Struggle For Power - Open The Dragon Gate
Happy November, Columns Forum! This is Degenerate, back again with another column about one of my latest excursions into the world of Japanese professional wrestling. I have to say, these columns take quite some time to write up and they tend to be a bit long - this one is no exception - but they're really fun to write. It makes me feel the same joy and excitement about these shows that I experienced when I went in person. Plus, I get to do some research and learn a lot more. I hope everyone else is learning alongside with me.
Since this column is pretty lengthy, let's just skip the current romps and get straight into the column!
Locking Horns
It's been a busy couple of weeks for me when it comes to going to wrestling shows. In the span of less than three weeks I've gone to four pro wrestling shows. One of the most recent ones happened this past Thursday evening when I went to a Dragon Gate show. Not only did I go to a Dragon Gate show, I went to one of their major shows of the year: Gate of Destiny.
This is the very first Dragon Gate show I've ever seen. And I don't mean in person - I mean the first time I've ever seen any of their shows. For some reason, Dragon Gate didn't draw much of my attention despite them being arguably the second biggest wrestling promotion at this time in Japan, behind New Japan Pro Wrestling, and maybe on par with DDT. It's just one of those wrestling companies that didn't seem to grab my attention for whatever reason. I know that they have a branch in the United States with Dragon Gate USA, and that's about all I knew of them.
I went to this event at the urging of mizfan, who seems to be a big fan of the promotion. It also didn't hurt that the event was at the same arena nearby where I work, making it easy for me to go. Because I didn't know a lot about the company, I decided this time around to not do any research for the show beforehand, just to experience things as a complete first-time noob to a larger wrestling company.
Just to touch on a bit of history, Dragon Gate has been around Japan since 2004. It spawned from a promotion headed by Último Dragón (who had a few stints in WCW and WWE) called Toryumon. The current name of Dragon Gate came due to Dragón leaving Toryumon and since he owned the rights to the trademarks, he took it along with him. While the name changed, the rest of the company basically remained the same.
Doing some research about the company, it seems like the only blemish they have as a company is when a few of the wrestlers were called out for animal abuse. There was a monkey housed in the Dragon Gate dojo where wrestlers trained, and some of the wrestlers apparently did some horrible things to the monkey (choking, dragging, giving sake until the monkey passed out, etc.). Oddly enough, most of the wrestlers involved are still with the company, and their popularity continued to grow quite a bit thanks to excursions by the company and its roster to the United States and the U.K.
There's a lot more history out there about Dragon Gate, so if you're interested I urge you to go seek out some more information. After reading this column, of course. Let's get on to the actual show!
Pre-show notes
The show was scheduled to start at 5:30 PM. I got to the arena at around 5:15 PM, and there were two huge lines to get into the building. I was shocked at the amount of people at this show - for some reason, I was expecting less of a crowd but it was packed just at the entrance. I saw a few seats that were empty scattered here and there, but they announced the show to be a sell-out with 7,500 people, which is pretty good. The last big show I went to in that venue, which was Day 13 of New Japan's G1 Climax show, drew 5,270 people, which was also a sell-out (I'm guessing the stage and seating configuration necessitates more seats to be tarped off). Dragon Gate might have a bigger crowd in Osaka due to the company being based in nearby Kobe.
My seats were on the second floor of the arena, but still a pretty decent view of the action. When I purchased my ticket in late-September, most of the floor seats were already gone, so again, I don't know why I was expecting a smaller crowd. My entire section was packed.
The view from my seat during intermission.
I discovered that a large part of the building being packed was due to this being Akira Tozawa's last match at Dragon Gate. For those who watched WWE's Cruiserweight Classic, Tozawa was part of the tournament, getting to the quarterfinals before being beaten by Gran Metalik. Just like most of the other cruiserweights in the tournament, Tozawa was signed to the WWE and will be making his debut soon. Tozawa spent his entire Japanese career with Dragon Gate, so this is a pretty big deal for the fans of the company. I guess I got lucky that such a huge event was happening in Osaka, where I could see it in person.
Match #1
Six-Man Tag Match
Takehiro Yamamura, Kaito Ishida and Punch Tominaga vs. Futa Nakamura, Hyou Watanabe and Shun Watanabe
The team of Takehiro Yamamura, Kaito Ishida, and Punch Tominaga are part of a stable called "Over Generation", which is the most recently-formed stable in Dragon Gate (and trust me, there are quite a few stables in Dragon Gate - you'll see soon). Futa Nakamura, Hyou Watanabe, and Shun Watanabe look pretty young, so I'm guessing they're mostly rookies. Hyou Watanabe was the small, skinny one of the group, while Shun Watanabe and Futa Nakamura looked pretty fit. Nakamura, especially, looked pretty ripped.
