I used to be obsessed with Dragon Gate. That’s not hyperbole. You could look at my NXT archive and think that I am invested in that show, but that’s nothing compared to how hard I rode for Dragon Gate in the aughts. Not only did I endeavor to review every single show they put on ever put to film, I also searched out every match that anyone on their active roster had in any other company. I’m fairly certain that I inspired other wrestling fans to do the same thing with their wrestling fandom of choice. And then I capped off my obsession by turning my blog into a series of e-books, which you can and should grab for super cheap.
Dragon Gate was the evolution of Toryumon, Ultimo Dragon’s promotion designed to give his students work in front of crowds. He started the school in Mexico in 1997 while working for WCW. In 1999 after his WCW contract ended, he brought his students to Japan and began the promotion properly. While the company ran and expanded, Dragon went back to the United States for a stint in WWE. Takashi Okamura took over as the head of the company. When Dragon returned, he announced that he was leaving Toryumon and taking all of his trademarks with him. One of those trademarks was that of the Ultimo Dragon Gym Championship, Toryumon’s top title, and another was the Toryumon name itself.
The company didn’t fold, it just changed its name and created all new titles to replace the ones that Dragon owned the rights to. The Ultimo Dragon Gym Championship was vacated and replaced with the Open the Dream Gate Championship. CIMA was awarded the title because he was the final UDG Champion.
The Dream Gate Championship belt featured a locked compartment in its center. Contenders for the title fought for Dream Keys. If the Dream Gate Champion retained against a challenger, he’d add his Dream Key to a bar at the bottom of the belt. If the challenger won, he used his Dream Key to unlock the compartment and put his nameplate inside. It’s a pretty neat concept that has survived even as the title belt has been updated a couple times.
Most of the reviews in this post come from my books or blog posts, so some are going to have my old review play by play glut.
December 16, 2004 – Tokyo, Japan
Masaaki Mochizuki def CIMA {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Gate of Legend. Mochizuki is in Final M2K and CIMA is in Crazy MAX. They dodge each other’s offense before fighting it out on the mat. They trade strikes in an exchange that Mochizuki wins. Mochizuki kicks the back. CIMA hits the Nakayubi. He jabs Mochizuki’s neck with a chair. He catapults Mochizuki into the bottom rope. He puts on the Mark Nulty Special. Mochizuki fights back with kicks. He hits a bodyslam and a fistdrop. He hits a double kneedrop. He puts on a half crab but CIMA gets to the ropes. He catches CIMA coming off the middle rope with a kick to the gut. CIMA kicks him to the floor and dives out after him. Back in the ring CIMA hits a double stomp to the head. Mochizuki hits a backdrop. He hits an axe kick. CIMA hits the Perfect Driver for 2. He hits a clothesline and puts on the Joejigatame. Mochizuki gets to the ropes. He crotches CIMA up top, knocking him into the Tree of Woe. He kicks CIMA’s chest. CIMA hits a headbutt to the gut but Mochizuki catches him with a back superplex. CIMA powers through kicks to the chest and hits a capture suplex. He hits the Venus and the Iconoclasm. The Mad Splash hits knees. Mochizuki hits the Sankakugeri. CIMA counters the Twister to the Nakayubi. He hits a superkick. Mochizuki hits a dragon suplex for 2. He hits a kick to the chest for 2. He hits the Twister for 2. CIMA blocks the Sankakugeri and hits a superkick. He hits the Tokarev. He hits the Schwein for 2. He hits a few palm strikes and the Iconoclasm. He hits the Mad Splash for 2. He goes for the Redline but Mochizuki escapes and hits a bunch of kicks for the win and the title at 22:49. Boring match before the random finisher- fest kicked in. Quite disappointing actually. **½
November 4, 2005 – Osaka, Osaka
