Masato Onodera

Masato Onodera
Ring name(s)	YAMATO[1] Yamato Onodera[2] Masato Onodera[2]
Billed height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Billed weight	82 kg (180 lb)[1]
Born	September 10, 1981 (1981-09-10) (age 30)[1] Ichinoseki, Iwate, Japan[1]
Trained by	Yasushi Kanda[3]
Debut	July 29, 2006[1]

Masato Onodera (小野寺 正人^?) (b. September 10, 1981) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist, known by his ring name Yamato (stylized as YAMATO), who competes for Dragon Gate and its international expansion Dragon Gate USA.

Career

Dragon Gate

The 5th graduate of the Dragon Gate dojo, Onodera had previous professional fighting experience competing under his real name in Pancrase and was recruited into Final M2K directly after his debut. Yasushi Kanda gave him his "Gekokujoh" character, and inherited a lot of the Gekokujoh-era moves that Kanda had used during his own career. He later chose to leave Final M2K so he could grow along his own path, which was one of the reasons for the M2K break-up.

He won the first NEX-1 tournament, which earned him the right to travel to the U.S. His stay was brief, at under three months. He returned in May, aligning with his generation peers Shingo Takagi, BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong in New Hazard, dropping the Gekokujoh lineage completely and renaming himself to YAMATO.

He appeared in Ring Of Honor's All Star Extravaganza III and Super Card of Honor II. He defeated Pelle Primeau and was beaten by Claudio Castagnoli during a U.S. tour.

On April 17, 2008, YAMATO betrayed New Hazard and sided with the Muscle Outlaw'z after he attacked his partner Naoki Tanisaki in a tag match against Gamma and Genki Horiguchi. However, the betrayal was a ruse, for on May 14, Takagi and Kong betrayed Hulk before the trio were scheduled to defend their Open the Triangle Gate titles against YAMATO, Gamma & Horiguchi. New Hazard was ended, and Takagi and Kong joined up with YAMATO and company to form the new super-heel group Real Hazard. Then, he, Gamma, and Takagi won the newly-vacant Open the Triangle Gate titles in an impromptu match against Hulk, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino. Their title reign lasted until June 28, when they were defeated by Keni'chiro Arai, Taku Iwasa & Shinobu. However, he would win them back from them on July 12, along with Yasushi Kanda & Gamma, and the trio would lose the titles to Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Magnitude Kishiwada on September 28. But, YAMATO would not be without a championship for long, for a week later, he teamed with Cyber Kong to defeat Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino for the Open the Twin Gate Titles.

When Gamma and Yasushi Kanda began to have serious problems with each other, he helped organize a match between them where the loser would be kicked out of Real Hazard. Even though Kanda lost, Gamma ended up being the one ousted from the unit, after Keni'chiro Arai joined the group's ranks and assisted them in beating down Gamma. YAMATO then took over Gamma's role as leader.

On March 1, he and Cyber Kong would lose the Open the Twin Gate titles to Susumu Yokosuka & Gamma after stablemate KAGETORA interfered and turned on them. He then began to provoke BxB Hulk, and even offered him to join Real Hazard under his Black Hulk persona. Hulk responded by randomly attacking members of Real Hazard as Black Hulk, dominating each attack until April 15, when Real Hazard got the better of him and laid him out. YAMATO then challenged him to a match, and said he did not care whether Hulk fought him as Black Hulk or his normal self. The match, held on May 5, saw BxB Hulk as Black Hulk beat him by referee stoppage.

