Dragon Gate 12/27/2005 PPV
King of Gate Tournament
1. BxB Hulk & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Katsuo & Tozawa
This was a really solid tag match. Everyone was good. Nakajima espcially so. Nuff Said. ***
2. King of Gate Tourney – Semifinals: Ryo Saito vs. Shingo Takagi
Oh what a sweet match this turned out to be. As if there was any doubt. ***
3. King of Gate Tourney – Semifinals: Susumu Yokosuka vs. CIMA
Starts off with good heat. Start off going to CIMA working the injured and taped up arm of Susumu. CIMA rips off the padding. He does moves and counters escapes 5 years ahead of what you normally see in the US. The style is light years ahead of ROH, IMO. All this great wrestling lead to a crazy sequence where CIMA hits an air raid crash, Susumu no-sells into a massive clothesline, rinse, and repeat, and both men collapse. I thought no-selling two awesome cradle piledrivers like that would kill a man but I guess not. CIMA gets folded like a chair on the Susumu clotheslines for extra flavor. Crowd going nuts. Wow. Ending sequemce has CIMA gloating over how both men are now equal but gassed, except Susumu has no arm left. Susumu tries to clothesline him three times with no success, his arm a mess. CIMA checks the arm himself, like a ref, it’s dead, so he goes for the ropes but on the return he gets kicked with a straight leg & knee kick, hit with an air raid crash AND a clothesline, and pinned. ***3/4
4. 3 Way Dance: Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs. Jack Evans & Roderick Strong vs. King Shisa & Vangelis This match was a high spot dreamfest. Fucking killer moves, wow!***3/4
5. 16 Man Battle Royal: Don Fujii & Masaaki Mochizuki, Michael & Daniel, Magnum TOKYO & Naoki Tanisaki, Stalker Ichikawa & Syachihoko Machine, Magntidue Kishiwada & President Okamura, Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi, Jackson & Johnson, Super Shisa & Karaoke Machine
Incredible!***1/2
6. King of Gate Tourney – Finals
Ryo Saito vs. Susumu Yokosoma
15 minutes in, good match, not ad good as the matches leading up to it for some reason. I don’t mind no-selling, but these guys get dropped on their heads and pop right back up time and time again. Dragon Gate is a trip, because they really do some astonishing near falls and cleverly thought out comebacks and reversals for dramatic effect. Susumu hits about a dozen clotheslines. Saito says, “Is that all you got, bitch?” Susumu runs out of gas against the unstoppable Ryo Saito and takes a couple of dragon suplexes. They trade even more offense at a machine gun pace before Saito hits an arm trap dragon suplex for the win. ***3/4
