Sunday the 24th of February 2013; the first time I ever set foot upon the hallowed grounds of Costa Del Castleford. Let’s just say that if the Dragon Gate crew never return there, I won’t either. After meeting the entire DGUK roster, watching Mochizuki and Doi plan their match (at which point we were politely asked to leave) and indulging in the culinary delights of West Yorkshire, it was showtime.
Dark match: Martin Kirby vs Someone
I don’t remember this at all.
Mark Haskins vs Marty Scurll
This was fine, but Mark Haskins is no Akira Tozawa, so it didn’t quite reach the full potential of a Marty Scurll DGUK match (he and Tozawa tore the house down at DG vs UK in 2011).
YAMATO vs Noam Dar
This was only my second time watching a Noam Dar match, I was impressed, but this was all about the awesomeness that is YAMATO. The “I’ll relentlessly try and make you tap out until you really start bringing it then I’ll repeatedly drop you on your head and try to choke you out until you lose” YAMATO match formula is always a good time.
Akira Tozawa vs Lion Kid
This was awesome. Lion Kid really is improving, this was leagues above his early DGUK efforts. He’s got better gear now too. The Tozawa worshipping crowd really helped the most charismatic man in wrestling bring this one to life. The love for Akira was running so wild that the loveable underdog LK was actually boo’d in their strike exchanges. It was pretty surreal.
BxB Hulk vs Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee
Fun match, pretty much what you’d expect with heel Hulk trying to kick Horiguchi to death while the Jimmy repeatedly tried to backslide him (with which he eventually succeeded). Many “H.A.Gee.Mee!” chants, of course. I know some folks were disappointed that El Generico didn’t make it on the tour due to his fancy new contract with the folks in Connecticut, but being a Dragon Gate die hard I was personally very pleased to see Horiguchi on the card, especially coming off the smoking hot Jimmyz/Team Veteran feud that had just climaxed in Japan.
Masaaki Mochizuki vs Naruki Doi
I firmly believe Mochizuki is the best wrestler in the world, and my good friend Adrian of Diva Dirt infamy will attest to the utter hero worship I displayed in this match. Mocchy kicked Doi. A lot. And won, with the Sankakugeri to the face. It was the best.
CIMA & Ricochet vs Shingo Takagi & Jimmy Susumu
This was phenomenal, to the point that we were still reeling in a sort of drunken, “WHAT DID WE JUST WITNESS?!” manner like half an hour after it reached its conclusion. The story was that Shingo and Susumu were bro-ing up since their singles saga concluded at DGUK 2011, so the Spike Mohicans were reforming for one night only to challenge them. It was the all out mindblowing action you’d expect from these guys in the main event of the last night of the tour. Awesome stuff.
Closing thoughts:
This show ruled. DVD is recommended for sure, but my main recommendation would be to try and get down to a Dragon Gate UK show next time they’re over here. I think it’ll come out great on the DVD, but no way will it be as good as actually being there was. That sounds like a really obvious statement, but this experience really showed me that being their live totally eclipses watching at home.
With the great venues, mega hot crowds, superior production values (though the PA did die for a while on this show), authentic roster and even authentic show opening music (“Dragon storrrrrm!'”), I feel DGUK does the Dragon Gate product far more justice than the US branch has in recent times. The near-annual DGUK tours have a closer format to the PWG mega weekends than the episodic television of the promotion in Japan, but it really works. From what I’ve heard, DGUSA had a successful Wrestlemania weekend this year (I haven’t actually seen those shows yet myself), so perhaps they’d be better off saving the Dragon Gate USA name for Wrestlemania weekend supershows (in a similar vein to DGUK) and letting the sister promotion Evolve do the heavy lifting for the rest of the year? After starting last year with three excellent IPPVs, DGUSA basically devolved into Evolve feat. three or four Dragon Gate guys. I may be going off on a tangent, but my point is that in Castleford I felt like I really was at a Dragon Gate show, whereas that wasn’t the product I felt like I was watching the last few times I ordered DGUSA shows on demand.
The DVDs for all three Dragon Gate UK 2013 shows will be out soon at http://www.amerchandise.co.uk
Quick results since I didn’t mention all of them:
Dark match: Can’t remember. Maybe Martin Kirby won. Maybe he didn’t. Google it if you care (in fact, its probably on this very website somewhere).
Marty Scurll defeated Mark Haskins
YAMATO defeated Noam Dar
Akira Tozawa defeated Lion Kid
Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee defeated BxB Hulk
Masaaki Mochizuki defeated Naruki Doi
Shingo Takagi & Jimmy Susumu defeated CIMA & Ricochet