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Everything You Need to Know About Kyoki, Shinsuke Nakamura's New Tag Partner

Posted on by Editorial Team
22
Aug

Two weeks ago, we laid out the three names most likely to be Shinsuke Nakamura’s mystery partner against The Tongans, and called Hiromu Takahashi the cleanest surprise on the board. On the August 21 episode of SmackDown, WWE confirmed it. Takahashi is in WWE, he is Nakamura’s partner, and he has a new name.

He is Kyoki.

Shinsuke Nakamura Introduces Kyoki to the WWE Universe

The build had been running for three weeks.

After Tama Tonga and Talla Tonga captured the WWE Tag Team Championships, Nakamura cut a promo warning the MFTs that his incoming partner was experienced, vicious, and deadly, calling him a ticking time bomb without saying a name. On August 21 in Toronto, the vignette finally delivered on it.

“MFT, for weeks I have warned you but you haven’t been listening,” Nakamura said. “Well, what’s in the dark has finally come to light.”

Takahashi stepped into frame under his new name. “I am Kyoki,” he says. “After spending years competing around the world, finally I have arrived to WWE. Champions, legends, monsters, I don’t care. The stronger they are, the more fun I have. More fights. More gold. More madness.”

The two are being branded together as Bakusai, the name WWE quietly trademarked back in July, teasing a bombastic alliance between the Ticking Time Bomb and the King of Strong Style. No in-ring debut date has been announced yet, but expect Bakusai to make a splash in the coming weeks.

Who Kyoki, FKA Hiromu Takahashi, Actually Is

For a segment of the WWE audience, this may be a new face and an unfamiliar name. In New Japan Pro-Wrestling, it is the opposite.

Takahashi spent 16 years in New Japan and left as one of the promotion’s most decorated performers of his generation. He is a five-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, a four-time Best of the Super Juniors winner, and a former IWGP Tag Team Champion alongside Tetsuya Naito.

Counting stints across CMLL, DDT, and Pro Wrestling NOAH, he arrives in WWE as a 12-time champion.

He earned the nickname the Ticking Time Bomb for a wrestling style built on urgency, speed, and total physical commitment, a style that nearly ended his career.

At the G1 Special in San Francisco in July 2018, Takahashi took a Dragon Driver from rival Dragon Lee that landed him directly on his head. He finished the match, defended his title, and collapsed backstage afterward. NJPW doctors later estimated 9 to 12 months of recovery from what was widely reported as a broken neck.

He came back in 18 months instead, returning at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in January 2020 to challenge Will Ospreay for the title he’d been forced to vacate. He won, debuting a new finisher for the occasion: Time Bomb 2.

Takahashi’s final chapter in Japan came fast. His NJPW contract expired in January 2026, and he wrestled his farewell match on February 11, teaming with stablemate Taiji Ishimori, closing the book on 16 years with the company.

The Rumors That Ran For Months Before This

WWE fans had time to prepare for this one, even without a name attached.

Chatter about Takahashi heading to WWE started almost the moment his NJPW deal expired, with the rumor mill churning as months went along.

In May, Fightful Select reported he was being discussed internally as a possible NXT addition, with sources calling the idea a “no brainer.”

Naraku’s arrival in NXT was seen by many as a foreshadowing of his ex-LIJ stablemate Hiromu Takahashi’s arrival in WWE.

WWE / Getty Images

By July, Fightful Select had upgraded its language: Takahashi was expected to report to the Performance Center soon, grouped alongside other incoming names like Naraku, Royce Keys, and Lizzy Rain as part of WWE’s broader 2026 talent push.

The clearest signal came from his own history. Once Naraku, formerly EVIL, debuted in NXT in the spring, speculation around Takahashi intensified specifically because the two were LIJ stablemates in Japan. If one had landed in WWE, the thinking went, the other was not far behind.

What This Means For LIJ Fans

For a decade, LIJ was one of the most beloved factions in modern puroresu, built by Naito after his return from Mexico and eventually including Takahashi, BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi, and Titán at various points.

The faction dominated the NJPW trophy case and became a genuine cultural moment, with the group’s “Tranquilo” ethos turning into a real fan movement. It disbanded in April 2025 once Naito and BUSHI’s contracts expired and they left the company.

Takahashi and the remaining members regrouped under a new banner called Unaffiliated, which later merged into a stable called Unbound Co. before that unit dissolved too, ending with his farewell show in February.

So the wrestlers who made LIJ what it was have now scattered in every direction. Naito and BUSHI left NJPW entirely. Now, EVIL and Takahashi are in WWE, as Naraku and Kyoki respectively, but not as a pair, and not as LIJ. They are on separate rosters, chasing separate championships.

Any fan holding out hope for an LIJ reunion, even a WWE-flavored one, is watching two of its members exist in the same company under entirely new names, entirely new identities, with no indication of a reunion.

What Comes Next

On paper, the coming feud is a four-way reunion of former NJPW roster members: Nakamura and Kyoki against Tama Tonga and Talla Tonga, with Talla Tonga himself a former NJPW wrestler under the name Hikuleo. Everyone in the match knows exactly what everyone else can do, which tends to be the recipe for something worth watching.

WWE has not set a date for Kyoki’s in-ring debut. Given the build so far, it is unlikely for him to stay off television for long.



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