April 12, 2012 – Tokyo, Japan

Open the Dream Gate Champion: CIMA
Open the Triangle Gate Champions: Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee, Ryo “Jimmy” Saito & Jimmy Kanda
Open the Brave Gate Champion: Ricochet
Open the Twin Gate Champions: Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kagetora
Open the Freedom Gate Champion: Johnny Gargano
Open the United Gate Champions: Masato Yoshino & Ricochet

Super Shisa & Kenichiro Arai vs. Kotoka & Yosuke Watanabe
Immediately a cool part of the new Infinity schedule comes into play, as we get to see the dark matches and thus get exposed to the NEX guys. Kotoka and Shisa start. Shisa BOY is on commentary and he has the voice of a really old man. They trade holds in an exchange that Kotoka surprisingly controls. Shisa comes back with some cool stuff. Watanabe makes the save. He chops Arai against the ropes as the commentators hype the upcoming King of Chop tournament. Watanabe hits a dropkick. Arai goes after his nose to take control. Shisa puts on a Camel Clutch. Watanabe catches Arai with a roll up for 2. He hits a pair of dropkicks. Kotoka hits a shotgun dropkick. Shisa hits a vertical suplex. Kotoka hits a bulldog. Watanabe hits a leapfrog dropkick. Kotoka misses a double stomp. He gets a jackknife pin for 2. Shisa hits a piledriver for 2. He dropkicks Watanabe. Arai misses a diving headbutt. He hits Kotoka with a big boot. He hits Watanabe with the Tombstone Piledriver for 2. He hits the Hanshin Tiger Suplex for the win at 7:56. I was I’m pressed with the fire the NEX guys showed. Shisa and Arai did their thing, which is perfect in this capacity as well.
Rating: **

Mondai Ryu {MB} vs. Chihiro Tominaga
In the time between the last Infinity and this one, Super Shisa joined Mad Blankey and transformed into Mondai Ryu. No footage of the changes was shown before this match, a drawback of the new Infinity schedule. Ryu avoids Tominaga’s charges to start. He hits a shoulder tackle. He slams Tominaga by his hair and hits a dropkick. Tominaga hits an elbow. Ryu goes to the eyes. He hits a basement dropkick for 2. He chokes Tominaga. He cuts off a pretty solid chunk of Tominaga’s hair. On the next episode of Infinity these two will fight again, with Tominaga putting both his hair and name on the line (he will be renamed Chihiro Hagenaga if he loses) and Ryu putting his entrance music on the line. Seems like a lopsided bet. Tominaga hits an elbow. Ryu goes to the eyes. Tominaga hits a dropkick. They fight over a suplex until Tominaga hits it for 2. He hits an armbreaker. Ryu hits the Panic Attack. He hits a dropkick in the corner for 2. Tominaga gets a roll up for 2. He gets another for 2. He gets a small package for 2. Kzy trips Tominaga and Ryu hits a salt attack before rolling Tominaga up for the win at 6:27. This wasn’t the best match and the crowd didn’t care about it at all, but I appreciate the fact that this undercard feud exists.
Rating: *¼

After the match Ryu salts Watanabe’s eyes for the hell of it. He runs down Tominaga on the mic before stumbling out of the ring.

The show proper starts with World-1 International in the ring. Rich Swann is on crutches. Naruki Doi explains why they are called World-1 International: Swann and Ricochet are from the United States, PAC is from the UK, he himself is from Japan and Masato Yoshino is from Thailand. Yoshino insists that he’s Japanese. Swann apologizes for his injury and inability to wrestle on the show. Doi and Yoshino play Rock Paper Scissors to see who will pull double duty tonight and team with Eita Kobayashi in place of Swann. Yoshino gets the honor.

