Masato Yoshino

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Masato Yoshino
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Masato Yoshino YOSSINO Speed Star Sexy Tarzan
Billed height	5 ft 6 in (172 cm)
Billed weight	159 lb (72 kg)
Born	July 17, 1980 (1980-07-17) (age 27) Higashi-shi, Osaka, Japan

Masato Yoshino(吉野正人) (born July 17, 1980) is an Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for the Dragon Gate wrestling promotion.

1 Career
2 Wrestling facts
3 Championships and accomplishments

[edit] Career

[edit] Toryumon

Masato Yoshino was part of the T2P class, tied with Stevie "brother" Tsujimoto for the second highest rank of the students, although far behind top ranked Milano Collection A.T.. He was noted early on for his incredible speed in the ring, earning him the nickname Speed Star. He patterned his look after Tarzan, which involved tights fringed in a pattern to imitate a grass skirt, and the names of several of his moves centered around a jungle theme. He was nicknamed Sexy Tarzan at times by female fans, due to his outfit and muscular physique. He also adopted a "pet gorilla" (really a midget wrestler in a gorilla suit) named Venezia.

Yoshino and Tsujimoto joined Milano Collection A.T.'s Italian Connection stable when it was formed on March 3, 2002, and renamed to YOSSINO and "brother" YASSINI, respectively. While in the Italian Connection, he would hold the UWA World Trios Championship twice, with Milano/YASSINI, and with Milano/Condotti Shuji, and would also hold the NWA World Welterweight Championship once. He would also have several highly acclaimed matches with Darkness Dragon/K-Ness that would increase his standing within the federation.

The Italian Connection began splintering in 2003 when Milano and YOSSINO wished to take the stable in a face direction, while Shuji, YASSINI, Berlinetta Boxer and Bakery Yagi wanted to remain heel. The ItaCon split when Kondo and YASSINI attacked Venezia, then YOSSINO for trying to stop them, and finally Milano. Kondo and the others went on to form Aagan Iisou, and ItaCon would settle as a face stable, adding Anthony W. Mori as a third member, and together they would become the first Dragon Gate Open the Triangle Gate Champions. The ItaCon would dissolve in 2005 when Milano left the promotion.

[edit] Dragon Gate

YOSSINO briefly teamed with his respected rival K-Ness, but shortly afterwards backstabbed him to join the newly formed Blood Generation stable. He also did away with his Tarzan gimmick, cutting his hair short and switching from fringed tights to a singlet, and he returned to using his given name, Masato Yoshino, in the ring. On April 12, 2006, when CIMA kicked Gamma out of the group due to their constantly butting heads, Yoshino - along with Naruki Doi and Naoki Tanisaki - followed Gamma. Eleven days later, after Doi & Gamma won full rights to the Blood Generation name from CIMA & Don Fujii in a tag match, they refused the name and became the Muscle Outlaw'z.

Yoshino began to gain rank within Dragon Gate rapidly in 2007. He began teaming with stable leader Naruki Doi as Speed Muscle, and together they would win the WAR I-J Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and the Pro Wrestling NOAH GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, as well as become the first Open the Twin Gate Champions. He also captured the Open the Brave Gate Championship twice that year.

During 2008, Yoshino continued to gain rank. In March, he faced CIMA for the Open the Dream Gate Title, losing in just under 30 minutes when Doi threw in the towel. His performance was praised by stablemates and rivals alike, and his team with Doi - which looked for a while like it was going to come apart - was reconciled. However, by this time, Doi & Yoshino were leaning towards becoming faces again, thus causing tensions to start stirring in MO'z, and the tensions grew more and more as the weeks went on. Finally, on May 5, Doi & Yoshino turned on the other members of MO'z when they attacked stablemate Yasushi Kanda and cost him his hair in a Mascara contra Cabellera (Mask vs. Hair) Cage Survival Six-Way Match. Nine days later, soon after the mega-group Real Hazard was formed, Doi and Yoshino - along with BxB Hulk, Naoki Tanisaki, and m.c.KZ - formed the group WORLD-1.

[edit] Wrestling Society X

Yoshino competed for the MTV-based wrestling promotion Wrestling Society X, where he teamed up with Genki Horiguchi to form "Team Dragon Gate". At the time they were teaming together in WSX, Yoshino and Horiguchi were in rival stables, although Horiguchi would eventually turn heel and join the Muscle Outlaw'z himself.