Characters / Dragon Gate

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.

Also please note that as the English language Dragon Gate fansite that was providing explanations of Dragon Gate storylines went offline in the spring of 2019, this list is very out of date as far as active wrestlers and stable affiliation goes.

R.E.D (Real Extreme Diffusion) (formerly ANTIAS, before that VerserK)

Eita

• Badass Decay: Another example of Dragon Gate moving a wrestler down the card and working it into the storylines (making it in-universe) - Eita was a midcarder moving upwards when he got injured, and slid back down to opener when he returned. Shingo Takagi ripped on him for it. He recovered after the formation of Over Generation, though.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Sometimes the way he dresses when not wrestling is a bit...strange, to say the least.
• Bratty Half-Pint: His size doesn't stop him from running his mouth, even against the most experienced and respected of veterans. Then again, most of the Millenials were this when the stable was around, and they haven't lost it.
• Delinquent Hair: Before joining the Millennials, he had a mohawk. Now he no longer spikes the mohawk and just wears it down, occasionally tying it.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Not a very big wrestler, but becoming infamous for his vicious chops.

Kaito Ishida

• Crowd Chant: Several DG wrestlers have noted that the crowd chant directed at him ("I-shi-da!") sounds like "E-C-W!".
• Extremity Extremist: His moveset is kick based, and his finisher is a Hurricane Kick.

Takashi Yoshida (Cyber Kong)

• Badass Decay: Experienced a severe case of it during 2012. This wasn't just a normal depush, as his fellow wrestlers invoked it against him, mocking him for forgetting how to wrestle. At the nadir of this he had to cut promos apologizing to the fans and other wrestlers for being awful. He started recovering in mid-2013, when he re-joined MAD BLANKEY, but he never did make it back to the main event level and topped out as a mid-ranking trios guy.
• Bald of Evil: Since his unmasking, he shaves his head shiny.
• Beard of Barbarism: After unmasking, grew a long scraggly chin beard.
• Beast Man: His former gimmick. See also his last name, Kong.
• The Big Guy: During his most recent face run, which goes back to about 2011. He's been a heel for a good while.
• The Brute: Pre and post badass decay.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: It's presumed although not confirmed that his massive depush was a punishment for something or other.
• Red Baron: "Kinniku Juu" ("Muscle Beast") and "The Real Monster of Dragon Gate", an obvious jab at Monster Express.
• The Unintelligible/Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish: A little after 2014 started, he's taken to yelling at his opponents in gibberish. Here's an example, skip to 30 seconds.

BxB Hulk

• The Apprentice: To Magnum TOKYO, in his rookie days
• Big Damn Heroes: With Kzy and Yosuke Santa Maria, saving YAMATO from a beatdown and from losing his hair after Verserk turned on him during the DEAD or ALIVE cage match in May 2016. Hulk put the boots to both Kotoka and Shingo Takagi, ensuring that YAMATO could escape the cage and leaving Kotoka to lose his hair.
• Bishie Sparkle: Wore a lot of glittering silver stuff during his ring entrance during his face days.
• Celebrity Resemblance: His Killer Hulk outlook has been noted to resemble the Japanese singer GACKT.
• Extremity Extremist: Downplayed. Hulk likes to kick.
• Family-Friendly Stripper: His first gimmick.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: His First Flash finisher is a superkick to a downed opponent.
• Legacy Character: Inherited his character from Magnum TOKYO, albeit in a more juvenile light.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: His evil "Killer Hulk" persona.
• Lightning Bruiser: His finisher are both power moves and aerial techniques.
• Red Baron: "Tatakau Shiro Yosei" ("The Fighting White Fairy", used as a face), "Kyoki no Hohoemi" ("The Grin of Madness", used as Killer Hulk or as a heel), "Pure or Snow" (difficult to translate given the Word Salad Title, but something in the lines of "as pure as snow").
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: How he turned face in 2014. After the main event of DEAD or ALIVE 2014, he just couldn't take anymore of Mad Blankey's crap, so he kicked Doi and YAMATO in the head and quit the stable.
• Self-Deprecation: He's been teased by enemies and friends alike for his lack of microphone skills. He just kind of admits it.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He was not very pleased with the fact that his stable, Dia.Hearts, was on the line against Monster Express, so he goaded VerserK, the ones responsible for the match in the first place, to join the match. Dia.Hearts ended up disbanding after losing the match.

KAI

• You Look Familiar: Showed up in Dragon Gate as a freelancer in 2018, after working for All Japan Pro Wrestling and Wrestle-1 previously.

KAZMA SAKAMOTO

• You Look Familiar: Best known for his time in WWE, where he played Lord Tensai's manservant.

H.Y.O. (Hyou Watanabe)

• Animal Motif: When he debuted his new attire, he mentioned that "hyou" is Japanese for "leopard", hence his leopard-print shorts and pads.

SB KENTo

HipHop Kikuta

Diamante

Dia Inferno

Team Boku

KING Shimizu (fka Bokultimo Dragon, Big R Shimizu and Ryotsu Shimizu)

• Belly Flop Crushing: The diving splash is a signature of his, though he doesnt jump off as much as he falls forward
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: During his anime cop days he painted a thick unibrow onto his face.
• Dumb Muscle: He doesn't seem to be the brightest member of the roster.
• Expy: When he debuted his first new look after the anime policeman thing, his name, outfit and hair was very similar to that of pre-New Day Big E. Langston.
• Finishing Move: A huge falling chokeslam known as the Shot-put Slam.
• I Know Football: In his moveset there is a running football tackle.
• Old Shame: In-universe, he declared his anime police officer gimmick to be one. Mad Blankey stole his pants, but when Shimizu got them back he just tore them up and said he was done with that nonsense.

Naruki Doi

• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: In addition to all the times he backstabbed Masato Yoshino, he also backstabbed YAMATO in April 2016.
• Combination Attack: During a short-lived tag team with Genki Horiguchi, the two of them combined Doi's Bakutare Sliding Kick with Horiguchi's Backslide from Hell to make the Backslide from Bakutare. With Horiguchi having the opponent set up for the Backslide, Doi would Bakutare them in the head and Horiguchi would use the impact to complete the Backslide.
• Decision Darts: The Doi Darts are basically this, whenever he wants to just mix things up a little bit.
• I Know Baseball: His first gimmick, Second Doi, was based on Japanese baseball player Shozo Doi.
• I Work Alone: After being betrayed by VerserK, a stable he helped found, Doi doesn't trust them or anyone else anymore, claiming himself to be a "lone wolf". This changed with the formation of MaxiMuM though.
• Jerkass: A huge one during his recent heel run. He completely owned up to it, and even refers to himself (notably on his merch) as "The Most Hated Man in the World".
• Lightning Bruiser: Though he emphasizes strength.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The Second Doi gimmick. Both Takuya Sugawara and "brother" YASSHI teased him relentlessly about it when they returned to the promotion (in 2009 and 2016 respectively), as they only knew him as a geek in baseball pants and had a hard time believing that he could became one of the top guys in Dragon Gate like he is now. Particularly funny in Sugawara's case, as Doi was the Dream Gate champion at the time and Sugawara was in complete disbelief of that.
• Red Baron: "Boso Muscle" ("Rampaging Muscle"), "Kyoki no Kinnikuman" ("The Kinnikuman of Madness").
• 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.
• With Friends Like These...: Doi seems to have a habit of backstabbing Masato Yoshino. But, since they make such a good tag team, they usually end up back together - only for Doi to backstab Yoshino again. Yoshino got sick enough of Doi's crap that they split the team for the better part of 4 years, but once Verzerk backstabbed Doi, they reconciled.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Kicked out of VerserK once they disbanded Monster Express, much like Mad Blankey did to Akira Tozawa.

Ryo Saito

• Belly Flop Crushing: Fond of the diving splash, as well as his comical SaiRyo Rocket finisher.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Before his rise in 2005, Saito was mostly known for losing repeated squash matches to Milano Collection AT. Often they would have best 2 of 3 falls matches and Milano would use one of his two submission finishers for the first fall, then immediately switch to the other one for the second fall.
• 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.
• Fighting Clown: He became known for comedy, but he's no less of a fighter for it
• I Know Cycling: His original gimmick. He even came to the arenas with a bike.
• Meaningful Name: After backstabbing Susumu Yokosuka and turning heel in the late 2000s, he added a new Finishing Move to his arsenal - a straightjacket piledriver that he called the Double Cross.
• Red Baron: "Dragonfly".
• Suplex Finisher: Among his finishing moves are the Dragon Suplex and the Premium Bridge (double wristlock dragon suplex)

Punch 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!
• Arch-Nemesis: It's safe to say that Tominaga absolutely despises Shingo Takagi.
• Delinquent Hair: Was forcibly given a hairstyle called a Punch Perm, which is often associated with the Yakuza. He decided to live up to the hairstyle and turned heel.
• The Dog Bites Back: Part of his July 2014 heel turn involves him saying that he is out to get Shingo Takagi, who has apparently been tormenting him relentlessly.
  • It happened again in October 2015, only this time Tominaga attacked Takagi and quit being his slave.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: His hairline appears to be receding, even before getting the punch perm.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: After the dissolution of Mad Blankey, he turned on Takagi to join Over Generation. Just over a year later, he turned on OG to join Verserk (this time as a proper member). And about a year after that he was kicked out of Verserk just before it became ANTIAS and (again) sought revenge against Shingo.
• Hollywood Pudgy: He has a soft physique, and never hears the end of it in-universe; Shingo was especially unkind on the matter after Punch joined Over Generation.
• Meaningful Name: He lost a match to Kotoka in July 2014 in which the loser was forced to get a punch perm hairstyle, thus the name "Punch".
• Non-Indicative Name: His "Rocket Punch" move is a springboard spear from the apron; an intentional pun, the name refers to his punch perm rather than any act of punching.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: As a heel, for the most part he wasn't much more threatening than Mondai Ryu, but every now and again he'd score an upset with with his PT Kick. This tapered off, and by 2017 he was arguably the lowest ranked wrestler in the promotion.
• Overly Long Gag: Sometimes he'll run the ropes to build moment for a headbutt on a downed opponent; this is usually a comedy spot where he keeps running for way too long
• Personal Mook: His purpose in the VerserK unit at its founding was Shingo Takagi's attendant and personal slave, not as an official member.
• Red Baron: "The King of Cheating". Originally, when he turned heel, he often lost matches by disqualification due to his tendency to attack the referee or use brass knuckles. He finally won a match in August 2014, winning a No DQ match against CIMA of all people.

