Making a Case for SpeedMuscle: Volume 1

After what I would consider a successful Countdown to Kobe series, the Review Gate is back, this time focusing on Pro Wrestling Only's "Greatest Wrestler Ever" project. While part of the fun of the GWE project is discovering the talent's of wrestlers that you've never watched, or in some cases even heard of before, it's also nice to reflect on acts that you have seen and enjoyed at one point or another. The focus of this blog going forward is to "pimp", if you will, some of Dragon Gate's finest. There are plenty of current roster members who will be cracking my Top 100 so I feel like it's important to examine them closely here. 

Starting off, however, I'm looking at a tag team, arguably the most dominant team in Dragon System history - SpeedMuscle. The speed is brought by Masato Yoshino, the muscle by Naruki Doi. It's a very simple concept, one that created many, many amazing matches. They have not been nominated yet on the PWO board so this post will be serving the purpose of doing just that. 

Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs. Jack Evans & YAMATO: 5/10/2007

You can watch this match here. 

This is probably the best primer for SpeedMuscle out there. It's short, but it gives you a great idea of what the duo is all about. Of course, if you didn't like what you saw here, it's probably not going to get better. Jack Evans is the super babyface here (Korakuen loves those dance moves) and Doi, especially, doesn't take too kindly to that. The precision shown by SpeedMuscle during their double team moves is simply incredible. Their combinations look great and helps them stand out as a tag team. Nothing special, not a MOTYC or even close to it, but it was a strong chapter with a great hook that made me want more. 

Rating: ***1/4

Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs. Ricky Marvin & Kotaro Suzuki: 5/12/2007

The first of many "junior epics" I will come across. This also takes place at the first Muscle Outlawz produced show, which creates an interesting dynamic. SpeedMuscle represents MO'z, so unlike most of their matches from this time period, the crowd cheers for these lads. The SpeedMuscle name is perfected here. I probably sound like an idiot repeating this, but that's exactly what the act was. Doi has power and uses it to beat down his opponents and Yoshino has speed, which really comes into play later on in the match as he's able to break up some close nearfalls. I loved this match. It's long, even with slight clipping, but two teams this good are able to pull it off and keep me entertained throughout. 

Rating: ****1/4

Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs. Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai: 10/12/2007

More good stuff, this time coming in front of a hot Korakuen crowd that loves a good title match. Doi and Yoshino are clearly positioned as heels here, which is funny to me and only me because that means that people cheered Taku Iwasa. Those people paid money for their ticket so I guess they're free to do what they'd like. Yoshino had some remarkably great facial expressions here, some from selling and some while he was on offense. Doi seemed to be doing most of the heavy lifting (see...there's the muscle connection again) in the first two matches, but Yoshino stepped up to the plate here and delivered an awesome performance. 

Rating: ***3/4

Closing the Gate: So far, so good. I know SpeedMuscle will finish in my Top 25 for tag teams, it's just a matter of where. Three completely different kinds of matches here help their cause. They had a sprint with Evans & YAMATO, a great battle with the NOAH duo where they played babyface, and then a fun match in Korakuen where they are not liked. Great stuff, so far. 

Countdown to Kobe: Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival 2014

2014 was a grand time to be a Dragon Gate fan. The company was firing on all cylinders in the ring and with their storytelling. The feud between BxB Hulk and YAMATO, to me, was so far and away the best feud of 2014. Elsewhere, Shingo & Tozawa were keeping guard of the Open the Twin Gate Championships in the lengthiest reign to date. Flamita was setting a new standard for junior heavyweights as his Brave Gate Championship run, while still young at this point, was remarkable. If that wasn't enough, Matt Sydal was back and ready to make a statement after sitting on the sidelines for so long. Kobe World 2014 is an excellent way to cap off the Countdown to Kobe series. 

