T-Hawk

T-Hawk in May 2022

###

Tomakomai, Hokkaido, Japan

**Takuya Onodera** (小野寺卓也, *Onodera Takuya*, born April 30, 1990 in Tomakomai, Hokkaido) is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name **T-Hawk**. He currently wrestles in GLEAT, where he is the current G-REX Champion in his first reign. Onodera was trained by the Dragon Gate Dojo.

In Dragon Gate, he is a former six-times Open The Twin Gate Champion and a former five-times Open The Triangle Gate Champion and the winner of the 2017 King of Gate and 2012, 2013 Summer Adventure Tag League.

Onodera is also known for his time in Mexico, where he worked with Mexican promotions Desastre Total Ultraviolento (DTU) and International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG) under the ring name **Tomahawk**. In DTU Onodera managed to win the DTU Alto Impacto Championship.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early days (2010–2011)

Onodera trained for his professional wrestling career on the Nex wrestling school, which is associated with the Japanese Dragon Gate promotion. Upon his professional wrestling debut on March 29, 2010 he adopted the ring name Takuya Tomakomai after his hometown. He lost his debut match to Dragon Gate veteran Super Shisa. Over the following months Tomakomai wrestled in low card matches, gaining ring experience as he developed his wrestling skills further. On September 16, 2010, Tomakomai made an appearance for New Japan Pro Wrestling, teaming with Yohei Nakajima in a tag team match at *NEVER.2*, where they were defeated by Taichi and Tomoaki Honma. In 2011 he had build a reputation of being a promising wrestler who used a very powerful knife edge chop as his signature move. The reputation let to the Dragon Gate group "Junction Three" offering him a spot on their team.

### Tomahawk T.T. (2011–2012)

The offer was turned down in favor of another Dragon Gate group called "Blood Warriors". Tomakomai changed his ring image and name, transforming himself into a face painted, silent "warrior" known as Tomahawk T.T. In his debut he teamed Gamma the team lost to Shingo Takagi and YAMATO. His refusal to join Junction Three led to a feud between the two factions that spanned several months until a 7-man team from Blood Warriors defeated a 7-man team of "Junction Three" forcing the losing group to disband per the match stipulation. His reputation for his knife edge chops was put on the line as Dragon Gate arranged a "King of Chop" tournament in April 2012. The tournament was decided by fan applause after each wrestler chopped their opponent once. Tomahawk T.T. advanced to the finals of the tournament but was defeated by Eita Kobayashi.

### Naoki Tanisaki (2012–2013)

In January 2012, Naoki Tanizaki from Tomahawk's group had been sidelined with a shoulder injury. The injury led to Dragon Gate to taking the Open The Triangle Gate Championship away from the group. A few weeks later Tomahawk T.T. began working as "Naoki Tanisaki" (written as "谷崎なおき" instead of "谷嵜直樹", romanized with an "s" instead of a "z" in the last name), adopting his moveset, attire and wearing fake tattoos to look more like the original. Blood Warriors claimed he was the real Naoki returning early from injury, but the slight change in spelling of the last name was used to indicate that Tanisaki was an imposter. In the early parts of 2012 the group changed its name from Blood Warriors to "Mad Blankey". Tanisaki and BxB Hulk won the Open the Twin Gate Championship on June 10, 2012 when they defeated Jimmyz (Jimmy Kagetora and Jimmy Susumu). Mad Blankey would only hold the championship for 7 days before losing them back to Jimmyz in a match that also included a team called Windows (K-Ness and Keni'chiro Arai). When the original Tanizaki returned from his injury he started a feud with the impostor who "stole his name", joining the Jimmyz group. The Mad Blankey team of Tanisaki, BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa competed in Dragon Gate's 2012 Summer Adventure Tag League, which they won by defeating the teams of Jimmyz (Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee, Naoki Tanizaki and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito), Windows (Kenichiro Arai, Super Shisa and Shachihoko Boy) and finally Kaettekita Veteran-gun (Don Fujii, Dragon Kid and Masaaki Mochizuki). With their victory Mad Blankey also won the Open the Triangle Gate Championship.

