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NotQuiteQuentin posted:There have been mentions that President Okamura has connections but nothing verifiable. He did come from Koji Kitao's dojo, which has it's own rep in of itself (to be fair, Mocchy trained at Buko Dojo as well and teamed with Okamura in WAR and other mid 90s indies). Interesting. I think if Meltzer ever writes a big wrestling tome, I want it to be a history of puro.
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Jan 19, 2015 05:43
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Match of the Month – 01/2015 – TITLE CONTRA UNIT DISSOLVES – Masaaki Mochizuki/Don Fujii/Magnitude Kishiwada [ZETSURINS] (21st Champions) v Akira Tozawa/Taku Iwasa/Kenichiro Arai [TOZAWA-JUKU] – 2nd Defense – Gate of Destiny – 11/16/2008 LINK TO MATCH ON DAILYMOTION Why This Match? This might be my favorite match in Dragon Gate/Toryumon history. MochiFujii and AraIwa were two cornerstones of the early Twin Gate/I-J Tag division and they had fantastic chemistry. Magnitude Kishiwada was a great chubby dude who was a former Dream Gate champion who was able to gel with MochiFujii. This is also one of the first matches that Akira Tozawa was allowed to go all out and he already had an incredible connection with the crowd that night in Osaka. It’s only 12 minutes, but the action is frenetic, emotional and bookended by amazing pre and post-match segments. Backstory Akira Tozawa’s early career is rather interesting. The third graduate of the Dragon Gate Dojo, he didn’t get brought into late Crazy Max and be mentored by CIMA, like Shingo Takagi was. He didn’t even get dance routines and his own unit given to him by Magnum Tokyo, like BXB Hulk. You take the modern career of Tomoaki Homna, give to an immature college-age kid, and then have all your seniors do their damnedest to humiliate you and make you want to quit. That’s what Tozawa was before his great American Excursion. The junior of Kenichiro Arai, Tozawa was offered membership into Final M2K in late 2005 after aborted debuts, a disastrous trial series and a lot of backstage trouble. Showing the egomania that would later dominate Blood Warriors and Mad Blankey, he refused the offer stating he would create his own unit in his image. Enter Tozawa-juku. In a company with a lot of bizarre stables, Tozawa-juku is arguably the most bizarre. Akira Tozawa formed a cram school where wrestlers would receive polish. It was supposed to be based off some manga or anime but I don’t remember which one. The first member to join was Taku Iwasa, fresh out of the dissolution of the Florida Brothers (more about them next month!). He wanted to be a serious singles wrestler so he quickly signed up. Araken, realizing his young boy was a numb-skull, begrudgingly joined to make sure he didn’t gently caress up too bad. Yuki Ono, or Katsuo, another dojo grad, joined up as Tozawa’s best friend/fellow troublemaker and drummer. Kouji Shishido, who was most certainly was not Jackson Florida, was their flag bearer. They didn’t have too much success initially and they kept an role in the low-card and were the main comedy stable after Florida Brothers dissolved. In Late 2006 and 2007, things started to change as Iwasa and Arai gelled as a tremendous tag team and faced Speed Muscle in the Twin Gate/I-J title unification match. Shishido was the fan-voted entrant into the King of Gate 2006 tourney. Tozawa-juku would even get exchange students, as indy mainstay Shinobu and gaijin El Generico joined the unit (the most  thing ever is El Generico in his Juku costume). In the summer of 2008, Tozawa-juku would post their greatest accomplishment as AraIwa and Shinobu would win the Open the Triangle Gate title.Things weren’t so hot for Tozawa. Even though he was the unit namesake, he was their jobber/loss pole. He was placed in an infamous comedy match against Danshoku Dino on a Byuuden card. When Katsou gained about 80 pounds and the crowd responded positively, then Dragon Gate seniors forced Tozawa to do the same. They became known as the Metabolic Brothers, and traded their pants for embarrassing silver tights. Eventually Katsou disappeared and AraIwa talked sense into Tozawa, and he underwent a successful diet, and Diet Series of matches. This gave Tozawa a lot of confidence and he boisteriously challenged