The Dragon Gate thread

[alexander]

How is World looking good with Kidu in the title match?!

[Foley4ever]

How is World looking good with Kidu in the title match?!

That's Kido.

[JLM]

Turns out I'm actually a fool who makes assumptions. Morty told you no lies, I actually only have shows up to February. I sent a list which went up to March, large parcel arrived today, I assumed it was all of them before actually checking each disc. I remember now that I was told that he didn't have the March shows in yet. Apologies.

[Spatular]

Well, hnnnnnNNNNNNNN anyway. :/Kid was IMO very good in 2005, and he's historically had his best matches with Susumu, so I've no objection. CIMA vs Magnitude has been building for about a year and I want to see it pretty badly. The Revolution match looks like the best laugh ever. There'll be a BloodGen vs Muscle Outlawz tag somewhere, and that'll be great too.The only thing worrying me is that I can't think of anything worthwhile for Ryo and Genki... There're a few other guys not booked yet, but I'm less worried about them.They've added this:-Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Naoki Tanisaki, Gamma, Dr. Muscle vs. Yasushi Kanda, Don Fujii, Matt Sydal, Roderick Strong, Jack EvansHmm. I don't like Evans, I found Strong pretty dull in December, I've still not seen Sydal, and it's very weird to see Kanda and Fujii on the same side (although as a payoff for the MO's bent ref angle it makes good sense). Still, it'll have great heat, so I guess it'll be a laugh.

[Spatular]

the first half of the January PPV, which was OK but very throwaway in terms of the matchmaking. The more lacklustre Korakuen PPVs like this I see

Yeah. So disregard everything I said about this show because the stuff after the interval was both fantastic and superheated. Mochi & Magu vs Fujii & Takagi was a superior NOAH heavyweight tag worked by Dragon Gate guys. With this match, Fujii supercedes Genki as my pick for most underrated wrestler on earth - and believe me, I do not say such things lightly. The main event wasn't quite as good but did feature some top heelery, some cool dissent between SaiRyo and Tanisaki and a really surprising finish. Get the damn show already.Looking back in this thread, I'm going to call PUNQ on overrrating (!) the first match on this card (Kenichiro Arai & Susumu Yokosuka -vs- King Shisa & Super Shisa). I didn't think it was worth **3/4 of my own money, let alone his. :sly:Question for anyone who'd claim to know the answer: with this show, they've changed the play-by-play guy. Is this a step up or a step down? The new dude looks less officious than the last one, but sounds a little crisper.

[JLM]

EDIT - I've swapped this with my post on Infinity 25 to keep things in order.

 

Infinity 23

 

Stalker Ishikawa vs President Okamura

 

Standard Stalker squash. DG alliteration in full effect. Okamura has some fun offence but comes accross as one of those bosses you see on TV who try too hard to take part and be "one of the guys". Still, at least he doesn't push himself and make people kiss his arse. He brings in Dino for any arse baring that needs to be done, and that's how it should be.

 

Tozawa vs Araken

 

This was great, I was really rooting for Tozawa, partly because he sold like a champ and looked like he wanted it more than anything and partly because Araken hands him an absolute shocker of arse kicking. Stretching the crap out of him, kicking his face in and finishing with a fuggin horrific hanshin tiger suplex. Tozawa was intentionally bland at this time but he sure knew how to bring the fire~!

 

Every now and then I like to watch the adverts during episodes of Infinity to see the latest whacky products, only this time I saw something that my grandmother would absolutely love. I must find out if they sell the FLEXI-LID outside of Japan.

 

BxB Hulk vs Don Fujii

 

A cracking little match in front of a hot crowd who are 100% behind Hulk, who is looking like more of a star with each performance and on these past few shows is clearly way more over than Antony. Oh, and that backflip dodge thing might be contrived but it looks beautiful, Taiji Ishimori wishes he was BxB Hulk.

 

Don Fuji is particularly great in singles matches, especially against a skinny pretty boy like Hulk and seems to enjoy throwing him into the chairs around ring side and brutalising him with lariats.

 

Good stuff all round, I'd like to see these two go for longer.

 

They showed a little clip of CIMA schweining foo's down in Mexico, and a quick recap of the MAGMA/CIMA swerve. I never get tired of the look of utter shock on the faces of the front row. Awesome.

 

And for the rest of the show its BloodGen vs DoFixer triangle gate brilliance.

