is a Japanese wrestler for Dragon Gate.

Biography

Kenichiro Arai, also known as AraKen, is a second term graduate of Último Dragón's Toryumon Japan group, and has been a mainstay on the roster ever since. He participated in

FMW Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion founded on July 28, 1989, by Atsushi Onita as (FMW). The promotion specializes in hardcore wrestling involving weapons such as barbed wire and fire. They held their ...

before joining Toryumon. He debuted as a heel, but turned face within the year and remained so for over a decade. He is known for his love of the

Hanshin Tigers The Hanshin Tigers (Japanese: 阪神タイガース ''Hanshin Taigāsu'') are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and is owned by Hanshin Electric Railwa ...

baseball team, and for his very hard head. Arai frequently no-sells attacks to the head when wrestling. Earlier in his career, he played an alcoholic, and would spit beer in his opponent's faces, but this aspect of his character was quietly dropped. Arai started as a midcarder, but gradually lost card position over the years, until he was fighting mainly in opening matches and rarely winning. However, his career changed for the better when he joined the cram school based stable Tozawa-juku in early 2007. It saw the first ever alteration of his character, and he formed a tag team with

Taku Iwasa Taku Iwasa (born November 15, 1977) is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for his work in Dragon Gate. Career Early Iwasa graduated as part of the Toryumon T2P class. He initially portrayed ''Takamichi Iwasa'', a Satanic character. ...

that gave his career a resurgence. The two won the Open the Twin Gate championship from inaugural champions

Naruki Doi is a Japanese wrestler for Dragon Gate. He also wrestled for Ring of Honor (ROH) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA); in the former promotion, he was a one-time World Tag Team Champion with Shingo Takagi. Career Toryumon Doi debuted in ...

and

Masato Yoshino is a retired Japanese professional wrestler, best known for working in Dragon Gate, where he was known as ''Speed Star''. Dragon Gate's second Grand Slam champion, having been a record six-time Open the Brave Gate Champion, four-time Open t ...

on February 8, 2008, successfully retaining the titles twice before dropping them to

Ryo Saito (born August 15, 1979) is a Japanese professional wrestler, who currently works for Dragon Gate. He is a former member of the Jimmyz stable, where he was known by the ring name Ryo "Jimmy" Saito. His name is sometimes abbreviated as SaiRyo, so ...

and

Susumu Yokosuka , better known by his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to Dragon Gate. He is not related to fellow Dragon Gate wrestler and long term ally/rival Masaaki Mochizuki, who debuted much earlier for WAR. Professiona ...

on May 5. However, he would find championship success again the following month, for on June 28, he – along with Iwasa and newest Tozawa-juku member Shinobu – would capture the Open the Triangle Gate Titles from

Shingo Takagi , known by his ring name Shingo Takagi (鷹木信悟, ''Takagi Shingo''), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former bodybuilder, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the provisional KOPW 2022 champion in his first ...

Yamato was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese his ...

and Gamma. Unfortunately for them, they lost the titles in their first defense on July 12, losing them to Yasushi Kanda, Yamato and Gamma. On November 16, he, Iwasa & Tozawa fought the Triangle Gate champions

Masaaki Mochizuki is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling Noah. Mochizuki is a former FIP World Champion and three-time Open the Dream Gate Champion. Professional wrestling career Early years A former karatek ...

Don Fujii (born July 6, 1970), better known by his ring name Don Fujii, is a Japanese wrestler who currently works for Dragon Gate. He was one-half of the inaugural Open the Owarai Twin Gate Champions and is also a former two-time Open the Twin Gate Champ ...

and

Magnitude Kishiwada (born May 19, 1971), better known under his ring name Magnitude Kishiwada (マグニチュード岸和田), is a Japanese wrestler. Career During his highschool life, Fujita trained in artistic gymnastics, mixed martial arts and powerlifting, a ...

for the titles, but they had agreed to end Tozawa-juku if they lost. Arai ended up being pinned, bringing the stable to an end, and he and the others were given a graduation ceremony. On January 18, 2009, Arai shocked everyone when he joined the heel group Real Hazard, turning heel for the first time since 1998. It came about when he came to the ring seemingly to assist Yasushi Kanda from suffering a beatdown from Real Hazard, after he lost a Real Hazard banishment match to Gamma, but instead, he joined the group, and then he joined Kanda and the other group members in beating down and ousting Gamma. He adopted a violent fight style and also re-introduced the alcoholic aspect of his character, carrying large amounts of alcohol bottles to the ring, which he used in his matches. Since joining Real Hazard, Arai's career has been relatively uneventful. He has won matches on a semi-regular basis, usually via a low blow followed by a flash pinfall, but he has not been in title contention. In January 2010, during Real Hazard's disagreement on whether to fight clean matches or continue to cheat, Arai continued to team with the "cheat" side but didn't take a strong position on the issue. When the clean fight side of Genki Horiguchi, Susumu Yokosuka and K-ness left Real Hazard on February 10, Arai stayed with the heels, and with them became one of the founding members of the new Deep Drunkers stable a couple of weeks later. Since the formation of the Deep Drunkers, Arai has been mostly absent from cards and losing matches in short order when he does appear. On October 13, 2010, the Deep Drunkers lost a six-man tag team match to World-1 and were as a result forced to split up. However, following the match World-1 member Naruki Doi turned on his stablemates and joined the former Deep Drunkers and

Takuya Sugawara is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently wrestling for Pro Wrestling Zero1. Career Toryumon/Dragon Gate (2001–2004) He debuted in the 9th term of Toryumon 2000 Project as Henry III Sugawara, an English prince character. He joined with ...

to form a new heel group. They however decided that Arai was not needed in the new group and kicked him out.