The match was decent, with a lot of back and forth action between both teams, as well as some flips and dives to the outside of the ring. There were also a few portions of the match that had some really nice sequences involving two or all three members of a team, which I like seeing. Shun Watanabe got the win for his team with a moonsault on Punch Tominaga, who looked like the old man in the group. Good opener for this card.
Match #2
Tag-Team Match
Kzy and Yosuke♡Santa Maria VS. "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa and Shachihoko Boy
When "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa came out through the curtain, I immediately knew that a comedy bout was coming up. I mean, just take a look at him:
Yes, this guy is a pro wrestler.
As a side note, Ichikawa is actually a champion in Dragon Gate. There's a title in the company called "Open the Owarai Gate Championship", and Ichikawa is the current reigning champ. "Owarai" in Japanese means "comedy", so you can guess why someone like him would be a champion. It's a weird belt from what I read, where someone can actually win the championship because the crowd applauded or laughed harder for them, not because they pinned the current champ. The title was not up for grabs at this show so I didn't see what this entails. His teammate, Shachihoko Boy, looked a luchador with a pretty sweet mask.
Their opponents reinforced my thoughts about this being a comedy match. Kzy reminded me of a Japanese Enzo Amore in his looks with those crazy overalls. Yosuke♡Santa Maria (and yes, the heart is part of the name) is essentially a transgender wrestler, wearing blonde hair, lipstick, tight shorts, and a tied-up shirt. I honestly don't whether to say "he" or "she". Both Kzy and Maria are part of a stable called Tribe Vanguard.
As for the match, it was exactly what I thought. "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa was by far the weakest person in the entire building - any punch thrown was never sold. This led to a lot of funny spots, like when Ichikawa had Maria in a wrist-lock and tried to walk the ropes a la Undertaker, while the other two were hitting each other with chops back and forth. They saw Ichikawa on the ropes and before they thought about doing anything, Ichikawa begged for them to ignore him and keep on fighting, which the other two did. Eventually, one of them got whipped into the ropes and caused Ichikawa to get straddled balls-first on the rope.
Towards the end of the match, there was a miscue between Kzy and Maria, which ended up with Maria locking lips with Kzy. Kzy looked fazed by the kiss, but Maria seemed to have enjoyed it. Ichikawa tried to take advantage but like everything else he did, it failed and Kzy hit his finisher for the pin. For a comedy match, it was pretty fun for what it was.
Match #3
Tag-Team Match
Don Fujii and Gamma vs. El Lindaman and Mondai Ryu
Here we have yet another tag team match. As I've mentioned many times before, Japanese wrestling shows tend to go overboard with their multi-man matches, putting as many people as possible on their cards. Dragon Gate is not immune to this trend, and it gets a little crazier later on. In this match, we have Don Fujii and Gamma playing the role of the old grizzled vets - they're 46 and 43 years old, respectively - against a younger Lindaman and the masked Mondai Ryu representing the stable VerserK, which is the top heel stable in Dragon Gate.
This match was pretty fun, beginning with the focus on Lindaman and Fujii brawling. It went all the way to the outside and up to the second-floor balcony (just a few rows in front of me). They teased throwing each other off the balcony, which of course didn't happen since it would have killed whoever took that fall.
You just know no one will take this bump, but it's still fun to believe there's a chance.
The match went back to the ring, which went well enough. The ending saw Ryu use the dreaded powder of doom to the face of Gamma, leading Lindaman to his a trifecta of suplexes to get the win. I liked how Lindaman and Ryu played the role of the heels against the older guys, but the older guys were rough and didn't back down at all. In my opinion, this was a well-booked match.
Match #4
Open The Brave Gate Championship Match
Eita (c) vs. Flamita
For our fourth match, we get our first and only one-on-one match on the card. This match was for the "Open The Brave Gate Championship", which is Dragon Gate's Junior Heavyweight title. Interestingly, the challengers for this belt have a weight limit of 83 kilograms (183 pounds), which is a far cry from WWE's Cruiserweight division and its nearly 93-kilogram weight limit. Also, all of Dragon Gate's championships have similar names, which you'll read more about in some of the upcoming matches.
