On May 5th, 2023, 23-year-old Madoka Kikuta won the Open the Dream Gate Championship, DRAGONGATE Japan Pro Wrestling’s most significant title, only three years into his career.
To anyone unfamiliar with this wrestler and his home promotion, this might seem strange. Why would that promotion trust someone that young and inexperienced to represent them? Especially within the Japanese wrestling scene, which is so often defined by rigid traditions and intense limitations for young competitors?
But in DRAGONGATE, one principle reigns supreme:
No matter the age, size or experience, if a wrestler has the skill and works hard, they should be allowed to shine.
Few people on the roster embody that hard work more than Madoka Kikuta. His story as a wrestler is, in many ways, a story about hope, diligence, and perseverance. And it is a story that deserves to be told in full.
Show Time
Madoka Kikuta’s road was a difficult one from the start.
The young wrestler had originally joined the DRAGONGATE dojo in 2018, alongside the incredibly promising new talents Kento Kobune and Taketo Kamei. It was a difficult hand to be dealt. Even with his own exceptional talent, even putting everything he had into his training, Kikuta stood in their shadow. All of the attention seemed to be focused on them.
When the end of 2019 rolled around and it was time to choose which of the trainees were ready to make their debut before the year was up, Kikuta had to watch them be selected before him. Placed above him. But it was no matter. He would surely join them soon. In 2020.
And then the pandemic hit.
It took half a year until Madoka Kikuta was finally able to make his debut. It happened in a small, dark, empty venue with no fans or cheering. A far cry from the reception Kobune and Kamei had gotten. But still, Kikuta did his best. No matter how low his start was, someday, he would absolutely catch up with his classmates. He would do whatever it took.
With that passion driving him, Kikuta intensified his training even further. He put on more and more muscle, slowly moving towards becoming one of DRAGONGATE’s few actual heavyweights. He worked hard at perfecting his chops, hoping that he might someday become known for his mastery of the technique.
But it was not enough. He was still lagging behind.
What Kikuta needed was an opportunity.
Bad Signals
After several months of empty arena matches, fans finally returned to DRAGONGATE towards the end of 2020. But as the state of crisis the promotion had been in cooled down, new trouble began to arise from within the rookie ranks.
It turned out that Kikuta was not the only one in his class dissatisfied with his position in DRAGONGATE. Being the tall poppy of the group had served Kento Kobune just as little. His achievements had drawn the ire of rowdy heel faction RED, which bullied the young wrestler relentlessly to keep him from becoming a threat. Instead of letting himself be dragged into a feud, however, Kobune decided to go the pragmatic road. If you can’t beat them, join them.
With a new attitude, new hair, and a new name, SB KENTo quickly became one of the most fearsome members of the stable. He would do anything for a win, no matter how cruel or unfair. With the backing of DG’s most brutal faction, his achievements rapidly began to outstrip those of any other rookie in the promotion. And he knew that Kikuta was watching his progress.
When SBK extended an open invite to any classmate who wanted to get the same results, Kikuta didn’t hesitate. This was his chance. He would finally get to stand at the top. Without a second thought, he turned on Kamei and the rest of the roster to become HipHop Kikuta, a member of RED.
Giving up on what he may have once wanted to be and instead working with what he had, he switched out his chops for hip attacks. With the way his body had developed over the course of his training, the often comedic move turned into a devastating weapon in his arsenal and this new Kikuta used it to great effect. Alongside plenty of cheating, of course.
As a member of RED, Kikuta, too, was finally able to realize his full potential. People were finally paying attention. He was finally winning. Less than a year into his career, the young man felt as though he was on top of the world. But he was not on top of DRAGONGATE just yet.
Breaking Point
DRAGONGATE’s most important title, the Open the Dream Gate Championship, was firmly in the hand of Shun Skywalker, at the time the youngest wrestler to ever win it.
In many ways, Skywalker was Kikuta’s complete opposite. While he, too, had started low, there had been no easy ticket out of that for him. Only hard work and sincerity. He was absolutely uncompromising and he lived for his ideals of justice. In both his appearance and his personality, Shun was like a real-life superhero.
But Kikuta was not intimidated. Having finally come into his true potential, he knew what the next step for him would be. He would use his momentum to become both the youngest and fastest Dream Gate champion in history. Not even SB KENTo would be able to call himself superior then.
And so, Kikuta leveraged his position in RED to become Shun’s next challenger. On Dead or Alive, famous for being DRAGONGATE’s most brutal PPV, he would finally get the chance to show how far he had come since the miserable circumstances of his debut.
All those who had doubted him, all those who said he wasn’t ready, he would prove them wrong.
The match barely lasted two minutes.
A single drop toehold from Skywalker and an unfortunate fall were all it took to smash Kikuta’s dreams into pieces. He heavily injured his shoulder on the landing. Even visibly in pain, the young wrestler still tried to continue, but Shun had no sympathy. He instantly went after Kikuta’s shoulder, intent on finishing the match as quickly as possible. Kikuta was a villain, after all. This was a fight and Shun was here to win.
Even the rest of RED could not watch this. They threw in the towel for Kikuta and carried him out as Skywalker celebrated his victory.
“I won’t forget this my whole life, you bastard”, Kikuta posted on social media afterwards. He was determined to get his revenge.
But unfortunately, with his injury, that would not be any time soon.
Ride On
When Kikuta finally came back to DRAGONGATE a year later, things were markedly different.
Kikuta’s classmates had passed him by once more, finding their own success while he languished on the sidelines. RED had been destroyed, cannibalized by the new heel faction emerging within it, just as RED had once devoured its own predecessor.