Magnitude Kishiwada def. Masaaki Mochizuki {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Crown Gate. Mochizuki is in Final M2K and Kishiwada is in Blood Generation. The match is joined in progress. Mochizuki controls with kicks until Kishiwada stops him with a back heel kick. We skip ahead to Kishiwada splashing Mochizuki off the top through a table. We skip again to Mochizuki stealing a chair from Kishiwada and smacking him over the head with it. Kishiwada no sells the attack but eats a leg lariat. Mochizuki hits an Asai moonsault. We skip ahead to a strike exchange that ends with Mochizuki hitting a crazy chest kick for 2. He hits the Twister for 2. We skip again to Mochizuki hitting the Sankakugeri and a dragon suplex for 2. He hits the Twister II for 2. Kishiwada hits a superplex for 2. We skip again to Kishiwada hitting the Last Ride for 2. Mochizuki hits a hurricanrana for 2 after Kishiwada spends too much time posing for the crowd. Mochizuki powers through a couple of lariats and hits one of his own for 2. Kishiwada blocks the Saikyou High Kick and hits two German suplexes and a dragon suplex for 2. He hits the Last Ride for the win and the title at 7:04 shown of 25:52. I’ll never understand why this wasn’t shown in full, as the crowd was losing their minds for it and what was shown was fantastic. Hell, I feel comfortable giving it a rating based only on what I see here. ***½
February 24, 2006 – Tokyo, Japan
Ryo Saito def. Magnitude Kishiwada {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Truth Gate. Kishiwada is in Blood Generation and Saito is in Do Fixer. They go to the floor where Kishiwada suplexes Saito onto a few rows of chairs. He goes for a chair shot but hits the post. Saito hits an armbreaker. He hits Kishiwada’s shoulder with a chair. In the ring he hits an elbowdrop to the shoulder and puts on an armbar. He hits another armbreaker. Kishiwada comes back with a dropkick. He drags Saito into the crowd and hits a snap suplex. He breaks a chair over Saito’s head at ringside. Back in the ring, he hits an avalanche with the help of a chair. He breaks another chair over Saito’s head. Saito is too messed up to even run the ropes. Kishiwada puts on a chinlock. He hits a bodyslam but a moonsault hits knees. Saito struggles for and eventually hits a bodyslam. After a rough start he hits the Fisherman Express for 2. He goes back to work on the shoulder. Kishiwada hits three backdrop drivers for 2. He whips Saito into a table at ringside. He puts Saito on the table and puts him through it with a splash off the top. Saito beats the count at 19. Kishiwada hits a powerbomb after botching one. It gets 2. Saito counters the Last Ride to a sunset flip for 2. He gets a roll up for 2. Kishiwada hits a lariat. Saito hits a dragon suplex for 2. He puts on a cross armbreaker. Kishiwada escapes by slamming Saito into the corner. He hits a clothesline and a German suplex. He hits another German suplex for 2. He hits a bodyslam and a big splash for 2. He hits the Last Ride for 2. Saito hits a backdrop. He hits a fisherman superplex for 2. Kishiwada hits a clothesline but Saito doesn’t feel it. He hits another, which only serves to improve Saito’s confidence. Saito hits an armbreaker and a German suplex. Kishiwada gets fired up and hits a dragon suplex for 2. Saito counters the Last Ride to a hurricanrana. He powers through a clothesline and hits a dragon suplex for 2. He hits the Premium Bridge for the win and the title at 27:32. Sure, Saito had a good target to work with, but Kishiwada never sold the shoulder. The match was far longer than it needed to be, going almost thirty minutes with a significant amount of inaction. ***
April 23, 2006 – Tokyo, Japan
