The Dragon Gate thread

[Guest JPaCyN]

Hey everybody,

 

I know free boards kinda suck and stuff, but I went ahead and made a Dragon Gate messageboard, for discussion of Toryumon stuff besides current events (which the purofan comment board is kinda limited to.) If you're interested in checking it out, here's the link.

 

http://messageboard662654.aimoo.com

[JFFC]

DGReview :(I promise it will be up soon.

[Spatular]

http://messageboard662654.aimoo.com

I promise to have a look once my spoiler blackout's over - but that'll be the middle of July at the very earliest...Just to remind folks:No 6/22 Korakuen Hall or 7/3 Kobe World Hall spoilers in this thread please.And if y'all can avoid starting new threads with titles like 'New ODG champ!!!!111', that'd be great too.

[JFFC]

http://messageboard662654.aimoo.com

I promise to have a look once my spoiler blackout's over - but that'll be the middle of July at the very earliest...Just to remind folks:No 6/22 Korakuen Hall or 7/3 Kobe World Hall spoilers in this thread please.And if y'all can avoid starting new threads with titles like 'New ODG champ!!!!111', that'd be great too.

I echo them there sentiments, but in bigger bolder writing.No 6/22 Korakuen Hall or 7/3 Kobe World Hall spoilers in this thread please.

[Gwailofilms]

This thread will not die!I finally got around to watching the first two matches of JFFC's Best of 2004 comp this morning and the first (FloBros vs. CIMA & SUWA) had me in absolute hysterics. I laughed so much I hurt my abs and scared my cat.The "everyone-in-a-headlock" spot is superb and the final run to (and outright ridiculousness of) the finish is pure gold. Who'd've thought ketchup could be so funny?Match #2 was FloBros vs. Tanisaki & Genki and plays like a condensed version of Match #1 but with some twists on some of the spots. For example, in the first match Referee Yagi is the last man in headlock chain, gets shoved off into the ropes and gets blatted with a quadruple boot on the return. In the second match, he's in the middle of the multiple headlock and is one of the booters. He then gets so caught up in repeating the pose they all do (for about 2 minutes ), he misses the heels cheating and almost misses a pin attempt. Gold, I tell thee.Can anyone tell me what Tanisaki says that makes everyone fall over laughing?Up next (about 6:30 tomorrow morning. Groan!): My first look at JET~!

[Spatular]

By sheer coinkydink, I was about to bump this thread too. I feel less guilty now. :)I've been watching the Feb and Mar stuff again, because I'm due to receive the Apr and May stuff shortly. And the Jun PPV - TAKA vs Susumu spoiler free, baby~! Don't worry, I'll start a new thread when I get to watching that one.Couple of random observations (most of which I've probably posted already, but what the hell):- The Brave Gate tournament PPV from March is the best thing this year up until then by a mile. If you only get one show from that period, get that one. Yossino vs K-ness is a hell of a lightweight match by anyone's standards - the most I've enjoyed a face vs face match in ages.- I'm glad they gave up on the whole 'Florida Brother wrestles seriously' idea. Poor old Danny Mishima wasn't really convincing as a bad-ass, and that tope-gone-wrong from the Brave Gate show was horrible. Oh, and Michael Iwasa's 'gimmick theft' from the Feb PPV is utterly, utterly priceless:

SPOILER

He wrestles as Milano, trunks 'n all! The slo-mo quebrada spot, complete with Yagi assist, is fantastic.

- It's my humble opinion that Genki Horiguchi is the most under-rated wrestler in the world. Always captivating, great babyface, great heel, great comedy, fantastic execution every time. A joy to watch, pushed or unpushed.

Can anyone tell me what Tanisaki says that makes everyone fall over laughing?

First match on the second Infinity, right? I'll have a look if I remember, but no promises that I'll be able to make it out.

[Gwailofilms]

- It's my humble opinion that Genki Horiguchi is the most under-rated wrestler in the world. Always captivating, great babyface, great heel, great comedy, fantastic execution every time. A joy to watch, pushed or unpushed.