HIGH-END

YAMATO

• A God Am I: Part of his heel gimmick involved him claiming to be "all-seeing and all-knowing".
• Ambiguously Gay: His narcissistic pretty boy gimmick, complete with long dark hair and eye makeup, and his tendency to call himself & Doi the "coolest and sexiest team" lean towards this.
• Badass Longcoat: Started wearing a sleeveless one after turning heel in 2013, and usually concealed a handheld mirror within it.
• The Fighting Narcissist: His gimmick as of his June 2013 heel turn. He still shows flashes of it despite being a face, but it's mostly been toned down.
• Heel–Face Turn: His 2016 face turn involved promising to completely end the general douchiness he was known for.
• I Know Mixed Martial Arts: Was a part of the Wajutsu Keishukai MMA team, and his grounded, deliberate wrestling style reflects it.
• Mr. Fanservice: Even in a roster full of pretty boys, he stands out as this, mostly due to his narcissistic personality. Also his incredibly small trunks. And outside of wrestling, that cooking show he does where he doesn't wear a shirt under his apron.
• Legacy Character: Early in his career, he wrestled as Masato Onodera and had inherited Yasushi Kanda's gimmick (Kanda being injured indefinitely at the time).
• Red Baron: "Battleship".. Pre-2016 face turn, "Zenchizenno" ("The Almighty") and "The Coolest, Sexiest Wrestler in the World".
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Out of the ring, YAMATO is consistently one of the best-dressed individuals on the roster.
• Token Evil Teammate: During his days as Shingo Takagi's friend and having membership in various face stables, he still looked and occasionally acted heelish.

Dragon Kid

• Abhorrent Admirer: Following the end of Over Generation, he's been trying very hard to get accepted into MaXiMuM, and is unphased by Masato Yoshino telling him to his face that he doesn't like him and doesn't want him in the stable.
• Demoted to Extra: Somewhat. He's a solidly upper-midcard wrestler and one of the more protected on the roster, but back in the Toryumon days he was being groomed as a future Ace, and he never quite reached that level - he's a 4 time Brave Gate Champion, and 1 time NWA Welterweight Champion^note Toryumon Japan promoted this belt instead of making their own for some reason, but it and the Brave Gate were equivalent in stature, but never managed to win the Dream Gate or Ultimo Dragon Gym Title.
• Face: He has been a face for the entirety of his Toryumon/Dragon Gate run, save for a very brief run with the Blood Warriors.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appeared on WCW programming a few times as Little Dragon (not to be confused with the Little Dragon played by Takuya Sugi).
• Fragile Speedster: Fragile isn't quite the right word for it since pound for pound he's as tough as any other wrestler - however, he's so small and light that even the other small wrestlers like Masato Yoshino can throw him around the ring with power moves.
• I Know Breakdancing: When he's not wrestling, he breakdances. He even shows it off before matches too.
• Legacy Character: His gimmick is, or at least was, a symbolic descendant of Último Dragón.
• Odd Friendship: With K-Ness in mid 2013 as explained above in K-Ness' entry.
• Red Baron: "Kami no Ko" ("The Child of God").
• Religious Bruiser: Although he doesn't pray in the ring or anything, several of his trademark and finishing moves have a Christian theme due to his character being symbolically the Jesus to Último Dragón's God.
• Shout-Out:
  • On the receiving end of one. Dragon Kid innovated the Christo, and when Gail Kim, the first mainstream wrestler in the USA to use the move, debuted it, she called it the Flying Dragon. Possibly unintentional, since the name fits her gimmick fairly well, but seeing as Dragon Kid is a Dragon known for his flying offense and Kim had to get the idea from someone, it's at least likely.
  • In recent times he breakdances before his matches, probably a reference to the famous American high-flying wrestler Jack Evans. Their wrestling styles are fairly different otherwise, however, as Kid uses few or none of Evans's splashes and sentons and instead favors lucha libre holds and ranas.

Ben-K (Futa Nakamura)

• No-Sell: Does this a lot, often while defiantly flexing his arms.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: 5'8", 218 lbs, and is absurdly strong. He's not short at all by Dragon Gate standards, however.

Keisuke Okuda

Masquerade

Shun Skywalker (Shun Watanabe)

• Named After Somebody Famous: Take a wild guess.
• One-Steve Limit: He's of no relation to Hyou Watanabe, which is probably why his name was changed.

Dia Dragon

• Legacy Character: The newest character of the Dragon Lineage, following Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid, Darkness Dragon and Little Dragon.

La Estrella

• Expy: Of Takuya Sugi; he's a masked wrestler too and has many of Sugi's signature moves, among them the famous rope-running dropkick, which no other Japanese wrestler had adopted yet. In fact, upon his debut there was some speculation that Estrella could be Sugi himself under another of his many gimmicks, but it was revealed he was actually a new Dragon dojo boy named Masahiro Inoue.

Jason Lee

Kota Minoura

Natural Vibes

Kzy (m.c. KZ)

• Bald of Evil: Lost his hair as a result of the main event of DEAD or ALIVE 2014. He has since regrown it.
• Battle Strip: After spending the majority of his career in either a prison-style outfit or overalls, Kzy changed to shorts in 2017.
• Big Damn Heroes: With BxB Hulk and Yosuke Santa Maria, saving YAMATO from a beatdown and from losing his hair after Verserk turned on him during the DEAD or ALIVE cage match in May 2016. Kzy was the first to run out to help YAMATO after it became clear that he was outmatched.
• Dreadlock Rasta: Returned in 2015 from an eye injury with dreadlocks. They fell out months later.
• Expy: Took part of the gimmick and some of the moveset of brother YASSHI. The two of them shared an amusing interaction when YASSHI first returned in March 2016.
• Finishing Move: Kzy Time, a frog splash which he almost never hits. He also has a double underhook piledriver, called the Impact, which is extremely effective. Also, in late 2017, he started using a running elbow smash.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the first Korakuen Hall show of 2015, Dr. Muscle joined up with MAD BLANKEY to take part in a 6 on 6 all-out war against the Millennials. In the closing moments of the match, he attacked CIMA and caused them to lose. Dr. Muscle unmasked and revealed himself as Kzy, who quit MAD BLANKEY and joined Dia.HEARTS.
• Jobber: From about the year 2009 through 2014, he was the least pushed wrestler on the roster for no particular reason. Even some wrestlers who were worse than he was (e.g. Mondai Ryu) got more screen time and attention. He started to improve in 2014, earning more pinfalls in the first half of that year than in the two previous. However, it wasn't until the very end of 2017 that he started earning fairly regular wins over non-entry-level opponents. And as of 2018 it appears he's being groomed as a future main eventer.
• Leaving You to Find Myself: After coming up short in a grueling battle with Masaaki Mochizuki, Kzy decided to secede from Tribe Vanguard in order to continue his upward swing. He felt it was better for him to fight against his generational peers, not with them.
• Pretty Fly for a Japanese Guy: During his m.c.KZ days.
• Red Baron: "B-BOY 4LIFE".
• Those Two Guys: With Mondai Ryu in MAD BLANKEY.

Susumu Mochizuki (Susumu Yokosuka/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.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Many of his wrestling moves require intricate setups. However, it's the fact that he is able to perform them which explains Susumu's nickname of "TECHNIC*MASTER".
• Defeating the Undefeatable: First person on the Dragon Gate roster to pin Uhaa Nation.
• For the Evulz: His original tag team with Kanda back in Toryumon was tweener rather than heel, but they often worked to ruin shows by randomly attacking wrestlers and crashing matches of the card.
• Improbable Weapon User: During an 8-man tag team match between Team Dragon Gate^note Susumu, CIMA, Masaaki Mochizuki, and Akira Tozawa and Team Dosanko^note BxB Hulk, T-Hawk, Kzy, and Super Shisa, the members of Team Dragon Gate all brought weapons to the ring. Susumu's weapon was... a crab leg.
• One-Steve Limit: After a couple years of having two unrelated Mochizukis on the roster, Susumu lost a match for rights to the surname to Masaaki in February 2002 and had to change his surname to his home city, Yokosuka. He finally changed his surname back to Mochizuki in May 2022 for an M2K reunion with Masaaki, Yasushi Kanda and Genki Horiguchi.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He is a junior heavyweight with a technical wrestling style, but he lifts opponents with ease, and one of his finishers is a surprisingly strong lariat in homage to Jumbo Tsuruta.
• Purple Is Powerful: He's recognized as one of the best wrestlers on the roster and has had purple as his image color for almost all of his career.
• Red Baron: "Technic*Master", "Shokunin" ("The Artisan"), "Kakure Gowan" ("The Hidden Strong Arm").