the Triangle Gate champions, Zetsurins, for a Triangle Gate match with AraiIwa. Mocchy, half-bemused/half-irritated, agreed, but he had one stipulation: Tozawa it is time for you to fuckin’ grow up. If Tozawa-juku lost, they would dissolve and all the members would “graduate.” Aftermath Zetsurins would make one more defense before dropping the title. Moochy entered a rivalry with Iwasa and would continue fighting on general grounds until the Blood Warriors v Junction Three feud. Don Fujii would continue to Don Fujii; lots of beating up rookies, drinking with middle-aged women, and continuing the righteous path of Fujii Heya. Kishiwada would drift out of Dragon Gate, making his return in Veteran Army Returns. The graduation of Tozawa-juku was a short-term success, middle-term failure, and now in 2015, finally realized. Arai would join up with Real Hazard and turn heel for the first time since the 90s, returning to his drunkard character. As Real Hazard turned into Deep Drunkers, he became the spiritual leader of the group. I say spiritual, because that was the start of his decline in Dragon Gate to where he is now. Tozawa and Iwasa would join Shingo Takagi in forming KAMIKAZE. Iwasa had a lot of initial success, he had a Dream Key/Open the Dream Gate shot and held the Triangle Gate with Takagi and Dragon Kid. However, the match that they lost the Triangle Gate against CIMA/Gamma/KAGETORA ended up being his undoing. As a result of taking a botched Genkonitteki form KAGETORA, Iwasa would announce his temporary retirement. He made a short return in 2011 but has all but retired as he hasn’t had a match since 2012. Tozawa didn’t improve his station with KAMIKAZE. In 2010, he lost a member banishment match against fellow member Cyber Kong and went on an extended excursion. This excursion gave him loads of confidence and convinced Dragon Gate brass to believe in him, and since his return in 2011, Tozawa has redefined his career as a member of the “Big 6” alongside Takagi, Hulk, YAMATO, Doi and Yoshino. NotQuiteQuentin fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Jan 21, 2015 |
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Jan 21, 2015 21:18
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NotQuiteQuentin posted:[url=http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2f8ko9_open-the-triangle-gate-11-16-2008-zetsurins-v-tozawajuku_sport]Match of the Month – 01/2015 – TITLE CONTRA UNIT DISSOLVES – Masaaki Mochizuki/Don Fujii/Magnitude Kishiwada [ZETSURINS] (21st Champions) v Akira Tozawa/Taku Iwasa/Kenichiro Arai [TOZAWA-JUKU] – 2nd Defense – Gate of Destiny – 11/16/2008 Thanks for this. I know almost nothing about DG prior to 2014 so it's always fun and weird to see older stuff. So what changed between 2008 and now where Tozawa went from constant loser to coolest guy in the company?
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Jan 21, 2015 22:45
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Dimebags Brain posted:Thanks for this. I know almost nothing about DG prior to 2014 so it's always fun and weird to see older stuff. So what changed between 2008 and now where Tozawa went from constant loser to coolest guy in the company? He grew up. He always had the charisma but he never put it all together until he was allowed to be a star in the US
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Jan 21, 2015 22:49
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Tozawa has the smoothest voice. When he was on commentary for the main event at Final Gate, he just chimed in every few minutes with "Mmmmm..."
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Jan 21, 2015 23:26
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Dimebags Brain posted:Thanks for this. I know almost nothing about DG prior to 2014 so it's always fun and weird to see older stuff. So what changed between 2008 and now where Tozawa went from constant loser to coolest guy in the company? Tozawa's return from the excursion was also a part of a shocking angle that was one of the biggest moments in the BW v JIII feud as his surprise return was coupled with BXB turning heel at Korauken Hall by viciously bloodying Shingo Takagi. The booking committee held total faith in Tozawa due to his excursion and pretty much kept him in the main event/upper mid card ever since.