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Dragon Gate Presents:

Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival, July 20, 2014

Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, & Gamma vs. Jushin Liger, Uhaa Nation, & Stalker Ichikawa

This match has disappeared from the Internet. It wasn't a special opener by any means, but seeing Mochizuki and Liger battle was really cool at the time. Not much I can say here as I haven't seen the match in a year. Looking at my initial rating, I gave it **1/2. See, not much going on here? MOVING ON. 

Rating: **1/2 // NO GIFS

Jimmy Kanda & Jimmy Kagetora vs. Punch Tominaga & Mondai Ryu

Punch's entrance here is one of the coolest things ever. It's funny looking back at this a year later, but this match was completely designed to get Punch over as a crazy killer. He was pinned by Stalker Ichikawa on 7/12/15. At the time Punch looked really interesting and did, in fact, look like a crazed killer coming out of this match. 

Rating: NR

Flamita vs. Dragon Kid

This wasn't a high-flying sprint like most people expected. Instead, they had a basic match with the big spot being Flamita kicking out of the Ultra Hurricanrana. This certainly wasn't the spectacle most people expected it to be going in, but long term, I think this did a lot for Flamita. Dragon Kid is a total pro, also. He gave Flamita just the right amount of shine. By the end of this, Flamita looked like a major player. Very enjoyable match, yet very different from what you'd expect. 

Rating: ***3/4

Naruki Doi, Cyber Kong, & Kzy vs. Jimmy Susumu, Mr. Quu Quu, & Genki Horiguchi

This ended up being an excellent Triangle Gate match. I wasn't expecting much from it at the time simply because I felt like we had seen this combination way too much. In reality, these trios hadn't faced each other, but there was a LOT of Jimmyz/Mad Blankey interaction in 2014. Horiguchi killed it here. He's just so good as his job. He won't touch my GWE list, but boy, I love me some Genki Horiguchi. Incredible closing stretch with Susumu becoming a total machine to try and takeout Kong and Doi. Great match to close out the first half. 

Rating: ****

Masato Yoshino & Ricochet vs. Matt Sydal & CIMA

It was clear that Sydal hadn't been in a match since January 2012. He was rusty here. He and Ricochet had a really rough opening exchange and there were times when Yoshino was visibly leading him in spots, but by the end, he found his groove. This was a really cool moment and a decent match. All four have had better performances in Kobe, but coming out of intermission, this did its job. 

Rating: ***1/2

Shingo Takagi & Akira Tozawa vs. T-Hawk & Eita

This match finished third on my Voices of Wrestling MOTY ballot because it's a GREAT FREAKING MATCH. My God, this is great. Tozawa had been battling T-Hawk all year and hadn't been able to put him away. Plus, there was friction between he and Shingo because Shingo had been doubting him. So what does Tozawa do? Tozawa works his ass off and helps this match reach the next level. I absolutely love this match. I believe Jae from IHeartDG would classify this as hot fighting. T-Hawk looked stronger at the end of this than he has all of 2015. This was excellent. Completely different from the Twin Gate match at World 2011, also. Those four flipped around, these four had a smart, grounded match that built to an insane conclusion. This is my jam, my man. 

Rating: ****3/4

BxB Hulk vs. YAMATO

I have mixed feelings about this match. There's so much good but there's also one glaring negative - that being Hulk's leg selling. For the most part, I think the conversation about "selling the leg" is mind numbing and incredibly aggravating, but Hulk really did do a terrible job here. It's a shame because YAMATO was so great working over his legs. There's a point where YAMATO has Hulk in Figure Four and proceeds to verbally and physically assault him. Flair never did something this good on the canvas. Hulk, on two healthy legs, fought back and was able to put YAMATO away with the Phoenix Splash. Overall, I liked this match. Hulk was established as the ace after this and brought stability back to the Dream Gate Championship, which had been in utter chaos since CIMA lost it at the prior World. This did more good than bad, even with Hulk's selling, or lack of it.

