#dragongate

"Leopardess-chan's Lover"

Hyo (豹)

Born: 4th of January 1997.

Hometown: Toyohashi city, Aichi prefecture.

Height: 163 cm (5'4").

Weight: 72 kg (158 lbs).

Debut: 14th of August 2016.

Twitter and Instagram

"Soooo, he's a catboy?"

Let me get this explained first and foremost because it's rather important to his…everything. Hyo's real name is Hyo Watanabe, and for those who aren't aware Hyo means leopard. This is why he:

Has leopard print and fur on his gear.

Wears a tail to the ring.

Sometimes wears a collar (sometimes more of a choker).

Has a paw hand pose.

Calls his fans Mehyo-chan which is leopardess-chan (Hyo's fanbase is mostly women but he's said himself it's a gender netural term and anyone can be a Mehyo).

Runs around the ring on all fours and, of course,

MyonMyon (his snow leopard plushie friend pictured above who is also multiple snow leopard plushies, Hyo has a whole colony of them).

"Wait, he's also like...a stripper or something?"

Hyo has been affectionately described as a male stripper by a portion of the Dragongate fanbase, because this is also basically another thing he is. He enjoys being as scantily clad as possible (suspenders with no shirt or a shirt that has been cut up so much it's barely a shirt anymore), loves flexing until you're a little worried he's gonna pass out and once upon a time he used to literally run around the ring and collect Hyo Dollars (fake money with Hyo's face on it) from fans who would stick them into his suspenders or pants like he was a literal stripper. They stopped doing that because fans were giving Hyo their ACTUAL MONEY.

The funniest part about this is the last two Mania's in Vegas Hyo has brought this bit back.

Tangentially related to this is Hyo's love of attention. He very much feeds off the people, and this involves the Mehyo's in the crowd yelling "HYO!" at him in matches and him responding to each and every one with a pose towards the sound. This has been utilised as a technique from Hyo's opponents to get the jump on him, as you can just lure him closer and closer to you by going "HYO!" and he won't fully realise who he is responding to until it's too late.

"But...who IS Hyo?"

Hyo is a former 2x Open The Brave Gate champion (think: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship), former 1x Open The Twin Gate champion (tag title belts) and 4x Open The Triangle Gate championship (trio tag belts). Yes Dragongate have different names for every title you get used to it very quickly.

Despite what you might think when looking at Hyo and what I've just told you about him, not only does Hyo have what could be described as a tragic story in Dragongate but also a multi-year past as a beloathed heel.

He was a heel from late 2019 all the way until late 2023. Evolving alongside the group as members left, joined and the faction itself changed from R.E.D to Z-Brats. He went from just another grunt to the mastermind behind a coup and the man who brought one of the most important people into the group's fold, Shun Skywalker. Shun, his fellow 2016 debutant and friend. Shun, the man who would drive Hyo to leave Z-Brats after Shun betrayed their mutual friend Diamante (now known as Luis Mante). Hyo and Mante would form the faction Big Hug, and would fight tooth and nail to recruit Jacky Kamei (something that would cost Hyo his hair) before Big Hug would be forcefully disbanded far too soon.

Faction-wise, Hyo is now in Love & Peace (fka Gold Class) after being fought over in a Hyo contra Hyo match.

A lot has happened to Hyo to make him who he is now, and he shows that with his borrowing from other eras of himself in his matches. He's brought back the tarantula, one of his moves from when he was just a rookie, as well as the Zero Point Kick, another one of his moves but instead from when he was a heel. He's unabashedly himself, having become unafraid of who he is and how that can interfere with his image. He ruminates on how jealous he is of Shun and Ben-K and how he wants to crush them. He happily accepts Shun's description of him as "extremely disgusting", because he's also "extremely beautiful."