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Jan 22, 2015 19:55
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The Kobe Infinity (and Niconico cards) are up on streaming sites. I haven't watched Infinity yet but the two Niconico cards are a lot of fun.
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Jan 27, 2015 05:52
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i think i watched a mishmash of all the interesting looking matches from the last couple weeks and man that was a lot of good tag team wrestling, so business as usual for Dragon Gate Also I adored Susumu/Shimizu
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Jan 27, 2015 06:12
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Full card for Korakuen is out: 2/5 - Tokyo Korakuen Hall - NicoNico 0. Kenichiro Arai/Super Shisa v Mondai Ryu/Punch Tominaga [MAD BLANKEY] 1. U-T/Yosuke♡Sanata Maria/El Lindaman [MILLENIALS] v Jimmy Kanda/Jimmy Kagetora/Mr. Quu Quu Tanizaki Naoki Toyonaka Dolphin [JIMMYZ] 2. K-ness [MAD BLANKEY] v Big R Shimizu [DIA.HEARTS] 3. Shingo Takagi/Shachihoko BOY [MONSTER EXPRESS] v Ryo "Jimmy Saito/Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee!! [JIMMYZ] 4. Akira Tozawa [MONSTER EXPRESS]/Doctor Muscle v Cyber Kong/Don Fujii [MAD BLANKEY] 5. 3-Way 6-Man Tag: YAMATO/CIMA/Gamma [MAD BLANKEY] v Masaaki Mochizuki/Dragon Kid/Kzy [DIA.HEARTS] v T-Hawk/Eita/Kotoka [MILLENIALS] 6. Open the Dream Gate Championship: 20th Champion BXB Hulk [DIA.HEARTS] v Jimmy Susumu [JIMMYZ] - 5th Defense Pretty great card up and down. My guess for Doctor Muscle is Yoshino but no clue why he's under the hood. MX NEEDS more members though. So maybe a debut . Both of the CHAMPION GATE cards on 2/28 and 3/1 will be on NicoNico, I'd expect every belt defended across those two cards. Dragon Gate's traditional Golden Week PPV, DEAD or ALIVE, will be on 5/5 from Aichi. It's considered the fourth biggest event after KOBE WORLD, FINAL GATE and CHAMPION GATE.
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Jan 30, 2015 23:53
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NotQuiteQuentin posted:Full card for Korakuen is out: When did a new Dr. Muscle show up? Didn't they just do a Dr. M reveal with Kzy?
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Jan 31, 2015 00:36
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Dimebags Brain posted:When did a new Dr. Muscle show up? Didn't they just do a Dr. M reveal with Kzy? Korakuen will be the first appearance of this Dr. Muscle. Yeah they just did, this is the quickest turnaround of a Dr. Muscle since the Blood Warriors days when it seemed each week someone was turning under a Dr. Muscle/Metal Warrior costume.
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Jan 31, 2015 01:02
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NotQuiteQuentin posted:Full card for Korakuen is out: Happy Birthday to me. I hope Dr. Muscle is Doi even though I love how much he hates Korakuen crowds.
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Jan 31, 2015 01:04
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Who's Rindaman again? I know he's one of the new millenials under a different ring name
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Jan 31, 2015 01:05
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Thauros posted:Who's Rindaman again? I know he's one of the new millenials under a different ring name El Rindaman is the former Yuga Hayashi
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Jan 31, 2015 01:06
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Updated the OP with the results/recap of the Infinity taping in Hakata. That show airs in Japan on 2/10 so I expect it up soon thereafter. I'm going to update the unit rundown after next Korakuen. It looks like that this Dr. Muscle will be a new member of MX with the comments that Tozawa and Shingo made at the taping about the weakened state of the unit. Then again, MX is so weak right now that I could see it just as well dissolving and the members joining MX save Shingo.
