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"DoiYoshi" redirects here. For the tag team composed by Naruki Doi and Takashi Yoshida, see DoiYoshi 2.0.

Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino, also referred as DoiYoshi (土井吉, Doi Yoshi), or Speed Muscle (スピード・マッスル, Supīdo Massuru) was a professional wrestling tag team that consisted of Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi. They are well known for their tenure in Dragon Gate (DG) for their success as a tag team, being highly touted as the one of greatest and most decorated tag teams in the promotion's history.

The team name consists of Doi and Yoshino's nicknames and names respectively, with the Speed Muscle coming from Doi Bosou Muscle and Yoshino Speed Star. They first began teaming together in 2006 as part of the Muscle Outlaw'z, were they became one of the most successful teams in Dragon Gate history, before splitting up in 2010, after Doi turned on Yoshino. They began a long-standing rivalry against each other, before reuniting in 2012, only for Doi to turn on Yoshino in the fall of 2013. After reuniting for a third time in 2016, the duo teamed up sporadically, before disbanding after Yoshino retired in August 2021.

They have held the Open The Twin Gate Championship on two occasions, being the inaugural champions, the I-J Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship once each and the Open The Triangle Gate Championship six-times. They are also the inaugural winners of the Summer Adventure Tag League, and the only team to win more than once, winning it on three occasions (2007, 2008 and 2010). Both Doi and Yoshino have also won singles championships, with each becoming multi-time world champions in their own right.

DoiYoshi also worked in many promotions across Japan and the United States, most notability in Ring of Honor (ROH), Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Chikara, Dragon Gate's sister promotions, Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), Dragon Gate UK (DGUK), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) and among many others.

History[]

Teaming and disbanding (2006-2010)[]

On April 12, 2006, when CIMA kicked Gamma out of the Blood Generation due to their constantly butting heads, Yoshino along with Naruki Doi and Naoki Tanisaki followed Gamma. Eleven days later, after Doi & Gamma won full rights to the Blood Generation name from CIMA & Don Fujii in a tag match, they refused the name and became the Muscle Outlaw'z.

Doi and Yoshino began teaming as Speed Muscle, and together they would win the I-J Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, as well as become the first Open The Twin Gate Champions and Summer Adventure Tag League Tournament winners.

On January 7, 2008, Yoshino and Doi made their debut in Hawaii for Action Zone Wrestling at Battleclash III, in a Four-Way Elimination Tag Team match for the AZW Tag Team Championships. Later that month in January Doi an Yoshino stop teaming with each other. Doi briefly teamed with Genki Horiguchi while Yoshino pursued CIMA and the Open The Dream Gate Championship. Yoshino put forward an impressive performance, and despite losing, was congratulated by both CIMA and Doi. Their team reconciled.

Doi and Yoshino's increasing popularity began to cause a split in the Muscle Outlaw'z, as Yoshino began to feud with stablemate Yasushi Kanda. Doi and Yoshino were leaning towards becoming faces again, thus causing tensions to start stirring in MO'z, and the tensions grew more and more as the weeks went on. Finally, on May 5, Doi and Yoshino turned on the other members of MO'z when they attacked stablemate Yasushi Kanda and cost him his hair in a Mascara contra Cabellera (Mask vs. Hair) Cage Survival Six-Way Match. The MO'z eventually split, with the heel faction of Kanda, Horiguchi, Gamma and YAMATO joining up with Shingo Takagi and Cyber Kong to form Real Hazard. Doi and Yoshino formed their own new stable, WORLD-1, that also included BxB Hulk, Naoki Tanizaki and m.c. KZ.

In August, Doi and Yoshino won the Summer Adventure Tag League Tournament for the second year in a row, and then a month later, on September 26, they captured the Open the Twin Gate Titles for a second time from Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka. Their second reign was very short, for they lost the titles nine days later to YAMATO and Cyber Kong. However, Doi would go on to become the ace of the promotion by year's end: He won the King of Gate Tournament on December 19, and then nine days later he defeated Shingo Takagi to become the Open the Dream Gate Champion.

On May 5, he made a notable defense of the title against the former sumo champion-turned-wrestler Akebono. Despite the huge size difference, he was able to defeat Akebono and retain the title, after hitting him with five consecutive Bakatare Sliding Kicks. On June 29, Yoshino wrestled Gamma for the Open the Brave Gate title (which Gamma had renamed to the "Open the Gamma Gate" title) under the mask of Dr. Muscle, defeating him and restoring the Brave Gate's faceplate to the belt. He then had it vacated, only winning it to see its restoration and for a proper decision match to take place.

On July 19, Doi got his biggest victory ever when he defeated Open the Brave Gate Champion CIMA in a Title vs. Title Match, claiming the Brave Gate for the second time and really cementing his status as the unquestioned ace of the promotion. He vacated the Brave Gate immediately afterwards. Yoshino rebounded a week later when he captured the Open the Brave Gate Title for the fourth time, beating Genki Horiguchi. He defended it twice before losing it to CIMA on March 22 in another great match between the two. On July 11, 2010, Yoshino defeated YAMATO to win the Open the Dream Gate Championship for the first time. On August 14, 2010, Yoshino defeated Tigers Mask to win the Open the Brave Gate Championship for the fifth time, but immediately afterwards vacated the title, due to also holding the Open the Dream Gate Championship.[1] On August 24 Doi and Masato Yoshino won their third Summer Adventure Tag League by defeating Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito in the finals.[2] On October 13, 2010, Doi, bitter about Yoshino winning the Open the Dream Gate Championship, turned on him and BxB Hulk and joined the former Deep Drunkers members to form a new heel stable.[3]

Return and disbanding (2012-2013)[]

After Doi was being kicked out of Blood Warriors by new leader Akira Tozawa, Doi reunited with Masato Yoshino to form World-1 International. On May 6, Doi, Yoshino and PAC won the Open the Triangle Gate Championship.[4] The titles were later vacated after PAC left Dragon Gate to sign with WWE. On November 17 Doi, Yoshino and their World-1 International stablemate Shachihoko BOY won the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. However, they would lose the belts six days later to Jimmyz (Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, Mr. Kyu Kyu Toyonaka Dolphin and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito). On May 5, 2013, Yoshino defeated Dragon Kid to win the Open the Brave Gate Championship for the sixth time. On August 1 Yoshino defeated Doi to successfully defend his Open the Brave Gate Championship. He vacated the title on August 30 after he, Chihiro Tominaga and Ryotsu Shimizu lost to the debuting Millennials (T-Hawk, Eita and U-T), saying he felt the title should be competed for within the new generation. On September 12 Doi again turned on Yoshino and jumped to Mad Blankey, signaling the end of World-1 International.[5]

Second Return and Yoshino's retirement (2017-2021)[]

On October 12, VerserK were able to defeat Monster Express in a 5 vs 4 Loser Revival Captains Fall match, forcing Monster Express to disband. After the match, T-Hawk would attack Doi, kicking him out of the VerserK and later Yoshino offered some support but at the time Doi refused.

After that Doi became a tweener, and once again began teaming with Yoshino. Meanwhile, Kotoka who defected from VerserK, tried to return by challenging El Lindaman to a Loser Leaves unit match but ended with Shingo Takagi smashing a chair to his face and the rest of VerserK also jumped on him from behind. Later Kotoka blamed T-Hawk and Lindaman for changing VerserK. He would then cost VerserK their matches and aligned with Doi who also was kicked out of VerserK and with Yoshino who also wanted revenge on VerserK for disbanding Monster Express. The three would then face VerserK members (Takagi, T-Hawk, and Lindaman) in a match but ended up losing to them. Then Yoshino would form an alliance with Kotoka and Ben-K. The trio took part in the New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament and even got to the finals but losing again to VerserK members (Takagi, T-Hawk, and Lindaman). After the match, VerserK attacked Kotoka, Yoshino, and Ben-K until Dr. Muscle who later revealed to be Doi made the save and the four made an alliance against VerserK. Later Yoshino and Kotoka were sidelined with an injury and Doi agreed to wait until Yoshino came back in which would start teasing the return of Speed Muscle. Later Doi and Ben-K would form an alliance with Big R Shimizu and three would win the vacant Open The Triangle Gate Championship by defeating VerserK members (Takagi, T-Hawk and "brother" YASSHI).

