Pro Wrestling Ponderings

This is Dragon Gate’s first time running in Sumo Hall, and by the looks of things they really packed the fans in there. Good for them, outdrawing the bigger Japanese promotions.

March 22, 2009 - Tokyo, Japan

Man I haven’t done a Dragon Gate PPV review in a while. Here are the champions as we head into the show:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: Gamma & Susumu Yokosuka
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Shingo Takagi, Dragon Kid & Taku Iwasa
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino

The show starts with a video package highlighting all of the feuds heading into the show, narrated by the commentators. Thirty minutes of it before the first match starts. I’d go crazy if I wasn’t able to fast forward this stuff.

KAGETORA {W5} & RYOMA {W5} vs. Akira Tozawa {K} & Kenshin Chikano {K}

KAGETORA and Chikano start, with KAGETORA predictably getting the upper hand. RYOMA and Tozawa tag in, with the more seasoned of the two again gaining control. RYOMA takes a kick sandwich, giving Tozawa 2. Tozawa hits a senton for 2. The rookies trade strikes in an exchange that Chikano wins. Tozawa tags in just in time to eat a dropkick from RYOMA. KAGETORA tags in and keeps his team in control with a flying clothesline. Chikano tags in and slaps on an armbar but KAGETORA gets to the ropes. KAGETORA comes back with a knee kick for 2. Tozawa pushes Chikano out of the way and hits a butt butt. He hits a diving headbutt for 2, avoiding CIMA along the way. He hits a sick German suplex for 2 when KAGETORA makes the save. RYOMA hits Tozawa with the Space Flying Tiger Drop. KAGETORA and Chikano botch a spot. That’s sad, but KAGETORA quickly wraps things up with the Ikkitousen for the win at 6:31. Aside from Chikano’s nasty strikes and Tozawa’s fun shtick there wasn’t much to see here. RYOMA’s high flying felt tacked on and the finish was pretty rough too, which makes for a troublesome opener.
Rating: *¾

Masaaki Mochizuki {Z}, Don Fujii {Z} & Magnitude Kishiwada {Z}vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kento Miyahara, & Takashi Okita
Mochizuki starts by kicking Nakajima’s face off. They dance around looking for kicks but finding nothing. Fujii tags in and kicks Okita’s knee out. He catches him on the floor with a shoulder tackle. Miyahara misses a dropkick, allowing Kishiwada to dump him into Fujii’s violent arms on the floor. Mochizuki kicks Miyahara’s back on the apron. He hits a vertical suplex for 2. He kicks Fujii by mistake, allowing Miyahara to hit a superkick and tag out. Nakajima starts to clean house but eats Kishiwada’s lariat. Okita runs in and spears everyone. He hits Kishiwada with the Jackhammer for 2. Kishiwada comes back with an abdominal stretch. Mochizuki does the same to Nakajima. Fujii tries on Miyahara but ends up caught in the hold himself. He comes back with chops and a Russian legsweep for 2. Mochizuki kills Miyahara with kicks for 2. Fujii clotheslines Mochizuki by mistake. How bad is the communication between the Zetsurins? Nakajima and his boys nail Mochizuki with all their signature moves but only get 2. Mochizuki flips through a German suplex from Nakajima but Miyahara immediately catches him with another for 2. Nakajima hits him with his own Twister. Fujii rushes in for the save and sumo slaps Okita around the ring. Miyahara dropkicks Okita by mistake and Fujii hits a lariat. Kishiwada follows with a top rope splash and a double chokeslam with Fujii for 2. Mochizuki kicks Okita to the mat for 2. A few more kicks are too much for Okita and he’s down for the count at 10:23. The miscommunication spots felt really, really telegraphed, but that’s my only gripe with the match. Aside from that there were plenty of creative spots, and good work from the vets and the Kensuke Office guys I’d never seen before.
Rating: **¾

Before anyone can clear the ring Stalker Ichikawa’s music plays and the crazy freak comes out to the ring. He calls out the next challenger in his PPV series and, somewhat predictably given who’s already in the ring, Kensuke Sasaki answers the call.

Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa
Ichikawa avoids Sasaki to start. He tries to chop the big man in the corner but does no damage. Sasaki floors him with one chop. He lifts Ichikawa up by his tights but can’t hit the Northern Lights Driver. Ichikawa goes for the Kancho but Sasaki’s butt muscles are too strong. Sasaki hits a bodyslam for 2. He hits the Northern Lights Driver for the win at 1:30. That was fun for what it was. After the match Sasaki poses with his team and the Zetsurins.
Rating: *

Susumu Yokosuka © {W5} & Gamma © {W5} vs. Ryo Saito {RH} & Genki Horiguchi {RH} [Open the Twin Gate Championship Match]
Saito spits in Yokosuka’s face before the bell, setting the tone for the match. Yokosuka hits a lariat out of nowhere. Gamma nails Horiguchi with the cane. He does all his gross spitting moves to Horiguchi before Saito trips him and pulls him to the floor. Back in the ring Saito and Horiguchi double-team Gamma for 2. With Real Hazard in control the match slows way down. I thought that wouldn’t happen as much with Saito on the team. Saito chokes Gamma with a whip. He and Horiguchi spit on Gamma, a lot. Gamma spits back and kicks both opponents down. Yokosuka tags in and takes Horiguchi out with an exploder. The crowd gets loud now that Saito has to face his comeuppance. Kenichiro Arai distracts Yokosuka and Saito starts to take control. Yokosuka counters a hurricanrana to a powerbomb. Saito comes back with a German suplex for 2. Yokosuka and Gamma hit stereo low blows, and Gamma helps Yokosuka do the double-team German suplex spot he used to do with Saito. Yokosuka hits Gamma by mistake (enough!) and gets blue mist in his eyes. Saito hits a dragon suplex for 2. Gamma and Yokosuka come back with multiple cane shots on Horiguchi. Horiguchi catches Gamma with the Backslide from Hell for 2. Gamma returns the favor for 2. Yokosuka beats the snot out of Saito, but Saito no-sells it and this a lariat. Yokosuka no-sells that and hits a dragon suplex and the Jumbo no Kachi but Horiguchi trips the referee. The referee hits Horiguchi with a back suplex. Yokosuka dives onto Real hazard on the floor. Gamma hits Horiguchi with the Gamma Special and the Sky Twister Press for 2 when Saito hits the referee with the blue box. That’s enough to get disqualified at 12:37. The match was more frustrating than anything, both in productive and unproductive ways. It was productive in that Yokosuka and Gamma were not yet able to get a satisfying measure of revenge on Real Hazard for the harm done to them. It was unsatisfying in that it featured more wrestling clichés than any one match really needs.
Rating: **

Masato Yoshino © {W1} vs. CIMA {W5} [Open the Brave Gate Championship Match]
I have been so excited to watch this match! It’s a rematch of my 2008 Dragon Gate Match of the Year, for those of you not paying attention. CIMA controls to start. CIMA misses a knee and falls to the floor, but retains control when he blocks a suicide dive with the Venus. He puts on a seated abdominal stretch. He gets a Gory slide for 2. He works over Yoshino’s leg. Yoshino comes back with an enziguiri. He picks up the pace to disorient CIMA and hits an armbreaker. He stays on the arm for a while, twisting, armbreaking it, and hitting it with a dropkick. He puts on a hammerlock. He dodges the Venus and puts on the Coumori. He gets a big running start from the floor and dropkicks CIMA’s head on the apron. CIMA hits a roundhouse kick and a suicide dive. Back in the ring CIMA hits the Superdrol for 2. He hits a chasing dropkick. Yoshino hits the Swing Blade for 2. He puts on an octopus stretch but CIMA gets to the ropes. CIMA hits a Tree of Woe dropkick but misses the Tokarev. Yoshino pops up and this the shotgun dropkick. CIMA uses the momentum to roll back and up and hits a double stomp. He drops Yoshino’s face on the turnbuckle and hits another double stomp for 2. They fight up top until Yoshino hits an avalanche Sling Blade. CIMA’s neck seems reinjured so Yoshino takes a breather. That turns out to be a mistake as CIMA hits a superkick. Yoshino comes back with a crucifix pin for 2. He hits the Ude Yoshino and the Lightning Spiral for 2. CIMA blocks a second Lightning Spiral and kicks Yoshino’s head. His neck is too hurt to quickly capitalize and he gets caught with the Torbellino. Yoshino puts on the Sol Naciente but CIMA quickly counters to the Schwein for 2. He hits it again for 2. Since that’s not getting it done he climbs the ropes for the Meteora. Yoshino runs up to block it and hit an avalanche Lightning Spiral, but CIMA blocks that and hits the Neji to Hashi. He hits an implant DDT and the Meteora for the win and the title at 18:08. This wasn’t the technical masterpiece that their Dream Gate match was, but it was still a good time. Sure, they completely forgot about the arm, leg and neck damage they’d inflicted upon each other and chose an arbitrary point to start hitting their finishers, but with a post-injury CIMA I don’t expect much more.
Rating: ***½

