El Lindaman

El Lindaman in February 2022

###

Nakano, Tokyo, Japan

**Yuga Hayashi** (林悠河 Hayashi Yūga, born February 15, 1995) is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name **El Lindaman** (エル・リンダマン, *Eru Rindaman*) who works currently for GLEAT, where he is the inaugural G-REX Champion.

Hayashi was trained by the Dragon Gate Dojo and in Dragon Gate, he is a former one-time Open The Triangle Gate Champion.

## Professional Wrestling Career

### Dragon Gate (2014–2018)

#### Debut and Millenials (2014–2015)

On April 4, 2014 Yuga made his debut on Dragon Gate at the Dragon Gate Nex in a match against T-Hawk were he lost. On April 13 during a match against Eita Yuga suffered a broken jaw and he was out of action for four months. On August 5 Yuga made his return match with Yosuke♥Santa Maria and they lost to Don Fujii and Ryotsu Shimizu. At the 2014 Summer Adventure Tag League at block B Yuga replaced Kotoka that was injured and Yuga and Ryotsu Shimizu and they finished the tournament with 0 points and they finished at last place team on the tournament losing to Mad Blankey (Kzy and Naruki Doi). The rest of the year of 2014 Yuga continued to work on the mid card losing and rarely winning some matches. On January 10, 2015 Yuga participated at the tournament for the Open The Brave Gate Championship and he defeated at the first round Punch Tominaga at only 46 seconds but he lost in the semifinals to Dr. Muscle. On January 16 Yuga and Kotoka were attacked by Mad Blankey and Millennials made the save after that Yuga and Kotoka joined Millennials. Yuga chose to assume the name El Lindaman after the song “Linda, Linda” by the band The Blue Hearts. He initially wanted to join Osaka06 (CIMA and Gamma) but since CIMA joined to Mad Blankey he choose to join to Millennials and he also changed his attire with Millenials colors and his hair color to pink and violet. Also on January 16, Lindaman got his first win as part of Millenials when he and T-Hawk, Eita, U-T and Yosuke♥Santa Maria defeated Mad Blankey (CIMA, Cyber Kong, Dr. Muscle, Gamma, K-ness and YAMATO). On August 6, 2015, Millennials lost a three-way match and were as a result were forced to disband.

#### Over Generation (2015-2016)

On October 8, CIMA formed a new stable with Lindaman, Eita, Gamma, Punch Tominaga, and rookies Kaito Ishida and Takehiro Yamamura. Also Lindaman changed his attire. On November 1, the stable was named Over Generation. On October 27 Lindaman, Eita and Tominaga participated at a tournament for the vacated Open The Triangle Gate Championship and they lost at the first round to VerserK (Naruki Doi, Shingo Takagi and YAMATO). On May 15 to June 5 Lindaman participated at the 2016 King of Gate at block D and he finished the tournament with only 1 point (1 draw and 4 losses). On June 19 VerserK attacked Yosuke Santa Maria and Lindaman made the save. On June 26 Lindaman claimed that he liked Maria and wanted to fight with and protect Maria. Then on July 2, VerserK attacked Maria again promoting a save from Lindaman. Five days later Lindaman was attacked by VerserK and then Maria made the save and both formed a team named Marilyns.

#### VerserK and ANTIAS (2016–2018)

On August 6 Lindaman officially left Over Generation and asked YAMATO to join Tribe Vanguard and YAMATO said that it would depend on his performance on the Summer Adventure Tag League. At the end of the Summer Adventure Tag League Maria and Lindaman finished their block with 2 points and at the final day, it was decided that Lindaman would not join Tribe Vanguard and Maria slapped Lindaman with the two ending Marilyns. After the Marilyns split, on September 22 Lindaman started to show heel signs after his match he attacked his partners later that night he attacked Eita and challenge him for the Eita for the Open The Brave Gate Champion and the two were involved in a discussion where Punch Tominaga came in and it was agreed between him and Lindaman that the winner of their match would be against Eita for the Open The Brave Gate Champion. Lindaman again changed his look, dying his hair yellow, changing his ring attire to fit with VerserK's colors and carrying a large rope around his neck. On November 29 Lindaman defeated Tominaga after the match Lindaman completely turned heel when he accepted the offer to join VerserK and challenged Eita for the Open The Brave Gate Champion.

On October 12 Lindaman failed to capture the Open The Brave Gate Championship following an interference from Dr. Muscle (who was later revealed to be Kotoka). On December 25 Lindaman, Cyber Kong and Mondai Ryu failed to capture the vacated Open The Triangle Gate Championship losing to Masato Yoshino, Kotoka and Ben-K and Jimmyz (Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy Kanda and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito).

