Yasushi Kanda

Kanda in June 2022

###

Inage-ku, Chiba, Japan

**Yasushi Kanda** (神田 裕之, *Kanda Yasushi*, ring name:神田ヤスシ) (born on August 29, 1978) is a Japanese wrestler currently performing for the Dragon Gate wrestling promotion in Japan. He is considered one of Toryumon's greatest heel characters and was a founding member of the M2K stable. In his pre-injury days, he was famous for his mohawk hairstyle. He also was best known for the ring name **Jimmy Kanda** (ジミー・神田, *Jimī Kanda*) until the Jimmyz's last match, he turned on them and joined VerserK, thus reverting back to his real name in the process.

## Professional wrestling career

### Early years

Kanda was trained by Ultimo Dragon as a 2nd Term student. Shortly after debuting, he allied with Susumu Mochizuki. He would win the Young Dragons Cup, and the IWRG Intercontinental Tag Team Titles along with Susumu Mochizuki. Debuting in Toryumon Japan, Kanda and Susumu Mochizuki proved a disruptive heel presence. They were accepted into heel stable Crazy MAX, but turned on them later that same night. Crazy Max retaliated by hog tying them with the ring ropes and beating them with baseball bats. They were saved by Masaaki Mochizuki. Although Susumu Mochizuki was thankful for the assist, Kanda was not, and he and Masaaki exchanged words. He would then wrestle Masaaki to a 20-minute draw. Having earned respect for each other, the stable M2K was formed. The stable's names was based on the last names of the members, two Mochizuki's (M2) and Kanda (K).

M2K feuded with Crazy Max, forcing it to turn face against its will. Kanda, Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Mochizuki would win the UWA World Trios Tag Titles. M2K would continue its successful ways. Kanda, however, suffered a legitimate neck injury on October 10, 2001 after taking a back-to-belly piledriver from Genki Horiguchi that displaced his neck vertebrae. He shifted over to a referee job.

### Referee

Kanda began appearing as a heel referee. He no longer wore his mohawk, but he did not cut the hair either, simply wearing it long. He also wore a neck brace due to the injury. He was a partial heel referee for the M2K stable. This ended during a grudge match between Dragon Kid and Darkness Dragon where, tired of M2K's interference in the match, he hit all the interfering members with the blue box, then Darkness Dragon as well. M2K headhunted on Kid and Kanda, but it did not last long.

On September 8, 2002, Kanda came to the ring with his original M2K partners, Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Mochizuki, to officially retire from the ring. Out of respect for him, Magnum Tokyo, the current leader of M2K, sealed the name.

Kanda continued refereeing, though he no longer had an individual role. He also took an office job within the federation.

### Return

In 2006, Don Fujii of heel stable Blood Generation began to harass Kanda during matches. Kanda was provoked into fighting back. At first he fought against Blood Generation's heel referee Kinta Tamaoka, but he soon returned in full, sparking a "Renaissance" concept that ended prematurely when one of the major participants, Magnum Tokyo, was injured. His full return to the ring occurred in July 2006, when he signed a wrestler's contract.

In 2007, Kanda captured the Open the Brave Gate Title from Genki Horiguchi on July 1, 2007, successfully defending it twice before losing it to Masato Yoshino on September 22.

On October 21, he was assigned to be the special referee in a match which had Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino & Gamma of the Muscle Outlaw'z against the three referees of Dragon Gate, one of them being the recent MO'z exile Kinta Tamaoka. Just as it seemed like Kinta had the match won, Kanda turned heel and helped the MO'z win the match. He was then announced as the newest member of the group.

In 2008, most of the active stables in Dragon Gate were going through rapid shifting. Kanda feuded with both BxB Hulk and his own stablemate Masato Yoshino. His 2008 started with several high profile wins, but this collapsed after Yoshino helped Hulk defeat him in a multiple man hair vs hair cage match, and when Hulk debuted his *Killer Hulk* persona, defeating him in their blow-off match in a squash. He rebounded a little, winning the Open The Triangle Gate Championship for the first time with YAMATO & Gamma on July 12, but they would lose them to Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Magnitude Kishiwada on September 28.

