Daisuke Sasaki

Daisuke Sasaki (佐々木 大輔, Sasaki Daisuke; born November 22, 1985) is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT), where is a former two-time DDT Universal Champion. In addition to that, in DDT, he is also a former three-time KO-D Openweight Champion, one-time DDT Extreme Champion, six-time KO-D Tag Team Champion, three-time KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champion and a three-time Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion. Sasaki has also made several appearances for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), working in the promotion's junior heavyweight division.

Trained by Dick Togo, Sasaki made his professional wrestling debut on October 22, 2005, facing Yuki Sato at a Super Crew event, which was promoted by Togo and mainly featured his trainees facing each other in matches. In early 2006, Sasaki took part in Kaientai Dojo's 2006 K-Metal League, where he won two of his five matches and failed to advance to the finals. In June 2006, Sasaki left for a year-long learning excursion to Mexico, during which he wrestled for promotions such Alianza Universal de Lucha Libre (AULL), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and International Wrestling Revolution Group (IWRG).

After returning from Mexico, Sasaki made DDT Pro-Wrestling his new home promotion, debuting on December 30, 2007, when he and Choun Shiryu were defeated in a tag team match by Kudo and Yasu Urano. Wrestling several opening matches from the beginning of 2008, Sasaki picked up his first win in DDT on March 9, when he and Masami Morohashi defeated Rion Mizuki and Yukihiro Abe, with Sasaki submitting Mizuki for the win. On August 8, Sasaki defeated eight other men in a Royal Rumble match to become the 2008 King of Stockholm.

On October 13, Sasaki was renamed "Sasaki & Gabbana", when he joined his trainer Dick "Francesco" Togo's Italian Four Horsemen stable, with him, Togo and Antonio Honda defeating Kota Ibushi, Kudo and Masa Takanashi in the group's revival match. On September 13, 2009, Sasaki & Gabbana entered the Young Drama Cup. After winning all four of his matches, Sasaki made it to the finals of the tournament, where, on October 25, he was defeated by Keisuke Ishii. On December 13, Sasaki received his first shot at the KO-D Tag Team Championship, when he and Antonio Honda unsuccessfully challenged Kudo and Yasu Urano for the title in a three-way match, which also included Hikaru Sato and Masa Takanashi. After eighteen months of wrestling together, the Italian Four Horsemen disbanded on April 21, 2010, when Sasaki, Honda and Togo defeated Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi and Kudo in a six-man tag team match. Afterwards, Sasaki returned to working under his real name. On August 8, Sasaki defeated Keisuke Ishii in the finals of a four-man tournament to become the number one contender to DDT's top title, the KO-D Openweight Championship. He then went on to unsuccessfully challenge Harashima for the title on August 29. On October 8, 2010, Sasaki made his debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), losing to Tama Tonga at NEVER.3, an event which was part of NJPW's new NEVER project, which focused on young up-and-coming workers and wrestlers not signed to the promotion. A month later at NEVER.4, Sasaki was defeated by Tomohiro Ishii.

On November 14, Sasaki won his first title in DDT, when he and Antonio Honda defeated Danshoku Dino and Shiro Koshinaka for the KO-D Tag Team Championship. The former Italian Horsemen, now known as "From the Northern Country", named after Sasaki's favorite television program, made their first successful title defense on November 28, defeating Gentaro and Yasu Urano, and followed that up by also defeating Soma Takao and Tomomitsu Matsunaga for the title on December 12. After another successful title defense against Mikami and Onryo on January 16, 2011, Sasaki and Honda lost the KO-D Tag Team Championship to Gentaro and Yasu Urano on February 20, ending their reign at 98 days.

