This sunday, the Bodymaker Colosseum in Osaka will host the third Dragon Gate PPV of the year, GATE OF DESTINY, which be available for viewing worldwide via the Ustream online pay per view service. Head to ustream.tv/dragongate to order it for $25, which includes a live viewing and a week on demand.
If you’ve been reading my reviews, you’ll know that Dragon Gate has been pretty wild lately, as the Dream Gate has been changing hands with unprecedented frequency. In just over three months, Shingo vanquished the ace CIMA, only to fall to his best friend-turned nemesis YAMATO, who survived Ryo Saito, only to be defeated by Masato Yoshino! Can Yoshino hold on to the belt when he follows in Shingo’s footsteps and makes his first defence against his former best friend in the main event? We’ll get to that later…
Match 1) Ryo “Jimmy” Saito, Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kanda of the Jimmyz vs Super Shisa of Team Veteran, Shachihoko BOY of Monster Express and Ryotsu Shimizu
And the “Jimmyz vs random bunch of guys” pay per view opener returns. Well, Shachi is Shisa’s protégé of sorts, but they’re in different units now and Shimizu is in there so they still count as a random bunch of guys. Good times will be had, with the trio from an actual unit coming out on top. