Gold Class

Gold Class (ゴールドクラス Gōrudokurasu) is a professional wrestling group, primarily appearing in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate (DG). The group was formed in March 2022, by Kaito Ishida, Kota Minoura, Minorita and Naruki Doi, with the aim of reclaiming Dragon Gate's female fan demographic.

Since its inception, the original gimmick for the stable was based on a good looking from, in order to reclaim Dragon Gate's female fan demographic. However, following the departures of Doi and Ishida, and the addition of Ben-K, the unit's gimmick began to change into a more romantic style, with each and every member caring a golden rose, with the exception of Minorita, who carries a bouquet of golden roses, with Minoura being centered as a prince and Minorita as a little prince.

Since the summer of 2022, the unit began shifting into a more tweener stable with its members often using dirty tactics during matches. In the summer of 2024, with Ben-K winning Dragon Gate's top title the Open The Dream Gate Championship, he began positioning himself as the stable's newest leader, taking over Minoura's position. Following a feud with Z-Brats over the possession of Minorita, Minoura turned on the stable to join Z-Brats, solidifying Ben-K's leadership.

History[]

Formation (2022)[]

In January 2022, during the rivalry between Shun Skywalker and Kota Minoura, Naruki Doi and Takashi Yoshida, began persuading Minoura to form a stable, with Minoura being foccused as the centerpiece of the later, but he misunderstood Doi's request and instead continued to carry Masquerade. On February 4, following a three-way tag team match, Minoura, who found strange Doi not intiving him as usual to form a new team, decided to leave Masquerade and form a new stable with Doi, with the aim of reclaiming Dragon Gate's female fan demographic. To further fulfill Doi's vision, he decided to disband his team with Yoshida and any other affiliation with him, as he was not suitable to them due to being a "heavy macho" and instead replaced him with the incoming Kaito Ishida, who had recently been kicked out of R.E.D.

On March 3, the stable was named "Gold Class", with the addition of gift from Doi to Minoura in the form of a new member Minorita - a repackage of rookie Takumi Hayakawa, meant to be a smaller and lighter version of Minoura, Doi suggested "Minourita," imitating the Mexican naming system, while using "Little Minoura", "Mini Minoura" and "Minoura Junior" as examples. The "u" was dropped because it was difficult to pronounce, and the name was finally settled on "Minorita". Doi then appealed at the audience with his "trio of four bases" concept, adding that despite Minorita being a member, to not count him as a "man", stating that even if there was a six-man tag team match, they would go with four members, despite being in disadvantage with him. Minorita greeted Minoura by mimicking his movements "pretending to not understand the situation", with Minoura accepting the gift.

Minoura's Leadership (2022–2024)[]

On February 20, the recently formed Gold Class, challenged Natural Vibes (Kzy, U-T and Jacky "Funky" Kamei) to a title match, which they accepted. Afterwards, Natural Vibes questioned the timing of their challenge, leading to reveal that they did not want to enter in the tournament for the vacant Open The Triangle Gate Champions. On March 5 at Champion Gate in Osaka, Doi, Ishida and Minoura defeated Natural Vibes (Kzy, U-T and Jacky "Funky" Kamei) to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. Despite, Doi, Ishida and Minoura having won the titles, Minorita is also recognized as champion in title reign under the Freebird Rule. On April 7, Doi, Ishida and Minoura complanied about not having any team to challenge them, suddently a trio Metal Warriors appeared, kidnapping Minorita. Minorita, who had been assaulted backstage, appealed for revenge, leading to a match between Minorita and one of the three Metal Warriors. On April 25, one of the three Metal Warriors faced Minorita in a winning effort. Afterwards, the trio was revealed to be Los Perros del Mal de Japón's Eita, Nosawa Rongai and Kotaro Suzuki, who challenged Doi, Ishida and Minoura to a title match. They lost the titles to Eita, Rongai and Suzuki on May 5 at Dead or Alive. Later that month, all members of Gold Class took part in the 2022 King of Gate. All of them failed to win the tournament with Minoura being defeated in the final by Yuki Yoshioka on June 2.

