Born in Osaka and raised with a passion for athletics — including track and field — Konosuke Takeshita began training at DDT Pro-Wrestling while still a teenager and made his official debut in 2012 at just 17 years old. He immediately stood out as something exceptional. Tokyo Sports named him Japanese professional wrestling’s Rookie of the Year in 2013, making him the first wrestler still in high school to win the award. Over the following years he became the defining star of DDT — winning the KO-D Openweight Championship five times, including a record-breaking 405-day reign, and becoming the youngest holder of the title in history on his 21st birthday. He signed a full-time AEW contract in late 2022, aligned with Don Callis, and began a heel run that saw him become one of AEW’s most credible and dangerous performers. His NJPW work followed, and in 2025 he won the G1 Climax — one of wrestling’s most prestigious tournaments — before going on to capture the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, cementing his status as a genuine world-class main event talent operating at the very highest level across multiple continents simultaneously.