Masato Yoshino {W1} & Eita Kobayashi vs. Jimmy Susumu {J} & Jimmy Kanda {J}
The original tag team of Toryumon Japan is back! Kanda and Kobayashi start. Kanda hits a shoulder tackle. Kobayashi hits a dropkick. The Jimmyz, in their awesome tracksuits, duel with the crowd to get a Susumu chant going. Susumu and Yoshino do their usual fast-paced sequence. Yoshino hits a gnarly suicide dive. Kobayashi dropkicks Kanda. He hits a bodyslam for 2. The Jimmyz hit a double elbow and a double kneedrop for 2. Susumu hits a backbreaker. Kanda hits a backbreaker. Susumu hits a backbreaker. Kanda hits a side slam for 2. Kobayashi levels him with a chop. Susumu feels the powerful chop too. Looks like we have a King of Chop favorite. Kanda hits a side slam for 2. Kobayashi misses a dropkick. He hits an elbow. Yoshino hits Susumu with the Sling Blade. He and Kobayashi hit stereo chops. Yoshino puts Susumu in the Coumori. Susumu hits the Jumbo no Kachi on the apron. He hits a backbreaker. He and Kanda hit a double exploder for 2. Oddly, earlier today I was watching a match with Kanda and Susumu teaming up from twelve years before this and they used the same double-team maneuvers back then. Nostalgia is pretty neat. Kobayashi blocks the Jon Woo and hits a chop. He hits a facebuster for 2. Yoshino hits a snap suplex and Kobayashi hits a moonsault for 2. He trades chops for Susumu’s lariats. Kanda hits a Flapjack. He and Susumu hit a double facebuster for 2. Kanda hits Yoshino with a suicide dive. Kobayashi gets a schoolboy for 2. He gets a small package for 2. Susumu hits the DVD. Kobayashi gets another roll up for 2. Susumu hits a lariat. He hits a Finlay roll and Kanda hits the flying elbowdrop for the win at 13:25. As I said before, it was pretty cool to see Kanda and Susumu doing their thing again. Yoshino seems motivated to be a lighter-hearted babyface now that he’s back with Doi, so that’s a plus too. Kobayashi’s chop was over as well, and it also left nasty marks all over Kanda’s chest.
Rating: **¾

After the match Yoshino offers Kobayashi a spot in World-1. Instead of shaking Yoshino’s hand, he chops him. He grabs the microphone and says that Yoshino and Doi insulted him by playing a game to decide which of them would partner with him. Still, they part ways without any bad blood.

Mad Blankey and the Veteran Army come out for the Tug of War ceremony to decide what the singles matches would be in their series tonight. Cyber Kong lets us know he’s going to be the next Dream Gate Champion, as he won the third installment of the CIMA Royale a few days earlier. Of course, we’ve seen none of this. Akira Tozawa runs down the Veteran Army, and says if need be Mondai Ryu would interfere to cause DQs just to screw with everyone. CIMA asks that all the matches be made No DQ matches to avoid a problem from the wacky Ryu. The stables go to opposite sides of the ring and all grab a rope. They pair off as such: Kong vs. Stalker Ichikawa (with Ichikawa getting dragged to the Mad Blankey side of the ring and assaulted), Don Fujii vs. “Naoki Tanisaki”, CIMA vs. Kzy (which is made into a Falls Count Anywhere match), Akira Tozawa vs. Dragon Kid (in a rematch from their first Tug of War match) and BxB Hulk vs. Masaaki Mochizuki in the main event.

