As ToryuDragonDG USA turned 5 years old, the world of Asaism continued its' trend of making us mostly scratch our heads.
Dragon Gate opened November with 2 big title changes. Mochis' 11 month reign as Open the Dream Gate champion ended, as Osakas' strongest Ani-san defeated him on 11/4. Kishiwada won in front of his hometown crowd in Osaka with the Last Ride in 22 minutes. 9 days later in Nagoya, Dragon Kid also captured gold in front of his hometown. He ended Dois' strangle hold on the Open the Brave Gate with his super finisher, the Dragonrana.
DG seemed to hit cruise control for the remainder of the month, with the only rela prgress being the start of a feud between Araken and Kishiwada. Araken upset the monster from Osaka on 11/19, giving him his first loss on a DG mat. These 2 will collide tonight in Sapporo for the Dream Gate.
11/17 marked the first Dragon Gate show on non-Japanese soil, as they invaded China. 3500 Chinese fans attended a house show in Kanan. Plans are in the works for invasions of American and South Korean soil.
The open door policy continued, with more foreign invaders hitting the ring. Aside from the usual K-Dojo influx, Super Shisa brought back 2 mystery men form his latest Mexican excursion. King Shisa and Vangelis debuted on the 11/26 Item Ehime show, and will be staying for the next week or so. The end of December brings American indy performers Roderick Strong and Jack Evans. They will come in on 12/22 and stay through the end of month King of Gate.
The month also brought some bad news. K-ness continued his injury plague. He again will miss about a month with various ailments, most notably his herniated back. He hopes to return for King of Gate.
King of Gate will begin on 12/23, and is the new version of El Numero Uno. Here is the rather odd bracketing, which includes some questionable seeding. There is some mouth watering potential for unique match ups however.
12/23
1. Dragon Kid vs. Daniel Mishima
2. Naruki Doi vs. Johnson Florida
3. Susumu Yokosuka vs. K-ness
4. Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Anthony W. Mori
5. CIMA vs. Naoki Tanizaki
12/24
6. Masato Yoshino vs. Shingo Takagi
7. Shachihoko Machine vs. Stalker Ichikawa
8. Magnum TOKYO vs. Masaaki Mochizuki
9. Genki Horiguchi vcs. Tozawa
10. Ryo Saito vs. Jackson Florida
12/25
A. Winners of 1 vs. 2
B. Winner of 3 vs. Don Fujii
C. Winner of 4 vs. Keni'chiro Arai
D. Winner of 5 vs. Michael Iwasa
E. Winner of 6 vs. Super Shisa
F. Winner of 7 vs. BxB Hulk
G. Winnner of 8 vs. Katsuo
H. Winners of 9 vs. 10
12/26
I. A vs. B
J. C vs. D
K. E vs. F
L. G vs. H
12/27
Semifinals: I vs. J
Semifinals: K vs. L
Finals
You can make your predictions at the end of this post.
dragondoor ran it's 3rd Korakuen convention on the 24th. Another mediocre lineup on paper produced was has been reported as a fairly entertaining affair. Shuji Kondo cemented his status as top remaining graduate of T2P, crushing the ace of Toryumon X Ishimori in their first singles meeting since December 2002. He taunted Taiji after, calling him a worthless ace and the greatest failure of the Ultimo Dragon Gym. He turned his attention to the wandering ace, Milano Collection AT. Milano remains on his Texas barbecue and match of the year chant feuled vacation, but will return to the Japan mat on the next door show. Sadly this show is several months away, taking place on 2/7. Kondo hinted that he would provide a "hexagon" incentive for Milano to return to his proper home. T2P fans can do the math there.
Ultimo Dragon properly returned to Japan on 11/24 as well. His Tiger Dragon gimmick was terrorized by the latest Nisemono Gundam creation, Dragon the Great. After a full mask rip job, Principle Asai ran to the back, and returned as Ultimo! He announced Ultimo Dragon would make his full return to Japan in Spring. The dissappearance of Satoru Sayama on the door show combined with the death of the Tiger gimmick could leave open some speculation.
Toryumon Mexico was quiet as usual, but they did release the lineup for their upcoming 35th Independant Performance. Takuya Sugawara was originally scheduled to attend this, but he is booked in Zero One (vs. FM2Ks' own Katsuhiko Nakajima no less) .
12/10/2005 Toryumon Mexico, Arena Coliseo
1. Young Dragon Cup, 1st Round
Guillermo "Chango" Akiba vs. Fujita "Jr" Hayato (Michinoku Pro)
2. Young Dragon Cup, 1st Round
Kazuchika Okada vs. Toshiya Matsuzaki
3. Young Dragon Cup, 1st Round
Banana Senga vs. Osamu Namiguchi (Zero 1 MAX)
4. Young Dragon Cup, 1st Round
Hajime Ohara vs. Passion Hasegawa
5. Skayde, Shinjitsu Nohashi, Milanito Collection a.t. vs. Kanjyouro Matsuyama, Negro Navarro, Gran Markus
6. Young Dragon Cup, Semifinals
Winner of 1 vs. Winner of 2
7. Young Dragon Cup, Semifinals
Winner of 3 vs. Winner of 4
8. Hiromi Horiguchi, Amigo Suzuki, Arkangel de la Muerte vs. Misterioso Jr., La Mascara, Black Warrior
9. Young Dragon Cup Finals
10. Ultimo Dragon, Dr. Wagner Jr., Mistico vs. Kenzo Suzuki, Atlantis, Scorpio Jr.
Finally, here are the much asked for Year End Awards ballots. I am including 2 predictions for the heck of it, too. Balloting is open until bell time for the King of Gate finals. The awards include Dragon Gate, dragondoor, Asaism graduate freelance, and Toryumon Mexico.
Wrestler of the Year-
Best overall wrestler.
Best bout-
Best overall match. Singles, tag, 6 man, Naniwa style, it all qualifies. Include the date if it is a match that happened multiple times.
Best feud-
Who did you enjoy seeing beat the heck out of each other?
Fighting spirit/Technique/Whatever you want to call it Award
Maybe this wrestler didn't perform well enough to be wrestler of the year, but when it counted, be brought it.
Best newcomer-
I'm pretty sure this is a one man race, but to make it interesting I will open this balloting to K-Dojo guys who wrestled in the Dragon Gate ring. So anyone who made his debut in DG in the last year is qualified.
King of Gate winner
Young Dragon Cup winner (obviously this is only a choice until the 10th)
I'll tally them up, then maybe put together some sort of DVD package if someone nails them all or something. I'll play it by ear depending on response. Send your balloting by email to the address behind the Contact Me link.
As always. Thanks, enjoy, and stay tuned.
I am having FTP problems, so if you want to access the November archive, click here. |