Shortly after losing the titles, he and Gamma began to quarrel. The quarreling escalated further when, during subsequent tag matches they had, Kanda misfired on protein powder attacks, blinding Gamma instead of their opponents and costing them the matches. He eventually said to Gamma that he would rather team with Cyber Kongcito than him. Eventually, at the request of YAMATO, a match was made for January 18, 2009 between him and Gamma, where the loser would be kicked out of Real Hazard. He lost the match. Afterwards, he looked to get beat down by Real Hazard, but Keni'chiro Arai came out to seemingly help him against them. However, Arai proceeded to assault Gamma, and he was joined by Kanda and the others, making Gamma the one ousted from the group.

On January 10, 2010, his stablemate Genki Horiguchi put out a blog where he stated that Real Hazard would win more matches via teamwork instead of illegal tactics and weapons play in 2010. During a tag match he had with Horiguchi that day, he tried to utilize a blue box to gain an advantage, but Horiguchi prevented him from doing so. Though they still won, Horiguchi's actions caused them to begin bickering. The bickering intensified the following day, when he made Horiguchi lose a tag team match by accidentally hitting him. Eventually, Real Hazard became divided over the "clean fighting" issue. Genki would be joined by Susumu Yokosuka (the former Susumu Mochizuki) & K-ness in his quest for clean fights, while Kanda was supported by Kzy and Takuya Sugawara in the pursuit of continuous use of illegal tactics to win matches. On February 10, Horiguchi, Yokosuka & K-ness left Real Hazard, and a couple of weeks later, he and the rest of Real Hazard renamed their stable Deep Drunkers. 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 unnamed stable with Kanda, Kzy, Naoki Tanizaki and Takuya Sugawara. On October 25 Kanda, Tanisaki and Sugawara 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. On January 14, 2011, Doi's unnamed unit aligned themselves with the WARRIORS stable, who turned heel in the process. On January 18 the new group was named Blood Warriors. On February 26, Kanda was kicked out of Blood Warriors and renamed Jimmy Kanda, forming the Jimmyz stable with Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, Jimmy Kagetora, Ryo "Jimmy" Saito and Jimmy Susumu. Kanda, H-A-Gee-Mee and Saito then went on to win the vacant Open the Triangle Gate Championship. The Jimmyz lost the Open the Triangle Gate Championship to World-1 International (Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi and PAC) on May 6. On November 23, 2014, Kanda defeated Ryo "Jimmy" Saito to win the Open The Owarai Gate Championship. On February 4, Kanda was lost the Open the Owarai Gate Championship to Yosuke♥Santa Maria via fan support.

On September 18, Jimmyz were forced to disband after losing to VerserK in a Ten-Man Elimination No Disqualification Loser Disbands match, though they still had a last tour together called the Farewell Jimmyz Gate. On October 5, Jimmyz would loose against VerserK in their last match, after Kanda turned on Jimmyz during the match and joining VerserK, thus turning heel and reverting back to his real name in the process. On November 19, Kanda dressed as Metal Warrior attacked his former Jimmyz stablemate Kagetora after defending the Open the Brave Gate Championship against K-ness, Metal Warrior attacked Kagetora using Susumu Yokosuka's finishing move, the *Yokosuka Cutter*, Ryo Saito's *Cycling Yahoo*, K-ness' *Darkness Buster,*Susumu's *Mugen*and Genki Horiguchi's *Backslide From Heaven,*in several different occasions,until December 5 revealing to be himself, and proceded challenging Kagetora for the Open the Brave Gate Champion and cutting Kagetora's hair. This led on December 23 at Final Gate, Kanda defeating Kagetora to win the Open The Brave Gare Championship. On January 13, 2018 Kanda along with the rest of the members of VerserK renamed the stable to ANTIAS. On March 3 at Champion Gate in Osaka, Kanda lost the title to Punch Tominaga. This led to a rematch on March 21 at Memorial Gate in Wakayama, which ended in a no contest. This led the title being vacated and they were announced to take part in a tournament to crown a new champion. During this time, there were tensions between ANTIAS stablemates Kanda, Takagi and Lindaman, 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 Kanda, Takagi, and Lindaman 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. Following the Dead or Alive, Kanda took part in the King of Gate, finishing with a record of one win and three losses, finishing at last in his block. This led to Kanda taking part in a tournament to decide the last-placed wrestler in the tournament. Kanda lost to Big R Shimizu to advance to the finals of the losers tournament. Kanda was placed last in the tournament after losing to Ryo Saito in the losers round finals. Later in September ANTIAS were renamed to R.E.D following their leader Shingo Takagi leaving the stable. On December 23 at Final Gate, Kanda along with Takashi Yoshida and Kazma Sakamoto defeated Kzy, Genki Horiguchi and Susumu Yokosuka to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. In May 2019, Kanda took part in the 2019 King of Gate finishing the tournament with a record of one win and four losses, failing to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. They lost the titles to Strong Machines (Strong Machine J, Strong Machine F, and Strong Machine G) on July 21, 2019, at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival.