Shingo Takagi & YAMATO vs. Gamma {Z} & K-ness
Gamma and YAMATO trade chops to start. This whole show feels like a big advertisement for King of Chop. Gamma spits in YAMATO’s face. He pulls down YAMATO’s trunks and hits a shoulder tackle. YAMATO returns the favor and hits a dropkick. K-ness hits a dropkick to the face. Gamma spits in YAMATO’s face and hits another dropkick. He gives YAMATO the Osuikougeki. He tries to give it to Takagi but K-ness gets it instead. Takagi beats the living hell out of K-ness in the corner. He hits a powerslam for 2. He and YAMATO hit a double chop. Takagi puts on the Sharpshooter. K-ness hits a high kick. He hits YAMATO with an enziguiri. Gamma hits a lariat. He hits Takagi with a vertical suplex. He hits an enziguiri and a back suplex for 2. Takagi hits the deadlift suplex. K-ness hits a leg lariat on YAMATO. He gets la magistral for 2. Gamma hits a big boot on YAMATO and a superkick on Takagi for 2. He hits the Axe Bomber. Takagi slugs him but runs into the Gammasuke Clutch. It gets 2. YAMATO spears Gamma and hits an exploder on K-ness. K-ness blocks the Blood Fall and hits the Kaishaku for 2. YAMATO hits a brainbuster for 2. Takagi hits the Pumping Bomber for 2. He hits MADE IN JAPAN for the win at 10:05. This was kind of sloppy and inspired no love from the crowd. It was pretty disappointing, really. There wasn’t much flow at all, and the finish felt like someone just decided out of nowhere that they should go home.
Rating: **¼

After the match YAMATO says that he and Takagi don’t plan on fighting with a unit this year. They acknowledge however, that the youngsters Tominaga and Watanabe have been following them around. YAMATO likes the two of them and doesn’t mind fighting with them. Takagi talks about figuring out a direction after King of Gate next month. YAMATO, Takagi and Watanabe all shake hands and pose together. I really like the idea of the two most successful homegrown Dragon Gate stars to date training two potential future stars… but I wonder if that’s where they’re going with this.

Jimmy Kagetora {J}, Ryo “Jimmy” Saito {J} & Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee {J} vs. Masato Yoshino {W1}, Naruki Doi {W1} & Ricochet {W1}
Doi and Kagetora start. They fight for the love of the crowd, because the Jimmyz seemingly thrive off of crowd support. Ricochet hits Saito with a dropkick. Yoshino hits a suicide dive. Mee tries to get a chant going but Doi attacks him from behind. Saito pulls out some of Doi’s hair and puts it on Mee’s head. Yoshino hits a double stomp to Saito’s arm. Ricochet stretches Saito and slams him on his face for 2. Doi and Yoshino do their super-fast double-team stuff. Kagetora hits an elbowdrop for 2. MARAHA! ISAPPA! This crowd just does not want to get into anything tonight. Doi goes after Mee’s hair. Yoshino keeps that up. Ricochet hits a senton. Doi hits the elevated senton for 2. Mee hits a swinging DDT. Yoshino snaps an elastic band into Mee’s face. Doi’s hands get caught in the crossfire. Saito revives Mee with the crowd’s help. Yoshino hits Mee with a dropkick. Mee hits a head scissor takedown. Kagetora hits a dropkick. He hits Doi with the leaping lariat. He hits Ricochet with the topé con hilo. Saito goes for the Cycling Yahoo on Doi but Doi scrambles to the ropes. Moments later he goes for it again but Doi gets a schoolboy for 2. He hits the Dai Bosou against the ropes. Saito hits a German suplex and finally puts on the Cycling Yahoo. Ricochet makes the save. He hits Kagetora with the Ace Crusher. Kagetora hits an enziguiri. Ricochet hits a springboard clothesline for 2. Saito hits a German suplex. Kagetora hits the flying elbowdrop for 2. Ricochet hits the Superdrol and Yoshino hits a neckbreaker. Ricochet hits a running SSP for 2. Too fast to follow! Yoshino hits the shotgun senton. Ricochet hits the 630 senton for 2. He and Doi hit stereo dives. Horiguchi blocks the Torbellino. Yoshino blocks the Backslide from Heaven. He hits the Torbellino and goes for the Lightning Spiral but Horiguchi counters to the Backslide from Heaven for the win at 16:20. The first half was comedy that was actually funny and engaging. The second half was so fast I could barely keep up. I love seeing Yoshino motivated and everyone else just being themselves.
Rating: ***½

After the match, Mee cuts a promo saying that a Jimmy will win the King of Gate tournament.

