Dragon Gate’s feel-good title reign is in jeopardy.
January 11, 2010 – Nagoya, Japan
Championship rundown:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Interim Open the Twin Gate Champions: CIMA & Gamma
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Akebono
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Naoki Tanisaki
Open the Freedom Gate Champion: BxB Hulk
The show starts with a look at Naoki Tanisaki’s Brave Gate reign. It began with his Match of the Year win over KAGETORA, complete with baby daughter kissing him on the cheek after, and has continued through six successful defenses. That ties him with Masato Yoshino (and Gamma if you’re feeling generous toward Gamma) for most defenses of the title. However, World-1 has caught the attention of Real Hazard. So far K-ness has already affected Masato Yoshino’s career, taking the Speed Star’s hair. Now, supposedly injury-free for the first time in years, he wants Tanisaki’s belt.
Naoki Tanisaki © {W1} vs. K-ness {RH} [Open the Brave Gate Championship Match]
They trade holds on the mat to start. K-ness hits a jawbreaker. Tainsaki puts on a chinlock. K-ness hits a dragon screw. He slams Tanisaki’s leg into the mat. He dropkicks the knee three times. He hits a dragon screw. He hits another in the ropes. He dropkicks the knee against the ropes. He puts on a figure 4 leglock. Tanisaki gets to the ropes. He comes back with a clothesline, but favors his knee rather than capitalize. He goes for something off the top but K-ness catches him with a leg lariat. He hits a knee kick. He hits the cross-legged suplex but is still too hurt to cover. K-ness hits the Michinoku Driver for 2. Tanisaki avoids the Aoki Hikari. He puts on an octopus stretch. K-ness gets to the ropes. He hits the Ashi Yokosuka. Tanisaki hits a knee kick. K-ness hits an enziguiri. Tanisaki gets a roll up for 2. K-ness hits the Shoryuukyaku. Tanisaki hits the Casanova. He hits another for 2. K-ness counters the Implant to a sunset flip for 2. He gets an Oklahoma roll for 2. He puts on the Aoki Hikari. Tanisaki gets to the ropes. He hits a Tombstone Implant, but that lands him on his knee and he can’t cover. K-ness kicks the knee. Tanisaki hits the Implant but again his knee gives out and he’s slow to cover, only getting 2. He hits a knee lift. K-ness hits an enziguiri. He hits a pair of nasty head kicks for 2. He hits the Darkness Driver for 2. He hits a spinning Shouryuukyaku for 2. He hits a leg hook Darkness Buster for the win and the title at 16:08 shown of 16:30. Tanisaki’s selling added plenty of drama to the match, though the sad ending meant the match was just K-ness destroying him rather than an inspiring comeback story. It worked well, it just didn’t leave me feeling satisfied. Still, if K-ness can keep up with the rest of the roster is was probably the right move.
Rating: ***½
After the match K-ness says we should get used to him as champion, because nobody will ever be able to beat him for the belt. In the back World-1 approaches him. They want the belt back, and Naruki Doi says they’re sending PAC after him to get it. That match will happen on February 7th.
When we last left the Generation War, CIMA and Gamma defeated YAMATO and Shingo Takagi for the Twin Gate belts, but declared themselves interim champions until they have the opportunity to win a title defense over a strong team. The Veteran Army has been on a roll, with Masaaki Mochizuki beating Davey Richards for the FIP World Title and Tokyo Gurentai aligning with them over Real Hazard. YAMATO has since challenged CIMA to a singles match. The night before this YAMATO and Dragon Kid couldn’t get on the same page against Real Hazard, a problem that has plagued Dragon Kid and the Young Generation stables for a while now. CIMA wants Kid in the Veteran Army, and unsuccessfully tried to recruit him at Final gate. Tonight we’ll see where Kid’s allegiances lie.