On April 7 Ben-K, Shimizu and Doi successfully defended the Open The Triangle Gate Champions against Jimmyz (Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, Jimmy Susumu and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito). After the match, Ben-K, Shimizu, Doi and the returning Masato Yoshino announced the formation of a new unit. On May 4 Kotoka would join in with the five unveiling that unit would be named MaxiMuM.

Later Yoshino, Kotoka, Ben-K and Shimizu had a match took place at Dead Or Alive event on May 5, where the team of Yoshino, Kotoka, Shimizu and Ben-K were defeated by the Jimmyz team of Susumu, Saito, Horiguchi & Jimmy K-ness J.K.S. After the match Jimmyz attacked them with Genki Horiguchi saying that Jimmyz will show them the difference between amateurs and professionals, after the attack Yoshino said that Jimmyz were MaxiMuM's first target, thus starting a feud. Later that night, Doi failed to capture the Open The Dream Gate Championship from YAMATO at the Dead or Alive Steel Cage match, due to the Jimmyz member Ryo "Jimmy" Saito who accidentally hit him with a cannon of confetti, which cost him the match and caused him to be eliminated. Later, Doi would compete in the King of Gate, reaching the finals, but he was defeated by the King of Gate winner T-Hawk. Later they challenged CK-1 for the Open the Twin Gate Champions at the Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival pay-per-view in which they lost.

On December 23 at Final Gate Doi, Yoshino and Jason Lee defeated Tribe Vanguard (YAMATO, BxB Hulk, and Kzy) to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. They lost the titles to Natural Vibes (Kzy, Genki Horiguchi, and Susumu Yokosuka) on May 6, 2018, at Dead or Alive. Following the Dead or Alive, Doi and Yoshino took part in the King of Gate, wrestling in separate blocks. Both Doi and Yoshino won their respective blocks, Doi with a clean record of four wins and zero losses, while Yoshino finished the tournament with a record of two wins, one loss, and one draw, advancing both to the semifinals of the tournament. On July 1, Doi lost to YAMATO in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Yoshino defeated Takashi Yoshida to advance to the finals of the tournament. On June 9, Yoshino defeated YAMATO in the finals to become the first wrestler to win the King of Gate for the second time. The following day, Yoshino defeated Masaaki Mochizuki to win the Open The Dream Gate Championship. On September 24, at Dangerous Gate, Yoshino defeated his partner Doi to retain the Open the Dream Gate Champion. On December 4, Yoshino lost the Open the Dream Gate Championship to PAC.

In the following December, Doi and Yoshino saved their Drágon from an attack by R.E.D, leading the Green and Red Masked Demons to be forced to a match, leading Doi, Yoshino, and Drágon to face Eita, Red and Green Masked Demons in a losing effort, after Ishida revealed himself to be the Green Masked Demon, blaming Doi and Yoshino for trying to get revenge on R.E.D for Drágon. On December 15 at Final Gate, Doi defeated Ben-K to win the Open The Dream Gate Championship for his second time. Three days later, Doi and Yoshino suspended the stable, after joining their mentor Último Drágon to form the Toryumon stable, as part of a "Generation War" against Dragon Gate and R.E.D. On December 26, it was announced that Yoshino would retire in 2020, due to the lingering effects of the neck injury he suffered in 2017.