Sasaki returned to NJPW on February 24 at NEVER.5, where he was defeated by Ryusuke Taguchi. On April 7 at NEVER.6, Sasaki picked up his first NJPW win, when he defeated Shinichiro Tominaga in the first round of the Road to the Super Jr. 2Days Tournament. The following day, Sasaki first defeated Ryuichi Sekine in the semifinals and then Tsuyoshi Kikuchi in the finals to win the tournament and earn a spot in the 2011 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. On April 19 at New Japan Brave 2011, Sasaki wrestled on his first NJPW main card match, when he teamed with fellow DDT workers Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to defeat Kushida, Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi in a six-man tag team match. On May 26, Sasaki entered the 2011 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. When the tournament ended two weeks later, Sasaki finished last in his round-robin block, having lost seven matches and picked up his only win against Gedo.

On June 19, Sasaki took part in Dick Togo's DDT farewell match, where he and Yasu Urano were defeated by Togo and Antonio Honda. On July 3, Sasaki won the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, surprising Antonio Honda after a match and pinning him for the title, taking advantage of the rule, where the title could be challenged for anytime and anywhere. He would lose the title back to Honda later that same day. Sasaki would regain the title from Honda on July 10 in a three-way match, which also included Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, but lost the title to Kikuchi immediately after the match. Sasaki won the title for the third time on July 21 and lost it to Honda in a Royal Rumble match three days later. The storyline around the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship effectively ended the partnership between Sasaki and Honda, after which Sasaki joined the DDT Seikigun ("regular army") and began teaming regularly with Masa Takanashi. On January 8, 2012, Sasaki teamed with Takanashi, Keisuke Ishii and Shigehiro Irie to defeat the Crying Wolf stable of Antonio Honda, Keita Yano, Yasu Urano and Yuji Hino in an eight-man tag team match, pinning Urano for the win and handing Crying Wolf their first ever loss. As a result, Sasaki and Takanashi were granted a shot at Urano's and Hino's KO-D Tag Team Championship, but failed in their title challenge on January 22.

Sasaki returned to NJPW on May 27, when he entered the 2012 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Sasaki managed to pick up wins against Hiromu Takahashi and Jado, but lost his other six matches in the tournament and finished seventh out of the nine wrestlers in his block. On June 16 NJPW's Dominion 6.16 pay-per-view, Sasaki teamed with Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi to defeat Bushi, Prince Devitt and Kushida in a six-man tag team match. Back in DDT, Sasaki and Masa Takanashi received a shot at the KO-D Tag Team Championship on June 24, but were defeated by the defending champions, Homoiro Clover Z representatives Kudo and Makoto Oishi. On July 8, Sasaki and Takanashi joined Antonio Honda, Hoshitango, Yasu Urano and Yuji Hino to form the Monster Army. On July 19, Sasaki made another appearance for NJPW as part of a build-up to a match between Kota Ibushi and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Low Ki. In the match, Sasaki and Ibushi were defeated by Ki and Jado, with Ki pinning Sasaki for the win. The Monster Army wrestled its first match together on July 22, when they were defeated by Akito, DJ Nira, Poison Julie Sawada, Rion Mizuki and Tetsuya Endo in a ten-man tag team match, after Hino and Hoshitango began brawling with each other. The brawling continued after the match with Sasaki and Takanashi siding with Hoshitango and Honda and Urano with Hino, which led to Takanashi announcing that the Monster Army was history and that he, Sasaki and Hoshitango were now known as "Familia". On August 18 at DDT's 15th anniversary event in Nippon Budokan, Sasaki, Takanashi, Hoshitango, Tetsuya Endo and Tsukasa Fujimoto, representing Familia, defeated Antonio Honda, Tanomusaku Toba, Yasu Urano, Yoshiko and Yuji Hino, representing Crying Wolf, in a ten-person tag team match, contested under "Soccer rules". On August 26, DDT General Manager Amon Tsurumi ordered all stables in the promotion disbanded, effectively ending the short-lived Familia. On September 9, Sasaki, along with Antonio Honda and Yasu Urano, traveled to La Paz, Bolivia, to take part in Dick Togo's retirement match; an eight-man elimination tag team match, where the four were defeated by Ajayu, Apocalipsis, Guerrero Ayar and Halcon Dorado.