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Blood Warriors or BW for short, was a unit in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate, formed on January 14, 2011. It was formed on January 14, 2011 by the remaining members of WARRIORS and Team Doi. On January 19, 2012, Tozawa and Hulk turned on Blood Warriors leader CIMA, causing him to lose a ten-man "Loser Leaves Unit" tag team match; as a result, CIMA was kicked out of Blood Warriors. On March 1, Tozawa renamed the stable to MAD BLANKEY.
History
Formation
On October 13, 2010, 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 Yoshino and joined the former Deep Drunkers to form a new heel stable.[1] On October 25 Sugawara, Tanizaki and Kanda defeated CIMA, Gamma and Genki Horiguchi to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship.[2] On November 13, Gamma betrayed WARRIORS by revealing his partner as Naruki Doi for his upcoming Open The Twin Gate Championship match at Gate of Destiny, joining Doi's unnamed unit. On November 23, 2010, Gamma and Doi defeated K-ness and Susumu Yokosuka to win the Open the Twin Gate Championship.[3] On December 26 Sugawara, Tanizaki and Kanda lost the Open The Triangle Gate Champions to WARRIORS (CIMA, Dragon Kid and Ricochet). After that Sugawara left the stable. Also Kzy was was sidelined with a leg injury. On January 10, 2011 Gamma and Doi lost the Open The Twin Gate Champions to Veteran-Gun (Don Fujii and Masaaki Mochizuki).
On January 14 CIMA and WARRIORS turned heel, revealing themselves as Metal Warriors who had been interfering in matches, and attacking Masato Yoshino and the WORLD-1 unit, before joining forces with Naruki Doi's unit. On January 18 the new group was named Blood Warriors, a combination of the names of CIMA's two previous stables, Blood Generation and WARRIORS. On February 10 CIMA, Naruki Doi and Gamma defeated World–1 representatives Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk and Susumu Yokosuka in a six-man tag team match and as a result, PAC was forced to leave WORLD–1 and join Blood Warriors. However, Ricochet blocked the move as he felt that he, not PAC, was the top high flyer in the world and instead challenged him to a match for his Open The Brave Gate Championship.[4] The title match between PAC and Ricochet took place on March 1 and ended with PAC retaining his title.[5]
Championship Sucess
On February 6, 2011, Horiguchi and his Blood WARRIORS stablemate Ryo Saito defeated Don Fujii and Masaaki Mochizuki to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship. Two days later after the disbanding of KAMIKAZE Cyber Kong joined the stable. On April 3 at Dragon Gate USA at the Open The Ultimate Gate Austin Aries turned on Chuck Taylor, Johnny Gargano and Rich Swann the trio known collectively as Ronin and joined the stable claiming to have found his purpose under the leadership of CIMA.[6] On May 15, the rest of Blood Warriors turned on Dragon Kid and kicked him out of the group, despite the fact that he still held the Open The Triangle Gate Championship with CIMA and Ricochet, and replaced him with Tomahawk T.T. As a result, the titles were declared vacant. On May 27, it was announced that one of the members of Blood WARRIORS would be expelled from the stable initallý CIMA was the one who was attacked but Metal Warrior attacked Gamma and the rest of Blood Warriors turned on him and gave his spot in the group to Kzy that was the Metal Warrior. On June 5 at Enter The Dragon Blood Warriors and Ronin faced each other in a six-man elimination tag team match which Ronin won after Johnny Gargano managed to submit both CIMA and Aries.[7] On June 8, before BxB Hulk was scheduled to team with Shingo Tagaki, Naoki Tanizaki came out dressed as Black Hulk. With Takagi distracted with Tanizaki, Hulk hit Takagi with a chair, turning heel and joining Blood Warriors also Akira Tozawa made his return to Dragon Gate, joining Blood Warriors.[8] One Day later Aries left Dragon Gate USA and the unit. On June 19 Horiguchi and Saito would lose the twin gate titles to rival group Junction Three representatives, Dragon Kid and PAC. On July 17, CIMA and Ricochet defeated Dragon Kid and PAC of rival group Junction Three to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship.[9] On July 17 Hulk received his shot at the Open The Dream Gate Championship but was defeated by Masaaki Mochizuki.[10] On September 2, Kzy, Naoki Tanizaki and Naruki Doi defeated Gamma, Masato Yoshino and YAMATO to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. On September 11 at the Dragon Gate USA's Way of the Ronin 2011, CIMA and Ricochet defeated Masato Yoshino and PAC in a title vs. title match to win Open The United Gate Championship.