wrestling / Video Reviews

Jack’s Dragon Gate Open the New Year Gate 1.18.17 Review

February 22, 2017 | Posted by Jack Stevenson
Dragon Gate Image Credit: Dragon Gate
6.5
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Jack’s Dragon Gate Open the New Year Gate 1.18.17 Review  

OMG! Dragon Gate is running a Trios Tournament! What a world. Eight teams of three will compete in a one night, single elimination tournament, and interestingly, until the final, a two count will be enough to end the match. I’m not sure if I really like that idea or think it sounds show killingly terrible. There’s only one way to find out!

As ever, all promo translations are paraphrased from the superb iheartdg.com!

1- NEW YEAR UNIT SIX MAN TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND- DON FUJII, HYO WATANABE & YUKI YOSHIOKA VS. TRIBE VANGUARD (BxB Hulk, Kzy & YAMATO)

I don’t recall having seen Yuki Yoshioka wrestle before, although Dragon Gate has so many talented but personality free young lads that it’s hard to say for sure. A big opportunity for Watanabe and Yoshioka, teaming with a man of Don Fujii’s experience.

Good news! The two count rules will NOT kill this show! Indeed, they actively enhanced this match, forcing the wrestlers to pick the pace up even further than usual and creating moments of real, refreshing drama as even a one count signalled serious jeopardy. Otherwise, this was a good. formula six man. Tribe Vanguard isolated Hyo Watanabe, and his eventual hot tag triggered the usual frenetic finishing stretch. There were some fun moments with grumpy old Don Fujii standing up for his inexperienced partners and looking a total hero in the process! His team couldn’t pull the victory out though, with Kzy ultimately putting Watanabe away with the Impact (Tiger Driver). ***.

2- NEW YEAR UNIT TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND- BEN-K, KOTOKA & MASATO YOSHINO VS. OVER GENERATION (Eita, Punch Tominaga & Takehiro Yamamura)

This only goes four minutes and so they hit the near falls pretty much immediately. This makes for a really enjoyable little sprint, although nothing anyone will remember after an hour or so. Yoshino has better luck than Fujii with his youthful partners, as the impressive Ben-K downs Tominaga with a Gutwrench Powerbomb for the three count. ** 3/4.

Post match, Eita berates Tominaga for the loss, claiming that Over Generation would have been better off using Kaito Ishida, even though he’s injured!

3- NEW YEAR UNIT TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND- JIMMYZ (Jimmy Kanda, Jimmy Susumu & Ryo Jimmy Saito) vs. VERSERK (Cyber Kong, Mondai Ryu & YASSHI)

YASSHI was one of the stalwarts of Dragon Gate’s predecessor promotion Toryumon. After over a decade away, he made a shock return to DG last year after being recruited by Masato Yoshino to fight against VerserK, but almost immediately turned on him and joined the rudo faction. While we’re providing some backstory, long time fans of the column (people who read the last review, I mean) may remember my befuddlement as to the origins of the Jimmyz faction, and why established Dragon Gate talent had decided to rebrand themselves with ‘Jimmy’ in their names. For an answer to this mystery, we throw things over to friendly and knowledgeable Disqus commenter Bruce L…

“In 2011, when pretty much all of Dragon Gate was divided between the heel supergroup Blood Warriors and the good-guy mega-stable Junction Three, then-Junction Three members Susumu Yokosuka and KAGETORA were forced to change their ring names to “Jimmy Susumu” and “Jimmy Kagetora” after losing a tag title match to their Blood Warriors rivals, Akira Tozawa and BxB Hulk. (Tozawa and Hulk spent the rivalry mocking Susumu and KAGETORA as a pair of “jimis” — a Japanese term for “boring” or “plain” with roughly the same meaning, in a wrestling context, as the American “vanilla midget.”) Later, Tozawa and Hulk usurped leadership of Blood Warriors from CIMA, and kicked out a number of the other members, including Ryo Saito, Genki Horiguchi, and Yasushi Kanda, who offered to form a new stable with Susumu and Kagetora (who were on their own after J3 had been forced to break up). To show their solidarity, they took on new Jimmy names of their own. Naoki Tanizaki, another exiled ex-Blood Warrior, soon joined up as well, and those six were the longest-standing combination in Dragon Gate until last year, when K-ness became the first new member in four years, and Tanizaki left.”

I’m sure I’m not the only one with the sneaking suspicion that Bruce L should be writing these reviews instead. But we all have to live with me, unfortunately.

