Ryo Saito & Bokutimo Dragon vs. Don Fujii & Kennichiro Arai
Start your year the right way. Start your year with Bokutimo Dragon. This was mostly a lot of carny bullshit, but Kzy laughing at Bokutimo’s Tiger Mask stance on commentary was a good time. Also appreciated Fujii reigniting his Bicycle Bros love/hate relationship with Saito by slapping him around and randomly destroying him with a brutal lariat for no reason. **
Eita, Kaito Ishida, H.Y.O. & Hip Hop Kikuta vs. Ultimo Dragon, Masaaki Mochizuki, Gamma & Yasushi Kanda
Grandpa Ultimo busting out the classic green gear brought a tear to my eye. A lot more energy here, with the two sides showing visible contempt for each other and leaning into a classic babyface/heel structure. I don’t think I’ve reviewed a Kikuta match since his heel turn, so I need to mention how genius his hip (hop) based offense is. **1/4
Keisuke Okuda vs. Punch Tominaga
A lovely 3 minutes of midcard wrasslin’ that made the Brave Gate champ look like a proper badass. Well done KO finish with some pretty decent selling from good ol’ Punch. **1/4
Shun Skywalker, Dragon Kid & La Estrella vs. YAMATO, Shuji Kondo & Kagetora
Faction alignment has been thrown into the blender since the last time I’ve Opened the Gate, which means no more enduring of the Toryumon/Dragon Gate generic-ass theme songs 8 times per show. I am truly grateful. In other good news, this match was a whole lot of fun. High-speed action all the way through with minimal down time. First time seeing Masquerade newbie La Estrella and he seems to have an early SUGI/Yoshitsune-type lucha death wish, which is great. Popped big time for his headstand split-legged Moonsault. Quality flippage from Shun as well and solid performances from the whole cast. ***
Kzy, Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi vs. Takashi Yoshida, KAZMA SAKAMOTO & SB Kento
Holy shit. Weeded-out boyband Natural Vibes have RETURNED to fulfill all of your dancing and 420 needs. Man, the obligatory heel beatdowns in DG multiman tags can be so soul-sucking. This was the case here, where the plodding R.E.D control section took about half the match and made me reconsider all of my life choices. A real shame, because in classic Dragon Gate fashion, everything that came after it was really swell. Hints of R.E.D/Yoshida miscommunication with rapid-fire Natural Vibes team work = all fine and well. **1/2
BxB Hulk & KAI © vs. Kota Minoura & Jason Lee – Open the Twin Gate
I’m fully on board the Minoura/Jason bandwagon, but this felt like one of the lesser matches of their big tag run. The structure was right there for a homerun – I’m a sucker for a good Southern tag layout and Minoura having to fend off the heels on his own due to Jason getting annihilated on the floor was compelling stuff. The follow up was fine, but couldn’t live up to the super efficient setup.
Mood-killing execution issues and an unfortunately-flat Korakuen vibe kept the action from reaching the proper next level. There were still a lot of fun sections that stuck the landing, namely Jason’s death bump for the KAI apron lariat and Hulk’s always-reliable ninja kick expertise during the heel beatdown. ***1/4
