So I was introduced to Dragon Gate via a Best Of 2004 compilation I bought back in 2005. I loved every single minute of it, and since then have worked on getting every single Dragon Gate show there is. Now I have finally managed to get pretty much every DG show from 2004-2007 and a fair few from what we have seen so far in 2008, meaning I can finally begin reviewing this great Japanese promotion from it’s breakaway from Toryumon onwards.
As far as Toryumon shows go, I may cover them in the future, but I only have a couple at present so it’s not worth going into those until I have a bigger set of shows available.
I also apologise in advance of having little knowledge of alliances and feuds before Dragon Gate, I’ll get better as I go along.
Match 1
Florida Brothers vs Second Doi
A decent comedy style match here, with the ref getting involved. and all sort of other silliness involving miscommunication and breaking of the rules on purpose. Doi came close to victory with the Doi-5, but the Florida Brothers tricked Doi into using his baseball bat on them to get the DQ win. Not much wrestling wise but an entertaining match- *
Match 2
Magnum TOKYO vs. Naoki Tanisaki
Decent wrestling here, but nothing all that special: it was essentially a test for Tanisaki to see if he could hang with a veteran member of Do Fixer. Tanisaki did well enough, hitting some nice high flying moves, but Tokyo really had little difficulty overall. Tokyo won with the Egoist Driver- *1/2
Match 3
Touru Owashi vs. Naoki Tanisaki
A contrast in styles here, with the powerful Owashi against the high flying Tanisaki. Owashi dominated essentially, having no trouble throwing Tanisaki around due to his massive size advantage. Tanisaki had to move quickly to have any chance, and got a couple of near falls. Owashi, like Magnum Tokyo earlier, had little difficulty winning overall, getting the three count with the Diving Body Press after a Running Chokeslam. Decent but a little sloppy- *1/4
Match 4
Crazymax (CIMA, Don Fujii, SUWA) vs. Aagen Iisou (Brother YASSHI, Shuji Kondo, Touru Owashi)
YASSHI with his usual disrespectful pre-match promo before he jumps his opponents. Strangely, much of the match seemed to have CIMA’s team working over YASSHI’s crotch: ouch. They isolated YASSHI from his corner, using power and double teams, before Don Fujii was isolated from his corner. When SUWA ran in to help, he had his injured shoulder worked over, which they went after with a chain that was somehow legal. After SUWA made the hot tag, everyone got their big moves in, with control of the match going back and forth. Following backfired outside interference, SUWA pinned YASSHI. Solid but nothing special- **1/2
Match 5
Crazymax (CIMA, Don Fujii, SUWA) vs. Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Magnum TOKYO)
This match had a bit of clipping. Most of the early part of the match saw Genki worked over by the heels, with at one point all three spraying him in the face repeatedly with a cooling spray. After many chants of HAGE, he made the hot tag, and Dragon Kid pulled off some flashy offense to stop the double team attempts. After some near falls, CIMA got the fall with the Schwein. Solid tag match- **3/4
Match 6
Final M2K (Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Yokosuka) vs. Aagen Iisou (Brother YASSHI, Shuji Kondo)
Mochi is still trying to get revenge for being kicked out of Yasshi’s faction, and jumps him before the bell. This match was solid enough but there was nothing that made it stand out from your average YASSHI tag match. Most of the match saw YASSHI and Kondo pulling out double teams on their opponents, in particular working on Yokosuka to avoid getting in there with Mochi. Yokosuka looked like he had the match won with the Yokosuka Cutter, but YASSHI’s stablemates ran in for the DQ- **1/4
Match 7
Final M2K (Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Yokosuka) vs. Aagen Iisou (Brother YASSHI, Shuji Kondo)
A rematch from the previous match, likely due to the interference. I enjoyed this a bit more than the previous encounter, possibly due to the increased intensity and Final M2K getting a bit more offense in. However a large portion of this was clipped, so we really only got the see a bit of the beginning and the hot final few minutes. After use of the box by YASSHI was stopped with a blue box from Final M2K, Mochi kicked the box in his face and that got three. If not for the clips it’d probably have gotten a higher rating- **
It was a solid debut episode overall, but really there isn’t any matches worth going out of your way to see. The best match is the Crazymax vs Do Fixer one, as there were some great spots and solid wrestling. If you have no other DG shows to watch then give it a try, otherwise it’s just your average show
5/10