In October, R.E.D started a feud with Kanda's mentor Último Dragón. This led to Kanda turning on R.E.D on October 8, after refusing to attack his mentor. In December, Kanda became part of his mentor's Toryumon stable, as part of a "Generation War" against Dragon Gate and R.E.D. On December 20, at Final Gate, Toryumon was forced to disband, after losing to R.E.D in No Disqualification Losing Unit Disbands match.

On June 3, 2022, Kanda formed the M3K stable with Masaaki Mochizuki, Mochizuki Junior and Susumu Mochizuki. In February 2023, Kanda and Susumu took part in the 2023 Rey de Parejas, finishing the tournament with a record of three wins, one loss, and one double countout, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On March 2, Kanda and Susumu defeated Gold Class (BxB Hulk and Kota Minoura) in the semifinals and then were defeated by Yuki Yoshioka and Madoka Kikuta, in the finals of the 2023 Rey de Parejas. Afterwards, in a post-match interview, Masaaki Mochizuki, who was impressed by Kanda and Susumu proposed a title challenge for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship, which led Susumu to nominate Masaaki's son Mochizuki Junior as their partner instead. Masaaki was initially reluctant, but ended accepting, following Susumu's persistence. Three days later, at Champion Gate in Osaka, Kanda, Susumu and Junior unsuccessfully challenged Gold Class (Ben-K, BxB Hulk and Kota Minoura) for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. On June 2, Kanda and Susumu defeated Pro Wrestling Noah's KONGOH (Kenoh and Shuji Kondo) to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship. They lost the titles to D'Courage (Dragon Dia and Yuki Yoshioka) on November 5 at Gate of Destiny.

On January 11, 2024, Masaaki Mochizuki announced that M3K would be disbanding with the stable's last match being on February 7.

## In wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ *Gekokujoh Elbow* (Diving elbow drop)
	+ *Ryu's* (Spinning lifting sitout double underhook facebuster)
	+ *Tornado de Acapulco* (Corkscrew rounding moonsault) - used rarely
* **Signature moves**
	+ *Candy Magic* (Small package)
	+ Exploder suplex
	+ Eye rake
	+ German suplex
	+ Inverted atomic drop
	+ *John Woo* (Running high-impact front dropkick, knocking the opponent into the turnbuckles) – adopted from SUWA
	+ Springboard forearm smash
	+ Suicide dive
	+ Tilt-a-whirl sidewalk slam
	+ Uranage
* **With Susumu Mochizuki/Yokosuka**
	+ *M2K Finishing Combination* (Rolling fireman's carry slam (Susumu) followed by *Gekokujoh Elbow* (Kanda))
* **Nicknames**
	+ "Black Box Gang"
	+ **"Candy"**
	+ "Gekokujoh"
	+ "John Candy"
* **Entrance songs**
	+ **"KICK START THE ELEPHANT"** by ACMA

**"KICK START THE ELEPHANT"** by ACMA

## Championships and accomplishments

* **Dragon Gate**
	+ Open The Brave Gate Championship (2 times)
	+ Open The Owarai Gate Championship (1 time)
	+ Open The Twin Gate Championship (1 time) – with Susumu Mochizuki
	+ Open The Triangle Gate Championship (9 times) – with YAMATO and Gamma (1), Takuya Sugawara and Kzy (1), Naoki Tanizaki and Takuya Sugawara (1), Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!! and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito (3), Jimmy Susumu and Mr. Kyu Kyu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin (1), Jimmy Susumu and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito (1) and Takashi Yoshida and Kazma Sakamoto (1)
	+ King of Gate Last place (2018)
* **Toryumon Japan**
	+ IWRG Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Susumu Mochizuki
	+ UWA World Trios Championship (1 time) – with Susumu Mochizuki and Masaaki Mochizuki
	+ Young Dragons Cup (1999)

## References

1. ↑ Six-way steel cage match, which also included BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, Masato Yoshino and YAMATO.