Genki Horiguchi

• 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 gimmick so that his "H-A-G-E!" chant would not be Lost in Translation.
• Badass Decay/Took a Level in Badass: One of his character traits is that he swings between jobber-to-the-stars and upper midcarder on a semi-regular basis. Back in the Toryumon days his upwards swings were tied to the Holy Season; now they just kind of happen and it's openly acknowledged in-universe that he's inconsistent. As Horiguchi gets older, the pushes are less frequent and not as big when they happen, so he's practically a jobber-to-the-stars by now. Nonetheless, one way to fire him up and get him to win some matches via backslide is to call him on it.
• Bald of Evil: As a heel. His nickname was literally "Bald of Evil". Keeping in mind that he used his baldness for Popularity Power, part of his heel turn involved him daring to use hair extensions.
• Berserk Button: Calling him bald. He eventually embraced it, however.
• Catchphrase: "Who has called me hage?!"
• Groin Attack: The difference between the Backslide from Heaven and the Backslide from Hell is that the one from Heaven is a normal backslide and the one from Hell is a low blow followed by a backslide.
• 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.
• The Load: During the breakup of the Real Hazard stable, Horiguchi, K-Ness and Susumu Yokosuka started turning face. Horiguchi kept dropping falls in trios tag matches so he left the team of his own volition.
• Mundane Made Awesome: His backslides - the Backslide from Heaven moreso than the Backslide from Hell. ^note After a long stint as a jobber-to-the-stars, Horiguchi pinned Magnum TOKYO and Masaaki Mochizuki in back to back matches on the same night with backslides, and the backslide has been an integral part of his character ever since.
• Pun: His catchphrase being modified to fit with the Jimmy theme of his stable. H.A.Gee.Mee. It sounds like H-A-Jimmy.
• Red Baron: "H・A・G・E", "Kami ga Yadoru Otoko" ("The Man in Which God Dwells").
• Translator Buddy: Genki was the only person in the company who could understand Kaientai Dojo's PSYCHO, so he had to translate his babble during his visit to Dragon Gate in 2005. According to Genki, it was because he knew PSYCHO well since the times of his training in Mexico.
• Unrelated Brothers: One of the Toryumon X students was given the gimmick of Hiromi Horiguchi, Genki's younger brother. They weren't actually related, and because Hiromi joined Toryumon very shortly before the Toryumon/Dragon Gate split, they never met in the ring either.
• Vocal Dissonance: He's a shade below average sized in Dragon Gate and hardly physically imposing, but he has a deep booming voice.

U-T

• Always Someone Better: His generational peers from the Millennials are this to him. While they've all either gone on to new units and found relative success, he's currently the lowest ranked member of the roster. To worsen the blow, the younger Ishida and Yamamura are now above him in rank, something that seems to frustrate him deeply.
• Delinquent Hair: A bright red mohawk that he shaved off after the end of the Millennials and brought back in his 2017 return.
• The Millstone: Like many rookies in the DG system, when he participates in tag team matches he often ends up in trouble and requiring his stablemates to drop what they're doing and save him.
• It's Personal: In 2014, U-T had his jaw broken by Dragon Kid after an excessively strong jumping back kick, which forced him to leave the match. The Millennials took this very personally and declared war on the entire roster in general and Dragon Kid in particular.

Taketo Kamei

Unaligned

Último Dragón

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. Since then he seems to have gotten over it and settled down as a relatively nondescript midcard face.
• Demoted to Extra: He came from top wrestler status in Michinoku Pro Wrestling and El Dorado Wrestling to the Dragon Gate mid/low card.
• Gratuitous English: His stable in Michinoku Pro was called STONED. It was Gamma's idea anyway.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: While suffering from the chronic backstabbing disorder he rapidly joined and quit both face and heel stables.
• Heroic BSoD: After being expelled from Real Hazard.
• Named After Somebody Famous: His name is based in Uesugi Kagetora, a nobleman from the Japanese feudal era.^note Kagetora also means Shadow Tiger.
• Red Baron: "Echigo no Tora" ("The Tiger from Echigo"), "Koko no Samurai" ("The Samurai of Superiority" - a nickname shared with Shiro Koshinaka).
• Spinning Piledriver: His Genkonitteki finisher was a watered down version of this, a spinning firemans carry into over-the-shoulder reverse piledriver. The Modified Michinoku Driver, a signature that sometimes wins matches, is similar as well.

Yosuke♡Santa Maria (Yosuke Watanabe/Super Shenlong III)

• Abhorrent Admirer: To. everyone she admires, really. Except Gamma... sometimes.
• Ass Kicks You: She has a jumping hip attack in her moveset.
• Ass Pull: His change from Chinese masked wrestler to transsexual. In-universe, because her stablemates in the Millenials all cut promos that were essentially "wow I didn't see that one coming, how incredibly unexpected."
• Battle Couple: With El Lindaman as the Marilyns.
• Big Damn Heroes: With Kzy and BxB Hulk, saving YAMATO from a beatdown and from losing his hair after Verserk turned on him during the DEAD or ALIVE cage match in May 2016. She came to his aid after Kzy was taken down by Verserk, and was eventually the one to send Kotoka back down into the cage as he was reaching for the flag to escape.
• Legacy Character: As Super Shenlong III. There have been 3 different takes on the Super Shenlong character. The first was a Chinese wrestler who joined the roster while Dragon Gate toured in China. The second was Mondai Ryu. Watanabe was the third one.
• Old Shame: In-universe. After losing the Super Shenlong III mask, Yosuke Watanabe's name was officially made "The Former Super Shenlong III Yosuke Watanabe" to keep embarrassing him over it. This didn't end until the Santa Maria thing started.
• Took a Level in Badass: Originally presented entirely as a comedy character, Maria gained a lot of traction with fans and eventually started getting booked in bigger, more serious matches where she could display her skills. This ultimately led to her winning the Brave Gate title in March 2016.

Masato Yoshino

• The Artifact: He retains move names that refer to his Tarzan gimmick (From Jungle, Lightning in the Jungle and Tarzan Heart, among others).
• Even the Guys Want Him: This was how he gained membership to Blood Generation. BloodGen was a heel stable with a theme of no masks and good physiques. CIMA didn't believe that Yoshino (who'd been a face for several years) had what it took to be a heel and wasn't going to let him into BloodGen. Yoshino then flexed his abs. CIMA swooned and immediately let him in.
• Lightning Bruiser: Belives himself to the be the fastes wrestler on his feet, and is quite tough as well.
• Loincloth: His attire during his old days.
• Mundane Made Awesome: His Lightning in the Jungle move is basically a big dropkick against a corner opponent's back.
• Mr. Fanservice: 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: Though his style isn't based around strength, he is notably strong.
• 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.
• Red Baron: "Speed Star", "The Fastest Wrestler in the World".
• Token Good Teammate: Relatively. He was the only member of Italian Connection (excluding Milano Collection A.T. himself) who refused to actively cheat, and he was the only with a literal Morality Pet.
• Wild Child: His old Sexy Tarzan gimmick.
• Worthy Opponent: Has a rivalry along these lines going on with K-Ness.

Gamma

• Aborted Arc: After he left OPW, he seemed to be concocting an interpromotional stable storyline, as he founded the faction STONED and made it active at Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling ZERO1 and Dragondoor at the same time. However, he signed up with Dragon Gate immediately after, so he left the group in his underlings's hands and forgot about it.
• Bald of Evil: Though not always, he often goes shaved.
• Canon Immigrant: He came in from Osaka Pro Wrestling.
• The Corrupter: Before he came to Dragon Gate, he was quite a Mephistophelic figure. He corrupted the Sato brothers into becoming villains to form the STONED group, convinced Kagetora to join them, and influenced Takuya Sugawara into turning away from his friends in Aagan Iisou and ally with them. This trait of him was forgotten in Dragon Gate, though.
• The Idiot from Osaka: Mostly averted, as Gamma is too abrasive and unfriendly to fit the stereotype, but he retains some traits, like the loudness and love for quarreling.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: He was introduced in Dragon Gate by Magnitude Kishiwada, Gamma's old friend from FLUXxx in Osaka Pro, who needed someone to replace him in Blood Generation while he healed an injury. However, what looked to be a temporal guest ended up becoming a steady wrestler and a major player.
• Porn Stache: Often with a goatee.
• Power Copying: Many of his finishers are moves parodied from other Dragon Gate wrestlers in order to disrespect them. The Gamma Special (CIMA's Schwein), Gamma Special Gekokujoh (Yasushi Kanda's Gekokujoh Elbow) and G9 Clutch (Naruki Doi's V9 Clutch) are the best examples.
• Red Baron: "Kirawareshisha" ("The Hated One"), "World-famous 3rd Rate Local Wrestler".
• 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. He also corners an opponent, spits into his own hands, and rubs them into his opponent's face.
• Superpowered Evil Side: His "Gamma Daio" persona, which he created to fight Killer Hulk in even terms. Unlike Hulk, however, the character is not supposed to be the same person as Gamma; when speaking about him, Gamma claimed Daio was a descendant of an empire of "gammas" from 10.000 BC he had managed to summon.
• Too Much Alike: Back in Osaka Pro, he was basically the resident version of CIMA, and thus, when he was brought by Magnitude Kishiwada to their stable in DG, CIMA wasn't amused. Ironically, after years of rabid clashing, they became friends due to this very similarity.
• Villain Decay:
  • A pretty severe case in his original home, Osaka Pro. He was the company's first real top heel, but after a fantastic initial run, got turned into a comedy figure.
  • A fairly severe case of it in Dragon Gate too. When he first arrived in DG he was as the "spiritual leader" of heel stable Blood Generation, and he would also have a leadership spot in BG's successor stable the Muscle Outlawz. Since then he's primarily been a midcard face and become friends with everyone he hated.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With CIMA. Their relation fluctuates between best friends and hateful enemies.

