Masaaki Mochizuki
Masaaki Mochizuki | |
---|---|
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Masaaki Mochizuki[1] BxB Masa |
Billed height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2] |
Billed weight | 85 kg (187 lb)[2] |
Trained by | Kōji Kitao |
Debut | January 21, 1994[3] |
Masaaki Mochizuki (望月 成晃, Mochizuki Masaaki, born January 17, 1970) is a Japanese
Professional wrestling career
Early years
A former
Toryumon
In late 1999, Masaaki joined
He returned in 2002, claiming to be a "good person", and made a conscious effort to rid M2K of its evil ways, something his stablemates would have none of; kicking him out of the group not long after. He got one back on them on February 24, though, when he beat Susumu for the rights to the Mochizuki surname, forcing Susumu to take on "Yokosuka" as his new surname.
He would then go on to lead the Toryumon Army with
Dragon Gate
In December, he celebrated 10 years in wrestling by defeating Cima for Dragon Gate's top prize, the
He also returned to the old
In December 2006, he won the 2nd King of Gate Tournament, beating last year's champion Ryo Saito in the finals. On January 14, 2007, the Final M2K stable came to an end, after he, Susumu & K-ness lost to Cima, Don Fujii and Matt Sydal of the also-ending Blood Generation. He then decided that he would not become part of another unit, instead continuing his team with Don Fujii, who also refused to join another unit.
In 2007, he hosted his first self-produced show, Buyuden. The show became a success, and it has since become a monthly show, with talent from different promotions in Japan participating. He - along with Don Fujii - was made the company ambassador to promotions within Japan while Cima spearheaded the company's international expansion. He also challenged for the Dream Gate Title twice, but when he failed to win it either time, he decided to continue to focus on outside efforts with Fujii.
Towards the end of the year, they united with
of Tozawa-juku on November 16, and Tozawa added the stipulation that if his team lost, then Tozawa-juku would disband. Mochizuki scored the winning pinfall, bringing Tozawa-juku to an end.Iwasa began a rivalry with him after swearing revenge on him for causing the end of Tozawa-juku. They faced off in a second round match in the King of Gate Tournament in December, where Mochizuki had promised that he would show Iwasa's one "fundamental flaw." Mochizuki won, and afterwards, he told Iwasa that his "fundamental flaw" was that he had been a tag team wrestler for so long that he had forgotten how to wrestle on his own, and would have to re-learn how. Mochizuki would get to the finals of the tournament, but lost to Naruki Doi. On February 15, 2009, he, Fujii & Kishiwada lost the Triangle Gate titles to Shingo Takagi, Taku Iwasa & Dragon Kid, where he took the fall, being pinned by Iwasa.
In August, he teamed with
After teaming with
On April 14, 2011, Mochizuki defeated Masato Yoshino to win the Open the Dream Gate Championship for the second time.[4] On April 24 Mochizuki agreed to form a new alliance with former World-1 members Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk, PAC and Susumu Yokosuka to battle the promotion's new top heel stable, Blood Warriors.[5] On June 8, the new group was named Junction Three (JIII) in reference to it being a union between the former members of World-1, Kamikaze and the Veteran-gun.[6] And Mochizuki led their team to winning all four Titles on June 19 in Champion Gate. At the end of 2011, Masaaki Mochizuki shared the Fighting Spirit award with Yuji Nagata from New Japan. After a ten-month rivalry, Blood Warriors defeated Junction Three in a fourteen-man elimination tag team match on February 9, 2012, forcing JIII to disband.[7] After forming the Kaettekita Veteran-gun stable with some of Dragon Gate's veterans, Mochizuki and stablemate Don Fujii defeated Shingo Takagi and Yamato on September 23, 2012, to win the Open the Twin Gate Championship for the second time.[8] On September 9, Masaaki Mochizuki took part in the Nagata's 20th anniversary, they defeat Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura and Yujiro Takahashi in the main event with Nagata and Jun Akiyama. From November 20 to December 1, Masaaki Mochizuki once again travelled to New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He and Nagata took part in the round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League, finishing with a record of four wins and two losses, narrowly missing advancing to the semifinals of the tournament.
In 2013, Mochizuki and teammate Don Fujii defeated the team Genki Horiguchi & Jimmy Kanda and team Naruki Doi and Ricochet at the beginning of the year, and they created the new defense record for Twin Gate so far. In February, Mochizuki took part in the Dragon Gate UK show from February 22 to 24. He defeated Yamato,
Championships and accomplishments
- Dragon Gate
- Open the Dream Gate Championship (3 times)
- Open the Twin Gate Championship (3 times) – with Don Fujii (2) and Takashi Yoshida (1)
- Open the Owarai Gate Championship (2 times)
- Jimmy Susumu and K-Ness (1), and Dragon Kidand K-Ness (1), and Big R Shimizu and Dragon Kid (1)
- King of Gate (2006)
- Full Impact Pro
- Michinoku Pro Wrestling
- Osaka Pro Wrestling
- 1 time) – with Don Fujii
- Osaka Tag Festival (2010) – with Don Fujii
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ranked No. 110 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2018[9]
- Ranked No. 110 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the
- Pro Wrestling Noah
- Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max
- 1 time)
- Tokyo Gurentai
- Tokyo Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Hikaru Sato[10]
- Tokyo World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[11]
- Tokyo Sports
- Fighting Spirit Award (2011)
- Toryumon Japan
- Darkness Dragon and Susumu Mochizuki (1) and with Kenichiro Arai and Dragon Kid(1)
- El Numero Uno (2001)
- Wrestle Association "R"
- 3 times)
- 2 time) – with Battle Ranger and with Don Fujii
- Koji Kitao
Luchas de Apuestas record
Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masaaki Mochizuki (hair) | Magnum Tokyo (hair) | Osaka, Japan | Live event | September 30, 2001 | [Note 1] |
Cima (hair) |
Masaaki Mochizuki (hair) | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | December 10, 2001 | [Note 2] |
Notes
- Darkness Dragon and Dragon Kid.
- ^ Lumberjack match.
References
- ^ a b "Puroresu Central Profile". Puroresu Central. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ a b c "Dragon Gate Official Profile". Dragon Gate. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ "CageMatch Profile". CageMatch. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
- ^ "4/14 Champion Gate - 14 Apr 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-04-14. Archived from the original on 20 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-14.
- ^ "4/24 Gate of Passion - 24 Apr 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-04-24. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
- ^ "6/8 Gate of Maximum Kickoff - 08 Jun 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-06-08. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-08.
- ^ "2/9 TRUTH GATE, Blood Warriors vs. Junction Three Finale - 09 Feb 2012". iHeartDG. 2012-02-09. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
- ^ "Dangerous Gate 2012 - 22 Sep 2012". iHeartDG. 2012-09-23. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
- ^ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2018". cagematch.net. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
- ^ "【東京愚連隊】Fujitavsサスケの東京世界ヘビー戦、ワグナーJrと清水愛が参戦". Battle News (in Japanese). 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2014-07-07.
- ^ 東京愚連隊12.1後楽園大会 Nosawa20周年記念/マスカラス&ドリー&カブキ&船木vs.論外&藤原&Cima&カズ、Mazadavs.望月の東京世界ヘビー級戦. Battle News (in Japanese). 2015-12-01. Retrieved 2015-12-01.
External links
- Dragon Gate USA profile
- Official website (Japanese) Archived 2018-06-12 at the Wayback Machine