Suzuki was the last person remaining of a grueling thirty person training class in Pro Wrestling Noah's dojo.[citation needed] He debuted on Noah's 2001 Christmas show, and started wrestling under his real name of Yasuhiro Suzuki, but quickly changed it to Kotaro Suzuki.[citation needed] He challenged twice for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in 2004, and was unsuccessful in both attempts.[citation needed]
In 2005, he ended up adopting the guise of Mushiking Terry, a gimmick tying into the card/arcade game Mushiking: King of the Beetles, defeating "Mushiking Joker" in his debut at DESTINY 2005 on July 18, 2005 at the Tokyo Dome, but his challenge for KENTA's GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship on October 28, 2005 was unsuccessful after KENTA started performing heel actions such as faking a low blow as well as mockingly joining in a Terry chant while applying a camel clutch.[citation needed] At the January 21, 2007 Budokan Hall show, he pinned Mark Briscoe to take the GHC Jr. Tag title for himself and Ricky Marvin.[citation needed] At the April 28, 2007 show, he defeated Tatsuhito Takaiwa to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship (as Mushiking Terry).[citation needed] At Noah's Budokan show! Autumn Navigation '07, Suzuki (As Mushiking Terry) lost his GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Yoshinobu Kanemaru.[citation needed] He later betrayed Marvin by joining with Yoshinobu Kanemaru in tag team, which ended with them winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship.[citation needed] Suzuki and Kanemaru joined with Genba Hirayanagi, and later joined the stable Disobey with Takeshi Rikio and Muhammad Yone.[citation needed] When Mitsuharu Misawa died, Suzuki (who was one of his students) adopted not just a green attire resembling the green tights of his mentor but started to use some moves like elbows and the Tiger Driver to pay him tribute and became a face again.[citation needed] He was later expulsed from Disobey and started a rivalry with his former partner Kanemaru.[citation needed] Suzuki would regain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title from Kanemaru on December 5, 2010, ending his long title run.[citation needed] On July 30, 2011, Suzuki and Atsushi Aoki defeated Kenta and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the 2011 NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League, making both of them two-time winners of the tournament. On September 23, 2011, Suzuki lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to Katsuhiko Nakajima. On October 16, 2011, Suzuki and Aoki defeated KENTA and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to Ricky Marvin and Super Crazy on July 22, 2012. On December 19, 2012, Noah announced that Suzuki would be leaving the promotion, after refusing to re-sign after Kenta Kobashi was fired.[3][4][5] On December 24, Suzuki defeated Genba Hirayanagi in his final Noah match.[6][7]
All Japan Pro Wrestling (2013–2015)
On January 26, 2013, Suzuki, Atsushi Aoki, Go Shiozaki, Jun Akiyama and Yoshinobu Kanemaru, all of whom had quit Noah at the same time, announced that they had joined All Japan Pro Wrestling, forming the "Burning" stable.[8] Suzuki and Aoki received their first shot at the All Asia Tag Team Championship on March 17, but were defeated by the defending champions, Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka.[9] On April 7, Suzuki and Aoki defeated Hikaru Sato and Hiroshi Yamato to win the 2013 Junior Hyper Tag League and earn another shot at Kanemoto and Tanaka.[10] On April 25, Suzuki and Aoki defeated Kanemoto and Tanaka in a rematch to become the new All Asia Tag Team Champions.[11] On May 11, Suzuki made a one night return to Noah to take part in Kenta Kobashi's retirement event, Final Burning in Budokan, during which he and Aoki defeated Kentaro Shiga and Tamon Honda in a tag team match.[12] On July 5, following a mass exodus led by Keiji Mutoh, it was announced that Suzuki, along with the rest of Burning, had signed an exclusive contract with All Japan.[13] On October 29, Suzuki quit Burning in order to challenge Kanemaru for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship.[14] On November 21, Suzuki and Aoki, along with Kento Miyahara, joined Go Shiozaki's new Xceed stable.[15] On January 26, 2014, Suzuki and Aoki lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship to former Burning stablemates Jun Akiyama and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.[16] On February 5, Suzuki's longtime partnership with Aoki came to an end, when Aoki quit Xceed to go solo.[17] Immediately afterwards, Suzuki went on a win streak, which culminated with him defeating Masaaki Mochizuki on February 16 to win the 2014 Jr. Battle of Glory.[18] As a result, Suzuki received a shot at the World Junior Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated by the defending champion, Último Dragón, on February 23.[19] On May 17, Suzuki defeated Sushi to win the Gaora TV Championship.[20] On August 16, Suzuki and Kento Miyahara defeated Keisuke Ishii and Shigehiro Irie to win the All Asia Tag Team Championship. On December 14, Suzuki lost the Gaora TV Championship to Kenso.[21] On January 3, 2015, Suzuki and Miyahara lost the All Asia Tag Team Championship to Mitsuya Nagai and Takeshi Minamino.[22] On February 20, Suzuki won his second Jr. Battle of Glory in a row, defeating reigning World Junior Heavyweight Champion Atsushi Aoki in the finals.[23] This led to a rematch on March 27, where Suzuki defeated Aoki to become the new World Junior Heavyweight Champion.[24] On November 16, while he was still the World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Suzuki announced he would be leaving All Japan on November 30. He had signed a new one-year contract the previous July, but when the contract was afterwards changed twice, he decided to instead leave the promotion.[25] Following the announcement, the World Junior Heavyweight Championship was vacated and Xceed disbanded.[26]
On September 1, 2018, Suzuki returned to Noah at Naomichi Marufuji's 20th anniversary show, where he teamed with HI69 and Minoru Tanaka to defeat Seiya Morohashi, Hitoshi Kumano and Hajime Ohara and afterwards brawled with them. This led to him competing in the 2018 Global Junior Heavyweight League, where he finished with a record of four wins and one loss, including a win over reigning GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Daisuke Harada and defeated Yo-Hey in the finals. This led to a match on October 30, where Suzuki defeated Harada to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship for the third time. He later won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with Yoshinari Ogawa and formed a stable named Stinger later joined by Atsushi Kotoge and Chris Ridgeway.
Gleat (2024–present)
On September 22, 2024, it was announced that Suzuki had joined Gleat as part of the Black Generation International stable.[34]
