Dragongate

This article is about the Japanese wrestling promotion. For the American branch of Dragon Gate, see Dragon Gate USA. For the computer game, please see Dragon's Gate.

Dragon Gate is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion formerly known as Toryumon Japan. Most of Dragon Gate's wrestlers are graduates from Último Dragón's Toryumon Gym, and thus the promotion is based on a Junior Heavyweight style with varying emphasis on high flying maneuvers, flashy technical grappling, and submissions.

Dragon Gate is often associated with Mexico, as it is basically based on Mexican wrestling style, and many wrestlers in Dragon Gate went to Mexico to train there when they were beginners. Dragon Gate's main wrestlers often describe Mexico as their "mecca".

File:Dragon Gate - poster of 2009 in Hakata.JPG

Dragon Gate's event poster in Hakata, Fukuoka in June 21, 2009.

History

In 2004, Último Dragón left the promotion and took the Toryumon name and trademarks with him. The promotion subsequently changed its name to Dragon Gate and declared CIMA (the last one to hold the Último Dragón Gym Championship) its first Open the Dream Gate (singles) Champion. Since then, the promotion has gained a steady following in Japan (as well as a cult following in the United States) and has been in full-time operation since its separation from Toryumon in 2004.

Stars from the promotion have also made appearances on the United States independent wrestling scene, most notably with the Ring of Honor promotion, where stars from the company competed in the Dragon Gate Invasion show on August 27, 2005 in Buffalo, New York Dragon Gate Challenge on March 30, 2006 in Detroit, Michigan and Supercard of Honor and Better than Our Best in Chicago, IL on March 31 and April 1, 2006, respectively. A six-man match pitting Blood Generation against Do-Fixer at "Supercard of Honor" on March 31 in Chicago Ridge, IL was very well received by both fans and critics, making it one of only a handful of North American matches that wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer has given a five-star rating.

Both Ring of Honor's "All Star Extravaganza III" on March 30 and "Supercard of Honor II" on March 31, 2007 in Detroit, Michigan featured Dragon Gate in the main events.

Dragon Gate has appeared frequently with Hawaii's Action Zone Wrestling AZW Hawaii with their first appearance happening on Sept. 5, 2007 at the event titled "Showdown". CIMA, Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka, Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk and Shingo Takagi have all appeared on AZW live events since then.

In 2008, Dragon Gate promoted their first set of shows in the United States. The first show took place in Los Angeles on September 5 [1] and featured El Generico, Necro Butcher, and Kendo. Their second show was in Hawaii on September 8.

In 2009, Dragon Gate announced it will be making its debut in the United Kingdom with shows promoted with British wrestler Mark Sloan making its online home www.dragongateuk.com

Japan's Dragon Gate promotion announced its expansion into the United States with Dragon Gate USA on April 14, 2009 at the Korakuen Hall event in Tokyo. It named Satoshi Oji as the President and Gabe Sapolsky (former Ring of Honor booker) as the Vice President of Dragon Gate USA.

Roster

The company's roster is split into several units, with the majority of the wrestlers aligned with one faction or another.

WORLD-1

• Naruki Doi
• Masato Yoshino
• BxB Hulk
• Naoki Tanisaki
• Kotoka

Real Hazard

• Ryo Saito
• Genki Horiguchi
• Yasushi Kanda
• Keni'chiro Arai
• Kzy

KAMIKAZE

• Shingo Takagi (Leader)
• YAMATO
• Dragon Kid
• Akira Tozawa
• Taku Iwasa
• Kenshin Chikano

WARRIORS-5

• CIMA (Leader)
• Susumu Yokosuka
• Gamma
• KAGETORA
• RYOMA

Mushozoku/Zetsurins

• Masaaki Mochizuki
• Don Fujii
• Magnitude Kishiwada
• K-Ness
• Akebono

Unaffiliated

• Anthony W. Mori
• Kouji Shishido
• "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa
• Syachihoko Machine
• Kinta Tomoaka
• Takayuki Yagi
• Super Shenlong II
• Super Shisa
• Shisa Boy
• Takuya Sugawara

Gaijin Used

• El Generico
• PAC
• Nick Jackson
• Matt Jackson
• Jack Evans
• Kevin Steen
• Human Tornado
• Akebono
• Delirious
• Abdullah the Butcher
• Mike Quackenbush
• Jigsaw

Notable alumni

• Magnum Tokyo
• SUWA
• Milano Collection A.T.
• TARU
• Shuji Kondo
• brother YASSHI
• Yuki Ono
• Cyber Kong

Championships

Championship	Current champion(s)	Date won
Open the Dream Gate	Naruki Doi	December 28 2008
Open the Triangle Gate	Zetsurins (Don Fujii, Masaaki Mochizuki and Akebono)	October 14 2009
Open the Brave Gate	Naoki Tanisaki	August 30 2009
Open the Twin Gate	KAMIKAZE (Shingo and YAMATO)	September 17 2009
Open the Owarai Gate	Kikutaro	May 15 2009

Defunct Championships

Championship	Last Champion(s)	Date won
I-J Heavyweight Tag Team Championship	Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino	October 12 2007

_{(I-J Heavyweight Tag Team Championship unified with Open the Twin Gate Championship)}

External links

• Official site in Japanese
• Toryumon/Dragon Gate Title Histories
• Official Myspace page in English
• English language fan page
• Mahalo Listing of information