Truth B Told 9.04.08: Enter the Dragon Gate

Posted by Bayani Domingo on 09.04.2008

Previewing Dragon Gate’s first ever US show this weekend. I’m just going for the Harajuku girls and to challenge Hayabusa to a foot race. What? Too soon?



Friday night September 5th, 2008
Dragon Gate USA Friday LA Extreme Night
John Anson Ford Park
8000 Park Lane, Bell Gardens, CA 90201
Doors at 7PM, Bell time 8PM

Tickets: $50 (Super Seats), $30 Front Row, $30 Seat A, $20 Seat B

For tickets:
All American Tickets Inc.
1-888-507-3287
www.allamerican-tkt.com

Tickets also available on day of the show at the gate.

You want to know the one single benefit of having jury duty on a Thursday? I started writing this column an hour before last week's column even posted. The downside of course is that if I half ass this portion of the column then I can't blame my increasingly busy schedule. By the way, why is it that no matter what court I get called to I'm always sitting right in front of the fat guy with a Hawaiian shirt who finds it difficult to breath at a normal volume level. Seriously, how hard on your cardiovascular system can it be to sit in a chair and read the newspaper? He's not running on a treadmill mind you, the newspaper isn't 10 lbs…he's sitting. God damn it America, we have gotten FAT. But I digress, this week we're going to be doing a little preview of the historic first Japanese wrestling show to be hosted on American soil. The Dragon Gate promotion is putting on their "Friday LA Extreme Night" show tomorrow night and this is without a doubt a real milestone for not only the promotion but for Puroresu as a whole. This is possibly the most exciting and significant Japanese invasion of the US since Gwen brought over her Harajuku girls.

I was considering doing a quick history of the Dragon Gate promotion and a little about the ring style, philosophy, and lineage of the title as a bit of an introduction to you, the readers. Then I realized that wrestling fans really fall into one of two categories: Those who already know about Dragon Gate and those who couldn't give a shit. For those who follow PWG, RoH, or Indy wrestling as a whole you are probably already familiar with the Dragon Gate promotion and some of their wrestlers. For those of you who follow TNA then you have already been introduced to a few of their workers since Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino both had significant roles in the World X-Cup for Team Japan and Milano Collection AT is a former product of the Dragon Gate system out of the Toryumon Gym. Even the handful of you who caught some Wrestling Society X shows on MTV know that Yoshino and Genki Horiguchi formed a tag team there known as "Team Dragon Gate". But, for those of you who don't know who they are then chances are you don't follow much Indy wrestling, don't watch TNA, and are pretty loyal WWE fans and could give a shit about a bunch of tiny flippy Japanese dudes. This week's column may in fact not be for you then. My suggestion is to hit the old "Back" button and check out another one of the fine columns on this site like Weyer, Fact or Fiction, or if you're desperate…and partially illiterate, Small. But let's say there are some open minded fans out there who either aren't aware of, have access to, or haven't yet gotten the itch to find out more about this popular Japanese Indy promotion or for some who have very limited knowledge but a thirst for more, then keep reading. Hey…I said keep reading, stop trying to scroll down to the pics of the hot bitches at the end of the column. Damn it…we're not just getting fat America, we're all developing ADHD too. And NO that doesn't mean your ADD now comes in Hi-Def.

