Yuki Shimizu (清水由紀 Shimizu Yuki) is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Big R Shimizu (ビッグR清水 Bigguāru Shimizu) who works currently for Dragon Gate, where he is a former three-times Open The Twin Gate Champion, while also being a former two-time Open The Triangle Gate Champion.
Early life
In Yuki's childhood, he had a chubby physique and it had a limited movement caused by mycoplasma pneumonia. When he was at fourth grade in the elementary school and his body was too big and he passed for the next year and he joined the clubland Department to become a medium student and his direct efforts were in the shot put in the fact that throwing strong competition. His interest in professional wrestling was when Yuki had the age of 4 and he saw his father watched a WCW and Sting was on the show. At the elementary school, he saw the match of Kensuke Sasaki against Toshiaki Kawada at the Tokyo Dome and he was fascinated to see the match. Then after before graduating from high school that the club teacher was Shingo Takagi and he asked Shingo to be in the dormitory of Dragon Gate and this was on April 2011 and he was supposed to practice but Yuki dislocated his right shoulder.
Professional wrestling career
Dragon Gate (2013–Present)
Ryotsu Shimizu (2013–2014)
After being trained in the Dragon Gate Dojo, Yuki made his debut on the main roster under the ring name Ryotsu Shimizu losing to Uhaa Nation. Shimizu was initially supposed to debut under the ring name Shimizu Kankichi, but dropped it before his official debut. He was given the gimmick of a Police officer inspired by the main character of the anime series KochiKame, which was named Ryotsu. As is customary for most professional wrestlers, Shimizu spent most of his matches losing to other, more experienced wrestlers, which would help put over other wrestlers while at the same time give Shimizu some in-ring, televised, experience.
In February 2014, Shimizu was picked by Don Fujii to form a team named Fujii Room. Their team was short lived and he ended up forming a team with Kotoka (later renamed CIBA). Shimizu and CIBA were chosen to be CIMA's protégés and took part in a tournament to decide the 1º contenders to the Open The Triangle Gate Championship, being eliminated in the semifinals by Millenials (Eita, Flamita and T-Hawk). On May 4, 2014 Shimizu defeated Chihiro Tominaga and U-T to earn an oppurtunity to participate in the King of Gate. He would be eliminated in the first round by Shingo Takagi. From September 8 to September 21 Shimizu and Kotoka took part in the Summer Adventure Tag League. During the tournament, Kotoka injured himself, leading him to be replaced by Yuga Hayashi in their remaining matches. Shimizu and Hayashi would finish the tournament with a record of four losses, advancing to a tournament to decide the last placed team in the Summer Adventure Tag League. They would lose to Kzy and Naruki Doi, to become the last placed team in the tournament. Shimizu and Kotoka's partnership with CIMA ended during that year, after Shimizu and Kotoka turned on CIMA to join MAD BLANKEY. However, they were attacked by Dr. Muscle and Metal Warrior, leading to not being accepted to join MAD BLANKEY.
On October 9, Shimizu was attacked by MAD BLANKEY, during the attack MAD BLANKEY member Punch Tominaga stripped him of his pants, promoting a save by Dia.Hearts members Masaaki Mochizuki and Dragon Kid. On October 28, Shimizu was recruited to join Dia.Hearts. This also led him to rename himself to "Big R Shimizu" and changing his gimmick and ring attire to a standard wrestling singlet.
Big R Shimizu (2014–Present)
After joining Dia.Hearts, Shimizu recieved a significant push and started being promoted up the card. On December 28 at Final Gate, Shimizu, Kid and Mochizuki defeated Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, Jimmy Susumu and Ryo Jimmy Saito to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. They lost the titles to Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora on March 29 in their fourth title defense. They received a rematch on March 25, at Memorial Gate in Wakayama unsuccessfully challenging Horiguchi, Susumu and Kagetora for the titles. On May 5 at Dead or Alive, Shimizu and Mochizuki unsuccessfully challenged Masato Yoshino and Shachihoko BOY for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. Shortly after, Shimizu took part in the King of Gate, being eliminated in the second round by the eventual winner of the tournament Masato Yoshino.
