11th of August 2013, Nagoya Conference Center, Aichi
The Takagi era rolls on with the second post-World episode of Dragon Gate Infinity. On episode 304, Mad Blankey brought an end to the champion’s stable (Akatsuki), only to turn on their leader Akira Tozawa! Fallout from that later on as Tozawa goes head to head with YAMATO as part of his single match series against his former stablemates. First off though, we’ve got Susumu and Horiguchi against Gamma and Stalker. As a fan of good matches, Gamma and Stalker teaming together is a scary prospect. Wonder if my love for Susumu and backslides will save it. Probably not.
Match 1: Jimmy Susumu & Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee of the Jimmyz defeated Gamma & Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa of We Are Team Veteran [11:33, Gave up during Kinniku Buster]
Just when I was about to write the rubber band attack off as the most overdone spot in history, referee Yagi hip tossed Susumu to prevent him making the save for Horiguchi. Amazing. Come to think of it, the Araken stuff with it on 304 was pretty funny too. Maybe there’s life left in it yet. I still wouldn’t be sad if I never saw it again though. Anyway, the Jimmyz started arguing mid match, much like their stablemates Tanizaki and Kagetora have been recently. This was basically the opener from last episode but not as good, since everything is better in Korakuen.
Rating: Super comedy time
Match 2: Mondai Ryu of Mad Blankey vs Kotoka vs Cyber Kong
– Cyber Kong pinned Mondai Ryu [12:00, Cyber Bomb]
Oh Kotoka, from lighting Tokyo on fire with Mochizuki to…this, a rerun of February’s “Ultimate Bathroom Break” match. Actually, I think Tominaga was in Kong’s place there. Fortunately, continuity in Dragon Gate is almost regional so it’s not really a thing, he’ll be doing something far more productive at the next Korakuen (teaming with DK against RyoSuka, to be precise). Seeing Dragon Gate’s finest rookie getting thrown around by Jobber Kong didn’t do any more for me in practice than it did on principle, nor did the salty Monchan dominance.
Rating: Let’s just pretend this didn’t happen
Match 3: Jimmy Kagetora & Mr Quu Quu Tanizaki Naoki Toyonaka Dolphin of the Jimmyz defeated Yosuke Watanabe (The former Super Shenlong III) & Ryotsu Shimizu [10:51, Ikkitousen]
Watanabe came out in his Shenlong gear, sans mask, then completed the transformation back into his true self by reverting to his blue shorts before our very eyes. He nailed Tanizaki with his patented over-the-turnbuckle-to-the-outside dive in a surprisingly hot start, but the rest of the early going was painfully heat-less. I’m not saying Shenlong was getting Daniel Bryan levels of reaction or anything, but he definitely seemed to be more over than his unmasked counterpart. At no point did Kage and Quu Quu have a bust up, but Naoki refused a handshake and stormed off afterwards. The match was sorely lacking heat, but gets points for featuring an intriguing rookie tandem.
Rating: ★★
Match 4: Masaaki Mochizuki of We Are Team Veteran & Open The Dream Gate champion Shingo Takagi vs BxB Hulk & Kzy of Mad Blankey [16:11, Made In Japan]
A long match in a cool Aichi. The Mocchy/Kzy stuff was fun, watching Shingo and Hulk fight is always a good time, but this was lacking in the heat department just a bit too much to make it special. A bit of a disappointment really since it was the new champion teaming with the best wrestler in the universe.
Rating: ★★3/4
During the interval some highlights of Fujii/Tominaga vs Saito/Kanda from the Dragon Gate exhibition thing at the Sapporo Dome aired. That was happening at the same time as this taping, or at least on the same day, so Doi and Yoshino wrestled twice (they had Shachi and Shisa in Sapporo before venturing over to main event this show).
Match 5: Akira Tozawa vs YAMATO of Mad Blankey [19:22, Gallaria]
Did I say we were in the Takagi era at the start of this review? Let me correct myself, since this is quite clearly the Tozawa era. Holy shit this guy is over now, like girls-jumping-up-and-down-with-signs levels of over.
This may not surprise the American indy fans since he receives god-like reactions everywhere he goes in the states, but this was his first babyface match in Japan in years. It’s also the first time Tozawa and YAMATO have wrestled each other in their more natural roles since their awesome DGUSA title match in 2011. This was great, with Tozawa fighting from behind (something he’s much more suited too than dominating) and receiving crazily huge reactions for everything, his kick out of the Gallaria especially. Mad Blankey of course aided their new master in victory, while the most popular guy in the company lost nothing in defeat. Essential viewing for Tozawa fans.
Rating: ★★★1/2
Shingo saved Tozawa from a Blankey beatdown afterwards, reminding me of that time when Dragon Gate alumni Matt “Evan Bourne” Sydal got really popular so John Cena started hanging out with him. It think it happened with Zack Ryder too.
Main event: K-ness & Dragon Kid of We Are Team Veteran vs Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino of World-1 International [18:03, Hikari No Wa]
For anyone thinking “this doesn’t look like a main event”, I guess the main reason is that it’s in Dragon Kid’s hometown. The finish was great and the final build to it was good, but the first half kind of drained the life out of me. Fine, but not exactly Dragon Gate main event quality, it pales in comparison to the Veteran/Jimmyz match that main evented the last Aichi episode (back in December, the one that featured New Japan’s Yuji Nagata).
Rating: ★★1/2
Naturally, beating one of Dragon Gate’s most revered teams, one half of whom co-holds the Twin Gate, led to DK-ness issuing a title challenge. Doi accepted, while also mentioning that they only beat him with Yoshino today, his “true” tag partner was his fellow champion Ricochet. Ouch.
While I was typing that, K-ness and DK struck this pose, making me immediately feel bad for not loving their match.
Closing thoughts: After several months of non stop raving about Dragon Gate to the good people who frequent PWPonderings, I have to concede that this wasn’t a great episode. I’ve got a lot of love for Tozawa vs YAMATO, go check that out by all means, but everything else is totally skippable, you’d be much better served watching the super awesome time that was Infinity 304, or waiting for the next Korakuen (306). It was taped on friday, I read the results and…let’s just say you’re definitely gonna want to see that one. Newsworthy would be an understatement.
Thanks as always to IheartDG for results, translations and stuff.
Want to talk about the sheer awesomeness that is babyface Akira Tozawa, the sheer wrongness of Kotoka being stuck with Mondai Ryu and Cyber Kong or the SUPER MEGA SPOILER FROM THE NEXT EPISODE? I’m on Twitter @HellionLee