"brother" YASSHI

• Arch-Enemy: Masato Yoshino.
• Bash Brothers: For most of their careers, with Shuji Kondo.
• The Bus Came Back: To Dragon Gate, as he made his first appearance in over 11 years in February 2016. It only amounted to a couple appearances and a match in March 2016, though - YASSHI deliberately got himself disqualified and left the promotion. Two months later, he returned as the latest member of Verserk.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Before joining Natural Vibes, warned them that he had it and he would almost certainly turn on them sooner or later.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: From about spring 2017 through spring 2018. Much like Naoki Tanizaki, his appearances tapered off until he vanished entirely (final appearance being in May 2017; since then he's made one random appearance in December), and he was officially removed from ANTIAS as of their name change from Verserk. Ironically he spent much of his time teaming with fellow CCS sufferer Naoki Tanizaki on the Japanese indy scene. He abruptly returned in the spring of 2018, angry at Verserk for abandoning him.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Easy to forget watching his mid-late 2000s career where he was known mostly for having a big mouth and being a coward that he is an accomplished amateur wrestler and MMA hobbyist.
• Delinquent Hair: Dreadlocks.
• Flanderization: May have hamstrung his wrestling career. Originally he was a former amateur wrestler who happened to like rap and partying, and tied for second highest ranking in T2P with Masato Yoshino (behind Milano Collection AT). However, the love of rap and partying aspect of his character completely overtook the rest. Likewise, he was initially Shuji Kondo's smaller buddy, and got flanderized into Kondo's Tagalong Kid.
• Forgot Flanders Could Do That: While working in El Dorado, he tried to invoke this by working his amateur wrestling into his gimmick and even starting a stable based on amateur wrestling ability. It didn't get over, although to be fair the El Dorado bookers didn't try very hard to get it over.
• Groin Attack: A staple of his offense is the testicular claw.
• Heel: He has been a heel for his entire career. Not just in Dragon Gate - his entire wrestling career. The closest he's been to being a face was during his dragondoor/El Dorado days when the fans preferred Aagan Iisou to the guys who were supposedly the faces.
• I Have Many Names: Started as Stevie "brother" Tsujimoto, then became YASSINI, then "brother" YASSINI, and finally "brother" YASSHI. In Ring Soul he was briefly "brother" Tom Yankun, a muay thai kickboxer gimmick.
• I Know Amateur Wrestling: The theme of his stable in El Dorado. He also did MMA for a time.
• Insistent Terminology: For whatever reason he was always insistent that his name contain the word 'brother'. When he first joined the Italian Connection and was renamed YASSINI, he whined constantly until Milano Collection AT said "whatever" and added 'brother' to the name.
• The Load: See above.
• Precision F-Strike: Subverted. YASSHI loves to say 'fuck' but he doesn't exactly use the word well. He had the stable called "Nanking*Fucking Wrestling Team" which sounds pretty pornographic in English. There's also his trademark "fuck fuck fuck" move, where he flips a guy off while saying fuck repeatedly, misses a spinning heel kick in such a way that he bounces off the ropes, lands on his feet and gets clotheslined or something.
• Pretty Fly for a Japanese Guy: His gimmick is that of a Japanese-born hip-hop fan.
• Put on a Bus: Along with the rest of Aagan Iisou (Shuji Kondo, Takuya Sugawara, Toru Owashi, Shogo Takagi), departed Dragon Gate in December 2004^note They ragequit as a group due to being Demoted to Extra after the Toryumon to Dragon Gate switch; the company saved face by claiming they'd been fired
• Red Baron: "Oshaberi" ("Motor Mouth"), "Fukai Kando 120% Hip Hop Resura" ("The 120% Unpleasant Hip Hop Wrestler" - self proclaimed but quite true).
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Left AJPW abruptly after spending several years as a whipping boy. He retired for 4 years, then resurfaced in Pro Wrestling ZERO1 where he was pretty successful.

Keni'chiro Arai

• The Alcoholic: It's been part of his character for most of his career. As a heel he'd spit beer in people's faces and use empty bottles as weapons. Naturally, he was one of the Deep Drunkers, a Gang of Hats of drunken troublemakers.
• 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.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Stopped appearing on Dragon Gate shows entirely at the end of 2016. See the Trivia page for more details. He started appearing again in 2019 however.
• Demoted to Extra: From roughly the midpoint of the Deep Drunkers run until the end of 2015, he appeared mostly on the Koruaken Hall shows and in the dark match or in openers.
• Hard Head: Hit him in the head with a chair or blue box and he won't just No-Sell it, he'll be re-energized.
• It Will Never Catch On: He started in the promotion Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling, but he was dropped out of the dojo as he failed the training tests and the trainers thought he would never make it as a wrestler. Time proved they were wrong.
• Lightning Bruiser: Able to perform both 450º splashes and tombstone piledrivers.
• Red Baron: "Araken", "Tosho" ("The Brave Leader"), "Sono Hi Kurashi" ("Hand to Mouth").
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: His response to Team Veteran Returns being forcibly disbanded was to refuse to participate in the stable's farewell speech and leave the arena alone.
• Shout-Out: He's a fan of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team, and he calls his Tiger Suplex Finisher the Hanshin Tiger Suplex.
• Spell My Name With An S: Spelling of his name vary between "Kenichiro", "Ken'ichiro" and "Keni'chiro".

Yasushi Kanda

• Arch-Nemesis: Don Fujii, and more recently, Naruki Doi.
  • Due to Don Fujii's more frequent association with the Jimmyz lately, it seems their feud has dissipated, at least for now.
• Delinquent Hair: During his M2K days and for a while after his return, he wore his hair in a spectacular mohawk. When he had to stop wrestling but became a heel referee, he quit spiking his mohawk but didn't cut the hair, leaving a very long stripe down the center and shaved on the sides.
• Game-Breaking Injury: He suffered a neck injury off a Beach Break from Genki Horiguchi that came very close to killing him and caused him to miss four years.
• Heel: Has been one for almost his entire career, starting with the original M2K in the early 2000s. His only face runs were right after his return from injury and a 5 year venture with The Jimmyz. Both of those face runs ended with him backstabbing his friends and turning heel.
• Red Baron: "Gekokujoh" ("Young Revolution"), "Chinpira" ("The Hooligan") and "Kandy".

Mondai Ryu (APE Kimata/Super Shenlong II)

• Bratty Half-Pint: While not technically smaller than the other guys on the roster, he's comparatively young in age and tenure - and he has a really big mouth, bigger attitude problem, no respect for anyone except maybe the other guys in whatever stable he's in, and loves to antagonize the faces.
• I Have Many Names: Aside from having worked as APE Kimata and Super Shenlong II, when he started his current gimmick it took him a long time to settle on a name. He went by Problem Eilong, Problem Ailong and Mondailong before settling on Mondai Ryu. This was partly because his Japanese name doesn't translate into English well.
• Legacy Character: He was the second generation Super Shenlong before he turned heel and joined Mad Blankey.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Tends to become abruptly competent when wrestling in his home prefecture of Gifu. He's also absolutely beloved there. And as of mid-2016 he seems to be slowly building a bit of competence, winning dark matches and the occasional opener with his "Problem" finisher, and even getting a shot at the Brave Gate title.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Was drafted into Over Generation (and immediately Put on a Bus) after Over-Gen beat VerserK in a match with a stipulation where the winning stable could forcibly draft a member of the losing stable. CIMA selected Mondai Ryu because Ryu is legitimately suffering from a cervical hernia. CIMA suffered that same injury himself a decade ago and wants to support him.
• Red Baron: "The Problem Child of Dragon Gate"
• 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.
• Those Two Guys: First with Kzy, then after Kzy left MAD BLANKEY, with Punch Tominaga.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: His theme song is literally Team Veteran booing. The song is titled "salty a Boo Boo!"

Shachihoko BOY

• Demoted to Extra: After the conclusion of Team Best Friends, he hasn't done much of anything.
• Hurt/Comfort Fic: His run as Team Best Friends with Masato Yoshino was this in spades. They joined Toryumon at the same time, and Yoshino became one of the promotion's top stars while BOY never got out of the preliminaries. Their time as a team was spent with BOY being The Load and Yoshino trying to make him feel better about it and protect him from Shingo Takagi.
• The Load: According to Shingo Takagi, who said that his existence as part of the Monster Express stable invalidated the entire concept. Takagi also accused him of being the one wrestler on the roster who was so bad that he couldn't carry him to a tag title reign.
• Secret Identity: BOY used to work as both Shisa BOY and Shachihoko Machine. He'd sometimes get the gimmicks scrambled and come out as both at once. Eventually Shachihoko BOY became his main gimmick.

Masaaki Mochizuki

Don Fujii

• The Artifact: Fujii himself. He's a good worker and a good character, but the bookers haven't found a definitive idea what to do with him since Crazy MAX was closed.
• The Cameo: Made a few WCW appearances as Sumo Fuji.
• Constantly Changing Name: From the time he started in the late 90s, he used to change his name once a year. Started as Sumo Fuji, then went through Big Fujii, Sumo Dandy Fujii, Sumo Dandy Fuji 2000, and Don Fujii. He stopped the annual renaming thing after he became the last.
• Grumpy Old Man: Much like Mochizuki, it shows when he's facing the younger guys.
• 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 Fujii slides CIMA treats him with the utmost respect.
• I Know Karate: In the early days of his career used sumo throws and palm thrusts. He dropped them over the time, but he still uses some.
• Implacable Man: Turns into one of these if someone tries to initiate a chest chop battle with him.
• Mighty Glacier: Not really that big or slow, but compared to the rest of the roster, he is notably burly and ground-based.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Fujii is a very small wrestler in comparison with most Japanese heavyweights, but he is still one, which means he is surprisingly strong and can comfortably chokeslam almost any wrestler in DG.
• Red Baron: "Kizu Darake no Tateyakusha" ("The Dented Iron's Driving Force"), "Yonju Dai no Onigunso" ("The Demon Sergeant on his Forties"), "Fujii Oyakata" ("Master Fujii" in sumo jargon).
• Ring Oldies: One of the oldest in the roster, and a member of the veteran stable Zetsurins.
• Spell My Name With An S: The "Don" in his name kept international puroresu fans wondering for a long time. It has never been revealed whether it should be taken as the Japanese word for "boss", as a regular first name (some sites first identified it as a reference to wrestler and mixed martial artist Don Frye, who was very popular in Japan when Fujii adopted the name) or even as the Spanish equivalent to "Mr." (which was how announcers used to spell it whenever he wrestled in Mexico).
• The Stoic: As expected from a sumo.
• Suplex Finisher: His main finisher is a sober German suplex called "Nice*German".