This follows the same structure as the last match, going pretty much straight to the finishing stretch. It goes two minutes longer though and that’s enough to make it feel like it has ever so slightly more depth. The two count rules bring perpetual VerserK whipping boy Mondai Ryu close to scoring a huge upset on Jimmy Susumu with some flash roll-ups, but in the end he falls to Ryo Saito’s SaiRyo Rocket (a top rope splash where Saito lands on his feet and then just flops forward into a standing splash). ***.

4- NEW YEAR UNIT TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND- BIG R SHIMIZU, MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI & NARUKI DOI VS. VERSERK (Shingo, T-Hawk & El Lindaman)

Despite being less than ten minutes long, this match tries to rattle through the traditional tag match structure, with VerserK isolating Naruki Doi and working him over. The opening match took this route as well and kept the pace just about high enough to make it work, but here the heat segment feels too slow, and it isn’t followed by a finishing stretch that was as long and wild as it needs to be to make the structure satisfying. It’s a perfectly competent match of course, and while it lasts the conclusion is good fun. A nice by product of the two count stipulation is that every single finisher seems absolutely deadly, and so when Shimizu hoists Lindaman up for his Shot Put Choke Slam, it feels properly dramatic. As it happens, Lindaman twists out of it, Mondai Ryu smacks Shimizu with VerserK’s signature red crate, and Lindaman spins Shimizu to the ground with the Ipponzeoi (which is basically an arm drag) for the two count. ** 3/4.

5- NEW YEAR UNIT TOURNAMENT SEMI FINAL- TRIBE VANGUARD (BxB Hulk, Kzy & YAMATO) vs. BEN-K, KOTOKA & MASATO YOSHINO

While this turns out to be another good match, it’s at this point the tournament starts to feel slightly samey. Another match that follows the usual six man tag routine, with a heat segment and a frenetic finish. It’s good action all the way through, but I’m starting to want some variety, especially because it’s hard to come up with new things to write about them! I will say that, even if the structure’s getting repetitive, they used it in a particularly effective way this time around. Kotoka took the beating as the face in peril, but ended up coming back to win the match after tying up BxB Hulk with the Momo Latch, a huracanrana that turns into a Victory Roll. It’s a huge win for the relatively lowly Kotoka, and serves as Hulk’s third high profile loss in a row, furthering his losing streak storyline and tensions with YAMATO. Simple and effective! ***.

Post match, YAMATO calls out Hulk on his 4th straight defeat and warns it will be a difficult year for Tribe Vanguard if he doesn’t find some form. Hulk apologises and admits to YAMATO he’s frustrated. All the other Tribe Vanguard members have a purpose- YAMATO’s the Open the Dream Gate Champion, Kzy and Yosuke Santa Maria are gunning for the tag belts, Flamita is tearing it up in Mexico, while he’s left feeling directionless. This gives YAMATO an idea. He’ll put his Open the Dream Gate Championship on the line against BxB Hulk on February 2nd’s televised Truth Gate show, in the hope it motivates Hulk and helps him find his mojo again! That’s a… risky move.

6- NEW YEAR UNIT TOURNAMENT SEMI FINAL- JIMMYZ (Jimmy Kanda, Jimmy Susumu & Ryo Jimmy Saito) vs. VERSERK (Shingo, T-Hawk & El Lindaman)

The second semi final turns out a little different than the first in the sense that it feels like the heat segment was less prominent, and more time was afforded to the opening brawl triggered by VerserK, and then the fast paced finishing stretch. Although, to be honest, it might just be that I’ve seen so many heat segments this evening that I didn’t pay as much attention to the one that might have existed in this match. Regardless, this was another fine six man outing, but it’s a relief that we’ve reached the final, which will surely be grander in scope and thus refreshingly different. Mondai Ryu and the VerserK crate once again make their presences felt, Ryu crashing the box into the back of Susumu, allowing T-Hawk to put him down for the two count with the Night Ride! ***.

T-Hawk celebrates the victory, which he insists was entirely clean and fair. He tries to play mind games with Masato Yoshino, asking if he really thinks he has a chance against VerserK with Ben-K and Kotoka as his tag partners? Yoshino comes to the ring to defend them, asking Hawk if he’s actually watched the tournament so far. Ben-K won the opening match, and Kotoka pinned BxB Hulk in the semi final. The three of them are going to beat VerserK in the final!

