[2006-01-27-Dragon Gate] Anthony W. Mori & Ryo Saito & Dragon Kid & Naoki Tanasaki vs Magnitude Kishiwada & Naruki Doi & CIMA & Masato Yoshino

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Makai Club #1]

Almost immediately, this spilled into the far reaches of Korakuen Hall. Chairs went flying, the walkways were littered with wrestlers. The match is able to simmer back down to the ring where Dragon Kid and Yoshino have a little exchange. CIMA and Tanizaki follow and CIMA throws a towel at Tanizaki to wipe the grease from his hair. Saito comes in and doubles teams up on CIMA but it backfires and Saito blasts Tanizaki with a dropkick. Tanizaki is pissed and kicks Saito in the stomach, then walks out. Mori becomes the target of Blood Generation, getting ripped apart by all four one, sometimes three, at a time. Things turn around when Yoshino throws salt but misses Mori and gets Doi, who gets rolled up by a returning Tanizaki. It was a ruse! Tanizaki teases CIMA later on and CIMA is irate coming in attacking wildly which is rather uncharacteristic even for a heel CIMA. Dragon Kid becomes the centre of attention for a bit, being an effective FIP, selling and bumping around for Kishiwada while getting some offence in, almost eliminating Yoshino with a Hurricanrana. CIMA and Tanizaki gets some spots in before CIMA plants him with Schwein, TWICE! Tanizaki is gone. The tide gets turned quickly as Dragon Kid is soon eliminated by Yoshino and Mori almost follows him before Saito intervenes. CIMA and Kishiwada level Mori with moves but Mori continues to survive, almost winning the match after countering the Last Ride with a sunset flip. Incredible false finish! Yoshino and CIMA hit double drop kicks, one of which was very stiff, and Kishiwada attempts the last ride one more time but Mori counters into the cross arm breaker. Kishiwada slams Mori twice but Mori refuses to break the hold, turning it into a triangle and Kishiwada passss out! Mori wins it for his team, a man down. Fantastic finish. Mori submits the Open The Dream Gate Champion. 

One of the best matches of 2006, for sure. The match starts off relentlessly but slows down without sacrificing the energy set by the opening fracas. The match incorporates some storytelling with Tanizaki teasing a heel turn but that’s turned on its head for the first elimination. The match integrates singular feuds, like Dragon Kid v Masato Yoshino and Anthony W. Mori vs Magnitude Kishiwada with tremendous tag team wrestling. The match peaks with the amazing closing stretch with the drama of the two captains fighting to beat each other. CIMA is the glue of the match for me, along with Dragon Kid and Ryo Saito. He had some great exchanges with Tanizaki but also showed good character work and true leadership instincts, ordering his troops into action constantly. One of my favourite things about the match is it didn’t do the obvious trope of going down to the last man. There was enough drama in the 3 v 2 disadvantage and it made use of the Captain’s Falls and the heightened stakes that it brought to the match. ****1/2