How I Met Your Puroresu is a series dedicated to providing background information on matches in hopes of broadening horizons. These matches will be no longer than that of a sitcom as to not overwhelm a first time viewer.
Company: Dragongate Pro-Wrestling
Show Title: King of Gate 2021 – Night 5 – BxB Hulk & Kzy Homecoming
Match: Kzy vs Jason Lee
Stakes: King of Gate Tournament Match
Length: 17 Minutes
Production Date: May 21, 2021
Air Date: May 21, 2021
Declaring Jason Lee the best foreigner wrestler in Japan comes off as faint praise in an era where travel restrictions still loom large. You wouldn’t be able to grab at those same straws when I was making this statement back in 2019 and it still holds true today.
Like many others, my first exposer to Jason was through the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. He suffered a first round exit to Rich Swann and he wouldn’t appear on my screen for more than a year until he showed up in my favorite promotion, Dragon Gate. Jason’s history dates back several more years in his home of Hong Kong.
Jason New, as he was known, became a professional wrestler in 2009 and founded the Hong Kong Pro Wrestling Federation, Hong Kong’s first wrestling promotion. By 2011 he was working ZERO1 Hong Kong, ran by Ho Ho Lun, which led him to ZERO1 proper. The teenaged Jason New found himself wrestling the likes of Jonathan Gresham the following year.
Through his time in ZERO1, Jason became a two time ZERO1 World & International Junior Heavyweight Champion. Shortly thereafter he took a chance at representing Hong Kong by being one of thirty-two wrestlers from across the world to compete in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. His time ended after only one match but that’s not where his story ends.
Dragon Gate Pro-Wrestling was looking for a way into the Chinese market and Jason became a way in for their project. He was immediately given a couple of singles wins in dark matches but the first singles win outside of the dark format came at the expense of Kzy.
One month later, standing alongside two of the company’s aces, Jason ended Kzy’s fourth reign as Open the Triangle Gate Champion. Kzy would eventually come back to reclaim the titles, this time with a brand new confidence. Now leading his own unit, Kzy no longer felt like the guy Jason had beat six months earlier.
Since taking the loss to Jason, Kzy had made his first Open the Dream Gate challenge to Masaaki Mochizuki. Even with the loss, Kzy managed to stay hot enough throughout the next year to have another Dream Gate challenge. He once again fell but was firmly established as ahead of Jason’s position.
To further this point, the two had their second singles meeting in a match where Kzy was able to even the score. Later on in the same month, the company ran a show in Hong Kong where Jason would receive his first Dragongate singles main event.
The icing on the cake was not only that Jason won but he defeated the man who Kzy fell to in his first Dream Gate challenge in Mochizuki. Granted, the match wasn’t for the Dream Gate but it was a main event King of Gate tournament match in his hometown.
2020 largely saw the two teaming together on behalf of the Dragongate side of the generational battle. Kzy failed two more times at capturing the Dream Gate and it wasn’t until this year that he and Jason started to lock horns once again.
After a year’s hiatus, Kzy reformed the trio who’d captured the Triangle Gate from Jason at Dead or Alive 2018. The team quickly regained their status by winning the titles once again but at the 2021 edition of Dead or Alive, Jason found himself with a new crew where he’s now the veteran. Just like in 2018, the titles changed hands.
Their third singles clash now takes place in the King of Gate 2021 and for the first time since Hong Kong, Jason is positioned in a singles main event. The moment is there for him to reestablish himself in this rivalry and prove he can stand out against the top of the heap.
