Masquerade (マスカレード Masukarēdo) was a professional wrestling group, primarily appearing in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate (DG).
The group was formed in December 2020, after when Dragon Dia, Jason Lee and Kota Minoura left Dragon Gate Generation and came together with Shun Skywalker, who had recently returned from an excursion in Mexico, which they subsequently named "Masquerade", follow the addition of La Estrella. The theme of group was inspired on the Venetian Dances of the Carnival of Venice, with each member of the group wearing a jester's mask.
The stable marked a major turning point for the career of Skywalker, who began consolidating his place into the Open The Dream Gate Championship picture. Minoura began leading Masquerade since January 12, 2022, following a factured relationship between Skywalker and the rest of the unit, which culminated in Skywalker joining R.E.D. The stable was disbanded on February 5, following Minoura's departure.
History[]
Background (2016–2018)[]
In April 2016, Shun Watanabe joined the Dragon Gate dojo, before undergoing to a gimmick change in November, in which he renamed himself to "Shun Skywalker". After spending his time in the midcard, Skywalker began being pushed in November 2017, leading him in March unsuccessfully challenging PAC for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. Afterwards, Skywalker entered in a losing streak, before enventually leaving to an indefinite learning excursion to Mexico, where he worked mostly for Internation Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG). Skywalker made his return to the promotion on November 3, 2020, before winning the Open The Dream Gate Championship later that month. Afterwards, Skywalker began feuding with his former partner Ben-K, who became his next challenger for the title.
Formation and Skywalker's leadership (2020–2021)[]
On December 2, 2020, Shun Skywalker announced the creation of his own stable with Dragon Dia, Kota Minoura, and Jason Lee, who defected the Dragon Gate Generation stable in order to join Skywalker, with a new member being announced on December 15. Afterwards, Dragon Gate Generation members Ben-K, Kzy, YAMATO and other Dragon Gate members confronted them. At the December 15 event, it was announced that the stable would be named "Masquerade", with the new member being revealed to be La Estrella. The theme of group is inspired on the Venetian Dances of the Carnival of Venice, with each member of the group wearing a jester's mask and long cloaks in an elaborate entrance. Their short feud with Dragon Gate Generation ended after, Skywalker defeated Ben-K on December 20 at Final Gate to retain the Open The Dream Gate Championship.
In January 2021, Masquerade entered a rivalry with the R.E.D stable. The first big event of the storyline was on January 12, when Lee and Minoura unsucessfully challenged R.E.D members BxB Hulk and KAI for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. After working exclusively against each other in multi-man tag team matches for the last part of January, on January 31, Estrella and Lee took part of the Open the Twin Gate #1 Contender's One Night Tournament losing to the R.E.D duo of Diamante and Eita. Later that night, following a six-man tag team match between Masquerade and R.E.D, Kaito Ishida challenged Skywalker to a title match, dubbing Skywalker as a "Paper champion". Afterwards, Dragon Gate's General Manager Takayuki Yagi announced that the title match would take place on March 7 at Champion Gate in Osaka. On March 7, Skywalker successfully defended the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Ishida. 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. Later that month, three members of Masquerade took part in the 2021 King of Gate; Minoura in block A, Lee in block B and Ishida and Skywalker in block C. Minoura won his block and advanced to the finals of the tournament with a record of five wins. Meanwhile, Lee finished third in his block with a record of two wins, one draw and two losses, and Skywalker also finished second in his block with three wins, one draw and one loss. On June 3, Minoura defeated YAMATO in the semifinals and then was defeated by Kzy, in the finals of the 2021 King of Gate. On July 31, during the first night of Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Skywalker successfully defended the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Kzy. The following day, Skywalker lost the Open The Dream Gate Championship to YAMATO. On September 20 at Dangerous Gate, Dia, Estrella and Lee lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to R.E.D (Eita, H.Y.O and Kaito Ishida).
Facture relationship and Disbanding (2021-2022)[]
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 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 purposely pushed Dia into Diamante, and as a result, Dia was forced to unmask. This led to a rift between him and the rest of Masquerade, who blamed Skywalker for Dia losing his mask. As a result, Shun's actions caused a rift between him and the rest of R.E.D. After winning the Open The Triangle Gate Championship on December 15, Minoura challenged Skywalker to a match, where if Skywalker lost, he would be forced to leave the stable. During the match, between Skywalker and Minoura on December 26 at Final Gate, R.E.D's H.Y.O and SB KENTo offered Skywalker help, tossing him a chair, while the referee was down, but he refused. Shortly after, Skywalker took off his mask and tossed it into the hands of Minoura, while the referee was not looking. When the referee turned around and saw Minoura standing with Skywalker’s mask, Skywalker was awarded the win by disqualification.
Skywalker's relationship with the rest of the members reached the point of collapse, despite affirming to be fine. On January 12, 2022, Skywalker, Lee and Minoura lost the Open The Triangle Gate Championship to R.E.D (Eita, H.Y.O and Kaito Ishida). During the match, Minoura accidentally attacked Skywalker, after he tried to protect himself from H.Y.O. After the match, Skywalker forced Minoura to apologize, which he refused, leading Skywalker to quit as the leader of the stable, deffecting to R.E.D and thus making Minoura the leader of Masquerade. Shortly after, Naruki Doi and Takashi Yoshida began persuading Minoura to form a stable with Minoura being foccused as the centerpiece of the latter, 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 him. The following day, Lee confirmed that the stable had disbanded, following Minoura's departure.
Members[]
| * | Founding member |
|---|---|
| I–II | Leader |
| Member | Duration | |
|---|---|---|
| Dragon Dia | * | December 15, 2020 – December 1, 2021 |
| La Estrella | * | December 15, 2020 – February 5, 2022 |
| Jason Lee | * | December 15, 2020 – February 5, 2022 |
| Kota Minoura | *II | December 15, 2020 – February 4, 2022 |
| Shun Skywalker | *I | December 15, 2020 – January 12, 2022 |
Associates[]
| Member | Duration |
|---|---|
| Kagetora |
Timeline[]
Championships and Accomplishments[]
- Dragon Gate
- Open The Dream Gate Championship (1 time) – Skywalker
- Open The Triangle Gate Championship (2 times) – Dia, Estrella and Lee (1) and Skywalker, Lee and Minoura (1)