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Feb 1, 2015 17:18
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Tonight's Korakuen show is live at like 2 am right? Really like that card and want to watch it live.
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Feb 4, 2015 19:19
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Dimebags Brain posted:Tonight's Korakuen show is live at like 2 am right? Really like that card and want to watch it live. According to NicoNico it's an 1830 Japan start time which puts it at 4:30 EST. Also Santa Maria made an impromptu challenge of the Owarai Gate and won it via Fan Decision last night. I can't remember the last Owarai defense to make tape.
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Feb 4, 2015 20:20
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Ah drat, that pushes it right outside of my ability to watch live.
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Feb 4, 2015 21:02
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Doing my usual thing where I post my thoughts about the iPPV as I watch it. Will do spoilers for results until Saturday. The preshow match was really nothing. I liked PT more when he wasn't just cribbing Shinsuke Nakamura's moves. Mad Blankey should form Shin Fujii Heya where he takes Mondai Ryu and PT and teaches them the true ways of drunkenness and sleaze. Few things are more then Santa Maria being proud of winning the Owarai Gate. That opening trios match was the truth. Millenials and Jimmyz mesh so well, KAGETORA doesn't gently caress around and a great finishing rush. And they protected Lindaman which is surprising since he's the low man on the roster. They must really have designs for the dude.I dig what they're doing with Shimizu and K-ness was a fun match up in this impromptu Mad Blankey singles series. Christ Shachi is hitting MIDBREATH hard. Good for him I guess but he's starting to look like Masked Yoshino. WAS NOT EXPECTING UHAA!!!!! I remember last year he saying he would be back in 2015 but I thought that was dashed when he signed with WWE. I guess they are letting him finish up his agreed upon tours before reporting to NXT That 3-Way was insane. This might be the show of the year behind WK9 right now. I loved playing up how Kotoka is garbage but he tries so hard and bringing back Metal Warrior for Doi's swerves. I guess all of the Veteran Zombies are sticking around, which is nice to have a monster heel stable for the first time since Blood Warriors. The Dream Gate match is even better. WHAT A loving WAR. Susumu always upholds his end of the deal and him and Hulk have a very distinct match with various phases and a brutal conclusion. I'm glad Uhaa's getting a Dream Gate shot as a "going away" present and Tozawa versus Kzy should be a lot of fun. I don't know how much longer Hulk's reign has, but it seems like we'll have this Uhaa defense, then nothing due to KING OF GATE and if he get's past Uhaa he'll defend at DEAD OR ALIVE NotQuiteQuentin fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Feb 5, 2015 |
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Feb 5, 2015 17:52
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I think the Shotput Slam might be my favorite variation of a chokeslam ever. poo poo looks brutal, especially on a smaller guy. What's up with Cyber Kong always yelling "YOU KNOW"? sticklefifer fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Feb 12, 2015 |
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Feb 12, 2015 07:03
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sticklefifer posted:I think the Shotput Slam might be my favorite variation of a chokeslam ever. poo poo looks brutal, especially on a smaller guy. For some reason this reminded me of the time a DVDVR guy did a recap of a lucha tape he got, and there was a guy named LA Rams who dressed like a football player, was masked, and he mainly did shoulderblocks and shouted "MEXICO!". Wrestling's weird.
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Feb 12, 2015 15:12
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Both Infinity 364 with the last Triangle Gate and Brave Gate defense and the February Korakuen are up on DailyMotion. IMO the Korakuen is the best non-WK10 show of this year and the opening trios, 3-way 6 man, and Dream Gate matches are must watch. I haven't watched Infinity yet. Santa Maria made her first defense of the Owarai Gate against Stalker on the 11th. It, of course, didn't make tape. It's been decided that the Triangle Gate defense of Dia.Hearts v Salty Dog/Doi and the Brave Gate defense of Kzy v Tozawa will headline 2/28's CHAMPION GATE show and YAMAKong's first Twin Gate defense (they've shaken it up, I don't know if Shachihoko BOY is still an option, Jae has it listed as TBD) and Hulk's 6th defense of the Dream Gate versus Uhaa Nation will headline 3/1's CHAMPION GATE show. Both shows are on sale for iPPV/VOD at https://secure.live.nicovideo.jp/event/dragongate for 1500 Points/Yen. I'm going to try and find Alan4L's guide to NicoNico to help those whom haven't gone through NicoNico before.
