December 2, 2010 – Tokyo, Japan
Open the Dream Gate Champion: Masato Yoshino
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Naoki Tanisaki, Yasushi Kanda & Takuya Sugawara
Open the Brave Gate Champion: PAC
Open the Twin Gate Champions: Naruki Doi & Gamma
Open the Freedom Gate Champion: BxB Hulk
Anthony W. Mori, who spend 2010 wearing flannel and not appearing on Dragon Gate television, is retiring tonight. World-1, K-neSuka and the Veteran Armyon are pulling double duty, wrestling in their regularly scheduled matches, and then again in the main event to send Mori off with grandeur.
Remember when Naruki Doi turned on Masato Yoshino and absorbed the former Deep Drunkers as his own personal army, going on to encourage his men Naoki Tanisaki, Takuya Sugawara & Yasushi Kanda to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championships and for his own part win the Open the Twin Gate Championships alongside WARRIOR-defector Gamma? Well Infinity is here to remind us of all of that. Yoshino defended the Dream Gate title against CIMA, only to be immediately challenged by Doi for the title. That match will happen at Final Gate. Yoshino is still sore at being betrayed and K-neSuka are none too happy about losing the Twin Gate belts, so we get a six-man tag match in Korakuen Hall between them and the Nameless Nudniks.
K-ness, Susumu Yokosuka & Masato Yoshino {W1} vs. Naruki Doi, Takuya Sugawara & Gamma
The Nudniks attack before the bell. Everyone brawls around the building. Gamma and K-ness bring the fight into the lobby. In the ring Doi chops Yoshino. Yoshino hits a supercharged head scissor takedown. Doi hits Yokosuka with a neckbreaker and a senton over Sugawara’s knees for 2. Gamma canes Yokosuka’s crotch. Sugawara goes to the eyes. Yokosuka pulls his hair. Sugawara hits a low blow. Yokosuka returns the favor. He hits an exploder. He hits Doi and Sugawara with lariats. As Yokosuka and Gamma fight over the cane, K-ness launches off the cane to attack Sugawara. That was amazing. K-ness canes Gamma. Gamma hits the Flashback for 2. K-ness hits an enziguiri. He hits a brainbuster for 2. He puts on the Aoki Hikari. Doi blocks the Coumori and hits an elbow. Yoshino avoids a dropkick and hits the Sling Blade. Doi avoids From Jungle and hits the Doi 555. Yoshino pops up and puts on From Jungle. He gets a sunset flip for 2. Sugawara hits a side slam. Yokosaka hits a super exploder. He hits a hurricanrana for 2. Yoshino hits the shotgun dropkick on Yokosuka by mistake. Doi hits the Dai Bosou on Yoshino. Gamma bits a back suplex. Doi hits a Blue Thunder Bomb for 2. K-neSuka double-teams Doi. Yokosuka and Doi trade elbows. Yokosuka hits a lariat and Yoshino hits the Torbellino. Yokosuka hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 2. Yoshino helps K-neSuka hit the Genkai. Gamma hits K-ness with an enziguiri. Sugawara hits a red box attack. He hits an errant shot on Gamma. Gamma hits the Gamma Special for 2. Doi hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick. Gamma hits the Blitzen for 2. K-ness gets the rolling cradle for 2, after interference from both Sugawara and Yokosuka, and then tries again and picks up the win at 10:00 shown of 15:43. They couldn’t get much of a flow going (possibly a clipping issue) but there were moments of pure brilliance here.
Rating: ***¼
After the match Yoshino requests a match for the Twin Gate belts at the next Korakuen show. Gamma accepts and asks Yoshino who his partner will be. Yoshino grins, and when “I LIKE COLA,†blares over the sound system Gamma freaks out. CIMA comes out and tells Gamma he’s coming for him. Then he tells Yoshino that since this is a team made of a WARRIOR and a member of World-1 they will have to vacate the titles if they win later in the month. Yoshino agrees, making the match official for December 21st.
Did I mention I started an animated web series on YouTube? It’s about fruit that fight each other!
Up next is a long retrospective on Anthony W. Mori. It starts with his retirement announcement on November 5th. A rock cover of Con te partirò plays over a video chronicling Mori’s career. The wonderful video includes:
-His debut in T2P, as Kentaro Mori teaming with Takamichi (Taku) Iwasa against Masato Yoshino and Steve (“brother†YASSHI) Tsujimoto.
-How his relationship with Ryo Saito blossomed. The music has now changed to My Heart Will Go On.
-The debut of the Royal Brothers: Mori, Henry III (Takuya) Sugawara and Phillip J. Fukumasa. The music has now changed to Rule Britannia!
-Sugawara’s betrayal of Mori in favor of Aagan Iisou and his subsequent mind games with Mori.
-Mori’s stint in the Italian Connection. Lullaby by Bond plays throughout the rest of the video.
-Mori’s leadership role in the Pos.HEARTS.
-Mori’s shocking defeat of Dream Gate Champion Magnitude Kishiwada in a non-title match during the first King of Gate tournament.
-Mori’s brief stint as a student in Tozawajuku as Takayuki Mori.
-Mori’s defeat of Masato Yoshino to win the Open the Triangle Gate Championships with the Pos.HEARTS.
-Mori’s participation in the Typhoon project.
-Mori’s second win over Yoshino to capture the Open the Brave Gate Championship.
-Mori’s awesome feud with Cyber Kong that cost him his elegant hair.
-Mori’s Open the Owarai Gate reign, complete with wig-wearing to cover his bald head.
-Mori’s run as Anthony Turbo Mori.
