Takuya Sugawara

###

Akita, Japan

**Takuya Sugawara** (菅原 拓也, *Sugawara Takuya*, born November 3, 1983) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently wrestling for Pro Wrestling ZERO1. He also worked with Dragon Gate where he is a former 2 times Open The Triangle Gate Championship.

## Career

### Toryumon/Dragon Gate

He debuted in the 9th term of T2P as Henry III Sugawara, a Prince character. He joined with and eventually with Anthony W. Mori and Phillip J. Fukumasa, forming the Royal Brothers unit in T2P. The gimmick was that all three wrestlers were royal princes. However, the Royal Brothers would never make much of an impact. Fukamasa retired almost immediately after T2P closed, and Sugawara spent most of his time back in Mexico while Mori wrestled in Toryumon.

When he finally came to Toryumon himself, he was courted by heel stable Aagan Iisou. Although he initially refused the request to join, he would eventually betray Mori and ally with Aagan. He and Mori would feud, with the finish coming in a hair vs hair match. Sugawara lost the match, but escaped losing his hair.

While a member of Aagan Iisou, he regularly teamed with Shuji Kondo and "brother" YASSHI. This team would continue for some time.

All the members of Aagan Iisou were fired from Dragon Gate on December 31, 2004, for controversial and mostly unexplained reasons.

### Dragondoor

Sugawara had been hit the hardest by the firing of Aagan Iisou, and he did not resurface in the wrestling world until dragondoor was announced. He rekindled his alliance with Kondo and YASSHI.

### El Dorado Wrestling

When El Dorado started, Sugawara was allied with two rival factions - his old friends in Aagan Iisou, and an upstart heel group called STONED, led by KAGETORA. Sugawara spent the first few months of El Dorado trying to play both sides. In the end, he would betray both Aagan Iisou and KAGETORA, backstabbing Aagan and kicking KAGETORA out of STONED to take the leadership of it himself.

During the roster restructuring, Sugawara was named one of the four leaders of the promotion, alongside Kondo, YASSHI and former Aagan member Toru Owashi. Sugawara would build a faction containing most of the members of STONED. It was named HELL DEMONS. Sugawara and the Brahman brothers won the UWA World Trios Championship and defended the Championships 2 times. Sugawara would lead HELL DEMONS for several months before being kicked out of the stable with little fanfare by Brahman Shu & Brahman Kei. The UWA World Trios Championship was then vacated. Sugawara allied with Toru Owashi's faction "Animal Planets", but did not officially join them. His participation caused dissension within the Animal Planets, with Bear Fukuda in particular being distrustful of Sugawara. Sugawara won the vacant UWA World Trios Championship for the second time with Toru Owashi and Nobutaka Araya by defeating the HELL DEMONS Braman Shu, Brahman Kei, and Go.

In the summer of 2008, the entirety of Aagan Iisou left El Dorado. Suguwara and Owashi vacated the UWA World Trios Championship on their way out. Aagan Iisou initially planned to tour as a unit, but instead went their separate ways.

### Pro Wrestling Zero1

In ZERO1 Sugawara formed a tag team with Minoru Fujita. they have been the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Champions and NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Champions. Sugawara and Fujita hold the record for the longest NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship title reign of 399 days. On March 2 Sugawara and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi put their belts (Kikuchi's NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (Zero1 version) and Sugawara's Zero1 International Junior Heavyweight title) on the line in a match on 11th Anniversary show. Sugawara was victorious and became the double champion. Sugawara lost both titles to Jonathan Gresham on May 4, 2013. He regained them from Mineo Fujita on November 3, 2014, before losing them to local wrestler Jason Lee in Hong Kong on December 28, 2014.

### Return to Dragon Gate

Sugawara returned to Dragon Gate in late 2009, aligning with the stable Veteran-gun. He was at first considered a representative of Zero-One rather than a full member of the roster. He teased reuniting with Anthony W. Mori and reforming the Royal Brothers, but instead joined up with top heel stable Real Hazard.

On January 19, 2010, he won the company's Battle of Tokyo Tournament. Real Hazard was soon renamed Deep Drunkers, led by Kenichiro Arai. On October 13, 2010, the Deep Drunkers were forced to split up, after losing a match against World–1 (BxB Hulk, Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi), but after the match Doi turned on his partners to form a new stable with Sugawara, Kzy, Naoki Tanizaki and Yasushi Kanda. On October 25 Sugawara, Tanisaki and Kanda defeated CIMA, Gamma and Genki Horiguchi to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. They would lose the title to CIMA, Dragon Kid and Ricochet on December 26, 2010. Later after that Sugawara left Dragon Gate and returned to Zero1.