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Feb 13, 2015 19:20
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NotQuiteQuentin posted:Both shows are on sale for iPPV/VOD at https://secure.live.nicovideo.jp/event/dragongate for 1500 Points/Yen. I'm going to try and find Alan4L's guide to NicoNico to help those whom haven't gone through NicoNico before. Not DG-specific, but anyone should be fine with these instructions regarding NicoNico ordering: http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/102-japan/39771-how-to-order-tomorrow-nights-new-japan-ippv-from-osaka
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Feb 13, 2015 20:33
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Yeah, the February Korakuen show was great. I'm really enjoying Monster Express lately, and Kzy is a surprisingly good fit in Dia.Hearts so far. Why doesn't IHeartDG mention Infinity shows in their news feed? Or am I just not seeing it? sticklefifer fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Feb 13, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2015 23:37
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sticklefifer posted:Yeah, the February Korakuen show was great. He has a rundown of all the upcoming cards, but it seems like he only marks which ones are Infinity tapings on the schedule page.
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Feb 13, 2015 23:51
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ChampRamp posted:Not DG-specific, but anyone should be fine with these instructions regarding NicoNico ordering: http://www.f4wonline.com/more/more-top-stories/102-japan/39771-how-to-order-tomorrow-nights-new-japan-ippv-from-osaka Awesome. I'm going to add this to the OP. sticklefifer posted:Yeah, the February Korakuen show was great. Jae'll often tweet the live results from the show but the schedule page is how he'll list what each show is. If the show is either in Hakata, Osaka, Kobe or Tokyo, it'll often be an Infinity and if it's Osaka/Tokyo it'll likely be on NicoNico.
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Feb 13, 2015 23:57
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Ah, ok. I usually follow the schedule on Cagematch too but that doesn't seem to specify it either. Heads up for those who saw the promo segment about it last month, the new Infinity is where Hulk and Takagi do the one-night-only teamup they were talking about on the January 18th show.
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Feb 14, 2015 00:03
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So Dragon Gate has to have the most kayfabe incompetent refs in wrestling right? The amount of poo poo Mad Blankey blatantly gets away with is a bit ridiculous at times.
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Feb 14, 2015 02:53
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Dimebags Brain posted:So Dragon Gate has to have the most kayfabe incompetent refs in wrestling right? The amount of poo poo Mad Blankey blatantly gets away with is a bit ridiculous at times. Dragon Gate used to have rudo and technico referees that were even part of the stables long time ago.
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Feb 14, 2015 02:59
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Dimebags Brain posted:So Dragon Gate has to have the most kayfabe incompetent refs in wrestling right? The amount of poo poo Mad Blankey blatantly gets away with is a bit ridiculous at times. hey yagi has a lot of responsibilities such as baking bread in his father's bakery, booking matches, and putting up with my countless emails begging for a florida brothers return, i can't blame him being distracted every once in a while.
