Dragon Gate 12/26/05
King of Gate Tournament - Quarter Finals
I’m going to go on a big D-Gate bender for the next several weeks. I have the gut feeling that is where the good wrestling is right now.
1. Masato Yoshino/Don Fuji/Naruki Doi/Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Magnum Tokyo/Katsuhiko Nakajima/Super Shisa/King Shisa
Wow. Completely unreal. Everyone seemed to have a part and they played it well. Talk about hiding strengths and accentuating weaknesses. ***
2. Micheal Iwasa/Daniel Mishima vs. Vangelis
Short. Some innovative comedy. You gotta love The Florida Brothers. *3/4
3. Jack Evans/Roderick Strong vs. Genki Horiguchi/Naoki Tanisaki
WHOA! What a great match! I was surprised at how good Roderick and Evans worked together and kept up with Genki & Tanisaki. This was a highspot fans dream match. Definitely a match that I wanted to deliver and it did, although not a classic , it is memorble. A match to note. And Gen NEXT goes over, which was a nice touch. ***1/2
Quarterfinals
4. CIMA vs. Kenichiro Arai
CIMA works the right leg of Arai the whole match, and in some very innovative ways. Arai makes a couple of cool comebacks, but he didn’t do my favorite spot which is his head butss to the mat. Awesome submission finish to this match that really told a good story. ***
5. Shingo Takagi vs. BxB Hulk
My first time seeing BxB. The opening dance sequence from BxB Hulk was awful. Is he supposed to be super metrosexual? I hate him already. Takagi reminds me of Bolo in “Bloodsport”. But damn, what a match. They are clicking on all six cylinders on this show. BxB sells stuff like he is getting shot with a nine. But he is smooth and crisp, even soft… like his pink sash.***
6. Susumu Yokosuka vs. Dragon Kid
This kicks off with alot of working body parts. There is a crescendo being built. Susumu has a wrapped up left arm and they key in on that. Then the flash pins and false finishes come, lots of lucha style stuff and innovative moves and again, a build toward a finish. The flip pd Susumu hits at the end look like either he took it instead of DK or something, but it doesn’t detract. Gives the tourney a special match too. It’s no SD! KOTR style match. These guys WANT to win. (I watched this match twice and would have given it more stars this time except for two sloppy spots and the finisher. It really was a great match)***1/2
7. Ryo Saito vs Masaaki Mochizuki
First 5 minutes Saito works over Masaaki’s leg convincingly yet methodically. Masaaki comes back with some good kicks, stiff, the comeback isn’t great though and then on top he works a rest hold keylock. So it’s slow 8 minutes in. Yet there are bursts of fast action, tricky moves, and back to submission holds, both men almost tapping out to brutal looking stretches. I don’t like Saito’s no-selling because one moment he’s dazed by a weak looking move and the next he takes a top move and it doesn’t even register. They trade some nice dragon suplexes. Masaaki kicks out of a top rope fisherman suplex at one. More dragon suplexes and then a stiff as exchange of strikes, real nasty, then more reversals and dragon suplexes. ***3/4
