Dragon Dia (ドラゴン・ダイヤ Doragon Daiya) is a Japanese professional wrestler, trained and currently working for Dragon Gate (DG), where he is a former two-time Open The Brave Gate Champion, a former three-time Open The Twin Gate Champion, a former two-time Open The Triangle Gate Champion and the winner of the 2024 King of Gate.
Dia was trained by the Dragon Gate Dojo and made his debut in November 2018, becoming Dragon Kid's protégé. He achieved his breakthrough upon joining the Dragon Gate Generation stable, winning the Open The Triangle Gate Championship in February 2020. In December, he was one of the founding members of the Masquerade stable. The following year, Dia had a year-long feud with Dia Inferno, which culminated on losing his own mask to Inferno and Diamante in a Lucha de Apuestas match. He returned in Janaury 2022, winning the Open The Brave Gate and Twin Gate Championships. He eventually won Dragon Gate's premier tournament the King of Gate in December 2024.
Professional Wrestling Career[]
Dragon Gate (2018–Present)[]
Early Career (2018-2019)[]
On October 2, 2018, Dragon Kid introduced a newly masked trainee Dragon Dia, announcing that his debut would be against R.E.D (Eita and Yasushi Kanda). On November 6, Dia and Kid were defeated by Eita and Kanda, with Dia being pinned by Kanda. Afterwards, Dia began losing most of his matches to other, more experienced wrestlers, which would help put him over other wrestlers while at the same time give him some in-ring, televised, experience as is customary for most professional wrestlers. In January 2019, Dia took part in the Rookie Ranking Tournament, losing to Shun Skywalker in the first round on January 12. Dia ended up finishing in seventh place, after being unable to take part of the match to determine the fifth place, due to being sidelined with influenza.
Breakthrough (2020)[]
On December 18, Dia achieved an important victory, after teaming with his mentor Dragon Kid in a winning effort against Natural Vibes ("brother" YASSHI and Susumu Yokosuka), after Dia pinned Yokosuka. Afterwards, Dia became part of the Dragon Gate stable in order to unite all Dragon Gate generation of wrestlers against Toryumon and R.E.D in a "Generation War". Dia started being pushed up the card, beginning winning more consistently against veterans and more established wrestlers such as Big R Shimizu, Genki Horiguchi and Kagetora. In January 2020, Dia and his Dragon Gate stablemate Kzy took part in a tournament to crown the new Open The Twin Gate Champions, losing to eventual winners R.E.D duo of BxB Hulk and Kazma Sakamoto in the semifinals of the tournament on January 15. On February 29 on the first night of the Champion Gate in Osaka, Dia, Ben-K and Strong Machine J defeated Toryumon's Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito and Kenichiro Arai to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. From May 17 until May 30, Dia took part in the 2020 King of Gate, losing in the quarterfinals to the eventual winner Eita, eliminating him from the tournament. On September 21, at Dangerous Gate, Dia, Ben-K and Machine lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to R.E.D's Diamante, Kazma Sakamoto and Takashi Yoshida.
Masquerade and D'Courage (2020-Present)[]
Meanwhile over the past months, Dragon Dia had been in angle with R.E.D where Dia entered in a losing streak in every match with R.E.D. On October 4, Eita teased a "secret weapon". On October 4, during the final angle of a match between Dia and Takashi Yoshida, Eita's secret weapon was revealed, with a mysterious wrestler under the name of "Dia Inferno", before ripping Dia's mask, interrupting a match between him and Takashi Yoshida, with Eita citing (on Inferno's behalf) his ambition to end Dia. On November 15, at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Dragon Gate's biggest show of the year, Dia faced Inferno in a winning effort, after Inferno removed his mask causing the referee to award Dia the win. This outcome of the match led Dragon Gate to announce that Dia would face Inferno in a Lucha de Apuestas ("Bet Match"), Mask vs. Mask match at Final Gate, however the match was changed before the event, continuing the feud. On December 2, Dia alongside Jason Lee and Kota Minoura left Dragon Gate Generation to form their own stable with Shun Skywalker, which would be joined by a mysterious member on December 15. On December 15, it was announced that the stable would be named Masquerade, with the new member being revealed to be La Estrella. On May 5 at Dead or Alive, Dia, Estrella, and Lee defeated Natural Vibes (Genki Horiguchi, Kzy and Susumu Yokosuka) to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. They lost the titles to R.E.D (Eita, H.Y.O and Kaito Ishida) on September 20, 2021 at Dangerous Gate.
