November 23rd 2006
Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling
Open the Crown Gate
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium Osaka, Japan
Sort of a weird thought before I get into this. I spent several minutes trying to decide whether or not I should type "Dragon Gate" or how it's stylized now, "Dragongate." They changed the name in 2019 for the 20th anniversary if anyone wasn't aware. I guess, since this project deals with the past, I'll stick with the two-word version. Sorry, it's late.
Dragon Gate in 2006 saw the first Dream Gate champion with zero successful defenses in Ryo Saito and a new heel unit in Muscle Outlaw'z. Saito received a huge push at the beginning of 2005 and went on to win King of Gate later that year. Supposedly, Susumu Yokosuka was originally planned to defeat Magnitude Kishiwada for the Dream Gate at some point in 2006 but due to injury had to lose early, which ended up being against Saito at the 2/24 Korakuen Hall show. Sticking with the plan, Yokosuka would defeat Saito for the title nearly two months later.
The origins of Muscle Outlaw'z also happen to be tied to Kishiwada's injury. Famously, Kishiwada announced before taking his leave that he had a friend coming in to fill his role in Blood Generation. That friend ended up being GAMMA making his DG debut on 3/21 and instantly found himself not getting along with Blood Generation leader CIMA. This led to CIMA expelling GAMMA from Blood Gen, but GAMMA departed with Blood Gen members Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi, and Naoki Tanizaki by his side. A match to determine the rights to the Blood Generation name took place on 4/23 between GAMMA and Doi and remaining Blood Gen members CIMA and Don Fujii. Shingo Takagi was also technically still a part of Blood Gen but I guess didn't want any part of the quarrel. He'd be in Ring of Honor for a year shortly after this anyways so he probably couldn't be bothered to choose a side. GAMMA and Doi would end up winning but rejected the name and went with... Muscle Outlaw'z.
Muscle Outlaw'z would last until May of 2008 and during that time had a pretty insane turn around rate for members. It not only served as a heel unit with members of the Dragon Gate roster but also welcomed a number of foreigners and guys from other domestic promotions. The GAMMA/CIMA feud would continue including a Hair vs. Hair match from the show our match today comes from.
Blood Generation was weak, but by the next tour had been joined by Jack Evans who was a regular with Ring of Honor and started working DG pretty regularly as well, beginning with the King of Gate tour in 2005. Matt Sydal would also join the unit as Blood Gen was shifting to an "international" unit as CIMA put it.
As only two titles were being defended on this show (one of which was the WAR Jr. title which was a couple of months before it'd be retired for 3 years) it makes sense to have a little unit warfare to pair with the CIMA v. GAMMA match. So we have Jack Evans and Matt Sydal of Blood Generation teamed up with BxB Hulk and Jushin Thunder Liger against the Muscle Outlaw'z team consisting of Magnitude Kishiwada (yeah, he came back, shrugged his shoulders, and fell into the ranks), Masato Yoshino, and Naruki Doi.
The two names that probably stick out to most people are Liger and Steen. Liger wasn't a stranger to popping up in random places and would show up in DG a little. Enough to win the Open the Dream Gate championship in 2007. I suppose BxB Hulk made a call to Liger after teaming with him at Shin-Kiba 1st RING a couple of weeks prior. As for Kevin Steen, this was a few months before becoming a regular part of Ring of Honor although he'd done some work with the promotion before. Also, it wasn't his first time in Japan as he faced Takashi Sasaki at a Korakuen Hall Zero1 show in March 2005. Just watched a clipped version of that match. It was fine. Kind of wonder what a Fight Without Honor/Guerrilla Warfare/Fluorescent Lightube Tower Deathmatch would look like between them around 2007-2009.
I remember the first time I watched this show and being beckoned into the fog of boredom by the first four matches. This 8-man spotfest was exactly what I needed to get back into the show before the final two matches. One thing of note is Kinta Tamaoka being the referee of the match. He had also joined Muscle Outlaw'z as their personal referee (he'd get fired in 2011 for using a "stimulant" in a bathroom) so that meant stopping Liger when he attempted to dive out of the ring, looking the other way when Doi exposes the turnbuckles, and other shenanigans in favor of the Outlaw'z. Evans spends the match doing insane stuff as he tended to do and at one point gets knocked down from the top turnbuckle by a random flying chair. It'll never get old watching Masato Yoshino hit the ring and picking up ridiculous speed while hitting the ropes. Hopefully, we get to more of that in the future of this project. Sydal kept up nicely with Yoshino countering a Sol Naciente into a pin attempt and the two of them continuing to roll each other up for near falls. The finish saw Yoshino hitting Sydal with the Torbellino but Yoshino accidentally getting powder to the face from Doi right after. Liger takes advantage and hits Yoshino with a brainbuster and Sydal follows up with a shooting star press for the pin.
When it comes to telling the tale of good vs. evil in pro wrestling, Dragongate has been the leader in that department for the past 25 years. There really wasn't much going on here beyond some good guys fighting some bad guys, and sometimes that's all you need in pro wrestling.
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