The Dragon Gate thread

[Spatular]

I HAVE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Thoughts will be edited in here. Longest, most painful download of all time, several weeks of diligent spoiler avoidance, this had better be good.

I'd be grateful if you could continue spoilerising such thoughts till the start of next week. I HAVE WORLD!!!! too, but I've the rest of Summerslam and Infinity #45 to get through first.

this had better be good.

[JLM]

JLM - did you mean Famous Mortimer? I couldn't find anything in his sig or profile.

Yea, I did mean Famous Mortimer but he doesn't have a site or anything. He just has a big zip file with all his stuff in it, and posts updates in Classifieds forums and so on. http://ccgi.simania.plus.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3213 < That's the latest update. PM or email him. For world, I'll definitely continue to honour the spoiler tagging rule until I'm sure people have seen it.Lantern, you're a dirty buzz killer. :(Still, being unspoiled tends to make me enjoy the shows more, so if it isn't up to scratch I'll probably still get some fun out of it.

[Carbomb]

JLM - did you mean Famous Mortimer? I couldn't find anything in his sig or profile.

Yea, I did mean Famous Mortimer but he doesn't have a site or anything. He just has a big zip file with all his stuff in it, and posts updates in Classifieds forums and so on. http://ccgi.simania.plus.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3213 < That's the latest update. PM or email him. For world, I'll definitely continue to honour the spoiler tagging rule until I'm sure people have seen it.Lantern, you're a dirty buzz killer. :(Still, being unspoiled tends to make me enjoy the shows more, so if it isn't up to scratch I'll probably still get some fun out of it.

Once again, thanks muchly.And what's this "World" everybody's been so vocal about?

[alexander]

The biggest show of the year in the Dragongate calender.

[Carbomb]

The biggest show of the year in the Dragongate calender.

Right. I haven't caught up yet, see - I'm still going through #28. I've been avoiding the reports on this thread like the plague. The only thing I've caught (and am most displeased about) is that Jack Evans, Matt Sydal and Roderick Strong are there.

[BurningHammer]

I'm stuck in the autumn of 2005 at the moment due to Morty's computer crashing and my DVD's getting held up a result, so I figured to lookat the results knowing I would not see the show until Christmas at the earliest

[TheLostScot]

Sorry for being an absolute dick and butting into this thread but can anyone recommend me 3/4 Toryumon events on DVD to get kicked off?Cheerzerzx

[JLM]