Shingo Takagi © {K}, Taku Iwasa © {K} & Dragon Kid © {K} vs. BxB Hulk {W1} PAC{W1} & Naoki Tanisaki {W1} vs. YAMATO {RH}, Yasushi Kanda {RH} & Kenichiro Arai {RH} [Open the Triangle Gate Championship Elimination Match]
Kamikaze lost a bunch of non-title matches to the other two teams to set this up. Kanda isn’t interested in the three-way lock up to start that Iwasa and Tanisaki want. As such they team up to try to eliminate Kanda, but have no luck. Everyone tags out, but the dynamic amongst PAC, Kid and Arai is the same. Arai uses the referee to help him attack both opponents. Takagi, Hulk and YAMATO tag in for a New Hazard explosion. The crowd gets hot for it. It easily exceeds all the action to this point and Takagi comes out on top. Iwasa and Kid tie Hulk and Kanda together in a submission. Everyone else gets involved in submission action except Tanisaki, who breaks up the whole mess. Takagi and YAMATO brawl around the building. Hulk cleans house on Real Hazard. Takagi knocks Hulk from the ring with a lariat. World-1 and Kamikaze team up to hit a massive suplex on all of Real Hazard (including an interfering Saito). Takagi catches PAC with a DVD, interrupting a sequence that saw everyone dive to the floor. PAC gets fancy diving off of Takagi’s shoulders, only to get slapped in the face. He comes back with a swinging DDT for 2. Iwasa and Arai do one of their AraIwa double-teams on PAC. That was awesome! Arai wants a handshake but Iwasa has none of it and beats the crap out of him. World-1 kicks them both in the corner. PAC hits the shooting star knee drop, Hulk hits the EVO and PAC hits the fall-away firebird splash for 2. He hits a corkscrew shooting star press to Real Hazard on the floor. Kanda goes for a blue box attack, but ends up eating the box himself. Arai smacks Hulk with his beer bottle to eliminate World-1.

YAMATO takes Takagi down with a chair shot. Real Hazard gangs up on Kid. Kid blocks the Galleria but gets nailed with a brainbuster. That gets 2 for YAMATO. Arai spits booze in Takagi’s face, but the rest of Kamikaze catches him in the corner and Kid hits a super hurricanrana. Iwasa hits the Gouwan for 2. He hits the Noshigami for 2. Takagi gets the crowd fired up and hits MADE IN JAPAN for 2. Takagi should have learned he can’t put YAMATO away with that move. YAMATO counters the Last Falconry to the sleeper hold but Iwasa makes the save. Kanda hits Takagi with a black box, but ends up eating it when YAMATO misses a swing at Takagi. Kid catches Kanda with the Ultra Hurricanrana for 2. Takagi kills Kanda with the Pumping Bomber. He hits the Avalanche Falconry for 2. He hits another Pumping Bomber for the win at 18:25. The match was full of great nods to the past, like Iwasa and Arai’s interactions, the New Hazard exchange early on and specific spots between Takagi and YAMATO. I’m a little disappointed that the finish was so straight, with the strongest player in the match simply destroying the weakest, but it makes sense from a logical standpoint. Also the friendly fire attacks were kept confined to Real Hazard, and didn’t occur multiple times throughout the match as I’d feared, so points for that.
Rating: ***¾

Cyber Kong {RH} vs. Anthony W. Mori [Mask vs. Hair Match]
I have high hopes for this match, as previous matches in the feud have been filled with psychological brilliance. Kong has Real Hazard in his corner, and Mori is accompanied by the Shisas. Mori hits a dropkick at the bell but can’t put Kong down. He hits a hurricanrana and follows Kong to the floor with the Eleganton. Back in the ring he goes after Kong’s arm. Kong pushes Mori around the ring and then clubs him on the apron. He hits a side suplex. Saito distracts the referee while the rest of Real Hazard puts a pile of chairs in the ring. Kong hits a press slam on the pile. He batters Mori’s leg with a chair. He hits a splash for 2. He hits an avalanche, making Mori dead weight. The crowd gets fired up as Mori blocks the Cyber Bomb. He hits a dragon screw and goes for the miracle bodyslam. Twice he fails, the second time with Kong falling on top of him. He wisely changes his game plan, opting to dropkick Kong’s knee. He goes for a Boston crab but Kong easily powers out. Kong goes for a chair but Mori snatches it away. Kong tries to slug it out of Mori’s hands, eventually shoving into the little guy’s face. He sits Mori in the chair and delivers a German suplex. I love that spot, but it’s so crazy dangerous. Kong pulls out a pair of scissors and starts cutting Mori’s hair! Mori realizes what’s going on and delivers a powerbomb out of the corner. He breaks a chair over Kong’s head, but Kong powers through. Kong avalanches the referee and Real Hazard gangs up on Mori. The Shisas intervene on his behalf but end up eating the Pineapple Bomber. Kong hits Mori with the Cyber Driver and Real Hazard counts 3. Things break down as Real Hazard and the Shisas get involved again. The Shisas masks get ripped off, causing the referee to throw the match out at 9:03.

Kong is having none of it. He tries to cut Mori’s hair despite not winning the match. Mochizuki and Fujii run out and make the save. Mochizuki tells Kong if he wants Mori’s hair he’s going to have to get a 3 count from the referee. He asks Mori if he’s up for it. Mori nods and the match gets restarted. Kong attacks right off the bat. Mori tries to fight back, powering through Kong’s lariat and hitting a vertical suplex. Kong hits the Pineapple Bomber for 2. Mori gets a roll up for 2. Kong hits a wheelbarrow suplex. He motions that he’s going to go for the Eleganton and climbs the ropes. Mori cuts him off and hits a superplex for 2. He puts on a cross armbreaker and keeps Kong from countering to the Cyber Bomb. Kong gets to his feet and Horiguchi throws powder in Mori’s face, but that only fires Mori up to reapply the hold tighter. Kong starts to fade and the crowd goes crazy. Kong gets to his feet but Mori is still fighting. Saito spoils everyone’s day when he hits Mori with the blue box and Kong hits the Cyber Bomb for the win at 3:59. The placement of the match was brilliant, adding so much drama because Kong could quite logically lose his mask in a match second from the top. I could have done without the restart, as I’m not really sure what it did for anyone. The rest of the match was the top notch drama I’ve come to expect from these two, as Kong needed a ton of help to put the little man down but still looks strong because he’s a monster. Would have been perfect had it not been for the pointless restart. Mori lets Kong shave his head after the match.
Rating: ***¾