If you want an in depth and perceptive summary of what Dragon Gate is all about then…maybe I should have gotten Matt Short in on his, but I didn't, cuz' I'm lazy. But if you want my little one sentence synopsis for what I think Dragon Gate is about then here you go: Dragon Gate is one of the larger Independent Japanese companies which wrestles a mainly "Junior Heavyweight" aka "Cruiserweight" style which concentrates mainly on quick paced ring work, high flying action, and submissions and has strong roots in Lucha Libre which was passed down by the "Father of the Dragon Gate System" Ultimo Dragon. In Japan you have really 3 major companies: All Japan, New Japan, and NOAH, under those you have several other smaller companies, of which many are considered "Indy feds" much like we have here in the states. Since Ultimo Dragon helped start the Dragon Gate System when he created the Toruymon Gym which mixed much of the Lucha Libre he was used to with the Japanese "Junior Heavyweight" style the roster has consisted of smaller wrestlers like himself. Instead of focusing on more of the big, stiff, head dropping moves of the bigger companies that employed larger wrestlers, the Dragon Gate System uses smaller wrestlers and focuses on quickness and agility. Although, they do not lack head dropping either. The reason that RoH and PWG seems to work fairly well in integrating the DG roster with their own and the reason why DG seems to book so many of RoH or PWG wrestlers is that much of their rosters work similar styles with similar size. The TNA X-Division also was a great place to showcase DG wrestlers as was evident if you saw the MCMGs face off against "SpeedMuscle". Bottomline, if you like little dudes flying around the ring, flipping around, and hitting moves so crisply that it seems to be completely choreographed step-by-step, then Dragon Gate would be your cup of Milk Tea…with boba. Otherwise you'd be better off checking out All Japan, NOAH, or New Japan that all feature some level of "Junior" action but not to the degree that Dragon Gate does. Okay, so that wasn't exactly a "brief" synopsis, but you get what you don't pay for.

Let's just take a look at the line-up shall we? I'm going to do a bit of a running commentary here because some of you may not be totally familiar with the players involved, and while I'm not expert and I would strongly urge you all to check out my favorite Dragon Gate related website at DGUSA, I'll give you the lamen's version of what's going down:

Dragon Gate Friday LA Extreme Night

Announced Matches:

El Generico vs Genki Horiguchi

The Who: If you don't know who the "Generic Luchador" is by now then where have you been? In a cave? Kidnapped by the Orsidian Portal and brain washed into believing you were a some kind of half Dog/half man? In Alabama? whatever the case is you should know who El Generico is, but what you may not know is that upon his second tour of Dragon Gate recently he was recruited as a "Foreign Exchange Student" into Tozawa-Juku, which is a kind of "Finishing School" where boys gain "polish". I believe that is some kind of a code in puro for the "young boys" being soaped up on the shower by Don Fuji and Keni'chiro Arai. Whatever the case is, there is a slight chance that Generico will be representing Tozawa-Juku in the states, complete with swank school uniform. For those of you who watched WSX you are familiar with "Horiguchi". Formerly known as HAGE (Japanese for bald), the follicle challenged current holder of the "Open the Brave Gate" title (their "lightweight" belt) has gone heel since his last visit to California. He turned on his fellow "Do Fixers" and joined Muscle Outlaws, then got sucked into the transition to Real Hazard after the split. Genki is no longer a fun loving, spunky face who was formerly a beach bum and surfer, but is now a wily heel bent on cheating at every opportunity.

The Why: I'm not sure if this is an "Open the Brave Gate" title match or not, but this should be a lot of fun. To my knowledge these two have never faced off one on one and I do not believe they have ever wrestled each other in the states. You may ask why DG would book an American (okay he's Canadian…or is he Mexico? Ole??) wrestler instead of bringing in more DG wrestlers but it makes sense for a couple of reasons. El Generico has done two extensive tours in DG already and is familiar with their wrestling styles and the workers having faced off against both CIMA, Susumu, and Dragon Kid before. He is also a popular wrestler in California which may help bring in a few more wrestling fans who aren't completely sold on Dragon Gate as a foreign promotion. Plus, above all it's cheaper than flying over more of their own guys, right? I fully expect this to be a great match and should be heavily colored with comedy.

Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa Bosou 10 Match Series Extreme Comedy Match: Hollywood Ichikawa vs Necro Butcher

The Who: Stalker Ichikawa came to PWG a year ago and participated in two singles matches against Don Fuji and Top Gun Talwar at last year's DDT4. He's basically a little devil. No, not like he's a "scamp" or a "n'er do well", he's actually a character based off a little devil. He's a tiny guy with big ears, antennae, and a pitchfork that comes out to the William Tell Overture. For those plebeians out there who don't know what that is, it's the theme from the "Lone Ranger". Basically Stalker is a tiny dude whose gimmick is to always get his ass kicked. But, he happens to be extremely popular. Necro Butcher is a brawler, he's a fighter, he's a joker, he's a toker, he's a midnight smoker. He gets his loving on the run. He also doesn't wear shoes. Recently in PWG he took on Kikutaro in an absolutely brutal match as a warm up to Stalker. Please, don't throw Stalker a chair this time fans.

The Why: This is the second of his 10 matches series where he basically wrestles against serious badasses and gets his ass handed to him each time. This time he's taking on a Necro Butcher. God (or whoever Japanese people pray to…probably someone with the head of a Panda or like 7 arms or a fat dude with his belly showing…or Tom Cruise) have mercy on his soul. The fact that this match has "Extreme Comedy Match" in the description is all you'll need to know.

Open The Dream Gate Championship Title Match: SHINGO vs PAC

The Who: SHINGO is no stranger to the US. He's previously wrestled in RoH and even won the RoH Tag Titles from the Briscoe Brothers along with Naruki Doi. SHINGO has also wrestled in PWG and lost in an upset against Ronin back when Ronin was actually getting his first and only push in PWG. Since his last trip to California he broke away from Muscle Outlaws to create "New Hazard" along with fellow DG trueborns BxB Hulk, YAMATO, and Cyber Kong, then turned heel on Hulk and joined with MO'z to form "Real Hazard", then soon after was kicked out of that group and became a "face" without any formal alliance. He recently won the "Open the Dream Gate" title (DG's main belt) after CIMA was forced to vacate it due to a potentially career threatening injury and a match between him and former teammate BxB Hulk was made to decide the new champion. PAC is no stranger to SoCal as a once semi-regular in PWG he gained a lot of popularity and success after winning the PWG Tag Titles with Roderick Strong at DDT4. Obviously he showed something to the DG delegates there as soon after he was booked for a short stint in DG which eventually became a near year long tour. PAC in many ways has filled the void of "highflying gaijin" that was once held by Jack Evans and Matt Sydal. While PAC has yet to find much success in the way of titles in DG his affiliation with Typhoon and his growing popularity has definitely helped him become a bigger name in International competition. After participating in two fantastic matches at last week's PWG All-Star Weekend it's clear that PAC's time in Dragon Gate has helped hone his skills and his physique, also PAC was over in PWG like free penicillin shots at Lita's apartment.

The Why: PAC is not only a regular of DG now, but a fan favorite in SoCal due to his long affiliation with PWG. While it's clear that he won't get the title win here it's a good way of building SHINGO's resume' without having to put him over other bigger names yet. The most important thing however is that the Dream Gate gets defended on this show in order to not only make it seem like an important show, but also to give the US fans a reason to buy tickets. Matching up DG's "Ace" with one of the more popular wrestlers in SoCal is a great plan to try to "draw" at the gate. This will be a great clash of styles as PAC's aerial repertoire will be matched up against SHINGO's hard hitting and impactful style. If you're expecting to see a great match involving a jacked up Japanese dude with a boss mullet throw around a little English dude from pillar to post then this is for you.

Taku Iwasa & Keni'chiro Arai vs Dragon Kid & Vampiro

The Who: Iwasa and Arai are the senior members of Tozawa-Juku. They have both found success as former Open The Twin Gate Champions as well as Open the Triangle Gate Champions. Iwasa is formerly of the Florida Brothers (or Frolida depending on your accent) and Arai is formerly of M2K. Dragon Kid has wrestled on both coasts in both PWG and RoH and is one of the most popular wrestlers in the promotion despite being the smallest. Picture Rey Misterio Jr. prior to finding out about creatine and HgH. Originally Dos Caras, who was one of the original trainers at the Toryumon gym was scheduled to tag with DK, but due to an injury he was replaced by Vampiro. Vampiro, as many of you know, has been a semi-regular in Mexico (currently AAA) and had a long stint in WCW. He also was one of the men responsible for the short lived WSX run on MTV. So far it looks like the rest of Tozawa-Juku will be absent from this show as well as the ICP and Muta so these teams will be equally matched. I guess Shaggy 2 Dope will have to buy tickets like everyone else. Except the money he uses will be reeking of weed and dirty hookers.