World thoughts -

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July 2007 PPV - Kobe World HallIt has taken me a long time to get hold of this show. I've successfully avoided spoilers, I've waited impatiently for a download that seemed like it would never finish, and now it's time to see if it was worth it. According to the player I'm using to watch this, the show clocks in at 4:59:59. Long. The card is a mixed bag, but there's enough on there to make me look forward to this hugely. Shingo vs Yoshie, the Revolution tag match, Susumu hopefully defending his title successfully and the hotly anticipated Magnitude/CIMA head to head. So, onto the review of Dragon Gate's very own Wrestlemania for 2007...Pre-show pyro, entrance videos and pre-match intro videos for everyone involved. Glitz~! Turboman's video includes his idiotic moonsault of death onto the poor camera man. I hope he goes away and never comes back. Super Shisa/King Shisa/Shisa Boy vs Ryo Saito/Genki Horiguchi/The TurbomanShisa Boy gets his televised debut at World, completing the "Shisa family" team. Their tandem headstand Shisa pose is in equal parts cool and utterly gay. Even though the Shisa team has a newcomer on their side, you still feel like Maraha and Issapa have drawn the short straw in having to carry Turboman. As you'd expect this is a solid and forgettable 15 minute opener. Shisa Boy puts in an alright showing, with the highlights being his obsessive Shisa posing and a very pretty quebrada. Turbo Man doesn't blow anything in any serious way this time, everyone else does what they normally do in these matches. The crowd are nice and lively for the most part and are very hot for the closing stretch, which bodes well for the rest of the show.Takayuki Mori/Akira Tozawa vs K-Ness/Kenichiro AraiUgh, you'd think the Tozawa-juku look with the awesome gaku-rans was foolproof, but then Antony comes out looking like a total ponce. How does he do it? With the addition of Katsuo and the accompaniment of that mean looking flagbearer dude, Tozawa-Juku are starting to look like quite a formidable unit during their entrance, especially here with the posing on the ramp and their new in-ring unit pose. Tozawa's transformation continues to astound me. I can't imagine him any other role now. What a great man he is. More importantly though, K-Ness is back. Damn the big soulless venue and lack of streamers. You can still feel (and hear) the love though. He's looking smaller, presumably because he hasn't been able to do any upper body work in the gym because of his recurring injuries, but it's fantastic to see him back without his shoulder covered in support tape. K-Ness' input is kept to a minimum where possible, and Tozawa is the undoubted star of the show. I don't know how he keeps up that level of screaming and shouting. You have to love his punishment absorbing schtick, and the crowd noise for him when it looks like a particularly brutal Yakuza kick has caused him to retreat is staggering. He also takes an eeeeeeeeeeeevil headbutt from Araken. Made me wince it did. So yeah, Tozawa is great, and K-Ness' return match went smoothly and ended with a nice simple win for him. Good good. Post-match there's an appearance from Stalker, but unfortunately they cut the lights on him and move onto the introductions for the next match while he's still talking. Heh. BxB Hulk vs Dos CarasIt disappoints me that the BB Hulk dancers didn't opt for super-skimpy outfits to mark this special event. Hulk did get a little mini-pyro thing for his entrance though. I wasn't too happy with this match at all. As bloody brilliant as it was to see Caras school Hulk with an array of uber-swanky stretches and holds, as soon as the match went onto anything other than that it was pretty embarrassing. The old guy can only run the ropes at half speed, and is clearly worried about bumping too, which made anything other than submission holds and his own offense look awful. I was also pissed off that Caras barely sold a damn thing and made Hulk look like a total chump for nearly the whole match and then pinned him to finish off what was a borderline squash. Just what in the hell did that achieve? I get that he was there for nostalgia and name value and to hit his signature stuff and pose etc. and a lot of the fans obviously adore the guy, but it still came accross as a thoroughly selfish performance that left a sour taste in the mouth. Magu getting