Shuji Kondo

Shuji Kondo (近藤修司, Kondō Shūji; born January 21, 1978) is a Japanese professional wrestler. Prior to becoming a pro wrestler, he played rugby. After starting his career in Toryumon, Kondo eventually joined All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he became one of the promotion's top junior heavyweights, winning the World Junior Heavyweight Championship three times and the All Asia Tag Team Championship once. Upon leaving AJPW in 2013, Kondo joined Wrestle-1, where he became half of the inaugural Wrestle-1 Tag Team Champions. Kondo also worked as the vice president, booker and trainer for Wrestle-1 until its closure in 2020. He now works as a freelancer in promotions like Pro Wrestling Basara and DragonGate.

Kondo was part of the T2P class in Toryumon. At first he was a face in the Toryumon Seikigun.

He would turn heel and join the Italian Connection, changing his name to Condotti Shuji, after the shopping district. One of his stablemates in the ItaCon was "brother" Yasshi, who has remained a firm ally of his ever since.

In 2003, the ItaCon was divided over the face/heel issue, with Kondo leading the heel side. He would lead the turn, briefly rename to Dotti Shuji, and soon after revert to his real name. He and Yasshi formed a group called Hagure Gundam (Rogue Corps in English) with fellow ItaCon member Shogo Takagi, and Toru Owashi. When Hagure Gundam was joined by Masaaki Mochizuki, it was renamed Aagan Iisou. Mochizuki would later be kicked out of the stable after he and Kondo feuded over who was leader, and Takuya Sugawara was added to the group.

On December 31, 2004, all five members of Aagan Iisou – Kondo, Yasshi, Sugawara, Owashi, and Shogo – were fired from Dragon Gate, the newly renamed Toryumon, for alleged behavioral problems.

Kondo was built up as the heel ace of the Dragondoor promotion. All five members of Aagan Iisou were on the roster, but Kondo only aligned himself with YASSHI and Sugawara. Despite the three of them being the heels, they received most of the fan support over the babyfaces.

He soon joined AJPW, where he and long-time associate "brother" Yasshi would ally themselves with Taru's Voodoo Murders stable and even hold the All-Asia Tag Team Titles for a short time. The Voodoo Murderers were previously in an intense feud against RO&D, but defeated their long-time foes after D'Lo Brown and Buchanan turned on RO&D and joined the Voodoo Murderers. Kondo also became the World Junior Heavyweight Champion having won the title from junior ace Taka Michinoku. On February 17, 2007, Kondo lost the Jr. Heavyweight Title to Katsuhiko Nakajima, thus ending his 1-year, 4-month title reign. Kondo would remain a regular top player in AJPW's junior division for the next several years – a run which included a tag-team with Kaz Hayashi and occasionally working with the heavyweights in tag-team action as a partner of Suwama. His allegiance with both men would be defining parts of his tenure through his working with both men across multiple factions in big-match scenarios. As AJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH began working together more in 2011–2013, Shuji began working NOAH as a part-time outsider and, as an AJPW representative, would defeat NOAH's Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship on September 29, 2012. Before the year was out, Kondo would return twice to NOAH for successful defenses against Atsushi Aoki and Kotaro Suzuki, respectively. His third defense would be on January 2, 2013, in a dual-title match against reigning AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Yamato. With the victory over Yamato, Kondo became the first person to hold both AJPW and GHC Junior Championships simultaneously; though, the dual-title run would be short lived as Kondo would lose the GHC Junior Title to old dragondoor rival Taiji Ishimori on January 28. In that same month, the new incarnation of the Burning faction – Jun Akiyama, Go Shiozaki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kotaro Suzuki, and Atsushi Aoki – would invade AJPW after leaving their old home of Pro Wrestling NOAH the month prior. All members immediately challenged for AJPW gold and on February 23, Kondo would fall to Kanemaru to end his second reign. On March 4, 2013, Kondo joined Suwama and Joe Doering as a member of the stable, Last Revolution. In June 2013, Kondo announced his resignation from All Japan in the aftermath of Nobuo Shiraishi taking over as the president and Keiji Mutoh leaving the promotion. His final match as an AJPW roster member was on June 30 when he and Kaz Hayashi challenged unsuccessfully for the All Asia Tag Team Championship being held by Burning's Aoki and Suzuki.

On January 25, 2018, Kondo returned to AJPW as a Wrestle-1 representative for an eight-man tag team match. Despite having competed for the heavyweight division there and in other promotions, Kondo participated in the Jr. Battle of Glory. Kondo would win his block with a 4–1 record, and go on to defeat 2017 tournament winner, Koji Iwamoto, in the Final. The tournament victory would lead to an unsuccessful challenge for Atsushi Aoki's World Junior Heavyweight Championship on March 25. Kondo would next return on August 3, teaming with freelancer Kotaro Suzuki for a run in the Junior Tag Battle of Glory which ended at an even 3–3 record. Though unsuccessful in the tournament, Kondo did get another direct pinfall over Koji Iwamoto in their league match which led to Kondo being nominated as Iwamoto's first challenger for Koji's newly-won Junior Title. On September 22, Kondo regained the World Junior Heavyweight Championship for a third time. His third reign would last two months – passing a defense against Hikaru Sato before losing the title back to Koji Iwamoto on November 29.