CIMA

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[InYourCase]

Not as high on CIMA as most Dragon Gate fans, but he'll be on my list somewhere. CIMA's big matches are a little disappointing, especially those that I reviewed for the Countdown to Kobe series. He falls into that DG trend of slowing things down to a point that they go too slow. That said, I really like CIMA in tag matches. His Osaka 06 run with Gamma has been awesome (by far the best stuff of Gamma's career).

 

Of course, CIMA has some great singles matches. His title change vs. Shingo on 7/21/13 was perfectly set up to put Shingo over as the next "CIMA" of the promotion. Booking changed that but the match structure was great. He's got an awesome sprint-ish match with YAMATO on 1/20/10. That gets overlooked as a truly great DG match.

[W2BTD]

CIMA knows how to connect with crowds. I didn't like the Shingo match you mentioned, and I don't think he's a guy where I could run off a half dozen singles matches that were great like I could with other Top 100 contenders, because he's a guy who is just always really good in every match he's in as opposed to a guy who peaks really high with memorable performances.

 

He's as technically proficient, smooth, and clean as you can possibly be as a worker. Especially in his style, which in my opinion is the most difficult and physically/athletically demanding style there is. There is no way I could construct a list like this and not include CIMA.

[BillThompson]

Won't make my list, but he rates higher with me than anyone else from the Dragon Gate crop. Even in Dragon Gate I've found him relatively enjoyable, which is saying something for me and Dragon Gate. Still, he falls too easily into the DG style and most of his work in that promotion lacks the impact or meaning that I look for in my pro wrestling. However, where Cima has always impressed me was in his excursion work. He changes himself when he wrestles in CMLL, WCW, RoH, PWG, etc. He adapts slightly to the style he believes the fans of those promotions want to see and attempts to deliver.

[InYourCase]

I've been really impressed with CIMA's earliest stuff on tape in MPro and really early Toryumon. He was the clear standout in 1999-2000. Great bumper in that era.

 

Seeing that stuff compared to current day, older CIMA that puts in an occasional super-performance like his match with Shingo last December, but for the most part sticks to tags and trios and always does something that manages to stick out. He still connects with the crowd to an amazing degree. Besides maybe Yoshino, he's still the top face in Dragon Gate and he has been since its inception. Top 30 guy for me.

[elliott]

Even less discussion here than I remembered. I was a big fan 20 years ago but its been that long since I've really watched him. Its been about that long since I've been interested in his style, but I know he has a big reputation among some folks. So I feel like I should give him a shot. Can someone toss out like 5-10 matches to watch?

[InYourCase]

Brilliant wrestler. One of the best touring wrestlers there's ever been (has been described as having a crowd connection on the level of Liger or Kobashi in front of western audiences). His post-DG run has been very, very interesting. From a business standpoint, it's been a giant failure. In-ring, he's done some of the best work of his career. His crew is the only thing that ever drew a dime in Wrestle-1 and some of his multi-man matches from that time period are incredible...I just can't find them on the Internet right now. 

The narrative that he lacked strong singles matches was more prevalent 5 years ago. I don't buy into that now. There's an argument to be made that he lacks the one, true definitive singles match, but his singles portfolio is really strong. 

I had him at 37 in 2016. He finished better in my refreshed, five year update. The older stuff holds up really well and since the last vote, he had a really excellent Twin Gate reign and then crushed it in W-1 and DDT. 

A few match recs of stuff that is readily available online: 

CIMA vs. YOSSINO: 7/4/04

CIMA vs. PAC: 3/4/12

CIMA vs. Super Shisa: 2/20/14 (super tricked-out grappling match)

CIMA vs. Shingo Takagi: 12/27/15

CIMA vs. Akira Tozawa: 5/8/16

If anyone wants more recs, please let me know. Would be more than happy to help out. 

 

[elliott]

Thank you for the recommendations! I'll start with these! 

[CheapPop1999]

CIMA is cool, but I think he lacks the consistent big match success of his fellow puro ace figures to be compared to them. The parallel I drew originally was Tanahashi, because they cover a similar time frame, but compared to Tanahashi, CIMA's resume just isn't there. I like some of the early 2000s stuff; there's a great ROH tag the day before the famous one, I think it's Blood Generation vs a Generation Next team of Aries, Roddy and Jack Evans, there's a great singles against YOSSINO from 04 linked above, and I like some of his later career stuff, like the sprint against Darby Allin on an early AEW Dark or the singles against Takeshita in DDT. For him to have a big match in PWG in 2007 against Bryan Danielson and to be unable to be carried even to something great is very telling. Misses my list and doesn't even really come that close.