Masato Onodera
Yamato in 2016.
|
|
| Born |
September 10, 1981 Ichinoseki, Iwate, Japan |
|---|---|
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) |
Yamato Yamato Onodera Masato Onodera |
| Billed height | 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| Billed weight | 82 kg (181 lb) |
| Trained by | Yasushi Kanda |
| Debut | July 29, 2006 |
Masato Onodera (小野寺 正人 Onodera Masato?, born September 10, 1981 in Ichinoseki, Iwate, Japan) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist, better known by his ring name Yamato (stylized in all capital letters), who works for Dragon Gate. He is currently in his fourth reign as Open the Dream Gate Champion.
The 5th graduate of the Dragon Gate dojo, Onodera had previous professional fighting experience competing under his real name in Pancrase and was recruited into Final M2K directly after his debut. Yasushi Kanda gave him his "Gekokujoh" character, and inherited a lot of the Gekokujoh-era moves that Kanda had used during his own career. He later chose to leave Final M2K so he could grow along his own path, which was one of the reasons for the M2K break-up.
He won the first Nex-1 tournament, which earned him the right to travel to the U.S. His stay was brief, at under three months. He returned in May, aligning with his generation peers Shingo Takagi, BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong in New Hazard, dropping the Gekokujoh lineage completely and renaming himself to Yamato.
He appeared in Ring Of Honor's All Star Extravaganza III and Super Card of Honor II. He defeated Pelle Primeau and was beaten by Claudio Castagnoli during a U.S. tour.
On April 17, 2008, Yamato betrayed New Hazard and sided with the Muscle Outlaw'z after he attacked his partner Naoki Tanisaki in a tag match against Gamma and Genki Horiguchi. However, the betrayal was a ruse, for on May 14, Takagi and Kong betrayed Hulk before the trio were scheduled to defend their Open the Triangle Gate Championship against Yamato, Gamma & Horiguchi. New Hazard was ended, and Takagi and Kong joined up with Yamato and company to form the new super-heel group Real Hazard. Then, he, Gamma, and Takagi won the newly-vacant Open the Triangle Gate titles in an impromptu match against Hulk, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino. Their title reign lasted until June 28, when they were defeated by Kenichiro Arai, Taku Iwasa and Shinobu. However, he would win them back from them on July 12, along with Yasushi Kanda and Gamma, and the trio would lose the titles to Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii and Magnitude Kishiwada on September 28. But, Yamato would not be without a championship for long, for a week later, he teamed with Cyber Kong to defeat Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino for the Open the Twin Gate Championship.
...
Wikipedia