Golden Mask

**Golden Mask**, real name is unknown. is a professional wrestler currently working for CWL on the Nemesis brand.

## Early Career

Little is known about the early Career of Golden Mask, while in interviews he has confirmed that he began wrestling professionally in 2002, he has not been willing to disclose the name that he wrestled under and as such there is no title or match information predating his appearance in SPW in 2008

## Sentai Pro Wrestling (2008 - 2014)

Golden Mask first appeared in Sentai Pro Wrestling (SPW), a small Japanese promotion that heavily focused on the "Entertainment" side of Sports Entertainment.  He wrestled there for six years, from 2008 - 2014 and in that time, he grew from being an enhancement talent to a bone fide Junior Heavyweight in his own right.

While he won a number of the promotions' titles during his time there, he didn't do so without controversy as in 2011 he garnered criticism for a match he had with a border collie puppy.  A video of the match went viral, making international news and receiving polarising responses, including a number of death threats from PETA. Golden Mask later stated that he was asked to work with Jody the puppy due to the safe nature of his work and that he personally trained her before their match.  It was in SPW that Golden Mask first began a rivalry, friendship and eventually a tag team with another masked wrestler known as the Unbreakable Lover.  Together they formed a tag team known as Unbreakable☆Mask; they won the SPW tag team title on two separate occasions.

## Most of Japan Pro Wrestling (2014 - 2020)

Leaving SPW, Golden Mask went on to wrestle in Most of Japan Pro Wrestling (MJPW), where after a few years spent finding his footing, he eventually joined the National Rifle Club faction (nRc). The nRc were an homage to the popular attitude era group, the Blue World Order.  They became so popular in their own right that the group branched out beyond the confines of pro wrestling and began their own clothing line, started selling branded instant ramen and scented candles based on their personal musks.  The group even tried to trademark an "nRc 4 ever" hand gesture until they were sent a cease and desist notice by UK company Phones 4U due to the similarities to a gesture they used in their advertising.

Golden Mask was for a long time seen as a midcard performer, but when the leader of the group chose to leave MJPW for an American promotion, Golden Mask took the opportunity to seize the reigns and after spending a considerable amount of time in the gym, he progressed from the MJPW Junior Heavyweight to the MJPW Heavyweight class where he feuded with Okato the Pauper for the GWGP Heavyweight Title in a four match series throughout 2017 and 2018 culminating in Golden Mask winning the title and cementing his position as the leader of nRc.

His final match within the promotion was against Okato at MJPW's annual supershow, WrestleRealm on January 5th 2021. Highlights of the nearly hour long bout, along with Golden Mask's farewell speech went viral after Dave Meltzer awarded it 6 1/4 stars, calling it the best of the 5 matches that Golden Mask and Okato had wrestled. Meltzer's takeaway quote was that the match was "practically flawless, the only downside being that it's unlikely we'll see the two wrestle a rematch for many years, if ever."

## Pro Wrestling Primate (2008 - 2015)

During tours of the UK, Golden Mask wrestled extensively for the Welsh promotion Pro Wrestling Primate (PWP) where he took part in their annual Battle of Neath tournament in 2008, 2009 and 2014.  He won the tournament in 2009 and with it the previously vacated PWP World Heavyweight title.  He dropped the title the following year to local wrestler Richard Davies.

## Perros de Guerra Lucha Libre (2016 - 2020)

Golden Mask also wrestled occasionally in Mexican promotion Perros de Guerra Lucha Libre (PGLL) where he feuded primarily with Heptakaidecagon Jr.  This feud lasted for over 2 years and involved matches both in PGLL as well as MJPW, eventually culminating in a Mask Vs Mask match in which Golden Mask won, revealing Heptakaidecagon Jr to have been the school principal all along.
There were rumours that Golden Mask was going to take part in a new American promotion PGLL had partnered with, Lucha in a Warehouse, but while many of the PGLL roster took part in at least one season, Golden Mask chose to stay focused on Japan.

## CWL (2020 - present)

### Genesis

On December 20th 2020, Golden Mask was signed to the Genesis brand of CWL.  He made his debut the following January during Genesis 15 where he set out his immediate goal, a shot at the King of Genesis title. He also called out Dave Graves for a match on an upcoming episode of Genesis following interactions the two had over the previous few weeks.