The Why: IwaRai are are very popular veteran team that has lost some momentum after winning the Twin and Triangle Gate Titles. This is the first time these guys are wrestling together in the US and the fact that DG's philosophy is focused around lots of stables/factions they really needed to bring these guys in to represent Tozawa-Juku. Too bad Akira Tozawa isn't also making the trip with them. Dragon Kid is one of he most popular wrestling in DG both in Japan and in the states so his inclusion was easy and since his other Typhoon stablemates are already in Title matches he's thrown into this tag match with what would have been a great partner. Vampiro seems to be included due to his affiliation with WPW (World Power Wrestling) which has been helping to promote this event due to King Ali Baba running the company and having an affiliation with Dragon Gate from back in the Toryumon days. Vampiro also brought in Yoshino/Horiguchi to be part of WSX so this seems like reciprocity more than a booking decision. I really hope DK works 90% of this match since last time I saw Vampiro he looked old, tired, and totally unmotivated. It remains to be seen how he'll hold up in this match since he can no longer keep up with these kinds of wrestlers but chances are IwaRai will try their hardest to make him look passable.

Open The Twin Gate Championship Title Match: Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka vs The Youngbucks (Nick & Matt Jackson)

The Who: The Youngbucks just completed a successful 2nd tour of Dragon Gate which included narrowly missing the semi-finals of the Summer Adventure Tag League as well capturing the PWG Tag Titles from AoTF. They have officially become the newest US mascots in Dragon Gate replacing Jack Evans and Matt Sydal and may soon be looking towards a 3rd tour with the company. I guess those animal print tights really are the source of their power…did you really think it was their ponytails? RyoSuka make up a very formidable veteran team from the Typhoon stable. Susumu Yokosuka is formerly of M2K and Ryo Saito was a member of Do Fixer prior to joining up with CIMA. Both of them have won the Dream Gate Title as well as teaming up to win the Twin and Triangle Gate titles so they are no strangers to partnering. Saito usually finishes off opponents with his bridging German Suplex while Susumu has a multitude of finishing maneuvers including the "Jumbo No Kachi" lariat.

The Why: The ‘bucks are SoCal originals. They are well known from wrestling in just about every Fed in the greater California area and are a representative of the next wave of future SoCal stars. Their time in Japan has proven extremely beneficial and they seem to not only be very popular with the (mostly female) fans, but they also are enjoying an incredible push. This should be one hell of a re-match as the ‘bucks now have the home field advantage. I wouldn't expect to see a title change here, but it wouldn't be out of the question. It looks as if there isn't a scheduled "Twin Gate" title match in the upcoming two weeks so if the ‘bucks do pull off the upset they have some time before they'd have to make another trip to Japan.

Main Event
Open the Triangle Gate Championship Title Match: Yasuhi Kanda, GAMMA, & YAMATO vs Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, & BxB Hulk

The Who: After Muscle Outlaw'z and New Hazard dissolved as a result of RH kicking out BxB Hulk they joined to form Real Hazard. Since then SHINGO beat Hulk and captured the vacant Open the Dream Gate belt that CIMA had to give up due to injury and was subsequently kicked out of the stable. Currently Real Hazard holds the Open the Triangle Gate Championship, a 3-man tag title, and are feuding with the newest "Super Face" group; World-1. World-1 includes two former MO'z members, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino, super Japanese Pretty Boy BxB Hulk, semi-nomadic Naoki Tanisaki, and newcomer and B-Boy MC K.Z. World-1 is the newest stable to form and features three of the most popular wrestlers in DG which just happen to be the three wrestling in this match. While Doi and Yoshino recently won the Summer Adventure Tag League they have long been considered the best Tag Team in DG, BxB Hulk seems to have been groomed since his debut into being the "ace" of DG after being mentored by Magnum Tokyo himself. The RH side of this match is a bit more eclectic as both Kanda and YAMATO recently turned "heel" in the past year and GAMMA has always been the crafty tyrant in DG. GAMMA is the de-facto leader of RH and so far has mastered the Triangle Gate championship and RH's willingness and insistence on cheating may be the deciding factor here.

