Metal Warrior is a mysterious masked character of several Japanese professional wrestlers. The persona was inspired by the then Blood Warriors stable. Those who portray the gimmick are usually heels, being part of a heel stable, with the character being portrayed mostly by Japanese wrestlers. The gimmick initially was introduced when a group of wrestlers portraying the character began attacking Masato Yoshino and the WORLD-1 unit, to later form the Blood Warriors. Afterwards, many wrestlers have used the Metal Warrior outfit to main, usually unmasking after the fact. The character has also been used to disguise the return, or eventual alliance turns of wrestlers. The only time the character was used by face wrestlers was in the Dragon Gate Nex and Prime Zone shows respectively, with the portrayers being Don Fujii and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito
As of April 25, 2022, eighteen professional wrestlers have used the Metal Warrior character during their careers, with three of the eighteen wrestlers having at least used the character twice in their respective careers. The portrayer of usually uses a grey helmet that looks such as the ones in the popular television series, the Star Wars, and a black suit. The portrayer also tends to use miscellaneous moves of several wrestlers, even if they have an alibi to not being the Metal Warrior, to hide his actual identity.
History[]
The Metal Warrior was introduced at the beginning of the months of January 2011, when many Metal Warriors started to attack the WORLD-1 unit. On January 14, 2011, Naruki Doi, Naoki Tanizaki, Yasushi Kanda and Gamma and WARRIORS (CIMA, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Ricochet and Ryo Saito) were revealed to be the Metal Warriors who had been interfering in matches, and attacking Masato Yoshino and the WORLD-1 unit, which led them to create Blood Warriors. Also on May 27, 2011, Metal Warrior returned when the Blood Warriors announced that one of the members of Blood WARRIORS would be expelled from the stable. Initallý CIMA was the one to get expelled but the Metal Warrior came out and instead attacked Gamma and the rest of Blood Warriors turned on him and gave his place in the stable to Kzy, who had been sidelined with a leg injury, was revealed to be another Metal Warrior.
In 2013, the Metal Warrior wrestled some matches in the Dragon Gate Nex but the wrestler who used this gimmick was Don Fujii costing Akira Tozawa his match with Jimmy Kagetora. In 2014 Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, when he used the gimmick in a Prime Zone episode.
On February 5, 2015, a Metal Warrior would interfere in a 3-Way 6-Man Tag Team match between Mad Blankey, Dia.HEARTS and the Millennials. He would pretend to join Dia.Hearts, only to help them throughout the match, but near the end, betray them and solidify his allegiance with Mad Blankey. After the match, the Metal Warrior revealed himself to be the returning Naruki Doi.
On September 23, Dr. Muscle and Metal Warrior made an appearance to extract Mr. Kyu Kyu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin, following a match in which Tanizaki had one of many falling outs with fellow Jimmyz member Jimmy Kanda when he accidentally hit him with a dropkick. On October 8, Tanizaki refused to shake hands with stablemate Jimmy K-ness J.K.S after their match, and Jimmy Kagetora appeared on crutches to try to talk some sense with him, which appeared to be successful. Tanizaki apologized for his recent behavior and handshakes and hugs were shared until then Jimmyz first ever 7 man Jimmyz Train and the peace was short lived until Tanizaki snaped and attacked Kagetora from behind, giving him the Implant. VerserK came out, and revealed Tanizaki to be their newest member and that he was no longer Mr. Kyu Kyu and the old Tanizaki was back.
On November 19, 2017, after Kagetora defended his title against K-ness., he was attacked by a Metal Warrior who hit him with Susumu Yokosuka's finishing move, the Yokosuka Cutter. Then, he accused Yokosuka to be the Metal Warrior, but Susumu denied it. In the following weeks, Kagetora was again attacked by Metal Warrior, with Warrior hitting Kagetora with Ryo Saito's Cycling Yahoo, K-ness' Darkness Buster, Susumu's Mugen and Genki Horiguchi's Backslide From Heaven, in several different occasions, with Kagetora thinking that his former Jimmyz stablemate were conspiring against him. On December 5, Metal Warrior revealed to be his former Jimmyz stablemate Yasushi Kanda, who was challenging Kagetora for the Open the Brave Gate Champion and cutting Kagetora's hair.
On March 23, 2022 Metal Warrior returned this time in Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH), when the team composed of Z-Brats (H.Y.O, SB KENTo and Shun Skywalker) made their debut attacking Alejandro, Daisuke Harada and Junta Miyawaki during a match between them and Los Perros del Mal de Japón (Kotaro Suzuki, Nosawa Rongai and Super Crazy), before challenging them to a match at Majestic on April 29. This was the first time that the gimmick was used outside of Dragon Gate.
On April 7, 2022, a trio Metal Warriors appeared in Dragon Gate, kidnapping Gold Class' Minorita, 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. After the match, the trio was revealed to be Eita, Rongai and Suzuki, who challenged Gold Class (Naruki Doi, Kaito Ishida, Kota Minoura) to a title match for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship.
Portrayers[]
- CIMA
- Don Fujii
- Dragon Kid
- Eita
- Gamma
- Genki Horiguchi
- H.Y.O
- Kzy
- Kotaro Suzuki
- Mondai Ryu
- Naoki Tanizaki
- Naruki Doi (2x)
- Nosawa Rongai
- Ricochet
- Ryo Saito/Ryo "Jimmy" Saito (2x)
- SB KENTo
- Shun Skywalker
- Yasushi Kanda (2x)
Signature moves associated with the character[]
- Finishing moves
- Warriors Bomb (Powerbomb)
- Uzushio Fisherman Buster (Fisherman Buster)
- Onigoroshi (Kneeling powerbomb)
- Firebird Splash (Standing 450° splash)
Gallery[]