CIMA {W5}, Gamma {W5} & Masaaki Mochizuki {Z} vs. Shingo Takagi {K}, YAMATO {K} & Dragon Kid {K}
Takagi powers to the ropes and bops him on the head. Mochizuki comes back with kicks. They dodge each other’s offense in an awesome segment that immediately makes me want to see another singles match between the two (they had a decent match when Mochizuki was Dream Gate Champion in 2005). Gamma hits Kid with a shoulder tackle. He spits in Kid’s face, twice. Kid blocks a third loogey and wipes the spit in Gamma’s face. CIMA puts YAMATO in a headlock. YAMATO goes for the sleeper but can’t quite get it. CIMA sneaks in an awesome dropkick, but YAMATO returns the favor. Takagi helps Kid hit an elevated double stomp for 2. Takagi and YAMATO hit a double hiptoss and a double atomic drop. Kid wants back in on the action, and has Takagi swing him into CIMA for 2. Things break down a bit when Gamma shoves YAMATO into Kid. Mochizuki hits Kid with a bodyslam. He hits another for 2. He puts on an armbar. Gamma hits a dropkick. CIMA hits a huge X-Factor for 2. He and Gama hit a double back suplex for 2. Kid counters a superbomb to a hurricanrana. He hits a head scissors takedown on Gamma. Takagi tags in and cleans house. Mochizuki kicks his arm and puts on an armbar. YAMATO makes the save. He hits Gamma with a spear. He hits the roaring elbow. Gamma spits in his face and hits a superkick. YAMATO puts on the sleeper hold. Gamma hits a low blow to escape. CIMA hits a dropkick. YAMATO hits a shoulder tackle. CIMA hits the Superdrol. Mochizuki hits the Kakato Otoshi. He and CIMA hit a double chest kick. Gamma Blitzens CIMA onto YAMATO for 2. Kid hits CIMA with the stack hurricanrana. Takagi hits a lariat and the Gallon Throw. YAMATO punts his head and hits a brainbuster for 2. Kid misses the Ultra Hurricanrana and eats a double superkick. Gamma hits the Gamma Special and Mochizuki hits a running chest kick for 2. He hits the Twister for 2. He hits the apron kick on YAMATO. Takagi blocks the Sankakugeri and hits the DVD. He hits a lariat and the Blood Fall. Kid hits the Ultra Hurricanrana for 2 when the referee spots Akira Tozawa in the ring. Don Fujii runs in and hits Kid with a lariat. Kid hits the Bible on CIMA for 2. Tozawa steals the cane away from Gamma but hits Kid with it by mistake, and CIMA gets a roll up for the win at 14:36 shown of 20:37. When it wasn’t bogged down by the awkwardness of the Dragon Kid evil (which to be fair was the whole reason this match exited) the action here was on fire.
Rating: ***½
After the match Kid argues with the rest of Kamikaze. CIMA tells Kid he fits better in the WARRIORS-5 and the Veteran Army than he does in Kamikaze. YAMATO motions for Kid to stay, but in the end he chooses to side with CIMA, joining the WARRIORS. This alignment just makes more sense, and generationally puts everyone in the company where they belong.
The rest of the show is a digest version of the rest of the Nagoya double-shot. Real Hazard is having issues. On January 10th Yasushi Kanda and Genki Horiguchi defeated Akira Tozawa and Shingo Takagi after Kanda hit Tozawa with a low blow. Kanda tried to hit Tozawa with the blue box after the match but Horiguchi stopped him, wanting to win matches and not screw around in 2010. Later in the night, during the World-1 vs. Veteran Army 2/3 falls ten man tag match we got our first look at Yoshino’s bald head. CIMA pinned Kotoka 20 seconds in with the Meteora to win the first fall. Yoshino scored the second fall over Fujii with a crucifix pin. Shisa won the match for his team with the Yoshi Tonic over Tanisaki. The veterans seemingly cannot be stopped. After the match Real Hazard comes out to give us a picture of the landscape of the company. WARRIORS-5 & the Zetsurins make up the Veteran Army, Real Hazard is the second generation, World-1 & Kamikaze are the Young Generation. A three-way nine-man tag amongst these three groups will take place on February 7th, though the Young Generation will only be represented by World-1.
The show ends with a look back at CIMA and Gamma throwing down the Twin Gate belts and calling themselves interim champions at Final Gate. A tournament to find strong challengers for them will begin on January 15th, and we get our first look at it next week on Infinity!