Super Shisa (Yoshiyuki Saito/SAITO)

• Afro Asskicker: Pretty much SAITO's only characteristic was his poofy haircut.
• 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.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: 'Lazy' isn't quite the right word for it, but part of Shisa's character is that he's just not that interested in being a front line competitor and prefers to focus on his job as a trainer for the Dragon Gate dojo - but if he's pushed hard enough he can be one of the best on the roster.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He's been entirely absent from the cards since the start of 2016, minus three matches in May 2016. He appeared in September 2017 to explain that he'd opened a restaurant. He declared he was not retired, but not close to in wrestling shape, and he promised he'd work on that and try to wrestle more often - but before that he had to make tacos. He finally wrestled again in October 2018.
• Expy: The Super Shisa character is a Shisa, but looks similar to Tiger Mask. He even uses moves like the Tiger Wall Flip.
• Finishing Move: The Yoshi Tonic, a move he invented. It is said to have a near 100% success rate.
• One-Hit Kill: His Yoshi Tonic finisher. Of course, the reason it didn't suffer from the So Last Season syndrome that most Dragon Gate finishers did is because Shisa didn't really get pushed a lot and rarely won matches.
• Red Baron: "Ryukyu no Shishi" ("The Leon from Ryukyu").
• The Unreveal: For years it was believed that Shisa was actually SAITO (Yoshiyuki Saito, not to be confused with Ryo Saito and many other Saito-named wrestlers). Shisa denied it for years. He finally had to unmask during a match where he got cut on the forehead and needed to unmask to keep the blood out of his eyes. Turned out that yeah he was SAITO all along.
• Ur-Example: He was the first Toryumon wrestler who intensively used the Mexican llave style, years before Toryumon 2000 Project came.

Konomama Ichikawa

• Beat Them at Their Own Game: By fellow comedy wrestlers, most notably Kikutaro.
• Butt-Monkey: His gimmick is that of a wrestler cursed with 400 years of losing who is constantly and pathetically defeated. In fact, he is usually pinned after a slap mere seconds into the match and it has to being restarted before losing in a slightly more proper way. Not a bad perspective for him, though, as he never gives up and always seeks bigger challenges, which normally take the form of Japanese wrestling legends beating him up.
  • Subverted in 2008, when he (as ICHIKAWA) pinned The Great Sasuke of all people thanks to a crazy highspot tried by Sasuke that unsurprisingly failed.
• Captain Ersatz: His entire gimmick is a giant reference to a character named Blackdevil from the Japanese TV show Ore Tachi Hyoukin Zoku. His entrance theme, the William Tell overture, was the opening theme of said show.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Just look at his attire. It is... difficult to describe. Kind of a devil... insect... furry... elf kind of thing.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: His evil persona ICHIKAWA, which is a parody to The Great Sasuke's own evil character SASUKE. He even was banned from WPW for ranting viciously against the crowd.
• The Millstone: During his time as an official member of CrazyMAX. Or really, any time he has to team with anyone.
• Plucky Comic Relief
• Red Baron: "Sekai Saijaku Puroresura" ("The Weakest Wrestler in the World"), "400 Sen Zenpai" ("The Man of the 400 Defeats", in parody to Rickson Gracie).
• Squash Match: Part of his gimmick is losing within seconds of the bell and begging for another chance. It'll take longer for him to lose the second match, but he'll still get virtually zero meaningful offense.
• Suplex Finisher: His official finisher is a German suplex called "Ina Bauer German", but he never has the opportunity to use it.
• Took a Level in Badass: He was permitted to join Team Veteran, and although he was still by far the weakest member of the roster, he got more direct wins in those months as part of the stable than he had in all the prior years of his career.
• Would Hit a Girl: Yep, he sure would. Of course, Stalker's himself, and the girl he hit was Akira Hokuto, so it went pretty badly for Stalker.

Dr. Muscle

• Badass Longcoat: A white one with red stains on it.
• Deadly Doctor: Implied with aforementioned bloodstained longcoat. However, he usually prefers a briefcase on a chain to medical implements when it comes to fighting.
• 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.

Takashi Okamura

• Bad Boss: Towards Stalker Ichikawa. Despite Okamura already being the Dragon Gate chairman, he used to don his karategi and squash Stalker in opening matches for fun.
• Canon Immigrant: Came from Koji Kitao's Buko Dojo.
• I Know Karate: Another Kitao trainee, along with Mochizuki and TARU. Before that, he was a Shidokan Karate trainee.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mostly.
• Red Baron: Apparently, he got "Devilman" as a nickname while training in the Buko Dojo, and nowadays is often called "Devilman President". He even used to sport his hair like the manga's protagonist as a Shout-Out.
• Yakuza: He has some of their mannerisms when he's suited up and conducting business. This is likely a subtle reference to his martial background, as Shidokan has a reputation to be the yakuza's favourite martial arts gym franchise in Japan.

Takayuki Yagi

• Blind Without 'Em: As the Florida Brothers partial referee, he would go out to the ring in oversized celebrity sunglasses. Without which he (supposedly) couldn't see.
• Kicked Upstairs: From wrestler, to referee, to general manager.
• Wrestling Doesn't Pay: Originally Pescatore Yagi, a wrestling fisherman, and then Bakery Yagi, a wrestling baker.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: How his career as a wrestler ended. Yagi (in his Bakery Yagi gimmick) was part of the heel faction of the Italian Connection, and when the ItaCon finally split, he followed Shuji Kondo, brother YASSHI and Shogo Takagi. They sent him to get some bread, and while he was away, Toru Owashi came out. Owashi told Yagi that "sumos don't eat bread" and attacked him.

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 blue moon - most recently in 2019, and before that in 2016.
• Secret Identity: He's really Takayuki Yagi.

Shuji Kondo

• Big Eater: A huge fan of the meat dish sukiyaki, Kondo actually named an entire stable after it while wrestling in El Dorado.
• The Bus Came Back: He made a one-off appearance in January 2019, fifteen years after leaving DG. More than that, it was a singles match against Masaaki Mochizuki. And more than that, Kondo won.
• Deceptive Disciple: To Masaaki Mochizuki when they were in the Hagure Gundam stable together. Ended up kicking Mochi out of the stable and renaming it to Aagan Iisou.
• I Know Rugby: And he shows it.
• The Juggernaut: Just look how he tramples wrestlers with his spears and tackles.
• Lightning Bruiser: Incredibly fast and strong.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: His power based style changed the junior heavyweight scene significantly.
• Red Baron: "Saikyo King Kong" ("The Strongest King Kong")

Yuki Yoshioka

Sora Fujikawa

Alumni

CIMA (Shiima Nobunaga)

Magnum TOKYO

Akebono

Akira Tozawa

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.
• Defeat Means Respect: With Magnitude Kishiwada.
• Red Baron: "Oji" ("Prince"), "The Elegant Prince".
• Something about a Rose: During his days in Tozawa-Juku, he pinned a rose to the front of his uniform.

Arik Cannon

• The Brute: Like most gaijin heels, ended up as this in the heel stable - at the time Cannon was in Dragon Gate, that was the Muscle Outlawz.
• Delinquent Hair: A mohawk to rival Yasushi Kanda's classic one from his M2K days.
• Jobber: In a funny way. Cannon had gone to Japan to work for a different promotion, and that fell through. He went to Dragon Gate, who said they could use him, but because the writing for the shows was finished, they couldn't let him win any matches. Cannon said that was fine. As such, he was presented as a beast and mauled the faces before getting pinned in almost every match he participated in. They gave him a couple wins at the very end of his run.
• Stout Strength: Pudgy and soft around the edges, but able to execute power moves on pretty much any face on the roster.

El Blazer

Brodie Lee

• The Brute: He had two 2-month stints in Dragon Gate in 2011 - in both, he served as auxiliary muscle for the then-top heel stable Blood Warriors.

Chocoball KOBE / Chocoflake K-ICHI

• The Artifact: After his participation the Kitao Dojo match that was crashed by Crazy MAX to recruit TARU, the bookers seemed to get completely lost about what to do with KOBE. They decided to get him in C-MAX anyways, farfetched as it could be, but he never teamed up with them or was anything more than a random crony. They then made him turn on them and look to become a face, but then he joined M2K and became K-ICHI. But even that ended prematurely, and he was left jobbing and doing nothing until his final departure. He had probably one of the strangest careers in the history of Toryumon.
• Boisterous Weakling: Sported a porn-themed ring name (inspired by Chocoball Mukai) and wore leather attire (vaguely inspired by his master Koji Kitao) as if he was the baddest man in the world, but he was actually an undignified, hopeless jobber.
• Butt-Monkey: Not to the extent of Raimu Mishima or Akira Tozawa's early days, but he spent a good portion of his career trying to convince people to team with him or let him join their stables, only for them to turn on him at the last second.
• Canon Immigrant: Came from Kitao Dojo.
• The Dog Bites Back: Spent enough time being slapped around and mistreated by Crazy MAX that he eventually snapped, changed his name to Chocoflake K-ICHI and joined M2K.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: His final Toryumon appearance was a squash loss in 0:49 to CIMA.
• I Know Karate: Like TARU and Mochizuki.
• Non-Indicative Name: His ring name was likely inspired from Chocoball Mukai, but he didn't sport the same gimmick (or any in particular).
• The Quisling: He was right there when Crazy MAX recruited TARU, but he wasn't chosen (in fact, he was beaten up). He only gained access to the stable through intensive buttkissing and never was really considered a worthy partner or a true member.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: His final wrestling match was against CIMA, who debuted his Schwein finisher and won in 0:59. Chocoball never wrestled again - not just in Toryumon, but never again anywhere ever.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: Was somewhat of TARU's assistant in Crazy MAX for some months until he betrayed them.
• Took a Level in Badass: Granted he was so un-badass to start with that it didn't help too much, but when he became Chocoflake K-ICHI he went from complete jobber to a lower midcarder who could generally hold up his end of a tag team. His second to last match was a clean singles win over Raimu Mishima.

