Naoya Nomura (born October 26, 1993) is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to

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, ...

, where he is former All Asia Tag Team and World Tag Team Champion. He also has a background in rugby.

Early life

Nomura started rugby and body building during his third year in elementary school. In October 2013, he was introduced to wrestling. After the

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 ...

mass exodus of All Japan Pro Wrestling, he stayed with the company and became the first trainee of the

Jun Akiyama is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion. He is best known for his time working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he was the president, representative director, co-he ...

era in AJPW.

Professional wrestling career

All Japan Pro Wrestling (2014–present)

On March 30, 2014, Nomura made his debut in All Japan against his teacher

Atsushi Aoki was a Japanese professional wrestler who worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as a wrestler, president of talent relations and head trainer at their dojo. Aoki began his career in Pro Wrestling Noah in 2005, where he went on to become a two ...

. Later that year, he was sidelined with an injury but after five months of recuperating, he returned in October. On January 2, 2015 at all Japan's New Year Wars 2015 he defeated

Yuma Aoyagi is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is part of the stable Nextream. He is a two time AJPW All Asia Tag Team Champion, as well as a AJPW World Tag Team Champion. He is also the older brother ...

to pick up his first win in All Japan. On October 23, they lost to a Union Pro team of

Shuji Ishikawa is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, World Tag Team Champion and the winner of the 2017 Champion Carnival. Ishikawa is also known f ...

and Hiroshi Fukuda in their first tag team match. From November 23 to December 6, Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi participated at

World's Strongest Tag Determination League __NOTOC__ The , more commonly known in the West as the Real World Tag League, is an annual professional wrestling tournament held by All Japan Pro Wrestling since 1977, usually, run on the first weeks of December. The first tournament was actually ...

and both finished the tournament with only 2 points. On the final day of the tournament after Suwama attacked

Kento Miyahara is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is the current six time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion. He was trained by Kensuke Sasaki and started his career in his Kensuke Office promotion ...

, Suwama announced that Nomura was the new member of the

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. On January 3, Nomura had an opportunity for the

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 ...

but he lost to the defending champion

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 ...

. During his run in Evolution, he also changed his attire to the Evolution colors and dyed has hair blonde. from April 9 to April 23, Nomura participated in the Champion Carnival and won his first match against one of the reigning World Tag Team Champions The Bodyguard. In the end, Nomura finished the tournament with only 2 points. On May 4, AJPW president Jun Akiyama made a surprise appearance for Wrestle-1, facing off with Keiji Mutoh with the two agreeing to a tag team match against each other on August 11. Later it was announced that Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi would be Akiyama's partner for the Pro Wrestling Love PPV. On July 30, Nomura announced that he was going to leave Evolution to start over his career. On August 11, Wrestle-1 presented an interpromotional six-man tag team match, which saw AJPW president Jun Akiyama take on former AJPW president Keiji Mutoh. In the match, the AJPW trio of Akiyama, Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi were victorious over the Wrestle-1 trio of Mutoh, Koji Doi and Kumagoro. After the Pro Wrestling Love PPV, Nomura formed a team with Yuma Aoyagi and started a feud with Doi and Kumagoro. On September 19, Nomura and Aoyagi lost to Kento Miyahara and Jake Lee. After the match Miyahara and Lee invited them to join Nextream which they accepted. On November 11, it was announced that Nomura and Aoyagi would participate in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in Block B. In April, Nomura took part in the 2017 Champion Carnival where he would finish the tournament with 4 points, scoring wins against former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Takao Omori in 48 seconds and adopting a new finisher in the process: a spear and against The Bodyguard. Afterwards Nomura challenged Bodyguard to a title match for the World Tag Team Championship with his partner being his Nextream stablemate Jake Lee who defeated Bodyguard's partner Zeus. On May 12, Nomura and Lee unsuccessfully challenged Zeus and Bodyguard for the World Tag Team Championship. On July 17, Nomura and Jake Lee defeated Zeus and The Bodyguard to win the World Tag Team Championship. They relinquished the title on August 1 due to Lee suffering a knee injury. On September 30, Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi defeated Black Tiger VII and

Taka Michinoku (born October 26, 1973), better known by his ring name (with his first name usually stylized in all capital letters), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. Michinoku is known in North America for his work for the ...

to win the

All Asia Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team title in Japanese promotion All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). It was created on November 16, 1955, in the Japan Wrestling Association (JWA) when King Kong Czaya and Tiger Joginder Singh defeated JWA founder ...

Championships and accomplishments

(

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

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championships in professional wrestling promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promotion is often preceded to the term "world tag team championship" as the ...

( 2 times, current) – with Jake Lee (1) and

(1, current) *''

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 #316 of the top 500 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 2016 ** Ranked No. 206 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the ''

'' in 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nomura, Naoya Japanese male professional wrestlers 1993 births Living people All Asia Tag Team Champions World Tag Team Champions (AJPW)