Shortly after this, a lot of friendly fire began to occur between Real Hazard in their matches. On May 23, YAMATO told the group not to interfere in his match the next day against Shingo Takagi. However, Kanda still hits Takagi with a blue box and then tossed the box to YAMATO. A disappointed YAMATO refused to use the blue box and even gave Takagi a free shot on him due to the interference. In the end, YAMATO lost the match. The refusal of help from his stable caused Genki Horiguchi to question his reasoning. He then went to New Japan Pro Wrestling to compete in their annual Best Of The Super Juniors tournament, hoping tensions would've cooled down by the time he returned to Dragon Gate. Though he was eliminated from contention in the round-robin portion of the tournament, only winning two of six matches, his two wins came against junior heavyweight greats Jushin Liger and eventual winner Koji Kanemoto. When he returned to Dragon Gate, he continually refused to team with his Real Hazard stablemates, and finally quit the group altogether on June 26.

He joined up with KAMIKAZE and re-formed his team with Shingo Takagi, and they made a challenge for Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi's Open the Twin Gate Titles on July 19. They failed to capture the titles due to him being blinded by a protein powder attack from Keni'chiro Arai. However, they would gain another title shot in August, after winning the annual Summer Adventure Tag League Tournament, and they would win the titles a month later. They would lose the titles to CIMA & Gamma on December 27.

On March 22, 2010, YAMATO defeated Naruki Doi via Gallaria to become the 11th Open the Dream Gate Champion at Compilation Gate 2010 in Tokyo. Following this match, YAMATO enjoyed three successful title defenses against Susumu Yokosuka, Shingo Takagi and Masaaki Mochizuki. On July 11, 2010, YAMATO lost the Open the Dream Gate Championship to Masato Yoshino at Kobe World 2010. On May 13, 2011, Takagi disbanded KAMIKAZE and the following day both him and YAMATO joined Masaaki Mochizuki's new stable, Junction Three, to battle CIMA's Blood Warriors. On June 18, YAMATO, Gamma and Yoshino defeated the Blood Warriors team of CIMA, Naruki Doi and BxB Hulk to win the vacant Open the Triangle Gate Championship. They would go on to lose the title to the Blood Warriors team of Kzy, Naoki Tanisaki and Naruki Doi on September 2. On October 16, YAMATO lost his hair to Cyber Kong in a six-way steel cage Hair vs. Hair match.^[4]

Dragon Gate USA

On Dragon Gate USA's first pay-per-view Enter the Dragon, first aired on September 4, 2009, YAMATO defeated BxB Hulk in the opener. The very same show, he later cimented his heel status teaming with Chikara's own Gran Akuma to post-match attack Quackenbush and Jigsaw. During the second DGUSA pay-per-view Untouchable, YAMATO teamed with Gran Akuma in a losing effort to Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw.

At Freedom Fight, YAMATO entered the tournament to crown the first Open the Freedom Gate Champion. He defeated Davey Richards in a first round match, but lost in the finals to BxB Hulk in an elimination match with CIMA and Akuma. At Fearless, YAMATO teamed with Shingo Takagi in an elimination match against Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino and The Young Bucks. The duo would survive seeing the Bucks eliminated but fell to Doi & Yoshino in defeat. YAMATO would unofficially align with Takagi, Richards and Akuma when participating in a post match beatdown at the end of Fearless.

At Mercury Rising, YAMATO successfully defended his Open the Dream Gate championship against Susumu Yokosuka in his first defense. He also created a new stable, KAMIKAZE USA, together with Takagi and Jon Moxley. Gran Akuma and Akira Tozawa were later added to the stable.

At Uprising, YAMATO teamed again with Takagi to defeat the team of CIMA and Dragon Kid. At Enter The Dragon 2010, YAMATO, Tozawa, Moxley and Akuma, representing Kamikaze USA, were defeated by Yoshino, Quackenbush, Jigsaw and Hallowicked, ending the feud between Kamikaze USA and the Chikara wrestlers. During the next show, Untouchable 2010, YAMATO faced the newest WWE superstar Bryan Danielson in a losing cause during the Main Event.

