Hyogo, Kobe Sambo Hall – 30th of August 2013
The first Sambo Hall venture of the YAMATO era. Yes, that’s right people who missed the previous review, new Open The Dream Gate champion Shingo Takagi fell in his first defence to the self proclaimed “sexiest and coolest guy in the world”! It’s been one of the most eventful summers in Dragon Gate history.
Match 1) Masaaki Mochizuki & Gamma of Team Veteran defeated Don Fujii of Team Veteran & CIBA [10:34, Twister]
Apparently Sambo Hall doesn’t quite have the CIBA love that Korakuen does. Probably didn’t help that it’s a Tokyo storyline and that episode hadn’t aired at the time of this taping. The match had some cool Mocchy/CIBA and Mocchyi/Fujii moments, but wasn’t a patch on what these guys did last episode.
Rating: ★★
Match 2) Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee & Mr Quu Quu Tanizaki Naoki Toyonaka Dolphin of the Jimmyz defeated Shingo Takagi & Cyber Kong [11:34, Backslide From Heaven]
The most random of Jimmyz combinations versus no one’s favourite tag team. This was pretty uninspiring, save for the serviceable closing minutes and the always-hot backslide finish. From champion one episode to losing in the most throwaway of matches on the next, bad times for Shingo. The best thing about this was getting to hear the wild new speed metal mix of Horiguchi’s theme “Go To Heaven”.
Rating: ★★
Match 3) Ryo “Jimmy” Saito & Jimmy Susumu of the Jimmyz defeated Open The Dream Gate champion YAMATO & BxB Hulk of Mad Blankey [14:24, Messenger]
This was made to hype YAMATO’s upcoming Dream Gate defence against Saito. From Saito’s comeback onwards it was pretty good, a nice taste of what we’ll get in the title match. The finish was great and made it look like Saito actually has a chance of beating YAMATO when the belt is on the line. I will say though, YAMATO and Hulk gelled more with their previous tag team partners (Shingo and Tozawa respectively).
Rating: ★★★
Match 4) Eita, T-hawk & U-T of the Milennials defeated Masato Yoshino of World-1, Ryotsu Shimizu & Chihiro Tominaga [1:32, Modified Arm Lock]
A hot opening saw the powerhouses T-hawk and Shimizu face off, before a couple of Eita/Tominaga exchanges led to Dragon Gate’s least promising prospect submitting! Yoshino demanded an immediate rematch, since neither himself or the debuting U-T had even been in the ring yet.
Match 4b) Eita, T-hawk & U-T of the Milennials defeated Masato Yoshino of World-1, Ryotsu Shimizu & Chihiro Tominaga [10:24, Rotacion]
That has to be the most successful Dragon Gate debut ever (or at least since I’ve been watching), as U-T won it with a freaking running Canadian Destroyer?! Nice. Solid debut match for the new unit, where they got to show off their triple team offence and other crazy lucha moves (I’m still not convinced Eita’s moonsault-over-the-turnbuckle was even aimed at anyone). It didn’t build to the classic Dragon Gate finishing stretch, instead it was just the Milennials working together to annihilate Tominaga. Solid booking, if a little less frenetic than one expects from a Dragon Gate six man tag. Story is more important than movez, however.
T-hawk is the clear standout of the group, which is no surprise given his run prior to Mexico, U-T showed a lot of potential despite some clear holes in his game (you need to follow up a handspring fake-out with a little more than a cartwheel when you’re in front of a crowd who are used to watching Ricochet and Swann), while Eita is…Eita. Dude has come a long way charisma wise, but the jury is still out on whether the fifteen months spent in dodgy Mexican indy feds made him better or worse in the ring. Anyway, I really want to see a T-hawk/Shimizu singles match now.
Rating: ★★★1/4
Afterwards, Yoshino vacated the Brave Gate! He said something along the lines of the new generation deserving it, so a tournament was set up for the next Sambo shows.
Bonus match: Naruki Doi, Ricochet & Masato Yoshino defeated Jushin Thunder Lyger, K-ness & Dragon Kid
Good times were had as a ten minute cut of the main event from the recent Doi homecoming show (25th of August in Nara) aired during the middle of the episode, featuring a cameo from junior heavyweight legend and former Dream Gate champion Jushin Lyger.
Match 5) Akira Tozawa vs Uhaa Nation of Mad Blankey [0:00, No Contest]
The bell rang, and Uhaa stayed still. Tozawa looked confused. Uhaa took the mic, and declared “Tozawa, I can’t fight you man, you’re my good friend in wrestling, and my best friend in real life. I can’t do it” before leaving the ring! Mad Blankey protested. Uhaa returned to the ring and Tozawa got emotional on the mic, telling Uhaa he was still his best friend and didn’t want to hurt him but “it’s our job”. Emotions. Seriously, go watch this, it probably doesn’t sound like the most moving dialogue but Tozawa’s delivery was amazing. Monchan decided to ruin the moment, since ruining the moment is kind of his thing. Uhaa was booted from Mad Blankey and a beatdown ensued…but Shingo & Cyber Kong made the save!
Match 5b) YAMATO, BxB Hulk, Mondai Ryu & Kzy of Mad Blankey defeated Akira Tozawa, Uhaa Nation, Shingo Takagi & Cyber Kong [6:35, First Flash after Cyber Kong annual heel turn]
This was well on it’s way to being one of the best matches of the year, with the often indifferent patrons of Sambo Hall going wild for Akira “Turned babyface recently” Tozawa and Uhaa “Turned babyface five minutes ago” Nation, until Cyber Kong abruptly ruined everything because of his constant compulsion to turn heel. Seriously, this guy turns heel so often that I expect him to turn face on the next episode just so he can turn heel again immediately after. I actually have no problem with his return to Mad Blankey, or even the finish to this match, I just wished he could have waited another five minutes or so since this was headed for super awesome best-thing-in-Sambo-Hall-since-the-CIMA-Royale-before-World-2012 territory. Of course, we’ll be getting an abundance of matches between these new units for the next year or so, so I guess they’re smart not to give too much away here. This whole angle made for great tv.
Rating: ★★★1/2
Also, this is the second time one of Shingo’s buddies has turned on him this year. On top of his unit being destroyed and his record breaking title loss, he really isn’t having a great time lately. Poor guy.
Main event – Open The Twin Gate Championship: K-ness & Dragon Kid of Team Veteran defeated the champions Naruki Doi & Ricochet of World-1 [17:51, Hikari No Wa]
– World-1 fail in their first defence, K-ness & DK become the 28th champion team
There’s one match the Doi/Ricochet Twin Gate reign will be remembered for, and it isn’t this one, but still, it was pretty good, with a great finishing stretch as DK-ness just threw everything they had at World-1. DK suffered a legitimate knee injury during said finishing stretch, which unfortunately forced the team to vacate both the Twin Gate and the Triangle (which they held with Mochizuki) shortly after.
Rating: ★★★
Closing thoughts: A surprisingly newsworthy Sambo Hall show, with a killer angle (the Tozawa/Uhaa stuff and the ensuing match is highly recommended viewing), an important debut (anyone following the Millennials definitely needs to see that) and a title change (fellow K-ness enthusiasts, this is for you). Good stuff, but as regular readers will know by now, it’s the Korakuen shows that are the reason I watch Dragon Gate.
Thanks as always to IheartDG.com for the match times, and thanks to various members of the DRAGON GATE（ドラゴンゲート） 応援団 Facebook group for the photos. Want to talk about the show? You can find me on Twitter @HellionLee