Naruki Doi © {W1} vs. Koji Kanemoto {Z} [Open the Dream Gate Championship Match]
Kanemoto goes after the leg to start. Doi tries to slug it out but gets dazed by Kanemoto’s kicks. Kanemoto landing these strikes hard. Doi puts Kanemoto on the floro with a forearm. Kanemoto comes back with a kick to the head from the apron. In the ring Doi’s dropkick is met with a knee kick. The feel of these first few minutes is that Doi is completely, hopelessly outclassed, and that Kanemoto can answer anything with a stiff kick or knee. Kanemoto starts focusing his kicks on Doi’s leg, but takes time out to please the crowd by washing Doi’s face. Doi tries to return the favor, but Kanemoto blocks that too. Kanemoto hits the scariest superplex I’ve ever seen, flipping Doi onto the apron! He hits a Falcon Arrow on the floor. Doi barely beats the count at 19, and for his trouble he eats a hard kick to the face. Doi gets his first real advantage when he blocks a moonsault with his knees, but even then his own knee is so damaged from Kanemoto’s kicks that he’s slow to capitalize. He hits the Dai Bosou. He suplexes Kanemoto to the floor and follows him out with a suicide dive. He ties Kanemoto in the ropes and beats him up some before hitting the top rope senton. He hits a back suplex for 2. Kanemoto swats away a dropkick and kicks Doi’s head. Doi hits the Doi 555 and the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. He calls for the Muscular Bomb but Kanemoto rolls through. Doi plops down for 2 but Kanemoto immediately puts on the anklelock. He grapevines the leg but Doi gets to the ropes. Kanemoto stays on the leg with a figure 4. Doi gets to the ropes but Kanemoto relentlessly attacks the leg. Kanemoto hits the moonsault for 2. He reapplies the anklelock but Doi counters to a roll up for 2. Kanemoto cuts off his momentum with a jumping knee. Doi comes back with the Bakatare Sliding Kick. He hits a tiger suplex for 2 when Kanemoto gets in the ropes. Kanemoto slips on the anklelock again. Doi pounds Kanemoto’s leg until he releases the hold. He unremittingly punches and bites Kanemoto’s knee. He climbs the ropes but his own knee gives out and Kanemoto catches him with a tiger superplex for 2. Doi’s chest is bleeding from the kicks earlier in the match. He ducks a kick and gets a roll up for 2. Kanemoto counters the V9 Clutch to a modified anklelock. Doi gets to the ropes. Kanemoto hits a senton for 2. Doi goes for the Avalanche Doi 555 but Kanemoto pulls him down and reapplies the anklelock. Every time Doi gets close to the ropes or close to escaping Kanemoto changes the angle of the hold. Eventually Doi scrambles to the ropes and the crowd collectively breathes a sigh of relief. Kanemoto hits an overhead superplex for 2. He hits a tiger suplex for 2. Doi roles through an anklelock and hits Bakatare Sliding Kicks to Kanemoto’s back and front. He hits a tiger suplex for 2. He hits three more Bakatare Sliding Kicks for 2 and the Muscular Bomb for the win at 27:41.

Reports from the show said that Doi’s injury (apparently one of Kanemoto’s kicks concussed him) hurt the match, but I think they pulled through with an excellent story. The issue going into the match was that Doi was afraid of the anklelock anyway, so the match being so consumed with that move made sense. Watching Doi struggle with Kanemoto, who might as well have been Undertaker on Hard Mode in WrestleMania 2000 for N64, was such a treat because both men played their roles so well. Yes, I stole that N64 comparison, but it’s fitting. In fact, I think this might be the best Dream Gate match I’ve seen from Dragon Gate (I’d have to watch CIMA vs. Yoshino again), and blows most of 2008 out of the water. Like most things on this show, the only thing I didn’t love was the finish, which saw Doi pretty much come back from nowhere to hit a few finishers and take the match. Though even that I suppose I could reconcile by saying that Kanemoto got too greedy going for the same submission over and over, giving Doi his opening to wear him down with his signature kick before hitting the Muscular Bomb.
Rating: ****¼

Overall
Some of the booking decisions on this show were weird, like restarting the hair vs. mask match and most of the finishes in general. That said that action in three out of four of the title matches and said hair vs. mask match were all quite good. I’d say track down the show if for no other reason than to watch Kanemoto dominate for 30 minutes with some of the most disgusting strikes you’ll see this side of a Japanese women’s wrestling training video.

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March 5, 2009 - Tokyo, Japan

Nothing much going on this week because all the build to the PPV is done, so we get leftovers from the show featured on last week’s Infinity and an Open the Owarai Gate match from February, all shown unclipped. Here’s the rest of the championship rundown:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: Gamma & Susumu Yokosuka
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Shingo Takagi, Dragon Kid & Taku Iwasa
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino

The show starts with a rundown of the champions, and then comically reminds us about the Open the Owarai Gate title. For those who don’t know, the title was created when Dragon Gate wrestlers went to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla for their Battle of Los Angeles tournament, and Stalker Ichikawa created the comedy title. Matches end in traditional fashion, but the belt changes hands based on audience support. Whoever gets a louder reaction after the match wins. Former champions include Stalker of course, CIMA and Kikutaro, but Jackson Florida is the current champion.

Jackson Florida © vs. Stalker Ichikawa [Open the Owarai Gate Championship Match]
Florida always comes to the ring with a cane, and as such it gets checked for foreign objects as though it’s a third leg. He tries to attack with the cane, eventually pasting Ichikawa across his head. Ichikawa puts on a headlock but Florida’s cane gets to the ropes. Ichikawa gets a leglock but Florida escapes the same way. Ichikawa thinks he’s got the problem figured out and pulls Florida to a spot in the ring far enough from the ropes that his cane can’t reach, so Florida just smacks him on the head with the cane to escape. Florida goes for a ropewalk maneuver but his leg gives out and he falls to the floor. Ichikawa goes for a moonsault but slips on the ropes and falls to the floor. In the ring Ichikawa hits a diving cross-chop for 2. He goes for a German suplex but his grip slips and his head hits the mat. Florida goes for a splash off the top but overshoots by a mile and wipes out. Ichikawa hits a 619 and gets a roll up for 2. Florida uses his cane to get a backslide to end the match at 4:34. The crowd gives the win to Florida as well, so he keeps the belt. The match had a couple cute spots, but the best comedy wrestling can be found in companies more focused on comedy like DDT.
Rating: *

Masato Yoshino {W1}, m.c.KZ {W1} & PAC vs. Dragon Kid {K}, Taku Iwasa {K} & Kenshin Chikano {K}
The pre-match video focuses on Chikano’s involvement with Kamikaze. Chikano and KZ start by trading holds. PAC and Iwasa are up next for some over-choreographed rope running fun. Yoshino and Kid pick up the pace, as usual in exchanges between them. Iwasa and Chikano kick KZ around for 2. PAC gets control back for his team, and they work over Chikano’s arm. PAC launches off of KZ’s back onto Chikano for 2. Chikano fights back against KZ and tags to Iwasa. Iwasa cleans house. He hits KZ with the Gouwan for 2. World-1 triple-teams Kid for 2. KZ Time hits Kid’s knees. Iwasa and Chikano double-team KZ for 2. Kid hits a hurricanrana for 2. Yoshino dodges a dropkick from Chikano and sets him up in the corner for a triple-team attack. PAC hits the shooting star kneedrop and dives onto everyone on the floor. KZ hits the Beat Boom and KZ Time for 2. Yoshino hits the shotgun dropkick for the win at 11:39. The crowd didn’t care, and KZ looked tired and sloppy, but the rest of the match was solid action. Chikano in particular looked much improved compared to his last match on Infinity.
Rating: **¼

