Tokyo, Korakuen Hall – September 12th 2013
Will the Dream Gate change hands two Korakuens in a row? Will the Milennials emerge victorious from their Tokyo debut? Will Team Best Friends manage to overcome Speed Muscle? But most importantly of all, who will be Chihiro Tominaga’s mystery opponent in the dark match???
Match 0) CIMA of Team Veteran defeated Chihiro Tominaga [5:21, Zebra Special]
It was CIMA! So this was the ace vs the ultimate jobber to half a crowd in the moral dark match, a brilliantly bizarre spectacle, complete with Tominaga’s second tap-out to a random hold in a month. Actually, a quick scan of IheartDG shows that he also tapped to a Shimizu boston crab on the Osaka episode which I missed. Nice. I loved this.
Rating: Tominaga singles match of the year
The place was packed by the time the main show started, which leads me to ponder whether CIMA-as-X was a stunt to encourage folks to get there earlier and catch the dark matches. If only the world had more Tominaga enthusiasts.
Match 1) BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong, Kzy & Mondai Ryu of Mad Blankey defeated Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, Kenichiro Arai & Super Shisa of Team Veteran [9:52, Cyber Bomb]
I believe the line “Typical good times Korakuen opener” has made it into every Korakuen review I’ve written for this site. Well, this was no exception, if you ignore the obligatory Cyber Kong-just-turned-heel-again-so-now-he-has-to-start-winning-matches finish. It also featured my current favourite thing in wrestling; the BxB Hulk I’m-going-to-kick-you-in-the-face dance.
*This is where a GIF would go if I knew how to make one.*
I’m pretty sure he’s done it forever, but I only truly noticed it about a month ago. Amazing. Speaking of Hulk, there’s been speculation of him being the next guy to be booted from Mad Blankey and turn babyface, but about half way through this it occurred to me that turning Kzy would be a way better idea. He’s the only remaining fun loving member of the group, he’s been heel longer than anyone else in the company, his stuff with Mocchy in this match was great, and I think folks could really get behind him as an underdog semi-comedy face at this point, while babyface Hulk is…questionable. But I digress.
Rating: Typical good times Korakuen opener
2) Uhaa Nation defeated Ryotsu Shimizu [5:34, Uhaa Combination]
This was more “Uhaa exhibition” than the “Shimizu Sapporo show stealer comes to Tokyo” I was misguidedly expecting, but that’s fine. Uhaa said “Too easy” a bunch of times while Shimizu failed to spin him around by the legs (that move has a really obvious name which I’ve somehow completely forgotten). Fortunately for Ryotsu, Uhaa’s best buddy Akira Tozawa is an all round great guy and let him spin him around after the match.
Rating: Too easy
3) Ricochet of World-1 defeated the former Super Shenlong III Yosuke Watanabe [7:59, Shooting Star Press]
This was originally supposed to be a duel of CIMA’s protegés, but unfortunately Kotoka “CIBA” Shiiba was injured, so Watanabe and his uninspiring blue shorts were his replacement. This was the best of the former Akatsuki flyer’s post-unmasking appearances, but that’s almost entirely due to Ricochet and the Korakuen crowd. Dude needs to pull a K-ness and re-mask ASAP.
Rating: Shenlong singles match of the year
4) Summer Adventure Tag League Block B: K-ness & Gamma of Team Veteran defeated Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kanda of the Jimmyz [10:57, Hikari No Wa]
Watching K-ness and Susumu fight each other is always a good time, as is watching Susumu and Kanda tag together (been a big fan of their team since the showstealing Twin Gate match at Gate Of Destiny last year). Of course, Gamma is my least favourite wrestler, but my lack of enthusiasm towards him didn’t derail this too much for me. I find it hard to complain about anything that involves the Jum Woo No Kachi.
Rating: ★★★
5) Eita, T-Hawk & U-T of the Milennials defeated Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee, Mr Quu Quu Tanizaki Naoki Toyonaka Dolphin & Jimmy Kagetora of the Jimmyz [15:50, Numero Uno]
In a match that will be noted in the history books as the Tokyo debut of the Milennials, the standout performer was actually Naoki Tanizaki. Dude showed the fire that we haven’t seen from him since his feud with Tomahawk, which of course makes sense given that this was the first time he’d faced his most famous rival since, but it was actually in his brief exchanges with Eita that it came through the most. That’s a pairing to watch out for in the future. The Tanizaki and Kage problems continued as their in-fighting left Horiguchi alone to fall victim to the Milennials in the dramatic finishing stretch, but the slick tag team moves they busted out earlier on makes me wonder whether they’ll be forced to put their differences aside and continue to team up after the inevitable implosion of the Jimmyz (rather than the more obvious route of their issues causing the split).