Rating: ***3/4

Closing the Gate: This was an excellent way to put this series to bed. The Twin Gate match is one of my favorite matches of the project, the Triangle Gate match really over delivered, and the other two title matches were quite strong. I will be back to Close the Gate on Kobe after World 2015 (I may or may not have a review on here - undecided at this time). This was a lot of fun. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this as much as I did.

Countdown to Kobe: Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival 2013

18 months. CIMA, from December 2011 through June 2013, dominated the Dragon Gate landscape. He went through Tozawa, PAC, YAMATO, and K-Ness, among others, and was still atop the mountain. Shingo Takagi, who has been groomed for success since his first day in the company, was looking to prove himself as the ace of the company. You could make an argument that this match, Takagi vs. CIMA, was the most important Dragon Gate match to date. Elsewhere, K-Ness is getting a chance to shine for the Brave Gate Championship, Tozawa and Hulk try to defend their titles against Ricochet and Naruki Doi, and YAMATO and Mochizuki unleash ruthless aggression on each other. 

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Dragon Gate Presents: 

Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival, July 21, 2013

Kotoka, Super Shenlong, & Chihiro Tominaga vs. Rich Swann, Super Shisa, & Shachihoko BOY

This was excellent for an opening match. The experienced team kept the match together while giving the younger trio a chance to shine. Swann is such a pro and he's still so young. I really hope he returns to Japan soon. He really stood out in this match.

Rating: ***1/2

Stalker Ichikawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Dylan Hales dream match right here. This was insanely entertaining and it wasn't just because of Ichikawa. Fujiwara played his part perfectly. This was a lot of fun. Something about seeing Fujiwara take an ass-attack from Ichikawa brings a smile to my face. 

Rating: NR

Cyber Kong, HUB, & NOSAWA vs. Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy Kagetora, & Mr. Quu Quu

HUB, pronounced "Hub-o", I believe, is not very good, NOSAWA is not very good, and Kong was at the stage in his career where he couldn't do anything right. That left The Jimmyz to do most of the work and they tried, but this was just a match. Even though Kong was largely terrible at this point, he and Susumu have really good chemistry. 

Rating: ***

Genki Horiguchi, Jimmy Kanda, & Ryo Saito vs. Kzy, Mondai Ryu, & Uhaa Nation vs. Don Fujii, Gamma, & Dragon Kid

It's so funny to see Uhaa Nation as a heel. Like, has there ever been a more likable person in the wrestling business? Horiguchi put in another fantastic performance here and held together what was largely a dull match. Believe it or not, the Kzy/Ryu tandem (with Uhaa) did not win the titles. Shame. One day, Ryu is grabbing the brass ring. 

Rating: ***1/4

Masato Yoshino vs. K-Ness

Yoshino wore Ita-Con tribute gear which was freaking sweet. Both guys were on top of their game here. K-Ness is so great at creating exciting nearfalls and finishing stretches. It's hard for me to not be invested when he's in the ring. It's the same thing with Genki Horiguchi. Flash pins, when protected, are just the best. These two had a killer match. K-Ness just had a big singles match against Akira Tozawa and I really hope it's not his last big singles match of 2015. What a man. 

Rating: ****

YAMATO vs. Masaaki Mochizuki

This was an all-time great performance by Masaaki Mochizuki. YAMATO was outstanding here but Mochizuki was just on another planet. This looked and felt completely different than anything else I've watched for this project and it was a refreshing change. Man, this match was so tremendous. The submissions, the kicks, and some incredible nearfalls really had me invested in this. Go seek out this match, especially if you're participating in Pro Wrestling Only's Greatest Wrestler Ever project. I was blown away by this. 

Rating: ****1/2

Ricochet & Naruki Doi vs. BxB Hulk & Akira Tozawa

This was incredible. Not on the level of the big tag match from 2011, but still something that no other company can touch. Ricochet was outstanding here. He had grown so much from that 2011 match and was the best looking here. Doi is a really good tag match wrestler, as is Hulk, so those two looked strong here. Tozawa...does this guy ever look bad? Incredible stuff here. 