Akira Tozawa {K} vs. Youhei Fujita
Fujita’s face is all banged up, as if he’d been getting rough treatment in training. He scrambles to escape Tozawa’s holds to start. He hits a dropkick but Tozawa dumps him on his head with a German suplex. Tozawa hits a bodyslam and a brutal senton for 2. He hits a nasty dropkick in the corner. He hits an axe kick. Fujita gets a bit of a break when Tozawa puts on a chinlock, but even that looks to be applied pretty tightly. Tozawa hits another senton for 2. After taking a few stiff shots Fujita hits a suplex out of nowhere. Mouth bloodied, Fujita hits an elbow in the corner and a missile dropkick for 2. Unable to match Tozawa with elbows he attacks with chops. He hits a bodyslam and a standing moonsault for 1. Tozawa hits a side suplex. He hits three more for 2. Fujita catches him going for his diving headbutt with knees. Tozawa counters a hurricanrana to a Boston crab but Fujita gets to the ropes. Fujita hits a dropkick but Tozawa catches him with a German suplex for the win at 9:51. After years of getting the crap kicked out of him by Don Fujii and others, I wonder how satisfying it was for Tozawa to be able to dish out a beating on someone else for a change. This was perversely entertaining, in the same way that watching a prison rape victim beating up a mugger as soon as he gets out of jail would be entertaining. Fujita showed great energy as well, also looking very much improved since he was last on Infinity.
Rating: ***

The show ends with WARRIORS-5 in the ring. CIMA introduces Fujita as the 5th and final member of the group. And since only Susumu Yokosuka is allowed to have a last name in WARRIORS-5, Fujita is renamed RYOMA. In a subsequent tag match RYOMA fought well with Yokosuka against the Real Hazard team of Ryo Saito and Genki Horiguchi, only to eventually get caught by Saito with a series of suplexes and costing his team the match.

I appreciate that when the headliners have had their chance to get their storylines over and sell the PPV, the lower card guys are given a chance to shine on the company’s marquee show. They’re inevitably featured on PPV anyway, so it’s nice for Dragon Gate to give them an hour (or at least 2 out of 3 matches) to show their stuff. And unclipped no less.

Want to know the reason Smackdown is so much more enjoyable than RAW? Lower card guys are given a chance to shine, and are elevated based on their skill when they exploit that chance. Sure, John Morrison is WWE born and bred, but he’s over because he was given the opportunity to get his character over in the mid-card and put on great matches with plenty of time on Smackdown.

Last year, shortly after Real Hazard was formed, there was an Infinity like this one, with B-level matches totally unclipped. That episode was boring and pointless, highlighting the same wrestlers we always saw in matches that simply didn’t warrant TV time. This episode on the other hand featured wrestlers we don’t get to see all the time in matches that saw them truly shine. If Dragon Gate isn’t going to show old matches on Infinities in which they have no new matches to highlight (in the same way they’d replay PPVs clipped up on TV back when Infinity was a 2-hour show) then these are certainly the kind of matches that should be highlighted.

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March 1, 2009 - Osaka, Japan

Only two matches on today’s episode, but one is a big title match. As such, here’s a rundown of the champions:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: YAMATO & Cyber Kong
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Shingo Takagi, Dragon Kid & Taku Iwasa
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino

Shingo Takagi {K}, Dragon Kid {K} & Taku Iwasa {K} vs. Naruki Doi {W1}, Naoki Tanisaki {W1} & m.c.KZ {W1}
Last week (on TV, in reality it was a couple weeks ago) Kamikaze won the Triangle Gate titles, and the following week successfully defended the belts in a rematch against the Zetsurins, not shown on TV. Iwasa got the winning pin in both matches. World-1 emerged as the first team to go after the belts, but they’d have to win here if they want a title shot. Iwasa and KZ start and do nothing of note. Kid tags in and gets double-teamed by KZ and Tanisaki for 2. Doi hits a dropkick for 2. Takagi turns the tide for his team, helping Kid double stomp KZ. Iwasa and Takagi hit a double wheelbarrow suplex for 2. KZ counters Takagi’s TKO to a reverse DDT, shocking just about everyone. Doi cleans house. He counters Kid’s super hurricanrana to a powerbomb and KZ hits KZ Time for 2. Tanisaki hits a big double stomp for 2. Iwasa and Takagi come back with the Doomsday Device for 2. Kid hits the super hurricanrana. Iwasa hits the Gouwan. Kid hits a swinging DDT for 2. Takagi hits the Blood Fall for 2. He hits Doi with the DVD. Tanisaki counters the Noshigami to a roll up for 2. He hits the Noshigami on Iwasa for 2. What a jerk. He hits the Casanova for 2 and the Implant for the win at 11:21 shown of 13:26. As much as it’s important to let World-1 look good leading into what was an inevitable title match, I can’t help but think that Kamikaze could have used the rub more. They sort of squeaked out their title win against the Zetsurins, and then their rematch win was only shown as a five-second clip. Not to mention that leading into their title win every member of the team had been, participating and otherwise, had been in a slump. What’s doubly annoying is that the match most of the time felt like Tanisaki taking on Kamikaze on his own.
Rating: **½

After the match Real Hazard runs out and attacks everyone. Kenichiro Arai puts in a bid for a Triangle Gate shot. Tanisaki attacks him and says World-1 will be getting the shot. Takagi does the obvious thing and accepts both challenges in a three way match at the PPV. Dragon Gate seems to agree with my assertion that Tanisaki won the match on his own, as he’ll be taking on the champs with PAC and BxB Hulk, different men than he won the match with tonight. Really it’s because Doi is already wrestling in the PPV’s main event, and as the leader of the stable he decided that PAC would be a better challenger than KZ.

YAMATO © {RH} & Cyber Kong © {RH} vs. Gamma & Susumu Yokosuka [Open the Twin Gate Championship vs. Gamma’s Career Match]
For those of you that are just tuning in, Saito and Yokosuka went for the Twin Gate titles on last week’s episode but Saito turned on Yokosuka mid-match. Gamma made the save for Yokosuka after the match and then challenged for the titles. YAMATO gave the green light as long as Gamma put his Dragon Gate career on the line. Gamma and Yokosuka are wearing matching fatigue themed gear, so you have to imagine this won’t just be a makeshift team. They attack before the bell. Cyber Kong attacks from the apron, giving YAMATO the advantage. Kong tags in and decimates Gamma. Yokosuka tags in and cleans house. Kong comes back with the Cyber Cutter and the Pineapple Bomber for 2. Yokosuka catches him up top with an exploder for 2. Gamma hits YAMATO with the Gamma Special for 2. YAMATO comes back with the sleeper hold. Gamma hits a low blow to escape. The champs quickly double-team Gamma for 2. Kong hits the Cyber Driver for 2. He suplexes YAMATO to help him hit an exploder on Yokosuka. Yokosuka and YAMATO slug it out until Gamma goes to town on YAMATO with his cane. Yokosuka hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 2. Real Hazard gangs up on Yokosuka in the corner until KAGETORA turns on his team out of nowhere! He levels YAMATO and then knocks all the other shocked Real Hazard wrestlers off the apron, completely cleaning house. Gamma and Yokosuka hit Kong with a double clothesline. They hit a spike Gamma Special, and Gamma follows that with a Sky Twister Press for the win and the titles at 13:07 shown of 17:58. The KAGETORA turn gave this match the shot in the arm it needed, as it lacked drama until the surprise of the betrayal.
Rating: ***

After the match the new champions celebrate with KAGETORA. Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito challenge them for the titles. Gamma is more interested in fleshing out his stable, which he does by introducing a fourth teammate… CIMA!!! The crowd absolutely eats it up. CIMA welcomes Yokosuka and KAGETORA into his stable. Then, in a very surreal moment, he shakes Gamma’s hand and hugs him! That is so weird! CIMA runs down Real Hazard for a while, setting up a six-man tag for next week, and then asks for a challenge from anyone. Masato Yoshino comes to the ring and offers CIMA a shot at the Brave Gate Championship. So that match will go down at the PPV, which is awesome because it was my Dragon Gate Match of the Year when they wrestled for the Dream Gate title last year. Doi throws in his two cents about the new group, which leads to a ton of matches being made between the three teams on upcoming episodes of Infinity. With all that said CIMA reveals the name of his new stable, WARRIORS-5. They’ll be noted as {W5} in the match headings. The fifth warrior would debut later on.