### Second return to Dragon Gate

On March 7, 2019, Sugawara made his return to Dragon Gate, in a match losing to Ryo Saito by disqualification, after he attacked the referee. Afterwards, since his return as part of its 20th anniversary, Sugawara tried to convince Anthony W. Mori to face him in a match, but Mori refused, while Sugawara proclaimed that he return to the promotion to face him in a match, but Mori always remembered him he was retired and had to continue to work as member of the staff. Saito became his interpreter and tried to convince Mori, but he always refused. On June 6, Sugawara attacked Saito and threatened him that he would shave his hair if Mori didn't come out, leading him to accept a one time only return. He accepted under one condition that the match was an eight-man tag team match, with Mori teaming with Saito, Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi, while Sugawara would team with Magnitude Kishiwada, YAMATO and a mystery partner, which would later be unveiled by YAMATO. On July 4, the member was revealed to be BxB Hulk as his Darkside Hulk persona, their team would win with Sugawara pinning Mori.

## Factions

* Toryumon 2000 Project Seikigun (2002)
* Royal Brothers (2002-2004)
* Aagan Iisou (2004-2006)
* Stoned (2006)
* Hell Demons (2006-2007)
* Axe Army (2008)
* Sword Army (2008)
* Veteran-gun (2009-2010)
* Real Hazard (2010)
* Deep Drunkers (2010)
* Zero64 (2012-2014)
* Demon Army (2014)
* Voodoo Murders (2014-Present)

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Buckingham Backbreaker* (Backbreaker rack)
	+ *Buckingham Drop / Shiisanpuuta* (Reverse over the shoulder back to belly piledriver)
	+ Firemans carry cutter *–* 2002
	+ *TCO – The Crime Operation* (Running reverse Samoan drop)
* **Signature moves**
	+ Arm wrench inside cradle pin
	+ *Crossbone Hold* (Modified rollup)
	+ Cross kneelock
	+ Dropkick
	+ Enzuigiri
	+ Fallaway slam
	+ Hurricanrana
	+ Lariat
	+ Low blow
	+ Over the shoulder back to belly piledriver dropped and held over the knee
	+ *Placenta* (Arm drag transitioned into an arm trap somersault reverse prawn pin) - adopted from Skayde
	+ Running cutter
	+ Running elbow smash
	+ Snap DDT
	+ Sitout powerbomb
	+ Springboard moonsault, sometimes to the outside of the ring
	+ Suicide dive
	+ Tilt-a-whirl backbreaker
	+ Vertical suplex
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "**Living Dead Girl**" by Rob Zombie (Toryumon Japan / Dragon Gate / Dragondoor / El Dorado / ZERO1; 2004–present)
	+ "The Eastern Red Beast ~ Shiisanpuuta mix ~" by ACMA (Dragon Gate; 2009-2010 / ZERO1; 2011-present; used occasionally)

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Dragon Gate**
	+ Open the Triangle Gate Championship (2 times) – with Yasushi Kanda and Kzy (1), and Yasushi Kanda and Naoki Tanisaki (1)
	+ Battle of Tokyo Tournament (2010)
* **El Dorado Wrestling**
	+ UWA World Trios Championship (2 times) – with Brahman Shu and Brahman Kei (1), and Nobutaka Araya and Toru Owashi (1)
* **Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX/Pro Wrestling Zero1**
	+ Zero1 International Junior Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
	+ NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Minoru Fujita (1) and Masato Tanaka (1)
	+ NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship (7 times) – with Minoru Fujita (1), Kaijin Habu Otoko (1), Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (1), Mineo Fujita (1), "brother" YASSHI (2) and Ikuto Hidaka (1)
	+ NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
	+ Tenkaichi Jr. (2016)
	+ Fire Festival (2021)
* **Pro Wrestling BASARA**
	+ UWA World Trios Championship (1 time, current) – with Toru Owashi & Shuji Kondo

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Boutwell, Josh 2010-10-15. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . *WrestleView*. Retrieved on 2010-10-16.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 ZERO1, NOAH, Osaka & 19pro Results for March 2, 2012 . Retrieved on 2012-03-02.
3. ↑ *ja:【大花火実行委員会】『火乃国大花火』、大仁田がメイン締め!!　“世界一金玉のデカい男”ハルク・コーガン、デビュー戦を勝利で飾る!!　11・3『火乃国大花火』試合結果!!* (in Japanese). *The Big Fight* (2014-11-04). Retrieved on 2014-11-03.
4. ↑ *ja:12/28　Zero1香港 香港大会速報：菅原拓也香港で撃沈　ジェイソン・リーが地元香港でジュニア２冠奪取* (in Japanese). *Pro Wrestling Zero1* (2014-12-28). Retrieved on 2014-12-28.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Boutwell, Josh 2010-10-29. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . *WrestleView*. Retrieved on 2010-10-31.
6. ↑ Boutwell, Josh 2010-12-31. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . *WrestleView*. Retrieved on 2011-01-01.
7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 Takuya Sugawara Cagematch profile: Tag Teams & Stables .