May 5th, 2018
Opening Match: Gamma, Shun Skywalker, Kaito Ishida, and Problem Dragon vs. BxB Hulk, U-T, Hyo Watanabe, and Yuki Yoshioka
U-T takes down Skywalker with a series of dropkicks. Skywalker sends him to the floor and teases a dive. Ishida snaps off a few armdrags on Watanabe and connects with a dropkick. Watanabe fires back with a springboard dropkick. Gamma and Hulk square off in a battle of the veterans. Yoshioka and Gamma exchange chops. Gamma’s team holds Yoshioka in place while he gets water spat on him. Ishida finds himself in the wrong corner and gets worked over until he connects with a gamengiri on U-T and makes the tag. Skywalker lands a moonsault from the top rope to the floor. Back in, U-T connects with a missile dropkick on Gamma but runs into a lariat. Dragon and Hulk have a back and forth exchange. Watanabe lands a split-legged moonsault onto Dragon. Yoshioka tries a frog splash but finds knees. Skywalker lands a top-rope splash onto Yoshioka for a nearfall. Skywalker follows with a top-rope moonsault for the win at 11:13. An energetic opener that showcased some of the rising talent in Dragon Gate. The presence of Gamma and Hulk hooked the crowd, but the performances from Skywalker and Yoshioka stood out to me. This was the type of opener that you actively look to present on a bigger show. ***
Match #2: K-ness and Don Fujii vs. “Hollywood” Stalker Ichikawa and Shachihoko Boy
Fujii asserts his power advantage over Ichikawa. Ichikawa snaps off a headscissors but whiffs on a dive attempt. Boy catches K-ness with a satellite headscissors. Fujii hurls a water bottle at Ichikawa’s back. Ichikawa tries to walk the top rope but gets crotched. K-ness and Fujii isolate him until he suplexes Fujii and makes the tag. Boy connects with a double dropkick and lands an asai moonsault to the floor. Ichikawa slips on his own moonsault attempt. In the ring, Ichikawa hits a german suplex on K-ness for a two count. Fujii and Ichikawa trade quick pin attempts to no avail. Ichikawa tries to german suplex Fujii, but Fujii just falls onto him for the victory at 7:30. I was certainly entertained, but I wonder if that is just because I haven’t watched much Dragon Gate recently. I imagine this was what you would expect from Ichikawa and Fujii. **
Match #3: Kagetora vs. Takashi Yoshida
Kagetora connects with a basement dropkick. Yoshida clotheslines him to the floor and then sends him face-first into a chair. Yoshida takes control until Kagetora comes back with a beautiful ace crusher that wakes up the crowd. Yoshida lands multiple corner charges and connects with a flying elbow drop. Kagetora hurricanranas out of a powerbomb attempt but runs into a lariat. Yoshida hits a cyber bomb for the win at 7:34. The action dragged at certain points despite the short duration. Yoshida’s offense was not interesting and although Kagetora tried his best, he couldn’t really salvage this one. *½
Match #4: Open the Brave Gate Title: Dragon Kid © vs. Yosuke Santa Maria
Santa Maria connects with a spin kick at the opening bell. She runs up the ropes and lands a dive to the floor. Dragon Kid takes control in the ring with a series of knee drops. Santa Maria finds an opening to work over the left leg. Dragon Kid blocks a charge and comes off the middle rope with a hurricanrana. Santa Maria blocks a springboard attempt with a dropkick and hits a leg lariat. Dragon Kid fights back with a stunner but falls victim to a falcon arrow. He recovers with a nice double-jump moonsault. Santa Maria dazes him up top with a dropkick and hits a super falcon arrow for a nearfall. Dragon Kid connects with a tiger feint kick and hits a tornado DDT. Santa Maria kisses him and hits Sky Love for a two count. She tries a few quick pin attempts to no avail as the crowd comes alive. Dragon Kid quickly hits Bible to retain his title at 13:11. This was a difficult match to evaluate. On one hand, the first half was very slow and the leg work hardly went anywhere. On the other hand, the finishing stretch had the type of fast-paced exchanges that you would expect and the crowd really woke up. I enjoyed this a little less than the opener, so the rating reflects that. **¾
Match #5: Open the Twin Gate Titles: ANTIAS (T-Hawk and Eita) © vs. Big Ben (Big R Shimizu and Ben-K)