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Feb 14, 2015 04:37
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Dimebags Brain posted:So Dragon Gate has to have the most kayfabe incompetent refs in wrestling right? The amount of poo poo Mad Blankey blatantly gets away with is a bit ridiculous at times. I actually love how shittt Yagi is at reffing
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Feb 14, 2015 04:46
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Dimebags Brain posted:So Dragon Gate has to have the most kayfabe incompetent refs in wrestling right? The amount of poo poo Mad Blankey blatantly gets away with is a bit ridiculous at times. theyre not incompetent they just dont give a poo poo and i love it
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Feb 14, 2015 05:41
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Dimebags Brain posted:So Dragon Gate has to have the most kayfabe incompetent refs in wrestling right? The amount of poo poo Mad Blankey blatantly gets away with is a bit ridiculous at times. Tirantes in CMLL is shoot and kayfabe incompetent
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Feb 14, 2015 06:55
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Who takes the Dream Gate from BxB Hulk at this point? Tozawa, Takagi and Susumu have each failed in the most recent high profile attempts, and I don't see Uhaa taking it since he's just finishing up his contract dates before apparently heading off to NXT. Dia.Hearts is enjoying their "all the gold" thing lately, but once that dissolves do they just put it back on YAMATO? And where's Yoshino been since Final Gate?
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Feb 15, 2015 22:13
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sticklefifer posted:Who takes the Dream Gate from BxB Hulk at this point? Tozawa, Takagi and Susumu have each failed in the most recent high profile attempts, and I don't see Uhaa taking it since he's just finishing up his contract dates before apparently heading off to NXT. Dia.Hearts is enjoying their "all the gold" thing lately, but once that dissolves do they just put it back on YAMATO? I think it's whomever wins KING OF GATE. He's now the longest reigning champ since CIMA's insane reign. If he gets past Uhaa, he'll get his sixth key, and I think it's about to time to end this reign. Yoshino had rather severe tonsillitis. I'm super surprised we haven't heard a single thing about him since he got pulled from the Dream Key tourney last month.
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Feb 15, 2015 23:52
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sticklefifer posted:Who takes the Dream Gate from BxB Hulk at this point? Tozawa, Takagi and Susumu have each failed in the most recent high profile attempts, and I don't see Uhaa taking it since he's just finishing up his contract dates before apparently heading off to NXT. Dia.Hearts is enjoying their "all the gold" thing lately, but once that dissolves do they just put it back on YAMATO? The story of Hulk's reign has kind of been Hulk vs. his generation, so maybe someone from the Millennials? Santa Maria's got this in the bag!
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Feb 16, 2015 00:57
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Do ya pull the trigger on T-Hawk already? He looks like the only guy I see right now taking it.
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Feb 16, 2015 06:05
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Dimebags Brain posted:The story of Hulk's reign has kind of been Hulk vs. his generation, so maybe someone from the Millennials? Santa Maria's got this in the bag! Yoshino is the only member of the Big Six that he hasn't faced yet. If he were to return/win KING OF GATE I'd think he'd take it. That way Hulk doesn't go 5-0 against his contemporaries. But 3 title reigns in 18 months for Yoshino is a bit much. The more I think about it, the more I don't think T-Hawk is ready yet. He hasn't been in major singles matches since KING OF GATE 2014, though I thought his against Tozawa was super underrated. A big problem with DG and the Millenials is that they get poo poo on CONSTANTLY by folks like CIMA and Mocchy for how bad their promos are. The crowd really knows it and that's why Lindaman's rebuttal in January was such an oh poo poo moment to the Korakuen crowd. Genki/CIMA are really big on stringing out someone's career/Dream Gate challenges until they have the huge big successful moment. I personally think the next person for that moment is Tozawa, but I don't know if having him win the Brave Gate against Kzy of all people deflates that. I've been racking my brain over this the last few days; I don't know where they go from here. I really like the Hulk vs Big Six storyline, but there isn't much farther they can go with it. It's really for the best that KING OF GATE 2015 is fast approaching.
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Feb 16, 2015 06:19
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How much does Dragon Gate book around business/financials? like, if BxB Hulk is drawing really well as champion would they keep the belt on him until they see stuff starting to drop or do they not care about that stuff with regards to booking? Or is their upper card relatively equal in terms of drawing power so they feel free to move the belt around as story demands?
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Feb 16, 2015 07:05
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If it has anything to do with merchandise, clearly they need to start selling Cyber Kong Ab Sharpie.
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Feb 16, 2015 07:19
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