On July 24, Dragon Gate announced that Ishida had requested to leave the promotion. The following day, despite attempting to convince him to stay, Dragon Gate confirmed that Ishida would leaving Dragon Gate effective immediately, leaving Gold Class with only three members. In August, Doi was sidelined with an injury and following Ishida's departure, Gold Class began trying to expand the stable in order to fill Doi and Ishida's gap, as such, Gold Class began tempting YAMATO to join them. However on September 9, during a match, between Gold Class and High-End, Ben-K chased Minorita to the backstage, before returning in a Gold Class themed ring attire, turning on YAMATO and revealing himself to be Gold Class' newest member. On September 23, Doi has altered his contract status from full time to freelancer, and as a result, he announced his departure from the stable. On December 25 at Final Gate, Minorita defeated H.Y.O to win the Open The Brave Gate Championship.

On January 11, 2023, Z-Brats forced High-End to disband, BxB Hulk turned on Z-Brats and became the newest member of Gold Class. The next day, following a six-man tag team match, Hulk challenged Z-Brats to a title match for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. On January 22, Ben-K, Hulk and Minoura defeated KAI, Shun Skywalker and ISHIN to become the new Open The Triangle Gate Champions. In February, Gold Class was represented by two teams in separate blocks in the 2023 Rey De Parejas; Hulk and Minoura in block A and Ben-K and Minorita in block B. Ben-K and Minorita finished last in their block. Meanwhile, Hulk and Minoura finished the tournament with a record of three wins, one draw and one loss, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On March 2, Hulk and Minoura were defeated by M3K (Susumu Mochizuki and Yasushi Kanda) in the semifinals. Two days later, at Champion Gate in Osaka, Minorita lost the Open The Brave Gate Championship to Jason Lee. On May 20, Ben-K, Hulk and Minoura lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to Natural Vibes (Big Boss Shimizu, Jacky "Funky" Kamei and Kzy). On June 4, Minoura and Minorita challenged Natural Vibes to a match for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship with their partner being Naruki Doi, who made his return to the stable. On July 2, at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Minoura, Minorita and Doi defeated Natural Vibes to become the new champions. Later that month, all members of Gold Class took part in the 2023 King of Gate. All failed to reach the finals of the tournament, except Minoura who eventually won the tournament, defeating Big Boss Shimizu in the finals on August 3, and afterwards earn a title match for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. On August 20 at Dangerous Gate, Minoura unsuccessfully challenged Madoka Kikuta for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. Seven days later, Minoura, Minorita and Doi were forced to vacate the Open The Triangle Gate Championship, after Minorita was diagnosed with a ruptured ACL in his right knee.

In March 2024, Minoura and Ben-K took part in the 2024 Rey de Parejas, finishing the tournament with a terrible record only managing one draw and losing all of their matches, failing to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.

Ben-K's Leadership (2024–Present)[]

On June 4, Ben-K defeated Luís Mante to win the Open The Dream Gate Championship. Soon after, due to Minoura's personal struggles regarding his personal losing and with Ben-K winning Dragon Gate's top title, he began positioning himself as the leader of the stable with Minoura phasing out to a back seat role. On July 5, Mochizuki Junior faced his father Masaaki Mochizuki in a draw, with both of them being knocked out. Afterwards, Junior was carried over by Ben-K to the backstage with him. Two days later, Junior was accepted as the newest member of Gold Class, becoming the stable's fifth member. On July 21 at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Ben-K lost the Open The Dream Gate Championship to YAMATO.