That new faction, Z-Brats, was centered around one man. A vicious and dangerous competitor, obsessed with strength and his own righteousness, driving the other members forward with cruel mockery and even violence. Shun Skywalker, DRAGONGATE’s superhero.
Kikuta had lost the home he had wanted to return to.
Refusing to bow to the man who had injured him, the young wrestler instead decided to start again at the bottom. He went back to being Madoka Kikuta, he stopped dyeing his hair, and he forwent the support of a faction, a vital component to success in DRAGONGATE.
For about three months, he competed alongside the rookies and freelancers, thrown into random matches, beyond notice in the title scene.
Still, he refused to cheat, refused to walk the easy road once again. This time, he would do it the right way.
His efforts did not escape notice. D’Courage, the highly successful duo of former enemies Dragon Dia and Yuki Yoshioka, took a liking to Kikuta’s newfound sincerity. After teaming with him a couple of times and finding that they worked well together, they chose to make Madoka their “pinch hitter”. While he was still on the bench, not on the team, this offer was a lifeline for Kikuta’s career. With a faction supporting him, he would finally be able to return to the title scene as a serious competitor. He did not intend to waste this opportunity.
Rising Soul
Kikuta’s journey back to the top started not in singles competition, but in the tag team division. While Yoshioka was busy as the Dream Gate champion, Madoka took over as Dia’s partner. Their balanced combination of strength and speed proved incredibly effective and they claimed the Twin Gate championships with ease. While Z-Brats would ultimately end that reign after only three months, it made one thing crystal clear: Despite his more tempered attitude, this new Madoka Kikuta was not to be taken lightly.
Following this success, D’Courage finally decided to formally accept him as their third member. It had taken a while, but Kikuta had found his new home.
Still, his upward climb was far from finished.
His next opportunity would come in the form of the revived Rey de Parejas tag team tournament. Dia would be teaming with his teacher, Dragon Kid, and so, Yoshioka and Kikuta entered the competition together. They had a rough start, fighting to a draw twice and losing once. But Kikuta refused to give up. This was nothing compared to the setbacks he had already suffered.
Rallying, he and Yoshioka proceeded to win every single remaining match in their block, securing their spot in the finals in a brilliant comeback. On the other side of the ring stood DRAGONGATE’s original tag team, the M3K combination of Susumu Mochizuki and Yasushi Kanda. To become the future, Kikuta and Yoshioka would have to surpass the past. And, in one of the toughest battles of either of their careers, they did.
Trophy in hand, Kikuta was ready to reclaim the tag team championships again, to fully solidify D’Courage as DRAGONGATE’s dominant faction and prove himself once more.
But as he had learned so painfully two years prior, failure can strike suddenly. Even when you think you’re at the top of the world. Kikuta and Yoshioka lost their challenge. In the end, their momentum was not as unstoppable as they had thought.
SSW Quest
Kikuta refused to let this be the end of his comeback story. His ambition burning brighter than ever, he kept fighting, kept giving everything he had in every single match. And there was much to work towards. With his tag team obligations set aside for the moment, he was able to look to the singles division once more. And at the top of that division, as the Open the Dream Gate Champion, stood, once again, the bane of Kikuta’s existence.
With the Dead or Alive PPV coming up and Shun Skywalker as the champion, history seemed to be repeating itself. Would challenging his nemesis now be a once-in-a-lifetime shot at redemption, or the end of his career? Kikuta didn’t know, and part of him was terrified. Still, the only way forward for him was this.
After defeating Shun’s former faction mate Kota Minoura, who had his own grudge to satisfy, for the right to challenge, Kikuta finally called his shot at the champion. And, with the glee of a spider sensing a visitor to his net, Shun Skywalker came to greet him, casually snatching up the challenger key in the process.
Kikuta was not ready to stand before him just yet. How was Shun to know that it wouldn’t be another embarrassing squash match if he didn’t test him properly first?
Skywalker had devised a series of trials, referred to as “SSW Quests”, to test Kikuta’s worthiness as a challenger. Or perhaps, as some might suspect, to break his opponent in body and mind before their match had even started.
The trials were brutal. Kikuta was made to endure beatdowns at the hands of the entire Z-Brats faction, he was made to fight his dearest friends, he had to team with Shun himself and endure his “accidental” attacks and mocking concern. His shoulder, the center of that tragic injury, was made a target once more and the toll was racking up.
But somehow, Kikuta persisted. He couldn’t let this beat him. As Skywalker gloated about giving him a new trauma to suffer under, he kept going, determined to surpass his former self and finally heal his heart.
Sparking Inner Core
On Dead or Alive 2023, his moment would come. With a taped-up shoulder and a striking red coat cut to show off his biggest assets, the challenger key finally in hand, Kikuta returned to the ramp that he had walked two years ago. His body was beaten, his heart was in turmoil, but he couldn’t give up. This was it.
With no time to waste, he put all of his history, his disappointments, his shame, and suffering into beating Shun Skywalker to a pulp. His shoulder couldn’t last long, but it wouldn’t need to if he could pull off a decisive victory early.
But Shun had not come unprepared. With sadistic meticulousness, he brought Kikuta back to that moment two years ago, recreating every move, right to the gruesome end. That same drop toehold, that same submission. Whether it was Kikuta’s shoulder or his spirit that broke first, Shun didn’t care. But he would break him.
And yet this time, things were different.
Kikuta was no longer fighting the easy way, no longer fighting for empty pride. The roles had flipped. And this time, Skywalker’s ideals were the ones found wanting.
With his greatest weapon, the short-range rolling lariat that had almost defeated even Shingo Takagi half a year ago, Kikuta finally put his past to rest.
Tears shimmering in his eyes, he held the closing speech. He had found his happy ending.
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