Susumu Yokosuka def. Ryo Saito {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Glorious Gate. Saito is in Do Fixer and Yokosuka is in Final M2K. They exchange shots rapidly to start. Yokosuka goes after the leg. He hits a bodyslam. He hurts his arm when he misses an elbow and Saito smells blood. Saito rams the shoulder into the turnbuckle. He pulls off Yokosuka’s elbow pad and drives his arm into the mat. He shoves the shoulder into the post. Back in the ring he puts on a cross armbreaker but Yokosuka quickly gets to the ropes. Saito stays on the arm. Yokosuka hits a double kneebreaker to regain control. He puts on the figure 4 leglock. Saito grabs the arm in an attempt to escape, but the leglock is on too tight and he has no choice but to reach the ropes. Saito blocks a shinbreaker by grabbing the arm. Yokosuka pulls the back of Saito’s neck onto the top rope. He drags Saito up the ramp and goes for a piledriver but Saito hits a backdrop. Yokosuka hits an exploder on the ramp. Saito beats the count at 19. He hits a hurricanrana but Yokosuka rolls through and gets 2. Yokosuka hits another exploder. Saito suplexes him into the corner. He hits a German suplex for 2. His splash off the top hits knees. He comes back with a powerbomb. Yokosuka hits a super exploder. Saito returns the favor with a fisherman superplex for 2. Yokosuka hits the Yokosuka Cutter. He hits it Aikata but Saito pops up. Saito hits a dragon suplex and Yokosuka pops up. Saito hits another for 2. Yokosuka blocks the Premium Bridge. Saito goes for a dragon superplex but Yokosuka slips away and clotheslines Saito off the top. Saito bleeds from the mouth as Yokosuka hits the Aikata off the top. He hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 2. Saito gets the Messenger for 2. He hits a lariat and a dragon suplex for 2. He hits the Premium Bridge for 2. He goes for another but Yokosuka blocks it and hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 2. He hits the Aikata for 2, then finishes Saito off with two lariats to win the belt at 22:50. They kept it simple and it paid off. The finish was a bit anticlimactic, as I think the match should have ended after the super Aikata and subsequent lariat. Still, this was as good as almost anything on the PPV, and Saito’s middling run with the belt is over. ***½
November 23, 2006 – Osaka, Osaka
Don Fujii def. Susumu Yokosuka {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Crown Gate. Yokosuka is in Final M2K and Fujii is in Blood Generation. Fujii earned his Dream Key by beating Kevin Steen. Yokosuka hits a lariat to start. He hits another, knocking Fujii off the apron. Back in the ring Fujii hits a shoulder tackle. Yokosuka hits a back elbow. They fight up the ramp where Yokosuka hits an exploder. Fujii rams Yokosuka’s arm against the post. In the ring Fujii works the arm. He hits an armbreaker. He drops an elbow on the arm. He hits a bodyslam but misses a top rope kneedrop. Yokosuka dropkicks the leg. He hits the Ashi Yokosuka. He drives Fujii’s knee into the mat. He dropkicks the knee. He puts on a leglock but Fujii gets to the ropes. Yokosuka dropkicks the knee again. He goes up top to hit a kneedrop on the knee. He hits the Ashi Yokosuka again. Fujii hits the sumo slaps and a dropkick. Yokosuka falls to the floor so Fujii hits him with a suicide dive. They go back to the ramp. Fujii tries to chokeslam Yokosuka off of it, but has to settle for a chokeslam on it. Yokosuka beats the count at 19. Can the Dream Gate title change hands by count out? Fujii hits a powerslam for 2. He hits a powerbomb. He clotheslines Yokosuka off the top and hits a kneedrop. He hits another chokeslam for 2. He tries to chokeslam Yokosuka to the floor but Yokosuka catches him with an avalanche Ashi Yokosuka. Yokosuka puts on a figure 4 leglock. Fujii grabs Yokosuka’s leg to escape but Yokosuka keeps the hold on tight. Fujii gets to the ropes. He gets a roll up for 2. Yokosuka hits a lariat. Fujii gets a backslide for 2. Yokosuka hits another lariat for 2. Fujii hits a second rope chokeslam for 2. He hits the Nice German for 2. Yokosuka gets a roll up for 2. He hits a back suplex. He hits lariats in the corner. Fujii starts getting counted down but gets to his feet at 9. Yokosuka hits a lariat to the back. He hits an avalanche Aikata for 2. He hits the Jumbo no Kachi for 1. He hits it again for 2. Fujii’s face is swollen. He hits the Aikata for 2. He goes for a wrist clutch avalanche exploder but Fujii blocks that and hits a top rope chokeslam for 2. They slug it out until Fujii puts Yokosuka down with a lariat. He hits the Nice German for the win and the title at 26:40. The crowd is pretty shocked, not expecting Fujii to win at all. The match itself was about on part with Yokosuka’s other title defenses, which is to say it was good, but his offense has become so neutered that it takes a series of any of his moves to put anyone down and the near falls become less dramatic. ***½
