Dragon Gate #5

Now we move on to Infinity #5. Remember that Infinity #4 is a recap show so there’s nothing to see there.

The Florida Brothers vs. Final M2K (K-Ness, Susumu Yokosuka)
Our typical Florida Brothers comedy stuff here, with the usual ref involvement, miscommunication and general sillyness. It was all good, but there wasn’t a lot we hadn’t seen before, other than the mime spot and the ref listening to some music so he couldn’t hear Michael tapping. But still, our usual Florida Brother comedy match overall. They won by DQ again here- * (comedy rating **1/2)

Don Fujii, Second Doi, Naoki Tanisaki vs. Do Fixer (Genki Horiguchi, Magnum TOKYO, Ryo Saito)
A standard six man tag, with the general story being the continued testing of Tanisaki to become a member of Do Fixer, as well as Fujii and Doi’s on-off alliance/feud. But there wasn’t a whole lot you wouldn’t see in your regular six man: just everyone getting their usual spots in. Doi got the fall following the Doi-5- **

Crazymax (CIMA, TARU) vs. Italian Connection (Milano Collection AT, Anthony W. Mori)
Much of this match saw Mori being worked over by Crazymax, with them using their power and some strikes to isolate him. This match was quite heavily clipped though, so we didn’t see the tag. Indeed we only saw about 3-4 minutes. Although what we saw looked decent. TARU pinned Mori with the TARU Driller- *1/2

Final M2K (Keni’chiro Arai, K-Ness, Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Yokosuka) vs. Aagen Iisou (Shuji Kondo, Touru Owashi, Takuya Sugawara, Shogo Takagi)
There’s an ongoing feud with these two factions. Essentially, Aagen Iisou could only really get an advantage through either double teaming their opponents, or having one of the more powerful members of the team weaken them. Final M2K got all their signature moves in, and pulled out some impressive dives and high flying moves as well. My only real complaint about this match is that there was no real structure: it was just big move after big move. But when a spotfest is done this well it’s hard not to enjoy it. K-Ness made Takagi tap to the Aoki Hiraki- **3/4

Johnson Florida vs Naoki Tanisaki
Johnson Florida is of course referee Takayuki Yagi under a mask: the ref who is always bothered by the Florida Brothers antics. He didn’t last long as in just under 30 seconds Tanisaki rolled him up for three- n/r

Aagen Iisou (Brother YASSHI, Shuji Kondo, Takuya Sugawara) vs. Crazymax (CIMA, Shingo Takagi, TARU)
This to my knowledge is the debut of Shingo Takagi, filling the void in Crazymax left by SUWA’s departure. He looks way thinner here than he would even at the end of 2004, and Aagen Iisou worked over him in the early part of the match. TARU tagged in and then it was YASSHI’s turn to be  worked over, taking double teams as well as being yanked around by his hair. But Shingo was again isolated when he tagged in, with Aagen Iisou looking to beat respect into him. After the hot tag, everyone did their signature spots along with some double team moves, before Takagi was pinned after a series of double teams- **1/2

Italian Connection (Milano Collection AT/Anthony W. Mori/YOSSINO) vs. Do Fixer (Dragon Kid/Genki Horiguchi/Magnum TOKYO)
This match was another that was clipped, but from what we saw it pretty good stuff. Much of what we saw was Mori being worked over by Do Fixer, who used a series of double teams as well as hard strikes and high flying moves. After the tag, the Italian Connection double teamed TOKYO to try and get three, but it eventually came down to Magnum and Milano. Magnum would take the fall following a Northern Lights Suplex- **1/2

Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Magnum TOKYO) vs. Crazymax (CIMA, Shingo Takagi, TARU)
Much like the match with Aagen Iisou, the young rookie Shingo took an extended beating for much of the match from Do Fixer, showing the occasional bit of fire to help him fight back. There was also some back and forth wrestling from the other wrestlers in the match, hitting all their usual moves. But it was Shingo who took the fall again, thanks to Genki’s Backslide From Heaven- **

Final M2K (K-Ness, Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Yokosuka) vs. Italian Connection (Milano Collection AT, Anthony W. Mori, YOSSINO)
A solid tag match, but not really any different or more special than the other six man tags on the show. Much of the match saw Final M2K working over YOSSINO, isolating him from his partners with a series of double team moves, combined with submissions and strikes. it probably didn’t help that after making the tag, YOSSINO completely no sold the beating he just took to apply a submission hold with his team mates. The final few minutes were as quick and solid as you would come to expect, but not to the insane levels of other matches, but I still enjoyed them a lot. I did like the spot where Mochizuki uses Milano’s own submission hold against him, trapping him in the Paradise Lock: I haven’t seen that done before. The finish came when Mori tapped to K-Ness’s Aoki Hiraki. A poor first half but the second half made up for it- ***

The first half of the show was pretty average, but the second half made up for it with two good matches and two solid matches. I’ve seen better shows but this one was solid enough to warrant a recommendation if you have nothing better to watch.