 

4. Open the Triangle Gate: CIMA/Naruki Doi/Don Fujii vs. Ryo Saito/Dragon Kid/Genki Horiguchi (07/08/05)

5. Open the Triangle Gate: Ryo Saito/Dragon Kid/Genki Horiguchi vs. CIMA/Naruki Doi/Don Fujii (07/09/05)

6. Open the Triangle Gate

Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi vs. CIMA, Naruki Doi, Don Fujii

 

 

 

Dragon Kid is flourishing in these BloodGen/DF tag team matches, definitely some of the strongest work of his career, particularly in his exchanges with Doi. He's hitting almost everything spot on, keeping the matches frantic with his explosive bursts of offense and generally looking like he's as desperate to win as Genki and Ryo, which isn't easy. The latter point has been key to this improvement in his performances, he is a lot less formulaic now and everything he does seems like an attempt to further the team's cause and/or get a piece of Doi.

 

For example, he hasn't opened his matches with the usual, run ropes, headscissors, run ropes, body scissors into arm drag to send opponent outside, run and tiger feint, pose for fans. That used to happen in 9 out of 10 of his matches when he was just involved in multiman tags to make up the numbers. Now he actually has something to get his teeth into he's hitting thesz presses and firing off flurries of punches, teasing the dragonrana when the ultra hurricanrana won't get it done and generally flying about the place as if he's willing to die to get the match won. Definitely liking what I'm seeing.

 

The feud is developing its little signature features now too. Like Ryo and CIMA punching each other in the chest, Doi coming up with his own counters to Kid's offence a la K-Ness and new double team spots including that bloody brilliant BG move where they bulldog one opponent off the shoulders of his kneeling partner, driving them both face first into the mat. I never get tired of the little DG six man touches either. Ryo tries a german suplex bridge, gets a 2.999 then quickly rolls out of the ring because he'd used his last bit of energy to hit the move, DF members learning from previous matches and intercepting the big BG moves, such as rugby tackling Doi just before he can hit Genki with the Bakatare sliding kick that cost them the previous match.

 

The closing stretch to the second of these matches is stunning, I can't imagine how great it would be to witness it live with the whole arena on the edge of their seats willing Genki to survive the beating this time and not go down three matches in a row. Of course, he doesn't, and pulls out the win with the godly backslide, and everyone with a soul absolutely loves it.

 

6a. Open the Triangle Gate - 2/3 falls

CIMA, Magnitude Kishiwada, Masato Yoshino vs. Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi

6b. Open the Triangle Gate - Elimination rules

CIMA, Magnitude Kishiwada, Masato Yoshino vs. Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi

 

I checked how much time was left on the show at this point and was pleased to see that there was still an hour or so left which suggested that this would be shown in full.

 

Seems that BloodGen felt like switching up the teams a bit after their two losses, with Doi and Fuji (who took the falls in previous encounters) making way for Yoshino and the ace in the whole that is The 'tude.

 

The big man wastes little time in showing just how much he adds to the BloodGen team. The match starts with Kido hitting THE EXACT ROUTINE I PRAISED HIM FOR CUTTING DOWN ON.

 

But then Maggy tags in and just kills everyone with bad ass power moves, and one moment of BG chair related shenanigans later and the green one is out of here, although DF are one fall to the good via disqualification. Six minutes later after some more blistering action, Genki gets murdered in a three on one situation and falls victim to a diving body press to tie the scores. All hell breaks loose during the third fall with Pos.Hearts dragging Kid back to ring side, everyone getting involved, a BLUE BOX~! coming into play and eventually BG getting disqualified for Doi interference and removing DK's mask.

 

Awesome to watch if a little difficult to follow. Anyway, given the inconclusive nature of this result and the fact that their war over the triangle gate stood at 2-2 before this match ended with something of a non-finish, we get a restart.

 

What an amazing final hour to the show, these six going at it for close to an hour in total with the crowd in full voice for the duration. Ryo Saito cements himself as an absolute hero with this display, climaxing with his one on one effort against Magnitude after overcoming the two on one scenario following the eliminations of Genki and Kid. Genki taking out Yoshino is fantastic just before that. He looks utterly beaten after taking most of the punishment in the match, Yoshino comes in just to finish him off and ends up falling victim to the world's most dangerous back slide. People in the crowd are literally jumping up and down as he gets the fall. Seriously, Genki could lose 100 matches in a row and still have you believe he could win his next one, he is that good.