On January 28, 2011, YAMATO defeated BxB Hulk to win the DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Championship.^[5] The following night at the United: Philly ippv, YAMATO won his match against Brodie Lee via submission. It was a non-title bout between the two opponents. During the event of United: Finale, YAMATO was added impromptu to a match pitting the newly Blood Warriors against Jimmy Jacobs and the team of his choice. Jacobs' team ended up being Jacob himself, Open the Freedom gate champion YAMATO, Austin Aries and Sami Callihan. YAMATO's team wrestled in a losing effort.

On the April 2nd show, Mercury Rising 2011, YAMATO was set to defend the Open the Freedom gate belt against a desperate Austin Aries. The match was set because Aries vowed to put his career on the line for the match, meaning a win from YAMATO would made Aries quit the company. Open the freedom Gate champion YAMATO went on to defeat Aries and retain the DGUSA top belt. YAMATO showed respect for Aries after the match. The last show of the triple shot pitted YAMATO and his former stable partner Akira Tozawa. In what was supposed to be a non-title match, Jon Moxley challenge Tozawa in a match and if Tozawa would won, the match against YAMATO would be a title match. Tozawa defeated Moxley quickly and went to face the Freedom gate champion for his belt. YAMATO won the match and successfully defended his belt two nights in a row.

The main theme for weekend of June was the Championship Challenge. On the 3rd of June, Fearless 2011, YAMATO and his partner of choice, Akira Tozawa, tried to win the United belts from PAC and Yoshino. However, PAC had other plans, pinning Tozawa, and kept his belt. The following event, Uprising 2011, YAMATO got involved in a 4-way match against stablemate Yoshino, Ronin's Johnny Gargano and Blood Warriors' leader CIMA. It was ultimately CIMA who won the match by pinning YAMATO. It was during the Enter the Dragon: Second Anniversary that YAMATO had to face PAC for the Dragon Gate USA top belt. Being back at New York city seemed to smile to YAMATO, being exactly the same venue where he won the Freedom gate championship, as he went to defeat PAC to close the second anniversary show. YAMATO showed respect to his stablemate and went on to celebrate when CIMA's Blood Warriors crashed the party and the leader of the heel stable challenged YAMATO for the Freedom Gate in September.

Dragon Gate USA came back, in Indianapolis on September 9th. YAMATO, still the reigning Freedom Gate champion, was teaming with is stablemate Masato Yoshino to face Ronin's duo of Gargano and Taylor. YAMATO's partner went on to submit Taylor to the Sol Nasciente. The following night was set to be the biggest defense yet of YAMATO's belt against the Dragon Gate icon himself, CIMA. YAMATO ultimately triumph over is long time rival to successfully defend the Freedom Gate for the 5th time. After the match, CIMA informed the champion that BxB Hulk, the former champion, wants a no DQ, no ropes match for the championship. The challenge was accepted but will not be for the title. On September 11th, YAMATO teamed up with AR Fox to face the D.U.F. pair of Sami Callihan and Arik Cannon. YAMATO's team ended up losing when Fox submitted to the Strech Muffler. On November 13, YAMATO lost the Open the Freedom Gate Championship to Johnny Gargano.^[6]

In wrestling

• Finishing moves
  • CBV - Cross Bone Vanguard (Stepover toehold facelock)^[2][7]
  • Doujime Sleeper (Choke sleeper)^[2][7]
  • Gallaria (Inverted facelock lifted and dropped into a sitout scoop slam piledriver)^[2][7]
  • Mushakaeshi (Spear)^[2][8]

• Signature moves
  • Ankle hold^[7]
  • Brainbuster^[7]
  • Big boot^[9]
  • Cloverleaf hold^[9]
  • Corner elbow smash^[10]
  • Crawling under the ring, emerging behind the opponent and dropkicking the leg^[10]
  • Cross armbreaker^[11]
  • Death Valley driver^[12]
  • Enzuigiri^[7]
  • Figure four leglock^[7]
  • Guillotine choke^[10] 
  • Kimura lock^[11]
  • Leaping elbow^[10]
  • Multiple suplex variations
    • German^[2][13]
    • Exploder^[7]
    • Sleeper^[8]
  • Punt kick^[7]
  • Roaring elbow^[10]
  • Single leg Boston crab^[10]