The show ends with clips of Masaaki Mochizuki kicking the crap out of Youhei Fujita, with emphasis being shown on how tough Fujita was while taking the beating. This leads to hype for Mochizuki’s boy Koji Kanemoto’s return to a Dragon Gate ring next week on Infinity.

The match made between Yoshino and CIMA brought back fond memories of their match from 2008, so I thought this week I’d share a few of my other favorite Dragon Gate matches. Five to be exact, all from 2008, and oddly enough all part of one long storyline.

1. Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs. Shingo Takagi & BxB Hulk, from January 15th, 2008. I called this match “absolutely fantastic,” in my original review. This was the match that made me interested in following Infinity on a regular basis, even though the show only aired sporadically back then. All four guys delivered, fighting for titles that Dragon Gate didn’t even own, as Takagi and Hulk established themselves as the top duo on Dragon Gate by beating Speed Muscle for the GHC Jr. Tag Team Titles. This is the only match in the last few years from Dragon Gate that even comes close to being as good as the Yoshino vs. CIMA Dream Gate match.

2. Shingo Takagi & BxB Hulk vs. KENTA & Taiji Ishimori from March 20, 2008. So now Takagi and Hulk are GHC Jr. Tag Team Champions. NOAH sent KENTA and Ishimori after them on Dragon Gate PPV to get their belts back. Some of the match was awkward, keeping it from being as good as the previously mentioned two matches, but it featured Hulk and Takagi losing their tempers after getting busted open and Takagi absolutely unloading his offense on KENTA. KENTA held his own and eventually outmaneuvered Takagi to win the belts back for his company. An amazing match to be sure.

3. Shingo Takagi, YAMATO & Gamma vs. BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino, from May 14, 2008. This was originally supposed to be New Hazard taking on the Muscle Outlaw’z for the Triangle Gate titles, but in one turn (Takagi and Cyber Kong turning on Hulk for his part in the loss of the GHC Jr. titles) both of those teams were destroyed and Real Hazard and World-1 rose from their ashes. This match was all storyline, as Hulk tried to battle his former teammates Takagi and YAMATO (as well as big baddie Gamma) pretty much on his own. Yes he had help from fellow enemies-of-Gamma in Speed Muscle, but in the end it wasn’t enough and Takagi put Hulk down to take complete control of the Triangle Gate titles.

4. Shingo Takagi vs. BxB Hulk from July 27, 2008. Takagi and Hulk feuded through the summer. Their biggest match saw them fight to a 60-minute draw in a number one contender match for the Dream Gate title on Infinity. The fact that their was no clear challenger for the title became irrelevant when champion CIMA went down to injury, and a rematch between Hulk and Takagi at the biggest show of the year was made a Dream Gate title match. It easily surpassed their draw in terms of quality, and featured Takagi’s brilliant strategy of trying to win a vacant title by count-out, because it’s the only situation when that could happen.

5. Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs. Shingo Takagi & Dragon Kid, from August 28, 2008. So I lied, as this really isn’t part of the aforementioned storyline, but it is the only other **** match from Dragon Gate in 2008. This was the finals of the 2nd annual Summer Adventure Tag League. The entire match focused on Takagi’s arm being battered, but the (then) Dream Gate champion powered through to hit all his big moves. I was annoyed, but the crowd couldn’t get enough of it. Speed Muscle couldn’t put Takagi down, so they went after his high flying partner and Yoshino managed to get the victory after hitting the Lightning Spiral on Dragon Kid. This was the final truly great match of 2008.

You might at this point be asking, “Brad, if you only thought Dragon Gate produced six ****+ matches in 2008, why is it your favorite promotion? Did not ROH and WWE and NJPW produce more matches of amazing quality?” And to that I ask back, “Who talks like that?” But seriously, The reason I love Dragon Gate the most is because four of the top six matches of the year were connected through one angle, and each match naturally led to the next one. Add that to entertaining storylines throughout the company and a guarantee that almost every match will be entertaining in one way or another you have my answer to your oddly worded question.

As for this week’s episode of Infinity, I echo my sentiments from last week. The matches didn’t blow me away but we got another surprising turn (from KAGETORA) and the debut of a very important stable. It’s like RAW in 1998; you never know what will happen next week!

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Just one note before we begin; if you haven’t noticed I’m going to be writing an op-ed type spiel with each episode’s review, but I need you, the reader, to keep me motivated. Don’t let me slack off. Okay, enough of that, let’s go to the show.

February 15, 2009 - Fukuoka, Japan

Only two matches on today’s episode, but they’re both title matches. As such, here’s a rundown of the champions:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: YAMATO & Cyber Kong
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Magnitude Kishiwada
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino

YAMATO © {RH} & Cyber Kong © {RH} vs. Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka [Open the Twin Gate Championship Match]
So the story here is that Typhoon had to disband after losing a match at the last PPV. Since then Dragon Kid joined up with Kamikaze, Anthony W. Mori made an alliance with the Shisas and CIMA was still nowhere to be found, popping in only once to go for Kong and YAMATO’s titles with Jushin Liger. Saito and Yokosuka decided to remain together, and this is the culmination of their post-Typhoon run. Yokosuka attacks before the bell. Everyone brawls around the ring for a while. In the ring YAMATO puts on a heel hook and Yokosuka squeals in pain. Saito tries to make the save but YAMATO easily catches him in a sleeper and casually throws him to the floor. Yokosuka goes for a miracle bodyslam on Kong but fails. He does it an exploder and tags to Saito. Saito hits a hurricanrana and sets Real Hazard up for a big dive from Yokosuka. Saito manages to hit the miracle bodyslam on Kong. Kong hits a side suplex for 2. Saito and Yokosuka double-team Kong for a while. Saito German suplexes YAMATO into Kong in the corner. He hits a splash off the top for 2. Yokosuka and YAMATO fight over a sleeper hold. Kong helps YAMATO suplex Yokosuka by giving YAMATO a German suplex. YAMATO is plenty hurt by the move himself. Yokosuka hits the Jumbo no Kachi and Saito hits a pair of dragon suplexes for 2. Yokosuka hits the Mugen for 2 when Saito attacks the referee! Yokosuka didn’t see it! He and Saito set YAMATO up for their finisher but Saito grabs Real Hazard’s blue box and nails Yokosuka with it! Kong hits the Pineapple Bomber and YAMATO hits the Galleria for the win at 11:59 shown of 23:33. I never understood why in matches like this the turncoat would wait almost twenty five minutes before turning on his partner. The whole thing was obviously orchestrated, so why not get Yokosuka in position like 5 minutes in? The match was fine, but I knew the turn was coming and was totally perplexed by Saito fighting so hard against Kong and YAMATO knowing what they had planned.
Rating: **½

After the match Real Hazard keeps Yokosuka down while Saito taunts him, now a full-fledged member of the group. Out of nowhere Gamma runs out with his blue cane and beats the crap out of Real Hazard, saving Yokosuka. Arai casually walks up to Gamma and pours beer on his head. Saito starts talking trash so Yokosuka clotheslines him. He and Gamma hold their own for a while, leading to YAMATO offering them a Twin Gate title shot, on the condition that Gamma be banished forever from Dragon Gate if he loses.

Masaaki Mochizuki © {Z}, Don Fujii © {Z} & Magnitude Kishiwada © {Z} vs. Shingo Takagi {K}, Dragon Kid {K} & Taku Iwasa {K} [Open the Triangle Gate Championship Match]
The pre-match video package reminds us that all three Triangle Gate champions are former Dream Gate champions. It also reminds us that Kamikaze is in a slump, with Takagi and Iwasa both recently falling to Naruki Doi, Takagi losing his feud against YAMATO and Tozawa losing the Battle of Tokyo to KAGETORA and then getting injured. They’re certainly the underdogs here.