Absolutely.I've got a six-man M-Pro match from around '99 that he's part of and I remember him looking pretty bad (I haven't watched it for at least three years, so I could be way off), so I wasn't holding out a lot of hope when I saw him listed for this new "Toryumon" stuff. Imagine my surprise when he turned out to be good. Then the Godly Backslide and the

[Carbomb]

At present, I would list my top five favourite DG wrestlers thus:1. Horiguchi Genki2. Yoshino/YOSSINO3. CIMA4. Doi Naruki5. K-NessA few months back, Milano was at the top, so as you can imagine, I'm mega-pissed off that he's gone.BLT, side-note question: Has Yokosuka lost at all this year? I don't think I've seen a single match yet where he's lost.

[Spatular]

BLT, side-note question: Has Yokosuka lost at all this year? I don't think I've seen a single match yet where he's lost.

Yup -

05 Feb 2005 2/6 Hakata Star Lane2/6/2005 Hakata Star Lanes1. CIMA, Naruki Doi{W}, Shingo Takagi (19:03 Bakatare Sliding Kick) K-ness, Susumu Yokosuka{L}, Keni'chiro Arai2. Florida Brothers (5:53 DQ) Naoki Tanisaki3. Don Fujii (9:46 Avalanche Nodowa Elbow) Super Shisa4. Magnum TOKYO{W}, Genki Horiguchi, Dragon Kid (18:26 Zetsuen) Milano Collection AT{L}, YOSSINO, Anthony W. Mori5. Open the Dream GateMasaaki Mochizuki (28:45 Saikyou High Kick) Ryo Saito*V1 for Mochi

I think that match was televised. Would have been on the Feb TV block...Edit: at the time, I commented that I thought it was Susumu's first loss since he challenged for the ODG belt in September. So he hasn't lost much, at any rate.Also, at the time, JLM posted this. THIS~!Brief reminder to everyone - PLEASE do not post the Susumu vs TAKA result. I thank you.

[JFFC]

The Brave Gate tournament PPV from March is the best thing this year up until then by a mile. If you only get one show from that period, get that one. Yossino vs K-ness is a hell of a lightweight match by anyone's standards - the most I've enjoyed a face vs face match in ages.

Dont forget people, you can win a free copy of this show from http://www.dgreview.co.uk by answering a ridiculously stupid question. pimp over, I have nothing to add but please dont spoil the Susu/Taka PPV.

[Spatular]

I don't know what CIMA likes :(I'm sure he'd like R White's lemonade if he tried it...

[JLM]

I really can't emphasise my love for that picture. Standing on Mutoh's face, utterly utterly wonderful. Everyone should watch the All japan february ppv that was part of that big triple crown double header. The undercard was so much fun and the heat for Kondo, YASSHI and TARU's antics was greatness. TARU is even cooler as a bad ass bodybag using unit leader, I didn't think that was possible. Voodoo Murders~! In other news, the reviews from me on DGReview will be much better when I've finished. As you can hopefully tell, the ones currently up there are pasted from this thread. I'm in the process of re-doing them all, JFFC says he'll replace the infinity 1 and 2 reviews with my shiny new ones soon.

[JFFC]

I'm in the process of re-doing them all, JFFC says he'll replace the infinity 1 and 2 reviews with my shiny new ones soon.

Tis done, though not got a redone one for Infini 1

[Spatular]

So I've watched the April and May stuff now. I'll leave the detailed reviewerage to JLM, but here are some brief thoughts:

 

The April TV's pretty good. Highlights are a surprise Mochi vs Susumu match (quite good but had a short time limit), the Tozawa debut vs Fujii (he's solid, if a little vanilla, but this angle has got him very over!) and a Doi & Shingo vs K-ness & YOSSINO tag that was going really well until YOSSINO decided to turn evil.

 

The April PPV's very, very good. Get it. Tozawa has another good outing in a good opener, CIMA and Doi get the second biggest surprise of the night when they're booked against the FloBros but end up fighting Iwasa Gundam~! (loved the way they worked Mishima's concussion), Danshoku Dieno's mystery guest spot is HILARIOUS, and the main event's pretty good too. I'm starting to come around to Jae's way of thinking on Katsuhiko Nakajima, though - his offence is repetitive and pretty unspirited.

 

The May TV's not bad. Kawada vs Stalker is very short and a bit dull. Stoicism will only get you so far in a comedy match. Then there are a couple of solid tags - BxB Hulk's starting to look the part, by the way - and the revenge match between Danny Mishima and Doi, which is OK. The rest of the show is hype and a warm-up tag for K-ness's Brave Gate challenge. The title match is the best thing on the show by a mile - worth seeing.