leathered by Tenryu - That has a purpose, Magu learns from it, he changes his style, he progresses under Tenryu's tutelage and eventually even manages to get a victory over him. Caras didn't give Hulk anything and it seemed like a complete waste of time to me. The only good that could come of it would be for Hulk to incorporate a crazy lucha libre submission into his arsenal after 'learning' it from Dos Caras. Ryo and Genki being relegated to pointless opening matches? They got off lightly compared to Hulk in my opinion. Shingo Takagi vs Yutaka Yoshie[Now this I want to see. Dragon Gate's premier power house versus the shiny pink immovable object. Hell yes. Shingo is sporting a mean looking black eye that I presume was the work of one of his lesser American opponents. I hope it was a "you should have seen the other guy" situation.I adored this. This is pretty much exactly how I wanted it booked, though in an ideal world I would have been cheering like a loon for a Shingo victory. Still, everything else delivered. They did some flesh-slappingly meaty exchanges, Shingo reverted to his never say die babyface persona from his early run in Dragon Gate and Yoshie methodically dismantled him whilst constantly teasing a Shingo fight back. I was totally absorbed throughout. I was wincing when Shingo got hit, begging him to kick out, willing him to take Yoshie down and the way everything was teased meant that every little minor pay off they delivered hit the spot. When he finally hit the suplex, when he floored Yoshie with a lariat and when he hit the Last Falcony (!!!) I was marking like a female John Cena fan. Yoshie is great fun, so I have no problem with him beating Shingo at all, especially as it was obvious that Shingo had taken him to his limit. Also, that top rope Thesz press thing was superb and made for a great near fall. So yeah, this delivered everything I wanted it to bar a Shingo victory. Yoshie is welcome back any time, Shingo needs to come back full time. A supercard dream match in stark contrast to the supercard mismatch that came before it. Dr. Muscle/Naoki Tanisaki/Naruki Doi/Masato Yoshino/Gamma vs Don Fujii/Jack Evans/Roderick Strong/Matt Sydal/Yasushi KandaEhh, so Kanda teaming with Fujii still doesn't sit quite right and Dr. Muscle appears to be a non-wrestler and the charisma-free Sydal and Strong tend to dilute the emotional qualities of these matches. However, it's still Blood vs Muscle and there's the potential for Fujii/Kanda vs Gamma exchanges, so all is not lost. Kanda has his own solo entrance, which is a nice touch. I'm glad he hasn't changed his music and I get to hear Thee Michelle Gun Elephant on DG shows again. He actually uses the old M2K music "GWD" rather than his own theme song "Birdmen", but it's all good. What a great band. Anyway, the match...Seriously, who keeps allowing Kinta to referee Muscle Outlawz matches? Dr. Muscle = Okamura, you heard it hear first. Whoever it is, he has an amazing costume. A crazy match this, never a dull moment and plenty of great stuff going on from start to finish. Gamma was a prize dickhead and the star performer for me, picking out Kanda and punking him out in increasingly disrespectful ways. The pick of these saw him climbing to the top rope over a fallen Kanda, taking a big gulp from a water bottle and dribbling it back out of his mouth and down onto Kanda's face. Awesome. He seemed to spend the whole match with his finger in someone's eye or his spit en route to someone's face. When he wasn't doing that he was swinging his bamboo sword or mocking the fans. He is such a shit, everyone hates him, what a fine addition to the roster. The crowd was hugely into it, Sydal and Strong were used well as hot tag and save guys with Kanda and Evans taking most of the punishment. Fujii was immense once again when he was involved, and he even busted out a tope suicida which got a great response. The closing stretch was breathtaking, they busted out weapons, ref swerves, protein attacks and other shenanigans at such an amazing speed that it somehow didn't seem overbooked as it merged into the finish. Said finish, by the way, was once again a victory for those god damn Muscle Outlawz over Kanda after an outrageous amount of cheating. Who will stop these bastards? Finding out is going to be a lot of fun. IntervalPrevious CIMA/Magnitude confrontations and matches are shown. Okamura comes out and gives a speech. He