The Why: This is the biggest feud in Dragon Gate right now as World-1 is being groomed to take over Typhoon's place as THE "face" stable in the company. Real Hazard is now the mega-heel stable in DG and considering how quickly the Triangle Gate changes hands it wouldn't be a surprise to see a title change in the main event. Mainly to not only end the show on a positive note, but to also make this show seem eventful. Usually you see the most important belt get defended in the main event, but if they are using the Triangle Gate match in the "main" then there is a good chance there is a reason behind it. Get ready for World-1's first big win.

And more…
Dragon Gate Invitational Match (WPW)
Infernal vs Lil Cholo vs "The Amazing" Junior

There will be an exhibition style match by wrestlers from the World Power Wrestling company which is run by King Ali Baba who used to be a regular in the old Toryumon Gym and an old friend of CIMA's. WPW also helped promote the show and helped sell tickets for the show so this seems like another case of one hand washing the other. The only wrestler I've seen extensively is Lil' Cholo who is a very solid wrestler who has spent some time in PWG. Infernal has some comedy/heel stylings and I don't seem to remember either match I've seen of Junior's which is fairly telling. This should be an interesting match and perhaps the biggest of these men's career as they may be auditioning for a potential tour in DG if all goes well.

Special Guest: Hayabusa

Hayabusa is being advertised for an autograph and photo session. My guess is that the autograph might not too legible so make sure to bring a camera instead. What? Hey…CIMA's the one who told me.

Granted I'm a little disappointed that Tozawa, K-NESS, and Mochizuki won't be making the trip and wrestling on the show, and even more disappointed that Vampiro will be, but this is a big deal. Right now judging by the fact that tickets were slashed for the front row seats it looks as if there are plenty of seats available and perhaps ticket sales aren't as robust as DG was hoping. My guess is that the advertising effort wasn't as well placed as it should have been since it seems like only the Japanese parts of town had any flyers around it. While they did do some ticket sales at the smaller Indy feds around SoCal like AWS and WPW that might not be enough. Remember how disappointing the turnout for the RoH shows were, perhaps if the DG show coincided with Labor Day weekend instead they might have sold a few more tickets to those willing to hop a plane. If this show doesn't do well then Dragon Gate may either not hold a show in LA again, or may not have another show in the states. Let's hope that everyone is just procrastinating. For as much as Indy fans seem enamored with puroresu it will be interesting to see just how far that adoration will stretch. If this show succeeds, draws well, and is received well we may finally see a real turn around in the way Japanese companies perceive the American market for wrestling instead of the other way around. Then again if BxB Hulk doesn't even bother bringing over a single harajuku girl then they might as well cancel their plane tickets now.

The Truth

I don't know if this is "History" but it sure seems like it. I really hope that SoCal doesn't let the rest of the country down because I could just hear the bitching and complaining if DG doesn't get at least 500 fans for the show. Everyone from Philly to NY will be complaining about how us lazy West Coasters screwed things up for everyone and they would have packed the stadium had they had the opportunity. Los Angeles is known for having a big wrestling community as well as a big Japanese population so let's see if those two ingredients are enough to make for a successful show. I'm calling 350 now, anyone want to take the under/over?