[11] On November 4, 2011, Blood Warriors faced Junction Three in a ten-man tag team match with the stipulation that the loser of the fall had to leave his unit. In the end, YAMATO managed to win the match for Junction Three by submitting Kong with a sleeper hold, who was then kicked out of Blood Warriors.[12] On November 19, Ricochet defeated PAC for the Open The Brave Gate Championship.[13] On November 30 Uhaa Nation joined the stable and later that night CIMA and Ricochet after their third successful defense vacated the twin gate titles in order for Ricochet to concentrate on defending the Open The Brave Gate Championship and CIMA to concentrate on chasing the Open The Dream Gate Championship.[14] On December 1, Tozawa and BxB Hulk defeated KAGETORA and Susumu Yokosuka to win the vacant Open The Twin Gate Championship, Tozawa's first title in Dragon Gate, and as a result were Susumu and KAGETORA were forced to change their ring names to Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy KAGETORA. On December 25 at Final Gate 2011, CIMA defeated Masaaki Mochizuki to win the Open The Dream Gate Championship for the third time.[15]
Disbanding
On January 19, 2012, BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa with the help of Cyber Kong turned on CIMA, causing him to lose a ten-man "Loser Leaves Unit" tag team match; as a result, CIMA was kicked out of Blood Warriors and Cyber Kong rejoined the stable.[16] On February 9, Saito and Horiguchi were kicked out of stable. Later that night Tozawa-led Blood Warriors won their feud with Junction Three by defeating them in a fourteen-man elimination tag team match, forcing their rival group to disband.[17] On February 26 Kanda was kicked out of the stable. On March 1, Tozawa renamed the stable to MAD BLANKEY.[18]
Championships and accomplishments
- Dragon Gate
- Open The Dream Gate Championship (1 time) – CIMA
- Open The Triangle Gate Championship (3 times) – Sugawara, Kanda and Tanizaki (1) and CIMA, Ricochet and Dragon Kid (1) and Kzy, Tanizaki and Doi (1)
- Open The Brave Gate Championship (1 time) - Ricochet
- Blood Warriors Authorized Open The Brave Gate Championship (1 time)1 - Tanizaki
- Open The Twin Gate Championship (4 times) – Doi and Gamma (1), Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito (1), CIMA and Ricochet (1) and Tozawa and BxB Hulk (1)
- Dragon Gate USA
- Open The United Gate Championship (1 time) – CIMA and Ricochet
Notes
1Championship not recognized by Dragon Gate.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Boutwell, Josh 2010-10-15. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2010-10-16.
- ↑ Boutwell, Josh 2010-10-29. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2010-10-31.
- ↑ Boutwell, Josh 2010-11-26. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2010-11-26.
- ↑ Boutwell, Josh 2011-02-18. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2011-03-02.
- ↑ Boutwell, Josh 2011-03-04. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2011-03-05.
- ↑ Tylwalk, Nick 2011-04-05. Austin Aries pulls a swerve at Dragon Gate USA's Open the Ultimate Gate 2011 . Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved on 2011-04-06.
- ↑ Devries, Eric 2011-06-03. 6/5 DGUSA in New York City: Live perspective on Internet PPV event with technical issues - DGUSA Title match, six-man tag, Fray! . Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved on 2011-06-09.
- ↑ 6/8 Gate of Maximum Kickoff - 08 Jun 2011 . iHeartDG (2011-06-08). Retrieved on 2011-06-08.
- ↑ 7/17 Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling Festival in Kobe 2011 - 17 Jul 2011 . iHeartDG (2011-07-17). Retrieved on 2011-07-17.
- ↑ 7/17 Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling Festival in Kobe 2011 - 17 Jul 2011 . iHeartDG (2011-07-17). Retrieved on 2011-07-17.
- ↑ Radican, Sean 2011-09-11. Radican's DGUSA Internet PPV report 9/11: Ongoing coverage of DGUSA show from Milwaukee . Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved on 2011-09-11.
- ↑ 11/4 CROWN GATE - 04 Nov 2011 . iHeartDG (2011-11-04). Retrieved on 2011-11-04.
- ↑ 11/19 Crown Gate - 19 Nov 2011 . iHeartDG (2011-11-19). Retrieved on 2011-11-19.
- ↑ 11/30 Blood Warriors Independent Performance - 1st Blood. - 30 Nov 2011 . iHeartDG (2011-11-30). Retrieved on 2011-11-30.
- ↑ Final Gate 2011 - 24 Dec 2011 . iHeartDG (2011-12-25). Retrieved on 2011-12-26.
- ↑ 1/19 Primal Gate - 19 Jan 2012 . iHeartDG (2012-01-19). Retrieved on 2012-01-19.
- ↑ 2/9 Truth Gate, Blood Warriors vs. Junction Three Finale - 09 Feb 2012 . iHeartDG (2012-02-09). Retrieved on 2012-02-10.
- ↑ 3/1 Truth Gate Finale - 01 Mar 2012 . iHeartDG (2012-03-01). Retrieved on 2012-03-04.