 

The May PPV's a bit average, to be honest. The opening stuff was unhyped but quite fun. But Araken brought an awesome new variation on the 'attack Genki's hairline' gag, and Naoki and Shingo still hate each other, so it's all good. FM2K/Kickboy vs Pos. Hearts fell a bit flat because the M2K boys are both more over and more popular than Team Mori, and because Nakajima just isn't a good fit in this kind of match. Magu vs Tenryu wasn't as much fun as I was expecting. I wanted to see Magu beaten up, not just beaten! Oh well. The stuff after the interval was better, with the K-dojo guys looking good and giving Doi and Yoshino a damn good match with a simple story: the DG guys are better individuals but Oishi and Asahi are the better team. (I wish WWE would use that idea more often). Lastly, Fujii's ODG challenge was a HELLA stiff match. Mochi's striking was just brutal. It could have stood to have gone a bit longer but Mochi came out of it looking very strong, which I guess was the idea. Good match and a nice contrast to the usual DG fare.

 

And then, during his victory speech: TAKA is coming, motherfucker! TAKA makes his long-winded challenge, which Mochi accepts, but as he tosses TAKA the key, Susumu steps out and catches it! Awesome. Can't wait to see this match tonight.

[$tew]

I used to love Toryumon... I really did. It was right up there amongst my favourite promotions in the world a few years ago. Then - for no adequately explained reason... I stopped watching it. I'm not quite sure why I stopped, because it's not like I wasn't enjoying it. I just did. The last Toryumon action I saw (with the exception of Ultimo Dragon's final performance show) was September 2003, apparently.

 

So, a couple of months ago I got the January 2005 Dragon Gate PPV, thinking that I might get back into the promotion... and it's kicked around in my "to watch" spindle ever since. I've come close to putting it in... but I just never got round to it. Until tonight.

 

So... from someone who has seen nothing of these guys for well over a year, here are some thoughts on the January 2005 PPV. Feel free to correct me or put me right on stuff I don't understand, by the way.

 

We start with some backstory regarding the formation of a new stable out of the ashes of Crazy Max. There's a clip of CIMA and some guys wearing horse masks. What the hell is that about?? Super Shisa seems to be there, as does Stalker, Don Fuji and some other fella. Back at the PPV, they appear to be called Blood Generation. Neither Shisa nor Stalker are with them now.

 

Masaaki Mochizuki & Naruki Doi vs Magnum TOKYO & Dragon Kid.

I'm trying to figure out/remember who's with who in the whole "factions" thing. Dragon Kid used to be M2K... but he's now Do Fixer, along with TOKYO. Naruki Doi used to be Second Doi - but he appears to have dropped the baseball gimmick. This was quite enjoyable. Doi & DK kept it fairly low key (at least from what I was expecting). I've always been a big mark for TOKYO, and I thought he looked phenomenal here when he got in the ring. He was going at 100mph and he was absolutely great. It was striking me as weird that people like Mochi & Magnum are in the opener... and then it occurred... isn't Mochi the champ? Very strange opener. Anyway... Magnum TURNED~! on Dragon Kid by kicking the ropes from underneath him... but strangely, they continued to team up?!? What gives? Is DK Magnum's bitch or something? I was doubly shocked when Doi then turned on Mochi out of nowhere and joined Blood Generation. WTF was that all about. No contest, I assume.

 

Florida Brothers vs Kenichiro Arai

I'd been hearing about the FloBros, so I was expecting this to be fun (although I've always hated Arai)... so I'm rather surprised to report that this sucked BALLS. No, really. This was utterly insane - and in a bad way. Okay, I don't know if this is representative of the usual FloBro stuff or not, but this was horrible, business exposing rubbish. First they appear to have a "contest" with Arai (egged on by the referee) of ways to enter the ring. Then the "match" started. Now, I don't know if this is part of the joke - but the FloBros worked SO light that they barely appeared to be trying. And then the ref got involved. First he was on the FloBros side... then he was on Arai's side... and I'm thinking... what is this bullshit all about? I'm not averse to using the ref in a comedy spot or two (as the straight man, of course)... but this ref was blatantly double teaming people. I'm totally confused. Of course, every spot appeared to be horrifically badly contrived, and there was nothing that grabbed me. The "icing on the cake" was when one of the Brothers apperaed to "lose a hand" in an over-the-rope armbreaker and threw a rubber hand in the ring. The ref threw the hand to Arai - who saw it... fainted... and lost via KO. Now, I've always hated Arai... but I felt sorry for him going along with this rubbish. How is anyone meant to take him seriously now?? I now HATE the Florida Brothers.

