Dragon Gate World 2013 Review

Kobe World Hall, 21st of July 2013

Here it is folks. The biggest show of the year. Dragon Gate’s Wrestlemania, the annual Pro Wrestling festival in Kobe, aka WORLD. A show so huge, that I’m selling out and giving the matches star ratings. I also went back and retroactively added star ratings to my Dead Or Alive review, for anyone with OCD who wants to make a full blown mathematical comparison between the two pay per views. Anyway, let’s do this.

Match 1: Rich Swann (W1i), Shachihoko BOY (W1i) & Super Shisa (W) defeated Kotoka (W), Chihiro Tominaga (A) & Super Shenlong (A) [7:07, Standing 450 Splash]

Regular readers won’t be at all surprised to hear (well, read) that I loved this. Really fun little sprint in which Kotoka and Swann shined the most. A more rapid fire finishing stretch could have really turned it into something special (the finale we got was Swann barraging Chihiro “Not Over” Tominaga), but you can’t really complain at that not happening in the rookie filled opener.

Rating: ★★★

Match 2: Yoshiaki Fujiwara defeated Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa (TVR) [0:20, Arm Lock]

Immediately submitted. Vintage Stalker.

Rating: N/A

Match was restarted, as per.

Match 2b: Yoshiaki Fujiwara defeated Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa (TVR) [8:27, Fujiwara Armbar]

More vintage Stalker. Honestly, I spent the duration of this match talking to my friend about absolutely everything but this match.

Rating: N/A

Match 3: Cyber Kong (A), HUB (TVR) & NOSAWA Rongai defeated Jimmy Susumu (J), Jimmy Kagetora (J) & Mr Quu Quu Tanizaki Naoki Toyonaka Dolphin (J) [10:08, Cyber Bomb]

Typical good stuff from the Jimmyz, especially Susumu who has been on great form recently. HUB was good too, Kong was…Kong, and NOSAWA was barely involved at all. Why didn’t they just get Araken for this match instead of bringing NOSAWA in? Where is Araken?

Rating: ★★★

Match 4 – Open The Triangle Gate championship: Champions Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee, Ryo “Jimmy” Saito & Jimmy Kanda of the Jimmyz vs Gamma, Don Fujii & Dragon Kid of Team Veteran Returns vs Uhaa Nation, Kzy & Mondai Ryu of Mad Blankey

– Mad Blankey were eliminated at 18:48 (Dragon Kid Ultra Hurricanrana to Kzy)

– Team Veteran were eliminated at 21:43 (Horiguchi pinned Gamma with Backslide Times)

Much of this was Dragon Gate comedy 101, then when Mad Blankey were eliminated it broke down to an awesome Veteran/Jimmyz finishing stretch, reminiscent of the feud that highlighted late 2012. Not quite a World-worthy Triangle Gate contest, especially when you think about how many other great matches there have been for those belts in the past year, but with the way the rest of the card is laid it out it’s easily forgivable, so I can just take it for what it is. Fun, not at all serious, and very enjoyable for its place on the card.

Rating: ★★★1/4

Match 5 – Open The Brave Gate Championship: Masato Yoshino of World-1 International retained against K-ness of Windows [18:18, Sol Naciente Kai]

This didn’t quite live up to my borderline outrageous expectations, but it was still very good. Much love for the made-just-for-this-match attire (K-ness in gold, Yoshino in his old school Italian Connection colours). The Hikari No Wa attempts and counters were fantastic, but I didn’t feel quite as worked-into-a-frenzy as I did in K-ness’s 2013 Korakuen matches.

Rating: ★★★1/2

At the interval we got highlights of the original CIMA/Shingo Dream Gate match from Gate Of Destiny 2007. I was hoping for the CIMA/Ricochet Dream Gate match from Hakata, but I guess this was more relevant (and what I expected).

Match 6 – No DQ: YAMATO of Mad Blankey defeated Masaaki Mochizuki of Team Veteran Returns [16:54, Choke Sleeper]

I would happily watch Mochizuki and YAMATO fight each other on every pro wrestling show until the end of time. I consider them to be the two best wrestlers in the world (I assume the majority pick in 2013 is Daniel Bryan, I guess I’d put him at number three). At face value, it was a great formula with YAMATO’s main strategy being submission, which Mochizuki combated with utterly fierce kicks (though they both dabbled in each other’s tactics, it was clear which they favoured), but it’s when you look just that bit closer you see how good these two really are. Mochizuki’s sly knee to the face when YAMATO shot for the takedown, the sleeper escape where Mocchy wrenched the choking arm away in an effort to lure a backup arm in for him to throw, YAMATO ultimately scouting that very throw and managing to keep the sleeper locked in during the final one…these guys. The No DQ stip barely came into play, but I’m not complaining at all as I’d much rather not see Dragon Gate’s finest singles pairing bogged down with salt, chairs and interference.

