Dragongate

This article is about a Japanese wrestling promotion. 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 Ultimo Dragon'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.

History

In 2004, Ultimo Dragon 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 Ultimo Dragon Gym Title) 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) 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.

Roster

The company's roster is split into several factions, with all but a handful of competitors in the promotion aligned with one faction or another. Wrestlers most recognizable to North American fans include Magnum TOKYO, Dragon Kid, CIMA, Genki Horiguchi and Shingo Takagi (among others).

Real Hazard

• Shingo Takagi (Leader)
• Yasushi Kanda
• Cyber Kong
• Genki Horiguchi
• YAMATO
• Gamma

Typhoon

• CIMA (Leader)
• Susumu Yokosuka
• Ryo Saito
• Dragon Kid
• Anthony W. Mori

Tozawa-juku

• Akira Tozawa (Leader)
• Taku Iwasa
• Keni'chiro Arai
• Yuki Ono
• Kouji Shishido

Faction name still to be announced

• Naruki Doi
• Masato Yoshino
• BxB Hulk
• Naoki Tanisaki
• m.c.KZ

Mushozoku

• Magnitude Kishiwada
• Masaaki Mochizuki
• K-ness
• Don Fujii
• Super Shisa
• Lupin Matsutani
• Shisa Boy
• Super Shenlong II
• Shinobu

Unaffliated

• "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa
• Syachihoko Machine
• Kinta Tomoaka
• Takayuki Yagi

Notable Alumni

• Magnum Tokyo
• SUWA
• Milano Collection A.T.
• TARU
• Shuji Kondo
• brother YASSHI

Championships

Championship	Current champion(s)	Date won
Open the Dream Gate	CIMA	July 1 2007
Open the Brave Gate	Gamma	April 27 2008
Open the Triangle Gate	Shingo Takagi, Gamma & YAMATO	February 24 2008
Open the Twin Gate	Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka	May 5 2008
Open the Owarai Gate	Jackson Florida	February 2 2008

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
• DGUSA, A Toryumon and Dragon Gate fansite
• Dragon Gate show reviews by Brad Garoon
• Mad Splash - Not a fan site but has some Toryumon/DG stuff