 

I have to agree that this is easily the best TV of 2005 up to this point, and I can't imagine what would top this. BloodGen vs Dofixer is the best thing in the promotion since Aagan, as evidenced by the fact that this show is two hours of top quality action and Susumu, K-ness, Shingo, Mochi and Naoki didn't even wrestle. It might be a small roster, but it's one that's blessed with some amazing talent.

 

A genuinely essential TV block, and one that those people who only watch the PPVs might want to break their rules for.

[Spatular]

I think you've missed an episode... Infinity #23 was the one immediately following the World show. You want to track it down if you haven't already got it - it's fantastic. Easily the best TV block I saw in 2005, Dragon Gate or otherwise.

 

Infinity #23, 7/3~7/12

1. Tozawa Trial Series, #10 (7/3)

Keni'chiro Arai vs. Tozawa

2. Open the Triangle Gate (7/8)

CIMA, Naruki Doi, Don Fujii vs. Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi

3. Open the Triangle Gate (7/9)

Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi vs. CIMA, Naruki Doi, Don Fujii

4. Open the Triangle Gate

Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi vs. CIMA, Naruki Doi, Don Fujii

5. BxB Hulk vs. Don Fujii (7/12)

6. Open the Triangle Gate

CIMA, Magnitude Kishiwada, Masato Yoshino vs. Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi

[JLM]

Checking through my last batch, I do actually have it, I've no idea why I skipped it out. Thanks for pointing it out though, as it came from my last batch rather than the new batch of TUFF DISCS~! (I'll get over that soon), it would have fallen into the abyss of 'watched' shows.

 

I will watch it now, it does look like a hell of a line up. I wonder if Araken vs Tozawa is as brutal as last time I saw them go at it. Araken gave him the beating of a life time.

 

I will edit this post after watching, and possibly even edit my Infinity 25 post and do some swapping to keep things in order.

 

Infinity #25

 

1.CIMA, Magnitude Kishiwada, Don Fujii, Shingo Takagi vs. Magnum TOKYO, Anthony W. Mori, BxB Hulk, Super Shisa

 

I found this oddly boring, given the participants. Mori looks like quite the chump when Magu is on the Pos.Hearts team and is clearly their strongest member, as emphasised by the ending. BloodGen weren't on especially evil or dickish form and they just went through the motions. Meh.

 

2. Stalker Ichikawa vs. Pos. HEARTS 4 Match Series

 

I didn't see the point of this as they didn't actually try and inject any comedy into it. Magu needing three times as long as the others and having to bust out a signature move to get the win was mildly amusing I guess.

 

3. Shingo Takagi vs. Genki Horiguchi (7/15)

 

OK, but you'd expect a lot better than that from these two. Genki never really got into this and it wasn't far from being a squash,

 

4. Naruki Doi, Don Fujii vs. Magnum TOKYO, Dragon Kid (7/15)

5. Naruki Doi, Don Fujii vs. Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi (8/2)

 

Bulding up the Doi vs DK rivalry nicely, Doi is really getting good at this catching lark, some of the Deja VU headscissors have looked almost as good as vs. Susumu, which is not easy to replicate.

 

Speaking of Doi, he looks more and more like the genuine article as these shows go on. I got thinking during this about how incredible that T2P class was. YASSHI, Kondo, Sugawara, Yoshino, Doi, Mori, Milano and the rest all coming through at the same time or within months of one another. As underwhelming as the X group was, it would have been a tough act to follow for anyone. Was nice to see the Bakatare sliding kick actually put someone away in one hit here too, it's a great looking impact move and has been overkilled pretty badly recently.

 

6. CIMA vs. Ryo Saito (8/2)

 

Well, this was never going to be bad was it? Not great though, but this is mainly because it was there to do a job as Ryo gets royally screwed in a match rife with interference and ref bump based screwjobbery. If you cut away this fat there's still a very watchable match here though, but then as I say these two can't really go wrong. The support for Ryo can be heard growing as it goes on, it's good to hear, particularly against CIMA who often has difficulty getting 100% of the fans to hate him. So Ryo with singles a win, CIMA with a tainted singles win but a win nonetheless. Game on methinks.