The champions attack before the opening bell. T-Hawk and Shimizu brawl up the entrance ramp while Eita and Ben-K brawl into the crowd. Ben-K catches Eita with a powerslam and a shoulder tackle in the ring. The challengers find an opening to work over T-Hawk. The tide turns when Eita hits Shimizu with a chair behind the referee’s back. ANTIAS isolate Shimizu until he hits a brainbuster on T-Hawk and makes the tag. Big Ben military press Eita to the floor onto T-Hawk. Back in, Ben-K hits a fallaway slam on T-Hawk followed by a rydeen bomb. Shimizu catches Eita with a back suplex and connects with a missile dropkick. Eita traps Shimizu in a painful-looking arm submission but Ben-K breaks up the hold. Eita pulls the referee in the way of a Ben-K shoulder tackle. Eita tries to hurricanrana Shimizu onto a pile of chairs, but ends up getting powerbombed onto them. Ben-K hits another powerbomb on Eita for a nearfall. Shimizu and T-Hawk exchange strikes. Ben-K flips Eita around with a lariat but Eita responds with a superkick. Big Ben hit the shot-put spear on T-Hawk to become the NEW Open the Twin Gate Champions at 18:31. What this match lacked in storytelling was compensated for by how well these two teams worked with each other. The finishing stretch established the rhythm that Dragon Gate multi-man matches are known for and they never slowed down. The cheating from ANTIAS didn’t overwhelm the action and Big Ben looked better for overcoming it. Shimizu and Ben-K make for a truly exciting tag team. ***½
Match #6: Open the Triangle Gate Titles: MaxiMuM (Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, and Jason Lee) © vs. Natural Vibes (Genki Horiguchi, Kzy, and Susumu Yokosuka)
Horiguchi and Doi wrestle to a stalemate. Kzy catches Yoshino with an atomic drop and connects with an uppercut. He lands a nice slingshot senton onto Lee. Lee fires back with some vicious strikes in the corner. MaxiMuM work over Kzy until he catches Lee with an uppercut and makes the tag. Horiguchi hurricanranas Doi to the floor and follows out with a step-up dive. Yokosuka hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker on Yoshino and hits an exploder from the middle rope on Doi. Yoshino plants Kzy with a gourdbuster and hits his missile dropkick-senton combination. Natural Vibes triple team Lee. Yokosuka connects with a Jumbo no Kachi for a nearfall. Doi and Yoshino hit a doomsday Sling Blade on Kzy. Yoshino traps Kzy in the Sol Naciente but Horiguchi is able to break up the hold. Lee hits an ace crusher from the middle rope on Horiguchi but almost gets caught by the Backslide from Heaven. Lee answers with a cradle for a close two count. Yoshino shrugs off a few Jumbo no Kachis but finally gets taken down by one. Doi and Kzy trade close pin attempts. Doi plants him with a basement DDT and Doi 555s. He connects with the Bakatare Sliding Kick for a nearfall. Two more Doi 555s. Kzy avoids a second Bakatare Sliding kick and catches Doi with a schoolboy to make Natural Vibes the NEW Open the Triangle Gate Champions at 17:31. A thoroughly enjoyable eighteen minutes and the finishing stretch was an absolute thrill ride. Kzy was on fire and the nearfalls that they were able to generate had everyone rocking. Admittedly, I’ve been quite frustrated with independent wrestling in 2018 and looked to Dragon Gate as an answer. This match reminded me of why I initially fell in love with the promotion a decade ago. A tremendous trios match. ****¼
Match #7: Mask vs. Hair Steel Cage Survival: Masaaki Mochizuki (Unaffiliated) vs. YAMATO (Tribe Vanguard) vs. Ryo Saito (Unaffiliated) vs. Punch Tominaga (Natural Vibes) vs. El Lindaman (ANTIAS) vs. Shingo Takagi (ANTIAS) vs. Yasushi Kanda (ANTIAS)
Here are the rules: There are five flags around the cage. Grabbing a flag means you have escaped. Escapes can only occur after the first ten minutes of the match. After there are five escapes and no flags remaining, the final two wrestlers have five minutes to score a pinfall or submission. If neither wrestler can secure a fall, both will lose their mask or hair. The last wrestler remaining must either unmask or get their head shaved. Finally, there are new rules that dictate outside interference. After ten minutes, they cycle in five-minute intervals: ANTIAS, unaffiliated, MaxiMuM, Natural Vibes, Over Generation, and Tribe Vanguard. I did my best, folks. Also, this match will be going long so play-by-play will be more of a summary.