Iwasa and Mochizuki start and Mochizuki dominates. Kishiwada and Kid come in next and mask it up against each other. Takagi and Fujii are up and Fujii takes control with his delightfully awkward offense. Takagi comes back with a spear and gets an assist from Iwasa. Fuji eats kneedrops from Kid and Takagi for 2. Mochizuki runs in to help the Zetsurins retake control. Fujii and Kishiwada hit Kid with a spike piledriver on the floor. He should not get up from that. The champs gang up on Iwasa. Kishiwada baits Iwasa into clotheslining the post. Fujii goes to work on the arm. Iwasa catches Kishiwada with a side suplex and tags to Takagi, who cleans house. Kid tags in and looks completely unaffected by the piledriver he took on the concrete. That’s so lame. Fujii catches him with a powerslam that makes me cheer, as I’m now apparently completely rooting against Kid because of the no-selling. Go figure. Takagi hits a powerslam on Kishiwada. He hits a DVD for 2. The Zetsurins all get caught in submissions until Mochizuki counters his to an anklelock on Kid and Iwasa is forced to save. The Zetsurins gang up on Kid for 2. Kishiwada and Fujii hit a double chokeslam for 2. Kishiwada hits a brainbuster and a Superfly splash for 2. Kid counters the Last Ride to a roll up for 2. Takagi hits the Pumping Bomber on Kishiwada. Kid hits a DDT and hits partners hit the Doomsday Device for 2. Takagi hits the Avalanche Falconry for 2. He and Fujii have a cool exchange that leads to Fujii nearly taking his head off with a clothesline. He hits a German suplex and Kishiwada hits a dragon suplex for 2. Kishiwada hits the Last Ride for 2 when Kid makes the save. Takagi and Mochizuki start beating the crap out of each other. Mochizuki wins the exchange for 2. I want a singles match between those two! Mochizuki hits the Ikkakugeri. Takagi blocks the Sankakugeri and Kid hits a hurricanrana. Iwasa hits the Noshigami and Kid hits the Ultra hurricanrana for 2. Takagi hits the Last Falconry for 2. Mochizuki tries to fight off Takagi and Iwasa but they take him down with clotheslines. Iwasa poetically wins the match and the belts for his team with the Noshigami on Mochizuki at 18:26 shown of 24:16. Most of the action here was fine, even exciting, but this was pretty disjointed, with the comebacks feeling forced and sloppy. As much as it disappoints me that Kid no-sold to such an inacceptable extent, it makes me very happy that my boy Takagi has a belt again. Also the finish was exactly what it should have been.
Rating: **¾

The show ends with a clip of KAGETORA pinning K-ness. After the match Masato Yoshino challenges K-ness to a singles match, seemingly to motivate him to get back to his winning ways.

Before I wrap up, I feel like this is as good a place as any to talk about heel and face turns. Just like last week, this rant may contain spoilers. First, to stay on point, let’s start with Saito’s turn on this show. Dragon Gate knew that Yokosuka and Saito had a strong enough history that Saito’s turn could legitimately piss off the crowd. Furthermore, he’d been leaning heel for a while, dating all the way back to his Dream Gate title shot against CIMA in April of 2008, almost a year before this. Still, one would have to admit that this was a snap heel turn, due mostly to the fact that in the run up to it Saito completely supported Yokosuka and was even trying to recruit BxB Hulk to form a stable with the two of them (this was not shown on Infinity due to time constraints).

It seems to me that most heel turns are snap heel turns, and while sometimes they are great and shocking, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing your emotional investment in a character’s evolution pay off. It’s not just heel turns either. While most babyface turns are the result of a heel gaining popularity and the turn being a necessity, snap turns occur here as well. How much more interesting would Matt Hardy’s face turn have been had he teamed with CM Punk for a while and grown more and more disappointed in himself with each attack on his brother. Instead he returned from nowhere and helped his brother right off the bat, and explained that they’d reconciled off-screen prior to that. Is this believable? Of course, they’re brothers and they must see each other off television. Is this the best way to exploit the audience’s emotional investment in the characters? Definitely not.

Now would I have booked Saito’s heel turn any differently? Probably not, and even if I did I don’t know that any changes I’d make would have resonated any more profoundly with Dragon Gate fans than the events that actually occurred did. All I know is that in the future I want to see drawn out, but well timed, babyface and heel turns. It’s probably asking too much in today’s wrestling world, but I can and will continue to hope for it.

Overall
The matches on this episode might not have been the best, but it was quite eventful. You’ve got a huge heel turn, the start of a new alliance (and continuation of Gamma’s face turn) and a big title change in the main event. Just try not to let Dragon Kid’s no-selling drive you crazy.

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February 12, 2009 - Tokyo, Japan

This is a Korakuen show so you know big things will go down. We’ve got a title match and a Kanemoto appearance for starters, so I’m expecting the momentum from last week won’t give here. As promised, here’s a rundown of the champions:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: YAMATO & Cyber Kong
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Magnitude Kishiwada
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino

The show starts with a video package recounting the Anthony W. Mori vs. Cyber Kong feud. Mori came to the defense of the Shisas when Kong was bullying them. With their help Mori defeated Kong by submission on last week’s Infinity. Tonight the feud rages on in six-man tag action.

Cyber Kong {RH}, YAMATO {RH} & Genki Horiguchi {RH} vs. Anthony W. Mori, Masaaki Mochizuki {Z} & Don Fuji {Z}
Mori goes with what he knows works to start, dropkicking Kong’s knee. Mochizuki tags in and goes to work on Kong’s arm. He sends Kong to the floor where Mori attacks him with a chair. Mochizuki hits Kong’s arm with the Ikkakugeri. Kong’s clothesline is useless so Mori goes for the triangle choke. Kong ties to escape but Mori stays on him with an armbar. Kong’s buddies save him. Kong fights through the pain in his arm and cleans house on all his opponents. YAMATO tags in and does the same. Kong Mori with the Pineapple Bomber but he kicks out at 1. Makes sense given how weak Kong’s arm should be now. YAMATO gets abused by all three opponents, finally going down when Mori slaps him across the face. Horiguchi starts eating finishers, and loses the match for his team when Mori hits him with the Cyber Bomb at 6:33 shown of 8:23. The dynamic between Mori and Kong continues to be incredibly entertaining, and the supporting characters in this match did nothing but amplify the fun.
Rating: ***

Mori challenges Kong to put his mask on the line in a match, which causes Kong to flip out and beat him up. Regardless, the match made for PPV is a mask vs. hair match between the two.

Masato Yoshino © {W1} vs. KAGETORA {RH} [Open the Brave Gate Championship Match]
KATGETORA earned this title shot by winning the Battle of Tokyo tournament, last pinning Akira Tozawa. The pre-match video makes me think World-1 was hoping m.c.KZ would have won the tournament, but he didn’t even make it out of the first round. Naoki Tanisaki rushes the ring, leaving the door open for Real Hazard to quickly attack Yoshino. KAGETORA thus starts in control. KAGETORA goes after the leg. He hits a facebuster for 2. Yoshino sends him shoulder-first into the post. Before he can regain control Yasushi Kanda hits him with the blue box. Yoshino grabs the box and hits him back and takes control of the match with a back suplex. He hits his shotgun dropkick, and a few seconds later remember he’s supposed to have a hurt leg and grabs it. He hits the Torbellino, aggravating KAGETORA’s shoulder. He puts on the Sol Naciente. Kanda distracts the referee while KAGETORA moves Yoshino into position for Arai to dribble water in his face, a la Gamma. Real Hazard tries to gang up on Yoshino but he fights them off on his own. KAGETORA hits a lariat and a brainbuster for 2. He hits the Blood Fall for 2. Yoshino hits a crucifix bomb for 2. He gets a crucifix pin for 2. KAGETORA hits the John Woo and the Ikkitousen for 2. Yoshino blocks an avalanche Ikkitousen and hits a sleeper slam off the middle rope. KAGETORA blocks the lightning spiral and hits a lariat. Yoshino hits the Torbellino and the Lightning Spiral for 2. He hits it again for the win at 11:14 shown of 15:56. The selling was touch-and-go here, with KAGETORA using his shoulder and arm to counter Yoshino’s moves and hitting lariats at will, and Yoshino simply grabbing his leg every now and again to remind us it was hurt but never letting it factor into his game plan. The match was fine, but nothing I’ll remember in ten minutes.
Rating: **½