says that they have set a record attendance of 8,000+ for World, that a full DG show in the US is a target for 2007 and that they'll be using a larger venue in Osaka on 23/11 this year. Masaaki Mochizuki/Minoru Suzuki vs Magnum TOKYO/Genichiro TenryuThis wasn't as good as it could of been, but I still got a kick out of it. Suzuki was all smirky and slappy and wanting a piece of Tenryu. Then everyone else got equally slappy and it descended into a mass slapfest. Suzuki and Tenryu completely ignoring the DG guys in order to face each other was a bit lame given that it was a DG show, but their exchanges were fun anyway. Magu vs Suzuki was what I wanted to see, and that was delivered for a short and entertaining spell. Much squaring up and mutual back-slapping post-match, Tenryu vs Suzuki somewhere down the line? Dragon Kid vs Susumu YokosukaHere we go then. Susumu's first defense of his first big title on the biggest stage Dragon Gate can provide. I'm begging him not to choke. Dragon Kid is wearing white. He never loses in white. Shit. :(Curiously, Susumu is also sporting a new look. He doesn't have a t shirt on and he has a shiny new singlet. It's like they directly responded to M2J's complaints about having a champion who wears a t-shirt. Whatever the reasoning behind CIMA getting to end this show (whether it's for the simple logistical reason of having to re-set the ring, or idea that the Blood/Muscle feud is considered top priority over Susumu/Kid), you can't deny that this match was given all the time and attention it could need. They went for 30 minutes plus and it certainly felt like a main event even with another match to come.That said, I've got to say that some of the build up during this match was pretty dull. Kid went for Susumu's arm, Susumu went for Kid's legs and it was all fine, but there were parts of the match that dragged a little for me. However, it all built nicely and the closing stretch was as dramatic as you'd expect, moreso if you have a strong interest in the outcome. I was ecstatic for Susumu when he won, and the second rope World Liner was quite a cool way for him to win. There were a couple of heart stopping moments, particularly the long two count off the Dragonrana, but in truth it was a more convincing defense for Susumu than I had feared. Kid's improvement this year probably justifies him having a crack at a main event match but I'm so very glad they didn't decide to shaft Susumu for the millionth time in his career. Susumu Yokosuka remains your Open the Dream Gate champion. All is well. CIMA vs Magnitude KishiwadaThey went down the hardcore route for this one. Chairs, ladder and table spots, a barbed wire board spot (!!!) and a scattering of interference. Said interference was kept down compared to usual Blood/Muscle matches and this allowed CIMA and Magnitutde to fight out their personal little war in a match that was all good apart from an unfortunate botched ladder move from CIMA that made him look a bit silly. He made up for it at the end with a Mad Splash off the ring post with nothing else for balance, I bet that wasn't easy. It felt like a good blow off to the CIMA/Magnitude rivalry, even if the limitations of having no ropes did hamper the pace of the match a bit at times. The big spots mostly came off well and the crowd was nicely vocal behind CIMA after a disappointingly quiet showing during Susumu/Kid. Not quite the intense war it could have been, but still a decent match with its share of memorable moments. Post-match, CIMA and BloodGen recreate that other show with the chanting and the crowd mobbing ringside and then some stage dives. CIMA's promo involves the announcement of his US excursion in summer and a trip to Europe in the Autumn of this year. Stalker shows up for some stage diving too. And that was World...Not an all time classic show by any means, but there was enough goodness on there for me to enjoy it. I loved Shingo/Yoshie, the Muscle/Blood ten man tag was great fun and Susumu/Kid delivered a good match that had the right result in my opinion. Negatives were that CIMA/Magnitude and the Revolution tag were a tad disappointing and that Hulk got squashed in a an infuriating and pointless waste of a match. The opener was meh, Tozawa entertains me without fail and K-Ness' return was great to see. So, hit and miss on the whole, but I'm still glad I avoided the spoilers and I still enjoyed much of what was on offer.

