| The first major event for the new company was the ambitious Every Day Pro Wrestling project. Taking place during the Fuji Television “Adventure King” attraction in Tokyo, Dragon Gate wrestlers performed 2 shows per day for the majority of July and August. Each show was low cost, and featured 2 to 3 matches. Larger scale “Premium” shows were held once a week. Both the 2004 and 2005 versions of the event were very successful, and created many new fans, both for DG and pro wrestling. 2004 was also marked by the creation of the Open the Dream Gate and Open the Triangle Gate titles. CIMA was crowned the first Dream champion, and the Italian Connection team of Milano Collection AT, YOSSINO, and Anthony W. Mori were the first trios’ champions. Former Dream Gate champion Shingo Takagi debuted in November, as the first trueborn from the Dragon gate dojo. There were also several departures from the company over the fall and winter, and the legendary unit Crazy MAX was disbanded. This made the early months of 2005 very intriguing. The direction of company ace CIMA was the number one question mark. He had been a Crazy MAX member his whole career, and it was obvious his temporary unit “Waku Waku Fuji Land” was not his final landing spot. The unit that was born from this was the Original Blood Generation. With their super body unit concept in place, they would go in to have several of the most famous matches in Dragon Gate history. 2005 was also very notable for the rise of Ryo Saito. While he had a considerable amount of success in his career to that point, in 2005 he skyrocketed to the top line of the roster. He would close out his meteoric rise by winning the first King of Gate tournament at the end of the year. The Open the Brave Gate title was created in the early spring. Naruki Doi won the tournament to crown the first champion. BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa debuted. CIMA and Shingo made their first visit to the United States in August. In December the first North American talent arrived, setting the tone for what was to come in 2006. During their existence as Toryumon Japan, and early on in Dragon Gate, the company existed under isolationist principles. With a few notable exceptions, there was very little outside or foreign talent involved. 2006 broke this wide open. Most famous is the Dragon Gate excursion to Ring of Honor in March. This produced the Wrestling Observer Match of the Year, the Blood Generation vs. Do FIXER 6 man tag. This would be the swan song for the original Blood. They would go on to split a few weeks later, with Muscle Outlaw’z forming from their ashes. CIMA kept the Blood name and changed the unit principles to be an international super group. He invited Jack Evans and current WWE superstar Matt Sydal to join. The first WrestleJAM was held, bringing together wrestlers from Japan, America, and Mexico into the DG ring to celebrate and showcase their styles. Shingo departed for America in May, staying for the next year. Referee and match maker Yasushi Kanda returned from a 4 year retirement to make a complete comeback as a performer. YAMATO made his debut in summer, and Cyber Kong arrived from the US in winter. At the end of the year the Dragon Gate NEX project was announced. This offshoot focuses solely on the rookie and non-established portion of the roster in bi-monthly shows at the home office. Akira Tozawa introduced the Tozawajuku cram school. Blood Generation and Final M2K came to an end at the end of the year, making early 2007 much like 2005. A lot of alignment questions. Do FIXER and the part time Pos HEARTS unit also came to an end in early 2007. CIMA united members from all the disbanded units into the Typhoon super group. Shingo returned from his excursion to form the generational uprising group NEW HAZARD. New Japan junior legend Jushin Thunder Lyger defeated Don Fujii in March, becoming the first outsider to hold the Dream Gate. He would hold it until the annual July anniversary show from Kobe World Hall. CIMA brought the title back home, and had his most successful singles title reign to date. He almost closed the year out by winning King of Gate, but a controversial finish to the finals saw his eternal rival Gamma win by referee stop after a low blow. The Open the Twin Gate titles were introduced, being awarded to the winners of the first Summer Adventure Tag League. The Speed Muscle team, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino, were the winners. They went on to unify the Twin Gate with WAR International Junior tag belts, then won NOAHs’ GHC Junior Tag belts, establishing them as one of the top tag teams in the world. The Twin Gate division produced some of the best matches of the year, and quickly became as popular as the Triangle Gate division. Yoshino also maintained a stranglehold grip on the Brave Gate, so both singles titles were well guarded into 2008. The first months of 2008 were marked by the shocking return of Naoki Tanisaki, the emergence and heel turn of YAMATO, and discourse within Muscle Outlaw’z involving Speed Muscle. Yoshino fended off Brave Gate challenges from all of Typhoon, but fell short in his Dream gate rematch with CIMA. The first 4 months climaxed in a 5 way escape cage match in May. Unfortunately, accumulated neck injuries caught up to CIMA, and he was forced to go onto the disabled list for the remainder of the year, vacating the Dream Gate in the process. Speed Muscle also left MO’z after the match, promising to form their own unit. Shingo and Cyber Kong betrayed BxB Hulk, disbanding NEW HAZARD to unite with the remainder of MO’z, forming REAL HAZARD. Hulk was rescued by Speed Muscle, and they would go on to become WORLD-1. Generation rivals Shingo and Hulk battled to the first 60 minute draw in Dragon Gate history, so a rematch was decided for the 2008 World show. The winner would become the new Dream Gate champion and hold the ace position while CIMA was out. Shingo won, but was kicked out of RH for his trouble. He took CIMAs’ spot in Typhoon for the remainder of the year. The Brave Gate was disgraced by Gamma in the middle of the year. He won a tournament for the vacant title, and replaced the trademark 8 signs of bravery with his own faceplate. He renamed the title to the Open the Gamma Gate. Genki Horiguchi and Gamma himself both acted as title commissioner, allowing Gamma to retain over low ranked opponents even after losing. Eventually Yoshino disguised himself as Dr. Muscle and won the belt back, restoring it. Naruki Doi finally overcame his big match slump and closed out the year by winning both King of Gate and the Dream Gate. Tozawajuku and Typhoon were disbanded, and in-fighting plagued REAL HAZARD, so once again the unit shuffle went into focus in the New Year. I’ll discuss
2009 year to date, and introduce the current units in my next piece. |