El Generico

Flamita

• Canon Immigrant: Became good friends with T-Hawk and EITA while they wrestled in Mexico, and came back to Japan with them.
• Flat Character: He was born after 1990 (1994 to be exact). He is from Mexico and wears a mask. This is all the personality he's shown.
• Masked Luchador: His gimmick.

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.

K-Ness (Darkness Dragon/MAKOTO)

• Arch-Enemy: In his days as MAKOTO, even though he and TARU were stablemates, TARU hated him so much that he eventually ran him out of Toryumon. As Darkness Dragon, his arch enemy was Dragon Kid, but Dragon Kid won both their feud and the Darkness Dragon mask, and they eventually reconciled in the 2010s. As K-Ness, his arch enemy was Masato Yoshino. The K-Ness/Yoshino rivalry had more underlying respect than the ones with TARU and DK, but it lasted the entirety of K-Ness' career.
• Boring, but Practical: His Hikari no Wa flash pin move. Once he hits it, victory is almost guaranteed.
• Dark Is Evil: As Darkness Dragon. And according to Mad Blankey, they induced his 2014 heel turn by awakening the dormant dark evil within him.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Although in the beginning he very much was evil, he's played a face for the majority of his career.
• Demoted to Extra: Due to being injury prone, ended up spending the majority of his time in opening matches. It would also be somewhat fair to say that the K-Ness character never quite reached the popularity of the Darkness Dragon one.
• Evil Counterpart: This was a long time ago, but K-Ness started as Darkness Dragon, an evil counterpart to Ultimo Dragon and Dragon Kid.
• Face Unmasking With Dignity: After losing the mask vs mask match to Dragon Kid, rather than allow Dragon Kid to remove the mask, he booted him, removed his own mask and walked around the ring to make sure the fans all saw his face. Then he handed the mask to Dragon Kid and hugged him.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Averted. He somehow dislocated his own elbow while delivering a Darkness Driver to Masato Yoshino in a Brave Gate title match, but he popped the elbow back into place and finished the match.
• Glass Cannon: In a sort of meta way. K-Ness was one of the best workers on the roster and in the early and mid 2000s was very popular to boot, but he was also extremely injury prone, which makes actually pushing him a risk. After injury cut a couple planned pushes out from under him in the 2000s, he got relegated to the low card for most of the remainder of his career. And when he started to receive a push during his 2014 heel run? Another injury cut it short.
• Horned Humanoid: K-ness's mask has the effect anyway.
• Odd Friendship: In mid 2013 started teaming with Dragon Kid. Although their feud ended almost a decade ago, K-Ness was at one time an evil counterpart of Dragon Kid and it's a bit odd to see them happily teaming together.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Before he became Darkness Dragon he played a vampire character named MAKOTO, who vanished after losing a Loser Leaves Match with TARU. He was recognized by the commentaros as MAKOTO after losing the Darkness Dragon mask to Dragon Kid.
• Red Baron: "Aoki Hikari" ("Blue Light"), "Ankoku Ryu" ("The Shadow Dragon") and "Brain Project".
• Theme Naming: K-Ness developed a move specifically to counter Dragon Kid's Christo, calling it the Judah. Later, he created a move to counter Masato Yoshino's Sol Naciente ("Rising sun") calling the Sol Noches El (roughly "Setting Sun"; see Translation Train Wreck below).
• Translation Train Wreck: Spanish example of Engrish with the Sol Noches El, as the name makes no sense in that language (it literally would be something like "Sun-Nights-The"). It is believed to be a mistranslation of "Sol de Anochecer" ("Twilight Sun").
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A rare comedic moment for the normally straight laced K-Ness. In a trios tag against the Florida Bros and Kensuke Sasake, K-Ness tagged in and, as though it were a real match not a comedy match, hit Sasaki with a barrage of strikes. Sasake looked at him in confusion. K-Ness looked Sasake up and down, and politely returned to his designated spot on the ring apron.
• Worthy Opponent: He and Masato Yoshino have a worthy opponent based rivalry.

Kensuke Sasaki

• Battle Couple: He and real life wife and former wrestler Akira Hokuto. Akira often accompanied to his matches, and she even came out of retirement for a 10 man tag match.
• The Big Guy: Of the Florida Bros. Really, he dwarfed just about everyone on the roster.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After repeatedly losing to the Florida Bros via their trickery, Sasaki gave up on pulping them and joined them.
• It Will Never Catch On: Akira Hokuto was originally adamantly opposed to the whole angle and gimmick, thinking that it would ruin Sasaki's legacy. Instead it revitalized his career, and she decided the Florida Bros routine was Actually Pretty Funny — she could often be seen at ringside first laughing and then looking irritated at herself.
• Fan Nickname: "Kenskee." It became in-universe when the Floridas started calling him that too.
• No-Sell: A big part of Florida Bros comedy was the weakness of Michael and Daniel contrasted to the badassery of Sasaki.
  • The Floridas did several variations on the spot where Sasaki would forget to sell, so they'd do the spot over again and Sasaki would oversell horribly.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tended to cause this in other wrestlers. One time five guys at him, and he no-sold four of the kicks and caught the fifth (Magnum Tokyo's). The other four bailed leaving Tokyo to get killed.
  • Another time K-Ness hit him with a series of vicious chops. Sasake looked at K-Ness with a mildly bemused expression. K-Ness calmly returned to the ring apron as though nothing happened.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: After joining the Floridas, wore American Flag pattern shorts.

Kinta Tomoaka

• Demoted to Extra: Twice.
  • He was a student of the T2P class, but never graduated and became a referee instead.
  • After a fairly long stint as the heel referee who supported the Muscle Outlawz, Tomoaka was kicked out of the stable, turned face, briefly worked a full schedule as a wrestler - and then disappeared for a few months and came back as a generic ref .
• Spell My Name With An S: Tomoaka or Tamaoka?
• Tattooed Crook: His gimmick.

Kinya Oyanagi

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being a comedy wrestler, he was a formidable llave^note "llave" is a old Mexican wrestling style that focuses on elaborate submission holds, pinning combinations and quick counters - Ultimo Dragon and his Mexican trainers taught it to their T2P era students master, and could snatch wins with regularity.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: He relinquished his comedy light and became a centered wrestler after being beaten by TARU, who commended him to turn serious.
• Old Soldier: His first comedy gimmick was a Filipino soldier who lost his memories during the war.
• Ordinary High-School Student: His second comedy gimmick was a student who carried a textbook to the ring and studied while wrestling.
• Plucky Comic Relief
• Put on a Bus: He quit wrestling in 2003. After returning, he joined El Dorado and later Michinoku Pro Wrestling.
• Spell My Name With An S: His name is sometimes spelled as Oyanagei.
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from a (already considerably badass) comedy wrestler to a serious, hyper-competent grappler able to score a clean win over The Great Sasuke.

Kotoka Shiiba

• Bald of Evil: As per the stipulation of the 2016 Dead or Alive cage match, Kotoka was forced to stay bald for one year. He was injured soon afterwards and came back as a babyface, however.
• Expy: In late 2013, he wrestled as CIBA, a CIMA copycat.
• Keet
• Put on a Bus: Announced his retirement in January 2018, wrestled through the beginning of March and then retired.
• Red Baron: "Mr. High Tension", as of May 9, 2014.
• Sanity Slippage: What seems to have led to his heel turn (and it continued after it). After the Millenials were forced to disband, he refused to participate in their final speech as a group, and as weeks went on he began acting more and more strangely in matches, becoming completely unpredictable, hitting people with low blows left and right and even bringing a portable clipper to the ring and shaving off a portion of his former stablemate U-T's hair for no apparent reason. Since turning heel and joining Verserk, he's been turning all of that up to eleven, including the "bleeeegh" sound he often makes, wearing wing-shaped facial markings to the ring, and almost constantly grinning like a madman.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After the Millennials were forcibly disbanded in August 2015, he left by himself without participating in their final speech as a group. Fitting, as he began showing signs of a Face–Heel Turn earlier in the show.
• Signature Line: Since turning heel he makes a sound akin to "Bleeeeggghhhh".

Magnitude Kishiwada

• Acrofatic: During his main run, in which he could do standing moonsaults and the like while being quite stout. During his 2012 return he'd lost quite a bit of weight.
• 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.
• The Bus Came Back: He came back for a few months in the fall of 2012, long enough to briefly hold the Triangle Gate belts even. He has made very occasional appearances since then - twice in 2016, and once in 2018.
• Canon Immigrant: Came from Osaka Pro.
• Demoted to Extra: Went from the first non Toryumon or Dragon Gate trueborn to hold the Dream Gate Title, to a part time performer, to just being quietly removed from the roster. He makes just enough one-off appearances to avert Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.
• Kick the Dog: He beat up Tanizaki several times before introducing himself in Dragon Gate.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Very much like Fujii or Cyber Kong, Kishiwada is fairly small compared to the long tradition of Japanese heavyweights (and it can be argued that after his weight loss he is not a heavyweight anymore), but has an insane amount of strength and is able to do easily elevated powerbombs and drivers.
• Real Men Wear Pink: During his school days he trained in MMA, powerlifting and artistic gymnastics, which explains his acrofatness.
• Red Baron: "Osaka de Ichiban Tsuyoi Otoko" ("The Strongest Man in Osaka").
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Magnitude's match against Cyber Kong. Magnitude won.
• World's Strongest Man: He is billed as the strongest man in Osaka.

