Voices of Wrestling Podcast Network

Welcome back to Open the Voice Gate - Rewind and Rewatch, where Case (https://twitter.com/_inyourcase) and Mike (https://twitter.com/fujiiheya) are Rewinding and Rewatching the Dragon Gate USA era of shows.

Note: This show was recorded on 6/16/2020. There’s a quick foreword talking current events before getting into the show itself.

This episode of Rewind and Rewatch covers the last DGUSA show of 2010, Freedom Fight, from the Rahway Rec Center in Rahway, New Jersey on 10/30/2010. Well, after a great string of DGUSA shows, that streak is snapped with this one. A cold crowd and a weird show with a couple of big matches, including CIMA vs Shingo Takagi, the Ronin debut match, and a rematch from Kobe World 2010 weren’t world beaters, but not every show could be Enter the Dragon 2010: the First Anniversary Show.

After that, Case and Mike go through the rest of 2010 in both America and in Dragon Gate talking about Final Battle 2010, Tozawa vs Kevin Steen in PWG, and Gate of Destiny along with Final Gate 2010 with the Japan debuts of Ricochet and Brodie Lee. It’s a vastly different Dragon Gate to end 2010 then when it started the year, and it gets only crazier from here!

The show review is from 00:10:52 to 01:09:06

The end of the year timeline starts at 01:09:07 until the end of the show.

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This week on Wrestling Omakase we've got our first-ever all-NJPW 5 Matches edition, talking Naito-Omega II, Ishii-Shibata from the G1 and much more! If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase now has a Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to two exclusive 5 Matches episode with VOW flagship co-host Rich Kraetsch and Alan4L from the PWTorch, plus 9 episodes in our ongoing series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in order, 2 episodes of Anime Omakase, and our New Japan Cup pick 'em. Coming up in July will be 2 more exclusive full-length 5 Matches episodes of Omakase (while the Omakase free feed transitions back to covering more current wrestling), another set of episodes covering an entire match series in order (and you'll be able to vote on which one!) and much more. You can get access to all of our bonus audio for just $5 a month!

John is joined by debuting guest Sylvi (@sylvisurfer) from the podcasts Friends at the Table (@friends_table) and Emoji Drone (@emojidrone). Before getting into their picks John and Sylvi go off on an extreme Gundam tangent based on Sylvi's recent appearance on another Patreon, discussing some reasons why Gundam Wing isn't popular with certain types of fans and more. Then they get into this week's matches, which include:

1. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW 8/4/13 (NJPW World)

2. Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega, NJPW 8/13/17 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

3. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, NJPW 3/6/17 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

4. Tetsuya Naito vs. Hirooki Goto, NJPW 3/12/16 (NJPW World: English or Japanese)

5. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata, NJPW 7/5/15 (NJPW World)

Topics that come up along the way include: the greatest start to a wrestling match in history, how Sylvi escaped the horrors of WWE fandom, John forgot their own pick, The Shin Nihon Shawn Michaels, it's a good thing Naito and Kenny are on separate continents now because they were probably going to kill each other, Ryusuke Taguchi's bony ass, Hiromu's original rampage, the tragedy of Hirooki Goto, John brags about being in the building for Naito wins again, when the Laughter7 ends, and gross ankle sock tossing.

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Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord

VOW Network Discord

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated with every episode.

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We go through the facts from the news transpiring from the Speaking Out movement, as numerous stories of sexual assault and other misconduct where made public in the past week. Then, as many as 30 people within WWE reportedly have contracted COVID-19 after the company has declined to administer COVID testing until recently.

Visit wrestlenomics.com for Brandon Thurston's latest written work and access to a great collection of data and resources related to the wrestling business.

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The fallout from last week continues. COVID hits the PC. Then, stuff we like including AUNT PAM and Sasha, FTR/SCU, and more.

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Welcome to episode 78 of Everything Elite!

