Dragon Gate news roundup
I haven’t received any new Inifnities or shows lately so I thought I’d do a quick catch up on some events going on in Dragon Gate lately. Be warned though of course that this will contain spoilers for upcoming Infinities so if you like to get your updates from the shows then you should stop reading.
First of all, and possibly the biggest news in a long time (at least for me ;)) is that we have a new Brave Gate champion. K-ness is the man to take out Naoki Tanizaki. Naoki had been a bit of a surprise champion, but a popular one nonetheless and his win was certainly a big moment for this career. However, with this win K-ness claims to be back to 100% and that as he is now back to his former best no one can beat him. While I’ve yet to see any K-ness matches since his heel turn apart from the cage match recently it’s hard to tell if that is true, but frankly, as big as a K-ness fanboy as I am willing to take him on his word and begin marking out right away. If K-ness is indeed back to his former best then Dragon Gate will certainly be an exciting place going forward. He also has some new Real Hazard kicks which is nice to see. A slight hearkening back to his Darkness Dragon days.
The other Dragon of the company, Dragon Kid is also having some drama of his own. He officially left Kamikaze and joined CIMA and Gamma in WARRIORS-5. It would appear that with the absence of KAGETORA they are now WARRIORS-3. However, recently KAGE posted on his blog how he was shocked DK was allowed to join the group. One would expect him to form his own unit shortly. Sugawara and ken45 may not be far behind?
The once steady (and currently hot) Real Hazard has begun to show seasonal cracks. Genki Horiguchi, arguably current RH leader has claimed he wants the team to begin winning matches fairly. This obviously doesn’t sit well with Kanda and the two have come to blows on a couple of occasions because of this already. A possible Genki face turn coming? I’d be surprised if this wasn’t the case. However, Real Hazard has finally entered the generation war taking the position of the middle generation. It will be interesting to see how far they take this generation war and to see just where they are going with it. I feel it hasn’t quite hit it’s stride yet but we will see.
So that’s the majority of the news happenings as of late. For those new to Dragon Gate you may not be aware that usually around this time of year they go through a unit shake up so and often this is the time of year when Dragon Gate is most interesting. We have a ways to go until the dust all settles so keep an eye on this site to see what will come next.
Firstly,i think that the reign of naoki vas very well solid.I believe he had 6 successful defenses and a lot of matches,i ve seen were good.
do you think that the injuries of ryo saito has pushed dgate officials to hurry the push of k ness?.I mean,in the ppv before he was under the silly gimmick of turboness and now he quickly came back as an important player.It looks like officials did not really planned the push of k ness but that the fact that saito is out helped it.
Why k ness did changed of name?.Before he was darkness dragon.
I ve watched dragon gate since last year and i did not knew that at the start of each year they were changing of stable,even if i saw the end of typhoon and the start of the warriors 5,at the same period of time last year,so thanks for the info.
I ve seen the cage match of the ppv and it was a lot of fun to watch and really funny,with the differents interventions.It s been a long time a wrestling did not made me a little laugh,and i wondered how many cage matches,there are been in dragon gate and if they were all fun.
When was the last time that horiguchi was face?.I know he s been heel in real hazard and muscle outlaws(i ve seen it at roh),so it must be heel since years.Also,did he began this weird look with this extension of hair with his heel turn?.
Finally,i ve read a lot of comments on strong style symphony,where a lot of people complain about the fact that dragon gate is not fun anymore,but personally as a rookie watcher of this promotion,i thought last year was good.It looks like dragon gate fans are the same kind of the roh fans.They always complain about today product and said it was better before,it s weird because those promotions are a lot of fun to see.
Ha yeah,i do not know if it interest you but each time i met someone on the net who seems to like dragon gate,i talk about your website.I hope i could raise the number of viewers of your very interesting site.
hey,respond to my questions,just above…..