 

Stalker Ichikawa vs Akira Hokuto

Now, here comes the comedy MASTER... and this was perfectly done. The thing about Stalker which makes him work and the FloBros not work is the fact that {a} Stalker is such a freaky looking thing, {b} he rarely gets in any offence, and {b} he always gets slaughtered in short order. Stalker made me laugh, Akira delivered the Northern Lights Bomb, and I managed to forget the last match.

 

Susumu Yokosuka & K-Ness vs YOSSINO & Anthony W Mori

I am - and always have been - GAY for Susumu... but in actual fact, I like all these guys. The match was good - in fact I'd probably go as far as to say very good - but instantly forgettable. With the exception of Susumu MURDERING Anthony with a Jumbo lariat and Yokosuka Cutter to finish, I can barely remember it at all. Where is Venezia these days? Is he still around? If not, WHY NOT?? I need to see midget monkeys and I'm not willing to start watching CMLL to see that little blue one...

 

Milano Collection AT vs Ryo Saito

Fuck. I didn't even realise this was on the show!! Bonus! They showed clips of the Milano-Ryo stuff from the early T2P shows (which I loved at the time) and I was well up for this one. This match was AWESOME and it was all because of the godlike working ability of Ryo Saito. Ryo got some early offence, then Milano came back with a bunch of s-l-o-w-l-y applied wacky submissions etc just for the hell of it. AT looked like he wished he was somewhere else, to be honest... but Ryo sold like a TROOPER, making every lacadisically applied hold seem like a potential finisher. What was awesome was that while AT had all these weird moves that tied his opponent in knots, Ryo nearly brought the house down with a simple schoolboy rollup. Now, THAT'S working, kids. Ryo - through his selling and facials of Milano's offence - brought the fans into the match with a simple cradle. If ever there was an example of "it's not what you do, but the way that you do it", it was this match. When Ryo came back with some bigger offence, I was quite literally yelling my support at the screen. Ryo hit a German Suplex, and I shouted "Yes! That's it!"... and I groaned my displeasure when Milano kicked out. Ryo went for a Dragon Suplex... "Yes", I shouted, "Get him!!". The ref counted three and I felt elated. "Fuck you, AT~", I exclaimed... "Fuck you in your stupid ass~!"

 

I stood back for a minute. Wow! I was so involved in the match and I so wanted Ryo to win I was shouting at my TV set! I think the last time I felt moved to shout abuse at my telly was the end of Angle vs Michaels at WrestleMania. Ryo Saito is YOUR DADDY...!

 

He apparently won a key. Is that like a #1 contendership or something?

 

CIMA, Shingo Takagi, Don Fuji & Naruki Doi vs Magnum TOKYO, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Super Shisa

Hey, it's 3/4 of the opener - back for the main event~! Doi has already got Blood Generation trunks! This was a big brawl to start with, GAEA style. I was SHOCKED~! when Shisa got pinned really early, as I thought it was all over. Thankfully it wasn't. 2/3 falls, apparently. The match was strange in that none of Do Fixer seemed to hit any of their trademarked moves. No surfboard action from Genki, no Viagra Driver from Magnum, no headstands from Shisa... speaking of whom... despite getting killed, he came back to pin CIMA for the second fall. Third fall had more brawling. The new Takagi guy seems OK, although he didn't do an awful lot. Doi and Dragon Kid really tore it up with some great action at the end with Doi beating DK to win the match. Well, I guess you've got to put the new faction over, haven't you? M2K hit the ring afterwards to (presumably) challenge BG.

 

All in all, fairly good stuff to re-introduce me to the promotion. Ryo vs Milano was Match Of The Night by some way.

 

I guess next on the shopping list is the February PPV, right? Looking at the matchlist, the main event IS Blood Generation vs M2K. Also, there looks like a great six man with TOKYO, Genki & DK vs YOSSINO, Anthony & Shisa. Shisa?? Isn't he with Do Fixer??

 

I fear for Daniel Mishima vs Ryo Saito though... why would they not capitalise on Ryo's magnificent performance in the January show?

 

Anyway... comments welcome.