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Post by Agent Kev on Jan 1, 2006 0:34:25 GMT -5
Magnitude Kishiwada, Don Fujii, Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi vs. Magnum TOKYO, King Shisa, Super Shisa, Katsuhiko Nakajima- 12/26/05- Dragon Gate
This is a pretty fun opener that goes 10 minutes. Super Shisa takes a beating for the first 6 or 7 minutes and then the teams trade spots for the next 3 or 4 before the eventual pinfall. It's been a while since i've actually watched a DG event so I'm a little behind. Doi looks to have really stepped up his game and Yoshino has completely changed his look. Magnitude looks like a total DG badass and Nakajima puts in a solid showing just like he has in all the other feds this year. Good opener.
On a side note the opening video for the DG PPV was eye catching. It's actually a Black Crowes song and then shows CIMA in live action then a picture snaps and you are taken to kind of a photo image of him and his name, same is done with Mochi and then camera snaps take you to a picture of each DG player. It also shows live action for Magu, Ryo, and Anthony. Just a really cool opening.
GenkiHoriguchi/NaokiTanisaki VS JackEvans/Roderick Strong- 12/26/05- Dragon Gate
I liked this a lot but the crowd was pretty dead throughout. Both Jack and Roderick looked very comfortable working with Genki and Naoki. Roderick got very little crowd response but he looked spot on and worked a very fast pace but keeping within his normal arenal of weapons. It was great seeing him kick out of back-to-back backslides from heaven and also breaking Genki over his knee on several occassions. He also hit Genki with a sick running boot. Jack was more over with the crowd due to his style and he also looked very good and fluid in the DG environment. Jack and Roderick also used several double team moves and most of these got mild pops from the crowd. Jack won with a 630 in a short 7 minute sprint.
Keni'chiro Arai vs. CIMA- Dragon Gate- 12/26/05
Decent match that basically has CIMA working over Arai's leg for the majority of the match. Highlight of the match is CIMA breaking out a SICK submission finisher called the Schweingatame, basically he gets the guy in position for the Schwein but instead turns it into a leg submission while in that position. Just a sick move.
Shingo Takagi vs. BxB Hulk- Dragon Gate- 12/26/05
I liked this a lot more than the CIMA match. I'm really diggin Takagi after seeing him in ROH, he's a perfect strong badass base for DG. He basically controls this match with Hulk coming back for short bursts of offense. Just a really solid overall match from these two youngsters.
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Post by Agent Kev on Jan 4, 2006 0:44:41 GMT -5
Mushiking Terry & Takeshi Rikio vs. Akihiko Ito (debut) & Go Shiosaki- NOAH- 12/24/05
Pretty fun little match here as this is the first NOAH match for their dojo trainee Akihiko Ito. Kotaro and Go have some really nice segments to open up the match. Ito finally gets the tag but gets beatdown by Rikio. Ito gets his first offensive move in when he and Go hit a double dropkick on Rikio giving Go the advantage. Shortly thereafter Go hot tags Ito and he comes in and hits both opponents with forearms, gives Rikio two more flying forearms (one in the corner and one off the ropes) and then he hits Rikio with a butt-butt and then a nice Fisherman's suplex. Rikio then takes him down and tags in Kotaro. Ito eats a flippy elbow and then gets rana'd for a near fall. Ito then hits a uranage type move (looked real nice). Go then in with a dropkick off the top after a tag. Ito and Go then do some tag-work with Ito hitting Kotaro with a superkick and then a real nice german suplex. Go then hits a double underhook suplex pin but it's broken up by Rikio. Go and Kotaro then bring it home in the ring as Rikio kicks Ito ass outside the ring.
Good little match and I really like what I saw of Akihiko Ito in his debut. He looks ready to go IMO and is somewhat the same style worker as Go but might have a bit more flash in him.
