November 4th, 2018
Opening Match: Natural Vibes (Punch Tominaga and “brother” YASSHI) and Hyo Watanabe vs. Ryo Saito, Don Fujii, and Gamma
With respect to the usual throwaway opener on these bigger shows, this wasn’t particularly entertaining. They kept a brisk pace but some sloppy moments held the action back. Gamma’s Skytwister Press to end the match just completely missed the mark, for instance. However, since these openers are so inconsequential, when they don’t come together it’s not a huge deal. Gamma won the match for his team in 8:30 with a Skytwister Press on Watanabe. *½
Match #2: R.E.D. (Eita, Yasushi Kanda, KAZMA SAKAMOTO, and Daga) vs. Tribe Vanguard (Kagetora, U-T, and Yosuke Santa Maria) and Kota Minoura
As expected, this was a showcase for R.E.D.’s dominance, but there were some more subtle developments happening as well. This was Daga’s debut in Dragon Gate as part of R.E.D. and he looked promising in his role. Minoura also fit right in with everyone else and although he was mostly beaten down, he also looked promising. The action never really had a chance to materialize given the short duration, but these eight improved upon the opener by making the contest actually interesting. R.E.D. won in 8:22 when Eita hit Minoura with a superkick. **½
Match #3: Open the Triangle Gate Titles: Elimination: Natural Vibes (Genki Horiguchi, Kzy, and Susumu Yokosuka) © vs. MaxiMuM (Naruki Doi, Jason Lee, and Kaito Ishida) vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Shun Skywalker, and Yuki Yoshioka
Dragon Gate has arguably mastered this style of match to the point where it’s easy to take for granted how fluid the action was and how much the match truly felt like a three-way. Three people being legal at all times can be tricky to manage, but the familiarity between all three trios here was off the charts. Natural Vibes have been doing quite well with the Triangle Gate and they fittingly tied the defense record for the belts with their win here. In a lot of ways, a contest like this one will be a reasonable barometer of whether or not Dragon Gate is for you. The chemistry between the trios was great and there wasn’t any overly long heat segment that can drag these matches down. A little more gravitas would have elevated this one to the next level. Natural Vibes retained their titles at 18:58, last eliminating MaxiMuM. ***¾
Match #4: PAC vs. Flamita
I understand that PAC has an aura about him right now and that he is the new monster heel in Dragon Gate, but there’s no reason why his matches need to be this dull. This was uniquely magnified by the fact that the previous contest received a similar amount of time and really took advantage of it. It felt as though they were using this match to build sympathy for Flamita with an extended heat segment and then let Flamita unload with his impressive offense down the stretch. No one wanted to see THAT kind of match, however. We just wanted to watch these two trade offense in a relatively short sprint. There wasn’t even anything on the line here to trick them into thinking that anything but a sprint was the right way to go. This match had its moments but they were too few and far between. PAC won in 17:45 with the Black Arrow. **¼
Match #5: Open the Brave Gate Title: Dragon Kid © vs. Bandido
In a wild turn of events, these two delivered the exact match that I wished PAC and Flamita would have before intermission. It’s no secret that Bandido is having a stellar 2018 and the reasons why were evident in this contest. Bandido had urgency to his offense and constantly went for opportunistic pin attempts. His offense was rarely flashy for the sake of being flashy. He took Dragon Kid to the limit and they managed to pack a ton of action into eleven minutes. The end result should have been less inevitable, but there’s not much you can do with this being Kid’s first defense. The Dragonrana finish seems like mad respect for Bandido. They didn’t steal the show or anything, but the difference between this and PAC/Flamita was night and day. Dragon Kid retained his title in 11:17 with the Dragonrana. ***¼
Match #6: Open the Twin Gate Titles: Tribe Vanguard (BxB Hulk and YAMATO) © vs. R.E.D. (Big R Shimizu and Takashi Yoshida)
I’m finding Hulk and YAMATO to be increasingly likeable as a team as their reign progresses but cannot fully articulate why. With that said, I didn’t find Shimizu and Yoshida to be the most impressive challengers and this defense was a little underwhelming despite thankfully not overstaying its welcome. The ending sequence involved YAMATO fighting through Yoshida’s mist to score a flash pin to retain the titles. A resourceful YAMATO is always fun to watch, but reducing the match down to simply the mist subgame negated a lot of the action that came before it. This contest was lacking substance, but Hulk and YAMATO continue to have an entertaining reign anyway. Tribe Vanguard retained their titles in 14:11 when YAMATO pinned Yoshida. **¾
Match #7: Open the Dream Gate Title: Masato Yoshino © vs. Ben-K
Yoshino as Dream Gate Champion has been a puzzle that ANTIAS/R.E.D. has yet to solve. Many thought Shingo Takagi would dethrone him at Kobe World and that didn’t happen for obvious reasons. There was a nonzero chance that Ben-K would actually win here. Watching Yoshino overcome him was entertaining even if, as usual, this Dream Gate match felt long for the sake of being long at times. The fact that the action was consistently engaging for such a long duration is attributable to just how good Ben-K is right now. Additionally, the longer duration allowed some of Ben-K’s strategies to be completely fleshed out, such as his attempt to win the endurance game against Yoshino.
This felt like an earned retention for Yoshino that the crowd was invested in. The focus turns to Yoshino vs. PAC on December 4th and I’m really hoping for a banger. Dragon Gate has gotten back on track to some extent after some major roster changes. PAC’s first shot at the Dream Gate should be a huge deal and ultimately deliver. However, after PAC’s performance on this show, I’m not as optimistic as I should be. Yoshino retained his title in 25:07 with Sol Naciente Kai. ***½
Overall: All of the title matches on this show were enjoyable to varying degrees. The Triangle Gate match showed Dragon Gate at its best, the main event was a nice showcase for Ben-K, and Dragon Kid had a fun sprint with Bandido for the Brave Gate. The show is missing a “must see” match and PAC/Flamita could have been so much better, however. Still, there’s way more good than bad on this card and watching this show would be a fine way to pass the time if you’re a Dragon Gate fan. C+