Naoki Tanizaki

Naoki Tanizaki (谷嵜 直樹) is a Japanese wrestler.

He is known for his work in Dragon Gate.

He previously went under the ring name Mr. Kyu Kyu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin (Mr.キューキュー“谷嵜なおき”豊中ドルフィン).

Originally from the Toryumon X promotion, Naoki Tanizaki debuted in a Toryumon Mexico show in December 2002.

When Toryumon X made their Japanese landing in August 2003, Naoki debuted as a surfer (similar to Genki Horiguchi) defeating Kenichi Hanai.

After losing to Horiguchi, he partnered with Horiguchi as the Surfing Brothers for his final two appearances in Toryumon X. The next month, Tanizaki made the jump to Toryumon Japan as a part of El Numero Uno 2004.

When Toryumon Japan became, Dragon Gate in July 2005, Tanizaki was the only Toryumon X graduate to fully integrate into Dragon Gate (prior to KAGETORA in 2009.) Due to his relationship with Horiguchi, appealed to join Magnum Tokyo's Do FIXER stable.

Magnum agreed provided that Tanizaki won one match out of a 10 match trial series.

Tanizaki lost all 10 matches and was given a five match re-trial series.

He lost all of his five matches.

Despite losing all of his matches during his trial series, he joined Do FIXER stable and became Shingo Takagi's rival.

He was soon overshadowed by Shingo and BxB Hulk and showed signs of breaking into singles competition.

Tanizaki once again signed with Dragon Gate six days after announcing he was becoming freelance again, as a result of being sacrificed to the newly arriving Magnitude Kishiwada just like in 2005.

He signed an open contract, in which he competes on all Dragon Gate shows but is also free to compete elsewhere.

Tozawa-juku offered him membership into their stable, but he ended up joining Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk and m.c.KZ in Doi & Yoshino's new faction WORLD-1.

On December 21, he fought Cyber Kong in a Mask vs. Hair match, which he initially won after interference from Cyber Kongcito backfired.

Real Hazard (Kong's stable) came out to protest the result, but Cyber Kong said he would own up to the mask stipulation - except that it would be Kongcito's mask, not his.

Kongcito was unmasked, beaten up, and kicked out of Real Hazard.

Cyber Kong then demanded a restart, due to Kongcito's intrusion, and CIMA came out, appointed the special referee, and agreed to let the match restart, since both Real Hazard and WORLD-1 had intruded in the match.

Cyber Kong won, and Tanizaki lost his hair.

He was recruited for CIMA's Blood Generation stable and after showing heelish mannerisms, he eventually turned on his Do FIXER stablemates and joined up with CIMA in 2006.

The night that he joined, Blood Generation split into two separate factions known as the Muscle Outlaw'z and CIMA's new version of the Blood Generation.

Tanizaki joined up with Muscle Outlaw'z but soon had a losing streak against Jack Evans and any other gaijin wrestler CIMA brought in.

His contract was then terminated in July and he officially left in December.

Tanizaki quickly joined the El Dorado Wrestling roster, even though he continued to remain a freelance wrestler.

He was out injured after his second match with the company, however.

He joined up with Shuji Kondo upon returning.

Parts of his freelancing included forays into Pro Wrestling ZERO1-MAX, Big Japan Pro Wrestling and Kaientai Dojo.

In the latter, he joined the heel stable Omega.

In 2008, he resigned from El Dorado.

On August 30, 2009, he won his first title in his career when he defeated KAGETORA in a tournament final to win the vacant Open the Brave Gate Championship.

He successfully defended the title six times before dropping it to K-ness on January 11, 2010.

On June 13, 2010 he started showing some heel tendencies during his match against Super Shisa where he used a low blow to set up for his Implant finisher.

Later during the main event he almost cost his fellow World-1 teammate Masato Yoshino a chance at becoming the number one contender for YAMATO's Open The Dream Gate title by mistakenly hitting him with the Deep Drunkers signature Blue Box nearly costing him the match to Deep Drunkers leader Takuya Sugawara.

On June 20, 2010 he teamed up with Naruki Doi and PAC to defeat the Warriors team of Genki Horiguchi, CIMA, Gamma to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championship for the first time.

During the final moments of the match he once again used a low blow as a set up for his Implant finisher further teasing a heel turn.

However, only 4 days later they were beaten in a rematch and lost the titles back to the former champions.

On August 5, 2010 he interfered in a match pitting his World-1 teammates Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino against the Warriors team of CIMA and Gamma assisting them in gaining the victory without there consent and expressed anger towards them since no one from World-1 was in his corner for his dark match.

On August 24, 2010 he accidentally cost his team the win against Deep Drunkers after a misfired Protein Powder attack struck PAC leading to their loss, he quickly apologized to his partners after they questioned what was wrong with him lately and told them everything was fine.

On August 29, 2010 he competed in a tournament to crown a new Open The Brave Gate Champion after Masato Yoshino vacated the title but fell to his Deep Drunkers rival Kzy in the first round.