In October, as part of the feud between Masquerade and R.E.D, Dia reignited his feud with Dia Inferno. On November 5, Dia faced Dia Inferno in a no contest, leading General Manager Ryo Saito to announce a Mask vs. Mask tag team match, with Dia teaming Masquerade stablemate Shun Skywalker and Dia Inferno with R.E.D stablemate Diamante on December 1, with the loser of the fall having to unmask. At the event, Diamante and Inferno won the Lucha de Apuestas match, with Dia being pinned by Diamante after Skywalker pushed Dia into Diamante, and as a result, Dia was forced to unmask. On January 12, 2022, Dia made his return to Dragon Gate, repackaged with a skater gimmick, before defeating SB KENTo to win the Open The Brave Gate Championship in 90 seconds. Afterwards, Dia and Yuki Yoshioka, who was revealed to be Dia Inferno, challenged KENTo and H.Y.O to a title match for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. The following day, Dia and Yoshioka defeated KENTo and H.Y.O to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship, thus becoming a double champion in the process. On February 4, Dia proprosed a fan vote to decide the name for his team with Yoshioka. Following the result of the fan vote, on March 3, their team was named "D'Courage", a combination of the D from Dia and the Japanese word for courage "yūki", of which an alternate spelling is Yoshioka's first name. On May 5, at Dead or Alive, Dia and Yoshioka lost the Open The Twin Gate Championship to Z-Brats (Diamante and Shun Skywalker). Later that month, Dia took part in the 2022 King of Gate, being eliminated in the first round after facing H.Y.O in a double count out. On July 30 at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Dia lost the Open The Brave Gate Championship to H.Y.O, ending his reign at 199 days. On September 19 at Dangerous Gate, Dia and Madoka Kikuta defeated Jason Lee and Jacky "Funky" Kamei to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship. They lost the titles to BxB Hulk and KAI on December 2.
In February 2023, Dia and Dragon Kid took part in the 2023 Rey de Parejas, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins and three losses, failing to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. On April 5, Jason Lee nominated Dia to be his challenger for the Open The Brave Gate Championship. Three days later, Dia defeated Minorita, Jacky "Funky" Kamei and Mochizuki Junior in a four-way match to become the number one contender to the Open The Brave Gate Championship. On May 5 at Dead or Alive, Dia unsuccessfully challenged Lee for the Open The Brave Gate Championship. On October 14, Dia and Yuki Yoshioka challenged M3K's (Susumu Mochizuki and Yasushi Kanda) to a title match for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. On November 5 at Gate of Destiny, Dia and Yoshioka defeated Mochizuki and Kanda to become the new champions. They relinquished the titles on December 20, after Yoshioka was sidelined with a detached retina.
From March 6 to April 7, Dia and Kikuta took part in the 2024 Rey de Parejas, finishing the tournament with a record of one win, two draws and one loss, failing to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. In May, Dia entered New Japan Pro Wrestling's month-long 2024 Best of the Super Juniors, becoming the third Dragon Gate wrestler, after PAC and Ricochet to take part in the tournament. The tournament itself proved to be a major failure for Dia, losing seven consecutive league matches, before defeating KUSHIDA on the final day, failing to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. On June 5, Dia was challenged by Hyo to a match for the Open The Brave Gate Championship, with Hyo stating that he was jealous of Dia for taking part in the 2024 Best of the Super Juniors. Meanwhile, Dia who was watching him from the balcony, sought avenge his loss to him at 2022 Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, where their match was also contested for the Open The Brave Gate Championship. On July 21 at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Dia defeated Hyo to win the Open The Brave Gate Championship for the second time. From October 24 to November 2, Dia and NJPW's Ryusuke Taguchi took part in NJPW's 2024 Super Jr. Tag League, finishing the tournament with a record two wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals. From November 7 until December 3, Dia took part in the 2024 King of Gate, finishing the tournament with a record of four wins and one loss, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On December 3, Dia defeated Masaaki Mochizuki and then Kota Minoura, in the semifinals and finals, respectively, to win the 2024 King of Gate. Following the match, Dia who had challenged YAMATO to a title match for the Open The Dream Gate Championship, was challenged by YAMATO to a title match for his the Open The Brave Gate Championship. He lost the Open The Brave Gate Championship and failed to win the Open The Dream Gate Championship, after losing to YAMATO in a Winner Takes All match for both titles on December 15 at Final Gate.