Infinity 46/Wrestle JAM thoughts -

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Infinity 46 - Dragon Gate USA Presents Wrestle JAMCIMA, Jack Evans and Roderick Strong vs B-Boy, Masato Yoshino and Naruki DoiI'm starting to put my finger on exactly why I don't like Roderick Strong and haven't enjoyed any of his DG performances. The main reason is that he doesn't seem to understand the workings of a Dragon Gate six man at all. Every time he's in the ring it seems like he's been hot tagged, hitting an array of huge moves at high impact and seemingly being impervious to pain. It gets quite annoying. He also has no charisma. He does have a wonderfully satisfying chop on him though. Evans is garnering a respectable level of DG fan support these days, and he seems to have found a niche. He's good at taking a man-sized beating and getting a good sympathetic babyface reaction from the Japanese crowd in the process. He even has his own fan support call, "JACK! JACK! JACK!. Not creative I'll grant you, but it's more than Sydal, Turboman, King Shisa and others have managed. As for B-Boy, I haven't seen him in (literally) years. Last time was in some CZW tournament or other. He's fun here as an honorary Muscle Outlaw, bringing the heelish stomping and a mean persona. His big moves still appear to be disturbingly head droppy, though at least the worst of it is reserved for Jack.Anyway, the match is a passable back and forth affair (perhaps a bit heavy on the indy spotfest antics) that's nothing to write home about. Credit to B-Boy for making the effort to be a dick and inject some personality into the proceedings, as opposed to Roderick who just seems to be a backbreaking and face kicking robot. Akira Tozawa vs Jack Evans vs Genki HoriguchiThis is a bizarre match. Genki, Evans and Tozawa (who does almost no comedy here) in a three way, ladder-based, eight minute spotfest of pain. The ladder assisted surfboard stretch on Jack is particularly evil. Some big bumps, a chance for Tozawa to show off some of his non-comedy repertoire and Genki attempting to glue the whole thing together. Jack wins with a twisting..thing. I guess it would be called as a leg drop. Fun in a what the hell is going on kind of way. ROH Tag team championship: Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong©I like Austin Aries. Easily the best non-DG guy on the show for me. He has a nice variety of offense (particularly digging that suicide dive between the middle and bottom ropes), and also brings some charisma and the ability to make it look like the match is really taking it's toll on him as it goes on. Because of this, Strong also works in this match because he is actually getting hot tags off Aries, who looks like he desperately needs them. Best match on the card up to this point, good showings from all four and an entertaining 20 minute tag team match that doesn't fall victim to the DG editing hatchet man. After this we get some brief clips of Aries and Strong defeating Ryo and Genki in another defense of their tag titles, in what I'm guessing was another good match. Roderick Strong vs. Masaaki MochizukiAs you may have guessed, I'm 100% behind Mochi going into this one. That said, Strong is better here than he has been in his DG tag matches. Mochi wrestles this in the heavyweight style he's been favouring these days, and this seems to suit Strong better than the other matches. It also gives him an excuse to bust out the aforementioned chop a bunch of times. A satisfying clubber-fest that goes about as long as it needs to before Mochi hits the good old Saikyou high kick for the win. Austin Aries vs Susumu YokosukaAs much as I backed Mochi in the previous match, multiply that by 500 to get how badly I needed Susumu to win this. Susumu doesn't tend to have bad matches, and Aries seems good from what I've seen, so as you'd expect this was a good effort. Susumu works the legs as he enjoys doing, and they build to a big near-fall closing stretch. Aries hits his 450 and for a horrible moment I think Susumu is going to lose. Thankfully he kicks out at two, Aries kicks out of a lot of stuff (Aikata and Mugen) before ultimately falling to a JUMBO NO KACHI! lariat. Good stuff. Oh, special mention for Aries Knee drop > Rewind > Slow motion replay of the knee drop attempt spot. Heheh. To explain to the ROH faithful, "thankfully" etc. isn't because I have a problem with any of the ROH guys beating my beloved DG wrestlers, but because the DG bookers have a history of shafting Susumu at every oppurtunity, and as he's only just attained DG main eventer status this summer and is the promotion's champion, I was praying for them not to job him out here as it would achieve nothing. Handicap Match: MAGU-yan, The Turboman & Turbo-yan vs. Gamma & Naoki TanisakiThe Muscle OUTLAWz had been mean to Turboman earlier in the WrestleJAM tour. During one of their beatdowns, a mysterious (It's Don Fujii) Tubby Turboman lookalike in yellow known as Turbo-yan had come to his rescue. He too was overwhelmed by the MOz until another mysterious (Magnum TOKYO) Turbo variant turned up clad in pink. The result is this mildly amusing comedy handicap match. It wasn't bad or anything, but given the range of matches on the WrestleJAM tour that they had to choose from, this probably didn't have a place on the highlights show. To put it in perspective:Ryo Saito vs. Austin AriesJimmy Rave vs. BxB HulkRyo Saito, Genki Horiguchi, Dragon Kid vs. Jack Evans, Roderick Strong, Austin AriesSusumu Yokosuka vs. Matt SydalMagnitude Kishiwada vs. King ShisaWere all left out. I'd have taken any of them over this personally. Still, it was a laugh I guess. 7. $10,000 Jam Cup, 4 Way Tag Match: Roderick Strong & Matt Sydal vs. CIMA & Don Fujii vs. Ryo Saito & Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino & Jimmy RavePoor Jimmy can't even escape the toilet roll barrage in Japan. CIMA also makes sure of him not being able to escape "Fuck you Jimmy!" chants either. The big toilet roll riot that starts the match is great fun and it gets the crowd all wound up to a level they maintain for most of the match. As for the match itself, it's a frantic sprint with too much madness going on to even try and call. A good mix of comedy and fast paced action, it's undeniably entertaining stuff. Kid gets murderised with a second rope Schwein, Rave gets taken out with a fairly kewl boston crab/standing SSP combination and then Matt Sydal pins CIMA(!!!) with the Shooting Sydal Press. What the piss? Couldn't he have pinned Fujii if he had to win? Bah. I think Lantern's "pretty okayish" sums up this show, and I'd definitely agree that Aries is the standout gaijin too. It's a show full of watchable to good matches, but there's nothing standout or must-see in my opinion. Still worth a watch though.

