(born July 6, 1970), better known by his

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...

Don Fujii, is a Japanese wrestler who currently works for Dragon Gate. He was one-half of the inaugural Open the Owarai Twin Gate Champions and is also a former two-time

Open the Twin Gate Champions Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' ( ...

with

Masaaki Mochizuki is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling Noah. Mochizuki is a former FIP World Champion and three-time Open the Dream Gate Champion. Professional wrestling career Early years A former karateka ...

. He was previously in the Crazy MAX and Blood Generation stables.

Biography

He was one of the original graduates from the Toryumon dojo. He was also one of the founding members of the Crazy MAX and Blood Generation stables. He made a few appearances in

World Championship Wrestling World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nation ...

as Sumo Fuji. He has wrestled as Karaoke Machine #1 at times as well. From 1999 until 2002, he changed his name annually. He first went from Sumo Fuji to Sumo "Dandy" Fuji, then to Sumo "Dandy" Fuji 2000, then to Big Fuji, and finally to Don Fujii. Fujii has spent most of his Toryumon/Dragon Gate career in heel stables. He was a founding member of Crazy MAX, as well as a founding member of Blood Generation. When Blood Generation ended in December 2006, Fujii signed on with Magnum TOKYO's ''Renaissance'' project. The project never went anywhere as TOKYO suffered a career-ending eye injury shortly after it started. When CIMA started the

Typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

stable, it caused the first split between CIMA and Fujii, as Fujii did not want to align himself with

Susumu Yokosuka , better known by his ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to Dragon Gate. He is not related to fellow Dragon Gate wrestler and long term ally/rival Masaaki Mochizuki, who debuted much earlier for WAR. Professional w ...

and

BxB Hulk , better known by his ring name BxB Hulk stylized as ( ), is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for Dragon Gate. He was also known for his longstanding rivalry with Shingo Takagi. Professional wrestling career He was the seco ...

. He is currently aligned with

and K-ness as part of a "seniors" unit. The three of them had an Open the Triangle Gate title run, but upon losing the belts, K-ness stepped back into a lower card role in the promotion while Fujii and Mochi have been focusing on representing Dragon Gate in other promotions. In 2008, the duo added

Magnitude Kishiwada (born May 19, 1971), better known under his ring name Magnitude Kishiwada (マグニチュード岸和田), is a Japanese wrestler. Career During his highschool life, Fujita trained in artistic gymnastics, mixed martial arts and powerlifting, a ...

to their ranks, and the trio would eventually win the Open the Triangle Gate Titles from

Yasushi Kanda is a Japanese wrestler currently performing for the Dragon Gate wrestling promotion in Japan. He is considered one of Toryumon's greatest heel characters, and was a founding member of the M2K stable. In his pre-injury days, he was famous for h ...

YAMATO was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese his ...

Gamma Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter re ...

on September 28. They held them until February 15, 2009, dropping them to

Shingo Takagi , known by his ring name Shingo Takagi (鷹木信悟, ''Takagi Shingo''), is a Japanese professional wrestler and former bodybuilder, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the provisional KOPW 2022 champion in his first ...

Taku Iwasa Taku Iwasa (born November 15, 1977) is a Japanese professional wrestler best known for his work in Dragon Gate. Career Early Iwasa graduated as part of the Toryumon T2P class. He initially portrayed ''Takamichi Iwasa'', a Satanic character. ...

Dragon Kid is a Japanese people, Japanese professional wrestler currently working for Dragon Gate (wrestling), Dragon Gate as . Nakamura initially broke into the wrestling business with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling (FMW), but was not allowed to be a wre ...

. On April 12, he teamed with

Kikutaro (born November 17, 1976), better known as his wrestling persona and formerly , is a freelance Japanese professional wrestler. Though best known for wrestling under a mask, he also regularly works unmasked under the ring name Kikuzawa (stylized ...

to beat Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa & Magnitude Kishiwada to become the inaugural Open the Owarai Twin Gate Champions. On October 14, he added the Triangle Gate titles to his collection, teaming with Masaaki Mochizuki and Akebono to defeat the champions

Masato Yoshino is a retired Japanese professional wrestler, best known for working in Dragon Gate, where he was known as ''Speed Star''. Dragon Gate's second Grand Slam champion, having been a record six-time Open the Brave Gate Champion, four-time Open the ...

& PAC. On May 13, 2010, Fujii, Mochizuki and Akebono lost the Open the Triangle Gate Championship to CIMA,

and

Genki Horiguchi is a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . He is currently a full-time wrestler for Dragon Gate. He has also competed in Wrestling Society X and Ring of Honor. When Horiguchi's hairline began receding, the fans began t ...