This match pitted the current champion, Eita, versus a Mexican luchador by the name of Flamita. Eita looks like a high school student and way under the weight limit (a quick check on Google says he's 72 kilograms / 159 pounds). However, he does have plenty of experience in both Dragon Gate USA as well as Mexico. Flamita has been in many places outside of Mexico, including Lucha Underground as Night Claw. He's also a former Open The Brave Gate champion, having a ten-month run with the title in 2014-15 until he vacated it. Currently, he's part of the Tribe Vanguard stable.
As expected for these junior heavyweight matches, it was very fast-paced. Flamita was highly impressive in this match. His high-flying style is pretty unique and had a couple of nice moves that were performed with incredible ease. He had a lot of very good control of his body, and I don't think I saw him look shaky with anything he did. Eita pulled out some impressive high-risk moves to the outside and some amazing counters. One particular counter I remember was Flamita doing a springboard off the ropes, and Eita caught him in mid-flip and slapped on an armbar. He also got the win on a counter. Flamita hit his impressive-looking finisher called the "Flam Fly", which is a like a sidewalk slam while he flips. After the move, Eita just grabbed a hold of Flamita and hit his own finisher, which is a scissored armbar, and Flamita had no choice but to give up. Great junior heavyweight action here, from the fast pace all the way to the high-risk moves and even some submission wrestling.
Match #5
Open The Triangle Gate Championship Match
Three-Man Triple Tag Team Elimination Match
Masaaki Mochizuki, Big R. Shimizu, and Peter Kaasa vs. "Brother" Yasshi, T-Hawk, and Cyber Kong vs. Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!!, Ryo "Jimmy" Saito, and Jimmy Kanda (c)
The next match was yet another multi-man match, but this time for a championship - the Open The Triangle Gate Championship, which is Dragon Gate's championship for trios. This title is akin to New Japan's NEVER Openweight 6-Man Championship, except that it's been around for over 12 years now. I'm not sure how I feel about the concept of trios championships, but I think they can work on some level. In this case, when I saw three separate three-man teams come into the ring for this match, I just had a feeling it would be a total clusterfuck. It kind of was, but it really wasn't all that bad.
This nine-person chain suplex pretty much sums up how the match went.
Each team had its own character, which I really dug. The team of Mochizuki, Shimizu and Kaasa looked like the most physically impressive team, especially Kaasa, who I think was the only foreigner on the card. He's an American wrestler who spent most of the last couple of years on the indy scene in the U.S., including a stint with EVOLVE. He's kind of short but looks like a million bucks, physically. The team of Yasshi, T-Hawk and Kong were the representatives for the VerserK stable. "Brother" Yasshi had some crazy long black and red dreadlocks flopping all over the place. Cyber Kong, in particular, looked like a monster. He wears a mask and his body has painted on something of a cross between muscle outlines and scars.
The remaining team became my new favorite team in Dragon Gate. Collectively, they're known as The Jimmyz, and each member of the stable has "Jimmy" or something similar-sounding in their name. Also, their theme song went from "Oh God, this is the most annoying wrestling song ever" to "Oh God, this song is stuck in my head and I'm starting to like it" in a matter of minutes. I've been randomly singing "We are Jimmyz!" for the last few days. They were the most popular team here, with Saito and Kanda playing the strongmen role and H.A.Gee.Mee!! (Yep, that's how it's spelled) as the runt of the litter - small, loud and almost completely ineffective throughout the match.
Since there were nine men involved in this match, there was a lot going on at all times, and it made the match difficult to follow throughout. Some early highlights came from Peter Kaasa, who did a particularly impressive corkscrew to the outside, as well as a running shooting star press over the top rope with no hands. This was an elimination match, so whoever took the first pin meant their team would be sent to the back. It happened a lot later than I expected, about 18 minutes into the match, when T-Hawk pinned the big man Shimizu to send him, Mochizuki and Kaasa to the back, leaving the Jimmyz and VerserK to battle it out.
VerserK played the heel role to perfection here with lots of interference from other VerserK members, and there were a lot of moments when I thought the Jimmyz were done for but they managed to stay in the match. "Brother" Yasshi and his long dreads seemed to be doing most of the work, with Cyber Kong chipping in when the strongman gimmick was needed. My favorite of the match had to be H.A.Gee.Mee!! with his multiple failed attempts at doing anything. He was so ineffective with anything he did that it came as a complete surprise to me when he caught the big Cyber Kong with a backslide for the win and helping the Jimmyz retain their title. The crowd absolutely loved it. For so many people being involved, the match played out pretty well, with everyone getting in on the action. Great booking here.
