The new ring reminds me of the ring that Dragon Gate uses for their big shows. Change is good every now and again.
Eita vs. Kota Minoura
Eita seems to be winding down his Dragon Gate run for the foreseeable future, popping up in NOAH and there being rumors of New Japan sniffing around for Dragon Gate wrestlers so the result was pretty likely. And that's without taking into account the push that Kota Minoura has gotten as of late. Everyone has predicted that he's the next challenger for whoever leaves Kobe World as Dream Gate champion so his career is at a high right now. Unfortunately the match didn't really have much heat to it, mostly due to a lack of chemistry between the two. Eita worked over Minoura, designed for the comeback win but it was done in the bland, basic sort of way. It was stuck way down in the midcard so perhaps they worked it as such but this was underwhelming. But the job got done - Minoura won the match and got more momentum for post Kobe World. **1/4
Open The Triangle Gate Title Match: MASQUERADE (Dragon Dia, Jason Lee & La Estrella) (c) vs. R.E.D. (Dia Inferno, Diamante & SB Kento)
It just dawned on me what Dia Inferno’s mask looks like. He totally looks like he was a 3D Statue in Big Trouble In Little China. The moving eyes, in particular. I love the white mask. The match was fun and interesting to watch. There was a good discrepancy between the teams styles with R.E.D keeping it to basic heel rudo work while Masquerade are the ones who string together flashy sequences. Some of them work and some don't (Dia Inferno being out of place for Dragon Dia’s 450) but there were a lot of hits. Jason Lee and Dragon Dia looked impressive with La Estrella looking a little rough, which is an improvement on what he normally looks like. He works well with Diamante who had shown himself to be a good base for the high fliers already. But with the rest, he struggled a bit. I'm glad Dragon Dia scored the win as he was the best wrestler in the match based on his work. ***1/4
Open The Brave Gate Title Match: Keisuke Okuda (c) vs. Genki Horiguchi
Rather than this being a short match, this was more the beginning of a longer match that got cut short. Perhaps that was the intention. But nevertheless, we got a solid 8 minutes. This was Genki Horiguchi’s last chance at a singles title and he took, with a backslide of all things. Okuda seemed dominant for most of the match, except for a few moments where Okuda hurt his knee, similar to the U-T match, which gave Genki some openings to exploit but in the end, he didn't need them as he was able to pin Okuda with the Back slide. Good for Horiguchi but this was another flat outing for the show. **
Masato Yoshino, Shuji Kondo, Takuya Sugawara, Toru Owashi & YASSHI vs. HIGH-END (Dragon Kid, Kagetora & YAMATO), Naruki Doi, Ultimo Dragon
The career of Masato Yoshino has been a wild one. He began in T2P, alongside his partners for tonight, and joined Toryumon Japan when it failed. And then when Milano Collection AT left Dragon Gate, he turned heel, joining Naruki Doi and Blood Generation and you know the rest. This is a match filled with nostalgia and history and it served wonderfully as the second to last match that Yoshino will have in his in-ring career. Naturally, the match had a lot of Yoshino involved but I like how they took the time to actually use everyone in the match. In fact Dragon Kid was probably the wrestler with the most ring time than anyone and he spent a lot of time wrestling everyone. The action was the typical DG style. A lot of hype fast action in the ring but there was a certain methodical pace attached to it that allowed everything to breathe. Yoshino had his key moments in the match with Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi, and finally, Kagetora for the closing fall. It was a shock win for Kagetora (the winning team wasn't but Kagetora is) but good for him getting this rub. Great match overall to be going out on. ****
Open The Twin Gate Title Match: R.E.D. (Kaito Ishida & KAZMA SAKAMOTO) (c) vs. Natural Vibes (KING Shimizu & Susumu Yokosuka)
It's amazing what Shimizu has been able to do. Everyone thought his big accomplishments were over with the Bokutimo Dragon Gimmick. It was designed a comedy gimmick and that could limit someone, no matter the success or failure of it but he comeback with honestly a sillier gimmick and look and was able to slot back into where he was as Big R Shimizu, alongside a partner challenging for the Twin Gate titles. And this is a good match to really solidify that as it's against R.E.D, the group that kicked him out and embarrassed him enough to find solace in a parody gimmick. And who is better for a partner than Susumu Yokosuka? The match had strong performances from all four men. Ishida and Sakamoto are great at cutting off their opponent's momentum with quick, effective strikes and double team moves and Shimizu and Susumu are great at pushing through that, and it made for a compelling back and forth bout. While it wasn't a great twin gate title match, it was an impressive one. I recommend this. ***1/2
Open The Dream Gate Title Match: Shun Skywalker (c) vs. Kzy
There is a lot of history behind this moment for Kzy. A lot of struggling moments to improve, a lot of failed Dream Gate Title challenges (including the incredible Mochizuki match in 2018), a lot of Kzy Time that quickly came and gone. All for this moment and this title win. This is Kzy time. And Dragon Gate decided to have Shun Skywalker win instead. Fuck. It's entirely unfortunate that some results are destined never to happen. It looked like this was going to be his win but YAMATO was slotted to face whoever won this match and that changed things entirely. YAMATO is the likely winner always and you don't want Kzy to have a 1 Day title reign. That's almost as soul crushing as not winning. Nevertheless, Shun Skywalker getting one good title defence before losing it on Night Two isn't something to roll your eyes over. Shun’s title reign has been filled with good-great title matches but freak injuries as well and the Kikuta injury plagued the last title defence. So I'm glad that Shun Skywalker had his moment as champion. And despite everything, watching it after the result was revealed, they were still able to create compelling nearfalls and have convincing momentum switches that had me feeling that Kzy could win. The build to the SSW was sublime with Kzy able to slip away at the last second several times before being hit with it. The match had tons of insane high risk moves, like Kzy taking a scary Monkey Flip off the apron to the floor. Both left it all in the ring to put out an incredible match. ****1/4
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