The Dragon Gate thread

[JLM]

it was really interesting to see things like the people we thought were shit (Tozawa, Tanizaki, Jet Takagi, Cyber Kong) who turned out to be great just a couple of years later.

 

When did anyone STOP thinking "Jet" Takagi was shit?

Some people dug the "Ooooooooooooooh JET~!" flurry and some started to warm to him.

 

Totally. He made the transition from awful to knowingly awful and amassed quite a cult following in the process. I remember getting an episode of VamoAmi and being stunned by how he was suddenly a huge hit with the crowd. The idea of such an unspectacular and unassuming jobber being called "Jet" was pretty terrific.

 

Jet!

Jet!

Jet!

Jet!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH JET!

 

I hated Berlinetta Boxer SO MUCH and just wouldn't shut up about it, so for me to be turned was quite a feat.

 

Oh, and I hope I never said Naoki was shit. I like to think I rated him from day 1, even on the largely rubbish Toryumon X shows.

[Gwailofilms]

Jet's a great name for anybody. Jet Li being my case in point. Not sure it'd work on a whitey though, so hold off naming your firstborn's, lads.

[LightningInTheJungle]

It is a bit sad when one of your badass heel faction is getting sympathy heat though.

 

Oh, and just to add I NEVER thought Tozawa was shit. I loved him pretty much from day one. He really deserves so much more credit for staying over despite repeated burials.

[Gwailofilms]

It is a bit sad when one of your badass heel faction is getting sympathy heat though.

 

Oh, and just to add I NEVER thought Tozawa was shit. I loved him pretty much from day one. He really deserves so much more credit for staying over despite repeated burials.

I seem to recall he had been a complete idiot backstage and was essentially being punished by being Mr. Openingmatchsillygimmick. Then he matured, managed to get the gimmicks over and his reward, essentially, was his current makeover and the mini-push that went with it. I could be talking out of my arse though...

 

I do find it amazing that he's still only 24. It seems like he's been around forever.

[SpiralTap]

Is it possible to get pics of all the DG belts?

[JLM]

http://dgusa.puroresufan.com/history.html

 

Click on each title's history page and there's a picture of the belt at the top.

[Verb]

Have been watching bits and bobs of Dragon Gate recently, and want to watch more.

 

Can anyone (JLM) tell me the best place to start?

[JLM]

Sadly I'm not really the person to ask any more.

 

I'm so far behind on my viewing. Gwailo, Lantexander and plenty of others are way better placed to make recommendations, and I'm sure they will once they dip back into the thread.

[Gwailofilms]

Actually, they've just done a big pay-per-view, crowned new Twin Gate (tag) and Dream Gate (world) champions, the units are settling down (mostly) and they're having a wee rest before launching into the King of Gate tournament in mid-April, so now isn't a bad time to jump on board.

 

The TV show, Infinity, airs on a Friday night in Japan and Openthedragongate.com usually has it up in streamable high-quality Flash format (I can hook my laptop up to the TV and watch it fullscreen and it looks great) on the Sunday. Right now, they've got #168, which is the PPV go-home show, and the PPV up. #169 whizzes through February's "Battle of Tokyo" one-night tournament in an hour and is floating about on the torrents, so won't be far behind. #170 is supposedly a digest of one of the DGUSA shows and therefore eminently skippable.

 

If there's anything you don't understand on the TV show, they usually have the date on-screen at the beginning of the show/segment, so just go to Jae's site and search for that date. Although, if you're trying to follow unspoiled at TV pace, be aware that the stuff they show is usually between two and four weeks old and Jae keeps bang up-to-date.

[lightningxlock]

As Gwailo mentioned, openthedragongate.com is without doubt the best place to catch all things DG. I'd imagine the recent 'Compilation Gate' PPV would be a fine place to start to familiarise yourself with the current product. I've watched the 1st four matches and they've all been fun/solid, certainly one of the better PPV undercards in recent memory. The last 2 matches (CIMAΓ vs Shingo&Kong, Doi vs YAMATO) are said to be MOTYC. So you cant really go wrong there.

 

The last Infinity I saw (#168) featured a quality trios main event of Shingo, Tozawa and YAMATO vs Doi, Yoshino and BxB Hulk thats well worth seeing. Luckily its also shown in highlight form on the above PPV.

[Gwailofilms]

I haven't seen the TV version yet, but live, I wasn't that fussed about the Twin Gate match. It gets better as it goes on, but the first few minutes don't make a whole lot of sense.

 

The Dream Gate main event, however, is fantastic and easily my MOTY so far. Thirty-two minutes of flawlessly executed wrestling and, for me, better than Shawn/Undertaker.

 

EDITed for a multitude of typos...

[lightningxlock]

Im watching the Twin Gate match right now and im not feeling the MOTYC vibes either. It's good, but not great. Kind've representative of the current Puro scene in the sense of match quality slipping therefore match ratings slipping..

[Gwailofilms]

Im watching the Twin Gate match right now and im not feeling the MOTYC vibes either. It's good, but not great. Kind've representative of the current Puro scene in the sense of match quality slipping therefore match ratings slipping..

I've probably already mentioned this somewhere else, but here it gets a spoiler here. The thing that annoyed me most about that match:-

 

SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read

It's the stupid haircut bit that gets me. Why wasn't Kong angrier about getting a massive chunk of hair cut off? Surely he should have been livid at Gamma. Instead, they had a wrestling match.

 

[lightningxlock]

Haha, I know exactly what you mean. Baffled me a tad too that

[neil's bitch]

Dragon gate results from today:

 

4/14/2011 Tokyo, Korakuen Hall

1. Ryo Saito, Genki Horiguchi, Nakoi Tanizaki{W} (8:56 Implant) Taku Iwasa{L}, Kenichiro Arai, Don Fujii

2. Takuya Tomakomai (1:48 High Angle Thunder Fire Power Bomb) Super Shenlong

3. Naruki Doi{W}, Gamma (14:50 Bakatare Sliding Kick) Shingo Takagi, Cyber Kong{L}

4. Open the Freedom Gate: YAMATO (15:27 Spear) Yasushi Kanda

*V3 for YAMATO

5. Open the Triangle Gate contra Disband: CIMA{W}, Dragon Kid, Ricochet (29:39 Meteora) BxB Hulk, PAC, Susumu Yokosuka{L}

*V2 for BW, WORLD-1 has to disband

6. Open the Dream Gate: Masaaki Mochizuki (25:31 Sankakugeri) Masato Yoshino

*Yoshino fails in his V5 defense, Mochizuki becomes the 13th Champion

 

Mochizuki celebrated his big title win. He went on to say that with BW having so many members, it was probably not a good idea for the champion to be unaffiliated. He asked Susumu if he wanted to team up again. He also asked PAC, in English. PAC replied that he couldn't understand him.... Yoshino praised Mochizuki for his conditioning. He said that while they have fought a few times, they have never teamed. It might be fun to do it.

 

Mochizuki then called out KAMIKAZE. He made a similar appeal to them, saying that from here on, you were either ally, enemy, or Kimata (Shenlong).

 

YAMATO seemed warm to the idea, but he also appealed to be the first challenger for Mochizuki. Mochizuki agreed, since one year ago he was defeated my YAMATO in a Dream Gate challenge.

 

They didn't formalize any unions, based on the reports. Hopefully there will be more details soon. I'll have whatever new comes out this afternoon when I wake up.

 

So World 1 has had to disband, but it looks like PAC may join this new super unit? He's Still tag team champion with Yoshino though i believe in DG:USA (Alll titles have been defended this week, including the DG:USA titles).

 

Glad to see Mochi take the title though!