Kotoka Announces his Retirement from Dragon Gate

The young Dragon Gate fighter, Kotoka, announces his definitive retirement from the world of pro-wrestling. The announcement was made during the event held by Dragon Gate today, on his “Open the New Year Gate 2018” tour. Dragon Gate held an event in the Kobe Sambo Hall and in the main combat ANTIAS (Shingo Takagi, Takashi Yoshida, and Yasushi Kanda) defeated MaxiMuM (Naruki Doi, Ben-K and Kotoka).

The match ended with Takagi defeating Kotoka after a Pumping Bomber. After the fight Takagi commented that MaxiMuM was in a critical situation between injuries and low-level members, maintaining the rivalry. Then it was the turn of Kotoka, who announced that he will retire on March 6 in the event that Dragon Gate will perform at Korakuen Hall. He thanked the fans for their support and for the 10 years he has been in the company, saying that he will be eternally grateful. Kotoka says that the reason for his retirement is for several of his injuries since it has suffered several since 2016, with four large operations to deal with them. Currently, he continues to suffer after his neck injuries and still has sequels after facial injuries. He points out that he will retire to pursue other interests beyond pro-wrestling, so it seems he will be moving away from Dragon Gate.

Naruki Doi commented that he will always be a member of MaxiMuM and that he wants him to leave without regretting anything. For the retirement, fight will have any fighter who wants to fight against MaxiMuM, if it is their desire. Doi says keep your head up and leave on your own terms. Kotoka notes that he will fight his last 20 games and that fans will have to see him until then and he encourages the public to support his brother Oji, who will debut in Dragon Gate tomorrow. He thanks the fans again and asks them to continue supporting Dragon Gate.

In this way, Kotoka puts an end to his young career. Kotoka emerged as a promising talent for the Dragon Gate Dojo, but several injuries have hampered his career for several years. His most recent injury was in January last year, where he had to be absent for four months after a knee injury. On March 6 will end his career, which has participated in various teams and came to win the Open the Brave Gate Championship in 2015, the only title he has come to have in the company.