On September 23, 2013 Mad Blankey defended the Open the Triangle Gate Championship against the Jimmyz Group of Horiguchi, Saito and Tanizaki, with the added stipulation that if Mad Blankey won the match they would also win the rights to the "Naoki Tanizaki" name. Mad Blankey won the match and thus the rights to the name. After the match the defeated now former Tanizaki wanted to rename himself to Naoki Jimmy, but the victorious Tanisaki claimed the right to choose Tanizaki's new name. Saying that Tanizaki's whining and crying reminded him of the "kyu kyu" noise a dolphin makes, he renamed Tanizaki to Mr. Kyu Kyu Toyonaka Dolphin. On October 21, 2013 Mad Blankey lost the Triangle Gate championship to the team of Gamma, Hub and Magnitude Kishiwada. The feud between the current and the former Naoki Tanizaki saw "Mr. Kyu Kyu Toyonaka Dolphin" win the 2013 New Year Dragon Scramble match over, among others, Naoki Tanisaki. A few weeks later the two faced off in a "loser leaves town" match, which initially saw Tanisaki win, only to have an immediate rematch take place with the same stipulation, won by Tonoyaka Dolphin, negating the results of the earlier match and giving Naoki Tanizaki the rights back to his name. He also renamed the fake Tanisaki "Mr. Pii Pii Tomakomai Penguin". The rivalry culminated on February 11, when the Jimmyz defeated Mad Blankey in a five-on-five elimination tag team match, as a result of which Penguin was exiled from Dragon Gate. After the match, Tanizaki shook hands with Penguin and offered to team with him in the future. Tanizaki then also fought off Mad Blankey, when they turned on Penguin for losing the match. On February 15, Penguin teamed with Tanizaki, who worked as "Mr. Kyu Kyu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin", in a tag team match, where the two lost to Akira Tozawa and BxB Hulk.

### Tomahawk, Mexico (2013)

Following one last match in Dragon Gate he traveled to Mexico to work for Dragon Gate's affiliated promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG), working as "Tomahawk". Tomahawk joined fellow young Dragon Gate wrestler Eita who had been on an extended training stay since mid-2012. It was not announced how long Tomahawk would remain in Mexico. His first match was on February 28, 2013 where he, Eita and Apolo Estrada, Jr. defeated Black Terry, Chico Che and Freelance. Less than three weeks later he worked his first major IWRG show as he competed on undercard of the 2013 *Prison Fatal* show, teaming with Apolo Estrada, Jr. and Black Terry as the team lost to Veneno, Chico Che and Golden Magic.

### T-Hawk (2013–present)

On July 21, 2013, Onodera, now billed as "T-Hawk", Eita and U-T, forming a new stable named Millennials, announced their impending return to Dragon Gate. The stable made its debut appearance on August 23 at *The Gate of Generation*. During September, T-Hawk and Eita won the 2013 Summer Adventure Tag League, defeating BxB Hulk and Yamato in the finals on September 28 to become the provisional Open the Twin Gate Champions. On November 3, T-Hawk and Eita defeated previous champions, Dragon Kid and K-ness, to become the official Open the Twin Gate Champions. On December 5, T-Hawk, Eita and one of Millennials' newest members, Mexican wrestler Flamita, defeated Mad Blankey (BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong and Yamato) to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. However, just three days later, T-Hawk and Eita lost the Open the Twin Gate Championship to Naruki Doi and Yamato. On December 22, Millennials lost the Open the Triangle Gate Championship to the Jimmyz (Jimmy Susumu, Mr. Kyu Kyu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito) a three-way elimination match, which also included Oretachi Veteran-gun (Cima, Dragon Kid and Masaaki Mochizuki).

