The quietest month in some time has come to a close. We'll start with Dragon Gate, since they were the only active group.
DG held the GATE OF RENAISSANCE tour in October, stopping in Korakuen on the 5th for the TAKA/CIMA singles. TAKA won the match by tapout, in the process winning CIMAs' insurance card, passport, and drivers license. Blood managed ot get the card and license back, but the passport ended up in possession of K-Dojos' Handsome Joe after some heavy drinking by TAKA. Also on that Korakuen, Magnitude Kishiwada finally made his expected challenge for the Open the Dream Gate.
The final Korakuen happening was the debut of Yuki Ono, and the return of Tozawa. They failed pretty miserably in their handicap match vs. Fujii, losing to a double half crab. Fuiji (again influenced by heavy drinking) came up with new names for the pair afterwards, renaming Tozawa (in kanji) to Tozawa (in katakana), and Ono to Katsuo (again all katakana spelling, not the laughably wrong name given to him elsewhere on the internet). The first set of true rookies Dragon Gate have produced continue to make snail progress, working mostly openers the rest of the month.
The next and really the final big in ring happening of the month was on 11/15, when former Osaka Pro referee Matsui, in conjunction with Kishiwada and other former Osaka wrestlers presented Bikkuri Pro Wrestling. There was large Blood involvement on that show. Doi defeated 1999 internet darling Asian Cougar, Fujii and Shingo fell to the former FMW team of Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda, and in the main CIMA, Yoshino, and Kishiwada made their 3rd successful defense of the Triangle Gate. They downed the team of TAKA, Dick Togo, and Gamma.
The injury bug returned to DG for the first time in awhile, as Genki is currently recovering from a broken jaw. He hopes to return within the next few weeks, if not sooner.
Geni'chiro Tenryu, whose bizarre friendship with Magu has been one of the more puzzling stories to follow this year, was named advisor to DG, giving him a front office job. What exactly this job entails is still pretty questionable, but it has resulted in DG players seconding Tenryu in his NOAH matches. Tenryu is also part of the DG global expansion, leading to the first ever Dragon Gate in China show on 11/17. They also mentioned hopes to run in South Korea and eventually the US.
The December King of Gate tournament (the new version of El Numero Uno) had it's bracketing announced. It's rather large, so I am not going to repost it here, check the 10/10 news update in the archive to check it out. I will discuss this at length as we get closer.
November is already shaping up to be a very eventful month. This coming weekend, Mochi faces his strongest Dream Gate challenge to date, as Osakas' strongest Oni-san comes after him. Kishiwada has the hometown advantage, the match is happening in Osaka.
First, there is the big preliminary skirmish in Korakuen tonight. CIMA will team with Kishiwada looking to exact revenge on TAKA, who will team with Mochi. The losing team in this match will have to then wrestle one another in a singles match.
Another topic to keep an eye on in early November is the budding feud between Naoki Tanizaki and Naruki Doi. The started brawling multiple times on the 10/29 Chiba convention, and has already seen an impromptu Brave Gate defense for Doi. Will it continue?
Here are the announced lineups for the first half of November:
11/2/2005 Korakuen Hall
1. Genki Horiguchi, Tozawa vs. BxB Hulk, Katsuo
2. Florida Brothers vs. Naoki Tanizaki
3. Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid vs. Magnum TOKYO, Anthony W. Mori
4. Shingo Takagi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
5. Don Fujii, Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino vs. Susumu Yokosuka, K-ness, Keni'chiro Arai
6. CIMA, Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, TAKA Michinoku
11/4/2005 Osaka, Osaka Prefectural Gym, 2nd Stadium
1. Genki Horiguchi, Katsuo vs. Keni'chiro Arai, Tozawa
2. Super Shisa vs. Florida Brothers
3. Susumu Yokosuka, K-ness vs. Anthony W. Mori, BxB Hulk
4. Revolution Special #2
Magnum TOKYO, Geni'chiro Tenryu vs. Shingo Takagi, Don Fujii
5. CIMA, Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi vs. Ryo Saito, Naoki Tanizaki, Dragon Kid
6. Open the Dream Gate
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Magnitude Kishiwada
11/6/2005 Hakata Star Lanes
1. Anthony W. Mori, Super Shisa vs. Tozawa, Katsuo
2. BxB Hulk vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
3. Michael, Daniel, Kensuke vs. Susumu Yokosuka, K-ness, Keni'chiro Arai
4. Magnum TOKYO, Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Don Fujii, Shingo Takagi
5. Naniwa Style Elimination Match
CIMA, Magnitude Kishiwada, Naruki Doi, Masato Yosino vs. Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, Naoki Tanizaki
11/13 Aichi, Nagoya Congress Center
-Revolution Special Match vol. 3
Magnum TOKYO, Geni'chiro Tenryuu vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Kensuke Sasaki
dragondoor reamined silent for most of the month, however it's signboard heel, Shuji Kondo, did not. He ended TAKAs' historic reign as AJPW Sekai Junior champion on 10/22. He was challenged straight away by Taiji, and a singles match was made for the 11/24 door show.
Sugawara, who made several forgettable appearances in Zero One early in the month, made a shocking appearance in Michinoku Pro on 10/22. He aligned with the Sato twins, of all teams, turning the former idols into heels. They have gone to war with Los Salseros. Suga also appears to be aligning with Gamma, as the 2 will team up on 11/24.
brother YASSHI is currently fighting a foot injury, but is hoping to be back for 11/24.
Touru Owashi began the month on injured reserve due to a ligament tear. He is now healthy, but his first match back saw him lose his DDT KO-D tag title, which he held with Darkside HERO!.
The 11/24 door has the 2 aforementioned matches announced thus far. The previously announced (and fan voted) Shodai Tiger Mask/Gran Hamada vs. Villano 3/Negro Navarro match is off now, because Navarro apparently just didn't want to do it. No replacement has been mentioned, but you can bet if there is one, it will be equally wasteful.
11/24/2005 Korakuen Hall
Shuji Kondo vs. Taiji Ishimori
Takuya Sugawara, Gamma vs. Little Dragon, Zero 1 MAX player
Toryumon X alumni Kagetora and Shanaou won the Michinoku Pro Futaritabi tag tournament, but broke up directly afterwards when Kage turned on Shanaou. This spilled over into a singles match between the 2, won by Kage. He took it a step further, by giving the already beaten Shanaou another lariat and Ikkitousen after the match, KO'ing him. Is Kagetora going to align with the new forming heel alliance with Suga, the Satos, and Gamma?
Toryumon Mexico as always was quiet. The annual December show is confirmed, with Sugawara visiting. Japanese fans will as usual have the chance to make the trip with him. Last night in Anaheim, Hiromi Horiguchi and Passion Hasegawa worked WWE Raw dark matches.
Finally, the continued tales of Big Texas Collection AT. Milano is currently rehabbing a tear in his bicep, which could keep him off his November bookings. He did however announce a slew of ROH dates for the first 6 months of 2006. Check the archives for those.
Thanks for visiting, as always. Stay tuned, as 2005 rapidly reaches the end. |
