Super Shisa, Gamma & Ho Ho Lun vs. Yosuke<3Santa Maria, Mondai Ryu & Taketo Kamei
A fine opener. These are never going to be barnburners. We have some light comedy spots between Ho Ho and Santa Maria early in the match and some showcase spots for Kamei who also got the win. Decent enough. **1/4
Jason Lee vs. Takashi Yoshida
Jason Lee has had a phenomenal run in 2020 with his team with Minoura but he's not had many spotlight singles matches. Yoshida isn't the one to have a great singles match with but he's a fine opponent to further show Jason Lee's great skill at selling and working from beneath. Yoshida had a neat running elbow drop and a nice senton but he wasn't much in terms of offence. Jason Lee only needed to pick up the pace and lock on a flash pin to get the victory. This was short and serviceable. MASQUERADE stays unbeaten. **1/4
Team Boku (Ryo Saito, Bokutimo Dragon & Punch Tominaga) vs. Team Toryumon (K-ness., Konomama Ichikawa & Shachihoko Boy)
Shimizu’s Ultimo Dragon cosplay is absolutely hilarious. It's great that he actually looks similar under the mask (but with most mass, obviously), making the cosplay just a bit funnier. He actually got a few laugh out loud chuckles out of me with his martial arts impressions. Big R Shimizu has always been a great wrestler and he's showing me a lot by also showing his comedic chops as well. Team Boku had a few nice triple team moves as well. Ichikawa was a treat like always on the other side of the ring. Fun Boku match. **1/2
Team Toryumon (Ultimo Dragon, Yasushi Kanda & Shuji Kondo) vs. DRAGONGATE Generation (YAMATO, Kzy & U-T) vs. MASQUERADE (Kota Minoura, Dragon Dia & La Estrella) vs. R・E・D (Diamante, Kazma Sakamoto & Dia Inferno)
Kota Minoura pins Kzy! Great result for him considering Kzy is the Co Leader of the Dragon Gate generation. The match was really good from start to finish. Whether everyone in the match was involved or if there were only a few pockets of people, there were a lot great tag team spots and combined everyone's styles and offence together. Each individual team had their time to shine and made great use of it. YAMATO and Kzy and U-T as a trio were fantastic together. I'd love them to go for the Triangle Gate titles because these three could do something special if given the chance. MASQUERADE was good as well as R. E. D who had their spots and made good use of them. I dig Inferno’s head grip into a backstabber. Great match to kick off the rest of the show. ***1/2
Open the Brave Gate Championship Match: Keisuke Okuda (c) vs. Kagetora
It's almost criminal how underrated Kagetora is. He is an incredible wrestler and this was an incredible performance from him. Okuda is still a little awkward for me but Kagetora was able to mitigate that as much as he could. Kagetora systematically destroyed Okuda's knee with everything he got. Initially injuring the knee via a brutal basement dropkick that could've easily caused a broken leg, then transitioning into using that leg to manipulate Okuda around the ring. The best way to describe Kagetora was “tricky”. He'd bait Okuda in and lock him in some nifty move from the old Toryumon days and almost get the pin. Okuda did a great job at selling the knee, despite some of his tendencies. And most importantly, he showed the urgency and his vulnerability against Kagetora’s offence to create some convincing nearfall for the finishing stretch before making his comeback. Loved the little palm strike battle these two had threading throughout the match. Okuda would throw a hard one before Kagetora would throw one right back a minute or two later. That pettiness is what I need in my wrestling. ***3/4
Open the Twin Gate Championship Match: R・E・D (BxB Hulk & KAI) (c) vs. Zetsurins (Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii)
The result wasn't in doubt, but the charm of the match was the effort from Don Fujii and Mochizuki. KAI and BxB Hulk were solid as always, cutting Don Fujii, the weaker of his team, away from Mochizuki to keep control. Mochizuki mounted a decent charge, being able to get some momentum for his team with Don Fujii getting some hope spots but it wasn't meant to be. ***1/2
Toryumon vs. R・E・D Losing Unit Must Disband NoDQ Elimination Match: Team Toryumon (Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi) vs. R・E・D (Eita, Kaito Ishida, H・Y・O, SB KENTo & HipHop Kikuta)
This was a real battle of generations. Not one person on the R.E.D side was over 30 years old in age. Only Eita and Ishida have seen much success in the singles divisions in R.E.D with the rest being fairly young in their careers (SBK isn’t even 365 days into his, for example) whereas on the other side, you have former Dream Gate champions, true veterans and legends of the promotions. That’s a real divide. And the match represented that perfectly. More so than I expected.
Firstly, Eita and Yoshino got eliminated before anyone else on their teams, which left R. E. D with a team with very little experience and Toryumon without the most prolific of the lot, although they still had Doi and Susumu. Then little by little, we were left with SB KENTo against a de-masked Dragon Kid fighting to keep their Units alive. The stakes were high and the drama was high and the match delivered up to the expected standards. Compare this to the earlier twelve man tag, this was a totally different match. Eliminations were at stake so every pin had the potential to be a game changer, the wrestling was way more purposely and filled with malice than just a random tag match. Eita brought down a barbed wire board, which he eventually got thrown into by Doi, SBK had a table, people that weren't in the match got involved. It's a mad scramble with outstanding individual performances from everyone whether their role was small or if they were the glue of the match - Susumu, SBK, Dragon Kid etc - everyone was pivotal. The final stretch between SBK and Dragon Kid was electric. Even without the crowd cheering, you could feel the energy and drama from the crowd. The initial “slugging it out” between the final two, when DK went on his final charge after Ichikawa, a career running joke, nailed a huge German suplex on SK, when DK was trying to power out of the Sharpshooter, the callbacks to previous matches and things that happened years before, everything was executed perfectly to end the match. And the build was more than good enough in its own right. To give credit to some of the other wrestlers; HipHop Kituta put in a strong performance, I thought, using his size to impose himself well while looking great against former Dream Gate champions such as Doi who did all he could to sell or his opponents. Genki, as always, was able to shine in the match using his smarts and experience to get two eliminations under his belt. Susumu kept his team ticking in the early parts of the match, going directly at R.E.D with his Lariats. A tremendous ensemble.
This was a culmination on a year long storyline that hasn’t worked perfectly or other promotions that have tried it. Although this had more talent and heart which is why this was as great as it was. The younger side, despite being the heels, was able to show their worth and skill while the veteran side was able to gain sympathy for their ways of tradition and history. And it paid off. ****1/2
Open the Dream Gate Championship Match: Shun Skywalker (c) vs. Ben-K
Shun's KO of Ben-K was SICK. Thankfully, Ben-K is okay but with Yagi not counting the three, like he should've, this can leave a bad taste in your mouth regardless. I don't blame anyone for that either. It was a sickening punch that left Ben-K motionless. I, however, am a bit of a sadist so it doesn't bother me or leave me with any negative feelings after the match. The rest of the match was super great. There was a great feeling of fight and struggle throughout the match. It was a very physically demanding match - Shun channeled his inner Shibata with a brutal headbutt at one point - that left severe bruises and swelling around each other’s face and body. The slow, methodical pacing complemented the action really well as it allowed the stiff strikes and power moves. Also giving time for the tension to be set and gradually grow as the pace eventually did. Obviously we didn't get to have the proper closing stretch but this was a great match without it. Glad Ben-K is okay. He put in an excellent performance before that knockout. Shun looked strong as well but his shining spot got cut due to the obvious. ****
So yeah. Show Of The Year.
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