On January 18, 2017 Lindaman, T-Hawk and Shingo Takagi participated at the New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament where they came all the way into the finals defeating Masato Yoshino, Ben-K and Kotoka to win the tournament. On March 4 Lindaman faced Eita for the Open The Brave Gate Championship. The match ended in a no contest due to Punch Tominaga and Mondai Ryu and Yamamura (who was trying to save from the attack of VerserK) interference. Due to this the Open The Brave Gate Champion was vacated and Eita and Yamamura were announced to take part of the tournament to crown the new champion. On March 20, at the Memorial Gate in Wakayama Lindaman defeated Yosuke♥Santa Maria on the semifinals and he was defeated in the finals by Jimmy Kagetora. On May 5 at the Dead or Alive Lindaman and T-Hawk unsuccessfully challenged CIMA and Dragon Kid for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. In May Lindaman took part again in block D this time he would finish the tournament with 2 points defeating Jimmy Kanda and losing the rest of his matches. On July 1 Lindaman won his first title, when he Takagi and his VerserK stablemate Takashi Yoshida defeated Naruki Doi, Big R Shimizu and Ben-K to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. On November 3 Lindaman, Takagi and Yoshida lost the titles to YAMATO, BxB Hulk and Kzy also involving Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino and Kotoka.

On January 13, Lindaman along with the rest of the members of VerserK renamed the stable to ANTIAS. During this time, there were tensions between ANTIAS stablemates Lindaman, Kanda and Takagi, with Takagi, accidentally costing Kanda his Open The Brave Gate Championship on two different occasions and Kanda mocking Takagi for being the Open The Owarai Gate Champion, Lindaman then started to act as the peacemaker, but Kanda and Takagi started to blame him for their losses which led the three blaming, each other for their losses. Tensions calmed down on May 6 at Dead or Alive, after Lindaman, Kanda and Takagi escaped the seven-way steel cage match, with Takagi taking over the leadership after Lindaman didn't help him escape the cage and Eita and T-Hawk losing the Open The Twin Gate Championship to Ben-K and Big R Shimizu early that night. Two days later, it was announced that Lindaman would leave Dragon Gate to work for Oriental Wrestling Entertainment, despite being signed by Dragon Gate Entertainment.

### Oriental Wrestling Entertainment (2018–Present)

Shortly after, in OWE Lindaman formed a new stable with T-Hawk, 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.

## Personal life

On January 15, 2021, Lindaman tested positive for COVID-19 amid its pandemic in Japan.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ Bridging high-angle German suplex, sometimes while rolling
	+ *Kumagoroshi* (Ipponzeoi lifted and dropped into a modified sitout scoop slam piledriver)
	+ *Locomotion Tiger Suplex* (Triple rolling tiger suplexes)
* **Signature moves**
	+ Achilles lock
	+ Belly to back suplex
	+ Cross armbreaker
	+ Forearm smash
	+ Ipponzeoi
	+ *Mad Splash* (Frog splash) – adopted from CIMA
	+ Michinoku driver
	+ Lariat
	+ Low blow
	+ *Schwein* (Over the shoulder back-to-belly piledriver, sometimes while applying a wrist-clutch, dropped over the knee) – adopted from CIMA
	+ Shoulder tackle
	+ Somersault topé through the second and top ropes
	+ Spear
	+ Vertical suplex
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "L-I-N-D-A" by SAMMY (Billy & the Sluts)
	+ "Wolfish Soldier" by Aki (used as part of VerserK and also for singles competition)

## Championships and Accomplishments

* **All Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
	+ All Asia Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with T-Hawk
* **Dragon Gate**
	+ Open The Triangle Gate Championship (1 time) – with Takashi Yoshida and Shingo Takagi
	+ Summer Adventure Tag League Last place (2014) – with Ryotsu Shimizu
	+ New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament (2017) – with Shingo Takagi and T-Hawk
* **DDT Pro-Wrestling**
	+ KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with T-Hawk and Tetsuya Endo (1)
* **GLEAT**
	+ G-REX Championship (1 time, inaugural)
* **Pro Wrestling Zero1**
	+ International Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
	+ NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* **Japan Indie Awards**
	+ Best Unit Award (2018, 2019) – Strong Hearts
* ***Tokyo Sports***
	+ Technique Award (2022)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 El Lindaman - iHeartDG  (2015-11-29).
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Dragon Gate Profile . Dragon Gate. Retrieved on 2017-01-20.
3. ↑ Scandal Gate in Tokyo  (in Japanese). *Dragon Gate*. Gaora. Retrieved on 2015-08-07.
4. ↑ *ja:???????8.6????? ??????vs.????vs.MB??????????????????????6????3Way???* (in Japanese). *Battle News* (2015-08-07). Retrieved on 2015-08-07.
5. ↑ ???????10.8????? Cima&???&Gamma vs.??&????&Kotoka?????????????????vs.??  (in Japanese). *Battle News* (2015-10-09). Retrieved on 2015-10-08.

## External links

* Cagematch Profile
* Iheartdg Profile
* El Lindaman Blog