March 25, 2007 – Tsu, Mie
Jushin Liger def. Don Fujii {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Memorial Gate. Fujii is a Zetsurin and Liger is in Control Terrorism Unit. Liger powers Fujii to the ropes to start. A test of strength goes Liger’s way until Fujii hits a northern lights suplex. Liger works a headlock. Fujii hits a big shoulder tackle. He follows Liger to the floor and baits Liger into hitting the post, twice. Back in the ring he hits an elbowdrop on the arm. He works the arm a while. He puts on a cross armbreaker but Liger gets to the ropes. Fujii hits a bodyslam but misses a second rope kneedrop. Liger hits a dropkick to the knee. He puts on a leglock. He wraps Fujii’s leg around the post. He hits a shinbreaker on a table. In the ring he rams Fujii’s knee into the mat. Fujii misses a knee kick and hits the turnbuckle. Liger hits a brainbuster on the floor. Kanda does what he can to help Fujii, but that was nasty. Fujii beats the count at 19. Liger hits the knee with a chair. He puts on a figure 4 leglock. Fujii freaks out, but eventually gets to the ropes. Liger puts on another leglock but after a struggle and with some crowd support Fujii gets to the ropes again. Fujii dodges the palm strike and hits sumo palm strikes. He hits a dropkick. He hits a side Russian legsweep for 2. Liger dropkicks the knee. He hits a dragon screw and goes back to the figure 4 leglock. Fujii turns over the hold so Liger rolls to the ropes. Like a true jerk Liger rolls back before the referee can undo the hold for some extra damage. Fujii gets a roll up for 2. Liger hits the palm strike. He hits the Ligerbomb for 2. A frog splash hits Fujii’s knees. Liger hits a clothesline but Fujii comes back with a chokeslam for 2. Liger hits another palm strike. Fujii blocks a super hurricanrana and hits a kneedrop to the back. He hits clotheslines from two angles for 2. He hits a back suplex. Fujii hits a lariat. He hits the Nice German for 2. He goes for a chokeslam off the top but Liger blocks it and hits a super brainbuster. He hits another brainbuster for 2. Fujii blocks the palm strike and hits another lariat. He hits another Nice German for 2. Liger hits the palm strike for 1. He hits a couple Koppo Kicks and a facebuster. He hits a brainbuster for the win and the title at 30:23. Fujii just didn’t have the offense to fill a thirty minute match without things getting repetitive. They told a good story, with Fujii avoiding the palm strike as long as he could, but after sitting through fifteen minutes of leg work it felt like a rip off when Fujii stopped selling. ***¼
July 1, 2007 – Kobe, Hyogo
CIMA def. Jushin Liger {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Pro Wrestling Festival. Liger is in Counter Terrorism Unit and CIMA is in Typhoon. They trade holds to start. Liger gets a roll up for 2. He puts on a surfboard stretch but CIMA counters to a half crab. He smashes Liger’s knee against the mat. He hits a dropkick. Liger hits a backbreaker. CIMA gets a hilarious takedown and hits a double stomp. He props Liger’s neck against the turnbuckle and dropkicks his butt. He drags Liger up the ramp, finds a weak spot in the foundation and goes for a piledriver (I assume) but Liger blocks that and hits a powerbomb. Liger hits a brainbuster and goes back to the ring so CIMA will be counted out. CIMA gets back in the ring at 19. Liger rams him into the exposed turnbuckle. He smacks his leg with a chair. He smashes the knee against the mat and puts on a leglock. CIMA gets to the ropes. Liger goes to the eyes. CIMA dodges the palm strike and hits the Superdrol. He hits a Street Fighter dropkick and a crazy tope. Back in the ring he hits a double stomp for 2. Liger hits a back suplex and puts on the figure 4 leglock. CIMA gets to the ropes. Liger drags him to the floor and hits a shinbreaker on a table. He hits the knee with another chair. Back in the ring he hits a powerbomb and goes back to the figure 4 leglock. CIMA gets to the ropes. He dropkicks