Do you like my Dragon Gate reviews? If so please follow this link and check out Burger Weekly. Or LIKE us on Facebook.
August 25, 2011 – Tokyo, Japan
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Masaaki Mochizuki
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: YAMATO, Masato Yoshino & Gamma
Open the Brave Gate Champion: PAC
Open the Twin Gate Champions: CIMA & Ricochet
Open the Freedom Gate Champion: YAMATO
Open the United Gate Champions: Masato Yoshino & PAC
Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai vs. K-ness & Susumu Yokosuka {J3} vs. Ryo Saito {BW} & Genki Horiguchi {BW} [Elimination Match]
K-ness, Iwasa and Saito start. K-ness kind of looks like Tiger’s Mask in his purple getup. He and Iwasa team up on Saito for a bit. Iwasa hits K-ness with a shoulder tackle. Arai does the same to Yokosuka. Horiguchi hits a hurricanrana. Arai headbutts him. He hits a suicide headbutt. Yokosuka dives over the post. Iwasa puts Saito in a half crab but K-ness foolishly makes the save. Iwasa agrees it was dumb and ties K-ness and Saito in Some Circus Shit. Arai and Iwasa work K-ness’ arm. Iwasa hits a hammerlock backbreaker. Horiguchi steals the pin for 2. Saito spits in K-ness’… mask? MARAHA! ISAPPA! gets interrupted by Arai and a diving kneedrop. The bad guys come back with stereo swinging DDTs to K-neSuka. Horiguchi hits a brainbuster for 2 on K-ness. K-ness cleans house. Yokosuka does the same with lariats. He hits Saito with an exploder. He and K-ness hit the SukaDora Knee. Iwasa and Arai double-team Yokosuka for 2. Arai misses the diving headbutt and Saito hits him with the Superfly Splash. Saito hits Yokosuka with a powerbomb but K-ness catches him with a superplex in one of the coolest spots I’ve seen in a long time. Arai hits the diving headbutt for 2. Iwasa hits Horiguchi with a splash. Arai hits a leapfrog double stomp. Yokosuka baits Arai into an avalanche DVD for 2. Another great spot there. Iwasa and Yokosuka trade lariats. Iwasa hits the Gouwan and the Noshigami for 2. K-ness hits Saito with an enziguiri. He hits it on Arai. Arai hits Saito with a double stomp. He and Iwasa hit a double wheelbarrow suplex to K-ness onto Saito. Horiguchi rolls through the Noshigami for 2. Iwasa hits the Gouwan. Horiguchi counters the Hanshin Tiger Suplex to the Backslide from Heaven to eliminate AraIwa at 14:01 shown of 14:49. K-ess hits Horiuguchi with the Shouryuukyaku. He hits Saito with a high kick. Yokosuka finally hits the super exploder. K-ness hits the Kaishaku for 2. He hits another Shouryuukyaku on Horiguchi. He and Yokosuka hit the Genkai for 2. Yokosuka hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 2. Horiguchi catches K-ness with the Backslide from Heaven for 2. Yasushi Kanda hits a pair of blue box attacks and Saito hits a dragon suplex for 2. Saito hits another for 2. He hits the Double Cross for the win at 16:46 shown of 17:41. I don’t think Kanda interfering added anything but a cheap out for K-ness losing. Annoying finish aside this was awesome, with a couple of brilliant spots and some incredibly fast action.
Rating: ***½
After the match Horiguchi and Saito run
back”>text your ex backdown all four of their opponents. Horiguchi challenges them to an eight-man tag match with the Spiked Mohicans and his and Saito’s partners. CIMA grabs the microphone and continues to rip on the opposition. Iwasa challenges CIMA to put his Twin Gate belts up in the eight-man tag match. CIMA laughs off the challenge. Iwasa says CIMA is scared. CIMA basically ignores him.
Tomahawk TT {BW} & Tomahawk Kzy {BW} vs. Super Shisa {J3} & Dragon Kid {J3}
Kzy lost a match at the last Korakuen Hall show and was subsequently banned from this one. That’s why he’s a Tomahawk tonight. He loses to Kid when Kid hits the Bible.
Later on Rich Swann sings an acoustic version of Mochizuki’s theme song, with plenty of crowd participation. Mochizuki comes out and helps him sing it. This is awesome. That leads into CIMA {BW} & Yasushi Kanda {BW} vs. Masaaki Mochizuki {J3} & Rich Swann {J3}, which ends with Swann taking a blue box attack, a German suplex and the Ryus at the hands of Kanda.
Naoki Tanisaki “©” {BW} vs. Gamma {J3} [“Open the Brave Gate Championship Match”]
Again, Tanisaki isn’t really the champion and is just pretending to make defenses. He also only needs a two-count to win this match, while Gamma needs a three-count. They both try to attack before the bell. Tanisaki gets a roll up for 1. He gets a small package for 1. Gamma hits a shoulder tackle. Tanisaki gets a schoolboy for 1. They trade roll ups, with Gamma always getting 2 and Tanisaki always getting 1. Gamma has to take a break on the floor. He spits in Tanisaki’s face. He hits a dropkick. The Tomahawks attack Gamma from the floor. Kzy and Tanisaki hit a double suplex onto a chair pile. It gets 1 in the ring. Tanisaki chokes him with a towel. He douses him with water for 1. He hits the DH for 1. He whips Gamma into a chair in the corner and hits the Neji to Hashi for 1. Gamma whips Tanisaki into the chair. He smacks him and hits a lariat. Tanisaki hits the FH. Gamma blocks the Casanova and hits the Flashback. He comes off the top with a dropkick for 2. He hits a few kicks. Kanda powders Gamma and Tanisaki gets a backslide for 1. Gamma boots the blue box into Kanda. He hits a lariat on Tanisaki. Tanisaki gets a schoolboy for 2. Gamma hits a superkick and the Blitzen. He hits the Gamma Special for 2 when Kzy distracts the referee. The Tomahawks double-team Gamma in the corner. TT hits a Fire Thunder Driver and Kzy hits KZ Time, getting 1 for Tanisaki. Tanisaki hits two Casanovas for 1. He hits the Implant but Gamma rolls him over for 2. Kanda hits a blue box attack and Tanisaki hits the Implant full on for 2, giving him the win at 11:05. They played to the gimmick exceptionally well here. Gamma got exhausted far earlier than he would have, and was at Tanisaki’s mercy most of the match. The crowd got really into it too, cheering for the mega underdog Gamma. It got just a tad unbelievable that Gamma would be kicking out of so much at one near the end, but then again the match was at least five minutes shorter than it would likely have been normally. I liked this a ton more than I expected to.
Rating: ***½
After the match Tanisaki tells PAC, the real champion (though he doesn’t call PAC that), to come for the Brave Gate title. He insists, however, that the same 2-count rule apply to PAC’s “challenge.”
Next week we see the main event from this same show, as well as a Triangle Gate match between Junction Three and the Doi Darts.