Match #6
Open The Twin Gate Championship
Cima and Dragon Kid vs. Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kagetora (c)
Another match, another Jimmyz championship on the line. This title, the Open The Twin Gate Championship, is Dragon Gate's tag team championship title. Cima has wrestled in various places in the U.S. in the past like Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. He even had a few appearances for WCW. Dragon Kid also had a few spots in WCW and Ring of Honor but has mostly wrestled for Dragon Gate. He's a masked wrestler, and he came out breakdancing which I found odd to see him do. The Jimmyz came out as the champs. Both Susumu and Kagetora seem to have spent most of their time in Dragon Gate. Nothing jumped out to me about them at first, but they're excellent wrestlers.
This was one of my favorite matches on the card. Both Cima and Dragon Kid are a formidable team. Dragon Kid had a stunning array of high-flying moves in and out of the ring. Cima was no slouch either, easily doing a lot of springboard moves, usually involving his knees. I looked up his bio and he's almost 40, but he wrestled like someone ten years younger which is always impressive to see. The Jimmyz were noticeably the more experienced tag team, landing a lot great double-team sequences and hard hits.
One of my favorite sequences in the entire card involved Cima getting stunned while sitting on the top rope, which led to Susumu helping Kagetora climb up behind Cima with Dragon Kid placed on his shoulders. Kagetora them jumped from the top rope and hit an insane side slam. Susumu immediately jumped in the ring to hit a hard lariat, which turned Dragon Kid inside out. Kagetora then picked up a limp Dragon Kid and hit what looked like a Michinoku Driver. All of that happened in the span of like 10 seconds, and I thought the match was over until Cima was able to barely break up the count.
This was one of those matches that looked like both teams were very evenly matched. Even without knowing much about the individuals in the ring, I had no clue who was the stronger team, which is great and it just sucked me right in. They both hit moves that I have honestly never seen in my life. It was a great 20+ minute match. In the last couple of minutes, the Jimmyz were just obliterating Dragon Kid with power move after power move, and Dragon Kid just kept on showing his resilience by kicking out of all of them. At the end, Cima caught Susumu with a super-kick, which led to Dragon Kid hitting an amazing springboard blink-and-you-miss-it hurricanrana (called the "Ultra Hurricanrana") for the pin. Just great emotion throughout the match, especially those last couple of minutes. I became fans of all four guys involved, and I hope I get to see more of them soon.
Main Event
Team Tozawa Akira Final
Shingo Takagi, Yamato, and BxB Hulk vs. Akira Tozawa, Masato Yoshino, and Naruki Doi
This is it, the moment almost everyone in the building was waiting for. These six men are probably the top six stars in Dragon Gate at the moment. Shingo Takagi is the top guy in the VerserK stable, and he's spent considerable time at Ring of Honor. Yamato is the current Open The Dream Gate Champion, which is Dragon Gate's top championship. Interestingly enough, he won that championship a few months ago off of Takagi. Yamato is also the head of the Tribe Vanguard stable, along with his partner in this match, BxB Hulk. I've heard the name BxB Hulk many times before but never knew who he was until this show, so it was finally good to put a face to the name.
For the other team, we have three other Dragon Gate heavy hitters. Masato Yoshino is a three-time Open The Dream Gate champ and was part of Wrestling Society X during its existence. Doi had one of the longest Open The Dream Gate Championship reigns (449 days), as well as being a former Ring of Honor Tag Team champ (with Shingo Takagi). Both Yoshino and Doi were part of Team Japan in the 2008 TNA World X Cup, so they all have plenty of experience in the wrestling business. Their teammate was Akira Tozawa, who I mentioned in the beginning of this column. This whole match was built for him as his final match. It was fitting the this would involve guys who have been in Dragon Gate for years and considered the cornerstones of Dragon Gate as it stands now.
The match itself was interesting, with everyone getting in for a solid portion of the match. Shingo Takagi spent a large portion of the match shunning his other teammates, shoving and even punching them if they tried to get involved in the match. The team of Takagi, Yamato and BxB seemed to be the most active in this match, shelling out most of the heavy hits. The team of Tozawa, Yoshino and Doi were great, though. There was so a lot of great stuff happening in this match - which went almost 30 full minutes - and it makes it really difficult to really explain all the things that happened. I strongly advise you to go seek out this match and give it a view yourself.
