Syachihoko BOY & Ho Ho Lun vs. Punch Tominaga & Jimmy
Imagine only being known as Jimmy. That’s the dream right there. This was all the semi-acceptable Dragon Gate dark match action that you crave. Jimmy brought the flippy lucha libre shtick while Ho Ho Lun continues to be a slightly happier Hi69 and I am eternally puzzled by his spot on the roster. I also regret informing you that we’re dealing with the single camera house show setup for this event, which is a significant bummer considering we’ve got big title matches up the card. Let us soldier on. *3/4
Ben-K, Dragon Dia & Strong Machine J vs. Masato Yoshino, Susumu Yokosuka & Ryo Saito
Much better. Fun crowd-pleasing mix of high-speed action and Ryo Saito being an obnoxiously loud dork. Dragon Dia keeps looking like a star every time I watch him and this was no exception. Susumu made all of his whirly high spots look like a million bucks and he worked a tight finish with Saito. Plus, that theme song is worthy of any legendary Saturday morning cartoon. Just glorious. Elsewhere, Yoshino proved that he still has the most vicious overhand chop in wrestling. I had no issues believing that’s all that was needed for him to escape the Yoshino in peril segment and turn the match in his team’s favor. A good time at the matches. ***
Kagetora & Kento Kobune vs. KAI & Taketo Kamei
The three DG units using generic team songs instead of their members’ individual themes is starting to feel like a real misfire. Nothing sucks the energy out a show like hearing the same 3 themes over and over again. Not sure how to segue from this scathing criticism to the match itself so let’s talk about the young boyz. This was my first time seeing them in action and the potential is there. Kamei does the high flying and Kobune does the suplexing. The two main elements of life as we know it. KAI and Kage were right there to provide the veteran backbone to this thing and it all went pretty well. **1/4
Kzy vs. Yasushi Kanda
God bless Dragon Gate for embracing the 3 minute enhancement match. More Japanese promotions need to do this. Kzy looked like a badass for outwitting Kanda at every corner and tapping him out so quickly. Kanda loses nothing from this since he’s midcard furniture at this point in his career. I hope this is a sign of things to come for Kzy because this guy has everything. Except a decent theme song. But he has everything else to be the elusive Dragon Ace. **
Ultimo Dragon & Don Fujii vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Gamma
Wish I could say this match was as memorable as Ultimo’s dazzling all-gold gear, but it was just okay. Fujii doing the Masanobu Fuchi closed fist routine to make Ultimo feel right at home (aka. back on the All Japan undercard) was a touching gesture. I also popped massively for Mochi guh punching the shit out of Ryo Saito on the apron to put an end to his endlessly-loud cheerleading. There wasn’t much else to this. A couple of old guys going through their old guy shtick (no offense to Mochi the GOAT). **
Dragon Kid, Shuji Kondo & Genki Horuguchi vs. YAMATO, Keisuke Okuda & Yosuke Santa Maria vs. Big R Shimizu, Kaito Ishida & Diamante – 3 Way Wakayama Style Tornado Winning Match
This took a while to get going due to the weird Royal Rumble-esque delayed entrance setup, but once it did, it was pretty awesome. Blisteringly fast pace with everyone packing as much action as they could within 12 minutes. All done with vintage Dragon Gate/Toryumon high-level choreography – guys getting their shit in and then getting the hell out of dodge to let the next guy do more cool shit. Honestly, I was ready for it to go longer. Feels like there was some action left on the table. Sidenote: they used the early countdown portion to plug the Ishida/Okuda story, which I am fairly into. Okuda is gunning for a Brave Gate title shot but Ishida seems more interested in recruiting him in R.E.D. Can’t say I blame him, because these two would be such a natural punchy-kicky tag team. Intrigued to see where it goes. ***1/4
BxB Hulk & KAZMA SAKAMOTO © vs. Kota Minoura & Jason Lee – Open The Twin Gate
A real feel good title win for Minoura/Jason and a pretty good match too. Nothing that’s gonna break your spreadsheet, but sound tag work and motivated performances from all involved. They structured most of the match around Kota getting the crap beaten out of him by R.E.D., slowly building up the Jason hot tag and eventual babyface run of offense. This worked pretty well for me because I’m very into Heel BxB Hulk control segments. The current look is questionable, but those multi-axe kick combos are not to be trifled with. I feel like this is how Koji Kanemoto would work if he was a regular at anime conventions. The Minoura ending stretch offense was massive: props to Hulk for taking that 2nd-rope German suplex and by god, I love his mid-air catching Waterwheel drop. This should be a fun title reign. ***1/4
Naruki Doi © vs. Eita – Open The Dream Gate
If you’re able to focus your poisoned ADHD Twitter-brain on all 31 minutes of this single-camera pro-wrestling match, you will come out of it a better person. It’s that good. The kind of long-form main event epic that New Japan has been struggling to deliver convincingly in the COVID-era. It had all of the deliberate craftsmanship of a big time World title match and almost none of the annoyances that have recently become synonymous with them.
Doi and Eita worked within the classic structure of this type of match but made sure that everything paid off. And it proved to be the difference maker here. As it goes with long-ass Japanese main event epics, they went from chain wrestling to Wrestler A targeting a limb to Wrestle B responding with his own limb attack. In this case, Doi sold the arm like a seasoned pro and Eita made sure the arm story never became a chore by supplying a vast quantity of balls-out awesome offense. The tricked out armbar out of a schoolboy counter? A freaking tilt-a-whirl Russian legsweep into Ground Octopus shades of El Samurai on crack? Wild.
They flirted with the Sports Entertainment elements that have been plaguing all recent NJPW main events, but actually used them to enhance the story instead of derailing it. Eita refusing the assist from R.E.D. added guts to his performance and made his eventual win all the more satisfying. I’ve only been following modern Dragon Gate for about 15 minutes and I could tell this was a big deal. That’s how well they handled it.
The last few minutes were masterful. They successfully wrapped up all of their subplots and ended things in the most logical possible way. Doi finally able to hit the Muscular Bomb after numerous failed attempts but unable to cover due to the bad arm. Eita capitalizing shortly after with his Numero Uno submission. A bulletproof layout and two homerun performances that made Eita look Dream Gate-worthy. Lack of production be damned, this will satisfy all of your pro-wrestling needs. ****1/2