As for the Milennials themselves, they’ve all picked up some convoluted submissions during their Mexican excursion, non moreso than U-T’s leg lock that bizarrely followed an apparent roll up attempt. Apparently the DTU guys let Eita borrow a DX tape as well, since doing crotch chops seems to be his thing now. Or maybe he walked into X Pac over there. Who knows. Questionable quirks aside, I’m way into this unit so far, though I admit a lot of that enjoyment comes from genuinely having no idea what they’re going to do next. With an arsenal of finishers including T-Hawk’s Veracruz and Tanaka’s Canadian Destroyer, I was quite surprised to see Eita’s not-so-visually-inspiring arm lock (which he submitted Tominaga with at Sambo Hall) end the match. At first I thought it was to protect Horiguchi (after all, he is the 2012 King Of Gate winner…an accolade still boasted on his t shirt, which you really think he would have changed after Ricochet won the 2013 edition), but he had the arm in a sling later on (in a backstage interview), so I guess they’re just trying to get the hold over.
Rating: ★★★3/4
The Milennials declared that they’re going after the old timers next, which brought Team Veteran out for some post match bickering…which Mochizuki got the better of, naturally (mainly by pointing out that their mic skills are weak and that T-Hawk is actually from Hokkaido rather than Mexico). The match was set for next month (Mocchy, Fujii and Shisa being the veteran trio).
6) Summer Adventure Tag League Block A: Akira Tozawa & Shingo Takagi vs Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino of World-1 [15:23, no contest due to Mad Blankey interference and Doi heel turn]
Did you ever see the original cut of the movie Clerks? The initial screening of the cult comedy shockingly culminated in the death of the protagonist, which is pretty much what happened here, as the super good times, woo-infested, semi main event summer adventure tag extravaganza was brought to a close by Mad Blankey interference and Doi’s despicable betrayal. With that in mind, it would had to have been Randal who shot Dante for the analogy to completely work, but it’s that time of year when Dragon Gate blissfully throws logic out of the window and just has everyone turn heel on everyone, so I’m willing to do the same. Throw logic out the window that is, not turn heel.
Moving on from unnecessary and overly worded comparisons, this match ruled. Tozawa continues to be insanely over, with the “Woo”‘s he busted out here making him even more so. Is he paying tribute to Flair? Is he paying tribute to Swann? Is he just doing whatever he wants because he’s finally the top babyface in a promotion that once jobbed him out to Cyber Kong and shipped him to America? I’m inclined to go with the latter. Losing the title pretty much saved Shingo’s career, as the reactions to the entrance and everything that followed showed how much more popular Tozawa is; being so blatantly outloved and upstaged while champion could have killed Shingo’s star status for good.
As for the Doi turn…they got me, I thought it was Yoshino going to dark side. I’m sad to see World-1 end (again), that’s the unit I was hoping would survive the shuffle, but it is what it is. Great match with a crazy ending.
Rating: ★★★3/4
Doi announced that World-1 was over and his allegiance is now with Mad Blankey. He dragged Ricochet with him backstage.
7) Open The Dream Gate Championship: YAMATO of Mad Blankey defeated Ryo “Jimmy” Saito of the Jimmyz [21:55, Gallaria]
– 1st defence for YAMATO
I expected this to be good. Really good, actually, given that it was in Korakuen. My prediction was incorrect….it was AWESOME. Saito was the perfect underdog foil for the cocky, narcissistic champion, and the Korakuen faithful pretty much exploded at everything he did as he attempted to make YAMATO’s title reign as short as his and Takagi’s had been. The frankensteiner-after-the-box-attack may have been the spot of the year, as Saito rolled straight through the combo and nearly pinned YAMATO himself, in a fantastic spin on the conclusion of last month’s Dream Gate match. Saito’s survival of Doi’s chair/Bakatare interference was a highlight too, dude looked like an absolute hero, then the actual finish was great as YAMATO choked him out before going for Gallaria, having learned just how much it would take to put him down. This was like CIMA/K-ness and Punk/Undertaker in that you knew realistically there was no way the challenger could win, but the match came off so well that disbelief was suspended and you could totally buy it. Not only one of the best matches of the year, but one of the best matches ever contested for this belt.
Rating: ★★★★3/4
Aftermath notes: YAMATO asked CIMA for an interesting challenger (CIMA seems to have unofficially taken over from Yagi as the kayfabe booker). Unsurprisingly, Yoshino answered the call! The match was set for the next Korakuen (October 10th).
– Team Best Friends (the unofficial name of the Tozawa/Takagi/Uhaa unit) declared that they would second Yoshino for the title match. They will also face Mad Blankey in a three-on-five handicap match on the same show. Yoshino, Ricochet and Shachi ended up officially aligned with the unit (despite Doi’s insistence, Ricochet refused to join Mad Blankey).
– Ricochet recommended his earlier opponent, Watanabe, as Yoshino’s replacement partner for the tag league.
Closing thoughts: I don’t know what’s left to say that I haven’t already about Dragon Gate shows at Korakuen Hall. They’re the best. The “YAMATO: Heel Champion” saga is off to a fantastic start, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be the greatest Dream Gate reign ever (an accolade currently held by Mochizuki’s 2011 run with the belt in my opinion). Awesome stuff.
Thanks as always to IheartDG for match times and notes. Want to talk about Doi’s betrayal, YAMATO’s Dream Gate reign, or my band’s music video that’s released on sunday which I’m unashamedly plugging right here RIGHT NOW? I’m on Twitter @HellionLee