Kota Minoura

Minoura in November 2022

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Hashima, Gifu, Japan

**Kota Minoura** (箕浦康太, *Minoura Kōta*, born September 30, 1998 in Gifu, Japan) is a Japanese professional wrestler trained and currently working for Dragon Gate (DG), where he is a former four-time Open The Triangle Gate Champion a former one-time Open The Twin Gate Champion and the winner of the 2023 King of Gate.

Minoura was trained by the Dragon Gate Dojo and made his debut in July 2018. Initially, Minoura did not achieved much success, working mostly on the undercard. After being part of the Dragon Gate Generation stable, Minoura experienced his breakthrough and began being pushed up the card, winning the Open The Twin Gate Championship in August 2020, before consolidating his place into the main event picture as part of Masquerade and eventually winning Dragon Gate's premier tournament the King of Gate in August 2023.

## Professional wrestling career

### Dragon Gate (2018–Present)

#### Early career (2018–2029)

Minoura trained for his professional wrestling career in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate's wrestling school called "Dragon Gate Nex". He would make an exhibition match against Hyou Watanabe on June 11, 2018. After almost one month later, Minoura made his official debut on July 5, teaming with "brother" YASSHI and Punch Tominaga in a losing effort against MaxiMuM (Ben-K, Jason Lee and Masato Yoshino). Minoura would make his pay-per-view debut at Dragon Gate's most important pay-per-view at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival on July 22, facing Oji Shiiba in a time limit draw at the pre-show. As is customary for most professional wrestlers, Minoura spent most of his matches losing to other, more experienced wrestlers, which would help put over other wrestlers while at the same time give Minoura some in-ring, televised, experience.

On November 6, Minoura faced Masaaki Mochizuki. Before the match, Mochizuki offered a handshake to Minoura, but he slapped him. Minoura would lose to Mochizuki. Following the match, Mochizuki asked him, why he slapped him and Minoura revealed that he wanted to join the Mochizuki Dojo. Mochizuki would praise him for his effort and accepted him to his stable.

#### Breakthrough and Masquerade (2019–2021)

In December 2019, after Mochizuki Dojo was temporarily suspended, he entered the Dragon Gate stable in order to unite all Dragon Gate generation of wrestlers against Toryumon and R.E.D in a "Generation War". On August 2, 2020, at Memorial Gate in Wakayama, Minoura and Dragon Gate stablemate Jason Lee defeated R.E.D (Kazma Sakamoto and BxB Hulk) to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship. The titles were vacated on November 14, due to Lee missing the 2020 Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival as a precautionary measure for the COVID-19 after registering a high fever. The following day, at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Minoura and his Dragon Gate stablemate YAMATO failed to defeat R.E.D (BxB Hulk and KAI) for the vacant titles.

On December 2, Minoura alongside Dragon Dia and Jason Lee left Dragon Gate to form their own stable with Shun Skywalker, which would be joined by a mysterious member on December 15. At the December 15 event, it was announced that the stable would be named Masquerade, with the new member being revealed to be La Estrella. In May 2021, Minoura took part in the 2021 King of Gate, where he won his block with a clean record of five wins, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On June 3, Minoura defeated YAMATO in the semifinals and then was defeated by Kzy, in the finals of the 2021 King of Gate. In the following months, Minoura began former Open The Dream Gate Champions Eita, Masaaki Mochizuki and YAMATO. On September 8, following a tag team match, Minoura requested to be included in the main event match to determine the number one contender to the Open The Dream Gate Championship, which Dragon Gate's General Manager Ryo Saito initially refused, but ended up accepting due to crowd support. Later that night, Minoura went on to win the four-way match, after eliminating Ben-K and Masaaki Mochizuki in a match that also included KAI. Afterwards, Minoura challenged YAMATO to a title match at Dangerous Gate, which he accepted. At the event, on September 20, Minoura unsucessfully challenged YAMATO for the Open The Dream Gate Championship.

In December, Minoura began feuding with Masquerade stablemate Shun Skywalker, showing his towards his other Masquerade stablemate Dragon Dia, after Skywalker caused him to lose his mask during a Mask vs. Mask tag team match. After winning the Open The Triangle Gate Championship on December 15, Minoura challenged Skywalker into a match, where if Skywalker lost, he would be forced to leave the stable. During the match, between Minoura and Skywalker on December 26 at Final Gate, R.E.D's H.Y.O and SB KENTo offered Skywalker help, tossing him a chair, while the referee was down, but he refused. Shortly after, Skywalker took off his mask and tossed it into the hands of Minoura, while the referee was not looking. When the referee turned around and saw Minoura standing with Skywalker’s mask, Skywalker was awarded the win by disqualification. Skywalker's relationship with the rest of the members reached the point of collapse, despite affirming to be fine. On January 12, 2022, Minoura, Skywalker, and Lee lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to R.E.D (Eita, H.Y.O and Kaito Ishida). During the match, Minoura accidentally attacked Skywalker, after he tried to protect himself from H.Y.O. After the match, Skywalker forced Minoura to apologize, which he refused, leading Skywalker to quit as the leader of the stable, deffecting to R.E.D, and thus making Minoura the leader of Masquerade.