Coming Up Short

Ryan Braddock, Gavin Spears, and Scotty Goldman. They sound like two male porn stars and their agent. Seriously, what the hell is up with the horrible names that these guys are given and even worse, why are their pushes so God awful. They have exactly ZERO wins between them. They don't even have bios up. In fact it seems like there have been around a half dozen new guys debuting in the past two months and only Evan Bourne seems to be close to ready to perform at a top level. I think with so many guys debuting and not enough pushes to go around we'll be seeing a few guys released for lack of "anything to do" and a few sent down until they are released for the lack of "anything to do". Horrible. Nothing worse than seeing a potential wrestler's young career come up short because "creative" isn't creative enough.

6 Degrees of…



I will admit that I was impressed with "Sexy" Chucky T this weekend. So much so that we'll include him in this week's 6DO. Considering how much Chuck loves scaring little kids it only made sense to hook him up with another Chucky that loves scarring little kids for life...



You know what's scarier than a killer doll? A killer doll getting 5 movies made about it...somehow I don't think a Care Bear would forcibly impregnate you with a turkey baster. Except of course for Daterape Bear.

Whatchu talkin' bout readers?

You're trying to decide which of last week's bitches to whack it to first I bet.

6 Degrees Results

Echo...echo...echo...

Left Overs…

TNA is considering signing Lashley and RVD. Might as well debut them as a tag team. Hmmm....huge Black dude and a pothead....how about...."Fondue".

How tired are you going to be of hearing Mick Foley say..."right here...in Orlando, Florida" just to get a cheap pop?

Look, Ricky Ortiz is a decent name and all, but if you finish off a guy with a move called "The Big O"...then you might as well keep the name: DaBone. I can't wait till he starts wrestling inter-gender matches and the Divas have to start overselling it.

I had a pretty fucked up thought about Kennedy's surgery the other day. Imagine he goes in to see a surgeon about testicular cancer and wakes up completely neutered. "I'm sorry Mr. Kennedy...but when you came in to have surgery you specifically said to remove a testicle....testicle".

Santino recently donated $500 to OVW. Ashley Massaro also decided to donate the equivalent of $500 to OVW...so she just let one of the wrestlers put the tip in...just the tip though.

Tuesday's "Heel" team of Miz, Morrison, Henry, and Chavo should have had an awesome team name, like...."S'mores". You know, two crackers, with a big hunk of chocolate and a marshmallow inside.

Okay, so maybe I was confused when I heard Brock Lesner would be taking on Couture in Las Vegas. I was just thinking that this was going to be the most KICK ASS "Project Runway" in history. I would pay good money to hear Tim Gunn tell Brock to "make it work".

There will be a 60 man roster for the new RvsSD game. IGN will be announcing one a day for 60 days. After 60 days they will then be naming the 11 replacements for wrestlers already announced and released by that time.

The Great Booty Debate 2008

So I lied...we're still a few weeks from the end of the contest since I've been fortunate to find a whole new hidden treasure trove of hot bitches. We're getting really tight here as the contest is literally neck and neck. And I wouldn't mind neckin' with either of these chicks.

Random Asian Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week



Her cups spilleth over.

Random Latina Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week



Guess the last Hot Latina was TOO HOT...

Pimpin' In High Places

Its weird to look around the room during staff meetings and not recognize some of the faces. Seems like the annual "Roster Trimming" in the "e" is catchy. I just hope you don't see "411mania would like to wish Bayani Domingo the best on all his future endeavors" soon in the news section. Which would never happen...since I'm pretty sure my future endeavors would include peeing in the Mountain Dew dispenser.

Ask 411

RRRR

Cookie

HH

CoH

Shorty

D-Dubya

Looking forward to the weekend after a short week this week. I managed to book myself into two offsite meetings meaning I really only have two days in the office doing actual work. I feel like I'm part of the "Creative" staff for the "e". Except I actually did something productive those two days...and I didn't try to pitch another gimmick change for Charlie Haas involving him becoming a Viking warrior called: Charlie Huss. HUSS, HUSS, HUSS. Sorry, I guess they got Freddie Prinze Jr. for that kind of stuff. See you in Bell Gardens people.

Till then, the Truth will set you free.
-B