Rating: ****1/2

CIMA vs. Shingo Takagi

Unlike previous CIMA main events where he tried to create epics, this actually felt like one, and because of that, a lot of this match worked. This had a big match feel that has lacked in previous CIMA main events. Shingo adds to his GWE case again as he was tremendous in this. This almost went 40 minutes which is absurdly long for a match with no Danielson, Kobashi, or Misawa in it, but I really enjoyed it. Takagi was supposed to look like a big deal here and he absolutely did. A really strong way to end World 2013. 

Rating: ****1/4

Closing the Gate: Fantastic show. The second half delivered more than I thought it would with that YAMATO/Mochizuki match really being something special. Double thumbs up for this show. Next time, the series comes to an end with World 2014! BxB Hulk is in the main event once again, Flamita looks to prove himself to the wiser Dragon Kid, and Shingo is involved in another classic!

Countdown to Kobe: Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival 2012

2012 was a year of transformation for Dragon Gate. Junction Three disbanded in February after losing one final match to Blood Warriors and Blood Warriors, now led by Akira Tozawa and BxB Hulk, transformed to Mad Blankey. The Jimmyz, Windows, Akatsuki, and WORLD-1 International all formed within the coming months. There is a large gap of footage that I haven't seen from 2012 because I believe there's a period where no footage turned up. To the best of my knowledge, the only version of Kobe World 2012 that ever circulated was a digest version (yuck). This show feels more like a supershow instead of a key show with many important matches. It lacks the intensity that World 2011 or even 2010 had. Even with that in mind, this is a super fun show. Well, a super fun show when Onita isn't around. 

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Dragon Gate Presents:

Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival, July 22, 2012

Genki Horiguchi, Jimmy Kanda, Ryo Saito, & Naoki Tanizaki vs. K-Ness, Kenichiro Arai, Super Shisa, & Shisa BOY

There's no way this couldn't be super fun, right? Right. By this point all eight men are super experienced and they know their roll. There's a few hot near falls down the stretch but they don't go overboard. Super Shisa shined here. He's so great and doing these opening matches. Really fun stuff. 

Rating: ***1/2

Chihiro Tominaga & Super Shenlong vs. Kotoka & Rich Swann

It's crazy to think that Swann is nearly the same age as the other three and yet, he's so much more polished and over. Shenlong is now Yosuke Santa Maria. As silly as the Santa Maria gimmick/lifestyle is, it's been nothing but a success for the former Shenlong. Under the mask, he was nervous and awkward. With the makeup and the boobs and the pelvis-based offense, Santa Maria actually looks confident. It's also funny to see that Tominaga was really solid on the mat here. Swann was lightyears ahead of everyone else, though. No issues with this. 

Rating: ***

Atsushi Onita & Stalker Ichikawa vs. Kzy & Mondai Ryu

This was hot garbage. I did not enjoy this and I normally enjoy Ichikawa and Kzy. I don't want to see Onita in 2015 (or 2012). This was just a waste of time. Worst match of the project thus far. 

Rating: DUD

Dragon Kid vs. Ricochet

These two stole the show at World 2011 in a tag match that I consider to be a 5* match. This match left a little to be desired. They didn't do the typical "big match" in Dragon Gate where they started off slow with boring limb work and then had a hot finish, instead, they just had a really boring start. It wasn't focused and it was really hard to get invested in. Things picked up towards the end with Ricochet kicking out of an Ultra Hurricanrana and then missing a Double Moonsault. Kid puts him away with a Dragonrana. Good, but it could've been great. 

Rating: ***3/4

Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kagetora vs. Shingo Takagi & YAMATO

This is a great example of how great Jimmy Susumu is. As much as I love Takagi & YAMATO, they struggled during this time period. Takagi was largely boring. He lost the fire he had in J3 or the drive he had in 2010 with Kamikaze. YAMATO had his head shaved in October and since then had been working with a shorter haircut. Normally that wouldn't make a difference but it really hurt YAMATO's charisma. The hair adds so much to his act. He came across as a very generic wrestler during most of this run. Susumu brought some fire to this and his battle with Takagi was nothing short of excellent. This was my favorite match of the night. Great stuff from Susumu. 