During intermission, Mad Blankey and the Veteran Army are interviewed in hilarious, Survivor Series-like segments.

Next up, they announce King of Gate will start on May 10th. They announce the first round matches. The A Block first round matches will air in full on a live episode of Infinity. They are: Akira Tozawa vs. Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino vs. BxB Hulk, Jimmy Susumu vs. Dragon Kid & YAMATO vs. Shingo Takagi. That’s a hell of a main event. The B Block first round matches will air on the following episode of Infinity, probably not in full at all. They are Don Fujii vs. Mondai Ryu, Cyber Kong vs. Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee, CIMA vs. Kzy & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Jimmy Kanda. Doi and Yoshino join the commentary team to start the second part of the show.

Don Fujii {Z} vs. “Naoki Tanisaki” {MB} [No Disqualification Match]
“Tanisaki” attacks from behind to start. They trade chops. Fujii actually freaks out in pain at “Tanisaki”’s chops. He fires back with jabs and chops of his own. He hits a shoulder tackle. He goes to the floor to attack Ryu. “Tanisaki” follows and attacks. He hits the DH. He hits a leaping shoulder tackle. Fujii his a back heel kick. He hits the Rocker Dropper. What the hell?! He hits a chokeslam. Ryu catches Fujii up top but Fujii fights off “Tanisaki” and hits a crossbody for 2. What has gotten into Fujii?! Ryu trips Fujii. “Tanisaki” hits a kneelift. Ryu salts “Tanisaki” by mistake and Fujii hits the Nice German for the win at 4:16. Fujii was breaking out all kinds of weird stuff, making this surreal and fun.
Rating: **

Cyber Kong {MB} vs. Stalker Ichikawa {Z} [No Disqualification Match]
Kong attacks immediately. He whips Ichikawa with his vest for 2. Ichikawa hits the Kancho. Kong hits a shoulder tackle. He hits an elbowdrop for 2 when he pulls Ichikawa from the mat. Methinks he’ll be regretting that. He hits an avalanche and a lariat. He hits a double kneedrop. He hits a diving elbowdrop for 2. Ichikawa bites Kong to block the Cyber Bomb. He ducks the Pineapple Bomber and hits a Shining Wizard. What universe is this? Kong pops up but Ichikawa hits a low blow. Ryu hits a yellow box attack on Ichikawa. CIMA blocks a salt attack and puts a plastic bag on Kong. Ichikawa hits Kong with the German suplex for the insane upset at 3:46. The crowd loses it for the decision. The match had energy, that’s for damn sure.
Rating: *½

CIMA {Z} vs. Kzy {MB} [Falls Count Anywhere No Disqualification Match]
CIMA dives onto all of Mad Blankey to start. He pins Kzy on the floor for 2. He slams Kzy in the rafters for 2. He hits an atomic drop on the barricade for 2. He puts on a Boston crab but Kzy won’t quit. He bops Kzy with the microphone. He sets up a table in the rafters and pins Kzy on it for 2. He goes to the balcony and threatens a death defying dive, but then thinks better of it and rushes back to the ring. Kzy hits a yellow box attack. He hits a low blow for 2. He whips CIMA into a table against the post. In the ring CIMA fights off Ryu and Kzy. He hits both with a superdrol. Kong puts the same plastic bag on CIMA and hits the Cyber Bomb. Kzy hits KZ Time for the win at 8:58. This might be the first Dragon Gate match I’ve seen that took place almost entirely outside of the ring. It wasn’t particularly good, but it wasn’t boring and it was unique. So now Kong and CIMA have each forced the other into embarrassing losses heading into their match at Dead or Alive. Kid hits him with a head scissor takedown, leading to the next match.
Rating: **

