Hyo

Hyo in April 2023

###

Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan

**Hyou Watanabe** (渡邉 彪, *Watanabe Hyō*), currently known as **Hyo** (豹, *Hyō*, born January 4, 1997 in Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for the Dragon Gate (DG), where he is the current Open The Brave Gate Champion in his second reign, while also being a former three-time Open The Triangle Gate Champion and a former one-time Open The Twin Gate Champion.

Watanabe was trained in the Dragon Gate Dojo alongside Futa Nakamura and Shun Watanabe, later renamed to Ben-K and Shun Skywalker. While Nakamura managed to break out in singles competition, Watanabe and Skywalker continued to wrestle on the undercard alongside Yuki Yoshioka forming Mochizuki Dojo with Masaaki Mochizuki. Despite forming Mochizuki Dojo, Watanabe always worked on the midcard, leading him to turn heel in October 2019, joining R.E.D. Afterwards, he renamed himself to "H.Y.O" and subsequently won the Open The Triangle Gate Championship in December, before losing it in February 2020.

## Professional wrestling career

### Dragon Gate

#### Early Career (2015–2019)

Watanabe trained for his professional wrestling career in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate's wrestling school called "Dragon Gate Nex" and wrestled several exhibition bouts before officially debuting against Kzy on July 27, 2016 in a losing effort. As is customary for most professional wrestlers, Watanabe spent most of his matches losing to other, more experienced wrestlers, which would help put over other wrestlers while at the same time give Watanabe some in-ring, televised, experience. Watanabe then begun teaming together on a regular basis with fellow rookies Futa Nakamura and Shun Watanabe, including working together on November 3, at Gate of Destiny, teaming with Nakamura and Shun Watanabe in a winning effort against Over Generation (Kaito Ishida, Punch Tominaga and Takehiro Yamamura).

On November 11, Watanabe was repackaged, despite keeping his ring name. He adopted a leopard print ring gear due to the meaning of his first name being leopard in Japanese. After promosing to hold the Open The Brave Gate Championship in a near future, Dragon Gate's General Manager Takayuki Yagi scheduled him a non-title match against reigning Open The Brave Gate Champion Eita, which he ended up losing. Later that night, veteran CIMA challenged Watanabe, Ben-K, Skywalker and rookies Katsumi Takashima and Yuki Yoshioka to a match. This led on December 1, Watanabe, Ben-K, Skywalker, Takashima and Yuki Yoshioka being defeated by CIMA, Dragon Kid, Don Fujii, Gamma and Masaaki Mochizuki. In August 2018, Watanabe formed the "Mochizuki Dojo" stable with Shun Skywalker, Masaaki Mochizuki and Yuki Yoshioka in order to progress their careers.

#### Heel turn (2019–2023)

In June 2019, Watanabe began was caught up in a feud between Masaaki Mochizuki and Keisuke Okuda, after, Okuda tried to break Watanabe's arm. Meanwhile, Watanabe began developing a cheating mean-streak. Okuda would later join Mochizuki Dojo, but there were some tensions between Watanabe and Okuda, and on September 11, after Okuda accidentally attacked Watanabe, which cost him his match against Kaito Ishida, the two were involved in a heated confrontation until Mochizuki proposed a match between the two, which Ishida later asked to part of it, leading Mochizuki to accept.

On October 8, during a three-way against Okuda and Ishida, Watanabe began viciously attacking Okuda and afterwards joined the heel stable R.E.D, claiming that Mochizuki Dojo was his idea and his former stablemates Kota Minoura and Yuki Yoshioka were just sidekicks since they didn't come together as a unit or won any championships. Afterwards, Mochizuki, Minoura and Yuki Yoshioka vowed revenge against him, leading Mochizuki to challenge him to a match, which would end in a double disqualification. He would rename himself to "H.Y.O", pronounced as Hyo, as part of the process joining R.E.D. On November 26, R.E.D defeated Natural Vibes by count-out. Later that night, R.E.D interfered in a match between the Strong Machines and Masaaki Mochizuki, Ryo Saito and Yasushi Kanda, causing the match to end in a no contest. Afterwards, H.Y.O stated that he had the right partners to win the titles, due to being unable to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship when he was part of Mochizuki Dojo, then Natural Vibes, who had lost to R.E.D earlier that night, came to the ring and announce their intentions of challenging for the titles. On December 15 at Final Gate, H.Y.O and his R.E.D stablemates Diamante and Takashi Yoshida won the Open The Triangle Gate Championship defeating Strong Machines (Strong Machine J, Strong Machine F, and Strong Machine G) and Natural Vibes (Kzy, Genki Horiguchi and Susumu Yokosuka) in a three-way match, winning his first professional wrestling title. Later that month, H.Y.O became part of a "Generation War" against Dragon Gate and Toryumon. H.Y.O, Diamante and Yoshida lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to Toryumon trio of Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito and Kenichiro Arai on February 7, 2020. On May 15, H.Y.O took part in the 2020 King of Gate, losing in the first round to Kzy, by disqualification, eliminating him from the tournament. On November 15 at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, HY.O won a battle royal by last eliminating Mondai Ryu to earn the right to ask for the in-ring related wish of their his choosing. This led on December 2, H.Y.O revealing his in-ring wish, which he won at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, challenging Toryumon to a No Disqualification Losing Unit Disbands match at Final Gate. On December 20, at Final Gate, R.E.D forced Toryumon to disband, after defeating them in No Disqualification Losing Unit Disbands match.

Since January 2021, H.Y.O began redeveloping a cheating mean-streak, which included H.Y.O pinning Masaaki Mochizuki during a tag team match. In February, H.Y.O began feuding again with Keisuke Okuda, which started, following a six-man tag team match between the two, where Okuda's team won. This led to on February 21, H.Y.O costing Okuda a match against H.Y.O's R.E.D stablemates Kaito Ishida and SB KENTo. Afterwards, H.Y.O challenged Okuda to a title match for the Open The Brave Gate Championship, which he accepted. On March 6, H.Y.O unsuccessfully challenged Okuda for the Open The Brave Gate Championship. In May, H.Y.O took part in the 2021 King of Gate, replacing an injured HipHop Kikuta. Although he had no interest in winning the tournament, he to be a cause for concern for his opponents, played as a spoiler. He purposely forced most of his matches to end in double-countout, which prevented Shun Skywalker from winning his block. He would adopt the gimmick of being the "brain of R.E.D", usually giving the score of 0 points to his opponents and 100 to himself, due to his intellect.

On September 20 at Dangerous Gate, H.Y.O, Eita and Kaito Ishida defeated Masquerade's Dragon Dia, Jason Lee and La Estrella to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. They lost the titles to Shun Skywalker, Jason Lee and Kota Minoura on December 15. Afterwards, H.Y.O began having a rift with Eita and Ishida, mostly due to Eita's appearances in other promotions. On December 26, at Final Gate, H.Y.O and R.E.D stablemate SB KENTo defeated Naruki Doi and Takashi Yoshida to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship. On Janaury 12, 2022, Eita and Ishida began distacing themselves from H.Y.O, before winning the Open Triangle Gate Championship after defeating Masquerade's Jason Lee, Kota Minoura and Shun Skywalker. Following the match, Skywalker quit Masquerade, which in turn, led to H.Y.O to invite him to stable, with Skywalker accepting. However, Eita and Ishida were against his addition and Eita attempted to expel H.Y.O, leading the rest of R.E.D to turn on them, with Skywalker taking over the leadership. The following day, H.Y.O and SB KENTo lost the Open The Twin Gate Championship to Dragon Dia and Yuki Yoshioka. Following Eita's departure from R.E.D on February 5, H.Y.O and KENTo decided to rename the stable to "Z-Brats", in order to distance themselves to concept of R.E.D that was created by Eita. In May, H.Y.O took part in the 2022 King of Gate, being eliminated in the first round after facing Dragon Dia in a double count out. In June, H.Y.O began developing an obession for the Open The Brave Gate Championship, attacking Dragon Dia following a tag team match between the two. This led to a title match, on June 25, which ended in a double count out. On June 29, H.Y.O attacked Dia following his match and issue a rematch for the Open The Brave Gate Championship at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, which he accepted. At the event, on July 30, H.Y.O defeated Dragon Dia to win the Open The Brave Gate Championship. He lost the title to Minorita on December 25 at Final Gate.