6.8/10

Dragon Gate #3

Here we have Episode 3 of Dragon Gate’s TV show. Note that there will be no recap of Episode 4 as it was merely a PPV recap show with no unique matches.

Match 1
Stalker Ishikawa vs. Naoki Tanisaki
No insult to Stalker, but if Tanisaki loses this then he truly has no hope whatsoever and should quit wrestling. Stalker got a few moves in this time around, indeed some of which should make him the Shark Boy of Japan. Strangely enough, Tokyo throws in the towel so Stalker wins. Tanisaki can maybe quit now, even if it wasn’t his fault- 1/2*

Match 2
Florida Brothers vs. Naoki Tanisaki
Tanisaki comes out with the most homoerotic entrance in the history of mankind (even more than Daisuke Dino), dancing in the ring with at least 20 oiled up men in only their underpants. Your standard Florida Brothers match here: there wasn’t a lot else we haven’t seen from them previously. Despite a few close near falls, the Florida Brothers actually got a clean pinfall win for possibly the first time ever following a Backdrop Driver Pin- *1/2

Match 3
Genki Horiguchi vs. Second Doi
Kind of ironic that Doi faces Genki, a man with a balding scalp after having a bad trip to the hairdressers at the PPV: now he can be called Doi Fuji. Fuji is actually out there to rout for Doi, really just to annoy him. This match is clipped so we don’t see all of it, but what we saw was solid enough. The match was fairly back and forth, with a mix of high flying and mat based wrestling. Genki got the fall with the Backslide from Heaven- *3/4

Match 4
Second Doi vs. Naoki Tanisaki
Two wrestlers who really need a win. Fuji is again at ringside to cheer on Doi, with Doi wanting nothing to do with him (the irony of this being Doi joins Fuji in Blood Generation around four months later). This match was solid, and went back and forth, with lots of high risk moves. The ref doesn’t call for the DQ despite blatant interference from Fuji, allowing Doi to hit the Bakatare Sliding Kick for three. Poor Tanisaki with three losses on the same show (I know they were all different dates, but still)- **

Match 5
Aagen Iisou (Brother YASSHI, Shuji Kondo) vs. Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Ryo Saito)
Solid tag team wrestling here, with the usual strong heel/face dynamic the Aagen stable can bring, but there was a lot of clipping. Most of the early portion of the match saw Aagen taking apart Saito with a series of double team moves and by cheating. Saito was able to get the hot tag after a Belly to Belly, and Dragon pulled off several high flying moves. Following a few near falls, the red box was brought into play along with Sugawara interfering, then Anthony Mori ran in causing a no contest- **

Match 6
Dragon Scramble Battle Royal
Really fun match: the exact way a match like this should be done. There was lots of comedy involved, including everyone joining in with the Florida Brothers antics, and Genki getting hat with a long piece of elastic again (eliminating himself as he was fed up with the punishment he was taking), and Arai eliminating himself with it. Fuji tries chopping about ten wrestlers in the match only to get chopped ten times back, It had serious wrestling as well of course, and what was serious was solid, but it was more a fun comedy match than a great wrestling one. It came down to YASSHI and Dragon Kid, with Kid getting three following the Ultra Hurracarana- **1/2, *** comedy

Match 7
Crazymax (CIMA, Don Fujii, TARU) vs. Final M2K (Araken, Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Yokosuka)
It was a solid six man tag main event, which helped build the CIMA/Yokosuka title match, but it never went to that next level that some of the six man tag’s reach, plus there was some clear clipping . Still, some good exchanges between CIMA and Yokosuka were the highlight, and it looks like they will have a good match for CIMA’s title belt. There were also a few interesting multi-man spots. CIMA hits the Schwein, but is held back for a critical few seconds allowing Yokosuka to kick out. Fujii would eventually pin Mochi following a German Suplex- **3/4

The final two matches help make this a solid TV episode, as the rest of the show was pretty average. As I said, the Battle Royal is a very fun match, and the main event had a good home straight that made it a solid, above average match. The rest of the show has no real redeeming qualities that we haven’t seen previously.
6/10

Dragon Gate #2

This is the second episode of Dragon Gate’s TV show, this week looking at post PPV events and the fall out on recent show.

