November 3rd 2013
This past sunday, Dragon Gate, fresh off the hottest summer the product has had in years, took to live international IPPV for the third time with the annual Osaka big match GATE OF DESTINY. Did the show manage to maintain the momentum of recent months, with the unit turmoil, debuting Milennials and multiple shocking Dream Gate title changes? Read on to find out!
Match 1) Ryo “Jimmy” Saito, Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kanda of the Jimmyz defeated Super Shisa of Team Veteran, Shachihoko BOY of Monster Express and Ryotsu Shimizu [9:10, Genkai]
Potential next-Dream-Gate-contender Susumu unsurprisingly scored the fall in this typical good times pay per view opener, though not without assistance from recent Dream Gate challenger Saito in the double team variation of the Mugen. The addition of bright young prospect Shimizu and Shachi’s awesome new MX gear made this pretty fresh. Seriously, the reason it took me so long to get into Shachi is because his pre-2013 attire was so underwhelming, now he has quite possibly the finest threads in Dragon Gate.
Rating: ★★★
Match 2) Team X (Mr Quu Quu Tanizaki Naoki Toyonaka Dolphin & Jimmy Kagetora) of the Jimmyz vs Gamma & Don Fujii of Team Veteran vs Mondai Ryu & Kzy of Mad Blankey
– Mad Blankey eliminated at 5:57 via Gamma’s Skytwister Press to Mondai Ryu
– Tanizaki pinned Gamma with the Implant for the win at 8:59
Unfortunately I’m no Hunter S Thompson; alcohol tends to blur my memory rather than fuel manically entertaining recaps. I recall this being as much of a mess in practice as it was on paper, but it was still passable due to Don Fujii basically being a god and Team X basically being dressed as zombies for reasons not entirely clear to anyone (they’re doing it so they can beat the Milennials or something, which makes even less sense given that the Milennials weren’t even in this match). To continue my favourite pastime of stealing observations from Jae’s Twitter feed, the finishing stretch saw Tanizaki unwittingly cause the greatest irony to ever grace a professional wrestling match as he repeatedly failed to get Gamma up for his signature move “the libido”.
Rating: ★★1/2
Match 3) Team Veteran (Masaaki Mochizuki & CIMA feat. CIBA & TSUBASA) defeated U-T, Yosuke Watanabe Yosuke ♡ Santa Maria, Rocky Lobo & Flamita of the Milennials [12:00, Caldera]
I straight up LOST MY MIND at the finish; in a match with the two aces Mocchy and CIMA, it was young Kotoka aka CIBA aka my favourite wrestler who scored the pinfall. ON PAY PER VIEW. Mind. Blown. By my count (and trust me, I’ve been counting), that’s only Kotoka’s fifth televised pinfall victory this year. He looked awesome throughout the match, the new gimmick is really starting to work for him since he started fusing the CIMA influence with his own style rather than just being a CIMA tribute band. Speaking of looking awesome, do you recall me repeatedly telling Yosuke Watanabe to change his ring attire in every review I’ve written since he unmasked? Well, he finally did it…
Careful what you wish for folks. He’s went from second generation Dragon Kid to second generation Santina Marella. I got a laugh out of the initial shock factor of it, but the transvestite comedy that ensued just didn’t hit home with me like it seemed to for the Japanese viewers.
Rating: I spent half of this wildly marking out for Kotoka, the other half in total shock at Yosuke, no way can I apply mathematical analysis to such insanity. For what it’s worth, I jotted down ★★★1/4 while I was watching the show.
Match 4) Open The Brave Gate Championship: Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee of the Jimmyz retained against Anthony Nese of Monster Express [12:35, Backslide From Heaven]
I predicted that Nese would get his shit in, and Horiguchi would win with a backslide. Well, Nese got his shit in, and Horiguchi won with a backslide. Good match, but pitting the muscle man who hasn’t yet been given an opportunity to demonstrate any sort of personality against the beloved champion was never going to get him over in any notable way. Looking at the card, I think he may well have been flown over purely so Genki had a PPV worthy challenger, since the Milennials were locked up elsewhere. Nese should have a better chance to endear himself to the fans in Japan tomorrow as he teams with Shingo and Mike Sydal against the heels Mad Blankey.
