DRAGON GATE - Infinity 106 + 107!

Going the two for one route again this week.

106

1. Shingo Takagi & Susumu Yokosuka vs. Taku Iwasa & Akira Tozawa

Simple enough match designed to show that Shingo and Yokosuka were not the best of friends leading into their Dream Gate match on 11/16. I liked it because they didn't beat you over the face with it like Vince Russo would. It was subtle tension and it worked. Juku were mainly fodder for the stars here but the made them look good and got to shine a little themselves. Shingo via Pumping Bomber on Tozawa for the win.

2. Open the Brave Gate Title: Genki Horiguchi © vs. Masato Yoshino

It was a pleasure to see Genki in a meaningful match as we just don't see that often enough anymore. As an added bonus, the match was more or less unclipped. Real solid stuff from start to finish as guys like this just aren't gonna make mistakes in the ring, they're so good. Genki was as smooth as ever and Yoshino always has the crowd behind him. They didn't go as all out as the Yoshino/Dragon Kid match but they still had some fairly big near falls that the crowd popped for. There was interference from Real Hazard but it wasn't done too badly at all, so I had no problem with it. Yoshino won and was immediately challenged by K-Ness and Dragon Kid.

Good episode, two perfectly fine matches and solid storyline advancement.

INFINITY #106 - 7.5/10


107

1. Open the Brave Gate Title Contendership: Dragon Kid vs. K-ness

Not as good as the Yoshino/Genki match from 106, but still pretty decent. The finishing sequence featured some pretty swank cradelling, and DK got the leverage and the win. I wish I could say more about this, but there really isn't anything....


2. Naniwa-Style Elimination Match: Kenichiro Arai, Taku Iwasa, Akira Tozawa & Shinobu vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, Magnitude Kishiwada & Super Shisa

THIS I can talk about. So much to love here. Mochi and pals have been puttin a whuppin on Tozawa for the past several weeks, but much to their dismay he has shown a level of fighting spirit that could not possibly have been accounted for. He has been full of, dare I say, GUMPTION.

And boy did this gumption ever come to the fore pre-match. Mochi is the first entrant for his team and he strolls down to the ring with his awesome theme music playing as the crowd sings along "MO-CHI". Then the opening chords of Tozawa's theme hits but in a flash they turn into Mochi's theme.... again? No of course not silly. This time the song is not "MO-CHI" but "AKI-RA!!!" and Tozawa is singing his bad self down to the ring (complete with handwritten lyrics by his side). The crowd goes banana, Mochi can't keep a straight face, and Tozawa is rockin' it.

When the karaoke ends, Tozawa gets the jump with a springboard dropkick and the two went at it. More participants entered and there was much brawling around Korakuen both backstage and ringside. Things kicked up a notch when Super Shisa entered. For the first time in many a year, he was KICKING ASS. He eliminated Arai and Shinobu with Yoshi-Tonics and then took out Iwasa with a cool submission. It was down to 4 on 1, with poor Tozawa all alone.

They beat on him for a while until he made the mother of all comebacks. Seriously he was ruling it here. He got rid of Shisa but ultimately the numbers caught up with him as he was forced to tap to a vicious crab hold from Fuji while being stomped by Magnitude and Mochi.

The show wrapped up by running down the card for the 11.16 PPV.

Damn enjoyable show again. Tozawa's shenanigans were definitely the highlight.

INFINITY #107 - 7.5/10