On September 21, 2020, at Dangerous Gate, Yoshino took part in the six-way steel cage survival match. The match ended with Yoshino, and R.E.D's Big R Shimizu and Eita still in the steel cage. After Eita retreived the fourth flag, Yoshino defeated Shimizu, after he retrieved the last flag of the match, following the help from Ultimo Dragon. Afterwards, the members of Toryumon convinced Yoshino to postpone his retirement due to circuntances created by the COVID-19, leading him to accept. On November 15, during the 2020 Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Yoshino announced that he was going to retire at second night of 2021 Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival. 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 August 1, 2021 during the second night of Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Speed Muscle competed in their last match, as part of Yoshino's retirement match facing R.E.D's (Eita and BxB Hulk) in a losing effort, effectively disbanding Speed Muscle.

In wrestling[]

  • Double team finishing moves
    • Torbellino (Yoshino) followed by the Bakatare Sliding Kick (Doi)
    • Assisted Bakatare Sliding Kick (Doi)
  • Double team signature moves
    • Assisted double foot stomp to the opponent's arm (Yoshino)
    • Assisted missile dropkick into a senton to another opponent (Yoshino)
    • Assisted rope hung senton bomb (Doi)
    • Drop toe hold (Yoshino) / Sliding kick (Doi) combination
    • Flapjack (Doi) / One-handed bulldog (Yoshino) combination
    • Front missile dropkick (Yoshino) / Doi 555 (Doi) combination
    • Poetry in Motion corner elbow (Yoshino)
    • Powerbomb (Doi) / Sling Blade (Yoshino) combination[6]
  • Yoshino's Finishing moves
    • Lightning Spiral (Swinging leg hook fireman's carry slam, sometimes from the top rope)[7][6]
    • Sol Naciente (Straight jacket triangle choke)[7]
    • Sol Naciente Kai (Straight jacket triangle choke while trapping the opponent's legs)[7]
  • Doi's Finishing moves
    • Bakatare Sliding Kick (Running single leg dropkick to the face of a kneeling opponent)[8]
    • Muscular Bomb (Half nelson lifted and dropped into a wheelbarrow driver)[8]
  • Entrance themes
    • "Muscular Countdown -do what you want-" / "SPEED STAR" by ACMA ft.Tsutomu Toya and Yoko Kubota
    • "SPEED MUSCLE"by ACMA ft.Tsutomu Toya and Yoko Kubota
    • "ACID ALKALINE (Super Body Faction Version)" by ACMA (used while a part of Blood Generation)
    • "IDIOT OUTLAW" by ACMA (used while a part of Muscle Outlaw'z)
    • "ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL" by ACMA (used while a part of WORLD-1)
    • "THE WORLD IS ONE 〜ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL INTERNATIONAL MIX〜" by ACMA (used while a part of WORLD-1 International)
    • "1st FINGER" by 21g (using while a part of MaxiMuM)

Championships and Accomplishments[]

Lucha de Apuesta record[]

Wager Winner(s) Loser(s) Location Date Notes
Hair Susumu Yokosuka Masato Yoshino Fukuoka, Japan December 27, 2009 Six-way steel cage match, which also included BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, Mazada and K-ness.

External links[]

References[]

  1. Boutwell, Josh 2010-08-20. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2010-08-22. “Open the Brave Gate Title: Masato Yoshino def. Tigers Mask (c) to win the title! [...] Yoshino will now vacate the (Brave Gate) title”
  2. 2.0 2.1 Boutwell, Josh 2010-08-30. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2010-08-30.
  3. Boutwell, Josh 2010-10-15. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . WrestleView. Retrieved on 2010-10-16.
  4. 5/6 Dead or Alive 2012 - 05 May 2012 . iHeartDG (2012-05-06). Retrieved on 2012-05-06.
  5. ????????????Yamato??????????????????!???????????????????????! (in Japanese). Battle News (2013-09-13). Retrieved on 2013-09-13.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named PuroCentral
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Dragon Gate USA profile . Dragon Gate USA. Retrieved on 2009-12-31.
  8. 8.0 8.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Cage
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Cagematch title history . Cagematch. Retrieved on 2009-12-31.