Sugiura-gun

**Sugiura-gun** (杉浦軍, *Sugiuragun*, literally translated to "Sugiura Army") was a professional wrestling stable primarily appearing in the Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH).

The group was formed by Kazma Sakamoto, Nosawa Rongai, and Takashi Sugiura on March 10, 2019, after the disbanding of Hooligans, with Sugiura being appointed the leader of the stable. Shortly after their formation, Sugiura-gun has since added several new members, most notably Hajime Ohara, Hideki Suzuki, and Kazushi Sakuraba. In the short time of their formation, Sugiura-gun founding members Kazma Sakamoto and Takashi Sugiura quickly brought the GHC Tag Team Championship to the stable.

As the leader of Sugiura-gun, Takashi Sugiura brought the GHC National Championship to the stable, while also reclaiming his spot of being one of Noah's top wrestlers and has challenged for the GHC Heavyweight Championship, as well reaching the finals of the 2019 N-1 Victory. Through Noah's working relationship with the American Major League Wrestling (MLW) promotion, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. as joined the stable as a part-time member of the group. In November 2019, Sugiura-gun began feuding with villainous stable KONGOH. During their feud, Sugiura-gun was joined by Kazuyuki Fujita and produced their own event at the *Korakuen Hall* in December. In the following year, the stable added several new members, most notably Dick Togo and Rene Dupree, who alongside El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. won the 2020 Global Tag League and regained the GHC Tag Team Championship to the stable. In May, the stable had a major clean up of the stable, with the departure of Dick Togo, Hajime Ohara, Hideki Sekine, Kazma Sakamoto, and Seiki Yoshioka, who were replaced with Kaz Hayashi and Kendo Kashin. Other accomplishments attained by the stable include Sakamoto and Sugiura winning the 2019 Global Tag League and Fujita holding the GHC Heavyweight Championship, meaning that Sugiura-gun had conquered all of NOAH's Heavyweight championships. The stable was disbanded in April 2023.

## History

### Formation (2019)

On February 24, 2019, Hooligans were forced to disband after losing to Takashi Sugiura, Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue, Yoshiki Inamura, and Kinya Okada in an elimination match. After the match, Kazma Sakamoto challenged Sugiura to a match, which he accepted. On March 10 at Great Voyage in Yokohama, Sugiura defeated Sakamoto. Following the match, in a backstage interview, Sakamoto and accompanied Sugiura, and they were joined by Nosawa Rongai, with Sakamoto wanting a new start with Sugiura. Sugiura initially didn't trust them, but over the course of time, Sakamoto and Rongai got the trust of Sugiura, with Sugiura being impressed with Sakamoto. Sakamoto's efforts managed to impress Sugiura, leading them to team up for the upcoming Global Tag League. In April, Sakamoto and Sugiura took part in the 2019 Global Tag League. During the tournament, on April 17, Rongai announced the stable would be named "Sugiura-gun", while also introducing Hideki Suzuki as the newest member of the stable. Also in the tournament, Sugiura defeated reigning GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya. Sakamoto and Sugiura finished the tournament with a record of five wins and two losses, advancing to the finals of the tournament. On May 2, Sugiura faced Hajime Ohara in a match, which Sugiura won. After the match, Ohara asked Sugiura to join the stable, which he accepted, becoming the fifth member of Sugiura-gun. Two days later, Sakamoto and Sugiura defeated reigning GHC Tag Team Champions AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima) in the finals to win the tournament. After the match, Sugiura challenged AXIZ to a rematch for their titles and also challenged Kaito Kiyomiya for GHC Heavyweight Championship.

On June 9 at *Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial*, Sugiura unsuccessfully challenged Kiyomiya for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Four days later, Sakamoto and Sugiura defeated AXIZ to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles back to AXIZ on June 27. During this time, Ohara and Rongai took part in the 2019 Global Junior Heavyweight Tag League, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins and four losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament. From June until July, Ohara took part in the 2019 Global Junior League, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament. During the tournament on July 28, Rongai introduced Kazushi Sakuraba as the newest member of the stable and announced he would make his debut of the promotion on September 16.

### Feud with KONGOH (2019–2021)

From August 18 until September 10, Sugiura took part in the 2019 N-1 Victory, where he won his block with a clean record of four wins, advancing to the finals of the tournament. During the tournament, Sugiura began feuding with Kenoh and his KONGOH stable, with Kenoh later accusing Sugiura to be a "company dog", which also escalated to a *Twitter* feud, leading Sugiura to make a t-shirt of a dog to mock him. On September 16, Sugiura was defeated in the finals by Kenoh. On October 3, it was announced that Sugiura-gun would promote their own event on December 27 at *Korakuen Hall*. During the event, Kazuyuki Fujita was introduced as the newest member of the stable. On November 2 at Noah the Best, Sugiura defeated Michael Elgin to become the inaugural GHC National Champion. Later that month, Sugiura began feuding with KONGOH's member Masa Kitamiya, after Kitamiya challenged Sugiura to a match for the GHC National Championship. On December 3, Fujita, Suzuki, and Sugiura defeated KONGOH. Afterwards, Sugiura mocked them, calling them "weak". On December 27, Sugiura-gun produced its own event at *Korakuen Hall*. During the event, KONGOH attacked Suzuki, Sakura, Fujita, and Suzuki during their match in the main event. Afterwards, Sugiura challenged KONGOH to a match, leading Fujita, Suzuki, and Sugiura to defeat KONGOH for the second time.