Shingo and Saito have a lot of early interactions with each other. Mochizuki’s striking game seems to be the best answer for ANTIAS’s numbers advantage. At the ten-minute mark, ANTIAS come out to help their stablemates. Lindaman and Mochizuki battle at the top of the cage by a flag. Lindaman grabs the first flag to escape at 12:47. The unaffiliated wrestlers come out, sending ANTIAS to the back. Many of them have badminton equipment. MaxiMuM’s turn to interfere involves Yoshino throwing baseballs at the cage. Everyone holds Shingo against the cage so he can get hit by baseballs. YAMATO almost escapes but MaxiMuM knock him back into the ring. Natural Vibes then come out to interfere. They certainly have the most eccentric means of interference, led by Horiguchi. Kzy fights off Shingo, allowing Tominaga to escape at 29:21. Over Generation interfere by shooting soccer balls at the cage. Gamma actually pies Saito in the face to prevent him from escaping. This is wild. Tribe Vanguard are the last to interfere and Dark BxB Hulk makes an appearance. Mochizuki survives a kiss from Yosuke Santa Maria and escapes the cage at 36:23.
ANTIAS come back out and infiltrate the cage. They beat down YAMATO and Saito, with Shingo piledriving Saito through a table at one point. Kanda grabs a flag to escape at 39:58. BxB Hulk enters the cage to fight off ANTIAS. Shingo starts beating up referees and running wild with his barbed wire bat. Kagetora enters the cage and reveals that he’s chosen to join Tribe Vanguard! Hulk and Kagetora give YAMATO enough time to grab a flag to escape at 43:30. The final five minutes begin for Shingo and Saito. Saito withstands a few lariats and hits a superplex. He follows with a dragon suplex for a nearfall. Shingo connects with a series of short-arm lariats and hits a powerbomb. Shingo hits Made in Japan for a two count. Saito levels him with a chair shot and hits another dragon suplex for a nearfall. Shingo starts throwing out Pumping Bombers and hits the Last Falconry to escape with one second left. Ryo Saito is the sole loser at 47:29.
That was an interesting match that accomplished a lot of things storyline-wise, such as Kagetora joining Tribe Vanguard. The interference from the different stables was mainly played for humor but everything made sense in an odd way. The final five minutes between Shingo and Saito were unsurprisingly fantastic. The main drawbacks here were the random brawling that tends to take place in these multi-man cage matches as well as lingering moments where someone could obviously escape but chose not to. However, the storyline development combined with an excellent final five minutes makes this match ultimately stand out. ***½
The following is the aftermath of the main event as provided by iHeartDG.com:
Takagi took over the ring. Mochizuki, Punch, & YAMATO don’t deserve to participate in the haircut. Antias would take all of his hair for themselves. He demanded Saito sit and take his haircut like the loser he is. He destroyed the Owarai Gate title. This is the new reality. A perfect ending to the Golden Week holiday. At the beginning of the year, he ceded control of Antias to the young trio. Lindaman ran from the cage like a coward, while Eita & T-Hawk lost to a pig and gorilla. Takagi was taking that control back from them right here and now. If they don’t like it, there is the door. The only way to the top is his way so that is how things are going to be. Deal with it. As for Nagoya, their food sucks and their women are ugly so he was getting out of this miserable town. They should all go home too.
Fujii & K-ness. assisted Saito. He apologized. He wasn’t going to make excuses. He lost. He is the one that picked the fight with Takagi and he knew what he was getting into. He wasn’t going to let the fans end their Golden Week on a sour note so he wanted to lighten the mood up before they went home. He noticed the destroyed Owarai Gate. It’s ok. It only cost ¥3000. He was thankful for the help from K-ness., Fujii, and the other unaffiliated wrestlers that helped him out today. It reminded him of how much of an asset units can be. He’s been on his own since the Jimmyz ended. He’s team up with a few others here and there but he hasn’t really formed any bonds with anyone. Kzy has started Natural Vibes. They look like they have worked hard on their dance routine and there is no spot in the formation for him. He’s been loosely aligned with YAMATO for the sake of this match, but Kagetora swooped in and took the spot in Tribe Vanguard from under him. DoiYoshiJason have been a big hit for MaxiMuM. Maybe he can join and make BigBenRyo….nah. As for Over Generation. He just can’t get along with Dragon Kid. Antias isn’t even an option, of course. He called K-ness. & Fujii to the center. They tried out a pose and he liked how it felt. He asked them if they were up for making a team that ensures that fun and lighthearted wrestling remains a fixture in Dragon Gate. He lost his hair today, but King of Gate starts in two days and he isn’t out of chances. He asked the fans to have a safe trip home, a nice end to their GW vacation, and to come back and see DG again soon.
-Show Grade: B+
–You Need to See: MaxiMuM/Natural Vibes
–You’d Enjoy Watching: ANTIAS/Big Ben, survival cage, opener
–You Should Avoid: