Dragon Gate/Characters

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As this is a professional wrestling character page, certain tropes (such as Heel Face Turn, Face Heel Turn, Cool Mask, Underwear of Power, etc...) can be considered universal and do not need to be listed for each wrestler.

MAD BLANKEY

BxB Hulk

• Bishonen: In a fed full of them he still stands out.
  • Bishie Sparkle: Used to wear a lot of glittering silver stuff during his ring entrance.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait
• Evil Albino: Practically. He no longer tans and wears black makeup and dark eyeshadow to make himself look even paler.
• Let's Get Dangerous: His "Killer Hulk" persona.

Akira Tozawa

• Butt Monkey: He filled this role in the promotion for years
• Old Shame: His time in The Metabolic Brothers with Yuki Ono. (Ono gained a lot of weight, got quite fat, and inexplicably became popular. So Tozawa was forced to gain weight as well and form a fat man tag team with Ono. The tag team wrecked both their popularity)
• Put on a Bus: Finally spent nearly a year and a half away from Dragon Gate, touring in the USA.
• Took a Level in Badass: After he finally returned to DG, he went from being The Millstone for whatever stable he was in, to being able to pin Shingo Takagi cleanly.

Cyber Kong

• Badass Decay: Currently experiencing a severe case of it. This is part of a storyline, not just a normal depush.
• Beast Man: His gimmick. See also his last name, Kong.
• The Big Guy (face)/TheBrute (heel)

"Naoki TaniSaki"

• In Name Only: He's not the real Naoki Tanizaki.

Kzy

• Breakup Breakout: Due to a most unfortunate circumstance. He and a guy named Lupin Matsutani were far and away the best of the Dragon Gate NEX students, and they joined the main roster as a tag team - and then Matsutani almost immediately suffered a career ending neck injury.
• Expy: Took part of the gimmick and some of the moveset of brother YASSHI.
• Pretty Fly for a Japanese Guy

Mondai Ryu

• Small Name, Big Ego: Had a 50 match trial series in which he went 1-48-1. Convinced he's going to win the Dream Gate title from CIMA.

Veteran's Army

CIMA

• The Ace: For a while, part of his gimmick was that he could counter any finisher.
• Boring Invincible Hero / Boring Invincible Villain: Part time. CIMA tends to slowly get booked to look stronger and stronger until he's so damn good he needs half the roster to interfere to make him lose, and even then he gets away with blaming it on an injury. Then he'll suddenly be reigned in and shoved away from the main event scene for a while.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With Don Fuji. He, Fuji, Judo Suwa and Yoshikazu Taru formed the stable CrazyMAX in the early days of Toryumon, and although Suwa and Taru went their separate ways CIMA and Fuji have both worked in Toryumon/Dragon Gate since the start of their careers.
• Lightning Bruiser: When he got his start in WCW he was a high flier but diversified after it began messing his body up, he still uses some top rope moves though.
• Man in a Kilt: His entrance attire, although he wears normal wrestling trunks under it.
• The Hero (face) / The Big Bad (heel)
• Worf Had the Flu: He has (had?) a tendency to blame every loss he suffers on "not being 100%".

Masaaki Mochizuki

• Badass Grandpa: He's the oldest guy on the roster.

Don Fujii

• The Artifact: He's a good worker and a good character, but the bookers obviously have absolutely no idea what to do with him.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: With CIMA, even when they're not in the same stable they acknowledge their friendship and no matter how far down the card Fuji slides CIMA treats him with the utmost respect.
• Mighty Glacier: Not really that big or that slow, but compared to the rest of the roster...

Dragon Kid

• Fragile Speedster

GAMMA

• Canon Immigrant: Well technically, he came in from Osaka Pro.
• Squick: Invoked by the commentators whenever Gamma uses his "Sweet Angel's Kiss" move. The move involves spitting water and sometimes chewed food on his opponent.

Stalker Ichikawa

• My Name Is Not Durwood: His name was never "Stoker Ichikawa".
• Plucky Comic Relief
• The Millstone: During his time as an official member of CrazyMAX.

The Jimmyz

The "Jimmy" thing started when Susumu Yokosuka and KAGETORA were forced to wager their names in a match against BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa. Tozawa's plan was to humiliate them by generic-izing them. Instead it turned into a major Insult Backfire. Bilingual Bonus: 'jimi' is the Japanese word for 'boring'.

Jimmy Susumu

• Always Someone Better: Back in the Toryumon days, he went by his real name, Susumu Mochizuki. However, he was never able to beat Masaaki Mochizuki, losing big matches to him repeatedly - including one for the rights to use Mochizuki as a last name. FINALLY won a singles match against Mochi in 2010.
• Breakup Breakout: He debuted as half of a tag team with Yasushi Kanda. Kanda got injured, Susumu went on to form just-as-successful tag teams with K-Ness and Ryo Saito, and even briefly held the Dream Gate title.

Jimmy Kagetora

• Canon Immigrant: Although he started in Toryumon X, he stayed in the Toryumon system after the Toryumon/Dragon Gate split and didn't make it to DG until several years later.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Had a severe case of it late 2009 early 2010, seems to have gotten over it for now.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: While suffering from the chronic backstabbing disorder he rapidly joined and quit both face and heel stables.

Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee

• Bald of Awesome: H-A-G-E!
• Bald of Evil: As a heel. His nickname was literally "Bald of Evil". Keeping in mind that he used Bald of Awesome for Popularity Power, part of his heel turn involved him daring to use hair extensions.
• Catch Phrase: Who has called me hage?!
• Americans Love Genki Horiguchi: A lower midcarder in Japan, he's not one of the most recognized and most popular DG wrestlers in the USA, but has actually been billed in America for his popularity... in America. This is at least partly because American promoters had to vigorously promote him and his Bald of Awesome gimmick so that his "H-A-G-E!" chant would not be Lost in Translation.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: He debuted as a surfer with a long mane of hair. Started losing it only a year or two into his career.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: His catchphrase being modified to fit with the Jimmy theme of his stable. H.A.Gee.Mee. It sounds like H-A-Jimmy.

Ryo "Jimmy" Saito

• Demoted to Extra: He was actually the Dream Gate Champion and the top face in the company in 2005. Over the next couple years he slumped all the way down to lower midcarder. He was on his way back up (actually, he'd recovered most of the lost ground) when he got injured.

Jimmy Kanda

• The Jannetty: To Susumu Yokosuka.

World 1 International

Naruki Doi

• Lightning Bruiser: Though he emphases strength.
• So Last Season: Like many Dragon Gate wrestlers, his finishers have suffered epic Badass Decay.
• The Worf Barrage: The Doi 555 to Bakutare Sliding Kick combo.

Masato Yoshino

• Estrogen Brigade Bait: Back in his days as YOSSINO his nickname was "Sexy Tarzan". He quit playing his looks up when he cut his hair and started using his real name, though.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse
• Pride: Cannot tolerate the idea of anyone being faster than him and will even challenge them to a race in the middle of a match.
• Worthy Opponent: Has a rivalry along these lines going on with K-Ness.

Akatsuki

Shingo Takagi

• The Ace: Not literally, but "ace" is a puroresu term for the top wrestler in the promotion - and Shingo has been declared DG's ace at least once.
• Improbable Age: When Shingo first burst onto the scene, a lot of people had difficulty believing that a one-year rookie could be so freaking awesome in the ring. He won the Wrestling Observer Rookie of the Year award, and for good reason.
• Lightning Bruiser: Shingo is famous for his prodigious strength, including his ability to use all of his strongest power moves against giants like Yoshie and Takeshi Morishima. Notably, though, he's practically a Mighty Glacier by DG standards - the Lightning comes into play when he travels outside of DG.

YAMATO

• Token Evil Teammate: Just... look at the dude.
• Something Completely Different: Yamato's wrestling style, a much slower moving MMA based one, makes him stand out amongst his peers in a good way.

Chihiro Tominaga

• A Day in the Limelight: Came completely by chance when he was granted a Triangle Gate Championship match with Gamma and Shachihoko Machine through the Doi Darts in only his 7th ever match!

Windows

Super Shisa

• Ascended Extra: After years of hanging out in the opening matches and rarely doing anything, in 2010 Shisa suddenly started winning matches. He took Magnitude Kishiwada's place in the Veteran Army and also participated alongside CIMA and GAMMA in the interfed rivalry with Osaka Pro.
• The Un-Reveal: For years it was believed that Shisa was actually Toryumon alumni SAITO (not to be confused with Ryo Saito). Shisa denied it for years. Turned out that yeah he was SAITO all along.

K-Ness

• Dark Is Not Evil: Although in the beginning he very much was evil, he's played a face for several years now.
• Evil Counterpart: This was a long time ago, but K-Ness started as Darkness Dragon, an evil counterpart to Ultimo Dragon and Dragon Kid.
• Glass Cannon: In a sort of meta way. K-Ness is one of the best workers on the roster and very popular to boot. He's also extremely injury prone, which makes actually pushing him a risk.
• Worthy Opponent: He and Masato Yoshino have a worthy opponent based rivalry.

Keni'chiro Arai

• The Artifact: Temporarily averted, after getting the same treatment as a few other Toryumon guys, he reinvented himself by joining Tozawa-juku, and was a solidly midcard to upper midcard performer for quite some time. However since Tozawa-juku and the start of his heel run in Real Hazard, he was re-Demoted to Extra
• Bottle Fairy: A rare male example.

Shisa BOY

• Secret Identity: Also wrestles under Shachihoko Machine on occasion

Unaligned

Taku Iwasa

• Put on a Bus: Put himself there, actually. He actually decided to retire, his stablemates convinced him not to. Instead, he took an "indefinite leave of absence" to heal nagging injuries.
  • He's back on the bus. Although there's been no official word as to why, Iwasa hasn't appeared in wrestling since February 2012.
• Satan: His original gimmick was Takamichi Iwasa, the Crown Prince of Hell and the Satanic Mat Master.
• The Bus Came Back: He made a return to wrestling in the spring of 2011, but to date hasn't taken a regular schedule or moved out of the undercard.
• Took a Level in Badass: Actually, considering he went from jobber to comedy wrestler to main eventer, about ten levels in it.