After the events of the last week and the Speaking Out movement, and the several members of All Elite Wrestling who were named in various allegations including forms of emotional/physical abuse as well as sexual assault, we chose to deviate from our usual format to discuss Speaking Out and AEW to lead off the show. We understand that this is potentially a distressing topic, and that the three of us are speaking of it as white cis males, so we recognize that not all listeners are going to want to listen through it. After that, we spend a couple of minutes talking about the news with COVID-19 and the distressing situation with it amongst major American wrestling promotions filming in Florida. As a heads up, these discussions involve abuse, sexual assault, and COVID. Timestamps for listeners wanting to skip this are as follows:

00:00:00 - 00:52:19 - Speaking Out and AEW

00:52:20 - 00:58:55 - COVID-19, Florida, WWE and AEW’s failures with this

Starting at 00:58:56 through the rest of the episode is all about Dynamite and Fyter Fest. As the episode was going long, a more in-depth preview of the two weeks of Fyter Fest will be a part of our Patreon Retrospective on 2019’s Fyter Fest that will be released for patrons on Monday. -Mike

Please follow our twitter account https://twitter.com/EverythingAEW, subscribe to us on the podcast platform of your choice, and rate and review the show if you have the chance!

Everything Elite has launched their own Patreon. Visit https://www.patreon.com/everythingelite and check out our three tiers of content that we are offering for your monthly pledge.

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Super J-Cast : 113- New Japan Cup 2020 Part Two - Joel and Damon open the show vocalizing their thoughts on the recent Speaking Out movement within pro wrestling. They also return to review the closing matches of Round One and the opening matches of Round Two of the 2020 New Japan Cup, Lion's Break Collision announcements, and we answer your questions - Black Lives Matter - How You Can Help : https://www.timeout.com/things-to-do/how-to-support-black-lives-matter

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Welcome back to Open the Voice Gate! Case (https://twitter.com/_inyourcase) and Mike (https://twitter.com/fujiiheya) are back with an update on the comings and goings of Dragongate. The empty arena era of DG is coming to a close, but before that we have the second to the last weekend of Rainbow Gate matches. This week, Case and Mike review the matches from 6/20 and 6/21, including Dragongate’s best empty arena match so far and a very surprising tag match. After that, they look ahead to the opening schedule of Hopeful Gate, lock in on who is X on those shows, and conclude the show talking about the last (hopefully) empty arena matches on offer coming out way this weekend.

Our podcast provider, RedCircle, offers the listeners the option to sponsor the show. Click on “Sponsor This Podcaster” at https://redcircle.com/shows/open-the-voice-gate and you can donate a single time, or set up a monthly donation to Open the Voice Gate!

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On this episode of Music of the Mat, Andrew is once again joined by Mike Spears (Open the Voice Gate, Everything Elite) to re-enter the world of Dragon Gate and discuss some more theme songs. This time around we have a mix of longtime DG veterans, foreign talent that made their names in the company, and the future stars that will carry Dragon Gate forward into the future. This includes music for Ben-K, Ricochet, Big R Shimizu, Super Shisa, PAC, Dragon Dia, and more!

Follow Music of the Mat on Twitter: @MusicoftheMat

Follow Andrew on Twitter: @AndrewTRich

Follow Mike on Twitter: @fujiiheya

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Follow Everything Elite on Twitter: @EverythingAEW

All VOW podcasts, articles, previews, and reviews: VoicesofWrestling.com

Join the VOW Discord to discuss Music of the Mat and other shows/topics: https://discord.gg/SFRwWdJ

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(CONTENT WARNING: We very briefly discuss the events of this past week in professional wrestling at the very start of the episode. We do not go into any detail on specific allegations and it's easily skippable, about 3 minutes or so. We stand with and believes all victims.)

This week on Wrestling Omakase we talk some interpromotional matches from the mid-to-late 00s, a classic from NOAH in 2004 and much more. If you haven't listened to a 5 Matches episode yet, every week John and the guest each choose 2 matches to watch and talk about on the episode. Then we each choose a third match, which is put up to a vote on the @wrestleomakase Twitter account (or on the Patreon!), letting the listeners choose our fifth and final match of the week. It's a fun retro format featuring all sorts of different wrestling!

Wrestling Omakase now has a Patreon. Head to http://patreon.com/wrestlingomakase where you can listen now to our huge milestone 150th episode of Omakase, 5 Matches with Rich Kraetsch, where we talk Tanahashi-Suzuki from 2012, Bret-Austin from 1996, the famous NJPW vs. UWF elimination tag from 1986, and much more. Plus you can get another Patreon-exclusive full episode (148, 5 Matches with Alan4L), 7 episodes in our series covering every Okada-Tanahashi match in order, our 2020 New Japan Cup Pick 'Em episode with VOW contributor Tyler Forness, Anime Omakase and more! Get all of our Patreon audio for just $5 a month!