On August 1, Minorita was defeated by Minoura. Afterwards, Shun Skywalker placed a mask on him and Minorita appeared to be brainwashed as "Mini Skywalker", leading Minoura to save him and remove the mask. However, as Gold Class was leaving Z-Brats kidnapped Minorita. Later that night, Minoura demanded Skywalker to return him, but Skywalker insisted that Minorita was his property, leading Minoura to challenge him to a match at Dangerous Gate. At the event, on August 12, Gold Class faced Z-Brats in a match to decide who would get Minorita. Despite Minorita being placed the Mini Skywalker mask, he managed to take it off and attacked Z-Brats, leading Minoura to secure the win for Gold Class. However, after the match, Minoura turned on Minorita claiming that he had become too independent and had abandoned his role as mascot, before joining Z-Brats and attacking Gold Class. As a result, Minorita renamed himself to "Riiita", due to Minoura's betrayal. On September 5, Gold Class and Big Hug offered rookie Homare Kato an invitation to join their groups, with Kato chosing to join Z-Brats. Later that night, Riiita was attacked by Gianni Valletta, this led to a escalation in their feud with Z-Brats, leading Gold Class to be challenged by Minoura to a loser leave unit expulsion match between them and Z-Brats. At the match, on October 4, Gold Class was defeated by Z-Brats in the loser leave unit expulsion match, with Hulk being pinned by Minoura, forcing him out of Gold Class, reducing the stable to three members. Following the match, Gold Class and Big Hug decided to join forces and confronted Z-Brats, challenging them to a match. On October 13, a combined team of Gold Class and Big Hug was defeated by Z-Brats, following a miscommunication between both teams. Afterwards, Z-Brats' Shun Skywalker demanded both stables to be disbanded, leading Dragon Gate's General Manager Ryo Saito to set up a three-way Loser Disbands match, between the three stables at Gate of Destiny. At the match, Gold Class and Z-Brats managed to survive with Big Hug being disbanded. Afterwards, Ben-K declared that Gold Class were disbanding as well. However, Hyo persuaded Ben-K to continue with Gold Class, leading his decision to be put on hold.

On January 11, 2025, Jacky Kamei was announced as the newest member of the stable. In March, two teams represented Gold Class in the 2025 Rey de Parejas, with Kamei and Riiita in block A and Ben-K and Junior in block B. Ben-K and Junior failed to advance to the finals of the tournament. Meanwhile, Kamei and Riiita finished the tournament with a record of three wins, one draw and one loss, advacing to the semifinals of the tournament. On March 20, they were defeated in the semifinals by Z-Brats (Homare and Shun Skywalker). On April 7, both Gold Class and Natural Vibes tried to convince Hyo to join them, but he couldn't decide, leading both stables to face each other on May 9 to decide who would Hyo join. On May 9, Gold Class defeated Natural Vibes to get Hyo to join them.

Members[]

Current[]

*	Founding member
I	First Leader
II	Second Leader

Member		Time
Ben-K	*II	September 8, 2022–Present
Riiita		March 3, 2022–Present
Mochizuki Junior		July 7, 2024–Present
Jacky Kamei		January 11, 2025–Present
Hyo		May 9, 2025–Present

Former[]

Members	Time	Notes
BxB Hulk		January 11, 2023–October 4, 2024
Kaito Ishida	*	February 4, 2022–July 25, 2022
Naruki Doi	*	February 4, 2022–September 23, 2022 June 4, 2023–November 9, 2023
Kota Minoura	*I	February 4, 2022–August 12, 2024

Timeline[]

In wrestling[]

Double-team finishing moves
- Ben-K and Minorita
  - Aided Spear
- Ben-K, Minoura and Minorita
  - Double octopus strech (Ben-K and Minoura) while Minorita steps over the back of an opponent, while tauting
- Hulk, Ben-K, Minoura and Minorita
  - Double octopus strech (Hulk and Minoura)/Standing crossface (Ben-K) while Minorita steps over the back of an opponent, while tauting
Entrance music
- "Golden Classic" by ACMA (Unit)