Championships and accomplishments

*Asuka Project :*Asuka Project Championship (1 time) * Dragon Gate :*

Dragon Gate I-J Heavyweight Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team championship contested for in the Japanese promotion Wrestle Association R, and later Dragon Gate and Tenryu Project. This title was the first tag team championship in Japan dedicated to junior heavywei ...

( 1 time) – with

Dragon Gate Open the Owarai Gate Championship The Open the Owarai Gate Championship was a professional wrestling title in Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. The word ''owarai'' in the title's name is the Japanese word for ''comedy''. The championship was first conceived during Stalker Ichik ...

( 1 time) :*

Dragon Gate Open the Triangle Gate Championship The Open the Triangle Gate Championship is a professional wrestling trios title in Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. It was created on November 7, 2004 when The Italian Connection faction of Milano Collection A.T., Anthony W. Mori and Yossino d ...

( 1 time) – with Taku Iwasa and Shinobu :*

Dragon Gate Open the Twin Gate Championship The Open the Twin Gate Championship is a professional wrestling tag team title created and promoted by the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. Dragon Gate had used the WAR IJ Tag Team Championship since 2006, until 2007 when Masato Yoshino and Na ...

( 1 time) – with Taku Iwasa *Guts World Pro-Wrestling :*GWC Championship (1 time) :*GWC Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Shota :*

GWC 6-Man Tag Team Championship The is a six-person tag team title established in 2006 by the Japanese professional wrestling promotion . After the promotion folded in 2018, the titles moved to Ganbare☆Pro-Wrestling, a sub-brand of DDT Pro-Wrestling. In June 2021, the tit ...

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) – with Masked Mystery and Ryan Upin (1), Masked Mystery and Shota (1) *

Pro Wrestling Freedoms often stylized in capital letters as FREEDOMS is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Chigasaki, Kanagawa. Founded by Takashi Sasaki in 2009, the promotion lets wrestlers choose their own fighting style, having the "freedom" of c ...

:*King of Freedom World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Gentaro :*

UWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship The is a title that was originally promoted by the Mexican lucha libre promotion Universal Wrestling Association. After the UWA closed in 1995 the title was defended on the Mexican independent circuit and in the Puerto Rican promotion Wor ...

(1 time) *Pro Wrestling Heat-Up :*Heat-Up Universal Tag Team Championship (1 time, current) – with Hide Kubota :*Powerful Tag Tournament (2017) – with Hide Kubota *Style-E :*Style-E Openweight Championship (1 time) *

Tenryu Project is an independent Japanese professional wrestling promotion. The promotion was founded by and is owned by puroresu legend Genichiro Tenryu, who has owned and operated it since its creation in 2010. The Tenryu project is the successor to Tenryu's ...

Tenryu Project World 6-Man Tag Team Championship The is a six-man tag team title contested for in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Tenryu Project. The title was established in Wrestle Association R (WAR) in 1994. There have been a total of twenty reigns shared among sixteen team ...

( 1 time, current) – with

Kohei Sato is a Japanese professional wrestler contracted with Pro Wrestling Zero1. Sato is also a former mixed martial artist. Career A former judoka and amateur wrestler, Sato made his transition to mixed martial arts after meeting Kazunari Murakami and ...

and

Masayuki Kono is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. He is currently working as a freelancer. He is best known for his time in Wrestle-1, where he is a former two-time Wrestle-1 Champion. Career All Japan Pro Wrestling (2003� ...

*Theater Puroresu :*Furyujin Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kenta Hattori * Toryumon Japan :*

NWA World Welterweight Championship The NWA World Welterweight Championship ( es, Campeonato Mundial Welter de NWA) is an inactive professional wrestling championship governed by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and most recently promoted by NWA Mexico. The championship was ori ...

(

) :*

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 pr ...

(

) – with

and

Dragon Kid is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for Dragon Gate as . Nakamura initially broke into the wrestling business with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW), but was not allowed to be a wrestler by owner Atsushi Onita and instead ...

(1),

and

(1)

References

External links

Arai's Dragon Gate profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arai, Kenichiro 1972 births Living people Japanese male professional wrestlers People from Nerima 20th-century professional wrestlers 21st-century professional wrestlers NWA World Welterweight Champions UWA World Trios Champions Open the Twin Gate Champions Open the Triangle Gate Champions Open the Owarai Gate Champions International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Tenryu Project World 6-Man Tag Team Champions UWA World Junior Heavyweight Champions