Naoki Tanisaki

Naoki Tanisaki
Ring name(s)	Naoki Tanisaki
Billed height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Billed weight	77 kg (170 lb)
Born	January 12, 1978 (1978-01-12) (age 33) Toyonaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Trained by	Último Dragón
Debut	December 7, 2002

Naoki Tanisaki (born January 12, 1978 in Toyonaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese wrestler currently competing for Dragon Gate, where he is currently one third of the Open the Triangle Gate Champions.

Career

Toryumon/Dragon Gate (2002–2006)

Originally from the Toryumon X promotion, Tanisaki soon made the jump to Dragon Gate. He joined up with Magnum Tokyo's Do FIXER stable and became Shingo Takagi's rival. He was soon overshadowed by Shingo and BxB Hulk and showed signs of breaking into singles competition. He was recruited for CIMA's Blood Generation stable and after showing heelish mannerisms, he eventually turned on his Do FIXER stablemates and joined up with CIMA in 2006. The night that he joined, Blood Generation split into two separate factions known as the Muscle Outlaw'z and CIMA's new version of the Blood Generation. Tanisaki joined up with Muscle Outlaw'z but soon had a losing streak against Jack Evans and any other gaijin wrestler CIMA brought in. His contract was then terminated in July and he officially left in December.

Independent circuit (2006–2008)

Tanisaki quickly joined the El Dorado Wrestling roster, even though he continued to remain a freelance wrestler. He was out injured after his second match with the company, however. He joined up with Shuji Kondo upon returning. Parts of his freelancing included forays into Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX, Big Japan Pro Wrestling and Kaientai Dojo. In the latter, he joined the heel stable Omega. In 2008, he resigned from El Dorado.

Dragon Gate (2008–present)

Tanisaki once again signed with Dragon Gate six days after announcing he was becoming freelance again, as a result of being sacrificed to the newly arriving Magnitude Kishiwada just like in 2005. He signed an open contract, in which he competes on all Dragon Gate shows but is also free to compete elsewhere. Tozawa-juku offered him membership into their stable, but he ended up joining Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk and m.c.KZ in Doi & Yoshino's new faction WORLD-1.

On December 21, he fought Cyber Kong in a Mask vs. Hair match, which he initially won after interference from Cyber Kongcito backfired. Real Hazard (Kong's stable) came out to protest the result, but Cyber Kong said he would own up to the mask stipulation - except that it would be Kongcito's mask, not his. Kongcito was unmasked, beaten up, and kicked out of Real Hazard. Cyber Kong then demanded a restart, due to Kongcito's intrusion, and CIMA came out, appointed the special referee, and agreed to let the match restart, since both Real Hazard and WORLD-1 had intruded in the match. Cyber Kong won, and Tanisaki lost his hair.

On August 30, 2009, he won his first title in his career when he defeated KAGETORA in a tournament final to win the vacant Open the Brave Gate Championship. He successfully defended the title six times before dropping it to K-ness on January 11, 2010.

On June 13, 2010 he started showing some heel tendencies during his match against Super Shisa where he used a low blow to set up for his Implant finisher. Later during the main event he almost cost his fellow World-1 teammate Masato Yoshino a chance at becoming the number one contender for YAMATO's Open The Dream Gate title by mistakenly hitting him with the Deep Drunkers signature Blue Box nearly costing him the match to Deep Drunkers leader Takuya Sugawara. On June 20, 2010 he teamed up with Naruki Doi and PAC to defeat the Warriors team of Genki Horiguchi, CIMA, Gamma to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship for the first time. During the final moments of the match he once again used a low blow as a set up for his Implant finisher further teasing a heel turn. However only 4 days later they were beaten in a rematch and lost the titles back to the former champions.

On August 5, 2010 he interfered in a match pitting his World-1 teammates Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino against the Warriors team of CIMA and Gamma assisting them in gaining the victory without there consent and expressed anger towards them since no one from World-1 was in his corner for his dark match. On August 24, 2010 he accidentally cost his team the win against Deep Drunkers after a misfired Protein Powder attack struck PAC leading to their loss, he quickly apologized to his partners after they questioned what was wrong with him lately and told them everything was fine. On August 29, 2010 he competed in a tournament to crown a new Open The Brave Gate Champion after Masato Yoshino vacated the title but fell to his Deep Drunkers rival Kzy in the first round. On September 3, 2010 he along with Naruki Doi and BxB Hulk challenged for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship but fell short after he was pinned following Genki Horiguchi's Backslide From Heaven. The team then argued with one another and agreed to face off in a Three Way Match on October 3rd.