On March 16, 2014, T-Hawk, Eita and U-T defeated the Jimmyz (Jimmy Kanda, Jimmy Susumu and Mr. Kyu Kyu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin) to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. They lost the title to Mad Blankey (Cyber Kong, Kzy and Naruki Doi) on June 14. On July 20, T-Hawk and Eita defeated Akira Tozawa and Shingo Takagi to win the Open the Twin Gate Championship. They lost the title to Cima and Gamma on November 2, before regaining it on December 3. On December 28, they lost the title to Cyber Kong and Yamato. On August 6, 2015, Millennials lost a three-way match and were as a result forced to disband. Afterwards, T-Hawk began feuding with former stablemates Eita and Kotoka, who blamed him for the dissolution of the Millennials. On September 23, 2015, T-Hawk joined Monster Express after turning down an invitation to join Dia.Hearts. On December 5, 2015 T-Hawk, Yoshino and Tozawa defeated VerserK (Naruki Doi,Shingo Takagi and YAMATO) in a decision match for the vacant Open the Triangle Gate Champions.

On March 6, he and Big R Shimizu defeated Naruki Doi and YAMATO to win the Open the Twin Gate Championship. On June 19 T-Hawk and Shimizu lost the Twin Gate titles to Jimmyz (Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora). On August 6 to August 27 Yoshino and T-Hawk at block A particpated at the 2016 Summer Adventure Tag League and they finished block A with 6 points. On September 4 T-Hawk, Tozawa and Yoshino lost the Open the Triangle Gate Champions to Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, Jimmy Kanda and Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!. On September 22 T-Hawk, Yoshino, Shimizu and Peter Kaasa lost to CIMA and Dragon Kid, Masaaki Mochizuki and Flamita, after the match T-Hawk insulted his Monster Express stablemates and challenged Yoshino for the leadership of Monster Express.

On September 22 during the loser leaves unit between T-Hawk and Masato Yoshino VerserK interfered in the match and the match ended in no contest and T-Hawk turned on Yoshino and joined VerserK. On October 12 VerserK forced Monster Express to disband. After the match T-Hawk turned on Naruki Doi and kicked him out of VerserK. On T-Hawk, El Lindaman and Shingo Takagi participated at the New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament. T-Hawk, Lindaman and Takagi defeated Ben-K, Kotoka and Masato Yoshino at the finals to win the New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament. On March 4 T-Hawk, Takagi and Kong defeated Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy Kanda and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito to win the Open The Triangle Gate Champions. On March 19, Kong, T-Hawk and Takagi vacated the Open The Triangle Gate Champions due to Cyber Kong being sidelined with an injury. During the month of May until the beginning of June T-Hawk would finish the tournament with 8 points passing to the semifinals finishing the tournament with 8 points. On June 10 T-Hawk defeated Eita to get into the finals. The following day, he defeated Naruki Doi to win the 2017 King of Gate tournament.

Later in November, T-Hawk reunited with Eita, which led them to win Early Christmas Tag Team Tournament by defeating BxB Hulk and Kzy in the finals. On December 23 at Final Gate T-Hawk and Eita defeated CIMA and Susumu Yokosuka to win the vacant Open The Twin Gate Championship. On January 13, T-Hawk along with the rest of the members of VerserK renamed the stable to ANTIAS. They lost the titles in their third title defense to Big R Shimizu and Ben-K on May 6 at Dead or Alive. Two days later, it was announced that T-Hawk would leave Dragon Gate to work for CIMA's Oriental Wrestling Entertainment, despite being signed by Dragon Gate Entertainment. Shortly after, in OWE T-Hawk formed a new stable with CIMA, El Lindaman, Takehiro Yamamura, Gao Jingjia, Zackery Wentz and Dezmond Xavier named Strong Hearts. On June 13, Strong Hearts appeared in Wrestle-1, declaring an all-out war against the promotion. On Janaury 5, 2019 T-Hawk defeated Shotaro Ashino to win Wrestle-1 Championship, winning his first singles champion in Japan. On September 1, T-Hawk lost the title to Daiki Inaba.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Cerberus* (Running knee strike, sometimes while jumping) – 2017–present
	+ *Night Ride* (Reverse crucifix hold dropped into a sitout scoop slam piledriver)
	+ *Night Ride END* (Reverse crucifix hold dropped into a reverse piledriver)
	+ *Veracruz* (Double wrist-lock electric chair dropped into a sitout scoop slam piledriver)
* **Signature moves**
	+ *Aguila* (Pop-up knee lift)
	+ *BT Bomb* (Sitout crucifix powerbomb) – adopted from Black Tiger
	+ Kneeling reverse piledriver
	+ Knife-edge chop
	+ *Rojo* (Inverted Indian deathlock / chinlock combination)
	+ Sitout elevated powerbomb – 2017–present
	+ Sitout suplex slam
	+ Two-handed chop
	+ *Urajigoku* (Belly-to-back sitout facebuster)
	+ *Verde* (Cross-legged double wrist-clutch Argentine backbreaker rack)
	+ Vertical suplex
* **Nicknames**
	+ **"Power Master"**
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Shining Wave ~ Casanova Bomber Fire" by Ino Head Park (used as Naoki Tanisaki)
	+ "regret" by hirameki (used as Tomahawk T.T.)
	+ "Right Here, Right Now" performed by KT (used as part of the Millennials)
	+ **"aurora"** performed by el'z (used in singles competition)

