I know right now the main focus is the G1 but wanted to give a shout to Dragon Gate Dangerous Gate event, which for some reason is being held on a Monday night so it will be overnight Sun/Mon stateside, so I dunno if I'll be watching the whole event live though I'll try. This will be the first real A-show of the year (Memorial Gate last month was essentially an A.5 show) so would serve as a jumping in point for anyone either curious or casually following the fed, as I believe @CWM and I are the only ones who follow with any regularity (if anyone else does, speak up please!). The event will be available with Japanese or English commentary (most likely DG Jae and Larry Dallas).
Full card available here from the official DG site, with standout matches including Kzy/Doi (rematch of their Dream Gate match from earlier this year), Twin Gate and the main event which is a six man cage match that DG would normally hold at Dead or Alive in early May
For those who don't regularly follow DG, two general points to establish going in:
1) Faction warfare is of course one of the main foundations of DG, and currently there are three main factions feuding: Toryumon Gen (older guys who trained directly under Ultimo in the old fed), Dragon Gate Gen (younger guys who trained under the DG banner, plus some outsiders like Kai, Keisuke Okuda and Jason Lee) and RED (heel faction independent of generations, led by the current DG champion Eita).
2) The standard DOA cage match would have all six wrestlers in the ring to start, with five flags posted around the top of the cage. Removing a flag from its post counts as an "escape" and that wrestler is done, with the final wrestler left failing to capture a flag declared the overall match loser. The loser then faces some type of punishment as established before the match, typically loss of hair/mask or ejection from their current faction.
Each year DG changes up some aspects of the match to make it interesting and unique compared to prior years, hence their two major changes for this year will be:
1) Instead of all six men in the ring to begin, two will start while the rest enter at timed intervals Elimination Chamber-style, with entry order publicly established thru matches from the last month. Opposite of the EC though, earlier entry is better than later as it allows more chances to escape. To compensate for the staggered entries, only one escape flag will be available to start with an additional flag posted as each new participant enters.
2) Instead of one overall penalty for whoever loses, this year each individual has their own specific punishment in place if they should lose the match, as chosen by rival factions over the last month. Some wrestlers also have additional stips based on their match performance; all of those stips are listed on the official event page posted earlier.
www.voicesofwrestling.com