7- NON TOURNAMENT MATCH- JIMMYZ (Genki Horiguchi & Jimmy Kagetora), SYACHIHOKO BOY & YOSUKE SANTA MARIA VS. OVER GENERATION (CIMA, Dragon Kid & Gamma) & STALKER ICHIKAWA

Stalker Ichikawa is incomparably odd. His gimmick is basically that he’s utterly incompetent at wrestling and he often loses matches for his teams within about five seconds. He’s dressed in a black and red lycra bodysuit with antennas coming out of the top, and if that’s the outfit you wear to work, you know you’ve got a rather marvellous job.

Ichikawa insists on starting the match, even slapping his tag partners in the face when they and try and persuade him to go to the apron. The bell rings, Kagetora uppercuts him and pins him immediately for the three count. I’ve seen that kind of spot numerous times during my Dragon Gate viewing and it never fails to crack me up! Happily, everyone involved agrees to restart and do a proper match. And very good fun it is too! It has a much lighter tone than the tournament action, which makes it a welcome refreshment ahead of the main event, but there’s good, fast paced tag wrestling mixed in around the zany antics. Over Generation throw themselves into the spirit of teaming with Ichikawa, attempting to copy his usual rope walk spot. Unfortunately for them, it ends the same way it always does for Stalker, with an embarrassing crotching on the top rope. Yosuke Santa Maria gets to do a couple of her usual creepy, offensive comedy bits, but in fairness the moment where Gamma tries to drool water all over her, as he often does to opponents, and she actively revels in it is quite funny. The finishing sequence is as well. Ichikawa is actually able to land a picture perfect German suplex on Maria, but the referee can’t count because she just kissed him and he’s all shaken up. He very slowly makes it to a two count, at which point Ichikawa gets frustrated and argues with him for an amusingly long time. It gives Maria ample opportunity to roll Ichikawa up and get the win, albeit off a very fast three count! Enjoyable stuff. *** 1/4.

8- NEW YEAR UNIT TOURNAMENT FINAL- BEN-K, KOTOKA & MASATO YOSHINO VS. VERSERK (Shingo, T-Hawk, El Lindaman)

This is fantastic, and absolutely makes up for the mild repetition of the quarters and semi finals. There are a couple of simple but compelling storylines running through this match. The first is Kotoka, once one of the less respected members of VerserK and utterly in thrall to Shingo, standing up to his old boss and going toe to toe with him. Shingo dominates their exchanges, as he should, but the moments where Kotoka catches him off guard are so rewarding and exciting. There’s also a coming out party of sorts for Ben-K, who has been wrestling for well under two years but looked right at home here in the main event, matching power with Shingo and cutting El Lindaman in half with a huge spear. What a future he has! The whole match is a super underdog story, with experienced bullies VerserK in control but Yoshino and his two proteges putting up a terrific fight, and of course there’s all the wild, electric high flying you’d expect as well. The finishing stretch veers too far into melodrama, unfortunately, with Yoshino wrapping up T-Hawk in Sol Naciente but having to keep him there for an inordinately long time while they tease people breaking the submission and T-Hawk howls in pain. It’s the sort of spot that makes you think T-Hawk should surely have tapped by now and takes you out of the action a bit. Happily, it doesn’t directly lead to the match’s ending, as El Lindaman finally forces Yoshino to let go by dumping literally a full bucket of powder in his face. This clears space for Shingo and Kotoka to do one final thrilling sequence, with Kotoka kicking out of the Pumping Bomber lariat, before finally succumbing to the Made in Japan. VerserK win the New Year Unit tournament! **** 1/4.

Post match, VerserK maul Yoshino until Dr. Muscle, a recurring masked figure whom several different Dragon Gate wrestlers have disguised themselves as over the years, hits the ring to make the save. Muscle unmasks, and this time it’s Naruki Doi under the hood! Doi and Yoshino were a hugely successful tag team in the past, and Naruki returning to his old ally’s side is a huge moment. This leads to an eight man tag match being signed for February 2nd- it’s Yoshino, Doi, Ben-K and Kotoka against Shingo, T-Hawk, El Lindaman and Cyber Kong!

6.5
The final score: review Average
The 411
Not the easiest show to get through because the early stages of the New Year Unit tournament were rather homogeneous. It's a shame, because the wrestling was good all the way through, just a bit repetitive, which is the most pressing problem Dragon Gate have with their product. Still, the terrific main event and red hot angle that followed makes me look back on the card in a more positive light, and I've heard some really good things about the next televised show, February 2nd's Truth Gate event. Exciting times!
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