Rating: ****

PAC, Masato Yoshino, & Naruki Doi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, & Gamma vs. BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong, & "Fake" Naoki Tanizaki

There was a point in 2011 where Cyber Kong went from a fun, decent worker to utter trash. This was the peak of his trash run. He was just horrible here. Everyone else was fine with PAC, who was wrestling his last match for the promotion, shining the most. There weren't a lot of Dragon Gate antics here. This was really just nine guys doing some moves with little heat. Hulk and PAC had really good chemistry. This was fine. I've certainly seen better Triangle Gate matches and even better three vs. three vs. three Dragon Gate matches. 

Rating: ***3/4

CIMA vs. Akira Tozawa

This match was odd. Tozawa was the clear heel (even backed by Larry Dallas), but CIMA worked on top for a majority of this match. CIMA went out there to prove that Tozawa wasn't in his league. For the most part, he did just that. Tozawa didn't get a lot of offense. When he did, it was hampered by his leg injury that CIMA targeted throughout the entire match. Tozawa put up a good fight but the experience of CIMA led him to a victory. This wasn't a classic and their next match in 2013 was much better, but this was better than CIMA's prior to World main events. Solid. 

Rating: ***3/4

Closing the Gate: This show was fine. It went by quick with the exception of the Onita match. Nothing here was great, but most things were very good. It's one of the weaker shows of this project, but still much better than the 2009 show. Things ended on a high note here as the Dragon Gate roster came out to honor PAC after the main event. It's emotional and very interesting. Go watch it. 

Next time, CIMA's reign is threatened by Shingo, Mochizuki battles YAMATO, and the Twin Gate match offers some of Dragon Gate's best work. 2013 is good stuff! 

Countdown to Kobe: Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival 2011

2011 is my favorite year for Dragon Gate. The last 8 months of the year were focused on the war between Junction Three and Blood Warriors. Those two units were the only two units after Kamikaze and WORLD-1 folded (those two, with the addition of the veterans unit, led to the junction of the three units). Match quality was at an all-time high this year. Mochizuki was back on top and working big main event matches every month, PAC was bringing the Brave Gate Championship back to a prestigious level, and Takagi, Tozawa, and YAMATO all led the charge of great matches. 2011 was an incredible year for Dragon Gate so needless to say, I was super excited about watching this show for the second time. 

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Dragon Gate Presents: 

Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival, July 17, 2011

Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai vs. KAGETORA & Super Shisa

Seeing Iwasa mix it up on the mat with KAGETORA and Shisa made watching this worth it. Arai was nothing special here. I find it very odd that Iwasa and Arai, two men that weren’t a part of Blood Warriors or Junction Three, went over here. This seemed like the perfect time to show what the lesser men of J3 could do, but Iwasa scored the clean pinfall here.

Rating: **1/2

Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi vs. Susumu Yokosuka & Rich Swann

Boy, Rich Swann is charismatic. He got the crowd fully invested in match #2 on the card with his sweet rap down the stage. Saito, Horiguchi, and Susumu all have wrestled and teamed with each other for what feels like a million times so adding Swann to the mix really helped this match feel different. Saito works really well with guys that can flip around. He and Swann were the real standouts here. This was an excellent sprint.

Rating: ***1/2

Kzy, Naoki Tanizaki, & Tomahawk T.T. vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, Don Fujii, & Stalker Ichikawa

Shame Quack won’t book the Fujii/Takayama/Ichikawa team for King of Trios. I would CONSIDER buying a VOD for that. They drifted in and out of comedy with Tomahawk TT (now T-Hawk) being positioned as a dangerous man. Team Fujii, or in my mind, The Dream Team, went over with a beautiful array of Nice Germans. Folks, this is wrestling. After the match Fujii and Takayama put the boots to Ichikawa because why not? Inoffensive.