On January 4, 2020, at New Sunrise, Suzuki and Kinya Okada faced KONGOH's duo of Kenoh and Yoshiki Inamura in a losing effort. Afterwards, Suzuki attacked Kenoh. Later that night, Sugiura defeated Masa Kitamiya to make his second successful of the GHC National Championship. The following day at Reboot, Okada and Ohara faced KONGOH's duo of Haoh and Nioh in a losing effort. Afterwards, two masked wrestlers attacked Haoh and Nioh, revealing themselves to be Rongai and Sugiura-gun newest member Dick Togo. Later that month, three members of Sugiura-gun took part in the 2020 Global Junior League, with Rongai, Ohara, and Togo wrestling in separate round-robin blocks. Rongai finished third in his block, with a record of one win and two draws. Meanwhile, Ohara and Togo won their respective blocks with a record of two wins and one loss, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On January 30, Ohara was defeated by Daisuke Harada in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Togo made it to the finals of the 2020 Global Junior League, defeating GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Yoshinari Ogawa in the semifinals, before losing to Daisuke Harada. Between March 22 and March 26, the stable was joined by former mixed martial artist Hideki Sekine and international wrestler Rene Dupree. The following month, Sugiura-gun took part in the 2020 Global Tag League, being split into two teams with Dupree and Wagner being placed on block A and Sugiura and Sekine on block B. As part of Sugiura-gun, Dupree, and Wagner dubbed themselves as the *Sugiura-gun International*. Sugiura and Sekine finished second in their block, with a record of two wins and one loss. Meanwhile, Dupree and Wagner finished with the same record as Sugiura and Sekine but managed to finish first on their block, advancing to the finals of the tournament. On April 18, Seiki Yoshioka was revealed as the newest member of the stable. Later that night, Dupree and Wagner defeated AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima) in the finals to win the tournament. The following day, Dupree and Wagner defeated Masaaki Mochizuki and Naomichi Marufuji to win the GHC Tag Team Championship.

On May 3, the members of Sugiura-gun and KONGOH faced each other in various matches between them, before facing each other in a twelve-man elimination tag team match, which KONGOH won. Six days later, Rongai announced a major clean up of the stable, leading Dick Togo, Hideki Sekine, and Kazma Sakamoto to leave the stable, except for Kazuyuki Fujita due to Rongai unable to get in contact with him. Later that night, Sugiura lost the GHC National Championship to Katsuhiko Nakajima. The following day, Atsushi Kotoge asked whether he could join the stable, leading Rongai to refuse. Afterwards, Yoshioka turned on Rongai, Ohara tried to keep calm things but ended up joining them. Later that night, Rongai teased that Kendo Kashin would be joining the stable, to replace Ohara and Yoshioka, but Sugiura was having enough of Rongai, bringing wrestlers to the stable without his consent. However, on June 10, Kashin and Kaz Hayashi were revealed as the new members of the stable, facing Full Throttle (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, and Seiki Yoshioka) in a winning effort. On August 10, Wagner and Dupree returned the GHC Tag Team Championships to Noah, due to being unable to attend Noah's events in relation to travel restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, vacating the titles in the process. Sugiura and Sakuraba quickly regained the titles for Sugiura-gun, defeating AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima) on August 30, to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. From September 18 and October 11, both Sakuraba and Sugiura took part in the 2020 N-1 Victory, wrestling in separate round-robin blocks. Both failed to advance to the finals of the tournament with Sakuraba finishing tied sixth in his block of sixth and Sugiura finishing second in his block. On November 8, Noah announced the match card for Sugiura's 20th anniversary as professional wrestler the "All Dogs Gather 2" on December 29 at the Korakuen Hall. MMA fighter Daisuke Nakamura was also announced as Sugiura-gun newest member, while a mystery member would be joining the stable. On December 27, Nosawa revealed the newest member of the stable, which turned out to be Kazunari Murakami. The following day, Hayashi announced his departure from NOAH, leaving the stable.

On January 25, 2021, Japanese newspapper *Tokyo Sports* reported that Suzuki would be leaving Japan to sign with WWE as a coach in their Performance Center, indicating his departure from the stable. On March 7, at Great Voyage in Yokohama, Sakuraba and Sugiura lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to The Aggression (Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masa Kitamiya).