• Nicknames

• "BATTLESHIP"^[2]

• Theme music
  • "YAMATO SPIRIT" performed by ACMA^[1]

Championships and accomplishments

• Dragon Gate
  • Dragon Gate Open the Dream Gate Championship (1 time)
  • Dragon Gate Open the Triangle Gate Championship (3 times) – with Gamma and Shingo Takagi (1), Yasushi Kanda and Gamma (1) and Gamma and Masato Yoshino (1)
  • Dragon Gate Open the Twin Gate Championship (2 times) – with Cyber Kong (1 time) and Shingo Takagi (1 time)
  • Summer Adventure Tag League Tournament (2009) - with Shingo Takagi
  • Dragon Gate NEX-1 Winner

• Dragon Gate USA
  • DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Championship (1 time)^[5]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • PWI ranked him #98 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2011^[14]

Lucha de Apuesta record

See also: Luchas de Apuestas

Wager	Winner(s)	Loser(s)	Location	Date	Notes
Hair	Cyber Kong	YAMATO	Osaka, Japan	02011-10-16 October 16, 2011	This was a six-way steel cage match, also involving Akira Tozawa, BxB Hulk, KAGETORA and Shingo Takagi.[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "Dragon Gate Profile". Dragon Gate. http://www.gaora.co.jp/dragongate/data/prfl/yamato.html. Retrieved 29 July 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "CageMatch Profile". CageMatch. http://www.cagematch.de/?id=2&nr=4082&gimmick=Yamato+Onodera. Retrieved 29 July 2011. 
3. ^ "Puroresu Fan Profile". Puroresu Fan. http://web.archive.org/web/20090413150114/http://dgusa.puroresufan.com/yamato.html. Retrieved 29 July 2011. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "10/16 Gate of Destiny - 16 Oct 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-10-16. http://iheartdg.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1318753634&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&. Retrieved 2011-10-18. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Eaton, Jimmy (2011-01-28). "Eaton's DGUSA "United: New York" 1/28 - Hulk vs. YAMATO, round robin tag team tournament". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/otherppvs/article_47161.shtml. Retrieved 2011-01-29. 
6. ^ Radican, Sean (2011-11-13). "Radican's DGUSA "Freedom Fight" iPPV coverage 11/13 -YAMATO vs. Gargano, PAC vs. Ricochet". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/otherppvs/article_55115.shtml. Retrieved 2011-11-13. 
7. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Open the Garoon Gate Untouchable 2010". http://bgsays.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/untouchable-2010. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "Open the Garoon Gate Open The Historic Gate". http://bgsays.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/dgusa-open-the-historic-gate. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "Open the Garoon Gate Infinity 206". http://bgsays.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/infinity-206-or-yoshino-vs-fujii/. 
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Open the Garoon Gate Infinity 163". http://bgsays.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/infinity-163-or-cima-vs-yamato/. 
11. ^ ^{a b} "Open the Garoon Gate Dead or Alive 2010". http://bgsays.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/dead-or-alive-2010/. 
12. ^ "Open the Garoon Gate Infinity 57". http://bgsays.wordpress.com/2007/01/25/infinity-57/. 
13. ^ "Open the Garoon Gate Infinity 201". http://bgsays.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/infinity-201-or-heart-of-darkness/. 
14. ^ ""PWI 500": 1–100". Pro Wrestling Illustrated. 2011-08-09. http://prowrestlingillustrated.blogspot.com/2011/08/pwi-500-1-100.html. Retrieved 2011-08-09. 

External links

Professional wrestling portal

• PuroresuFan archive (German)

Persondata
Name	Onodera, Masato
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 10, 1981
Place of birth	Ichinoseki, Iwate, Japan
Date of death
Place of death