On September 17, 2010 following another loss Tanisaki finally snapped as he and his partner BxB Hulk argued over the loss only to be stopped by Dr. Muscle who then attacked BxB Hulk and gave him an Implant, he offered a handshake to Tanisaki only to be refused. Later on in the main event pitting his World-1 teammates Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi against K-ness and Susumu Yokosuka for the Open The Twin Gate Championship he attacked both Yoshino and Susumu giving both men an Implant but then laying Yokosuka over Yoshino costing them the titles. He further cemented his betrayal of World-1 by joining up with The Deep Drunkers Stable thus completing his heel turn. On October 3, 2010 he went on to win the Three Way Match between himself, Hulk, and Doi following interference from his new Deep Drunkers teammates as he eliminated both men and went so far as to mock them by saying their diamonds were probably made of glass, a knock on the World-1 logo. On October 13, 2010, the Deep Drunkers were forced to split up, after losing a match against World–1 (BxB Hulk, Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi), but after the match Doi turned on his partners to form a new stable with Tanisaki, Yasushi Kanda, Kzy and Takuya Sugawara.^[1] On October 25 Tanisaki, Kanda and Sugawara defeated CIMA, Gamma and Genki Horiguchi to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship.^[2] They would lose the title to CIMA, Dragon Kid and Ricochet on December 26, 2010.^[3] On January 14, 2011, Team Doi aligned themselves with the Warriors stable, who turned heel in the process.^[4] On January 18 the new group was named Blood Warriors.^[4] On July 17, Tanisaki attacked Open the Brave Gate Champion and member of rival group Junction Three, PAC, and stole his championship belt. Tanisaki then announced that since PAC was heading home to England for the next month, he would defend the championship in his place. Blood Warriors named the title the "Blood Warriors Authorized Open the Brave Gate Championship" with Tanisaki defending it in matches, where he only needed to score two counts to win them.^[5][6][7] On September 2, Tanisaki, Kzy and Naruki Doi defeated Gamma, Masato Yoshino and YAMATO to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. On September 16, the returning PAC defeated Tanisaki to regain possession of the Open the Brave Gate Championship.^[8]

In wrestling

• Finishing moves

• Casanova (Running knee strike to a seated opponent's face)
• Implant (Cradle back to belly piledriver)

• Signature moves

• Biting Dog (Arm trap guillotine choke)
• Cross–legged fisherman buster
• DH – Dashing Hizagiri (Running jumping knee strike to an opponent's face)
• FH – Flying Hizagiri (Running step-up knee strike to a cornered opponent's face)

Championships and accomplishments

• Dragon Gate

• Dragon Gate Open the Brave Gate Championship (1 time)
• Dragon Gate Open the Triangle Gate Championship (3 times, current) with Naruki Doi and PAC (1), Yasushi Kanda and Takuya Sugawara (1), and Kzy and Naruki Doi (1, current)
• Blood Warriors Authorized Open the Brave Gate Championship (1 time)¹

¹Championship not recognized by Dragon Gate.

References

1. ^ Boutwell, Josh (2010-10-15). "Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly". WrestleView. http://wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1287180298. Retrieved 2010-10-28. 
2. ^ Boutwell, Josh (2010-10-29). "Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly". WrestleView. http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1288376845. Retrieved 2010-10-31. 
3. ^ Boutwell, Josh (2010-12-31). "Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly". WrestleView. http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1293823225. Retrieved 2011-01-01. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Boutwell, Josh (2011-01-21). "Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly". WrestleView. http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1295648558. Retrieved 2011-01-22. 
5. ^ "7/17 Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling Festival in Kobe 2011 - 17 Jul 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-07-17. http://iheartdg.com/index.php?start_from=&ucat=&subaction=showfull&id=1310915275&archive=1312159235&. Retrieved 2011-09-01. 
6. ^ "Kyoto Double Header Lineups, New Gaijin Arrival - 18 Jul 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-07-18. http://iheartdg.com/index.php?start_from=&ucat=&subaction=showfull&id=1311007091&archive=1312159235&. Retrieved 2011-09-01. 
7. ^ "August Preview - 31 Jul 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-07-31. http://iheartdg.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1312159200&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&. Retrieved 2011-09-01. 
8. ^ "9/16 Storm Gate - 16 Sep 2011". iHeartDG. 2011-09-16. http://iheartdg.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1316165328&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&. Retrieved 2011-09-16. 

External links

Professional wrestling portal

Persondata
Name	Tanisaki, Naoki
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 12, 1978
Place of birth	Toyonaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture, Japan
Date of death
Place of death