Naoki Tanizaki

• A Day in the Limelight: His run as Open the Brave Gate Champion was, effectively, this.
• Put on a Bus: Injured and out indefinitely.

Shachihoko Machine

• See Shisa BOY

Johnson Florida

• The Artifact: Johnson debuted when Taku "Michael" Iwasa and Raimu "Daniel" Mishima were doing the Florida Brothers gimmick. The Florida Brothers proper ended in April 2006. Johnson stuck around and occasionally worked with Jackson, but Jackson was phased out of the cards by 2011. Johnson still shows up every once in a while.
• Secret Identity: He's really referee Takayuki Yagi

Alumni

Ultimo Dragon

• Creator Killer: The dragondoor promotion and the convoluted angle revolving around the Ultimo Dragon mask.

Magnum Tokyo

• The Quisling: It's widely believed that he held a lot of the responsibility for the split between Ultimo Dragon and the promotion.
• Real Men Wear Pink

Anthony W. Mori

• The Artifact: Another Toryumon holdover that the Dragon Gate bookers don't seem to know what to do with. They never did figure it out and he retired.
• Beware the Nice Ones: The official line is that he has an inner brutal streak that he can rarely tap into. The last time he managed to, he choked out Magnitude Kishiwada.
• Bishonen: If it's possible for a real human being to be a trope codifier...

brother YASSHI

• Crouching Load Hidden Badass: Sometimes it seems inexplicable that Kondo continues to put up with him. Then suddenly he backs it up.
• The Load: See above.
• Pretty Fly for a Japanese Guy
• Those Two Guys: With Shuji Kondo.

Dr. Muscle

• Secret Identity: So many different wrestlers have donned the Dr. Muscle costume over the years, that it's safe to say there is no Dr. Muscle. Yet every now and again someone dresses up in the costume.
• What Could Have Been: It is believed that Dr. Muscle was supposed to be played by Raimu Mishima, who was going to get a post-Florida Bros push the same way Taku Iwasa did. But Mishima jumped to Sasake Dojo shortly after the angle began and retired from wrestling shortly after that. The angle was abandoned and the character drifted aimlessly with different people playing him before he was phased out.

Jackson Florida

• Game-Breaking Injury: Jackson Florida was a comedy character whose routine revolved around his injured and useless knee - and his refusal to stop using the diving knee drop as a staple of his offense.

Magnitude Kishiwada

• The Brute: He was big, he was mean, and except for a very short stint in an age-based stable was a heel for his entire Dragon Gate run.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Went from the first non Toryumon or Dragon Gate trueborn to hold the Dream Gate Title, to a part time performer, to... just quietly not getting booked anymore.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Magnitude's match against Cyber Kong. Magnitude won.

Milano Collection A.T.

• The Dandy

Raimu Mishima

• Butt Monkey: He basically filled the same role in the promotion that Tozawa does now.
• Genre Savvy: During a 5 vs 5 match, he faced off against Magnum Tokyo. Tokyo hopelessly outclassed him in the ring. But the match allowed over the top rope eliminations, and Mishima jumped and grabbed onto Tokyo and dragged him out.

Shuji Kondo

• Big Eater: A huge fan of the meat dish sukiyaki, Kondo actually named an entire stable after it.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: His power based style changed the junior heavyweight scene significantly.
• Those Two Guys: With brother YASSHI.

SUWA

• Jerkass: In character and, depending on who you ask, out of character too.
• Serious Business: SUWA has made many, many derogatory remarks about the comparatively light hearted nature of Dragon Gate as compared to other federations like NOAH.

Takuya Suguwara

• Breakup Breakout: He started off teaming with Anthony W. Mori in the Royal Brothers. Now he's one of the most notorious heels on the Japanese indy scene, while Mori hasn't done anything except win the Brave Gate title and immediately vacate it.
  • The funny thing is that it looked like Mori was going to be the breakout after the team split. He won their feud, and then Suguwara got fired. But Suguwara reinvented himself on the indies while Mori did nothing in DG.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After his return he disappeared for a while in mid 2010 with an injury. After his return, instead of being on all the shows he only participated in Dragon Gate sporadically. And with the new super-heel stable forming out of the remnants of his Deep Drunkers stable, he just quietly vanished from the cards.
• Gratuitous English: Suguwara's stables tend to have names like this. Aside from the gramatically incorrect "Deep Drunkers". He's lead stables called "STONED" and "HELL DEMONS", the latter of which he botched their debut promo by calling them "Dell Hemons".

TARU

• Axe Crazy: Loses most of his matches via DQ. Has (kayfabe) attacked fans.
  • Got fired from NJPW for real when he completely lost his temper on another wrestler named Nobukazu Hirai. Hirai subsequently suffered a severe stroke.
• Heel: Actually has it printed on his shirt.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: When not wrestling he generally wears tailored suits.