MAZADA

• Bash Brothers: With NOSAWA Rongai and the rest of their stable, Tokyo Gurentai.
• Canon Immigrant: Trained in lucharesu under Tatsumi Fujinami in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Muga mark before freelancing in Japan and Mexico. He and his Gurentai pals came to Dragon Gate in 2008 as freelancers and kept appearing whenever they can.
• Red Baron: "Uragiri no Sakushi" ("The Intriguer of Treachery"), "Muga no Honoo" ("The Flame of Muga", Muga being Osamu Nishimura's doctrine).
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to NOSAWA's red.
• Those Two Guys: With NOSAWA in a variety of promotions.

Milano Collection A.T.

• The Ace: Was considered the ace of Toryumon 2000 Project, which (like late Toryumon X) only had one compared with the three from Toryumon Japan.
• Battle Trophy: In his debut in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he pinned Tiger Mask IV and tore up a piece of his mask to keep it as a trophy.
• The Dandy: His gimmick was that he was an Italian fashion guru.
• Determinator: Even although his Italian Connection had became just YOSSINO and the improvised recruit Mori (who were both part-timers, as the former was also teaming up with K-ness and the latter already was a part of Pos-Hearts), Milano only disbanded the faction at leaving DG himself.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He was the only Italian Connection member who disdained actively cheating, along with YOSSINO, and they both tried to stop Shuji and YASSINI when they attacked Venezia, the mascot of the stable, out of frustration for losing a match.
• Evil Versus Evil: During the feud between Toryumon Japan and Toryumon 2000 Project, both his Italian Connection stable and Crazy MAX used heel tactics against each other.
• Imaginary Dog: He had an invisible dog named Mikeru-chan...
• Not So Imaginary Dog: ...who often dragged him around the ring.
• Red Baron: "1000 no Llave o Motsu Otoko" ("The Man of 1000 Llaves", llave meaning hold in Spanish).
• Suplex Finisher: Two of his finishers are elaborated suplexes.
• Ur-Example: For pretty much his entire career, he was considered the greatest llave technician. Llave was the then-obscure Mexican submission style, Ultimo Dragon made it a point to train the Toryumon 2000 Project wrestlers in Llave and Milano was the head of the T2P class. Unlike the other successful T2P wrestler, Milano stuck to the llave style for his entire career. It wouldn't be until Angelico adopted the style after injuries forced him to dial back his high flying and became part of All Elite Wrestling in 2019 that there would be another mainstream wrestler who specialized in llave.

Noriaki Kawabata

• Folk Music: After adopting the name of BATA-yan, he started wearing a kimono and singing Japanese traditional music to the ring.
• I Know Karate: He was another Koji Kitao trainee. His gimmick, however, was more based in MMA and submissions.
• Improbable Weapon User: A metal pan.

NOSAWA Rongai

• Bash Brothers: With MAZADA and the rest of their stable, Tokyo Gurentai.
• Canon Immigrant: Started in an obscure Japanese independent promotion and trained in lucha libre under Negro Casas in Mexico, wrestling as a freelancer onwards.
• Cloudcuckoolander: A definitely kinky one. He is known for having stolen a taxi while drunk, among other eccentricities.
• Facial Markings: Uses facepaint in form of black teardrop trails.
• Garbage Wrestler: Is proficient in it.
• It Amused Me: Tokyo Gurentai doesn't have a concrete alineation in any promotion, they just come to wreak havoc. In Dragon Gate they initially allied with Real Hazard, but then switched to WARRIORS-5 when RH turned on them.
• The Leader: Of Tokyo Gurentai, except when Minoru Suzuki is around.
• Red Baron: "Rongaina Otoko" ("The Man Out of the Question"), "Akutoku Sakushi" ("The Intriguer of Corruption").
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to MAZADA's blue.
• Those Two Guys: With MAZADA in a variety of promotions.

Jun Ogawauchi/JUN

• Always Someone Better: He was overshadowed by Shuji Kondo in Toryumon 2000, although he ended up catching him up.
• The Apprentice: To CIMA.
• Break the Cutie: He started as a popular and promising face, then was approached by Crazy MAX to became a member, and when he started to be an important part of Toryumon, was injured in a match against YASSHI and had to retire.
• Decoy Protagonist: Had all the traits of a future promotion ace: he was handsome, a great worker, very skilled and an underdog. However, his injury and retirement impeded him from taking the mantle.
• Lightning Bruiser
• The Team Wannabe: In Crazy MAX. He was just starting to become a respectable member of the team instead of a wannabe when he was injured and disappeared.

Oji Shiiba

• We Hardly Knew Ye: Wrestled as a Young Boy for half a year, disappeared for 9 months, returned for another 6 months still as a Young Boy, then disappeared for good.
• Wrestling Family: Was Kotoka's younger brother.

Naoki Tanizaki

• Atrocious Alias: Invoked - he lost a match for the rights to the name Naoki Tanizaki to an imposter Naoki Tanisaki, and Tanisaki got to pick his new name. He said that Tanizaki's crying reminded him of a dolphin and so renamed him to Mr. Quu Quu Toyonaka Dolphin. Tanizaki later won his name back and the right to force a sucky name on the imposter. Then for some reason he decided he liked the Toyonaka Dolphin name and added it to his own.
• Butt-Monkey: Tanizaki's had way more than his share of humiliating angles while in Dragon Gate. He was for several years the only Toryumon X wrestler to jump to Dragon Gate after the Toryumon/DG split, and it seems someone's unwilling to let him forget it.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Left the Jimmyz to join Verserk, in the process dropping the "Mr. Quu Quu" gimmick/name and becoming a dangerous Hot-Blooded warrior (like most of Verserk)
• The Casanova: Oddly, the names of his moveset make him out to be this - one of his trademark moves is actually called 'casanova' and another one is called 'libido.'
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: During the second half of 2016 his DG appearances started tapering away, his final appearance being at a December 2016 show in his hometown of Toyonaka (and before that he hadn't appeared since October). By the end of May 2017 he was quietly removed from the Dragon Gate website; for his part, Tanizaki claims he simply hadn't been contacted by Dragon Gate in all that time.
• Extremity Extremist: Let's talk about Tanizaki as a wrestler for a moment — he's very much fond of knee strikes and they form most of his offense.
• Meaningful Name: Tomahawk T.T. said that Tanizaki's whining reminded him of the noise a dolphin makes, and Tanizaki is from Toyonaka, hence, Mr. Quu Quu Toyonaka Dolphin.
• Red Baron: "Toriatsukai Chui" ("Handle with Care").
• Surfer Dude: His original gimmick. It's the source of his baggy shorts and surf rock theme.

PAC

• The Bus Came Back: Came straight back to Dragon Gate after spending a few years in WWE.
• Face–Heel Turn: Was introduced as a member of R.E.D immediately on his DG return, having never played anything besides a face in the promotion.

Peter Kaasa

• Lightning Bruiser: The source of his nickname, "Superhuman".
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Kaasa isn't much taller than Dragon Kid, but is massively muscled and strong.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: He did a couple of tours and joined Monster Express just in time for them to disband, but suffered a severe injury in the US just months later and hasn't wrestled since.

Phillip J. Fukumasa

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Disappeared abruptly in very early 2003 (only a little over 2 years after his debut) and hasn't been seen since.
• Cool Sword: Actually carried an officer's saber as part of his entrance gear, although he never actually used it.
• Manly Facial Hair: A neatly groomed princely mustache.
• Officer and a Gentleman: Unlike Anthony W. Mori and Henry III Suguwara's more traditionally regal attire, Fukumasa's was distinctly militaristic. Combined with the Royal Brothers genteel and sportsmanlike attitudes, his presentation invoked this.

El Lindaman (Yuga Hayashi)

• Battle Couple: With Yosuke Santa Maria as the Marilyns.
• Declaration of Protection: El Lindaman suddenly decided that he wanted to protect Yosuke Santa Maria and ended up entering a relationship with her, confusing both Over Generation and Tribe Vanguard. Eventually Linda left Over Generation, mainly because Eita couldn't accept their relationship.
  • Linda then professed his desire to join Tribe Vanguard so that he's always close to Maria, but when YAMATO refused to let him in, Linda and Maria broke up in a very messy way.
• The Generic Guy: Took the name El Lindaman to avert this - in his own words, since he has an unremarkable face and appearance he needed a name that would help him stand out.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's only 5'2, but thanks to his background in judo, his throws are very powerful. Oh and, his finisher is two german suplexes followed by a tiger suplex. He also does something like a judo arm throw into a piledriver.
• Put on a Bus: Departed Dragon Gate in May 2018 alongside CIMA and T-Hawk to work in China-based Oriental Wrestling Entertainment, although he did make a one-off appearance in December 2018.
• Real Men Wear Pink: His hair is dyed a bright pink, and his gear prominently features cherry blossom petals.
• This Means Warpaint: He started wearing face paint somewhere in 2017, and it's only intensified since then.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: His breakup with Yosuke Santa Maria led to him calling her ugly, and it followed with him becoming a real mean-spirited person. He would attack his rookie teammates after winning, not losing, tag matches, attacked his former stablemate Eita for "getting in his way", and was about to cut Punch Tominaga's hair before VerserK beat him to it. The latter led to a full-fledged Face–Heel Turn, as he joined VerserK.

Raimu Mishima

• Butt-Monkey: Never did much of anything but get his ass kicked over and over.
• The Generic Guy: Back in Toryumon 2000 Project, he played a character obviously inspired on Yuji Nagata, but he dropped it after joining the main roster, where aside from never winning, had no traits to distinguish him from anyone else.

Ricochet

Scott Reed

• Muscles Are Meaningful: This was his gimmick. He had big muscles and did power moves.
• The Worf Effect: He was seemingly brought in mostly to humiliate Cyber Kong during Kong's 2012 depush. Kong suffered repeated squash losses to Reed, and was also repeatedly brought to his knees in agony by a simple handshake from Reed.