 

7. CIMA, Magnitude Kishiwada, Masato Yoshino vs. Anthony W. Mori, Super Shisa, BxB Hulk (7/15)

 

This certainly made up for the opener. BloodGen are absolute dicks here, it's brilliant. Yoshino is in cocky bastard strut mode for pretty much the whole match and CIMA does countless dastardly acts purely for his own amusement. Like at the very start, him and Hulk go in for your basic collar and elbow tie up, except CIMA changes his position at the last second and just clocks him in the jaw. I laughed out loud.

 

Then later on, Shisa is on the outside returning to his corner after a dive and CIMA and Hulk end up as the two legal men in the ring. They're just about to square off when CIMA decides, for no reason at all, to leap out of the ring, run up behind Shisa and kick him in the back before returning to face Hulk again. CIMA is amazing, it was an almost YASSHI-like moment.

 

Not an essential episode of DG TV by any means, but CIMA vs Ryo and the final match made it worth watching and the Doi/Kid exchanges set the scene for their upcoming match to good effect.

[JLM]

August 2005 Battle Junction PPV

 

Super X and Yuji Hino vs Shingo Takagi and Don Fuji

 

Ehh.. Average, very average. Wrestled a stroll, Yuji Hino is very uninteresting and Super X didn't really get to do anything. Shingo and Don Fuji are better than this.

 

Florida Brothers vs Araken and Stalker Ishikawa

 

Bwahaha. Stalker Araken is excellent, this match hid the right comedy notes throughout. Stalker actually hit his shining wizard successfully! It looked pretty damn good too. Also, that fan makes the best slap noise ever. Great fun, with Stalker and Araken providing the comedy more than FloBro.

 

Open the Triangle gate:

Antony W Mori/BxB Hulk/Super Shisa vs Masato Yoshino/CIMA/Magnitude Kishiwada

 

This was moved down from the main event during CIMA's opening MC. Reading up on it, this is because there were Odaiba every day pro wrestling shows going on on the same day and the wrestlers' schedule was pretty difficult. Partly explains why this show was pretty underhwelming on the whole.

 

The Pos.Hearts lady dancers seem to get hotter every time, doesn't stop Shisa from looking like a total goon though. The match was good but very short. It can't have made it to ten minutes, not far off being a squash as the Pos.Hearts guys get absolutely destroyed in short order, with Hulk the only one looking like he might cause BloodGen any touble. Not especially bad, but if I'd ordered the PPV with this as the main event only to see it relegated to the middle of the card and given less than ten minutes, I'd feel a tad short changed.

 

So, 75 minutes into the show and only two matches left.

 

 

Naruki Doi vs Dragon Kid

 

Again, this was ok but you'd expect more from it. Doi was suitably bad ass, I loved the bit where he did the whole rhythmic clapping thing to the crowd, then when they didn't join in launched a big gob of spit at the front row. CIMA clearly loved it too.

 

The problem was that the match had an unsatisfactory finish in order to set up the brave gate encounter between the two (which I look forward to seeing), which isn't a bad thing in terms of developing the feud but on a show that had already had its main event taken away it felt a bit flat. Ten minutes in, just as everyone's getting behind Kid, the match is stopped short due to a mask removal DQ. The match definitely did its job, as did the post match happenings and second mask removal, but in terms of actual in ring action this show again fails to deliver anything of must see PPV quality.

 

Genki/Ryo/Magnum TOKYO vs Katsuhiko Nakajima/Susumu Yokosuka/Masaaki Mochizuki

 

This is more like it. Thankfully the main event was up to pay per view standard, though nowhere near as good as BloodGen/DF. But then how could it be? There was no reason for this to happen. What it did provide was a solid 20 minutes of hard hitting, intense six man fare with particularly strong showings from Susumu and Magu. The latter in particular put in one of his best displays in a long time against DG opposition, maybe this Tenryu thing really did revitalise him a bit. But yeah, a good match that stops this show being totally missable after two DQ finishes, an 8 minute main event swuash and a FloBro match that can be seen on countless other shows.

 

I think shows like this provide a strong case for cutting down the number of PPVs in a year. It was clear that, following the incredible series of BG vs DF Triangle gate matches that dominated July, they actually had no idea how to fill three hours of PPV in August. Combined with the hectic touring schedule and Odaiba shows, this is the product of a thin roster combined with some short sighted booking. They didn't have time to or really attempt to make Pos.Hearts seem like credible challengers going into this, and thus the match had to be a squash. Doi/Kid was built fairly well but it seems they didn't want to blow off the feud yet and the rest was just filler. As M2J said, the main event was essentially the "bi-annual reminder that FM2K still exists".