There’s no question SaiRyo getting injured meant K-ness had the opportunity to make a come back. I’m not even sure they would have pushed him had Ryo not been injured. As it stands though, at least there is a silver lining to the whole Ryo injury ordeal.
K-ness changed his name because he lost a mask vs mask match against Dragon Kid. He lost the dragon moniker essentially also.
If my memory serves there have only been two cage matches previously. Both were great although the first is still my favourite.
Genki was last face when he was in Do FIXER. When he reinvented himself this was when he turned heel and is what you see today. I always liked him way more before (in fact he was one of my faves) so I’m hoping he will move closer to his former self next time.
Yeah a lot of people complain about Dragon Gate these days, but whatyagonnado? That’s just how it is. I personally still really enjoy it, but I think a lot of people are upset that there isn’t enough definition between wrestlers these days (which is an understandable claim). Essentially back in the day, Dragon Gate and Toryumon were famous for their crazy gimmicks and storylines. However, the funny thing is at the time people used to complain about these too and were happy when Ultimo (who was responsible for them) was given the boot. Just goes to show, you can’t please everyone. Dragon Gate has had worse years for sure and I think right now it’s a very exciting time as they are finally starting to make some new and genuine stars (YAMATO for instance).
Thanks for raising awareness of this site. It’s always nice to have more visitors
Thanks for the response.
I ve read the site of jae and he said that kagetora has joined again rh but had some tensions with some guys.I think the faction will implode and there will be a brand new faction,in dragon gate.
Nevertheless,i do not want to see some particular wrestlers turn babyface,exept genki.Is this possible that in dragon gate,there are 2 heel factions?.Maybe,that was the case before.That could fun to watch.
why the real hazard members reprent the middle generation?.Kzy goes out of the dg dojo after yamato and shingo,right?.
I do not know how genki was as a face but i think he does an incredible job,as a heel.Wow,his looks , his heel mannerism are great.The look he gave when yoshino was shaved of his hair was awesome.What do you think of his heel personna?
Was kanda babyface in his career?.I think he must not a lot the case,because he does an awesome job,as a heel.His evil smile is gold.By the way,what does he says when he does the eye rake and then run to do a dropkick.You know 90 percent of time,the opponent avoid the move.
Was do think of kokota?.He was pretty good for a 19 year old young lion on the ppv,in my opinion.
Where is kenshin chikano?.He s about to be fired like ryoma or what?.
ah yeah,i forgot milano retired yesterday.
will you do an article for him like you did you iwasa?.I know he was a big deal,in the early days of dragon gate.
KAGE joining RH I think is temporary. Expect a new faction to come of this. There is a possibility that there could be two heel factions, but this doesn’t really happen in DG. Usually there will be a tween faction and I could see KAGE’s being that. However, with what looks to be most of RH not agreeing with Kanda it’s hard to say.
While it’s true kzy is a young wrestler and shouldn’t really be in the middle generation, most of the members are 2nd class or later students and it makes sense for them as a whole to be where they are. kzy probably won’t take part in many generation matches I expect, similar to how DK didn’t take part. Maybe kzy will join the new generation shortly. Who knows. Hopefully not though as he is a great heel.
Genki currently as heel is pretty good but I didn’t like him so much when he was in MO’z. While he is good in any role he does, I think he is much more natural in a face role as he really knows how to get the crowd behind him. Possibly moreso than anyone else in the company. The HAGE army was a true shining point in Dragon Gate history and that’s all thanks to Genki.
Kanda has been babyface yes. He sort of started out that way as a young dragon with Susumu until they formed M2K and after he came back post retirement he was a face then also, although unaligned. He, however, is a natural heel and will probably always be while in the active roster. Kanda has pretty much always been great much like Genki. He has certainly changed a lot over the years though.
Kotoka I’m impressed with so far. I think he has the talent to be worthy of DG and hopefully he will have a bright future. Chikano is still around although he doesn’t appear to wrestle on any shows. I cannot say why, although possibly due to injuries. He still does crowd control at events though.
