Masaaki Mochizuki & Gamma vs. Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito
Genki’s LED mask and furry entrance jacket was a look. This was the classic case of a DG undercard match starting out as complete comedy non-sense and seamlessly turning into An Actually Decent Match. The middle-aged men of Dragon Gate are more reliant than ever on wacky business-exposing tropes to fill their matches, but once they hit the gas pedal, you’re in for a good time. Mochi took this philosophy to the next level here, doing an Inoki/Ali cartoon parody with Saito one minute and destroying him with brutal kicks the next. There’s no middle ground with this man. **1/4
Keisuke Okuda vs. H.Y.O.
More of an angle than a wrestling match, but I’ll take it. R.E.D. have been playing mind games with Okuda for the last months and the man reached his breaking point here, taking off the open-finger gloves and going Full Kazunari Murakami on H.Y.O’s ass. Of course, Okuda’s unhinged rampage could also hint at him being THE MYSTERY R.E.D. DEMON MAN. Keep tuning in to the award-winning Dragon Gate Network to solve the mystery.
Takashi Yoshida & Diamante vs. Yosuke Santa Maria & Punch Tominaga
An air-tight match with everyone playing their role well. R.E.D. kept the shenanigans to a minimum and made their lower-ranked midcard opponents work for everything, coming off as dominant heels even in defeat. Both Yoshida and Diamante were solid bases for Maria’s high spots and the crafty upset finish was super well done. Bonus points for Punch’s impeccable Matrix dodge. **3/4
Ultimo Dragon, Don Fujii & Shuji Kondo vs. Kento Kobune, Taketo Kamei & Madoka Kikuta
Hot damn, the kids have made it on the Korakuen card! This was the direct sequel to the young boyz/veterans 8-man buzz match from August and it ruled just as much. The youngsters were persistent little shits throughout, forcing the old guard to bring their A-Game in order to put them back in their place. Again, Kikuta came across as an absolute monster: a giant version of T-Hawk with the same kind of brutal chops and violent aura. Nothing less than a killer in the making.
Little Kamei showed the most fire of the whole bunch, dying a thousand deaths for disrespecting Kondo (dressed as a human candy store for the occasion) one too many times. They milked the shit out of that Boston crab spot during the ending stretch, the veterans literally having to murder each kid one by one to prevent them from breaking up the submission. Loved everything about this match and I need Kobune and friends to appear on every Korakuen show from this point on. They’re that good. ***1/2
Kzy, Kota Minoura, Jason Lee & U-T vs. Naruki Doi, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid & Kagetora
Soooo much action packed in those 13 minutes. State of the art Dragon Gate multiman tag banger with all of the blink and you miss it excitement that you CRAVE. U-T was your babyface in peril for the proceedings (because he is tiny) and he got sweet tasty revenge for the Toryumon beatdown by unleashing all kinds of tricked out rollups during the ending stretch. The match also served as a prequel for the tag title match at Dangerous Gate and judging by what we saw here, this thing is going to slap. Minoura was right there for all of Dragon Kid’s complex tilt-a-whirl shenanigans and then ate Susumu’s hardest lariats like a boss. This boy is the future. Needless to say, Dragon Gate is very good. Thank you. ***1/2
Ben-K & Dragon Dia vs. Kaito Ishida & KAZMA SAKAMOTO
More good stuff. Another fast-paced little number with Dragon Dia taking a beating at the hands of R.E.D. only for Ben-K to save the day with some DOUBLE SPEAR ACTION. Speaking of the man, Ben-K has given up on his ‘’literally become Godzilla’’ project and has morphed back to his regular size. Look, I was a Beef-K supporter but it probably wasn’t an ideal look for a top Dragon Gate star. Now, if the guy ever bails from the company and wants to join Big Japan’s Strong division full time: I say bring back the beef. Elsewhere, Dia brought the flips, Ishida kicked people and SAKAMOTO played a very acceptable bully heel. No wheel reinvention, but the pacing and execution of the Dragon Crew crew makes everything so very enjoyable. ***1/4
The RAW is DRAGON segment that followed was fire. Maria challenging Ishida and giving off legit threatening vibes, Ben-K confronting the R.E.D. demonic masked man and straight up calling him ‘’Keisuke’’ because the suspicion is too real: all good episodic wrestling content.
Eita, YAMATO & Big R Shimizu vs. Masato Yoshino, BxB Hulk & KAI
The Dangerous Gate build-up is too convoluted to deliver in terms of pure workrate, but I am very Sports Entertained. The stipulation here was that the winner could change his Dangerous Gate main event entry number, or choose to change someone else’s number. Add to that the muddled faction alignment and you had yourself an extremely gimmicky match. That being said, once all the shenanigans were covered, we did get some quality wrestling on the back end. As previously mentioned, when these guys hit the gas pedal: there’s no turning back. The post-match promo was probably better than the match itself though. Grizzled vets YAMATO and Yoshino having to swallow their pride to respectfully beg SHIMIZU-SAMA to change their number was comedy gold. ***
