The Return of Yasushi Kanda: Dragon Gate 2006

Crazy MAX (CIMA, Don Fujii & Shingo Takagi) vs. M2K (Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda) - Dragon Gate Brave Gate Tour 2006 - Day 8 - 13/03/2006

That fucking entrance. The energy and electricity for these guys. It makes them come across as the coolest guys ever despite coming out looking like doors on scooters. It’s magical. This is the return of Yasushi Kanda, who had suffered a career ending neck injury. He came back to wrestling to get revenge on Crazy MAX, particularly Don Fujii, who had terrorised him as a referee. It was building for months prior to this and it’s paid off so wonderfully in this match. The match starts with a brawl on the outside with both units going crazy. Streamers fly everywhere in the process. Soon after, CIMA commits the first dastardly act, using a wrench as a weapon to hit Kanda’s neck with. A youthful Shingo Takagi is in this match, being the main target for the wise trio of M2K but also being presented as the pest of his time. He’s such a shit. It makes up for him being green as grass. Speaking of knobs, Fujii is a nasty bully to Kanda, as is CIMA. Kanda is stuck as the underdog of the match but, of course, that’s the hook; to see Kanda get beat up and beat up until he finally gets one over Crazy MAX. Mochizuki and Susumu are really good editions to the match, no doubt, but their performances are just as accessory to Kanda’s role than anything critical. They were good in the match, nonetheless. The closing stretch contains the classic tropes that a big 6 man tag would have. Crazy MAX interferes and it gets turned against them, somehow, strings of triple/double team moves and a strong 1 v 1 encounter, which belonged to Kanada and Fujii which concluded with the most satisfying pin cover of all time. Kanda crushed Fujii with an elbow drop before pinning him by kneeling on his lifeless body. Nothing gets better than that. ****1/4