Akira Tozawa {MB} vs. Dragon Kid {Z} [No Disqualification Match]
These two are destined to be connected by rope it seems. Tozawa hits a bicycle kick and cuts a quick promo on Kid. Kid hits a head scissor takedown. Tozawa blocks the Bermuda Triangle with a chair throw. He hits a suicide dive. Kid comes back with a pair of kneedrops for 1. He misses a dropkick. Tozawa hits a senton. He hits another with a chair. He hits Machine Gun Chops and a jab for 2. He hits the side suplex for 2. Kid hits the Messiah. He hits the 619 and the Bermuda Triangle. CIMA attacks Ryu for the hell of it. Kid hits Tozawa with a dropkick. He hits the Diamond Dust for 2. Tozawa hits the running knee for 2. He hits a bicycle kick. Kid hits a stunner but Tozawa grabs a waistlock on the way down and hits a German suplex. He hits another bicycle kick. Kid blocks a superplex and hits an avalanche Ace Crusher. He hits the Bible for 2. Tozawa hits a bicycle kick. He blocks a roll up and hits a German suplex after a yellow box attack for 2. He hits the High Tension Suplex for the win at 8:51. I like the chemistry these two have. Kid is pretty much the only wrestler that Tozawa can straight up bully because of size. Now if they can find a way to do the stunner block → German suplex spot then I want to see a third match in this series.
Rating: ***

Tozawa keeps beating on Kid, so Mochizuki hits him with a missile dropkick. Hulk comes in to start their match and gets kicked in the gut.

Masaaki Mochizuki {Z} vs. BxB Hulk {MB} [No Disqualification Match]
Mochizuki hits a back kick. He kicks out Hulk’s leg. He blocks a kick and puts on the anklelock. Hulk hits an enziguiri to escape. Mochizuki dumps him and hits the Topé Masaaki. CIMA and Ryu fight at ringside, with CIMA getting REALLY aggressive. Mochizuki hits Hulk with a chest kick on the floor. He hits Kzy with a back kick. Hulk kicks the crap out of Mochizuki. He kicks Mochizuki’s face off. Back in the ring he hits a dropkick and a senton for 2. They trade kicks until Hulk falls. The crowd loves it. Hulk comes back with big boots. Mochizuki hits a capture suplex for 2. Hulk hits an enziguiri. He hits a springboard spin kick and an axe kick. He puts Mochizuki for 2. He hits the Mouse. Mochizuki avoids a legsweep and kicks Hulk’s head off. Hulk avoids the Ikkakugeri and hits a big boot. Mochizuki returns the favor in a big way. He blocks the EVO and hits the Twister III for 2. Another finisher becomes “just a move.” Mochizuki hits the Illusion. Ryu attacks him but Mochizuki is unfazed and hits Hulk with a dragon suplex for 2 when “Tanisaki” distracts the referee. Tozawa comes in and helps Hulk double-team Mochizuki. He hits a German suplex. Mochizuki counters the First Flash to a legsweep. He hits an axe kick and the First Flash on Hulk. He blocks a yellow box attack and smacks Ryu. He gets a sunset flip on Hulk for 2. Hulk hits the First Flash after a struggle for 2. He hits it again for the win at 11:45. That was a HUGE win for Hulk. Mochizuki of course got to look like a god by fighting off Mad Blankey on his own for the better part of the match, but in the end there was too much going on to stop Hulk from getting the win for himself and for Mad Blankey in the series. This was a ton of chaotic fun.
Rating: ***¾

After the match Tozawa brags about Mad Blankey winning the series. He says Kong will win the Dream Gate title and that Mad Blankey will win King of Gate. Then he calls out Doi and Yoshino in the commentary booth. He rips on Doi for being a low man on the totem pole in the Blood Warriors. He says Doi just wants to surround himself with people who like looking at his butt in his tiny tights. Doi starts talking up the merits of his butt. This is getting weird. Doi says he’ll wear a T-back to please the fans. Tozawa freaks out and leaves. The building chants T-backu. Yoshino tries to calm us down by saying that Doi was joking. Doi insists that he’s not joking. There is a serious difference between the Dragon Gate core demographic in Japan and its demographics in the States. Sigh.