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Post by Agent Kev on Jan 4, 2006 18:09:12 GMT -5
Satoshi Kojima vs. Katsuyori Shibata- BIG MOUTH- 12/29/05
I liked this a lot, but I have been digging the hell out of Shibata recently. Fun stuff and a lot of striking thru out the match. Some no selling of moves at times, but it doesn't really affect my enjoyment of the match. Good stuff. Hopefully these matches are building Shibata up to become the unbeatable king of BIG MOUTH. He's notched quite a few losses lately but i'd like to see him go on an undefeated ass-kicking streak of bad assness.
AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams- BIG MOUTH- 12/29/05
This is soooo not a BIG MOUTH style match. Crowd tries to start a "Let's Go AJ" chant early. lol. Pretty decent match, especially considering Petey Williams is involved. Some overly contrived stuff like the coreographed bit near the beginning but overall very watchable.
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Post by Agent Kev on Jan 5, 2006 0:55:03 GMT -5
Ikuto Hidaka vs Sonjay Dutt - 11/17/05- Z1
This is a fun little match but probably not as good as it should have been. I'm not a big Sonjay singles match fan and think his inexperience shows here. There are some really nice spots and I just love about everything Hidaka does inside of a wrestling ring but the flow seems a bit off at times. Definitely worth a once over.
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tiger Mask- NJPW- 12/10/05
Surprisingly short but very fun and heated match. Liger attacks Tiger Mask right as he is getting in the ring, they are seperated and then Tiger goes on offense. Both guys have some real nice spurts of offense and both look really good here IMO. Haven't seen much of these guys in 2005 but I'd love to see more after this brief glimpse.
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Post by Agent Kev on Jan 10, 2006 23:42:21 GMT -5
Kaz Hayashi & AKIRA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Taiji Ishimori -AJPW, 1/3/06
This was a real fun AJPW juniors tag-match which pitted the veterans against the youngsters. I really dug the sequences between AKIRA and Nakajima. I would love to see these guys in a singles match. AKIRA is criminally underrated and definitely one of my favorite veteran juniors. I wish the ending would have been slightly different here.
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Post by Agent Kev on Jan 19, 2006 0:23:42 GMT -5
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. AJ Styles- 1/15/06- TNA
This was a decent little match. I liked how Tanahashi was on offense for the majority of the match. He showed a lot of versatility and a nice varied moveset. I would have liked to have seen Tanahashi play more of a cocky-heel and AJ play from behind and get more quick spurts of offense in but this played out pretty well. Downfall of the match was the ending. TNA really needs to learn how to book post-match angles instead of just doing run-ins to prolong/further angles.
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Post by Agent Kev on Feb 26, 2006 14:10:54 GMT -5
Manabu Hara v. Taku Munenori- Big Mouth Loud- 12/29/05
This was a really fun shoot-style match between these two juniors. I've seen Hara before and really enjoy his style, I think he would be golden if Misawa booked him for a couple of tours and built him up for a match versus KENTA. This is the first time i've seen Munenori and he impressed me as well. Some really great kicks in this match and I love how Hara incorporates his shoot style along with pro wrasslin' moves (like his wicked german suplex). I'll put this up in the matches section in a little bit.
Koji Kanemoto vs. GENTARO- NJPW- 2/19/06
This was decent. It was a show opener and is basically Koji beating up this kid for 4 minutes, the kid getting a minute or two of offense until he misses a SSP from the top and then Koji tapping him out. I would really like to see Kanemoto against guys like KENTA and the previously mentioned Manabu Hara.
Kenta Kobashi/Tamon Honda/Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone/KENTA- NOAH- 2/17/06
Just the beginning of this match makes me know for certain in my heart that NOAH and Misawa have a better grip on what Pro Wrestling is and should be than anyone else alive today. KENTA comes in the ring and before the match starts just takes it to Kenta Kobashi. Bedlam breaks loose and Takeshi Morishima is destorying Kobashi with a belly-to-back head drop suplex. KENTA then tags in and Kobashi eats a springboard dropkick and KENTA goes into Chris Jericho mode with the one-foot cover on Kenta Kobashi! Good God, it's a barnburner! KENTA then toys with Kobashi with insulting kicks and slaps before eating a half-nelson suplex.
