DRAGON GATE-dragongate final gate 2021december 26 results review

KOBE WORLD PRO-WRESTLING FESTIVAL 2019
JULY 21, 2019
KOBE WORLD HALL
KOBE, JAPAN

Watch: Dragon Gate Network

January 31, 1999, Toryumon Japan landed. Korakuen Hall played host to the first show of a promotion made up of Ultimo Dragon’s young and talented students. The main event of the first show, a 45-minute elimination six-man tag bout, laid the groundwork for 20 years of prosperity, innovation, and excellence.

There are too many points to plot on the timeline between that fateful January night and what occurred on July, 21 2019. Too many big names, big matches, and big moments have filtered in and out of the Dragon System in that time. What matters is that we find ourselves at this point in the timeline. Toryumon became Dragon Gate, and Dragon Gate became the second biggest promotion in Japan by doing the exact opposite of what every “traditional” puroresu company has been doing. 5,365 fans packed Kobe World Hall for a show that properly paid tribute to the past while pushing the present and the future to the forefront.

This was a major league production that only New Japan and possibly Dramatic Dream Team (on their best day) could pull off. Kzy’s epic entrance, Ultimo Dragon’s debut in the company that formed in spite of him and the subsequent tears that flowed from the eyes of Genki Horiguchi at the commentary desk, well wishes from alumni Akira Tozawa and Shingo Takagi, and the superb English commentary from Larry Dallas and Rich Bocchini put this show on another level. From start to finish, Dragon Gate’s 20th Anniversary show was executed on a level that most wrestling companies can only dream of.

SUPER SHISA, K-NESS, SHACHIHOKO MACHINE, PROBLEM DRAGON, & DRAZTICK BOY DEF. KENICHIRO ARAI, JASON LEE, KEISUKE OKUDA, DRAGON DIA, & JIMMY

The 20th Anniversary Show officially kicked off with 10-man action that was perhaps more fitting of a variety show than a pro wrestling show. In one match, you had kung-fu expert Jason Lee, trained luchadores in Jimmy and Draztick Boy, technical masters in Super Shisa and K-Ness, a wrestler with MMA influence in Keisuke Okuda, and a handful of Dragon Gate true-borns that fit right in with the fast-paced, undercard style of the promotion.

As expected, the DTU standouts were given a big platform in this match. In his first tour with the company, Jimmy rose to the occasion in every opportunity was given. I don’t think he even wrestled on the latter half of a show, but he fulfilled his role of fun opening match wrestler each time he was given the platform. His Asai Moonsault to the floor was an early highlight.

Keisuke Okuda matched the luchadores in entertainment while working the antithesis of their style. The Dragon Gate roster has adapted to Okuda’s style so quickly and every time he wrestles, it seems like his opponents are bringing out his positives and hiding his weaknesses. His Triangle Choke off the top rope excites me every time I see it.

In the end, it was a veteran stealing the win from the exciting youngsters. K-Ness spun Dragon Dia around with the Hikari no Wa for the victory. K-Ness, wrestling under his MAKOTO persona, scored a fall on the very first Kobe World show in 1999. 20 years later, he’s still finding success. Incredibly fun opener. ***

Triangle off the top from Okuda! #DragonGate https://t.co/4b74B1qcqb pic.twitter.com/J9gfKZsHUq

— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) July 21, 2019

BXB HULK COMEBACK MATCH
HYO WATANABE, KOTA MINOURA, & YUKI YOSHIOKA DEF. BXB HULK, KAGETORA, & YOSUKE SANTA MARIA, GENKI HORIGUCHI, PUNCH TOMINAGA, & “BROTHER” YASSHI 

BxB Hulk is officially back after a seven-month absence. He worked a handful of exhibition matches as Darkside Hulk in preparation for this bout and even competed in the Rainbow Gate Korakuen Hall main event under the same persona, but BxB Hulk, the dance-loving, positive-minded babyface was back. Around this time last year when he and YAMATO became Open the Twin Gate Champions, I couldn’t help but notice the weight that BxB Hulk has put on. It makes sense. He’s been battling serious injuries on-and-off since the end of 2014 and although my mind wants to always think of BxB Hulk as a fresh-faced youngster, he’s rapidly approaching 40.

At this point, I can’t imagine what a high profile BxB Hulk singles match would even look like. Fundamentally, he’s still very strong, but he’s more than a step behind his peak form. He did his team’s opening spot and then popped his head back in for a few more moves as the match progressed, but the heavy lifting of this bout was left to the Mochizuki Dojo youngsters and Hulk’s younger Tribe Vanguard partners. The Natural Vibes C Team was not much of a factor.

