At Thursday’s Memorial Gate event for Dragon Gate in Wakayama, Japan, 20-year veteran Susumu Yokosuka defeated Dragon Kid to end his fourth reign as Open The Brave Gate Champion at 178 days. It’s Yokosuka’s first reign with the title.
https://twitter.com/shupromobile/status/1108746762972327936
The Open the Brave Gate Championship is the equivalent to Dragon Gate’s Junior Heavyweight Championship, with a weight class limit of below 183 lbs. The 40-year old Susumu began his career in 1998, training in Mexico with Ultimo Dragon and Dos Caras, debuting with Ultimo’s Toryumon Mexico promotion. By 2000, he was back in Japan, working with All Japan Pro Wrestling.
He joined Dragon Gate in 2004, where he’s remained for the duration of his career. While he’s been used primarily as a tag team specialist – he’s a 9x Open the Triangle Gate Champion (6-Man Tag Team) and a 5x Open The Twin Gate Champion (Tag Team) – he’s also a former 2x Open the Dream Gate Champion (Dragon Gate’s top singles title). For the past year, he’s been a part of the stable Natural Vibes, alongside Kzy, Genki Horiguchi, Punch Tominaga, and YASSHI.
For those heading to the New York City/New Jersey area for WrestleMania week, Susumu is slated to appear at several shows, including the WrestleCon Mark Hitchcock Memorial SuperShow on Thursday, April 4, and WrestleCon’s USA vs The World on Friday, April 5, where he’s scheduled to face David Starr.
Match Announcement! Dragon Gate's @ssm_yokosuka046 versus @TheProductDS at US v. World. A reserved ticket to this event gets you access to the Convention on Friday starting at 10am. pic.twitter.com/tLMtMScqLb
— WrestleCon (@wrestlecon) March 4, 2019
