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January 9, 2012 – Kobe, Japan
Open the Dream Gate Champion: CIMA
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Naruki Doi, Naoki Tanisaki & Kzy
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Ricochet
Open the Twin Gate Champions: BxB Hulk & Akira Tozawa
Open the Freedom Gate Champion: Johnny Gargano
Open the United Gate Champions: CIMA & Ricochet
The show starts backstage at Final Gate, with Masato Yoshino grilling Masaaki Mochizuki about why he handed the title belt over to CIMA after losing the main event Open the Dream Gate Championship Match.
Next up they show a match between Mochizuki and the faction-less Cyber Kong from January 7th. Mochizuki won that with a victory roll. After the match Kong asked Mochizuki if he could join Junction Three. Mochizuki said he would think about it. They shake hands before going their separate ways.
Masaaki Mochizuki {J3} & Gamma {J3} vs. Cyber Kong & Don Fujii
Mochizuki and Fujii start. Umm, awesome. Fujii hits a shoulder tackle. Mochizuki hits a back kick. Fujii absorbs chest kicks and hits a bodyslam. Gamma foolishly trades shoulder tackles with Kong. Kong absorbs a dropkick but eats a back elbow. Mochizuki works Kong’s arm. Gamma gives Kong AND Mochizuki the Osuikougeki, and gets a bit of a kick out of dousing his partner. Kong hits a lariat on Gamma. He hits a powerslam on Mochizuki. Gamma takes a couple goofy front bumps off of Fujii’s chops. Kong puts on a headlock. He and Fujii go to town with elbows. Gamma goes for a suplex and eventually gets up the strength for it. Mochizuki tags in and goes after Fujii. He hits Kong with a big boot. He hits a chest kick but Kong absorbs it and hits a lariat to the leg. Mochizuki hits another big boot. Kong and Fujii hit a suplex on Mochizuki. Fujii hits a lariat and a chokeslam for 2. Kong misses a butt splash and eats a kick to the face. Gamma hits a clothesline for 2. He hits a superkick and goes for the Gamma Special. Kong blocks it and hits a powerbomb. Mochizuki hits a missile dropkick on Fujii. Gamma fails to connect with a clothesline on Kong, but catches him with the Gammasuke Clutch for the win at 9:40 shown of 11:08. Kong is being knocked down pretty low here. The match was solid, alternating between amusing comedy and decent if not-flashy action.
Rating: **½
After the match Mochizuki shakes Kong’s hand again and has Gamma do the same. Yoshino, who is not happy at all about the prospect of Kong joining Junction Three, will team with Mochizuki to take on BxB Hulk & Akira Tozawa in an Open the Twin Gate Championship Match in a few days.
Ryo Saito {BW} & Genki Horiguchi {BW} vs. Super Shisa {J3} & Chihiro Tominaga ends after Saito hits Shisa with the Double Cross.
Kzy {BW} vs. Super Shenlong saw Shenlong almost win with a roll up, but Kzy come back with the Skayde School Boy for the win.
Naruki Doi {BW} vs. Dragon Kid {J3} ended after Kid caught Doi with the Ultra Hurricanrana. I’ve always liked the chemistry these two have had, and I’m disappointed this was part of the digest.
Next up we get a recap of some recent goings-on. Like the previous match, Dragon Kid pinned Doi with the Ultra Hurricanrana in the trios main event of the January 7th show, thus putting Doi in a weak place. Akira Tozawa also ragged on Saito for recently losses. The bottom line is that there’s dissention in both factions.
