Hair Vs. Hair Tag Team Match: Anthony W. Mori & Ryo Saito vs. Aagan Iisou (Shuji Kondo & Takuya Sugawara)
Takuya Sugawara shone greatly in this match. He came across as a vile, prick of a man with his facial expressions, dismissive aura and his general look. What he lacked for stand out offence, he made up for in everything else. He and Mori had some really good exchanges with Sugawara bullying the skinny Italian (heh) and feeding for Mori’s hope spots. The spot where he brought in the scissors and stabbed Saito like he was Abdullah The Butcher was awesome as well. He and Saito had some solid double team work as did Mori and Saito who aren't even in the same unit. As for why they are teaming together, I don't know but they worked off each other well in their roles. Kondo was in the match at least but he was great any time he was in. Great power spots, a good game changer for when Sugawara needed help and vital for giving his team the win. Ultimately the match ends with Mori and Sugawara, as they were the main story of the match. Mori got pinned by the Shiisanpuuta, so he has to shave his head. Ryo Saito stops him and offers his own hair. Sugawara attempted to shave Mori’s hair after the fact but Saito stopped him. Strong match with shockingly incredible drama. ****
Do FIXER (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Magnum TOKYO) vs. Florida Express (Daniel Mishima, Kensuke Sasaki & Michael Iwasa)
Such a fabulous set of entrances. Do FIXER enters in the Do FIXER way while Kensuke Sasaki has the time of his life goofing around, coming out to Living in America with the Florida Bros in American get up. Much to the embarrassment of Akira-Chan, as he calls her. Then out comes Stalker Ichikawa. Who challenges Akira Hokuto to a match! And that goes as well as you'd might expect. Stalker lasted longer with Yoshiaki Fujiwara than he did with Akira Hokuto. The match was masterful comedy. It had the usual Florida Brother spots but with Kensuke Sasaki playing along, and sometimes not, that was increased tenfold. There were many times where I bellowed out with laughter, but one time in particular was the arm wringer spot where Dragon Kid was too weak to twist Sasaki’s arm so he had to ask Sasaki to play along, which he did. There were plenty of similar spots that were so funny. This was just as funny outside of the spots involving Sasaki. The best thing about Dragon Gate is everyone is trained in the same system so their traits are in-line with each other, and that includes comedy, so Magnum Tokyo begging was just as funny as the ref doing arm drags to everyone. The finish was cute as well - Magnum Tokyo attempts a Pumphandle but his arm gets trapped by Sasaki’s massive thighs and the ref thinks it's a low blow attempt and calls it. Wow. This is why I rate comedy matches. Amazing experience. ****1/4
Open The Dream Gate Title Match: CIMA (c) vs. Susumu Yokosuka
This is a historic bout. The first ever title defence of the Open The Dream Gate Title by CIMA, who was champion by proxy as he was the Ultimo Dragon Gym Champion at the time of the move from Toryumon Japan to the new promotion. That makes sense. It's history is canon in the Company despite the bad blood and it being a different promotion entirely. Susumu Yokosuka won the title match opportunity by defeating Dragon Kid, Milano Collection AT and Toru Owashi in a four way match in the company’s first Korakuen Hall show (I believe) on the 22nd of August. The match had its ups and downs. When these two were working on each other's limbs (leg for CIMA, arm for Susumu), the match was quite boring. Initially it was fine with Susumu trying to suck CIMA’s wind by attacking his stomach and throat but then opted for the leg, and then CIMA getting pissed and snapping at Susumu’s arm after a rope break. But then it got dull fast and there wasn't much selling on display. Naturally, the match shone through these two doing intricate, exciting sequences on their feet or in the air. The crowd was hooked on the match regardless of what they were doing though. CIMA looked dominant but Susumu was a bit worthy challenger and made CIMA work for the win, kicking out of the Schwein and forcing CIMA to do a modified version of it. The basic Dream Gate match, really. ***1/2
Comments
Post a Comment