YAMATO

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Grimmas]

He was so great against (Ricochet??) at that Dead or Alive show last year. Is there more appearances where he worked body parts I can watch?

[W2BTD]

Much like Masaaki Mochizuki, if you find yourself allergic to the DG style, this is the guy you should investigate if you feel like you need to give people from DG a chance, while not wanting to waste time on a style you already know isn't for you. An immediate rec that comes to mind would be the 5/5/14 Dream Gate match vs Ricochet, which was basically an old territory title match, with the heel challenger finding a sleazy way to ground his high flying babyface opponent and is the total opposite of what people would think of a Dragon Gate match involving a guy like Ricochet.

[W2BTD]

He was so great against (Ricochet??) at that Dead or Alive show last year. Is there more appearances where he worked body parts I can watch?

 

We were typing at the same time, lol.

[El McKell]

He was so great against (Ricochet??) at that Dead or Alive show last year. Is there more appearances where he worked body parts I can watch?

 

He works over CIMA's leg in the early going of this match, but it's nowhere near the quality of that Ricochet match.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18e8si_cima-vs-yamato-dragon-gate-1-20-10_sport

​

[InYourCase]

Didn't realize I hadn't posted in YAMATO's thread.

 

He'll finish in my list this time around, but 10 years from now, I expect him to be a Top 30-40 guy. So much raw talent. Does everything right. Sickening amount of charisma. Good babyface, ridiculously great heel.

 

The aforementioned CIMA and Ricochet matches are great. I'd toss in this match against Mochizuki from mid-2011 as another one to watch.

http://www.openthedragongate.com/2011/05/dead-or-alive-2011-5-5-11/

[Ship Canal]

So good to see people recommending the Ricochet match. I love that match so much. The national anthems at the beginning and everything! Proper old school vibe.

[highflyflow]

Surprisingly lack of discussion for YAMATO considering he's hyped as a low-key WOTY candidate for the Dragon Gate fanbase. Where does everyone stand on YAMATO today? Where does he rank as far as best Toryumon/DG guys ever? How does he compare to contemporaries from other companies like Shiozaki, Tanahashi, Sekimoto, HARASHIMA, Okada, Naito, Ibushi, etc?

[HeadCheese]

6 hours ago, highflyflow said:

Surprisingly lack of discussion for YAMATO considering he's hyped as a low-key WOTY candidate for the Dragon Gate fanbase. Where does everyone stand on YAMATO today? Where does he rank as far as best Toryumon/DG guys ever? How does he compare to contemporaries from other companies like Shiozaki, Tanahashi, Sekimoto, HARASHIMA, Okada, Naito, Ibushi, etc?

I haven't watched much Dragon Gate to really know. In the limited amount I've seen him, he can be in very good  matches does not feel like a great wrestler and doesn't emotionally click with me the times I have watched him. If someone has a case for him, I'm willing to lo watch more is someone can sway me.

The Dragon Gate/Toryumon wrestlers making my list proabably Akira Tozawa, Masaaki Mochizuki, Ricochet, and maybe Stalker Ichikawa.

In terms of other Dragon system wrestlers he's below Shingo Takagi, Masato Yoshino, and Susumu Yokosuka. He feels like a case on a similar level to BxB Hulk.

In terms of contemporaries I would say he's better than Naito but, all the other ones you listed and Yuji Okabayashi connect with me more. I might pick Kento Miyahara or Katsuhiko Nakajima might be over him too.

Even though I am low on him, I hope pepole more informed on Dragon Gate submit ballots with him om it because he feels like a important wrestler to them and represention for that promotion feels important for a list like this.

[Makai Club #1]

Compared to the contamparies mentioned, I'd rank him over Shiozaki, Sekimoto, HARASHIMA and Naito. Not every match of his is perfect, but I'm very certain that if I put on any match of his from 2010 until 2019 that I'd enjoy it immensely. And his peak performances are among the best - both as a heel and a babyface. 

Where the Dragon System wrestlers lie in my top 100 is about as tricky as all of them on their best day could make it,  but YAMATO, Shingo, Mochizuki and Dragon Kid would rank the highest.