[JLM]

Some news updates for July/August without spoiling World then. All courtesy of DGUSA, and all without mention of the Kid/Susumu winner or any other World results. JULY- Shingo broke his wrist in a match with Homicide in early July. He'll miss two months.- DG Impact (the USA show) didn't happen because of Shingo's injury. CIMA and Hulk wrestled a PWU card the following night, working two matches and allowing those with DG impact tickets to have them honoured at this show. - Naoki and Mishima are gone. Mishima says he isn't retiring and will be back somewhere in some capacity. No word on Naoki though. - DG wrestlers wrestled on Tenryu's WAR revival shows. - Doi hurt his back badly during Wrestle JAM and was forced to miss his Dream Gate number one contenders match. This is why we ended up with King Shisa vs Magnitude Kishiwada.- Kanda resigned as GM and returned to full time wrestling. Yagi is the new GM. - Iwasa got himself added to King Shisa/Magnitude number one contendership match and made it a key hunting three way. He claimed that Tozawa-juku will not be an exclusively comedic stable. - King Shisa won the number one contendership match and will get his shot in September. - Mochi lost his WAR International junior heavyweight title at the WAR revival show on the 27th to Pentagon Black (aka King Shisa). - On the DG show on the same day, Masato Onodera made his official debut against Kanda, in a match seen by many as a showcase for Mishima and Naoki's replacements in terms of making up the numbers. - Onodera has been formally inducted into Final M2K, renaming himself Yamato Onodera. He dresses much like Kanda, is 26 years old and has some experience working with Pancrase. - Mochi had some success on the New Japan/CTU shows, teaming with Minoru. And a minor Katsuo-related spoiler

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He has reverted to his real name (Yuki Ono) since joining Tozawa-juku