Golden Mask was, to everyone's surprise, accompanied to the ring for this match by Nastico, and while fairly one sided, Graves managed to knock Golden Mask out using a combination Powderkeg Kick followed by a Big Iron Punch. Immediately after the bell rang, Kyro ran to the ring, he and Nastico beat Graves mercilessly before being escorted from the ring by security. Later that night, the three of them made it clear that the are now working together, and that between having control of booking via Nastico and two very talented wrestlers, they were putting the roster on notice. Shortly after, the three of them were filmed together booking a series of matches for upcoming Genesis shows and it was announced that they have taken the name "Backroom Dealings" for their faction. The following week, Kyro and Golden Mask were booked into a Handicap match against Miles but due to a mistake by Nastico, they were put into the wrong match and ended up facing Cristi and Shelton Parks; being unprepared for these particular opponents this ended in a loss for the duo, the second consecutive loss for Golden Mask since his arrival in CWL. Golden Mask followed this up with a match against Eli Evans but again he came up short, picking up his third consecutive loss.

Moving forward, Golden Mask teamed with Kyro to take on Evans and Graves in a tag match and after a long, drawn out brawl he picked up his first win. This was followed by a match against Asher Callaghan in an extreme rules match. It was a brutal fight that ended with a 24 Karat Slam onto a table for another win.

Kyro, having lost his King of Genesis title the previous week, joined Golden Mask in a Handicap match against Troy Winters, a match that they won decisively. It was following this that Troy offered Golden Mask his title shot, but only if he took on Brandon Gunn the following week, giving Kyro his rematch in the meantime.

Following an altercation with Eli Evans backstage, Golden Mask was able to incite an attack on himself during the match with Brandon Gunn, thus giving himself a win via disqualification. While frustrated at this turn of events, Troy agreed to give Golden Mask his title shot.

Due to CWL rules regarding the timings of title shots and Pay Per Views, Troy wasn't due to give another title shot until the Rivals event, however Backroom Dealings already had plans for Rivals...

In a warehouse, somewhere outside the city, Golden Mask attacked Nastico; officially kicking him out of Backroom Dealings. In the vignette where this was seen, he accepted a challenge from Eli Evans and Asher Callaghan to wrestle at Rivals to settle their arguments once and for all. The stipulation he set being a 2 out of 3 falls, Hell in a Cell match.

At Rivals, Backroom Dealings entered together with their custom gear on and waited in the ring. To their surprise Eli and Asher were joined by Dave Graves; the three entering the arena wearing shirts announcing themselves as the Soul of Genesis. The match went on for over 20 minutes with wrestlers from both sides scoring pins, but it was finally Kyro who scored a second securing the win for Backroom Dealings.

After the match, in a surprise turn of events, Eli Evans and Dave Graves joined Backroom Dealings in attacking Asher Callaghan before the 5 men embraced in the middle of the ring. Nothing more was heard from them until...

### Nemesis

Golden Mask appeared on Nemesis 4.33 opening the show. He announced to everyone in attendance and those watching at home, the Backroom Dealings had signed to Nemesis en masse. They had played everyone on Genesis, making them believe that the feud between them was real, when their real goal was to position themselves at the top of the card, securing the best paydays for everyone involved; he was interrupted by FJA during this promo. FJA had been at PGLL at the same time as Golden Mask and wanted to welcome him to Nemesis. Golden Mask didn't appreciate this however and called in the rest of Backroom Dealings to beat him down to close the segment.

## Notable Achievements

### Most of Japan Pro Wrestling

* GWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
* GWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Unbreakable Lover
* OCCASIONAL Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Max and Jeremy Gallinero
* GWGP Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
* Alt-F4 Climax (2016)
* GWGP United States Championship (1 time)
* GWGP Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

### Pro Wrestling Primate

* PWP World Heavyweight Title (1 time)
* Battle of Neath (2009)

### Sentai Pro Wrestling

* SPW Extreme Division Championship (1 time)
* SPW 6-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Daisuke Ihashi and Unbreakable Lover (1), and Gota Sasaki and Unbreakable Lover (1)
* SPW Openweight Championship (1 time)
* SPW Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Unbreakable Lover (2) and Kevin Takayama (1)
* King of Sentai (2012)

### Pro Wrestling Annotated "Top 500"

#1 Wrestler of the year (2017)

## In Wrestling

**Finishing Moves**

* 24 Karat Slam (Electric Chair Slam)
* The Golden Boot (Superkick to aerial opponent)

**Signature Moves**

* Shining Knee (Running Knee Strike, occasionally done via a Ripcord variant)
* Moss-Covered Three-Handled Family Gradunza (Hell's Gate)
* The Golden Brick (Running Leg Drop Bulldog)
* Snap Dragon Suplex
* Tope Con Hilo