-Mori’s promo backstage after his retirement announcement rounds out the video. That’s a classy package they put together for him.
Anthony W. Mori {Z}, BxB Hulk {W1}, Super Shisa {W1}, K-ness, Susumu Yokosuka & Masato Yoshino {W1} & PAC {W1} vs. CIMA {W5}, Ryo Saito {W5}, Dragon Kid {W5}, Genki Horiguchi {W5}, Masaaki Mochizuki {Z}, Don Fujii {Z} & Kenichiro Arai {Z}
The teams here are perfect. The Veteran Army is made up of the only guys who have been around as long as Mori and their member Saito is Mori’s closest friend. He’s teaming with the Pos.HEARTS, as well as the top babyfaces in the company. Stalker Ichikawa accompanies the rest of the Veteran Army to the ring. Showing everyone’s entrance and announcements (as well as CIMA playing it cool and Yoshino bowing to Mori so as to not take attention away from Mori) was a nice way to make this feel very special. Mori gets absolutely buried by pink and white streamers. I love this already.
Mori and Saito start, continuing the perfect nature of this match. Saito is noticeably emotional. They shake hands and lock up. They trade armdrags. Saito demands Mori get up on his shoulders so they can do the Titanic pose. Fujii comes in and chops Mori, drawing boos from everyone, including Saito. I love this match. Arai is still a Drunker, so he helps Fujii hit a double shoulder tackle. The HEARTS hit Fujii with a triple dropkick. I love this match! Fujii chops Shisa. Kid puts on a chinlock. Yoshino brings Mori into the ring so they can do some Italian Connection double-teaming to Kid. I LOVE THIS MATCH! Mori puts on a chinlock. CIMA thinks about making the save but can’t bring himself to hurt Mori. Awesome. Kid hits a back heel kick. Fujii tags in and beats on Mori, drawing huge boos. He asks for Mochizuki’s help and the Zetsurin obliges. Fujii and CIMA hit the Crazy Max double butt splash for 2. Horiguchi throws Mori across the ring by his hair. The nostalgia is delicious. Arai headbutts Mori. Mori comes back with a DDT. K-neSuka tags in and attacks CK-1. It looks like the HEARTS will square off with Maraha Isappa but Saito hugs Mori instead. Shisa uses the distraction to attack Saito and Mori hits a dropkick. Mori hits Saito with the Diving Rose. Fujii attacks, drawing huge heat. Stalker Ichikawa wants to hit Mori with the Diving Rose but he misses by a mile. Mori’s team works over CIMA’s arm until Yoshino hits it with a double stomp. Mori goes for the arm capture run but CIMA shrugs it off. CIMA challenges Mori to smack him. Mori does it and then runs CIMA’s arm over the top rope. Mochizuki hits chest kicks on Yokosuka. Yokosuka hits the Ashi Yokosuka. Shisa catches Kid in the SAITO Special. Yokosuka puts Saito in the figure 4 leglock. K-ness puts CIMA in an abdominal stretch. Yoshino puts Arai in From Jungle. Mori puts Mochizuki in the Escargot. Horiguchi saves the Veteran Army. PAC hits Kid with a 450 splash. Mori hits the Eleganton when Horiguchi makes the save. Mori’s team gangs up on Horiguchi in the corner. The Veteran Army gangs up on Mori in the corner. CIMA hits the Venus. Kid hits the stack hurricanrana. Arai hits a diving headbutt for 2. Fujii hits a chokeslam for 2. Mori catches Horiguchi with a sunset flip for 2. Mochizuki accidentally hits Horiguchi with the Sankakugeri. Fujii accidentally hits Horiguchi with a lariat. CIMA accidentally hits Horiguchi with a superkick. Then Arai, Kid and Saito purposely hit Horiguchi with a triple dropkick so that Mori can cast Elegant Magic on him and get the win at 14:37. I don’t think there’s ever been a more nostalgic match. This drew upon so many iconic moments in Toryumon/Dragon Gate’s past. If you started watching Dragon Gate after the birth of DGUSA then this match will do nothing for you. However, for hardcore fans like myself it will be impossible to watch this match without an unstoppable smile on your face.
Rating: ****
Kenichiro Arai {Z} & Masaaki Mochizuki {Z} vs. Yasushi Kanda & Kzy ended when Naoki Tanisaki hit Arai with a box attack and Kanda picked up the win with a German suplex. After the win Arai and Tanisaki argue until a match is made between the two.
BxB Hulk {W1} & PAC {W1} vs. Shingo Takagi {Z} & YAMATO {Z} is sadly also clipped to shreds. I would have liked to see this one in full. Hulk pins Takagi after kicking the living crap out of him. That’s a huge win in Japan, and the crowd reacts as such. Hulk keeps attacking Takagi after the bell. YAMATO peels him off of Takagi and stares him down.
Mori gets a huge retirement ceremony to end the show. Doi and Sugawara even come out to acknowledge the moment. In true heel fashion, Doi throws flowers at Mori. In a final act of douchiness Sugawara baits Mori into coming close to him and then smacks him over the head with flowers. Then he waves goodbye to Mori forever. Mori gives his farewell speech without crying. That’s pretty shocking given how effeminate he is and how much everyone around ringside is crying. He gets a ten-bell salute to end his career. More pink and white streamers fill the ring. Now Mori is crying, and EVERYONE else is red-faced as well. They all pose for the cameras to close the show. You can use all the words in the world to describe how classy and perfect this was, but at the end of the day this night was simply the appropriate display of Mori’s way of life: Elegant.