AUGUST- Touru Owashi will promote his own show on the 18th of September. Most of El Dorado, Toshiaki Kawada and others are scheduled to appear. - On the 5th of August Kishiwada suggested that another of his friends from Osaka would soon be joining him in DG. Jae loosely speculated that it would be Black Buffalo. I would fucking love it to be him. - Evans, Sydal and King Shisa are all booked for September 16th to October 1st. King Shisa is expected to stay around indefinitely following his return after a trip home on the September 16th show. - Ultimo Dragon put this show on: 8/6/2006 Tokyo, Shinjuku Club Heights ~ULTIMO DRAGON TRIAL BATTLE~ UD:CASA1. Rascal Matsuzaki{W}, Oscar Hanaoka (Oka Surfer) Banana Senga, Passion Hasegawa{L}2. Yumiko Hotta (Shoutei) Mima Shimoda3. Kanjyuuro Matsuyama (DQ) Mima Shimoda4. Takeshi Minaminno (Henkei Death Valley Bomb) Guillermo Chango Akiba5. TAJIRI, Masao Oriahara{W} (Small Package Hold) Ultimo Dragon, Shinjitsu Nohashi{L}6. Mecha Mummy (Rocket Punch) Kenzo Suzuki, Kanjyuuro Matsuyama{L}7. Yoshitsune, Kazuchika Okada{W}, Hisamaru Tajima (German Suplex Hold) Hajime Ohara{L}, Hiromi Horiguchi, Hayato Jr. FujitaI know what you're thinking. You need ten copies. - A tournament was held to crown the new WAR International junior tag champions. It was won by Masaaki Mochizuki and Don Fujii. Magnum TOKYO was Mochi's partner but suffered a broken eye socket and had to pull out.- Magnum will be out for two months.- Mochi and Magnum have a team entrance theme and have been teaming under the name "Renaissance". Rumours are that it could be the start of an official unit. - The Triangle Gate decision league took place from the 11th to the 20th of August. The teams were:Renaissance: Masaaki Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda, Don Fujii. (Fujii subbing for the injured Magu). Blood Generation: CIMA, BxB Hulk, Jack EvansDo FIXER: Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki HoriguchiFinal M2K: Susumu Yokosuka, Keni'chiro Arai, Yamato OnoderaMuscle Outlaw'z: Magnitude Kishiwada, Masato Yoshino, GammaShisa Family: King Shisa, Super Shisa, Shisa Boy- Susumu became official leader of Final M2K on the 11th after Mochi passed leadership down to him. Mochi isn't leaving, but he's stepping back a la Magu and following his own path with Renaissance. - The Ryuukon trial series is officially over as a result of Magu's injury. - Tozawa-juku's usually motionless but mean looking flag bearer (Oyaji) got involved in a confrontation with MOz on the 11th after Dr. Muscle stole the flag. He demanded a Brave Gate shot for Mori, which will happen at Korakuen in September. - Shingo Takagi's next formal return to Japan will be the big 11/23 Osaka Prefectural Gym Main Hall big match. However, this again will be a limited return. When he will actually end his US stay is still indefinite.- Dragon Gate have/will release three DVDs that cover all the major happenings of 2005. The most interesting note about these is that the second will feature the lost Mochi vs Magnitude Kishiwada match. - The Blood team of CIMA/Hulk/Jack Evans won the Triangle Gate decision league, becoming the sixth champions. - September's big matches so far are as follows: 9/17/2006 Fukuoka, Hakata Star Lanes-Open the Dream Gate: Champion vs. King Shisa-WAR IJ Tag Titles: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii vs. Masato Yoshino, Magnitude Kishiwada9/26/2006 Tokyo, Korakuen Hall-Open the Brave Gate: Masato Yoshino vs. Takayuki MoriAnd finally, El Dorado's second show happened: 22 Aug 2006 El Dorado - 8/22 BIG TIME CHANGES (Updated) - Comments - 7 8/22/2006 Tokyo, Shinjuku FACE ~BIG TIME CHANGES~1. El Blazer{W}, Kota Iibushi (15:10 El Phantom) brother YASSHI, Ken45{L}2. Manjimaru (3:53 No Contest) Mototsugu Shimizu3. Bear Fukuda (5:51 Final Flash!) Milanito Collection a.t.4. Yuji Hino (13:45 German Suplex Hold) Jumping Kid Okimoto5. KAGETORA{W}, Brahman Shu, Brahman Kei, Takuya Sugawara (16:48 Ikkitousen) Shuji Kondo, Touru Owashi, Ken45, Shogo Jet Takagi{L}Suga intruded on the first match, hitting Ken with a black box to lead to the fall. He was still unsure of which side to go with, so he proposed Kondo and KAGETORA have an arm wrestling contest. When Suga wasn't looking, KAGE hit Kondo with a weapon, which caused him to lose. Suga joined up with STONED, but for now it was today only. After the main, he and Ken challenged each other to a singles match on the next Dorado, on 9/16. If Ken loses he will no longer be able to team with Aagan members. If Suga loses he will not be allowed back into Aagan.Elsewhere on the show, YASSHI brought in the 3rd member of his high school wrestling team, this time it was Yuji Hino. Hino was also on the same team as Okimoto and YASSHI. The flow of the match went pretty similar to the YASSHI vs. JKO match, with lots of yelling and a headbutt battle.Another interesting tidbit out of this match. Hino apparently was going to enter the Toryumon system at the start of his career, but ended up going to K-Dojo after talking it over with YASSHI. Hino will return next month, to team with Okimoto vs. YASSHI, possibly in a handicap.Dorado announced 3 shows in the next 2 months, showing a rise in output. They will be 9/16 in Shin-Kiba First Ring, 10/1 in Shin-Kiba First Ring, and 10/31 in Differ Ariake.