On February 4, 2016, Dia.Hearts was forced to disband after losing a match to Monster Express and VerserK in a losing disbands match. Shortly after, Shimizu was invited to join Monster Express, which he accepted on February 14. Afterwards, Shimizu and Monster Express stablemate T-Hawk started pursuing the Open The Twin Gate Championship, which led to them defeating Naruki Doi and YAMATO to win the titles on March 6, at Champion Gate in Osaka. From May 8 to June 12 Shimizu took part in the King of Gate, finishing the tournament with a record of four wins and one loss, advancing to the semifinals of the tournament. On June 11, Shimizu defeated former Dia.Hearts stablemate Masaaki Mochizuki to advance to the finals of the tournament. The following day, Shimizu was defeated by YAMATO in the finals of the tournament. Six days later, Shimizu and T-Hawk lost the titles to Jimmy Susumu and Jimmy Kagetora. On October 12, 2016 Monster Express was forced to disband after losing a Loser Unit disband match against VerserK in a 5 against 4 Loser Revival Captains Fall match.
After the disbanding of Monster Express, Shimizu aligned himself with Masaaki Mochizuki reforming Mushozoku. On November 3 Shimizu, Mochizuki and Peter Kaasa unsuccessfully challenged Jimmyz (Horiguchi, Saito and Jimmy Kanda) for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship, which VerserK ("brother" YASSHI, T-Hawk and Cyber Kong) was also involved in the match. On March 20 Shimizu, Naruki Doi, Ben-K defeated VerserK ("brother" YASSHI, T-Hawk and Shingo Takagi) to win the vacant Open The Triangle Gate Championship. On April 7 Shimizu, Doi and Ben-K successfully defended the Open The Triangle Gate Championship against Jimmyz (Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, Jimmy Susumu and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito). After the match Shimizu, Doi and Ben-K and Masato Yoshino formed a new unit. Later Kotoka would join them naming the unit MaxiMuM. In May Shimizu took part in the King of Gate, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins, one loss and one draw, failing to advance to the semifinals of the tournament. On July 1, Shimizu, Doi and Ben-K lost the titles to Takashi Yoshida, El Lindaman and Shingo Takagi. As part of MaxiMuM Shimizu and Ben-K formed a tag team named "Big Ben", unsuccessfully challenging CK-1 for the Open the Twin Gate Championship on November 3 at Gate of Destiny.
Inspired by his stablemate Ben-K, Shimizu unsuccessfully challenged Masaaki Mochizuki for the Open The Dream Gate Championship on March 21, at Memorial Gate in Wakayama. On April 1, 2018 Shimizu and Ben-K and their MaxiMuM stablemate Naruki Doi defeated ANTIAS (Eita, T-Hawk and Takashi Yoshida), after Shimizu pinned Eita. Afterwards, Shimizu and Ben-K challenged Eita and T-Hawk to a title match for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. This led to them defeating Eita and T-Hawk to win the Open The Twin Gate Championship in their second attempt on May 6 at Dead or Alive. Following the Dead or Alive, Shimizu took part in the King of Gate, finishing with a record of one win and three losses, advancing to a tournament to decide the last placed wrestler in the King of Gate. During the King of Gate, Shimizu started a storyline with his stablemate Naruki Doi where he disrespected Doi. On July 22 at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, Shimizu and Ben-K lost the Open the Twin Gate Championship to Tribe Vanguard (YAMATO and BxB Hulk). Following the match, Shimizu apologized to Doi. Doi accepted after being sad of him losing the match, seemingly ending their feud. The two challenged BxB Hulk and YAMATO to a title match for the Open the Twin Gate Championship. On August 7, during the title match, Shimizu turned on Doi and joined ANTIAS. On September 6, Shimizu reunited with Ben-K and reformed Big Ben. Later in September, ANTIAS renamed themselves to R.E.D. On December 23 at Final Gate, Shimizu and Ben-K defeated Tribe Vanguard (Kagetora and YAMATO), Speed Muscle (Masato Yoshino and Naruki Doi) and MexaBlood (Bandido and Flamita) in a four-way elimination tag team match to regain the Open The Twin Gate Championship.
