Satoshi Kojima
剛腕 · Gōwan, the strong arm
He loaded trucks outside the dojo until they let him in. Thirty-one years later he held all three of Japan's heavyweight crowns. The orange on this site comes from him.
Begin his story
The young lion
Outside the door
Before the belts and before the lariat, there was a young man from Kōtō who wanted in, and a door that stayed shut.
柔道Judo
Like many Japanese wrestlers, he starts with judo. When he goes to college, he stops. Whatever he wants, it is not on a tatami.
トラックThe trucks
He takes a job loading trucks for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Day after day he carries the gear of the company he wants to wrestle for, and asks the head trainer, Animal Hamaguchi, to take him into the dojo. For months the answer stays the same.
入門Into the dojo
February 1991: Hamaguchi says yes. On July 16 Kojima wrestles his first match. Across the ring stands another young lion, Hiroyoshi Yamamoto, who will become Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Neither of them knows it yet.
Animal Hamaguchi, the trainer who let him in, February 2011
ヤングライオン杯The Young Lion Cup
In 1994 he beats Manabu Nakanishi in the final of the Young Lion Cup. At the end of the year he leaves for Europe, and comes back to New Japan in January 1996.
Manabu Nakanishi, his opponent in the 1994 final, Kobe, September 2015
The first man he ever wrestled would become his partner for life.
TenCozy
Two names, one team
Some men find their best self alone. Kojima found his next to the man he debuted against.
初王座The first gold
Back from Europe, he teams with Nakanishi as The Bull Powers. In May 1997 they beat Riki Choshu and Kensuke Sasaki for the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
Riki Choshu, Korakuen Hall, January 2006
nWonWo Japan
At the end of 1998 he joins nWo Japan, led by Keiji Mutoh. There, next to Hiroyoshi Tenzan, the team gets a name made from theirs: TenCozy.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Osaka, February 2014
天コジTag team of the year
Tenzan and Kojima win the IWGP tag titles twice in those years, take the 2001 G1 Tag League, and the Wrestling Observer names them Tag Team of the Year. Two big men who move as one.
The TenCozy Cutter on Manabu Nakanishi, Osaka, February 2016
Partners for life do not always stand on the same side. But they come back.
The leap
Everything on one jump
In 2002 he walks away from the company that raised him, to become the top man somewhere else.
離脱Leaving
January 2002. Antonio Inoki is putting New Japan's top title on shoot-style fighters. Kojima will not follow. He leaves with his mentor, Keiji Mutoh, for All Japan Pro Wrestling, and there he finally gets the push of a main eventer.
Keiji Mutoh, his mentor, Taipei, November 2010
四日Four days
February 16, 2005: he beats Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown, All Japan's top title. Four days later he beats his old partner Tenzan for New Japan's IWGP Heavyweight Championship. No one had ever held both at the same time.
裏切りThe turn
July 2007. He betrays the All Japan army and joins the Voodoo Murders, as co-leader with TARU. A year later he leaves them, to stand with his sworn friend Tenzan.
The Voodoo Murders, All Japan, Taipei, November 2010
再びAgain
2008: Tenzan and Kojima become the first team to win the G1 Tag League and the World's Strongest Tag Determination League in the same year. September 2009, a few days after turning 39, he takes the Triple Crown back from Yoshihiro Takayama.
Yoshihiro Takayama, Taipei, November 2009
He left home to become a champion. Then he came home as one.
The return
Home, and on top
An arm that needed surgery, a contract All Japan would not renew. He goes back to where it started.
優勝The G1 Climax
August 2010. He returns to New Japan for the G1 Climax, wins his block with five wins from seven, and in the final on August 15 he beats Hiroshi Tanahashi. Kojima wins the G1 at 39.
G1 Climax 21, Osaka, August 2011
王者Champion again
October 11, 2010: he beats Togi Makabe and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship is his again, eight years after he left.
IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Osaka, December 2010
剛腕The strong arm
They call him Gōwan, the strong arm. The Machine Gun Chops in the corner, the Cozy Cutter, then the lariat that ends it.
Lariat on Yoshitatsu, Osaka, February 2017
天コジTenCozy, again
January 4, 2012, at the Tokyo Dome: Tenzan and Kojima win the IWGP tag titles again. Between them they will hold those belts six times.
IWGP tag team champions, Osaka, February 2012
NWAThe ten pounds of gold
January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8, he beats Rob Conway for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. In April he and Tenzan add the NWA World Tag Team titles.
NWA world tag team champions, Osaka, June 2014
友The friend
In 2016 he gives up his own place in the G1 Climax so Tenzan can have one last run at it. The same year he wins the NEVER six-man titles with Ricochet and Matt Sydal, then wins them back with Ricochet and David Finlay.
With David Finlay and Ricochet, Kobe, September 2016
Eight years away. He came back and took it all again.
The third crown
At fifty-one
Most careers are over by the age he was when he won the one title he was missing.
挑戦The challenge
April 30, 2022. At NOAH's Majestic he is revealed as Naomichi Marufuji's mystery partner. They win. That night he challenges the new GHC Heavyweight Champion, Go Shiozaki.
Pro Wrestling NOAH, Yokohama Arena, January 2023
達成All three
June 12, 2022, CyberFight Festival: he beats Shiozaki for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. With the Triple Crown and the IWGP title behind him, he has now won all three of Japan's major heavyweight crowns. Only Keiji Mutoh, Kensuke Sasaki and Yoshihiro Takayama had done it before.
現役Still in the ring
In his fifties he keeps wrestling: the GHC tag titles with Takashi Sugiura in 2022, the Ōdō Tournament in 2023, CM Punk at AEW Forbidden Door that June.
Against CM Punk, AEW Forbidden Door, Toronto, June 2023
Thirty-one years after his debut, the crown he was missing.
To you
He was told no before anyone told him yes. So he loaded the trucks, and he kept asking.
He lost his belts and won them back. He left home to become a champion and came home to be one again. He lost to his best friend, then gave that friend his own place so he could try once more. At fifty-one he took the one crown he was missing.
If you are loading trucks right now, outside the door of the thing you want, keep loading. Keep asking. The door opens for whoever is still standing in front of it.
Your friend, Joel
The orange on this site is his.
The record
22
championships
- Triple Crown
- 2 times
- IWGP Heavyweight
- 2 times
- GHC Heavyweight
- 1 time
- NWA World Heavyweight
- 1 time
- IWGP Tag Team
- 7 times
- G1 Climax winner
- 2010
- Debut
- July 16, 1991