Liger’s knee. He hits the Perfect Driver but can’t cover because his knee hurts too much. He hits the Venus and the Iconoclasm. Liger blocks the Mad Splash with his knees and rolls CIMA up for 2. He hits a Ligerbomb for 2. He hits a splash off the top for 2. He goes for another but CIMA blocks it and hits the Schwein for 2. He hits another Venus and the Tokarev. He hits the Venus again and the Iconoclasm again. He hits the Mad Splash for 2. Liger hits a palm slap and a super brainbuster. He hits another brainbuster for 2. He hits the CTB for 2. He hits a couple palm slaps. CIMA hits a brainbuster. He hits the Schwein for 2. He hits the Mona Lisa Overdrive and the Crossfire for the win and the title at 25:14, making him the first two- time champion in company history. They let it all hang out here, but CIMA arbitrarily decided to stop selling at one point, negating about two-fifths of the match. This was very good but could have been great. ***¾
July 27, 2008 – Kobe, Hyogo
Shingo Takagi def. BxB Hulk {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Pro Wrestling Festival. Takagi is in Real Hazard and Hulk is in World-1. This was meant to be a triple threat with champion CIMA, but he got hurt so the vacant title was decided between these two. They’d already fought to a draw in a Dream Key match, so this was not considered to be the most auspicious main event to Dragon Gate’s marquee show. They slowed things down a bit to keep this in the mold of other Dream Gate matches, but being Takagi and Hulk it was still a briskly paced nearly 40-minute match. I thought it was interesting that since the belt was vacant Takagi went for count out victories. The arm and leg work didn’t lead anywhere, despite it being a good game plan on the part of both wrestlers. In the end the match was Hulk and Takagi unloading their arsenals until they had nothing left and only Takagi could stand. I have a problem with how quickly Hulk recovered from MADE IN JAPAN the first two times Takagi hit it, but aside from that this was a fun, smash-mouth match and I’m impressed with the pace they kept for as long as they kept it. Takagi hit MADE IN JAPAN for the win at 36:53. After the match, Being that Dragon Gate didn’t really like having heel champions, Takagi’s group turned on him after the match for praising Hulk and showing respect to CIMA. ****
December 28, 2008 – Fukuoka, Fukuoka
Naruki Doi def. Shingo Takagi {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Final Gate. Takagi is unaffiliated and Doi is in World-1. I’ve seen and reviewed this one before, but my review was even hotter garbage than these play-by-play puddles. So it gets a rare redo. Doi won the King of Gate tournament to get this shot. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when I learned that in 2016, King of Gate changed from a single elimination tournament to a round robin format. Is there no Japanese company immune from trying to replicate the G1? Just be good at the thing you already do, Dragon Gate! I liked the dynamic at play here, with Doi having to scratch and claw to keep up with Takagi. He only started to get any momentum more than half way through after shaking Takagi’s spirit by kicking out of the STAY DREAM at 1. The tide turned there, and he hit the Muscular Bomb at 26:20 for the win. This was a little better than I had given it credit for the first time around. ***¾
March 22, 2010 – Tokyo, Japan
YAMATO def. Naruki Doi {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Compilation Gate. Doi is in World-1 and YAMATO is in Kamikaze. They trade holds until YAMATO hits a dropkick. YAMATO focuses on the leg. He dropkicks the knee and puts on a figure 4 leglock. Doi gets to the ropes. YAMATO goes for another but Doi gets a small package for 2. YAMATO dropkicks the knee. He hits a shinbreaker and a dragon screw. He puts on a Boston crab. Doi gets to the ropes. He sends YAMATO to the floor and hits a suicide dive. Back in the ring he works YAMATO’s arm. YAMATO tries to regain control but Doi just keeps putting him back on the mat in different arm holds. He hits the dropkick in the ropes. He hits a vertical suplex for 2. YAMATO comes back with