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Dragon Gate Primal Gate 2005 - Day 3 - 14/01/2005
Open The Dream Gate Title #1 Contendership Match: Milano Collection AT vs. Ryo Saito
This looks like this is a good place to pick a start to Ryo Saito’s accession to the Dream Gate Title which will culminate next year. Despite being against Milano, who is on his way out (although perhaps that isn't known in real time), he has the crowd in the palm of his hand and is able to get the win and a title shot against Masaaki Mochizuki soon after. The match has a lot of history behind it. Dragon Gate airs their 2001 acclaimed match in T2P during the intermission. So there is a lot of tension in the air besides just the title match. Milano controls the majority of the match in the way you'd expect. Tons of tricky, lucha libre inspired holds with a little flair. Perfect style for Milano who is an eccentric character. Ryo Saito’s selling was really solid, helping make Milano a credible winner and gaining crowd heat for himself. The match’s bread and butter was creating some terrific, nail-biting nearfalls for a prolonged time period. Great stuff. ****
Eight Man Tag Team Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match: Blood Generation (CIMA, Don Fujii, Naruki Doi & Shingo Takagi) vs. Do FIXER (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Magnum TOKYO) & Super Shisa
With the old heel unit gone (Aagan Iisou), it's time to bring in a new unit - Blood Generation. This is the first match under the Blood Gen name as they were under the WakuWaku Fuji Land name before kicking Shisa and Ichikawa out to become heels and changing the name. This is mostly about establishing them as a force to be reckoned with. And with the former Dream Gate champion leading them, they are just that. They attack early and cause havoc all around Korakuen Hall. CIMA gets pinned by Super Shisa in the second fall but that's a minor slip up as they regain the advantage and win the third fall to win. ***1/4
Dragon Gate Truth Gate 2005 - Day 1 06/02/2005
Open The Dream Gate Title Match: Masaaki Mochizuki (c) vs. Ryo Saito
This is so rad. Saito attacks Mochizuki's legs but Mochizuki is like "I'm still gonna kick you" so Saito starts hitting nasty suplexes and slaps, Mochizuki kicks Saito in the head and busts his nose open and then knocks him out with a kick to the jaw. The match is clipped by around 7 minutes but the rest is all action with some great back and forth wrestling. You could find flaws in Mochizuki’s selling but there were a few very subtle limps and gasps of pain when he kicked. And of course, the clipping may have clipped out the best part of the selling. Great match. ****
Dragon Gate Truth Gate 2005 - Day 10 - 23/02/2005
Open The Triangle Gate Title Match (vacant): Blood Generation (CIMA, Naruki Doi & Shingo Takagi) vs. Final M2K (Kenichiro Arai, Masaaki Mochizuki & Susumu Yokosuka)
This initially had K-ness in the match, but Blood Generation injured him quickly into the match and caused NC. In comes Kenichiro Arai to make the save. Final M2K pushed them hard but they were still the ones with momentum and quality on their sides. The best part of the match was Mochizuki kicking everyone in sight and then kicking Doi on his back when he tried to blindside him. CIMA on the apron sold that perfect. In fact, CIMA is one of the best apron workers ever. He knows how to stay active and how to protect his charisma by doing title things like aggressively hitting in Susumu’s face, getting into a real scrap with him. ***3/4
Dragon Gate Live Gate Vol. 5 - 02/03/2005
Two Out of Three Falls: Blood Generation (CIMA, Naruki Doi & Shingo Takagi) vs. Do FIXER (Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito)
Ryo Saito pins CIMA in a big win. Ryo Saito has to be one of the most popular wrestlers in Dragon Gate at this time, and these wins are only making him more popular. This is a ⅔ falls match so it's worked in quick fashion. It's not quite as smooth as a lot of dragon gate tag matches, with the inexperienced Shingo slowing down some of the more typical spots but it was mostly good. ***1/2
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