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December 20, 2011 – Tokyo, Japan
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Masaaki Mochizuki
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Naruki Doi, Kzy & Naoki Tanisaki
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Ricochet
Open the Twin Gate Champions: Akira Tozawa & BxB Hulk
Open the Freedom Gate Champion: Johnny Gargano
Open the United Gate Champions: CIMA & Ricochet
Gamma {J3} & Rich Swann {J3} vs. Karaoke Machine & Stalker Ichikawa
Swann and Ichikawa start. Swann rips off Ichikawa’s antennae. He hits a shoulder tackle. He hits a dropkick. Machine hits a shoulder tackle. He slams Gamma. Swann saves Gamma from the Koncho. Machine lariats Ichikawa for reasons unknown. Ichikawa retaliates. Gamma and Machine hit a double lariat. Machine chokeslams Ichikawa and Swanna finishes him with the FIREBIRD at 2:41. Whatever, this was nothing. After the matches the two teams have a song battle. Gamma and Swann do an amazingly entertaining dance along with theirs, and Swann sings in Japanese. The crowd eats it up and Junction Three wins that too.
Rating: ½*
Uhaa Nation {BW} vs. Cyber Kong
A test of strength starts the match, but goes to a stalemate. They trade shoulder tackles until Nation falls. Nation hits a dropkick. He hits a topé con hilo. Back in the ring Nation hits a double backbreaker for 2. He puts on a chinlock. Kong gets to the ropes. Nation hits a kneedrop for 1 and then stops to do some pushups. They trade slaps. Kong hits a bodyslam. He hits a lariat and a double kneedrop for 2. Nation hits a delayed vertical suplex. He hits an avalanche. They trade lariats until Kong hits the mat. Nation hits a bicycle kick. He hits a press slam. He hits the Uhaa Combination for the win at 4:41. There wasn’t much rhyme or reason to what happened here, but Kong pretty much got owned. I wonder how he’ll fare against Kensuke Sasaki five days from now given his crap performance here.
Rating: *
[Survival Gate Battle Royal]
Tomahawk TT and Shachihoko Machine start. I went back and watched Kobe World the other day, and TT’s hair was much less lame then than it is now. TT hits a shoulder tackle. Kotoka and Eita Kobayashi come out next. Kotoka hits Kobayashi with a shoulder tackle. Kobayashi hits a dropkick. Machine rolls Kotoka up for 2. Kotoka hits a facebuster to eliminate Machine. Super Shenlong and Jackson Florida are out next. Florida flounders around the ring on his crutch. Super Shisa and Don Fujii are out next. Everyone beats on Florida. Florida misses a charge and falls to the floor. Keirin Man (on a bicycle) and Yasushi Kanda are out next. Kanda knocks Man off of his bike with the blue box. TT shoulder tackles Florida over the top rope to the floor, eliminating him. Shisa BOY is out next, with his BOY mask and Machine jumpsuit on. Katsuo comes out with him, sadly wearing his Metabolic Brothers gear. BOY does his Machine pose, then realizes which mask he’s wearing. He hits Kotoka with a missile dropkick and gets into the right character. Shisa locks Kanda and TT in his double abdominal stretch. They dust off the Fujii vs. The World chop spot. I guess Keirin Man quit after getting hit with the blue box. Kanda shoves Shisa over the top to the floor, eliminating him. Kobayashi and Kotoka distract Kanda and TT for schoolboys from Shenlong and BOY. The Blood Warriors hit Kotoka and Kobayashi with stereo finishers to eliminate them. Katsuo hits Shenlong with crotch thrusts in the corner. He hits the Metabolic Stomp on BOY to eliminate him. Kanda hits TT with the Jon Woo by mistake and Katsuo splashes him to eliminate him. Shenlong smacks the crap out of TT. Fujii shoves TT over the top to the floor. Fujii gets the Gedo Clutch on Katsuo to eliminate him. Shenlong goes for la magistral but only gets 2. He and Fujii argue until Fujii decides to forfeit the match by going over the top. Shenlong stops him because he doesn’t want to win that way. Fujii chops his throat. He shoves Shenlong into the post. He hits a lariat. He shoves him to the floor but then goes over the top to dive onto him, eliminating himself and giving Shenlong the win at 13:56. After the match Shenlong says he’s going to use the momentum to win the Dream Gate title, so Fujii chokeslams him. This was silly but not enough so to be memorable in any way.