Yes I’ll be doing a piece on Milano shortly.
Was arai interesting as a babyface?.I just know really him since his real hazard stint and he s great as a heel.He must be very good a face as was like that during 10 years.
is this possible that you try to find the 2 others cage matches that dragon gate had in his history?.I m interested to see that.
what do you think of dragon gate usa?.For me,the chikara guys does not add anything to the mix.The only guys who are not in dg roster who are interesting for me are danielson,the young bucks and davey richards,but the others….;
what kanda say when he does his trademark eye rake and then his running dropkick,which is often miss?.
Arai started his career as a heel but the majority of it he was a babyface. I actually was never fond of him until he joined Tozawa-juku and teamed with Iwasa. He is great in RH though so I hope he continues to be that way.
I had the first cage match years ago. I may have it backed up somewhere but I can’t guarantee anything. The second one wasn’t so long ago… It was when Kanda lost his hair. I might have even posted it on the site. Take a look in the archives.
I’ve never watched DGUSA and don’t think I’ll plan on it so I can’t comment on it. US Indys don’t interest me in the slightest.
I’m afraid I’m not sure what he says during that move. I’ll have to watch it again and try and find out.
After Kanda’s atomic drop/eyerake combo he shouts out ‘John Woo’ as a tribute to the great director. The name of the move is the ‘John Woo Kick’ (made most famous by Low Ki)
Actually the John Woo kick was made famous by SUWA.
You used to see KAGETORA also do it but that was just due to his SUWAcito gimmick.
Why do I not remember ever seeing Kanda attempt this?
Ah of course, how could I forget about SUWA? I loved seeing him murder poor little Dragon Kid with it back in the day. I suppose I’ve just seen Low Ki doing it a lot more in recent years. (I’m assuming Low Ki nicked it when he joined NOAH in 05)
Loving K-Ness being back in a prominent position, even if he didn’t show much in the cage match or Kora six man vs Kid/Yoshi/Hulk. Hopefully he returns to his old form soon.
Also Seth, what is your predicted/hoped for card for Sumo Hall? I know it’s a couple of months away but what the hell. I’m hoping for;
Dream Gate
YAMATO vs Doi (c)
Brave Gate
K-Ness vs Yossino
Triangle gate
CIMA/Gamma/Kid vs Susumu/Genki/Arai
Or something like that for three main matches. Susumu vs Kid would be great too as we haven’t seen that in singles for a while.
Hey just found the site, only been watching DG for a couple of months, and it has become my favorite company. I was just wondering where and why you find all this news? I didn’t see any of this on the Infinities, you mentioned it as spoilers, so I’m assuming Infinity has a bit of delay.
I agree I’m not too interested in DGUSA, I enjoy Davey and the DG guys, but all the Chikara guys I could care less about. It’s still fun to get as much DG as you can, even if you have to sit through a Hallowicked match.
Can you quickly explain the age thing? Referring to some guys as Seniors, Juniors, etc. Does Dragon Gate just kinda make you earn your stripes and be there long enough to earn something? Is that why guys like PAC don’t do much when they wrestle?
Check the blogroll on the side for links to some places where you can find up to date DG news. As for WHY I find this news… not sure I can answer that ;) And yes, Infinities are usually about a month or so behind when I post them.
DG has been around for about 10 years and has gone through a lot of changes. There are currently different factions that are split up based on the era of Toryumon/Dragon Gate they joined. Generally, the veterans are the original members of Toryumon, the elder wrestlers or the visitors (like Akebono). The middle generation are the early term wrestlers from Toryumon and the new generation is pretty much anyone from T2P onwards. It’s not entirely based on age, as CIMA is pretty young still, but he’s got more experience than most people in the company and has been around probably the longest (other than maybe Mochi) so that’s why he’s with them.
As with all Japanese companies hierarchy is a big thing, whether based on age or experience, so this is what this whole generation war is all about.