Of course, this being Akira Tozawa's farewell match, the finish would have to involve him. I was looking for this to be his final feel-good moment with the company. But instead, we got treated to Tozawa trying to put on a brave fight by himself in the ring, only to get blasted by each of the opposing team's finishers, ending with Yamato hitting his finisher (yet another version of a Michinoku Driver) to get the pin. I was left in shock since I came in expecting to see Tozawa leave with the victory. But I can see why he did the favors for the guys who were going to remain to carry the torch in Dragon Gate while he tries his luck in America.
Post-match, Shingo Takagi bad-mouthed Tozawa and called out the rest of his VerzerK cronies, who came to the ring and proceeded to lay the smackdown on everyone, including the guys who were his own teammates three minutes prior. This prompted the rest of the Dragon Gate locker room to come down to make the save. VerserK quickly dispersed and left through the crowd. As Tozawa got his bearings, the rest of the wrestlers, including Yamato and BxB Hulk, all took turns to thank Tozawa and wish him luck in his new venture, in what was called Tozawa's graduation ceremony. After everyone said their heartfelt words, Tozawa thanked everyone, confetti dropped, the Dragon Gate roster tossed Tozawa up and down in the air to celebrate (and dropping him on his ass as a rib) and he went up the ramp to take one last bow to the Dragon Gate faithful. Even as someone who hadn't seen Dragon Gate before, it was an emotional scene to take in, and I'm glad I was able to see this in person.
ありがとう、戸澤さん。頑張ってください！
Random Ruckus
As I mentioned, this was my first Dragon Gate show, and I'm fairly certain it will not be my last. The whole show was great and I became a fan of their product. While the in-ring product has all the traits of other Japanese companies, it felt very different than all the other shows I've gone to thus far. I think a great way to describe Dragon Gate wrestling is to say it's a mix of Japanese, Mexican and American wrestling. It has clear traits of all three.
It had some of the strong technical wrestling that's prevalent in Japanese wrestling, but the bulk of the matches were very fast-paced with high-flying action like Mexican wrestling. Most of the wrestlers had some great characters - some more flamboyant than others - which is visible mostly in American wrestling. They had decent production values, as well. Their stage was pretty cool, including face / heel entrances which I always dig. They also had pyro, which seems rare in Japanese wrestling shows - not even New Japan does much pyro. I really enjoyed this mix of different styles, and I think it works really, really well.
The only thing I can say that I didn't enjoy is the same issue I have with other Japanese wrestling promotions - there were way too many multi-man matches. There was only one singles match in the entire four-hour event, and even though I enjoyed most of the tag matches, the six-man main event, and even the nine-man triangle trios match, there were plenty of times where it was super-difficult to follow what was going on. Given the fast pace of most Dragon Gate matches, there were literally a few places where I looked away for a second and missed a big move or sequence.
In any case, the positives far outweigh the negative. If you haven't watched any Dragon Gate, I would highly recommend it even if you don't know much about any of the wrestlers. I didn't know anything about this company and it was one of my favorite wrestling shows I've attended in recent memory.
Two days later, I attended New Japan's Power Struggle in the same building, and surprisingly it drew fewer people (5,050, according to their website). I was planning on doing a write-up on that show, but I think New Japan is well-known enough that it's probably not worth spending time writing a column for a show that a lot of other people have reviewed a lot better than I could. Instead, I'll mention the time during the show where I think I could have died.
New Japan typically has some of their wrestlers do commentary during the shows. Some wrestlers join the announce table later in the evening after wrestling a match earlier in the card. For Power Struggle, the guest wrestler commentator was Togi Makabe, who's a bonafide bad-ass in the New Japan ring.
I'm sure he sleeps to the soothing sounds of his chains hanging around his neck.
I got pretty good seats for the New Japan show (and paid a pretty penny for it) so they were arena seats. I was not too far away from the announcer's table. During intermission, I was typing away on my phone, texting my wife back and forth for a bit. I decided to head outside to stretch a little bit and turned towards the door. At the same time, less than three feet away from me, was Togi Makabe walking my same direction towards the announcer's table. If I had turned a bit earlier or quicker without paying attention, I would have run straight into him. Based on that picture that I posted above, you would have guessed that he would have beaten me down pretty severely with those chains.
In reality, he probably would have apologized like a typical Japanese person and kept on walking, paying little to no attention to me. But I like my version of near-murder better. It makes for a more interesting story, right? You're still reading here, so I would say so.
'Til next time
Degenerate