Match 1
Florida Brothers vs. Do Fixer (Genki Horiguchi, Naoki Tanisaki)
This match is completely an excuse to make fun of Genki’s hair loss. It’s also an excuse for some more Florida Brother comedy. The match is clipped on this occasion, but what we see is very funny. The best part has to be when the ref can’t stop doing the Florida Brothers pose (carrying on for around a minute after everyone else had stopped). The Florida Brothers win by DQ as per usual when Tanisaki accidentally hat the ref with a Dropkick- * for wrestling, **** for comedy

Match 2
Glove Match: TARU vs. Shogo Takagi
I take it a Glove match is essentially a boxing match with wrestling rules. There wasn’t a lot to this match to be honest: just average stuff with the two working a couple of punches in with wrestling holds. TARU won it in less than two minutes with the TARU Driller- 1/2*

Match 3
TARU vs Naoki Tanisaki
Not much to see here, essentially just some clips  TARU won it though with the TARY Driller- 1/4*

Match 4
Susumu Yokosuka vs Naoki Tanisaki
As before, this was just some clips of the final minute or so. Yokosuka won here with the Yokosuka Cutter- 1/4*

Match 5
Elimination Rules- Crazymax (CIMA, SUWA,  Fuji) vs. Italian Connection (Milano Collection AT, YOSSINO, Anthony W. Mori) vs. Do Fixer (Magnum Tokyo, Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi)
Your typical three way tag craziness. Lots of multi man spots, including a eight man sleeper spot leading to Genki getting smacked in the face with an elastic wire of some sort. Genki being beaten up was as fun as it always is, with lots of holds working on the hair. Fujii takes about a million chops from everyone in the match, followed by Magnum being hat in the corner by everyone (including his own team mates). It’s just a shame a lot of this was clipped as what was saw was great. Genki eliminated the Italian Connection with the Backslide from Heaven on Mori, and he used the same to pin CIMA to win the match- *** (it’d probably reach ***1/4-1/2 if it was in full)

Match 6
CIMA vs. Genki Horiguchi
This match is obviously a result of Genki’s win over CIMA in the previous match. It was a solid match overall, but it never felt like it got out of first gear until the final minute or so. It was still a perfectly watchable match though, with good, solid back and forth wrestling throughout, and great reversals towards the end. CIMA won it with the Schwein- **1/2

Match 7
Final M2K (Masaaki Mochizuki, Second Doi, Susumu Yokosuka) vs. Crazymax (Catcher Fuji, CIMA, SUWA)
Catcher Fujii is essentially Don Fujii in baseball gear, mocking Second Doi. A solid six man tag, but nothing special compared with your regular DG six man other than the final few minutes. There were some nice reversals in this match though, in particular the stuff involving CIMA and Yokosuka. Doi was worked over for a while, but this had little effect as he was quickly able to tag Mochi. We then can some good, quick wrestling towards the end, with everyone hitting their big moves, before Yokosuka pinned CIMA following a Lariat. Dull until the final five minutes or so where it got pretty good, so a good match overall- **3/4

Match 8
Do Fixer (Dragon Kid, Magnum TOKYO) vs. Italian Connection (Milano Collection AT, YOSSINO)
The match never got properly started essentially, as Aagen Iisou ran in and caused the match to go to a no contest. This would then lead to the next match- n/r

Match 9
Magnum Tokyo, YOSSINO, Dragon Kid, Milano Collection AT vs. Aagen Iisou (Brother YASSHI, Shuji Kondo, Touru Owashi, Takuya Sugawara)
Great match right here, with a lot of heat thanks to the strong heel/face dynamic. The first few minutes went at a hectic pace with lots of double team moves, before Dragon Kid got worked over by the heel stable. He was overpowered by Kondo and Owashi in particular, tossing him around with ease while YASSHI and Sugawara didn’t get involved a whole lot. Dragon made the lucha tag eventually and the match reach a quick pace once again, with everyone going for their signature moves and a lot of double team moves being pulled off. Miscommunication with YASSHI and Sugawara lead to Sugawara taking three finishers, getting pinned with the Ultra Hurracarana- ***

Match 10
Italian Connection (Milano Collection AT,  YOSSINO) vs. Aagen Iisou (Brother YASSHI, Touru Owashi)
Milano is busy posing at the start of the match he doesn’t see his partner being attacked. The Italian Connection dominate YASSHI early on, pulling him around by his hair and using a number of double team and high flying moves on him. YASSHI soon got his revenge with a Double Groin Claw, which allowed Owashi to tag in, and the heels soon isolated YOSSINO. He got the hot tag and this allowed him and Milano to pull off some more double teams. Milano got the AT Lock on YASSHI, but the ref was distracted, then YOSSINO locked the Sol Naciente on Owashi, but he escaped. Owashi would go on to pin YOSSINO with the Powerbomb. Solid tag main event- **1/4

A great TV episode overall. Two *** matches plus a great comedy match and a **3/4 match is good by any stretch of the imagination. The stuff with Tanisaki (other than the tag match) and the Glove match are all you should skip. Highly recommended
8/10

Dragon Gate #1

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