elbows. He hits an exploder for 2. He puts on an anklelock. Doi rolls out and hits the Dai Bosou. He hits the Rydeen Bomb for 2. YAMATO hits an enziguiri. Doi hits a stun gun and a back suplex for 2. YAMATO blocks the Doi 555 and puts on an anklelock. Doi gets to the ropes. YAMATO dropkicks the knee. He puts on the sleeper hold. Doi avoids the Galleria and puts on a sleeper hold. He hits the inverted DDT. YAMATO avoids the Bakatare Sliding Kick and reapplies the sleeper hold. Doi climbs the ropes and drops to his back to escape. He hits the flying elbowdrop for 2. He hits the Avalanche 555 and the Bakatare Sliding Kick for 2. He goes for the Muscular Bomb but his leg gives out. They trade elbows until YAMATO collapses. Doi goes for the Doi 555 but YAMATO reapplies the sleeper hold. He hits the Galleria for 2. He goes for another but Doi blocks it and hits the Muscular Bomb. He takes too long to cover and only gets 2. YAMATO can’t get to his feet, so Doi tells the referee to count him down. At 8 Doi gets impatient and hits the Doi 555 and the Bakatare Sliding Kick. It only gets 2. YAMATO gets a roll up for 2. He puts on the CBV. Doi gets to the ropes. YAMATO puts on the sleeper hold. Doi tries to roll out but YAMATO holds on. Doi hits a back suplex but YAMATO holds on. YAMATO hits the sleeper suplex. He punts Doi’s face and hits a brainbuster for 2. He hits the Galleria for 2. He hits another for the win and the title at 31:56. The unbeatable Doi screwed himself here, as YAMATO might have gotten counted out after the Muscular Bomb but his impatience kept the match going. From there YAMATO was able to control everything, because Doi had exhausted his arsenal and knew YAMATO wasn’t going down. They could have cut out a decent amount of the opening ten minutes, but that’s typical of Dream Gate matches on PPV and otherwise this was outstanding. ****
July 11, 2010 – Kobe, Hyogo
Masato Yoshino def. YAMATO {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Pro Wrestling Festival. YAMATO is in Kamizaki and Yoshino is in World-1. This was a good match no doubt, but I have to admit I was disappointed. Maybe it was because Takagi and Hulk was impossible to top, but this was a half step too slow to be the headliner. It was also missing some of the more creative counter-wrestling we’ve come to expect from these two in particular. Both guys worked hard, but I was expecting something off the chain. Maybe I’m spoiled. Yoshino put on the Sol Naciente and then Kai’d it up for the win and the title at 31:50. That might not make sense: Yoshino’s submission was called the Sol Naciente, but the Sol Naciente Kai was the suped up version of it. Kind of like when Kurt Angle would lay down with the Ankle Lock. ***¾
April 14, 2011 – Tokyo, Japan
Masaaki Mochizuki def. Masato Yoshino {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Champion Gate. Yoshino is unaffiliated and Mochizuki is a Zetsurin.The graphic still shows Yoshino as a member of World-1, which is sadly untrue. Mochizuki is rocking new red gear, tipping off the finish. Mochizuki controls with kicks to start. Yoshino gets supercharged but Mochizuki uses the momentum to send him to the floor and hit a quebrada. WHAT?! Back in the ring Mochizuki hits the Ikkakugeri. He hits the Twister for 2. Yoshino hits Another Space. He hits the shotgun dropkick. He hits another to the back. Mochizuki blocks the Lightning Spiral and hits another Twister. He blocks another Lightning Spiral and kicks Yoshino’s head off for 2. At this point it’s obvious we’ve skipped a good chunk of the match and are in the last minutes. Mochizuki hits the Twisting Ikkakugeri. Yoshino hits the Torbellino. Mochizuki pops up and hits a chest kick. Rinse and repeat a la Yoshino vs. Yokosuka. Mochizuki blocks a Torbellino and hits another chest kick. He hits the Twister III for 2. He hits the Illusion. They trade slaps in an exchange that Yoshino wins. Yoshino finally hits the Lightning Spiral for 2. Mochizuki blocks the Lightning Spiral so Yoshino hits the Ude Yoshino. He hits another Torbellino. He puts on the Sol Naciente. Mochizuki starts to fade and Don Fujii thinks about throwing in the towel but the Zetsurin