CIMA {BW}, BxB Hulk {BW}, Akira Tozawa {BW} & Yasushi Kanda {BW} vs. Shingo Takagi {J3}, YAMATO {J3}, Jimmy Susumu {J3} & Jimmy Kagetora {J3}
Winners of the match get to book upcoming matches. The Blood Warriors sneak attack to start. Everyone brawls around the building. Kagetora hits Kanda with a hurricanrana. Tozawa and Kanda hit a double back elbow. YAMATO punts and dropkicks Tozawa. Hulk hits a missile dropkick. Takagi hits a shoulder tackle. He hits the Complete DDT on Hulk and Kanda. Susumu catches CIMA in an abdominal stretch and rolls him up for 2. Tozawa and CIMA hit a double dropkick on Kagetora. Everyone slams Tozawa. All of the Blood Warriors slams Susumu. Susumu blocks Tozawa’s attempt and slams him again. CIMA hits Takagi with the Shattered Dreams. YAMATO, who looks to finally be letting his hair grow back a bit, hits Kanda with a vertical suplex. Kanda goes to the eyes. CIMA hits the elevated double stomp. YAMATO counters a leg lock to the anklelock but Tozawa makes the save. Hulk hits the axe kick for 2. ¬Tozawa hits the Superdrol and a senton. Hulk hits a senton for 2. He hits the Mouse. YAMATO hits a dragon screw. He hits them on Kanda and Tozawa as well. Takagi cleans house. Kagetora hits the leaping lariat on Tozawa. Tozawa slugs him. He hits a gutbuster for 2. The Jimmyz double-team Tozawa for 2. Susumu hits CIMA with an exploder for 2. CIMA hits the Superdrol. He, Hulk and Tozawa triple-team Susumu in the corner. CIMA hits a superkick. Susumu hits a lariat for 2. Takagi hits a suplex on Kanda. Kanda hits an exploder. The Blood Warriors work Takagi over in the corner. CIMA hits the Venus and Iconoclasm. Hulk and Tozawa unload kicks and Kanda hits the flying elbowdrop for 2. Takagi throws Hulk clear across the ring. Our heroes work over Hulk in the corner. Susumu hits a super exploder. Kagetora hits a flying elbowdrop and YAMATO hits the Frog Splash for 2. Tozawa and CIMA hit the dropkick/suplex combo on Kagetora for 2. I wonder if Hulk is jealous. Tozawa and Kanda hit a double flapjack. CIMA hits the Tokarev and Tozawa hits a German suplex for 2. Tozawa hits Takagi with the Ganki for 2. Hulk hits a big boot on YAMATO. Susumu hits a lariat. CIMA hits the Nakayubi. Kagetora hits an enziguiri. Kanda hits the John Woo. Takagi hits a lariat. He hits the Pumping Bomber for 2. He hits MADE IN JAPAN for the win at 19:12 shown of 23:14. The finish came from nowhere, but fit the frantic pace of the match. I really felt like I might have a seizure trying to keep up with everything that was going on here. A couple slow spots bring it down a bit, but overall this was a fantastic inaugural main event for Infinity in 2012.
Rating: ***¾
After the match Takagi books himself into a match against Tozawa, and YAMATO does the same with Hulk in a no-rope match. Both matches will happen on February 20th. CIMA then gets on the microphone and reveals how his first challenger will be decided. The inaugural CIMA Royale will be your typical multi-man elimination match, but for the first ten minutes wrestlers will only need a two-count to eliminate their opponents, so that the jobberish guys in the match will have a fighting chance at being in there at the end. After ten minutes regular rules take effect. Susumu, Takagi, Kzy, Tominaga, Shenlong, Kong, Gamma, Kid, Stalker Ichikawa, Doi and Kzy all put bids in to be in the match.
The show ends with Mochizuki being awarded his Fighting Spirit Award from Tokyo Sports. He shared it with Yuji Nagata. If you pause the screen quickly enough you can see the other award winners: Hiroshi Tanahashi (Wrestler of the Year), Keiji Mutoh, Kenta Kobashi, Takashi Iizuka & Toru Yano (Match of the Year), Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi (Tag Team of the Year), Jun Akiyama (Distinguished Service), KENTA (Technician of the Year), Shinichi Suzukawa (Rookie of the Year), Yuzuki Aikawa (Joshi Wrestler of the Year).