Rating: *
Ryo Saito {BW} & Genki Horiguchi {BW} vs. Yosuke Watanabe & Chihiro Tominaga
The rookies attack before the bell. Watanabe hits Saito with a dropkick. Saito and Horiguchi hit stereo bodyslams. Saito hits Watanabe with a double stomp. He hits another to the floor from the apron. Saito hits Tominaga with a legdrop. Horiguchi puts on a leglock. MARAHA! ISAPPA! Horiguchi hits a back suplex for 2. Saito hits a double stomp. TT interferes with a chop. Saito hits a Tree of Woe dropkick. There is so little happening in this match. Horiguchi hits a funky piledriver. Tominaga hits Saito with a dropkick but quickly Saito regains control. Tominaga hits an elbow with Watanabe’s help. Watanabe hits Horiguchi with a dropkick. They hit a double dropkick. Watanabe hits a vertical suplex. Watanabe hits a triple jump moonsault for 2. Watanabe unloads on Saito with elbows. Saito responds in kind before hitting a fisherman suplex. Horiguchi hits a German suplex. Saito hits the Superfly Splash for 2. He hits a dragon suplex. Tominaga pops up and locks Horiguchi in the cross armbreaker. Saito makes the save. The crowd popped for the move, showing how effective it was in Tominaga’s Triangle Gate match. He gets a pair of roll ups for 2. They also get good pops. Saito hits a German suplex for 2. He hits the Double Cross for the win at 12:18. Points for Tominaga being over and knowing how to work it, but the first half of the match was so boring I almost took a nap.
Rating: *½
Naruki Doi {BW}, Kzy {BW} & Naoki Tanisaki {BW} vs. Kenichiro Arai, Taku Iwasa & K-ness
The Doi Darts attack before the bell. Iwasa hits Kzy with the Gouwan. Arai hits Tanisaki with a DDT. K-ness puts on a chinlock. K-nesAraIwa do their triple-team spot on Kzy. Arai hits a headbutt. Doi and Kzy hit a double vertical suplex on Arai. Doi puts on a chinlock. Tanisaki hits the elevated kneedrop for 2. Doi hits the elevated senton. Kzy hits a legdrop. Arai hits a big boot. Iwasa cleans house. K-ness hits an enziguiri. He hits a vertical suplex for 2. Tanisaki puts him in an abdominal stretch. Iwasa hits Doi with the Gouwan. Doi hits a dropkick for 2. Arai hits a kneedrop and K-ness hits a dropkick. Iwasa hits a splash for 2. K-ness hits the Kaishaku for 2. Kzy hits the B-Boy. Tanisaki hits a kneelift and Doi hits the Doi 555. He hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. K-ness gets the rolling cradle on Tanisaki for 2. Tanisaki hits the DH. Kzy hits KZ TIME for 2. Arai hits a double stomp. Arai hits the skyscraper double stomp. He hits a diving headbutt for 2. Iwasa hits a backbreaker. Arai hits the Hanshin Tiger Suplex for 2. He sends Doi to the floor and hits a suicide dive. K-ness hits the Darkness Driver and Arai hits a kneedrop for 2. Iwasa and Arai hit Tanisaki with the Doomsday Device. Kzy rolls K-ness up for 2. He hits the Shouryuukyaku for 2. Arai hits the Hanshin Tiger Suplex and Iwasa hits the Noshigami. K-ness hits the Darkness Buster for the win at 14:28. The babyface team looked like straight up thugs down the stretch, of which I approve. They just had the Doi Darts unmatched. This wasn’t as exciting as some of the other recent Doi Darts matches, but it did the job of making the unaffiliated team look like contenders.
Rating: ***
In a backstage interview Doi says that a Christmas version of the Doi Darts Second will debut at Final Gate. Gamma, Rich Swann and Dragon Kid don’t know what’s coming.
PAC {J3} & Dragon Kid {J3} vs. Jimmy Susumu {J3} & Jimmy Kagetora {J3}
Kid breakdances as he’s covered in streamers, making for a pretty cool visual. He and Kagetora start. Kagetora hits a dropkick. PAC hits a dropkick. He hits Susumu with a hurricanrana. Kid hits a double kneedrop. He hits a senton and PAC hits a standing SSP for 2. Kid hits a dropkick. Kagetora hits a dropkick. He puts on the Mark Nulty Special. He hits a dropkick to the face. Susumu hits a delayed vertical suplex for 2. Kagetora puts on an abdominal stretch and gets some help from Susumu. Susumu hits a backbreaker for 2. Kid hits the Déjà Vu. PAC hits a dropkick. He hits the corkscrew quebrada. Kagetora hits the leaping lariat. PAC hits an enziguiri and the northern lights suplex for 2. Kagetora hits the Ace Crusher for 2. Susumu hits a lariat. Kid hits a stunner for 2. Susumu blocks the Messiah and hits a Muscle Buster for 2. Kagetora hits a dropkick and the Hangetsu and Susumu hits a DVD. Kagetora hits the Hangetsu again and the Genkonitekki for 2 when PAC makes the save. PAC hits a high kick. Susumu hits the super exploder. Kagetora hits the flying elbowdrop for 2. Kid hits the skyscraper hurricanrana for 2. PAC hits the springboard 450 splash for 2. He hits the Ace Crusher. He hits Susumu with the German suplex. Kid hits the Ultra Hurricanrana for 2. Susumu blocks the 360 Shooting Star Press with his knees. Kagetora hits the wheelbarrow piledriver for 2. PAC gets a roll up for 2. Susumu hits a lariat. He hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 2. He hits the Mugen for the win at 16:52. I love watching two regular tag teams do their thing against each other, and since both of these teams were babyface tandems we didn’t see any cheating (except for that abdominal stretch spot). I dug this a lot, though I think Kid should have taken the fall instead of PAC.
