June 11, 2009 – Tokyo, Japan
The Dream Gate title might change hands tonight. Here’s the championship rundown:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk & PAC
Open the Brave Gate Champion: CIMA
Ryo Saito and Genki Horiguchi cheated like crazy, with the help of Kenichiro Arai and Yasushi Kanda to beat Susumu Yokosuka and Gamma for the Twin Gate belts. You had to know that the WARRIORS-5 wouldn’t take that lying down. So tonight, the (still surreal) duo of CIMA and Gamma take on the champs in a non-title match to try to earn a shot at the belts. They’re coming off a pretty devastating loss to World-1, in which they lost the Triangle Gate belts, so tonight a win is essential.
CIMA {W5} & Gamma {W5} vs. Ryo Saito {RH} & Genki Horiguchi {RH}
The champs attack before the bell. Everyone brawls on the floor for a while. When the fight finally gets back in the ring CIMA hits a dropkick. He and Gamma shove Horiguchi’s head into Saito’s butt in the corner. CIMA simulates sodomy on Horiguchi and then hits a dropkick to his butt. That’s the most homoerotic thing I’ve seen this side of Donshoku Dino. Gamma goes to gives Horiguchi the Osuikougeki but Arai runs up and knocks him off the turnbuckle. Saito dropkicks CIMA’s face. He chokes Gamma with the whip. CIMA gets distracted by Arai, allowing Horiguchi and Kanda to dropkick Gamma’s face. Saito repeatedly spits in Gamma’s face. Gamma blocks a loogey with his hands, wipes it on Saito’s chest and hits a dropkick. CIMA hits Saito with the Superdrol. He hits Horiguchi with a double stomp. Horiguchi gets his hands on Gamma’s cane, but Gamma grabs a second cane and nails him with it. He hits the Flashback for 2. He spits in Horiguchi’s face. Horiguchi gets the Backslide from Hell for 2. Saito hits CIMA with a German suplex for 2. CIMA hits another Superdrol. Arai spits water in his face and Horiguchi hits a suplex. Arai hits a diving headbutt and Saito hits a splash off the top for 2. CIMA hits Saito with a DDT. Horiguchi hits one on CIMA. Gamma hits Horiguchi with the Blitzen. He and CIMA hit the double Tokarev. Gamma hits the Gamma Special. CIMA goes for the Meteora but gets distracted by Dr. Muscle. Muscle surprises everyone by hitting Horiguchi. He unmasks himself to be Yokosuka. Yokosuka hits the Jumbo no Kachi on Saito and Gamma rolls him up for the win at 10:15 shown of 15:34. This shifted the focus more toward CIMA vs. Arai, and with Yokosuka’s interference leading directly to the finish you’d think he’d take CIMA’s place in the eventual Twin Gate match. You’d be wrong though. The match was the usual overbooked blandness from Horiguchi and Saito.
Rating: **¼
After the match Yokosuka and Saito argue until a singles match is made between them for the big July 10th Korakuen show. Also, CIMA and Gamma get their shot at the titles on June 26th.
Naruki Doi © {W1} vs. Masato Yoshino {W1} [Open the Dream Gate Championship Match]
I can’t say how geeked I’ve been to watch this match, and also how disappointed I am that this wasn’t the Kobe main event. Yoshino pinned half the company, culminating in a win over Gamma, to get this shot at the title. They measure each other and knuckle up, leading to Doi grabbing a wristlock. Yoshino starts to pick up speed so Doi dumps him to the floor with the Doi 555 and hits a suicide dive. Back in the ring Doi goes after the leg. That’s smart. He puts on a figure 4 leglock but Yoshino gets to the ropes. Doi hits a shinbreaker. Yoshino rolls back to avoid a second shinbreaker but hurts his leg on the landing. Awesome! Yoshino hits an armbreaker. He stays on the arm for a while. He hits a splash on the arm. Doi hits the most hilarious, casual kick to the face I’ve ever seen. Yoshino takes offense and puts a little more force behind his strikes. He punches and dropkicks Doi’s arm. He puts on a hammerlock. Doi gets to the ropes. He flings Yoshino to the apron, where again he hurts his leg on the landing. Doi misses the senton off the top and Yoshino hits a double stomp to the arm. Doi hits a back elbow, and Yoshino quietly clutches his knee after hitting the mat. Doi blocks the Coumori with an electric chair drop. He ties Yoshino in the ropes and hits a dropkick. He hits a hanging DDT for 2. Yoshino hits the Sling Blade for 2. Doi dodges the shotgun dropkick and climbs the ropes. Yoshino crotches him, blocks a powerbomb attempt and hits the fall away dropkick. He hits the Ude Yoshino for 2. Doi dropkicks his knee. He hits a dragon screw and puts on the figure 4. Yoshino gets to the ropes. He hits a back suplex, using leverage instead of force to get Yoshino up, for 2. He hits a flying elbowdrop for 2, hurting his arm. If he knew enough to flip Yoshino up for the suplex he should have known not to go off the top.
Yoshino puts on the From Jungle. He hits the arm with the shotgun dropkick. Yoshino hits the Ude Yoshino. He puts on the Sol Naciente but Doi kicks his face to escape. He hits a spinebuster for 2. Yoshino dodges the Bakatare Sliding Kick and hits the Torbellino. Doi rolls him up for 2. Doi hits a running turnbuckle powerbomb. He hits the Doi 555 and the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. Yoshino blocks the Muscular Bomb and hits the Lightning Spiral. They fight up top where Yoshino goes for an avalanche Sling Blade but Doi counters to the Doi 555. Yoshino pops up and gets the Speed Star for 2. The crowd totally bought that one. Doi hits a straight jacket suplex for 2. He hits the Bakatare Sliding kick (minus points for Yoshino rushing to get in place). Yoshino blocks the Muscular Bomb and gets a crucifix pin for 2. He hits two Torbellinos and puts on the Sol Naciente. Doi starts to fade, but manages to shove Yoshino off, which is an AWESOME touch knowing Yoshino’s leg was too hurt to hold the move properly, and hit a tiger suplex for 2. He hits two Bakatare Sliding Kicks for the win at 22:37 shown of 28:11. Yoshino’s selling was some of the greatest I’ve ever seen, and Doi’s was nothing to sneeze at either. I’m surprised at the lack of sportsmanship in this match, but then the Dream Gate belt was on the line. At any rate, this was phenomenal, and I shudder to think what they would have done on a larger scale in Kobe.
Rating: ****
After the match Doi and Yoshino shake hands and hug. Yoshino gave it a good try, but the leader of the group is still champion. Doi then puts out an open challenge for his belt, for any wrestler in the world, to face him for the title at the big show in Kobe.
The show wraps up with clips of PAC, Naoki Tanisaki and BxB Hulk losing to Akira Tozawa, Dragon Kid and Shingo Takagi, after interference by m.c.KZ goes awry. KZ and Tanisaki made nice, but these issues never go unaddressed. This accomplished two things; it got Kamikaze a Triangle Gate shot for Taku Iwasa’s return match, and it furthered the divide between KZ and World-1.
The last shot of the show is Doi rushing the field during a baseball game, wearing his wrestling gear, and attacking a mascot penguin. He defeated the penguin with a cross armbreaker. Only in Japan.