## Championships and accomplishments

* **All Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ All Asia Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with El Lindaman
* **Australasian Wrestling Federation**
	+ AWF Australasian Championship (1 time)
* **DDT Pro-Wrestling**
	+ KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with CIMA and Duan Yingnan (1) and El Lindaman and Tetsuya Endo (1)
* **Desastre Total Ultraviolento**
	+ DTU Alto Impacto Championship (1 time)
* **Dragon Gate**
	+ Open The Triangle Gate Championship (5 times) – with BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa (1), Eita and Flamita (1), Eita and U-T (1), Masato Yoshino and Akira Tozawa (1) and Cyber Kong and Shingo Takagi (1)
	+ Open The Twin Gate Championship (6 times) – with BxB Hulk (1), Eita (4) and Big R Shimizu (1)
	+ Provisional Open the Twin Gate Championship (1 time) – with Eita
	+ Open the Triangle Gate Championship Next Challenger Team One Night Tournament (2013) – with Eita and Flamita
	+ Six Unit Warfare One Night Tag Tournament (2012) – with BxB Hulk
	+ New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament (2016) - with Shingo Takagi and El Lindaman
	+ Summer Adventure Tag League (2012) – with BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa
	+ Summer Adventure Tag League (2013) – with Eita
	+ Early Christmas Tag Team Tournament (2017) – with Eita
	+ King of Gate (2017)
* **GLEAT**
	+ Provisional G-INFINITY Championship (1 time) – with Shigehiro Irie
	+ G-REX Championship (1 time, current)
* **Japan Indie Awards**
	+ Best Unit Award (2018, 2019) – Strong Hearts
* **Pro Wrestling Illustrated**
	+ PWI ranked him #**153** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015
	+ PWI ranked him #**274** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016
	+ PWI ranked him #**208** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017
* **Wrestle-1**
	+ Wrestle-1 Championship (1 time)
	+ Wrestle-1 Tag League (2019) – with Shigehiro Irie

