Infinity 100 or Before DGUSA, There Was This

This episode of Infinity chronicles Dragon Gate’s first American tour, with a show in Hawaii and one in California. This is not to be confused with what would eventually become DGUSA. BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino say a few words in the airport. There’s also a segment with Kenichiro Arai & Taku Iwasa in the airport and with Typhoon in a van in L.A.

Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka VS. Matt & Nick Jackson [Open the Twin Gate Championship Match]
This is from the Los Angeles show. The Young Bucks pinned the champs during the tag league so they get this title shot. Matt and Saito start on the mat. Nick and Yokosuka tag in and Nick takes over with armdrags. Matt tags in and they double-team Yokosuka for 2. Saito tags in and hits a back elbow. He hits an elbowdrop for 2. Yokosuka hits a vertical suplex and puts on the body scissors. Matt gets to the ropes. Matt hits Sliced Bread on Saito using Yokosuka as a post. Nick cleans house with kicks. He hits a big dive on both opponents. In the ring Saito hits Matt with a hurricanrana but he rolls through for 2. Matt hits a bodyslam and a flying elbowdrop for 2. The champions come back with clotheslines in opposite corners. Yokosuka hits Nick with a super exploder and Saito hits a big splash for 2. Nick comes back with a slingshot X-Factor for 2. Matt hits a spear and Nick hits a springboard frog splash for 2. Nick this a bodyslam but misses a 450 splash. Saito hits a crazy German suplex. Yokosuka hits a clothesline. He helps Saito German suplex Matt into Nick. Saito hits Matt with a fisherman superplex for 2. Yokosuka clotheslines Saito by mistake. Nick hits Yokosuka with a superkick. Matt hits a Finlay Roll and nick hits a 450 splash. Matt hits a moonsault for 2. Nick misses a 630 senton. He hits a big boot but Saito comes back with a dragon suplex. He and Yokosuka hit the Genkai for 2. They clobber Matt with lariats for 2. Saito kicks out of a roll up and hits the Premium Bridge for the win at 10:00 shown of 14:29. This was decent but nothing special. The LA crowd was appreciative but appropriately did not lose their minds.
Rating: ***

From Los Angeles the Dragon Gate crew flew to Hawaii. In a hotel Masato Yoshino chats up some Japanese chicks. Reel Big Fish’s Ban the Tube Top plays, just to reassure me that Dragon Gate is the best wrestling promotion today. In a different room CIMA has a couple chicks hold up a big banner in his honor while more Reel Big Fish plays. Elsewhere, Masaaki Mochizuki comes out of a hotel bathroom to eat with ladies of his own. He gives the food ***. Akira Tozawa tries to get a bell boy to get him into some lady’s room, but apparently it doesn’t work out. Later on Tozawa goes to the Honolulu Zoo with some of the veterans. World-1 spent the day on the beach making friends with the locals. Things wrap up with World-1 and Shingo Takagi/Typhoon talking about their upcoming match at the venue.

Shingo Takagi, Dragon Kid & PAC VS. BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino
Hulk and Takagi start. They run through their “we know each other,” offense. Doi and PAC tag into the match. PAC hits a dropkick. He follows Doi to the floor with a dive. Kid and Yoshino tag into the match. Kid hits a kneedrop. Takagi tags in and hits a fistdrop. PAC tags in and hits a corkscrew moonsault off of Takagi’s back for 2. Doi tags in and hits a dropkick for 2. Hulk tags in and eats an enziguiri. Takagi tags in and hits a kneedrop for 2. Kid comes in and sets Hulk up for a splash from PAC. Takagi hits a diving kneedrop for 2. He puts on a crossface but Hulk gets to the ropes. Kid hits a dropkick in the corner. He hits another but Hulk comes back with one of his own for 2. Hulk hits a bodyslam and a legdrop. Speed Muscle tags into the match. They double-team Kid in the corner. Doi hits an elevated senton for 2. Kid comes back with a tiger feint kick on Yoshino and a stunner on Doi. Takagi tags in and throws Hulk across the ring. He hits DDTs on Doi and Hulk. Kid hits Yoshino with the Déjà Vu. PAC hits Hulk with an enziguiri. He follows him to the floor with a big moonsault. Takagi hits Doi with the TKO. Doi hits a vertical suplex. Takagi hits an exploder for 2. Hulk hits PAC with a senton for 2.

PAC comes back with a dropkick. He hits an Ace Crusher. He hits an enziguiri and a standing shooting star press. Kid hits a leg lariat and a swinging DDT. PAC hits a phoenix splash for 2. Hulk counters MADE IN JAPAN to a roll up for 2. Takagi hits a lariat. He hits MADE IN JAPAN for 2. Hulk avoids the Avalanche Falconry and hits a leg lariat. Doi and Yoshino hit an elevated facebuster for 2. They hit a Sleeper Bomb for 2. Hulk hits the EVO for 2. Takagi puts Yoshino on his shoulders up top and Kid hits him with a hurricanrana. PAC hits a shooting star press for 2. Yoshino rolls Takagi up for 2. Takagi comes back with the DVD. He hits the Pumping Bomber. Kid hits the Ultra Hurricanrana for 2. He misses the Dragon Rana and gets ganged up on in the corner. Hulk hits a leg lariat for 2. Yoshino dropkicks Takagi and hits a senton on Kid. He hits Takagi with a suicide dive. Doi hits the super Doi 555 for 2. He hits PAC with a spinebuster for 2. Yoshino hits Ude Yoshino for 2. PAC counters Hulk’s EVO to a roll up for 2. Hulk hits the Mouse, Yoshino hit the Torbellino and Doi hits the Bakatare Sliding Kick for the win at 17:48 shown of 21:56. Nothing out of the ordinary for these guys, as they were just putting on an exhibition for these first-time fans, but even the ordinary is rather extraordinary in a good Dragon Gate main event.
Rating: ***½

After the match Doi thanks the fans for coming out. He asks in broken English if they enjoyed the show. The roster joins him in the ring for a closing celebration and photo op. After the show everyone from the wrestlers to the brass cut promos about the trip. The episode ends with Ryo Saito acting weird somewhere in Hawaii and Tozawajuku buying toys.

As nice as it was to see some of the American excursion, I can’t help but be incredibly disappointed that the entire Cyber Kong vs. Shingo Takagi mini-feud was kept from TV. Takagi’s first title defense hasn’t been shown at all at this point (it was against Kong). Oh well, things go back to normal next week.