[Spatular]

Sorry for being an absolute dick and butting into this thread but can anyone recommend me 3/4 Toryumon events on DVD to get kicked off?

You'd get five different answers from five different guys, but I'd say:Toryumon - El Numero Uno 2003 finals (April, I think)Witness the miracle of HAGE~! You generally want more recent stuff if you want to get 'started off', but this show's essential.Dragon Gate - Kobe World Hall 3rd July 2005 PPVBiggest show they did last year. The overall shape of the promotion hasn't changed too much since then.Dragon Gate - Infinity 07/26/05TV show immediately following the 2005 World PPV (that one --^). Continues the awesome Do FIXER vs Blood Generation feud. (Infinity is the name of the TV show, like Raw or Smackdown.)Dragon Gate - September 2005 PPVJust fucking awesome. Best PPV show they did last year.Nothing from this year has been absolutely out-of-this world.

[$tew]

- Kanda resigned as GM and returned to full time wrestling.

Fuck - and indeed - YES.I've watched some of World, and Kanda's match is next up. I'm very excited for it. I reserve the right to change my mind, but I think Kanda's return match (and the return of the original M2K for one night only) may be my favourite match from Dragon Gate this year.Muscle Outlaws are such FUCKING BASTARDS that I marked out hugely to see Kanda make the save on the TV leading up to World. God, I hope Kanda leads his team to victory at World~!

[BurningHammer]

Sorry for being an absolute dick and butting into this thread but can anyone recommend me 3/4 Toryumon events on DVD to get kicked off?

You'd get five different answers from five different guys, but I'd say:Toryumon - El Numero Uno 2003 finals (April, I think)Witness the miracle of HAGE~! You generally want more recent stuff if you want to get 'started off', but this show's essential.Dragon Gate - Kobe World Hall 3rd July 2005 PPVBiggest show they did last year. The overall shape of the promotion hasn't changed too much since then.Dragon Gate - Infinity 07/26/05TV show immediately following the 2005 World PPV (that one --^). Continues the awesome Do FIXER vs Blood Generation feud. (Infinity is the name of the TV show, like Raw or Smackdown.)Dragon Gate - September 2005 PPVJust fucking awesome. Best PPV show they did last year.Nothing from this year has been absolutely out-of-this world.

If you do get into them shows, and want more, just follow DG from a random point onwards.

[JLM]

Yes. 2006 is pretty much entirely reliant on you following on from whatever point you start at. Some of the TV episodes are so crammed with highlighted storyline progression that it will be completely confusing to watch odd shows here and there.

[Spatular]

I've seen World. It was pretty good, I thought. I won't bother with a write-up since my thoughts mostly mirror JLM's. With one exception:

 

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As fantastic as it would be for Dr Muscle to be Okamura, I'm sure it's not. Dr Muscle looks too tall and too narrow. My bet would be Yagi, because with Kanda wrestling again, that puts all the regular referees in the MOz' pocket, and with the FloBros gone, he's going to need something else to do.

 

Actually, is there anyone else who's still avoiding spoilers for this show?

[$tew]

Actually, is there anyone else who's still avoiding spoilers for this show?

I've yet to watch the last two matches...