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Post by duyarvish on Oct 4, 2017 15:42:38 GMT -5
He's got the belt and he's ready for one last go. I enjoyed his King of Gate run and I thought the match where he won the title was probably the best match of a flat YAMATO run. He's a lock to make my list and is probably in the 40s-50s now but how high will probably depend on if he gets a big title defense this year or not. I heard the Travis Banks match was great too but I'm still unsure if there's even a way for me to ever see that one.
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Post by brockobama on Oct 6, 2017 13:27:56 GMT -5
Will almost assuredly make it somewhere on the higher end of my list based on what's already happened, but I'm very excited to see how Q4 unfolds for the iron man. Small matches against Yamamura or in KOG ensured that one of DG's finest singles workers still had it even though he's edging closer to half a century on this earth, but the run up to and including the Dream Gate switch blew me away. The switch itself was the sort of thing that shouldn't have worked for me at all (being one of the DG faithful that actually dislikes that matchup) but did based on small touches from Mochizuki and a finishing stretch that had a year plus of pent-up animosity behind it. Add to that the Big R match that had me screaming into my fists at 4:00 AM and you've got a hell of a case for the oldest dude in a much-maligned promotion that is having a notably bad year.
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Post by armsofsleep on Oct 6, 2017 13:34:11 GMT -5
He's been really really great and I think he won't gain much traction because of how cold Dragon Gate was for the first couple months of the year. You could argue that winning the title of YAMATO and actually making it a nice moment is one of the most impressive feats in 2017 (not unlike how ZSJ vs Thatcher totally worked).
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Post by bossrock on Jan 9, 2018 11:35:29 GMT -5
Looking for match recommendations if anyone has them.
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Post by brockobama on Jan 10, 2018 2:38:10 GMT -5
vs Takehiro Yamamura - Dragon Gate Truth Gate 2017 Day 7 (taped 02/12/2017, aired 02/27/2017)
vs Shingo Takagi - Dragon Gate King of Gate 2017 Day 1 (taped and aired 05/09/2017)
w/ Ryo "Jimmy" Saito & Jimmy Kagetora vs Masato Yoshino, Kotoka, & Ben-K - Dragon Gate King of Gate 2017 Day 13 (taped and aired 06/01/2017)
w/ Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy K-ness vs Big R Shimizu, Kotoka, & Ben-K - Dragon Gate Scandal Gate 2017 Day 10 (taped and aired 08/20/2017)
vs Big R Shimizu - Dragon Gate Scandal Gate 2017 Day 19 (taped 09/05/2017, aired 09/15/2017)
vs YAMATO - Dragon Gate Dangerous Gate 2017 (taped and aired 09/18/2017)
vs Susumu Yokosuka - Dragon Gate The Gate of Destiny 2017 (taped and aired 11/03/2017)
Haven't seen the Saito match from Final Gate yet but I've been told it's also good. The old man's definitely going to make my list in some capacity. The match against Big R made it just outside of my top ten matches of the year and while he didn't have anything else nearly so good in 2017, the emotion surrounding his run for the belt in the second half of the year was incredibly gratifying after 14 months of mediocrity at the top of the card in Dragon Gate and after a storied career from the iron man. I adore the "veteran slaps the shit out of young punk" archetype in wrestling and I don't know if anyone did it better throughout the year than Mochizuki did.
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Post by bossrock on Jan 10, 2018 18:44:53 GMT -5
Thanks! I have been able to catch some of these and yeah, he's making my list. Such an awesome, middle-aged shitkicker.
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