gets his foot to the bottom rope. Yoshino goes for the avalanche Lightning Spiral but Mochizuki blocks it and hits a bodyslam off the second rope. He hits the Illusion and the Shin Saikyou High Kick for 2. Yoshino rolls through a hurricanrana for 2. He gets the Riverina Special for 2. Mochizuki hits the Shin Saikyou High Kick, the Saikyou High Kick, an axe kick and the Sankakugeri to the face for the win and the title at 12:00 shown of 25:31. From the first minute this was a special match. Mochizuki had a fire lit under his bum and knew at almost every turn how to deal with Yoshino. I hate the earthquake even more now, as this FELT clipped and I’m fairly certain it’s another match that would have blown me away on PPV. ****
December 25, 2011 – Fukuoka, Fukuoka
CIMA def. Masaaki Mochizuki {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Final Gate. Mochizuki is in Junction Three and CIMA is in Blood Warriors. It doesn’t really get bigger than this, but you wouldn’t know it based on the near silent crowd. Mochizuki hit the Sankakugeri for 2. He went for another but CIMA blocked it and hit an elevated Nakayubi. He hit the Meteora twice for the win and the title at 24:55. At the end, this became the same lame finisher fest that their 2004 match was. I’ll give them points for fighting hard and keeping it interesting for the last fifteen minutes (the first ten were dull at best, ridiculous at worst) but this failed to deliver. It’s so odd that two of the finest to come out of this system had such weird chemistry with each other. Blood Warriors now hold every title in Dragon Gate. ***
July 21, 2013 – Kobe, Hyogo
Shingo Takagi def. CIMA {Open the Dream Gate Championship Match}
From Pro Wrestling Festival. CIMA is in Team Veteran and Takagi is in -akatsuki-. We finally get CIMA, who had yet another ridiculously long title reign (I presume just to be sure that he surpassed Doi’s) putting over his protege on the biggest stage five years after it was meant to happen the first time. This is the first match I’m seeing for the first time in this series, as I stopped watching Dragon Gate regularly in 2012. CIMA has 15 Dream Keys on the title and it looks ridiculous. I thought the title belt was updated in 2015, but CIMA has it here so I guess the original was lost earlier. This was the kind of bloated, overlong and relatively empty title match I’d hoped they’d move away from after CIMA’s title win. Clearly my hopes were for naught. It’s weird because there were two distinct styles of Dream Gate matches, one for PPV and one for TV. The matches on TV were so much better-paced. Eh, at least it was better than CIMA’s disaster of a match against Cyber Kong. I’m probably being unfair, the match was fine. It just felt try-hard and near the end Takagi’s near-falls were hard to buy. Takagi hit MADE IN JAPAN to win the thing at 37:33. ***½
As I mentioned earlier, I was obsessed with Dragon Gate for quite a while. Now that I have a bit of distance from it, I see a couple of reasons that the company didn’t get more popular than it was at its peak. First and most obvious, the animal abuse scandal did them no favors. It’s pretty gross so I don’t want to get into it here, but if you’re interested in the details they’re only a Google search away.
From a creative standpoint, Dragon Gate has always been about gang warfare. But wrestling at its core is about individual achievements. Dragon Gate has done a good job of doing well what it does well, namely tag and six-man tag matches. It does a fine job with singles matches, but not an excellent one. Its wrestlers are more comfortable with the fast pace of a multi-man match, and are less adept at the so-called “epic” pace of a singles main event. Dragon Gate never squared the two, either by insisting on multi-man matches as the headliners (which I don’t think would work from a business standpoint) or by going with the TV style Dream Gate main events on top of their PPVs (which I do think could have worked).
That said, there are seven years worth of title matches I mostly haven’t seen yet, so I’m open to being convinced that this opinion is wrong.
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
