Japan's Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling Invades the US - Results from Los Angeles

Courtesy: 411mania.com

Live Dragon Gate: Friday LA Extreme Night Results
Posted by Bayani Domingo on 09.06.2008

Dragon Gate invades California!

Dragon Gate: Friday LA Extreme Night
John Anson Ford Park, Bell Gardens, CA
Friday, 9/5/08, Bell Time: 8:00
Approximate Attendance: 550 – 600

**Opening Notes: Dragon Gate has provided their usual Japanese announcer as well as borrowing PWG's American ring announcer: John Ian. All entrances were in both Japanese and English**

1. Dragon Gate Special Invitational Match
Lil Cholo Def Infernal & "Amazing" Junior, Pinfall via Kudoh Driver Variation from Abdominal Stretch position
- Surprisingly entertaining match from these men out of WPW, very clean and fast paced to start, but eventually some of the wrestlers began trying to pull off too many spots and began getting blown up and a little sloppy. Lil' Cholo was waaaay over with the crowd and the match got good "heat" behind it. Cholo hit the Kudoh Driver (Cop Killer) variation on Junior for the pin.

2. El Generico Def Genki Horiguchi, Pinfall via Brainbustaaah
- Solid match featuring a "HAGE" controlling much of it and hamming it up "heel" style for the crowd. Very crisp match and a very good introduction into the DG-style for those who have never seen it. Finish came after Generico was able to avoid the "Backslide from Hell", hit an "Ole Kick" and finish off Genki with the "Brainbustaah". Post match saw the rest of Real Hazard who had accompanied Genki to the ring beatdown Generico until World-1 came out for the save. There was a short war of words both in Japanese and English which had Doi shout to GAMMA "Speak English" and "You Go Home", which he got the crowd to also chant.

3. Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa Bosou 10 Match Series Extreme Comedy Match
Necro Butcher Def "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa, Pinfall via Tiger Driver onto pile of Chairs
- Exactly what you would expect of these two. Stalker came out of the gate with a vicious slap to Necro, who then retaliated with a straight punch to the face and a pinfall in 8 seconds. Afterward Stalker recovered and begged for one more match, which Necro then granted. The second match got good time and included a lot of Stalker getting his tail handed to him after several weak attempts at various chair shots and the dreaded Kancho.

4. Open The Dream Gate Championship Match
SHINGO Def PAC, Pinfall via Made In Japan
- Excellent match and possible MoTN from these two. Basically SHINGO hit PAC with every move in his arsenal to try to ground him and PAC countered with high flying moves of his own. Second Rope Last Falconry, Pumping Bomber, and Blood Fall were all kicked out of by PAC and SHINGO kicked out of multiple SSP, Twisting SSP, and Phoenix Splash attempts. PAC had a lot of fan support, more so than SHINGO since he's a PWG semi-regular. Several near falls, but after kicking out of the Blood Fall, SHINGO finally pinned PAC with the "Made In Japan".

5. Dragon Kid & Kendo Def Keni'chiro Arai & Taku Iwasa, Pinfall via Ultra Hurricanrana
- At the beginning of the show Vampiro was announced as not being there and that news actually got a bit of applause from the crowd. Kendo was his replacement and I'm told he's also a WPW lucha wrestler. Match was a bit disappointing as Kendo was no where near able to keep up and there were several miscommunications involving him as well as he was out of shape and blown up 3 minutes in. Otherwise a solid match from the other 3 as Tozawa-Juku got several nearfalls, but Dragon Kid was able to pin Iwasa with a springboard Hurricanrana after Arai was taken to the outside by a big Plancha from Kendo.

6. Open the Twin Gate Championship Match
Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka Def The Youngbucks (Nick & Matt Jackson), Pinfall via Premium Bridge
- Another excellent match as the ‘bucks had the home field advantage, this showcased how well the ‘bucks had integrated into DG's style of fast paced action. RyoSuka were in charge for most of the match, but the bucks were on fire for the opening. Finish came when Matt Jackson was hit with a Dragon Suplex attempt and floated too far out of range for the bridging pin (perhaps a blown spot?), Saito then hit the "Premium Bridge" on him for the pinfall. Post match Genki came in to attack all the men and a masked wrestler came to their aid and cleared out Genki with the Schwein. He of course unmasked to show he was CIMA and thanked everyone for coming. He shook hands with everyone except for Kid as he walked out of the ring with DK looking confused.

7. Open the Triangle Gate Championship Match
- Other MoTN candidate and a fantastic match. Lived up to billing and was exactly what you would expect to see at a real DG show in Japan. The only caveat is that this match featured more spitting and saliva than any match I had ever seen in my life. Even a fair amount of spitting at the crowd by both GAMMA and Kanda. Fairly back and forth match except for a long heat sequence on BxB Hulk as he was getting beatdown by RH. Finish came after a long sprint of finishers and near falls, but GAMMA finally planted Hulk with a top rope tombstone for the pin. Afterward Doi challenged GAMMA to a one on one match and GAMMA ran back to the ring to attack all of World-1 with his Kendo stick until he was chased off and RH left. After Doi thanked everyone for coming, CIMA also came to the ring and the rest of the wrestlers also came out except for RH to pose for pictures.

**Overall Notes- Not exactly 100% authentic DG show since the crowd was obvious a big difference, the stifling heat in the venue, and the card not being entirely DG wrestlers, but as close to the real thing as you can get without plopping down $2000 for a plane ticket. Extremely successful show and great matches considering and DG said they will try to return next year. Excellent show and possibly the show of the year in SoCal thus far**