In February 2023, H.Y.O and ISHIN took part in the 2023 Rey de Parejas, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins, one draw, and two losses, failing to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. The following month, H.Y.O began adopting a bodybuilder gimmick, usually exhibit his muscles to the cameras and being foccused on showing his body. In July, H.Y.O made into the semifinals of the 2023 King of Gate, losing to eventual winner Kota Minoura.

#### Face turn (2023–Present)

On November 9, H.Y.O turned on Z-Brats, during the stable's Four-on-One handicap match against Luís Mante, after he threw powder in the face of Shun Skywalker, which allowed him to secure the win. Afterwards, both formed an alliance and H.Y.O challenged ISHIN to a title match for the Open The Brave Gate Championship. He also slightly changed ring name, now spelling his first name as Hyo (豹), written in kanji. On December 5, Hyo defeated ISHIN to win the Open The Brave Gate Championship.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ Bridging wrist-clutch backdrop
	+ Diving senton - 2015-2019
	+ *Kurohyo/Black Panther Clutch/Panther Clutch* (Rolling Gannosuke clutch)
	+ *Neko Tamashi* (Small package)
	+ *Olfa* (Fireman's carry cutter)
	+ *Saber* (Leg hook over the shoulder back to belly piledriver)
* **Signature moves**
	+ *Anatolia* (Electric chair mount spun 360° around and down into a spinning wheelbarrow victory roll)
	+ *ASM* (Senton, sometimes while assisted by a partner or from the second rope)
	+ *Bamishiri no Wa* (Rolling sitout pin) - 2022; parodied from K-ness.
	+ Backdrop, sometimes while bridging or from the top rope
	+ Bridging overhead double wristlock suplex
	+ Multiple eye rakes transitioned into a stomp transitioned into a small package
	+ Multiple kick variations
		- Drop
		- Low blow
		- Missile drop
		- Springboard drop
		- Zero
	+ *Persia* (Swinging side slam)
	+ Snapmare driver – 2020
	+ Split-legged moonsault – 2018
	+ Stunner, sometimes transitioned into a Samson clutch
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"Hard Body"**
	+ **"Kurohyo"** (Japanese for the "Black Panther")
	+ **"Mr. (Big) Brains"**
	+ **"Mr. Daizuno"**
	+ **"**R・E・D/Z-Brats Yuiitsu no Zuno-Ha" (Japanese for the "Brain of R.E.D/Z-Brats")
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Dragon Storm 2007" (Instrumental Version)" by Dragon Gate
	+ **"Fire"** by Kingons
	+ "Fire Fire" by Kingons
	+ "Fire Fire (Bamishiri mix)" by Kingons

 Championships and Accomplishments

* **Dragon Gate**
	+ Open The Brave Gate Championship (2 times, current)
	+ Open The Triangle Gate Championship (3 times) – with Diamante and Takashi Yoshida (1) and Eita and Kaito Ishida (2)
	+ Open The Twin Gate Championship (1 time) – with SB KENTo
	+ Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival Battle Royal (2020)
	+ Rookie Ranking Tournament: Fifth place
	+ Best Bout Award (2020) R.E.D vs. Toryumon Generation on December 20
* **Wrestling Observer Newsletter**
	+ 4½ Star Match (2020) R.E.D vs. Toryumon Generation on December 20

## See also

* Dragon Gate
* Dragon Gate Trueborn

## References

1. ↑ cagematch Gate of Destiny  (in English). *Cagematch*. Cagematch. Retrieved on 2016-11-19.