Dragon Gate's Very First PPV 2004
By: Magnus Donaldson
 

This is Dragon Gate's first PPV following the split with Toryumon. Note that my copy appears to be a bit jumpy, likely due to the DVD
 not being in the best condition, so I may end up not seeing all the show due to skipping or problems with the picture. .

Match 1: Do Fixer (Magnum TOKYO, Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi) vs.
 Italian Collection (Anthony W. Mori, Milano Collection AT, YOSSINO)
Genki has a spray come out of his head for his intro: awesome. I have to say this was a really fun, entertaining tag match, which mixed
 comedy with good wrestling, which is what I like in DG six man tags. After some very entertaining opening exchanges, Genki was worked over
 as per usual, then everyone pulled out all their big signature moves later on in the match. The Italian Collection pulled off lots of big double team
 moves here, but could not get three, and soon Mori would fall victim to Tokyo's Egoist Driver for three. Great opener- ***

Match 2: Naoki Tanisaki Surfing the Way to Do FIXER Trial Finale: Shogo Takagi vs. Naoki Tanisaki w/Brother YASSHI
Tanisaki tries jumping Takagi a the bell to little effect, but the match goes back and forth early on with Tanisaki taking the match to Takagi.
 Takagi however soon begins to dominate with punches and a bit of cheating. Tanisaki managed to get in some high risk moves: he then had the
 match won with the Implant but YASSHI distracted the ref. Tokyo then interfered, hitting Tanisaki with the blue box to allow Takagi the win.
 Solid but nothing memorable- **

Match 3: Don Fujii vs. Ryo Saito
A solid big man (well, big for Dragon Gate) match. They exchanged a lot of hard hitting strikes early, with Fujii generally getting the upper hand.
 Saito had to change his game plan somewhat, pulling out some high flying moves, but they rarely seemed to prove effective against Fujii's powerful,
 hard hitting style. Fujii managed to sneak in a rollup out of nowhere and got three. A bit short and generally average- *3/4

Match 4: Florida Brothers vs. Crazymax (CIMA, SUWA)
This is quite possibly my favourite Florida Brothers comedy match, possibly because you wouldn't expect CIMA and SUWA to play along, but they
 do and it is really fun to watch as a result. The Florida Brothers pull out all of their usual antics, right down to having the ref doing armdrags on
 everyone and the big wrestling hold sequence. The use of the 2x4 is pure comedy gold, and had me doubled over from laughing so much the first time
 I saw it. I missed the finish due to my DVD playing up, but I know it was extremely creative from when I saw it on the Best of 2004 DVD I have.
 I can safely say though that Florida Brothers = Comedy Gods- * for wrestling, ***** comedy

Match 5: Elimination Match : Aagen Iisou (Shuji Kondo, brother YASSHI, Takuya Sugawara, Touru Owashi) vs.
 Final M2K (Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Yokosuka, Second Doi, Keni'chiro Arai)
Elimination rules means a big write-up from me. The match has a jump start with some brawling into the crowd, but it soon goes in the ring,
 where we get some good back and forth wrestling (and YASSHI having his hair worked over by Final M2K members). After a couple of
 great minutes of action, Doi would be first to go following a Kondo Lariat assisted by the red box.

The heels had a few minutes of dominance, before Yokosuka bit YASSHI somewhere I rather wouldn't say. However further use of that red box
 on Yokosuka knees weakened him, allowing Kondo to lock in the Gorilla Clutch. However the very late Arai arrived and broke the move, turning
 the match and leading to Kondo's elimination. This was almost followed with the elimination of Sugawara by Yokosuka, but YASSHI hat Yokosuka
 in the head with the red box to eliminate him.

Kondo made a creative use of the box again, sliding it in when the ref was counting, causing him to hurt his hand. A Spear by Sugawara saw both
 him and Mochi eliminated via going over the top rope, leaving Arai 2 on 1.

Arai battled determinedly, eliminating YASSHI with a Dragon Suplex, but the interference on the outside began to prove too much. He got some
 near falls, and managed to survive the Diving Body Press from Owashi, but could not survive a Powerbomb for three. Good main event- ***1/4

Overall I really enjoyed this PPV. The main event was the best wrestling wise, with quality action that I found incredibly easy to get into
 and enjoy, despite constant interference. The opener was also a very good match involving six of my favourites. I also had to mention the
 hilarious tag match involving the Florida Brothers: arguably the comedy MOTY for 2004. Matches 2 and 3 were average,
 but the rest of the card was great.

Overall Rating for Event 7.5/10
Recommended