Match settle down a little. KENTA tags back in and is going at it with Yoshinobu when out of nowhere he just runs at Kobashi in the corner and clobbers him. Kobashi is recovering on his knees on the ring apron and KENTA kicks him to the floor for good measure. Yoshinobu finally gets the advantage and tags in Kobashi who just lights up KENTA with chops in the corner to the crowds delight. Kobashi continues to torture KENTA until tagging Kanemaru back in. Kanemaru irish whips KENTA and KENTA ducks Kanemaru and nails Kobashi with a running forearm and then jumps out of the ring and Kobashi eats a kick to the face.
The KENTA/Kobashi interaction in this match is GOLD. Takeshi Morishima is a monster in this match- he even lays out his tag-partner (KENTA) with a clothesline after his team loses and Honda gets the pin on Yone to set-up a possible tag-title match in the future.
Good stuff.
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Post by Agent Kev on Feb 27, 2006 18:02:40 GMT -5
Rocky Romero vs. Frankie Kazarian- 9/3/05- PWG
Pretty fun match here and only about 10 minutes (which IMO is a good thing). They start off with some nice little matwork in which Frankie hangs with Rocky. They wrestle a pretty snug little match and the match is more a stamp of Romero than the cookie-cutter Kazarian match. Rocky busts out a springboard lucha armdrag and then they go into the finish run and some flash pins with Rocky finally outsmarting Frankie. Pretty decent little match with Rocky picking up the win since Frankie had to wrestle Rocky's match. This match actually makes me wonder about Frankie in ROH....
Davey Richards vs. Quicksilver- 9/3/05
This was a pretty decent match here. The times Richards was on offense this was above average, when Quicksilver was it was decent. I like Quicksilver, he's just better as a tag-guy and his offense doesn't look very credible. Now Richards, this kid is a phenom.
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Post by Agent Kev on Mar 1, 2006 20:28:05 GMT -5
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title & NWA Jr. Heavyweight Title: Black Tiger (c) vs. Tiger Mask- NJPW- 2/19/06
With the exception of one of the best monkey flip sequences i've ever seen (on par with Collyer/Romero from ROH) this was a solid but really bland match. The style of the New Japan juniors just cannot match that of NOAH or Dragon Gate in terms of attitude, flair, speed or work.
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Post by Agent Kev on Mar 12, 2006 15:19:32 GMT -5
Kenta Kobashi vs. KENTA- 3/5/06- NOAH
Really solid match here in which KENTA is almost represented on equal ground as Kobashi but of course with Kobashi getting the victory. I felt this was just missing something to put it over as a "great" match, not sure if it was the crowd heat or the lack of hot near falls but something just wasn't there. Still, a really solid and well worked match. Good stuff.
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akira Taue- 3/5/06- NOAH
I liked this a lot. Even better than Kobashi/KENTA. Not sure if it was a better match, but I liked it more. The finish is really what did it for me as near the finish Marufuji does a great job countering a choke slam into a cross armbreaker. Taue then hits the choke slam shortly thereafter but only gets a two count. Taue then takes Marufuji up top to hit the choke slam off the top. I actually thought for a minute that Marufuji was going to try to reverse this into a one-man Spanish Fly (since he uses that move fairly regularly). They battle up top and Taue goes for the slam but Marufuji flips out of eat and when they hit the ground Taue immediately eats a superkick from Marufuji and then Marufuji cradles a shocked Taue for the flash pin. Good stuff and good crowd heat at the end for the finish.
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Post by Agent Kev on Apr 29, 2006 21:15:48 GMT -5
Taiyo Kea vs. Minoru Suzuki- 4/20/06
Decent match that was kind of short but had a real smooth crisp finish. Definitely made sense since this was the semi-finals and the winner had to move on to wrestle another match later that night. Finish kept both guys strong as it put Kea over for winning the match but since he didn't do so in a decisive fashion it left room for a re-match down the line.