#### Gold Class (2022–Present)

Shortly after, Naruki Doi and Takashi Yoshida began persuading Minoura to form a stable with Minoura being foccused as the centerpiece of the latter, but he misunderstood Doi's request and instead continued to carry Masquerade. On February 4, following a three-way tag team match, Minoura, who found strange Doi not intiving him as usual to form a new team, decided to leave Masquerade and form a new stable with Doi and Kaito Ishida, with the aim of reclaiming Dragon Gate's female fan demographic. On March 3, the stable was named "Gold Class", with the addition of a gift from Doi to Minoura in the form of a new member - Minorita, a repackage of rookie Takumi Hayakawa, meant to be a smaller and lighter version of Minoura. On March 5 at Champion Gate in Osaka, Minoura, Ishida, and Doi defeated Natural Vibes (Kzy, U-T and Jacky "Funky" Kamei) to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. They lost the titles to Eita, Nosawa Rongai and Kotaro Suzuki on May 5 at Dead or Alive. Later that month, Minoura took part in the 2022 King of Gate, being eliminated in the first round to Kzy. However, after Jason Lee was pulled out of the tournament due to a concussion, Minoura managed to get a second chance to qualify for the semifinals, taking place in a battle royal for the final semifinal spot. On June 2, Minoura won the second chance battle royal by last eliminating Minourita to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, Minoura defeated Shuji Kondo, but was defeated in the finals by Yuki Yoshioka. Following the tournament, on July 7, Minoura attacked KAI and Shuji Kondo during the match for the Open The Dream Gate Championship, causing the match to end in a no contest. Afterwards, Minoura declared himself as the next challenger to the Open The Dream Gate Championship, before being confronted by Yoshioka. Minoura, Kondo and Yoshioka discussed on, who should be the next challenger, leading Dragon Gate General Manager Ryo Saito to announce a three-way match to decide the next challenger to the Open The Dream Gate Championship. On July 24, Minoura won the three-way match, and as a result it was decided that Minoura would receive his title shot at the second night of Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival. At the event, on July 31, Minoura unsucessfully challenged Yuki Yoshioka for the Open The Dream Gate Championship.

On January 22, 2023, Minoura, Ben-K, and BxB Hulk defeated KAI, Shun Skywalker and ISHIN to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. In February, Minoura and Hulk took part in the 2023 Rey de Parejas, finishing the tournament with a record of three wins, one draw and one loss, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On March 2, Minoura and Hulk were defeated by M3K (Susumu Mochizuki and Yasushi Kanda) in the semifinals. On May 20, Minoura, Ben-K, and Hulk lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to Natural Vibes (Big Boss Shimizu, Jacky "Funky" Kamei and Kzy). On June 4, Minoura and Minorita challenged Natural Vibes to a match for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship with their partner being Naruki Doi, who made his return to Gold Class. On July 2, at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Minoura, Minorita and Doi defeated Natural Vibes to become the new champions. Later that month, Minoura took part in the 2023 King of Gate, which he eventually won, defeating Big Boss Shimizu in the finals on August 3, and afterwards earn a title match for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. On August 20 at Dangerous Gate, Minoura unsuccessfully challenged Madoka Kikuta for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. Seven days later, Minoura, Minorita and Doi were forced to vacate the Open The Triangle Gate Championship, after Minorita was diagnosed with a ruptured ACL in his right knee. On December 20, after D'Courage relinquished the Open The Twin Gate Championship, Minoura and Ben-K announced their intentions of taking part in the match for the vacant titles. On December 24, at Final Gate, Minoura and Ben-K were defeated by Pro Wrestling NOAH's Kaito Kiyomiya and Alejandro.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Bevel Gear* (Fireman's carry transitioned into a cradle)
	+ Bridging high-angle German suplex transitioned into a butterfly lock
	+ *Engranaje* (Crossface, sometimes while applying a cobra clutch) – 2021–present
	+ *Gang* (Sitout package powerbomb, sometimes while applying a double underhook)
	+ *RAS* (Over the shoulder back to belly piledriver) – 2022
	+ *R-301* (Spinning sitout suplex slam) – 2022-present; previously a signature move
* **Signature moves**
	+ Arm drag
	+ Boston crab
	+ Butterfly lock
	+ Crossface
	+ *Complete Shot* (Reverse STO)
	+ Forearm smash
	+ Hip toss
	+ *Hypoid Gear* (Fireman's carry bulldog)
	+ Knife edge chop
	+ Multiple suplex variations
		- Bridging fisherman, sometimes while crossing the legs
		- Back to belly
		- Double underhook
		- Exploder
		- German, sometimes while bridging
		- Northern lights
	+ Shoulder tackle
	+ *Sol Naciente* (Straight jacket triangle choke) – adopted from Masato Yoshino
	+ Spinning side slam
	+ Suisha otoshi
	+ Swinging side slam backbreaker
* **With Jason Lee**
	+ **Double team finishing moves**
		- *Gear Switch* (Double-arm aided snap swinging neckbreaker)
* **Managers**
	+ **Minorita**
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"Kin Bara no Kikōshi"** (Japanese for the "Prince of the Golden Roses")
* **Entrance themes**
	+ **"Rise in Grace"** by YO-HEI

 Championships and Accomplishments

* **Dragon Gate**
	+ Open The Twin Gate Championship (1 time) – with Jason Lee
	+ Open The Triangle Gate Championship (4 times) – with Shun Skywalker and Jason Lee (1), Kaito Ishida and Naruki Doi (1), Ben-K and BxB Hulk (1) and Minorita and Naruki Doi (1)
	+ King of Gate (2023)
	+ Rookie Ranking Tournament: Sixth place