YAMATO came out of this looking like an absolute killer. A very important victory putting him on the map in a big way following his house show heel turn. Dragon Gate, if you’re ever gonna run with a heel champion, this is the man to do it with.

Rating: ★★★★

I totally forgot to mention, it’s not every day you see a 43 year old man backflip out of a german superplex.

Ladies and gentlemen, Masaaki Mochizuki.

Match 7 – Open The Twin Gate Championship: Naruki Doi & Ricochet of World-1 International defeated the champions Akira Tozawa & BxB Hulk of Mad Blankey [24:19, Double Rotation Moonsault]

Before we get to an extended Ricochet love-fest, let’s take a moment to salute the greatness that was Akira Tozawa’s Ricochet style multiple-backflips-after-hitting-the-ropes sequence. Probably my favourite spot in any match ever. The abrupt springboard dropkick interruption was genius too.

Seriously though, Ricochet. His finest hour, a grand culmination of his blazing hot run since his return to Japan in November. In a world with gravity, how is an avalanche reverse frankensteiner even possible? Even then, how is it possible without both men dying? Amazing stuff. But at this point, Ricochet is so much more than a wrestler who does cool flips. He’s nailed every mannerism, every aspect of the game. He’s basically a superhuman version of The Rock. He even holds his title the same way.

Doi and Hulk filled their roles in this match very well, but it was Ricochet and Tozawa who carried it to greatness. The fantastic chemistry that we’d seen between those two in New Jersey at Wrestlemania weekend was on glorious display here. An outstanding, jaw dropping, World-worthy Twin Gate match. Just awesome.

Rating: ★★★★1/2

Match 8 – Open The Dream Gate Championship: Shingo Takagi of -akatsuki- defeated the champion CIMA of Team Veteran Returns [37:33, Last Falconry]

I believed in CIMA. The hype video, the big match entrance, I got so into his quest for the unfathomable sixteenth defence that I even stood for the Japanese national anthem. Match was epic, felt huge, and the finish stopped my heart in a way I’m not sure any wrestling match has before. Going into the show, I thought CIMA was winning 60/40, with the earlier promos and the aforementioned hype video that went up to at least 80/20. No super finisher overkill, just a Pumping Bomber followed by a Last Falconry that ended the surely never-to-be-replicated fifteen defence, twenty month reign of the Dragon Gate icon. I sat in total shock as CIMA wept and Takagi celebrated, before an epic promo from the fallen champion that I didn’t understand a word of but felt I got the gist anyway. Amazing stuff.

Rating: ★★★★1/4

Pretty much everyone but the champion talked at length in the main event aftermath, causing Twitter speculation that they just really didn’t want Shingo “No CIMA On The Mic” Takagi to speak, which isn’t surprising since he was bettered in the post main event banter by everyone at Korakuen a couple of weeks ago. BxB Hulk and his Christian Bale Batman voice had the line of the night as he informed CIMA that “anyone who loses to someone as garbage as Takagi was never the apex of anything to begin with” after delivering a First Flash. Shingo closed the show by shaking hands with the fans and posing on the stage with his newly won title.

Closing thoughts: Wow. The first half was enjoyable but seems like a distant memory, the second simply blew me away. A much bigger feeling World than last year, with three outstanding matches and a historic finish. To fans of other promotions, a world title change may not seem like the biggest deal ever, but you’ve got to understand that it had got to the point where it didn’t seem like CIMA would ever lose the strap. He, and Mochizuki before him, has elevated this belt to new heights, hopefully Takagi can do their legacy justice. Also, if you read my World predictions article, you’ll know I went 2-6. Yeah. Kudos to you Dragon Gate, you got me.

Match of the night: The addition of star ratings may make this seem straight forward, but it really isn’t. YAMATO/Mochizuki matches are pretty much my favourite matches that exist, the Twin Gate was the Dragon Gate style at its finest, while the main event was an emotional war. Speaking of emotional, here’s teary CIMA hugging his former Spiked Mohican protégé.

EMOTIONS. But yeah, I guess I have to give the honours to the Twin Gate match, but it’s close for sure.

The show is available on demand until July 29th, go order it for $25 at ustream.tv/dragongate

Thanks as always to IheartDG for translations, match times etc. Most of the photos were screenshots, but thanks to Tsuyoshi Mitogawa for the couple that weren’t.

Want to dispute my claims of who the greatest wrestlers in the world are, marvel over the spot where Tozawa seemed to be tuning up the band (only to receive Sweet Chin Music from Ricochet) or ponder the wherabouts of Kenichiro Arai? Talk to me on Twitter @HellionLee