Rating: ★★★1/4
Match 5) Open The Twin Gate Championship: Interim champions Eita & T-hawk of the Milennials defeated the 28th champion team Dragon Kid & K-ness of Team Veteran [20:21, Tres] to become the 29th champions
This turned out pretty good, despite my misgivings looking at it on paper (the Milennials kind of need carrying, and the injury prone DK-ness aren’t exactly carriers). The hot Osaka crowd helped it eclipse the forgettable efforts that earned the masked veteran duo the titles in the first place, Eita looked like gold as he kicked out of both the Hikari No Wa and the Ultra Hurricarana, the finish was super logical (Eita used a non-patented leg hold to exploit DK’s legit injury that forced his team to originally vacate the belts), a fresh new team have the belts ensuring that fresh new matches can be had in the tag division, there was a lot to like here for sure.
Rating: ★★★1/2
Match 6) Open The Triangle Gate Championship: YAMATO, BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong of Mad Blankey retained against Akira Tozawa, Shingo Takagi & Uhaa Nation of Monster Express [24:05, Gallaria]
The preceding Korakuen skirmish between these units ruled, so it’s no surprise that this ruled even more. Tozawa and YAMATO have been the best performers in the company since their face/heel role reversal, and their hot finishing stretch was the highlight of what I’d say was the best match they’ve been opposite each other in since the JIII/Blood Warriors feud of 2011-2012. The Tozawa/Uhaa pairing is what makes Monster Express work, every time they’re in the ring together super good times are had. With all the action you’d want from a PPV Triangle Gate match, this blew away everything that preceded it.
Rating: ★★★★1/4
Main event) Open The Dream Gate Championship: Masato Yoshino of Monster Express retained against Naruki Doi of Mad Blankey [28:58, Sol Naciente Kai]
– 1st defence for Yoshino
Doi/Yoshino is Dragon Gate’s most tired singles pairing, showcased both in Japan and internationally with alarming regularity, usually yielding fairly middle of the road results. Fortunately, the former Speed Muscle partners were in the right place at the time; the product is on fire at the moment, their feud is still hot due to the recent-ness of Doi’s betrayal, the Osaka crowd are always great, and most importantly there was a high possibility of a title change (in light of the recent chaos in the Dream Gate picture ((it’s been changing hands at every conceivable moment in the wake of CIMA’s epic reign))), which increased the drama significantly. They didn’t waste any time with pointless limb work, the brief assault on Doi’s arm served to set up his failure to cover after landing the Muscular Bomb later on, so this was a pretty full on main event that I’d say was second only to the title win in Yoshino’s impressive string of high quality 2013 singles bouts. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a further-chaos-inducing title switch, but they made me believe there could be, a big factor in why this year’s post-CIMA Dream Gate matches have been so much better (excluding the instant classic with K-ness).
Rating: ★★★★1/4
Closing thoughts: Pretty solid first half with killer title matches capping off the show. Like with Dead Or Alive back in May, this was kind of just a big showcase thrown in between the more consequential Tokyo shows (since there are only four PPVs a year, the product mainly revolves around the monthly happenings in Korakuen Hall), and like Dead Or Alive, it delivered. Good times were had. In the overall PPV hierarchy of the year, DoA had the best undercard, World had the strongest second half, while this had the best main event. Unless Final Gate blows me away, it’ll be a Korakuen getting overall show of the year honours (the august through to october editions are all currently in the running).
What did you think of the show? Let’s talk about it on Twitter. Go watch my band’s music video first though!
I’ve just realised I that totally didn’t include info on how to watch Gate Of Destiny. It’s available on demand until Sunday over at Ustream.tv/dragongate. A recommended purchase for sure.