Rating: ***½
Masaaki Mochizuki {J3}, Shingo Takagi {J3}, YAMATO {J3} & Masato Yoshino {J3} vs. CIMA {BW}, Akira Tozawa {BW}, BxB Hulk {BW} & Ricochet {BW}
This is a very WWE-style concept match that Dragon Gate really doesn’t do very often, with all the champions and their challengers squaring off in one match. Everyone brawls to start. Hulk and Tozawa hit YAMATO with a dropkick sandwich. YAMATO and Takagi double-team Tozawa. Ricochet hits Takagi with a missile dropkick. Yoshino hits a supercharged dropkick. Ricochet hits a dropkick. Mochizuki hits CIMA with a chest kick. CIMA hits a dropkick. Mochizuki sweeps the leg but CIMA blocks the apron kick. Mochizuki hits a chest kick. He hits back kicks on the rest of the Blood Warriors, except for Ricochet who knows better than to get in the ring. YAMATO elbows Tozawa for 1. Yoshino hits a double stomp on Hulk’s arm. Tozawa slugs Takagi. Takagi hits the DVD. Everyone chops Tozawa. Tozawa regains control with a side suplex to YAMATO. CIMA hits a chest kick. He suplexes Yoshino while holding YAMATO in a leglock. Ricochet leg lariats YAMATO for 2. After much Blood Warrior abuse, Hulk hits an axe kick on YAMATO. He hits a dropkick for 2. CIMA and Hulk dropkick YAMATO into Tozawa’s side suplex for 2. YAMATO hits Hulk with a dragon screw. He does the same to Ricochet and Tozawa. Ricochet blocks Mochizuki’s dropkick with one of his own. Mochizuki hits CIMA with the Sankakugeri. Yoshino hits the Bermuda Triangle. Mochizuki hits the Topé Masaaki. Gamma stops Tanisaki from interfering and helps his teammates suplex the Blood Warriors. Hulk hits Takagi with a roundhouse kick. He hits a senton for 2. Takagi throws him across the ring. He hits a backdrop driver for 2. He lariats Hulk to the floor. Tozawa hits a low blow on YAMATO.
YAMATO hits an enziguiri. He puts on the Samoan Crab. Takagi and Mochizuki put Hulk and CIMA in Sharpshooters while Yoshino puts Ricochet in From Jungle. Tanisaki runs in to make the save so Swann hits him with a missile dropkick. Takagi throws Ricochet into the air. Yoshino hits the shotgun dropkick on YAMATO and Takagi by mistake. CIMA and Ricochet hits Superdrols. Ricochet hits the running SSP for 2. He, CIMA and Tozawa hit a triple suicide dive. Hulk hits the Mouse on Mochizuki. Mochizuki kicks his head off. He hits the best chest kick EVER! YAMATO hits a dropkick. Takagi hits the Gallon Throw. Yoshino hits a DDT for 2. Mochizuki hits a superkick and the Schwein for 2. CIMA hits a superkick. Tozawa and Hulk stop Mochizuki’s momentum and CIMA hits his version of the Ikkakugeri. Hulk hits the EVO and Ricochet hits a 630 senton for 2. He FLATTENED YAMATO with that one. CIMA hits the Schwein on Mochizuki. He hits the Meteora. Tozawa hits the High Tension Suplex for 2 when Yoshino makes the save. Takagi lariats Hulk. CIMA suplexes him. Yoshino hits the Sling Blade. Ricochet hits he Ace Crusher. YAMATO hits the spear. Tozawa hits the running knee. Takagi hits MADE IN JAPAN for 2. Yoshino hits Tozawa with the Torbellino and Lightning Spiral for 2. Takagi hits the Pumping Bomber for 2. He hits the Last Falconry for the win at 32:26 and then talks smack to Tozawa before letting go. This was like one of those insane go-home RAW main events from late 2000/early 2001, and it rocked just as hard as those used to. I say that because the whole thing was a freaky finisher fest with everyone hitting all of their own and stealing each other’s. Great stuff to hype the Final Gate.
Rating: ****¼