BxB Hulk {W1} vs. Koji Kanemoto {Z}
Kanemoto beat Hulk in a tag match a few shows back, making his partner Naoki Tanisaki tap out, and Hulk wanted revenge one-on-one. Hulk lost to Kanemoto in the Super Junior tournament a few years back, and Kanemoto doesn’t think this match will be any different. He attacks Hulk during his pre-match dance routine. Hulk tries to come back with the Mouse but it’s not enough to change the momentum of the match. He escapes the anklelock and hits a springboard dropkick to finally take Kanemoto off his feet. He keeps Kanemoto down with kicks. He hits an uranage and a standing senton for 2. He suplexes Kanemoto to the floor and dives off the apron onto him. Kanemoto begins to favor his ankle. Back in the ring Hulk puts on the anklelock, but Kanemoto gets to the ropes. He blocks a springboard dropkick because he’s not an idiot and kicks Hulk down because he is an idiot. He hits a Falcon Arrow for 2. Hulk pops up from a tiger suplex but goes down to a dragon suplex, but only for 2. Kanemoto’s moonsault hits knees. Hulk hits the EVO for 2. He hits the _EVO but misses a phoenix splash. Kanemoto counters an FTX attempt to an anklelock for the win at 10:03 shown of 12:37. Hulk looked foolish here, going for unnecessary high risks against a cagey veteran and losing control of the match at each attempt. I expected a little more out of this.
Rating: **¾

After the match Kanemoto calls out Naruki Doi. He wants a shot at the Dream Gate title. Doi points to the PPV banner (March 22nd) and says he can have his match there, throwing a Dream Key at him. Kanemoto kicks the key away and things get heated. Tanisaki is still hot about losing to Kanemoto in the tag match. We get a six-man tag match between World-1 and the Zetsurins out of it. Gotta love promos that set up two matches.

Now, if you’re planning on following Dragon Gate by reading my reviews, this next little rant is going to be spoiler-heavy. Everyone knew where this was going. Kanemoto came in and buddied up with Mochizuki’s crew, meaning he was going to be looking for a title. Since the rest of the Zetsurins were already the Triangle Gate Champions there was no doubt that Kanemoto was going to be looking at Doi’s title. So now he’s defeated World 1 twice, and has looked dominant over both Tanisaki and Hulk. Kanemoto has been a name in Japan for years, and honestly does not need to be getting such strong victories in singles matches over guys who, less than a year ago, were main eventing Dragon Gate’s marquee PPV. All I’m saying is there was never any chance in my mind that Kanemoto was going to be grabbing the title from Doi, so why not just build Kanemoto as a guy coming in with the credibility he’d built elsewhere instead of making Hulk look weaker. And let us not forget that Hulk just spent the last six months destroying all of Real Hazard in his Dark Hulk character. By extension Kanemoto is going over so many guys, and only Doi, the guy who’s already champion, looks good when all is said and done. And none of this would even bother me that much, but as soon as Kanemoto leaves they’re going to do it all over again with a sumo wrestler! The saddest thing is that there was an opportunity to use the outsiders’ title shots to lead to a shot for a Dragon Gate regular, but they didn’t use it. Masaaki Mochizuki, who’d aligned with Kanemoto and would align with the incoming sumo lard, should have seen that he was wasting his time bringing in outsiders to get the belt for the Zetsurins and gone after the belt himself. But that’s not what happens so instead we get months of outsiders going over regulars, losing to Doi and then disappearing. Lovely.

Anyway, the show ends with clips of Kenichiro Arai and Yasushi Kanda winning a tag match over Susumu Yokosuka and Ryo Saito. After that match Kanda and Arai berate KAGETORA and pour beer on him, I assume for losing to Yoshino.

Next week we get two title matches! The Zetsurins defend their Triangle Gate belts against Kamikaze, and Kong and YAMATO defend the Twin Gate belts against Saito and Yokosuka.

Overall
A bit of a dip in quality from last week, but most of the show was spent building to the PPV. With KAGETORA taking so much abuse and two title matches coming up next week, I sense a shake up in the near future!

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What’s up nerds. I’ve never been one to talk about myself in reviews, so I’ll keep this as short as possible. Hopefully some of you remember me as the guy who ran (into the ground?) the Cool Kids’ Table. In December I let the site die. For one thing I’d gotten very busy with grad school. For another I was out of the country when it came time to renew the domain subscription and didn’t have much of my mind devoted to taking care of the issue. Finally, I just wasn’t all that into wrestling. Like so many I’d lost my drive to watch Ring of Honor, WWE, Chikara, PWG, FIP, TNA. If I couldn’t watch it I couldn’t write about it, and if I couldn’t write about it I had no business running a website covering it.

The only company I never stopped watching was Dragon Gate. I’ve been slowly but surely making my way through episodes of Infinity for months now, and luckily for you readers I’ve been jotting my thoughts down on everything I’ve watched. When Gabe Sapolsky announced he was opening Dragon Gate USA, that was all I needed to get my writing itch back. Now, thanks to some encouragement from Jerome Cusson, Kevin Ford and my long time writing partner and good buddy Jake Ziegler I’m back in the saddle.

So before I get down to Dragon Gate Infinity 120, here are a few thoughts on everything that went down from the time I stopped reviewing the show until the end of 2008:

1. Nothing all that exciting came out of Shingo Takagi’s Open the Dream Gate championship run. The PPVs during his time as champion were lackluster to say the least, and his matches were nothing special. I thought his defense against Susumu Yokosuka on PPV was overlong, a typical problem with Dragon Gate PPV main events. It was about a *** match, good but nothing to go out of your way to see.

2. Even so, the two best matches between Infinity 106 (the last episode I reviewed for TCKT) and 120 were Shingo Takagi matches. The first was his title loss to Naruki Doi, and the next was another loss, this time putting over YAMATO in a no ropes match to really help bring him along.

3. Speaking of Doi (he was mentioned in that paragraph), he earned his Dream Gate title shot after winning the 2008 King of Gate tournament. Nothing spectacular came out of the tournament, except for Doi’s ascension to the tippy top of the card and the first signs of evil from Ryo Saito. His demeanor got darker and darker in a mini-feud against BxB Hulk.

4. And speaking of Saito, his stable Typhoon was forced to disband after the team lost a 3 way tag on PPV to World-1 and Real Hazard. Tozawajuku was also forced to disband due to a match stipulation. New stable Kamikaze (headed by Takagi and including Akira Tozawa, Taku Iwasa and Dragon Kid) made up for the loss.

5. Finally, Real Hazard was ch-ch-ch-changing. A vacuum in leadership since Takagi’s exit from the group led to infighting between interim leader Gamma and Yasushi Kanda. Gamma was eventually double-crossed by the group, and he was replaced by a heel-turning Kenichiro Arai. YAMATO is now seemingly in control of the group, but if we’ve learned anything it’s that leading Real Hazard is about as permanent a position as leading the Others.

6. On Infinity 119, the episode immediately preceding this one, young and/or underexposed wrestlers competed in the Battle of Tokyo tournament. KAGETORA channeled his SUWAcito character to win the tournament, putting down three Dragon Gate regulars in K-ness, Shisa Boy and Akira Tozawa in the process. Afterwards he immediately joined up with the evil Real Hazard. Also, Youhei Fujita & Kenshin Chikano debuted. Chikano won their debut match and was invited to join Kamikaze.

7. To round things out, the champions are as follows:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: YAMATO & Cyber Kong
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Magnitude Kishiwada
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino
I can never keep track of who the Open the Owarai Gate Champion is, so you can always assume it’s either a Florida Brother, Stalker Ichikawa or Kikutaro.
I’ll probably start each review with a rundown of the champions, as one belt or another changes hands quite a bit.

