Dragon Gate #69: 2nd Season Wrestle JAM

1) El Generico/ Jack Evans/ SHINGO/ Cyber Kong v. CIMA/ Dragon Kid/ Susumu Yokosuka/ PAC (07/15/07)- 6

Dragon's Gate is a stylistic artform that is fast paced, high impact and features outstanding athleticism. It's a departure from many different styles and ROH in America is the only thing that comes close to it. This show truly did deliver the feel of hard hitting Japanese action combined with the wildness of Luchadore tag teaming and the outlandish characters and sleazy indy workers of the US. Having said all of that, I dont' think this show represented the best of all of these 3 different styles instead of basically making the whole show about Dragon's Gate style. This was my favorite match of the show because you had the heel team comprised of 4 completely different characters against Dragon's Gate faves CIMA & Kid and the young Yokosuka and the Man that Gravity Forgo, PAC. The pace was frenetic and for anyone to stand out amongst these 7 other men is pretty extraordinary but PAC was outstanding. He was really crisp, hard hitting, and completely off the charts as far as his highflying. He can do everything Jack Evans can do, plus his strikes look realistic so Evans has no need to ever wrestle again. The finish of this match was like out of a movie it looked so unreal but he pulled it off and made it look easy.

2) Gamma/ Turbo-Muscle/ Black Thunder v. Turbo-Ness/Turboyan/ Lupin Matsu-Turbo (07/19/07)- 3

This was your token comedy match with several strange characters. I'm guessing all the Turbo guys are or were part of the same group but apparently there was trouble in grown men in cutoff Power Ranger costumes paradise. For some reason the guys they get to fill these roles are always chubby and several were here. There was some good dives to the outside and some other high flying hijinx but overall this didn't work as a fight and I didn't get into it.

3) Ryo Saito & PAC v. Super Shenron & Delirious (07/19/07)- 3

Saito is an old Toryumon veteran and he and PAC work well together. Delirious isn't really concerned with any kind of storytelling in this match but Saito does come in wearing one of his old masks and they do some comedy spots with that where they mirror each other. PAC brings the serious quotient up and gets real fired up on into the finish which doesn't compare with the first match but still pretty sweet. This may have been clipped.

4) SHINGO v. Austin Aries (07/19/07)- 4

SHINGO matches Aries hold for hold all through this match which is pretty impressive; speaking of impressive, Aries' dive outside is pretty titties (makes me think of Eva Mendes) anyways; SHINGO isn't that much bigger than Aries but works a lot of big man spots with him. Okay, they killed both of Aries finishers in one match: the brainbuster and the 450- SHINGO kicks out of both of them and still wins the match. They both kept taking move after move on their heads, the worst being a superplex that Aries got right back up from. Hated that.

5) Jorge Rivera v. Yasushi Kanda (07/22/07)- 3

Rivera looks like a very thin Anthony Quinn with his really sunburnt tan but he can work on the ground pretty decently. This is definitley clipped but Kanda seems to be having fun trying to tussle on the ground with an older man.

6) Magnitude Kishiwada/ Naruki Doi/ Masato Yoshino v. SHINGO/ Cyber Kong/ Jack Evans (07/22/07)- 3

Cyber Kong looks like something a Geisha girl shat out 9 months after getting injected by Giant Gonzalez beef missle. I swear Magnitude is Masato Tanaka under a mask. He has the same stocky figure. I think Yoshino is the fastest worker I've ever seen; I mean he makes Rey Mysterio look like Marvel's the Blob aka Frederick Dukes in his hey day. Can't say I"m a fan of his work though; all his offense is really fancy but it's so low impact you'd think he'd be better off putting on a headlock. He's thin as a wire and he doesn't make me believe; That was the crux of the issue back in the early 90's when people like Hogan and Nash said no one would belive a small guy could beat them- well, yes we would, you just had to make us believe and it took two people but Yoshino isn't making me buy it. This match was just a big wash; so many moves, tons and tons of moves, so many moves that none of them meant anything and you couldn't even recall half of what was done so I know damn good and well the performers weren't taking the time to properly sell any of them.

7) Wrestle JAM Cup Elimination Match: CIMA/ Susumu Yokosuka/ Dragon Kid/ Matt Sydal v. Naruki Doi/ Masato Yoshino/ Jimmy Rave/ Muscle Gang v. SHINGO/ Cyber Kong/ Jack Evans/ El Generico- 5

This was a long- ass main event. It started out as a Royal Rumble type match with timed intervals and people would come to the ring, but I found it funny that no one was getting eliminated. Then, once everyone was in they kind of milled to their corners like herded sheep and this 3 way tag became an elimination match. They worked for a good while, i'd say 15 minutes with everyone coming and getting a piece of everyone else, then back to back i'd say over half of the match's participants went out, one after the next, like sweaty, pathetic dillweeds waiting in line at the Houston 500 (and I don't mean a NASCAR race.) The teams actually got confusing after a while because so many guys were in and out; luckily i had my trusted pen and pad which clearly defined who the teams were. Again, tons of great athleticism, tons of moves, except when they hit a finishing move in this match, a guy was out and actually took the fall where as in the last match, tons of finishing moves were hit and no one could be pinned. But the finishes were pretty creative for the most part with Sydal, surprisingly, being the sole survivor in a pretty exhausting but satisfying main event.