Rating: **3/4

Masato Yoshino, Gamma, & YAMATO vs. Naruki Doi, Cyber Kong, & Yasushi Kanda

I’m sure I’ve said it on this blog before but I’d like to reiterate that I’d gladly take Taguchi’s ass-based attacks over Gamma’s spit-based offense any day. That would fall under the “gross” category. When Gamma isn’t spitting on people this is a really good Triangle Gate match. YAMATO, who was an excellent babyface for all of 2011, played a really good face in peril here. Cyber Kong threw some punches here that made Makabe’s look like Matt Hardy’s. Even with that, I really enjoyed this match. Gamma put Kanda away with a Skytwister Press and judging from how badly Gamma missed his chest, this could’ve been a shoot. Probably.

Rating: ***3/4

Akira Tozawa vs. Shingo Takagi

Remember last year when Tozawa was doing NOSAWA cosplay? A year later, he’s Blood Warriors’ secret weapon and a threat to the toughest man in the promotion. This match was great. Not quite as good as their battle from 2015. Here, Tozawa was a new, dangerous man and was doing everything he could to prove himself to Takagi. Four years later, the two are equals battling it out. This match was all about Tozawa. He was crisp in everything he did and it resulted in an excellent match. Takagi is such an interesting wrestler in that he can manhandle someone like BxB Hulk one year and be the baddest heel in the company and the next year do the same thing to Tozawa and get cheered for it. Tozawa went over clean, as he should have, which helped establish him as a legitimate player on the Dragon Gate roster.

Rating: ****1/4

CIMA & Ricochet vs. Dragon Kid & PAC

There are people that are going to read this and think I’m out of my mind, but lads - this is a five star match. Yes, it’s completely a spotfest. One that if JR bothered to watch he’d have a stroke and one that if Parv watched I’m sure he’d have a few “points” to make. The execution here was flawless. Nothing they did looked phony or planned out. Everything here was perfectly timed and perfectly executed. I feel like this is also a very crucial match in Ricochet’s history. Working with PAC for all of 2011 (5 singles matches, numerous tag matches) really helped him as a worker. By this point, PAC was an elite junior that had made a name for himself in Japan and throughout 2011, he helped mold Ricochet into the worker he is today. 

This is a combination of “flips for flips sake” Ricochet and “I can hold a match together” Ricochet. He still clearly had 2011 legs but he wasn’t abusing his ability of flight, he was simply using it. His interactions with both PAC and Dragon Kid were outstanding. The aforementioned Dragon Kid also stood out here as someone who was applying their craft to the best of their ability. The only person that didn’t stick out in any way was CIMA. He was just there for a lot of this, but that doesn’t mean he was bad. This is the second match on the Countdown to Kobe series getting the full five. This is as good as it gets.

Rating: *****

Masaaki Mochizuki vs. BxB Hulk

Hulk was just beginning his run as the wine drinking, strike-heavy, evil persona that I greatly miss at times. Mochizuki was three months into the greatest Dream Gate reign of all-time and was the clear ace of the company. I hate the idea of a Hulk match being based around him kicking people, but this totally worked. His kicks were sharp and they meshed well with Mochizuki's strike-heavy offense. This never felt "shooty" or like they were trying to be tougher than they really were. Instead, it felt like a really good wrestling match. Both men wanted the Dream Gate Championship and because of that, they pushed each other to their limits. I think it's clear that Mochizuki led this match and Hulk was following behind him, which I have no issues with. This was an excellent way to close out Kobe World 2011.

Rating: ****1/2

Closing the Gate: Best Kobe World ever? Best Kobe World ever. A five star match and two that reach 4+ puts this ahead of 2005. The undercard went by super fast and we were left with a tremendous trio of main events. Next time - Tozawa tries to prove himself to CIMA, Kagetora & Susumu battle Takagi & YAMATO, Onita stops by, and PAC says goodbye!