I’ll also let you know which wrestler is in which stable in the heading of each match. Here’s a key: Real Hazard = {RH}; Kamikaze = {K}; World-1 = {W1}; Mochizuki’s Zetsurins = {Z} Simple, no? OK, onto the show!

February 8, 2009 – Nagoya, Japan

Cyber Kong {RH} vs. Anthony W. Mori
There’s nothing next to Mori’s name because he’s been officially unaffiliated since Typhoon disbanded. Kong had been bullying everyone at this point. Specifically, he shaved Naoki Tanisaki’s head and was giving the Shisas problems. Mori came to the Shisas’ aid, ripping off Kong’s mask momentarily, and got some of his hair clipped as a result, so that’s where this match comes from. Kong shrugs off Mori’s offense to start until a dropkick to the leg puts him down. He uses his power to regain control, throwing Mori onto the Shisas on the floor. He stays in control until Mori reverses a powerbomb to a hurricanrana. Mori goes for a powerbomb but Kong falls on top for 2. Kong easily powers out of a Boston crab. Mori dodges a chair shot and hits a low blow. He goes for chair shots of his own but Kong slugs them away with his bare hand and hits the Pineapple Bomber. That’s an awesome spot that Big Show should totally steal. Kong seats Mori in the chair and then German suplexes him, chair and all! That was absurdly awesome and unbelievably dangerous. Kong clubs away but Mori comes back with a snap suplex out of nowhere. He puts on a cross armbreaker, which is just brilliant because Kong may have hurt his hand swatting away the chair. Kong tries to powerbomb out but Mori holds on. Kong tries again but Shisa Boy throws powder in his face. Mori switches to a Fujiwara armbar for the win at 6:55 shown of 11:20. This was absolutely awesome, and told the perfect story for the time it was given. Kong’s bullying ways came back to haunt him, as his show of strength ended up damaging his arm enough for Mori to exploit it, and the revenge-seeking Shisas helped the little guy along the way.
Rating: ***½

After the match Shingo Takagi comes down and asks Mori to replace the injured Akira Tozawa in an elimination match against Real Hazard later in the show. Mori agrees of course.

They show a clip from Infinity 119 in which Takagi welcomed Kenshin Chikano into Kamikaze. At some point after this Real Hazard disrupted a Kamikaze autograph signing. All this leads into the following big elimination match.

YAMATO, KAGETORA, Kenichiro Arai & Yasushi Kanda {RH} vs. Shingo Takagi, Dragon Kid, Kenshin Chikano {K} & Anthony W. Mori [Elimination Match]
Staggered entrances here of course, with eliminations occurring by pin, submission, or being thrown over the top rope. Arai starts the match by beating on Takagi with his beer bottle. Kanda is out next, and things aren’t looking good for Takagi. He tries to come back, hitting a spear on Kanda and a back bodydrop on Arai, but KAGETORA is out next so now it’s 3-on-1. Dragon Kid is out next to try to make things a bit fairer. He hits Kanda with a hurricanrana. Takagi uses Kid as a weapon to regain control of the match. Chikano is out next, looking much more distinct in Kamikaze colors than he did in the black he had to wear as a youngboy on the last show. YAMATO comes out next, beaming with all the confidence in the world, having recently beaten Takagi on Infinity and CIMA in a tag match on PPV. Mori is out last, finally putting an end to the meandering that tends to go on in these matches before everyone is out. Kamikaze gangs up on Arai in the corner. Kid and Chikano kick the crap out of him for 2. Kanda regains control for his team, so Takagi comes in for Chikano and cleans house. Things get fast and nutty as Kid and KAGETORA go at it. Chikano goes after KAGETORA with a cross armbreaker but KAGETORA stomps on his face to escape. He hits the Ikkitousen to eliminate Chikano. He and Kanda double-team Mori until Kid intervenes. Kid and Mori double-team Kanda for 2. Takagi eliminates Kanda with the Pumping Bomber. Everyone kicks everyone in the face until Kid ends up on top of KAGETORA to eliminate him. Arai and Mori fight for an over-the-top elimination and Arai wins the exchange with a baseball slide. Takagi hits YAMATO with MADE IN JAPAN, but YAMATO has long since proven his ability to kick out of that move. They fight for an over-the-top elimination, which Takagi wins with a DVD on the apron. Arai kicks Takagi off the apron to eliminate him. He spits beer in Kid’s face. Kanda hits Kid with the blue box but Chikano keeps Arai from taking advantage. Kid nails Arai with the Dragon Rana but Kanda breaks the count. With the referee down all of Real Hazard gangs up on Kid in the corner. Takagi helps Kid come back with a super Ace Crusher. Arai pulls the referee into Kid’s path and then hits a low blow. He nails Kid with the beer bottle for the win at 17:52 shown of 24:04. The early portions of these matches always bring them down a bit. Chikano looked green, but this is only the 2nd match of his I’ve seen and he wasn’t in there long so I’ll forgive it. Sadly nobody else was really around to pick up the slack. The exchanges between Kid and KAGETORA were fun, but very brief. And while it was interesting to see YAMATO continue to hold his own against Takagi, it wasn’t enough to make the match anything more than average.
Rating: **½

After a commercial break we get a video chronicling Naruki Doi’s road to the Dream Gate. Though he lost a Dream Key match to Yokosuka, he came back a couple months later to win the King of Gate tournament and capitalize on that with a title win over Takagi. Since then Taku Iwasa has been bugging Doi for a title shot. Because Iwasa spent most of the last few weeks getting his ass handed to him by Masaaki Mochizuki in a mini-feud Doi didn’t think he deserved a shot. Iwasa responded to that by pinning Doi’s teammate m.c.KZ, which was enough to goad a title shot out of him.

Naruki Doi © {W1} vs. Taku Iwasa {K} [Open the Dream Gate Championship Match]
Iwasa goes after the arm to start. He sends Doi to the floor and hits a shinbreaker on the apron. He goes for the Noshigami on the apron but Doi blocks it. Iwasa shoves him into the post and hits another shinbreaker on the apron. He hits another on an upright chair. Doi comes back with a suicide dive. He hits a vertical suplex on the exposed floor. Back in the ring he exposes a turnbuckle but Iwasa stops short of eating the exposed metal. Doi hits the avalanche Doi 555. He hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. Iwasa comes back with the Noshigami out of nowhere. Doi hits another Bakatare Sliding Kick but Iwasa no-sells it and kicks Doi’s head a whole lot. He hits the Noshigami for 2. Doi gets a roll up for 2. Iwasa hits the Gouwan for 2. Doi hits the Noshigami and the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. How insulting. Iwasa gets a backslide for 2 but Doi rams his face into the exposed turnbuckle and hits a tiger suplex for the win at 10:07 shown of 27:01. The crowd never bought that Iwasa would win the belt, and why should they? The title hasn’t changed hands on a non-PPV show since Magnitude Kishiwada beat Mochizuki for the belt in 2005. At least I think that’s right. Still, the match was a fun use of ten minutes and let the Nagoya crowd a big match. I dug the finish too, with Doi turning into a total dick, stealing his opponent’s finisher and cheating some because he didn’t think Iwasa deserved the title shot in the first place. The win earns Doi his first Dream Key.
Rating: ***

In other news, Mochizuki pinned Youhei Fujita to win a six-man tag match, PAC and BxB Hulk defeated the Shisas, Genki Horiguchi got disqualified in a match against Gamma, and the former Twin Gate Champions Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka returned to action by pinning m.c.KZ to defeat him and his partner Masato Yoshino.

Next week Yoshino defends his Brave Gate title against KAGETORA, and BxB Hulk has a run in with NJPW wrestler Koji Kanemoto.

Overall
This was a fun episode to watch for my return to reviewing. While I find it strange that the most fun feud in the company involves Mori, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m having a ball watching the little guy frustrate the always improving big man Kong. Doi’s first defense wasn’t a classic, but it did plenty to make him look like he was on a level above Iwasa. Next week’s show looks appealing too.

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