Ronin

**Ronin** was an heel and later a face stable, in the professional American wrestling promotion Dragon Gate USA. It was formed on October 29, 2010 by Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann and Chuck Taylor, later in 2011 the stable would turn face.

While part of the stable Gargano held the Open the Freedom Gate Gate Championship and the Open the United Gate Championship alongside Swann.

Ronin first split up on March 30, 2012 after Taylor turned on Gargano, but Ronin was revived in January 2015 by Gargano and Swann. The two won the Open the United Gate Championship, but after the two retired the titles on August 15 Swann turned on Gargano, effectivilly ending Ronin.

## History

### Formation and heel turn

On July 24, 2010, at Enter the Dragon 2010, Johnny Gargano wrestled CIMA in a match, which he lost. Later on September 25, Chuck Taylor defeated Gargano and Rich Swann in a four-way match, which also included Drake Younger. The following day, Gargano offered himself to CIMA's Warriors International stable, before defeating Drake Younger in a singles match.

On October 29 at Dragon Gate USA's first live pay-per-view, Bushido: Code of the Warrior, Taylor defeated Arik Cannon, Gargano and Ricochet in a four-way match. After the match, CIMA offered him a spot in his Warriors International stable but Taylor turned the offer down while Gargano offered himself to CIMA, but was turned down. Later in the night, Gargano confronted CIMA again after his match, offering himself to join Warriors International, before he Swann and Taylor attacking him and Ricochet, and instead announced the formation of their stable called *Ronin*.

At the following day's tapings of Freedom Fight 2010, Ronin defeated Austin Aries, Genki Horiguchi and Ricochet in a six-man tag team match.

On January 30, Taylor and Gargano participated at the tournament crown the first Open the United Gate Champions. In their first tournament match, Gargano and Taylor defeated Blood Warriors representatives Naruki Doi and Ricochet and followed that up by defeating another Blood Warriors team of CK-1 (CIMA and Dragon Kid). They reached the finals of the tournament before being defeated by WORLD-1 representatives Masato Yoshino and PAC.

On March 1, 2011, Ronin started their first three-week-long tour of Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. In their first match of the tour, Taylor, Gargano and Swann defeated Blood Warriors representatives CIMA, Naruki Doi and Naoki Tanisaki in a six-man tag team match.

### Face Turn and feud with Blood Warriors

On April 1 at *Open the Southern Gate*, Ronin now working as a face group, Gargano challenged CIMA into a rematch, which he lost just like in the previous matches between the two. At the following day at Mercury Rising 2011, Ronin was defeated in the main event six-man tag team match by the Blood Warriors team of CIMA, Naruki Doi and Ricochet.

On April 3 at Open the Ultimate Gate, Austin Aries, who had just lost a match, where he had put his Dragon Gate USA career on the line, feigned passing the torch to his former rivals in Ronin, but instead ended up turning on them and joining the promotion's top heel group, Blood Warriors, claiming to have found his purpose under the leadership of CIMA.

On June 3 at Dragon Gate USA's Fearless 2011, Gargano faced Aries in a losing effort, but came back two days later at Enter The Dragon 2011 to force both CIMA and Aries to submit in a six-man elimination tag team match, where he teamed with Swann and Masato Yoshino with Brodie Lee being the third member of Blood Warriors.

### First Disbanding

On September 10 at Untouchable 2011, Gargano was defeated in a singles match by Blood Warriors member Akira Tozawa. The following day, Gargano defeated Naruki Doi at the following day's Way of the Ronin 2011 PPV, he announced his intention of going for the Open the Freedom Gate Championship and suggested that Taylor and Swann challenge for the Open the United Gate Championship instead. This, however, led to Taylor proclaiming that he was not interested in the tag team championship and instead announced that he was using his right to book himself a match for the Open the Freedom Gate Championship. On November 12 at Bushido 2011, Taylor unsuccessfully challenged YAMATO for the Open the Freedom Gate Championship. At one point Taylor seemingly had won the match with a pinfall, but the referee decided to restart the match after Gargano admitted that YAMATO's foot was on the rope during the pinfall. After the match, Taylor stole the Open the Freedom Gate Championship belt and ran out of the arena. The following day at Freedom Fight 2011, Gargano defeated YAMATO to win the Open the Freedom Gate Championship. After the match, Taylor handed the belt to his Ronin stablemate Johnny Gargano, seemingly putting their past differences aside.

On January 14, 2012, Gargano successfully defended the title against Ricochet in the final official professional wrestling match in the Asylum Arena. Following the match, Gargano had to be helped backstage and rushed to a hospital with an apparent back injury. He was released the following day.

On March 29, Swann made his return by taking part in a Dragon Gate USA and CZW co-promoted event, which saw Ronin being defeated by Mad Blankey representatives Akira Tozawa, BxB Hulk and Uhaa Nation in a three-way trios match, which also included the D.U.F. trio of Arik Cannon, Pinkie Sanchez and Sami Callihan. The following day, Gargano returned to Dragon Gate USA, when Gargano and Taylor faced Masato Yoshino and Ricochet for the vacant Open the United Gate Championship. After Ronin lost the match, Taylor turned on Gargano, thus disbanding the stable.

### Second Return

On January 10, 2015, Swann, Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano reformed Ronin and defeated the Bravado Brothers (Harlem and Lancelot) and Moose in a match, where the losing team had to split up. On April 18, Swann and Gargano defeated Anthony Nese and Caleb Konley to win the Open The United Gate Championship. On May 30, Ronin successfully defended the title against Drew Gulak and Tracey Williams. After the match, Gargano announced they were retiring the Open The United Gate Championship since Dragon Gate was the past and demanded the creation of the Evolve Tag Team Championship. On August 15, Swann turned on Gargano, costing him his match against Ethan Page, effectivilly ending Ronin.

## In wrestling

* **Gargano's Finishing moves**
	+ *Crosston Crab* (Cross-legged Boston crab)
	+ *Gargano Escape* / *Garga-No-Escape* (Chickenwing over the shoulder crossface, sometimes with a stepover toehold)
	+ *Hurts Donut* / *Uniquely You* (Full nelson lifted and dropped into a reverse STO)
	+ Swinging reverse STO
	+ Bearhug

* **Sawnn's Finishing moves**
	+ *Chicken Fried Driver* (Spinning vertical suplex piledriver)
	+ *Five Star Swann Splash* (Frog splash)
	+ *Rich Kick* / Standing 450° splash, sometimes imploding

* **Taylor's Finishing moves**
	+ *Awful Waffle* / *Omega Driver* (Leg hook belly-to-back suplex lifted and dropped into a piledriver)
	+ *Cross Crab* (Single leg Boston crab while kneeling on the opponent's back)
	+ *Sole Food* (Inverted stomp facebreaker)

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Dragon Gate USA**
	+ Open the Freedom Gate Championship (1 time) - Gargano
	+ Open the United Gate Championship (1 time) - Gargano and Swann