 

Ah well, best put it behind me and move on, those TUFF DISCS~ won't watch themselves.

 

EDIT: Wow, 2500 posts. That's... quite a few.

 

 

 

 

Quick heads up, a bit later than planned. The ROH show with Shingo vs Curryman and CIMA vs AJ Styles is on TWC right now. I'm sure it'll be repeated several times this week too.

 

Will edit mini-review into this here post.

 

Ebetus Jack vs Samoa Joe

 

Ebessan is consistently awesome. Here he's gone to amazing lengths to be Cactus Jack, including padding to replicate Foley's unusual physique. His commitment to BANG BANGing in all situations is a beautiful thing. Ebessan goes for the famous elbow to the floor, bottles out and gradually climbs down to deliver the tamest elbow drop ever to a huge "holy shit!" chant.

 

Joe is as brutal as you'd expect, Mick Foley interferes quite a lot. It's all good fun, Ebessan eats a muscle buster.

 

And now I'm confused. Went to adverts, came back and it's a shoot interview with Jimmy Yang.

 

And another break just before Yang makes me fall asleep and we have Shingo vs Curryman. Odd.

 

Shingo Takagi vs Curryman

 

Shingo looks genuinely ecstatic to be there, during the introductions he's absolutely buzzing, you can see here that he'd be pretty eager to make more trips to the states. They keep calling him Shingo Taka-jee, which is slightly irritating. A decent, hard hitting heavyweight affair with some token comedy and aerials from Daniels. Shingo gets a couple of signature moves in and generally looks pretty composed in his first American outing. He tries to play the heel but the fans are in clappy respectful mode so they both get applause for everything. Still, a fine enough showing. Post matchhe very begrudgingly gives the obligatory handshake, I like that he appears to be disgusted with himself after doing it.

 

The show ended after this match, so I'm not sure if I missed CIMA vs AJ in the first twenty minutes or it's been edited into another show. I'll try and catch it whenever its next on though.

[Famous Mortimer]

All future orders will be on lovely Verbatims- on that occasion I had to make do with what I could get. I take it TUFF DISCS aren't your favourite?

[JLM]

Ha, no they're absolutely fine. It just seemed odd to me that a company would call their discs that. You expect "Verbatim" and words like "Accucore", for some reason seeing TUFF DISC (with a nail instead of the "I" no less~) amused me. Like at our studenty house in Liverpool, the end of the road there's a pharmacist called "Dave's chemist", it just doesn't sound quite right to me. But to clarify, I have no objection to the use of Tuff Discs at all. They play fine, they are each filled with DragonGate goodness, that is all I ask.

[Spatular]

Infinity 23A genuinely essential TV block, and one that those people who only watch the PPVs might want to break their rules for.

Yes. I'm repeating myself, but people REALLY REALLY do need to see this one.Think I'll watch it again tonight

[Spatular]

Tissues at the ready, $tew

 

7/2/2006 Hyogo, Kobe World Hall

-Open the Dream Gate: Susumu Yokosuka vs. Dragon Kid

-CIMA vs. Magnitude Kishiwada

-K-ness, Keni'chiro Arai vs. Akira Tozawa, Taku Iwasa

-Revolution Special Match

Magnum TOKYO, Geni'chiro Tenryu vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Minoru Suzuki

-Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Naoki Tanisaki, Gamma, Dr. Muscle vs. Yasushi Kanda, Don Fujii, Matt Sydal, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans

-Shisa Family First Full Meeting: Ryo Saito, Genki Horiguchi, Turboman vs. Super Shisa, Shisa Boy, King Shisa

-BxB Hulk vs. Dos Caras

-Shingo Takagi vs. Yutaka Yoshie

[JLM]

That card looks like all kinds of fun, can't wait to see it. Susumu always brings the best out of DK, The Revolution special match will be awesome and CIMA vs Magnitude is hotly anticipated. Why is BxB Hulk wrestling Dos Caras by the way?

[Foley4ever]

That card looks like all kinds of fun, can't wait to see it. Susumu always brings the best out of DK, The Revolution special match will be awesome and CIMA vs Magnitude is hotly anticipated. Why is BxB Hulk wrestling Dos Caras by the way?

CIMA specially selected his opponent. I'm not sure if you're up to speed, but Hulk's a kinda unofficial member of Blood Generation now.