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 T-Hawk  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora. Retrieved on 2013-09-24.
2. ↑ NEVER．2  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-09-10.
3. ↑ King of Gate 2011 2011.5.16　新潟・ハイブ長岡　観衆:560人  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora (2011-05-16). Retrieved on 2013-03-29.
4. ↑ Truth Gate 2012.2.09　東京・後楽園ホール　観衆：1,850人(超満員札止め)  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora (2012-02-09). Retrieved on 2013-03-29.
5. ↑ Infinity 254 or King of Chop . Open the Garoon Gate (2012-04-19). Retrieved on 2013-03-29.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Open the Triangle Gate official title history  (in Japanese). Dragon Gate Official Site. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Open the TwinGate official title history  (in Japanese). Dragon Gate Official Site. Retrieved on 2011-11-23.
8. ↑ Dangerous Gate 2012 - 22 Sep 2012 . *iHeartDG* (2012-09-23). Retrieved on 2012-09-23.
9. ↑ January 12, 2013
10. ↑ Primal Gate 2013 2013.1.27　兵庫・神戸サンボーホール　観衆：1,100人(超満員札止め)  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora (2013-01-27). Retrieved on 2013-03-29.
11. ↑ 1/27 Primal Gate - 27 Jan 2013 . *iHeartDG* (2013-01-27). Retrieved on 2013-01-27.
12. ↑ Memorial Gate 2013 - 10 Feb 2013 . *iHeartDG* (2013-02-10). Retrieved on 2013-02-11.
13. ↑ Truth Gate  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Retrieved on 2013-02-18.
14. ↑ IWRG Debut
15. ↑ Mala semana para los Piratas, ahora el Pirata Morgan Sr rapado.  (in Spanish). *estrellas del Ring* (2013-03-18). Retrieved on 2013-03-19.
16. ↑ Mejia Eguiluz, Diego 2013-03-18. Máscara Año Dos Mil júnior rapó al Pirata Morgan  (in Spanish). *The Gladiatores*. Retrieved on 2013-03-19.
17. ↑ Redaccion 2013-03-18. Cae otro bucanero, Pirata Morgan rapado  (in Spanish). *MedioTiempo*. MSN. Retrieved on 2013-03-19.
18. ↑ Millennials coming soon...!?  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. YouTube (2013-07-24). Retrieved on 2013-07-26.
19. ↑ 8/23 Gate of Generation . *iHeartDG* (2013-08-23). Retrieved on 2013-08-23.
20. ↑ 新時代の扉を開いたはずの鷹木が、Yamatoに痛恨の敗戦でDG王座から陥落！ミレニアルズが凱旋帰国！傷心の鷹木は戸澤と合体！  (in Japanese). *Battle News* (2013-08-23). Retrieved on 2013-08-24.
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Summer Adventure Tag League 2013  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Retrieved on 2013-10-01.
22. ↑ The Gate of Destiny 2013  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Retrieved on 2013-11-04.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 *ja:挑戦者決定ワンナイトトーナメントで優勝したミレニアルズが、その勢いでトライアングル王座も奪取！ミラクル土井ダーツ登場！* (in Japanese). *Battle News* (2013-12-06). Retrieved on 2013-12-05.
24. ↑ Fantastic Gate  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Retrieved on 2013-12-15.
25. ↑ The Final Gate 2013  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora. Retrieved on 2013-12-22.
26. ↑ Memorial Gate 2014 in 和歌山  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora. Retrieved on 2014-03-16.
27. ↑ *ja:Ｔ―ＨａｗｋとＥｉｔａがツイン王座奪取* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2014-07-21). Retrieved on 2014-07-21.
28. ↑ Scandal Gate in Tokyo  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora. Retrieved on 2015-08-07.
29. ↑ *ja:ドラゴンゲート8.6後楽園大会　ミレニアルズvs.ジミーズvs.MBの敗戦ユニット解散サバイバルイリミネーション6人タッグ3Wayマッチ* (in Japanese). *Battle News* (2015-08-07). Retrieved on 2015-08-07.
30. ↑ 08/23 Gate of Generation . *iHeartDG* (2015-08-23). Retrieved on 2015-08-23.
31. ↑ 09/23 Summer Adventure Tag League . *iHeartDG* (2015-09-23). Retrieved on 2015-09-24.
32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 T-Hawk  (in Japanese). I "Heart" DG. Retrieved on 2013-03-28.
33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 T-Hawk at Cagematch.net .
34. ↑ T-Hawk wins with new move .
35. ↑ T-Hawk profile . iHeartDG.com.
36. ↑ 9/14 Storm Gate - 14 Sep 2012 . *iHeartDG* (2012-09-14). Retrieved on 2012-09-14.
37. ↑ Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2015 . *The Internet Wrestling Database*. Retrieved on 2015-10-05.
38. ↑ Cima屈辱の丸坊主刑  (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2015-05-06). Retrieved on 2015-05-06.