. On January 10, 2011, Fujii and Mochizuki defeated

Naruki Doi is a Japanese wrestler for Dragon Gate. He also wrestled for Ring of Honor (ROH) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA); in the former promotion, he was a one-time World Tag Team Champion with Shingo Takagi. Career Toryumon Doi debuted in ...

and Gamma to win the

Open the Twin Gate Championship The Open the Twin Gate Championship is a professional wrestling tag team title created and promoted by the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. Dragon Gate had used the WAR IJ Tag Team Championship since 2006, until 2007 when Masato Yoshino and Nar ...

. They would lose the title to Genki Horiguchi and

Ryo Saito (born August 15, 1979) is a Japanese professional wrestler, who currently works for Dragon Gate. He is a former member of the Jimmyz stable, where he was known by the ring name Ryo "Jimmy" Saito. His name is sometimes abbreviated as SaiRyo, so ...

on February 6, 2011. On September 23, 2012, Fujii and Mochizuki, now representing the Kaettekita Veteran-gun stable, regained the title from Shingo Takagi and Yamato. They lost the title to BxB Hulk and

Uhaa Nation Sesugh Uhaa (born August 22, 1987) is a Nigerian-American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Apollo Crews. He started his career in 2009, originally working under the ring name ...

on March 2, 2013. On June 14, 2015, he, CIMA and Gamma defeated the Jimmyz (Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, and Jimmy Susumu) to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship. On October 8, CIMA and Gamma formed a new unit called Over Generation with Eita, El Lindaman, Punch Tominaga, and rookies Takehiro Yamamura and Kaito Ishida. Don Fujii did not join the new unit despite holding the Open the Triangle Gate Championship with CIMA and Gamma. On November 1, he, CIMA, and Gamma defended the Open the Triangle Gate Championship against the Jimmyz (Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy K-Ness J.K.S., and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito), and vacated the titles afterwards.

Championships and accomplishments

* Dragon Gate **

Open the Dream Gate Championship The Open the Dream Gate Championship is a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. The wrestler who holds it is considered the top singles wrestler in Dragon Gate. It was created on Jul ...

( 1 time) **

Open the Triangle Gate Championship The Open the Triangle Gate Championship is a professional wrestling trios title in Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. It was created on November 7, 2004 when The Italian Connection faction of Milano Collection A.T., Anthony W. Mori and Yossino ...

( 6 times) – with CIMA and

(1),

and K-ness (1),

and

(1), Masaaki Mochizuki and Akebono (1), and Cima and

(2) **

(

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) – with Masaaki Mochizuki **

Open the Owarai Gate Championship The Open the Owarai Gate Championship was a professional wrestling title in Japanese promotion Dragon Gate. The word ''owarai'' in the title's name is the Japanese word for ''comedy''. The championship was first conceived during Stalker Ichika ...

(1 time) **Open the Owarai Twin Gate Championship (1 time) – with

WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team championship contested for in the Japanese promotion Wrestle Association R, and later Dragon Gate and Tenryu Project. This title was the first tag team championship in Japan dedicated to junior heavywei ...

( 1 time) – with

International Wrestling Revolution Group International Wrestling Revolution Group (Grupo Internacional Revolución in Spanish; the Spanish name is used for the promotion while the English initials are used for the title governing body) is a Lucha Libre promotion based in Naucalpan, Sta ...

Copa Higher Power The ''Copa Higher Power'' (Spanish for "Cup of Higher Power") is an annual tournament promoted by the Mexican ''lucha libre'' professional wrestling promotion International Wrestling Revolution Group International Wrestling Revolution Group (Gru ...

(1998) – with, Judo Suwa, Lyguila, Magnum Tokyo,

, Shiima Nobunaga and

Último Dragón (born December 12, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler and actor, better known as . In addition to having trained in Japan, Asai learned to wrestle in the lucha libre style while working in Mexico. He is credited with popularizing the "Asa ...

Osaka Pro Wrestling Osaka Pro Wrestling is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 1998 by Super Delfin. The promotion held a major flagship event called the Osaka Hurricane each year from 2003 to 2012 and also hosted the fourth edition of the Supe ...

Osaka Pro Wrestling Tag Team Championship The is the top tag team title in the Japanese professional wrestling promotion Osaka Pro Wrestling. The title was established in 2001 when Daio Quallt and Gamma won a seven-team round-robin tournament to win the inaugural titles. Being a prof ...

( 1 time) – with

**Osaka Tag Festival (2010) – Masaaki Mochizuki * Toryumon Japan **

UWA World Trios Championship The UWA World Trios Championship is a tag team professional wrestling championship created by the Mexican Universal Wrestling Association and defended there until the UWA closed in 1995. Since then, the championship has been defended in various p ...

( 4 times) – with CIMA and SUWA (3) and CIMA and TARU (1)

References

External links

Don Fujii at Dragon Gate USA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fujii, Don 1970 births Japanese male professional wrestlers Living people People from Minoh, Osaka 20th-century professional wrestlers 21st-century professional wrestlers UWA World Trios Champions Open the Dream Gate Champions Open the Twin Gate Champions Open the Triangle Gate Champions Open the Owarai Gate Champions International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions