Katsuya Kitamura
| Birth name | Katsuya Kitamura (北村 克哉 Kitamura Katsuya) |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 December 1985 Suginami, Tokyo, Japan |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Katsuya Kitamura |
| Billed height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) |
| Billed weight | 120 kg (265 lb) |
| Trained by | NJPW dojo |
| Debut | March 13, 2017 |
Katsuya Kitamura (北村 克哉 Kitamura Katsuya, born December 14, 1985) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler trained by and signed to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW).
Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, Kitamura was a highly accomplished amateur wrestler, known for being one of the largest wrestlers in all of Japan. Because of his size and physique, he earned the nickname "Wrestling Monster". He attended Senshu University, where he was a part of their wrestling team. In 2006, he won the All Japan Wrestling Championship in the 120 kg category, and later on in the same year represented Japan in the World Championships. Throughout his amateur career, Kitamura would go on to win three national championships and represent Japan on a global level twice. As well as amateur wrestling, Kitamura took part in the 2015 Ganryū-jima fighting tournament, where he defeated a Mongolian Sumo wrestler.
On June 13, 2011, Kitamura was banned from amateur wrestling for two years after testing positive for anabolic steroids, specifically, the illegal muscle building drug drostanolone. Kitamura was being tipped as a possible member of Japan's Olympic wrestling team for the 2012 London Olympic Games, but the ban ruled him out of participation. He did not appeal against the ban, but said that he "took them by accident after buying some supplements from abroad".
Kitamura began training in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) dojo in 2015. His first match in NJPW was not a traditional professional wrestling match, but rather a dark shoot amateur wrestling exhibition where he wrestled fellow trainee Tomoyuki Oka to a time limit draw. After undergoing further training, Kitamura wrestled his first ever professional match on September 1, 2016, another dark match where he and Oka once again wrestled to a draw. On March 13, 2017, he made his televised debut, teaming with Oka in a loss to the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa). The following day, Kitamura teamed with Katsuyori Shibata and Yuji Nagata in a loss to TenCozy (Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan) and Juice Robinson. The day after that, he once again lost to Tonga and Loa, this time teaming with Nagata. On June 24th 2017, three months after his debut, Katsuya won the first match in his career when he teamed with Tomoyuki Oka to defeat Manabu Nakanishi and Tetsuhiro Yagi in a tag match.
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