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah), where he is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion. He is best known for his work as in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Ne ...

Tournament" earning the right to face Keiji Mutoh in a one-on-one match, he would lose to Mutoh on June 18. Also in June, Ikemen Samurai would come to an end with Funaki leaving the promotion. Kuroshio would make it to the semi finals of the 2015 Wrestle-1 Grand Prix before losing to the eventual winner

Manabu Soya is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling. He previously lived in Canada training at the Can-Am Wrestling School under Scott D'Amore, working regularly for the Maximum Pro Wrestling promotion. He is c ...

but gained impressive wins over his former mentor Tajiri and former Wrestle-1 Champion Kai. Following the tournament, Kuroshio formed the stable Jackets with

Yasufumi Nakanoue is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name , currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division, where he is the current BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship, BJW World Strong Heavyweight Cham ...

and

Seiki Yoshioka , previously known as Seiki (stylized in all capital letters), is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for Pro Wrestling Noah, where he is a former GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, and a member of the ''Stinger (professional wrestli ...

. On October 9, the trio defeated New Wild Order ( Akira,

Jun Kasai (born September 9, 1974) is a Japanese professional wrestler, primarily competing for Pro Wrestling Freedoms. Dubbed the for his violent and often self-harmful style of hardcore wrestling, Kasai is considered a breakthrough talent in Japanese w ...

and Kumagoro) to win the vacant

. On November 3, they lost the titles to Real Desperado (

Kazma Sakamoto Kazma Parmar Sakamoto (born 1 October 1982) is a Japanese professional wrestler. He originally started his career working for Kaientai Dojo in Japan, where he became a one-time Strongest-K Champion and a three-time Strongest-K Tag Team Champi ...

, Koji Doi and

Nosawa Rongai , better known by his ring names Nosawa and , (born December 17, 1976) is a Japanese freelance professional wrestler, best known for his appearances in All Japan Pro Wrestling and various independent promotions. Career Early career (19952004) Nos ...

) but would regain the belts on November 27. On January 7, 2016, Jackets would vacate the titles due to Yoshioka being sidelined following cecum surgery and being unable to attend a title defence set for January 10. On January 31, Jackets lost to

Kaz Hayashi is a Japanese professional wrestler known simply as . He is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where in addition to being a wrestler for the promotion, he also served as the head booker for the company's junior heavyweight ...

, Minoru Tanaka and Tajiri for the vacant title. In mid 2016 Jackets disbanded when Nakanoue left Wrestle-1. On November 27, 2016, Kuroshio defeated

Yohei Nakajima , is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working under the name for All Japan Pro Wrestling where he is a former four-time Gaora TV Champion. He was previously known as the similar masked character , under which he performed for several ...

for

Gaora TV Championship The is a professional wrestling championship owned by the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) promotion. On August 28, 2012, AJPW and Gaora TV announced that AJPW would introduce a new championship called the Gaora TV Championship. A tournament for t ...

winning his first singles championship. On December 7 Kuroshio, Andy Wu, Daiki Inaba, Yusuke Kodama, Seiki Yoshioka, Koji Doi, Kumagoro and Kohei Fujimura formed a stable named New Era. Kuroshio suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury during a match against

Shotaro Ashino is a Japanese professional wrestler who is currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling. He was trained by and best known for his time in Wrestle-1, where he was a former two time Wrestle-1 Champion. Early life Ashino was an amateur wrestler t ...

on January 8, 2017, forcing him to vacate the Gaora TV Championship in February as he was unable to make the mandatory title defence. On March 23, 2019, Kuroshio announced his departure from Wrestle-1, with his last match under contract scheduled to take place on April 3 in

. Kuroshio made his American debut a month later on April 5, at an independent card in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, defeating

Rich Swann Richard Allen Swann (born February 15, 1991) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to Impact Wrestling. He is a former Impact World Champion, TNA World Heavyweight Champion, Impact X Division Champion and Impact Digital Media Cham ...

. Kuroshio periodically returned to Wrestle-1 as a

freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

and participated in a battle royal on the promotion's last card on April 1, 2020.

WWE (2020–present)

In December 2020, WWE announced Kuroshiro as a recruit to the

WWE Performance Center The WWE Performance Center is the official professional wrestling school system of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. The promotion currently operates two Performance Center locations, which serve as training facilities for WWE wre ...

. On May 7, 2021, Kuroshio debuted on ''

205 Live ''WWE 205 Live'' is an American professional wrestling streaming television program that was produced by WWE. It premiered on November 29, 2016, and ended on February 11, 2022. The show originally aired exclusively on the WWE Network until March ...

'' under the name Ikemen Jiro, teaming with August Grey to defeat

Tony Nese Anthony Nese (born August 6, 1985) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he is a former one-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion. Professional wrestling career Indep ...

Ariya Daivari Ariya Daivari ( fa, آریا داوری; born April 11, 1989) is an Iranian-American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Ari Daivari. He is best known for his time in WWE, Ring of Honor (ROH) ...

. Jiro would then continue to team with Grey on 205 Live until June when Grey was released from WWE. On July 6, Jiro was announced to be a part of the 2021 NXT Breakout Tournament. On the July 13 episode of ''NXT'', Jiro was eliminated in the first round by

Duke Hudson Brendan Vink (born 8 February 1990) is an Australian professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Duke Hudson. He is also known for his time in Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW), where he wa ...

. Soon after, Jiro would form a tag team called Jacket Time with

Kushida is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and former Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist, better known by his mononymous ring name Kushida. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as well as Impact Wrestl ...

and the pair would feud with The Diamond Mine. In January 2022, Jacket Time would compete in the 2022

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic is an annual professional wrestling tag team tournament held by the American promotion WWE, and is featured on its NXT brand, having first been established in 2015. In subsequent years, wrestlers from the NXT UK and ...

but were eliminated in the first round by 2021 winners MSK (

Nash Carter Zachary Green (born April 29, 1994) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed on the NXT brand under the ring name Nash Carter and in Impact Wrestling under the ring name Zachary Wentz (or simp ...

and

Wes Lee Deveon Everhart Aikens (born November 2, 1988) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Wes Lee, and is the current NXT North American Champion in his first reign ...

), on the January 25 episode of '' NXT 2.0''. On April 18, Kushida would depart WWE thus disbanding Jacket Time.

Championships and accomplishments

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba, ...

( 1 time) *

DDT Pro-Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Its name stands for Dramatic Dream Team, which was the promotion's official name from 1997 to 2004. Founded in March 1997 by Shintaro Muto, the promotion was eventually bo ...

DDT Extreme Championship The is a singles title in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling. The title was established in 2006 and it is mostly defended in stipulation matches, with the defending champion being given the right to choose the stip ...

( 1 time) *''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publish ...

'' :*Ranked No. 228 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the

PWI 500 ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishi ...

in 2018 *

( 4 times) – with

and

(2), Jay Freddie and Kumagoro (1), and Koji Doi and Kumagoro (1) :* Wrestle-1 Result Championship (1 time) :*

Wrestle-1 Tag Team Championship The was a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the Wrestle-1 (W-1) promotion. The title was announced on September 22, 2014, in conjunction with the start of a tournament to crown the first Wrestle-1 Champion. In Japanese the t ...

(1 time) – with

Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Ext ...

:*Road To Keiji Mutoh Tournament (2015) :*

Wrestle-1 Grand Prix Wrestle-1 Grand Prix was a professional wrestling tournament run by the Wrestle-1 promotion in Japan. It was inaugurated in 2015. The tournament takes its name from a similar tournament done by the Wrestle-1 joint venture cards in 2005; however th ...

(

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

) *

:*Kito Cup (2012) – with Lin Byron and Tsubasa

References

External links

Jiro Kuroshio Wrestle-1 Profile (in Japanese)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuroshio, Jiro 1992 births 21st-century professional wrestlers Japanese male professional wrestlers Living people People from Adachi, Tokyo Sportspeople from Tokyo Gaora TV Champions UWA World Trios Champions DDT Extreme Champions Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champions