From March 6 to April 7, Dia and Madoka Kikuta took part in the 2025 Rey de Parejas, finishing the tournament with a record of one win, two draws and one loss, failing to advance to the semifinals. During the tournament, Shun Skywalker brought in the mysterious Dia Inferno, which caused suspicion within the D'Courage. After multiple false hits, Dia and Kikuta started fighting with each other, bringing the D'Courage to the brink of collapse. On March 30, Skywalker was confronted by Dragon Dia and Ryoya Tanaka as they were watched over by a disgruntled Kikuta, who were in a midst of a faction infighting due to the identity of the new Dia Inferno throughout March. On April 7, D'Courage were defeated by Z-Brats, after Inferno dodged a box attack and hit Dia. Afterwards, Kikuta began blaming Yoshioka for their failure in the Rey de Parejas. Despite Dragon Dia's efforts to calm him down, even claiming that "Dia Inferno" was Skywalker manipulating them, Kikuta was not convinced, claiming he did not trust Dia. Kikuta would accuse Dia of excluding him in the past, claiming that he had no right to talk about bonds and friendships. In a twist, Skywalker invited Kikuta to join Z-Brats, but Minoura fiercely opposed. This led to Dragon Gate General Manager Ryo Saito to schedule a mask vs. hair steel cage match for the event. At the match, Dia, despite suffering an arm injury during a fall from the cage, was assisted by Yoshioka and Kikuta in climbing up and became the second man to escape the match. However, later in the match, Kikuta turned on Yoshioka to join Z-Brats, causing him to lose the match and have his hair shaved.
In wrestling[]
- Finishing moves
- Double Cork/Reptilian Kai (Flipover transitioned into a crucifix driver) - 2022-present
- Firebird Splash (450° splash) - 2021-present
- Reptilian (Flipover sunset flip powerbomb)
- Reptilian Rana (Flipover frankensteiner)
- Treatrana (Hurricanrana into a victory roll)
- DDDDT (Diving DDT)- 2024-present (initially signature, now finishing)
- Signature moves
- Ashoka Pillar (Springboard corkscrew tilt-a-whirl headscissors)
- Crucifix driver
- Dropkick, sometimes to a kneeling opponent
- End Over (Fisherman's Lift with the opponent's free leg wrapped around the neck transition into a sit-out side powerslam)
- Enzuigiri
- From Jungle (Spinning headscissors takedown twisted into an octopus stretch) – adopted from Masato Yoshino
- Flying Front Cradle
- Missile dropkick
- Reverse rocking horse - 2022-present
- Running shooting star press
- Somersault seated senton
- Spinning hurricanrana
- Stunner, as a counter to a vertical suplex
- Super headscissors takedown – adopted from K-ness.
- Tiger feint kick to the head of an opponent draped over the second rope
- Tilt-a-whirl DDT
- Wheelbarrow bodyscissors transitioned into an arm drag
- Wheelbarrow victory roll
- Nicknames
- "∞ Carat Diamond"
- Entrance themes
- "Dragon Storm 2019" (Instrumental Version)" by ZIGGY
- "∞ Carat Diamond" by Syoko Koshino
Championships and Accomplishments[]
- Dragon Gate
- Open The Brave Gate Championship (2 times)
- Open The Twin Gate Championship (3 times) – with Yuki Yoshioka (2) and Madoka Kikuta (1)
- Open The Triangle Gate Championship (2 times) – with Ben-K and Strong Machine J (1) and Jason Lee and La Estrella (1)
- Ashiyanikki Cup 6 Man Tag Team Tournament (2020) – with Ben-K and Strong Machine J
- King of Gate (2024)
- Rookie Ranking Tournament: Seventh place
Luchas de Apuestas record[]
Winner (wager) | Loser (wager) | Location | Event | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Diamante (mask) | Dragon Dia (mask) | Tokyo, Japan | Fantastic Gate - Day 1 | December 1, 2021 | [1] |
1 ^ This was a Lucha de Apuestas Mask vs. Mask tag team match also involving Shun Skywalker and Dia Inferno.