Shingo Takagi

• '80s Hair: A mullet so iconic he went unrecognized without it and had fans asking him where it went when he changed his hair in 2009.
• 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.
• Badass Longcoat: He usually wears one to the ring.
• Convenient Replacement Character: Was introduced by CIMA as the new Crazy MAX member to team up with him and TARU after SUWA's departure and while Fujii's absence due to his participation in Iron Perms. However, it was short-lived, as Crazy MAX folded right after.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: In July 2013, he defeated CIMA, ending CIMA's 19 month 18 defense long Dream Gate reign. He did so as a face, but turned heel shortly after and remained a heel for the rest of his Dragon Gate career.
• 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.
• Jerkass: Especially as a heel with VerserK.
• Lightning Bruiser: Shingo is famous for his prodigious strength, including his ability to use all of his strongest power moves against giants like Yutaka 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.
• Mythical Motifs: His NJPW run has him go by The Dragon nickname and wears a dragon mask during his entrance. This not only reference his Dragon Gate roots, but also to convey how much of a power house he is.
• One Name Only: When he's in America, he drops his last name and goes by Shingo or SHINGO. Fans only familiar with his stateside work often don't know he even has a last name.
• Patriotic Fervor: Although in Japan, it's seen as arrogant and off-putting.
• Put on a Bus: In October 2018, chose to move on to another promotion. Lost his final match against BxB Hulk.
• Red Baron: "Pumping Hawk", "Wagado Bakushin" ("The Runner of his Own Way").
• Religious Bruiser: Before he climbs the steps to enter the ring, Shingo says a quick prayer and bows.
• The Stoic: He was the least expressive member of MONSTER EXPRESS.

Shinobu

• All Gays are Promiscuous: Part of his gimmick, even though he was bisexual rather than gay.
• Full-Frontal Assault: In Big Japan, 666 and other risqué promotions, one of his antics involves taking off his tights and wrestling nude. No, really.
• Lightning Bruiser: His finishers are a powerful lariat and a beautiful shooting star press.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse
• Real Men Wear Pink
• Red Baron: "Sei Bakudan" ("Sex Bomb").
• Shout-Out: Started in a backyard puroresu promotion as Magnum KYOTO, a parody of Magnum TOKYO. Some of his moves come from him.

Shogo Takagi

• A Day in the Limelight: He has his own stable in Toryumon X, Los Carros Exóticos. It didn't last long.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: His fighting style was based around boxing.
• I Know Boxing
• The Unfavorite: Of Aagan Iisou. He was the least known member, always relegated to a low-standard team with Toru Owashi, and only joined the promotion after having previously kicked of the same clique in the heel offspring of Italian Connection.

SUWA (Judo Suwa)

T-Hawk (Tomahawk T.T./Naoki Tanisaki/Mr. Pii Pii Tomakomai Penguin)

• Atrocious Alias: Invoked - he lost a match for the rights to the name Naoki Tanizaki to back to the real Naoki Tanizaki, and Tanizaki got to pick his new name. He said that he reminded him of a penguin, and a penguin's crying sounds like "Pii Pii", and since he is from Tomakomai, Hokkaido, he was renamed Mr. Pii Pii Tomakomai Penguin.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Tomahawk T.T. character. When he started impersonating Tanizaki, he quit appearing as T.T. They were supposedly two different people and for a while T.T. would appear on NEX events as himself, but that stopped with no acknowledgment.
• Defeat Means Friendship: The end result of his feud with Naoki Tanizaki. This pissed Mad Blankey off and they kicked him out of the stable.x
• I Have Many Names: He's gone from Tomahawk T.T. to Tomahawk to T-Hawk. In addition there was his stint as Naoki Tanisaki, and his brief forced renaming to Mr. Pii Pii Tomakomai Penguin.
• In Name Only: He wasn't the real Naoki Tanizaki^note  The real Naoki Tanizaki was injured, and because he was one-third of the Open the Triangle Gate Champions at the time, the Blood Warriors needed someone to replace him. They chose Tomahawk T.T. . He just dressed up like him, pretended to be him, and temporarily even won the right to the name. The real Tanizaki won the name back and the right to choose the imposter's new name, hence the Atrocious Alias.
• No-Sell: When you chop him, he has a tendency to not react, as an emphasis on his chop power.
• Put on a Bus: Twice.
  • After losing a Loser Leaves Dragon Gate match to the real Naoki Tanizaki, he went to Mexico.
  • Left Dragon Gate entirely in May 2018 alongside CIMA and El Lindaman to work in the China based Oriental Wrestling Entertainment.

Takehiro Yamamura

• A Day in the Limelight: Went to a 20 minute draw with the very large and in charge Big R Shimizu, then served as a surprise replacement in an important tag match against Verserk, all on the same show. He took the loss, but made a huge impression in the process.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: One of the youngest and smallest guys on the roster, able to suplex the likes of Shingo Takagi with relative ease.

Taku Iwasa (Takamichi Iwasa)

• Ascended Extra: Really, no one expected his tag team with Kenichiro Arai to catch on like it did. However, he and Arai had chemistry in loads, and they ended up being a cornerstone of the then-new Twin Gate division until Iwasa's injury.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: His re-disappearance following the half-hearted 2012 return was never addressed, and he hasn't been seen on the cards since. He stayed on the roster for a long time after his disappearance, although he was finally removed. Fans have reported seeing him at shows though, and it's believed he has a non-public role in the company.
• Hollywood Satanism: His original gimmick, although under his real name, was a Satanic cultist.
• Put on a Bus: Put himself there, actually. He actually decided to retire in 2009, his stablemates convinced him not to. Instead, he took an "indefinite leave of absence" to heal nagging injuries.
  • The Bus Came Back: He made a return to wrestling in the spring of 2011, but never moved out of the undercard or up to a full time schedule, and eventually disappeared again.
• Red Baron: "Fukutsu no Tamashii" ("The Indomable Soul"), "Jigoku no Kotaishi" ("The Crown Prince of Hell"), "Kichiku Oji" ("The Prince of Brutality").
• Took a Level in Badass: Actually, considering he went from jobber to comedy wrestler to main eventer, about ten levels in it.

Takuya Sugawara (Henry III Suguwara)

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After his return he disappeared for a while in mid 2010 with an injury. After this new return, 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.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Even in pro wrestling, where it's actually quite common for a wrestler to play different gimmicks before finding a profitable one, it's especially jarring to watch Henry III Suguwara and compare him to Takuya Suguwara.
• Gratuitous English: Sugawara'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".
• The Unfavorite: Among many fans, mainly because his somewhat dull performance and the fact that is moveset is almost completely devoid of the exciting lucharesu moves commonly found in Dragon Gate. Part of the problem is that in his very early days Sugawara trained as a power wrestler, but he was too small to use the style outside the Toryumon system. (Another part of the problem is that he was a bit out of shape when he returned to DG.)

TARU

Toru Owashi

• Acrofatic: Fat but able to do a rolling kip-up.
• Animal Motif: Eagles.^note Owashi means Great Eagle. He even founded an animal-themed stable in El Dorado.
• The Brute: For Hagure Gundan/Aagan Iisou.
• The Bus Came Back: Left DG at the end of 2004 with the rest of Aagan Iisou. He made a total of five appearances between 2019 and 2020.
• Demoted to Extra: He wasn't given much to do by the bookers after Takuya Suguwara joined Aagan Iisou.
• Fat Bastard: He is the heaviest Toryumon trainee ever and a notorious Jerkass heel.
• Fat and Proud: Well, he was a sumo wrestler.
• I Know Sumo: Again, he was a sumo wrestler and used sumo techniques such as palm strikes and belly to belly suplexes.
• Red Baron: "Washi Seki" ("Eagle Gate").

Uhaa Nation

• Early-Bird Cameo: He was very briefly in the Blood Warriors stable before getting sidelined with an injury.
• Finishing Move: The Uhaa Combination, a gorilla press slam followed by a standing moonsault and finished off with a standing shooting star press.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Akira Tozawa. During an Akira Tozawa vs MAD BLANKEY series, where Tozawa was solo and Uhaa was still with MB, he was the final match in the series. The match never happened, however, because Uhaa Nation refused to fight his best friend Tozawa.
• In a Single Bound: What other nearly 240-pound man do you know that can pull off standing moonsaults and shooting star presses at ease?
• Lightning Bruiser: One of the most remarkable examples in pro wrestling today. Look at what his finisher is.
• Put on a Bus: After a surprise return, he left for WWE.
• Red Baron: "The One Man Nation", but was that really hard to guess?
• Scary Black Man: Albeit, one whose services are active courted
• Toxic Friend Influence: Su Yung accuses AR Fox being a bad influence on him anyway.

Yuki Ono

• Big Beautiful Man: After a long time as a generic and not particularly talented rookie, he started gaining massive amounts of weight - and inexplicably briefly became hugely popular for it.
• The Bus Came Back: Has wrestled in some dark matches under his Katsuo gimmick in late 2012 and sporadically through 2013.
• Fat and Proud: When he was fat, other wrestlers would suggest he lose some weight. Ono would scoff and state his intention to keep on gaining weight instead.
• Junior Counterpart: Spent some time as Cyber Kongcito, the junior counterpart to Cyber Kong. This only lasted a few months, then, see You Have Failed Me below.
• Put on a Bus: In 2008 he became the first wrestler trained at the Dragon Gate dojo to leave the promotion. Four years later, the bus carried him to Michinoku Pro Wrestling, where he wrestled until retiring in December 2014.
• You Have Failed Me: As Cyber Kongcito, botched interference in a Mask vs Hair match between Cyber Kong and Naoki Tanizaki, causing Kong to lose. Tanizaki offered to restart the match, but Kong said no, he'd honor the stipulation - but since the stipulation didn't say that it had to be his own mask, he'd give Kongcito's mask to Tanizaki to honor the stipulation. Kong then beat up Ono, unmasked him and kicked him out of Real Hazard.

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