John is joined by debuting guest Case Lowe (@_InYourCase) from VOW's resident Dragon Gate podcast Open the Voice Gate (@openvoicegate) as they start by discussing their attempts to get into Japanese baseball. Nippon Professional Baseball, the world's number two league, just returned this past weekend, and with the world's number *one* league seemingly as far away from returning as ever it's never been a better time to get into the NPB. They discuss the somewhat hilarious origins and state of Case's chosen favorite team, plus John talks a little about the NPB video game and enjoying it as a change of pace after many years of playing MLB The Show. Once that's out of the way they get into this week's chosen matches, which are:

1. Jado & Gedo vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii, NJPW 1/7/07 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gze6hk6fb7c&feature=youtu.be)

2. Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino & Magnitude Kishiwada vs. Shingo Takagi, BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong, DG 7/1/07 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nHljki0NJovM-SjNgx6mB0NmzNyKXusi/view?usp=sharing)

3. Go Shiozaki & Takashi Sugiura vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Milano Collection AT, NOAH 3/1/09 (https://youtu.be/IE6sQtAXxgU)

4. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA, NOAH 4/25/04 (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17q6ni)

5. Keiji Mutoh vs. Nobuhiko Takada, NJPW 1/4/96 (https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00141_1_10)

Topics that come up along the way include: JACKED JADO, Case <3s Masaaki Mochizuki, John <3s this one DG six-man (and they don't give a damn about no botched finish, JAE), Magnitude Kishiwada ruled, where Go Shiozaki and Shinsuke Nakamura were in their developments in 09, one of the last great Milano Collection AT matches ever, Misawa won't sell for these little pricks, KENTA channels Kawada, Keiji Mutoh struggles at shoot-style grappling, and finally John & Case disagree on a match after being very agreeable.

Support Wrestling Omakase with a donation through Red Circle! All donations are split with that week's guest. We really appreciate it: http://bit.ly/2o42FP6

Wrestling Omakase has dedicated channels on TWO Discords! Come join either one where you can chat with John and show guests and submit questions for future episodes!

Super J-Cast Discord: https://discord.gg/zWEgNK5

VOW Network Discord: https://discord.gg/rGTXwXd

Missed any of the 5 Matches episodes or just want to revisit one of the matches discussed previously but aren't sure what episode it took place on? Here's a handy Google Doc with links to every single match we've discussed on this series so far, which will continue to be updated every week: https://bit.ly/3dv3BjF

Our Sponsors:
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Welcome back to Open the Voice Gate - Rewind and Rewatch, where Case (https://twitter.com/_inyourcase) and Mike (https://twitter.com/fujiiheya) are Rewinding and Rewatching the Dragon Gate USA era of shows.

This week, they look at “Bushido: Code of the Warrior” from 10/29/2010 in Fall River, Massachusetts at the Police Athletic League Hall. Before tackling DGUSA’s iPPV debut, they run through the events leading up to this show, including the disappearance of Chikara Sekigun from DGUSA, the issues of iPPVs in 2010, Austin Aries jumping from Ring of Honor to DGUSA, other ROH shakeups, and the definitive timeline of the road to the Blood Warriors formation.

After that, Case and Mike review the first iPPV in DGUSA’s history, and the end of DGUSA’s streak of great shows. The formation of Ronin, the end of Jimmy Jacobs and Jon Moxley’s feud, and the only time that BXB Hulk and Shingo Takagi had a singles match outside of Japan are the highlights of this show. On the other hand, 2010 Homicide, Akebono, Austin Aries, and blowing up someone’s near year long storyline are the low lights. It’s a show of contrasts ya’ll.

The show review starts at 00:46:44 on this episode.

Our podcast provider, RedCircle, offers the listeners the option to sponsor the show. Click on “Sponsor This Podcaster” at https://redcircle.com/shows/open-the-voice-gate and you can donate a single time, or set up a monthly donation to Open the Voice Gate!

Please Rate and Review Open the Voice Gate on the podcast platform of your choice and follow us on twitter at https://twitter.com/openvoicegate.)

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