Despite a heavy slew of offense from Kagetora and Maria planting “the big smooch” on her opponents, as Bocchini referred to it, the victory on this evening belonged to Mochizuki Dojo by way of Hyo Watanabe and a Dick Togo-esque diving senton. To my knowledge, this is the first time Watanabe has won with this move. His victory at this event will not be lost on his fellow dojo partners. Watanabe has expressed his unhappiness and he could perhaps use this victory as a springboard to split, much like Shun Skywalker did earlier this year. **3/4 

Slick armdrag from BxB Hulk! #DragonGate https://t.co/4b74B1qcqb pic.twitter.com/3ukZ8P7GIS

— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) July 21, 2019

CHOI HONG-MAN DEF. RYO SAITO & “HOLLYWOOD” STALKER ICHIKAWA 

Stalker Ichikawa is one of the seven men wrestling on this show that also wrestled on the original Kobe World show in 1999. His history on this show vastly differs from, say, Susumu Yokosuka, who kicked off the 1999 show with a hot singles match against Genki Horiguchi, co-headlined the show in 2006 against Dragon Kid, and is seemingly in a title match at every single World show. Ichikawa has faced a laundry list of legends at this show like Yuji Nagata, Abdullah the Butcher, and The Great Sasuke at World, but never seems to find any success against them.

His partnership with Ryo Saito was all for not this year as they were no match for the 7’2” Choi Hong-Man. This bizarre collection of talent produced a genuinely funny comedy match, which has been Stalker’s bread and butter for 20 years now. This match peaked when Saito finally grounded the Korean giant and tried to set him up in the Cycling Yahoo, only to realize that he was far too big to receive the maneuver. Really fun stuff. NR 

lol, Saito goes for the Cycling Yahoo!! but can’t reach Choi’s legs #DragonGate https://t.co/4b74B1qcqb pic.twitter.com/GIaRu6jFIR

— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) July 21, 2019

KZY DEF. SHUN SKYWALKER

I talked with Mike Sydal, who spent time with Dragon Gate in 2013 and 2015, a few weeks ago about Ben-K (you can read what he had to say here). During our chat, we got into the possible misconceptions that some fans might have about Dragon Gate’s in-ring style because I figured if anyone would have fresh insight on the way these wrestlers worked, it would be a guy who wrestled the big names and trained in the dojo. Sydal said something to me that wasn’t surprising, but he said it in a way that perfectly encapsulated what I had been trying to say for years, “One thing I learned about Dragon Gate from being there is that these guys are totally committed to an elite standard of excellence on every level.  They live and breathe Dragon Gate.”

This elite standard of excellence was on display in this match.

I have spent this entire week racking my brain for a comparison to this match and have yet to think of a Dragon Gate singles match between two high profile roster members that happened just because. Dragon Gate does not give away singles matches like this. The fact that we got this, on such a big show, between the two best workers in the company in 2019, was truly special.

I rattled off some names that Stalker Ichikawa has wrestled on this show earlier; Kzy’s list of names is equally as impressive as he’s someone wrestled Atsushi Onita, Mark Haskins, and Yoshihiro Takayama in this very building. This was not his first singles match at World, but he was scratching his way up the card in his prior World singles matches. Shun Skywalker has been given platforms in multi-man matches to shine at prior World’s, but this was his first singles match at the event.

I’m simply blown away at how snug these two worked. Every strike, slam, and suicida was done with the highest possible impact. It was truly excellent watching two pro’s like this compete at such a high level. This truly felt like a competition. Both men lost Dream Gate matches to PAC earlier in the year and are now trying to find footing atop the card, so in the truest sense, this was a battle between two men who are even. They wrestled it like they were on one another’s level.

Skywalker began to get desperate the longer this match progressed. He survived a brutal wave of suplexes and a KZ Time frog splash from the leader of Natural Vibes, but by that point, he was weakened in a major way. His last gasp of hope involved rolling Kzy up multiple times and eventually slamming him down with an Anthony Nese-like deadlift powerbomb. Kzy ate a pair of Kneesaults to the chest. A lesser roster member would’ve been dead in the water there, but this is Kzy. He’s in the best shape of his life on the best run of his career. Skywalker went to connect with a Skywalker moonsault and Kzy got the knees up. Skywalker had the wind knocked out of him, literally and metaphorically. That was shot.

Moments later, Skywalker was sent head-first into the canvas by way of Kzy’s Impact. This was a perfectly executed wrestling match. From Kzy’s opening dance number to the severity of every strike on display, this was Dragon Gate committing to excellence on every possible level. ****1/2 

Kzy just punches Shun out of mid-air! #DragonGate https://t.co/4b74B1qcqb pic.twitter.com/mBDVDsW8V0

— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) July 21, 2019

CD-J!! #DragonGate https://t.co/4b74B1qcqb pic.twitter.com/ZYpwM5msua

— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) July 21, 2019