September 17, 2009 – Tokyo, Japan
With title defenses coming up on three of the next five episodes of Infinity all eyes are on the championship rundown:
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Naruki Doi
Open the Twin Gate Champions: Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk & PAC
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Naoki Tanisaki
Yasushi Kanda and Kenichiro Arai were the top scoring team in the Summer Adventure Tag League, and got themselves deliberately disqualified in the second stage of the tournament. Masato Yoshino and NaokI Tanisaki are both champions who have defenses upcoming and who both lost on last week’s episode. They need a win to get momentum going into their defenses.
Naoki Tanisaki {W1} & Masato Yoshino {W1} vs. Kenichiro Arai {RH} & Yasushi Kanda {RH}
Tanisaki attacks before the bell. Everyone brawls around the building. In the ring Tanisaki and Yoshino hit a double back elbow. Arai comes back with a side slam. Kanda hits a back elbow. Yoshino tags in so Kanda goes to the eyes. Kzy exposes a turnbuckle and Arai whips Tanisaki into it. Arai and Kanda hit a double hiptoss for 2. Kanda puts on a half crab. Tanisaki gets to the ropes. He comes back with bodyslams. Yoshino tags in and hits the Sling Blade. Tanisaki hits the DH. He dives onto Genki Horiguchi on the floor. Yoshino puts Arai in the From Jungle. He blocks Arai’s headbutt to the crotch. Arai misses a dive and lands on the floor, so Yoshino hits a suicide dive. Tanisaki hits Kanda with a DDT. He hits the FH but misses the Casanova and Kanda gets a roll up for 2. Kanda and Arai hit a stacked facebuster. They hit a double flapjack for 2. Yoshino hits a dropkick to the back. He hits the shotgun dropkick for 2. Kanda distracts the referee, but it’s Yoshino that exploits it to hit a low blow on Arai. Tanisaki hits the Casanova. Saito distracts the referee so Yoshino hits Arai with the blue box. He hits the Torbellino and Tanisaki hits a box assisted Casanova. He goes for the Implant but Horiguchi powders him and Arai gets a roll up for the win at 11:34. The finish was going to be so great with Real Hazard’s referee distracting costing them the match, but instead they went with a crappier finish so they could build to Tanisaki vs. Horiguchi for the Brave Gate title.
Rating: **¾
After the match Horiguchi taunts Tanisaki so he chases him to the back. Arai starts stomping on Tanisaki’s belt but Yoshino makes the save. Tanisaki vs. Horiguchi is set for October 4.
A video plays before the main event, reminding us that World-1 holds three of the four titles in Dragon Gate. Everyone in the stable has a title. On the other hand, Susumu Yokosuka pinned PAC, earning the WARRIORS-5 a shot at the Triangle Gate titles. But after the match, it was the Dream Gate title that Yokosuka talked about in an interview, not the Triangle Gate titles.
Naruki Doi {W1}, BxB Hulk {W1} & PAC {W1} vs. CIMA {W5}, Gamma {W5} & Susumu Yokosuka {W5}
Gamma and Hulk start. Gamma hits a shoulder tackle, but Hulk goes nuts with kicks and a senton. Doi and Yokosuka tag into the match. Yokosuka hits the Jumbo no Kachi out of nowhere. CIMA and PAC tag in and PAC hits a hurricanrana. He hits a standing shooting star press. Doi dropkicks CIMA’s knee. The WARRIORS triple-team Doi and Hulk. Doi and Yokosuka slug it out until Yokosuka hits a back elbow. CIMA tags in but Doi keeps going after Yokosuka. CIMA puts on a leglock. Doi gets to the ropes and knocks Yokosuka off the apron. Yokosuka hits him with the cane. Gamma tags in so Hulk tags in and unloads with kicks. Gamma hits a low blow and a dropkick. CIMA ties Hulk up in a wacky submission and then pins him for 2. Gamma puts on a leglock. He spits in Hulk’s face and hits a dropkick. Yokosuka holds Hulk for CIMA’s double stomp. That gets 2. Gamma canes Hulk’s crotch. CIMA kicks Gamma by mistake. Hulk hits CIMA with a dropkick. PAC tags in and hits a big dive to the floor. Gamma and Doi go back and forth until Gamma spits in his face and hits the Flashback for 2. CIMA hits another double stomp on Hulk and a suicide dive on Doi. Hulk hits Yokosuka with the Mouse and uranage for 2. Yokosuka hits a half nelson suplex for 2. World-1 hits a triple kick. PAC hits a standing corkscrew splash for 2. CIMA hits Hulk with the Venus and Iconoclasm. PAC hits a super hurricanrana, botched to almost kill CIMA. CIMA hits him with the Meteora in response. Gamma hits the Blitzen for 2. Yokosuka and Gamma hit the double Mugen for 2. CIMA misses the Tokarev and PAC hits the shooting star knee. Doi hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. CIMA gets a roll up for 2. He hits the Schwein for 2. He misses the Meteora. Hulk hits the EVO. PAC’s corkscrew splash hits knees. Gamma hits the Tokarev. CIMA and Gamma hit a double superkick and Yokosuka hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 2. CIMA makes Doi watch as Yokosuka hits PAC with the Muscular Bomb for the win at 23:11. This was solid, and the finish was awesome. I thought when I saw a 23 minute match was shown in full, that the match would be phenomenal. It turns out the only reason it was left unclipped was because this show was shown over two episodes of Infinity. Still, this was as good a way as any to jumpstart the Doi/Yokosuka feud.
Rating: ***½
After the match Yokosuka formally requests a title match. He says the Muscular Bomb won’t be able to put him down. Doi asks the crowd if they want to see the match, and they overwhelmingly say they do. Yagi makes the match for October 25. The feud is now being built around Yokosuka’s Muscular Bomb claim, but to be fair to Doi there’s no evidence that Yokosuka can handle the move.
The show wraps up a powwow between Tanisaki and Yoshino after their match. We get the rundown of their World-1 produce show on October 13:
-PAC & Kotoko Shiiba vs. Naoki Tanisaki & Bear Fukuda
-Masato Yoshino vs. Syachihoko Machine & Johnson Florida
-Super Shenlong vs. Kazuchika Okada
-BxB Hulk & Masato Yoshino vs. Shinobu & Madoka
-Naruki Doi & Koji Kanemoto vs. YAMATO & Akira Tozawa
Looks like a damn fine show. Doesn’t air on Infinity until the end of November, and I’m hoping the top two matches are show without being too terribly clipped up.
On the other side of the World-1 locker room Doi is still angry that Yokosuka used the Muscular Bomb to beat PAC. In the WARRIORS-5 corner of the world Yokosuka makes more claims that he can defeat Doi.
