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 QUOTE 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.
正人Dragon Gate正人
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. |
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