Kenichiro Arai
 |
|
| Born |
July 7, 1972 Nerima-Ku, Tokyo |
|---|---|
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Kenichiro Arai AraKen |
| Billed height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) |
| Billed weight | 86 kg (190 lb) |
| Trained by |
Último Dragón Dos Caras |
| Debut | May 13, 1998 |
Kenichiro Arai (新井 健一郎 Arai Ken'ichirō?, born July 7, 1972) is a Japanese wrestler for Dragon Gate.
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 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 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 that gave his career a resurgence. The two won the Open the Twin Gate championship from inaugural champions Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino on February 8, 2008, successfully retaining the titles twice before dropping them to Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka 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, YAMATO and Gamma. Unfortunately for them, they lost the titles in their first defense on July 12, losing them to Yasushi Kanda, YAMATO and Gamma.
...
Wikipedia