### Various feuds and championship pursuits (2021–2023)

On March 21, Fujita defeated Kenoh to win the GHC National Championship. After the match, Sugiura challenged Fujita to a title match, which he accepted. This led to on April 29 at Noah The Glory, Sugiura defeating Fujita to win the GHC National Championship for the second time. Following the match, Sakuraba challenged Sugiura to a title match. Sugiura accepted under the condition that Sakuraba defeated him in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, which he did, making the title match official. On May 31, Sugiura defeated Sakuraba to make his first sucessfull title defense of the GHC National Championship. On June 30, Yoshiaki Fujiwara was announced as the newest member of the stable. On August 15 at Kawasaki, Go!, Sugiura successfully defended the GHC National Championship and won Pro Wrestling Zero1's World Heavyweight Championship, after defeating former Dangan Yankees teammate Masato Tanaka. In September, four members of Sugiura-gun took part in the 2021 N-1 Victory, with Sugiura, Kashin, Sakura and Fuijita wrestling in separate round-robin blocks. Sugiura finished third in his block of four with a record of one win, one draw and one loss, Kashin finished last in his block with a record of one win and two losses, Sakuraba finished second with a record of one win, one loss and one draw, and Fujita finished second with a record of two wins and one loss. On October 28, Sugiura lost the GHC National Championship to Masaaki Mochizuki.

On December 27 at Sugiura-gun's self produced event *All Dogs Gather! 3*, Sugiura asked KENTA to join the stable, which he accepted, becoming Sugiura-gun's newest member until his last appearance for NOAH on January 8, 2022. On January 1, at NOAH The New Year, KENTA made his in-ring return to NOAH, teaming with Sakuraba and Sugiura in a winning effort against Daiki Inaba, Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura. On January 7, 2022, it was announced that KENTA had suffured multiple injuries, during his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi on January 4, leading him to be pulled out of third night of the event and replaced by a mystery partner. The following day, at Wrestle Kingdom 16, the mystery partner was revealed to be Toru Yano, who teamed with Sakuraba and Sugiura to face Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi and Taka Michinoku) in a winning effort. On February 23 at Gain Control In Nagoya, Hideki Suzuki returned to NOAH in a pre-taped vignette, announcing his return to the stable to take part in a tournament for the vacant GHC Tag Team Championship at Great Voyage in Yokohama. Later that night, Fujita defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship, meaning that Sugiura-gun had conquered all of NOAH's heavyweight championships. At Great Voyage in Yokohama, on March 13, Sugiura and Suzuki defeated KONGOH's (Kenoh and Masakatsu Funaki) and then Daiki Inaba and Kaito Kiyomiya, in the semifinals and finals, respectively, to win the vacant GHC Tag Team Championship. Following the mitigation of the COVID-19 travel restrictions, on March 23, 2022, it was announced that Wagner and Dupree would be returning to Sugiura-gun on April 30 at Majestic. On April 27, Fujita returned the GHC Heavyweight Championship to NOAH after testing positive for COVID-19. On May 4, Dupree and Wagner defeated Sugiura and Suzuki to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles to Masa Kitamiya and Michael Elgin on May 21. On June 4, Sugiura lost the World Heavyweight Championship back to Masato Tanaka. Three days later, American wrestler Timothy Thatcher debuted as the newest member of the Sugiura-gun. On July 16, at Destination, Thatcher and Suzuki defeated Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura to win the GHC Tag Team Championship. In August, four members of the Sugiura-gun took part in the 2022 N-1 Victory with Fujita, Suzuki and Wagner wrestling in block A and Sugiura in block B. Fujita, Wagner and Sugiura failed to advance from their blocks. Meanwhile, Suzuki won his block with a record of five wins, one draw and one loss, advancing to finals of the tournament. On September 3, Suzuki was defeated in the finals by Kaito Kiyomiya. On September 25 at Grand Ship In Nagoya, Thatcher and Suzuki lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to Sugiura and Satoshi Kojima. On November 10 at Global Honored Crown, Wagner defeated Masakatsu Funaki to win the GHC National Championship.

### Disbanding (2023)

In March, Sugiura began mentoring and training Shuhei Taniguchi, as part of his journey to restart his professional wrestling career. On March 17, Saxon Huxley became the newest member of the stable. On April 16 at Green Journey in Sendai, after Sugiura and Taniguchi won the GHC Tag Team Championship, Sugiura stated that Sugiura-gun was not working and as such announced the disbanding of the stable.

### Sub-groups

Associates

## Championships and accomplishments

* **New Japan Pro-Wrestling**
	+ IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – KENTA
* **Pro Wrestling NOAH**
	+ GHC Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – Fujita
	+ GHC National Championship (4 times) – Sugiura (2), Fujita (1), and Wagner (1)
	+ GHC Tag Team Championship (6 times) – Sakamoto and Sugiura (1), Wagner Jr. and Dupree (2), Sakuraba and Sugiura (1), Sugiura and Suzuki (1) and Thatcher and Suzuki (1)
	+ Global Tag League (2019) – Sakamoto and Sugiura
	+ Global Tag League (2020) – Wagner Jr. and Dupree
	+ Best Bout Award (2019) Sugiura vs. Michael Elgin on November 2
* **Pro Wrestling Zero1**
	+ World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – Sugiura
* **Real Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ RJPW Legend Championship (1 time) – Fujita
* ***Tokyo Sports***
	+ Best Tag Team Award (2020) – Sakuraba and Sugiura
* **Wrestling Observer Newsletter**
	+ 5 Star Match (2020) Sugiura vs Go Shiozaki on December 6