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Post by Agent Kev on May 2, 2006 22:49:37 GMT -5
KENTA vs. Taiji Ishimori- 4/23/06- NOAH
Starts off real quick with Taiji showing off his athleticism and looking really crisp. KENTA gains the advantage and plays the sh*t kicking bully. Taiji then fights back with several nice highspots. KENTA gains control again and becomes his cocky self. Taiji goes for a springboard dropkick and eats a kick to the face in a really nice spot as he falls to the outside. Taiji gains back the advantage and gets a near fall with a Dragon Suplex and then a Falcon Arrow. Then they hit a nice reversal spot in which Taiji was going for the Superstar Elbow but instead ate a clothesline. Ref took a bump and Taiji went for the 619 but KENTA hit his running knee strike but no ref was there for the pin so when KENTA went to wake the ref Taiji hit his 619 and then a funky DDT for a near fall. He then went for the Superstar Elbow again but nobody was home. Taiji then hit AJ's sh*tting quebrada into a DDT and looked just as sh*tty as AJ when he did it. Taiji then hit a Fall-away slam from the top rope but KENTA kicked out. Taiji went to the top but KENTA popped up and jumped in a single jump to the top rope and hit a top rope Falcon Arrow on Taiji for a near fall. KENTA then planted him with a Dragon Suplex for 2. Taiji then hit some quick near falls but then got killed on a reversal as KENTA hit a powerbomb. Taiji then got stupid and tried to chop KENTA, KENTA egged him on and kicked the sh*t out of him. Taiji then hit a really nice cradle for a 2 3/4. KENTA then got pissed and hit the running knee strike followed by the Go 2 Sleep for the pin.
Overall, a really fun spot match that was worked in a way to make KENTA shown as the obvious superior to but also to make Taiji a legit threat due to his quickness and speed. Probably around ***1/4. Good stuff.
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Post by Agent Kev on May 4, 2006 23:14:49 GMT -5
Sangre Azteca vs. Ryusuke Taguchi- 11/3/05- NJPW
This was a fun 9 minute lucha style match that took place in New Japan. Good stuff and went along was to show the development of Taguchi based on his foreign excursion that he took to CMLL. I believe this was my first look at Sangre and he looked pretty smooth in the ring.
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Post by Agent Kev on May 6, 2006 23:57:40 GMT -5
Z1-MAX International Lightweight Tag Team Titles: Ikuto Hidaka © & Minoru Fujita © vs Takuya Suguwara & Kagetora- Z1 MAX- 12/23/05
This was a really fun, solid 25 minute tag-match. Really great to see the veterans mix it up with the young guys. Kagetora is the former SUWAcito from Toryumon X who is currently working for MPro and has really been impressing me lately. Suguwara is also a former Toryumon guy, he was the final T2P student and also spent some time after Dragon Gate w/the New Japan dojo. They had the crowd going and worked a really solid match. Ikuto Hidaka and Kagetora really stood out for me in this match- I just love pretty much any and everything Hidaka does in the ring as he is just so smooth and spot on. As far as Kagetora goes I love his hard hitting style, he really has the potential to be a beast in the junior division. Good stuff, recommended.
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Post by Agent Kev on Jun 1, 2006 22:31:39 GMT -5
Minoru Suzuki defeated Yoshiaki Fujiwara- 3/22/06- Big Mouth Loud
This was a solid match between two surly bastards. They did some good matwork early and then went into the striking. Kind of faded a little towards the end but with Fujiwara being way up there in years that is to be expected.
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Kazunari Murakami- 3/22/06- Big Mouth Loud
This was good for what it was but it was way too short. It was basically Sasaki squashing Murakami twice in the span of 5 minutes. Gotta wonder what the bookerman was thinking here.
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hidetaka Monma- 3/22/06- Big Mouth Loud
This was a decent match that probably would have been better served in a semi-Main Event role rather than the Main. It was solid but Monma, while busting out some impressive moves, definitely showed his inexperience in pro wrestling throughout the match and the crowd heat just wasn't there.
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