Since January 16, 2019, during a match between R.E.D and MaxiMuM, Shimizu accidentally attacked Ben-K on two occasions which caused some tension between them. Shimizu had previously cost R.E.D a match, with the rest of R.E.D leaving the arena without him. Shimizu's mistakes would repeat during R.E.D's matches, leading Eita to accuse him of doing it on purpose, and blamed Ben-K and Shimizu for the loses and accused them of being incompetent. On February 5, tensions would come ahead between R.E.D and the rest of the others stables in Dragon Gate except MaxiMuM, Eita would criticize each stable weak points and agreed to a match with each other on March 7. Eita would nominate himself, PAC, Kazma Sakamoto and Yasushi Kanda for the match, leaving Shimizu arguing that he and Ben-K should be in the match due to holding the Open The Twin Gate Championship. Mochizuki Dojo would try to enter the match, Eita protested, but Shimizu wanted them in the match, leading Eita to claim that he was the leader of R.E.D. Five days later, Eita would accidentally hit Ben-K with a chair, costing his match against U-T. Shimizu blamed Eita for Ben-K's loss and demanded an explanation, but he refused claiming they were the ones who lost the match. Ben-K and Shimizu errors, led Eita to threat them that he would kick them out of the stable. Despite Big Ben, retaining the Open The Twin Gate Championship on March 3 at Champion Gate in Osaka, Eita warned them that he had no problems of kicking them out. On March 7, Tribe Vanguard won the four-way eight-man tag team elimination match, after Ben-K accidentally attacked Kanda. Shimizu would beg Eita to not kick them out of the stable, YAMATO would provoke Eita, leading him to berate the other units. General Manager Takayuki Yagi capitalized on the opportunity and announced the rules for the Steel Cage Survival match at Dead or Alive on May 6, as well multiple tag team matches between members of the respective units to decide, which member would enter in the match. Eita would select Yoshida as his partner and their opponents would be Big Ben. On April 10, Big Ben defeated Eita and Yoshida, with Shimizu pinning Eita, to represent R.E.D in the match. Afterwards, Shimizu dared Eita to kick him out of the stable. Yoshida declared that he was not on Eita's side causing tensions in R.E.D, leading Sakamoto and Kanda to choose Eita's side, dividing the stable. On April 28, Ben-K and Shimizu lost the Open the Twin Gate Championship to KAI and YAMATO, after Eita cost them the match. On May 6 at Dead or Alive, after Shimizu lost the "Bonds" steel cage survival five-way match, Shimizu along with the rest of R.E.D turned on Ben-K, revealing that he was never planning on kicking Eita out, they were working together all this time, while also claiming that Eita was the leader.
Units
- Dia.Hearts (2014–2016)
- MONSTER EXPRESS (2016)
- MaxiMuM (2017–2018)
- ANTIAS (2018)
- R.E.D (2018–Present)
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Shot-put Slam (Chokeslam)
- OTAKEBI (Diving Body Splash)
- Big R Press (Diving Body Press)
- Signature moves
- Hanging Bomb (Sitout spinebuster)
- Liger Bomb (Standing or a running high-angle sitout powerbomb)
- Football Tackle
- Giant Swing
- Backflip
- Lariat
- Argentine backbreaker rack
- Kameari Kouen Mae Boston Crab (Boston Crab)
- With Ben-K
- Double team finishing moves
- Pop-up (Shimizu) into a spear (Ben-K)
- Belly to Belly Suplex (Ben-K) followed by a OTAKEBI (Shimizu)
- Double Spear
- Double team finishing moves
- Nicknames
- "Fujii Room 1st Student"
- Entrance themes
- "Downtown Tastes Blues" by Koga Shu
- "FINAL STAGE" by Dragon Gate
- "Big Resistance" by ACMA
Championships and Accomplishments
- Dragon Gate
- Open The Twin Gate Championship (3 times) – with T-Hawk (1) and Ben-K (2)
- Open The Triangle Gate Championship (2 times) – with Masaaki Mochizuki and Dragon Kid (1) and Naruki Doi and Ben-K (1)
- Summer Adventure Tag League Last place (2014) – with Yuga Hayashi
See also
References
- http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=13635&page=8
- http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=13635
- http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=13635&page=11
- http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=13635&page=20
- http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=13635&page=8
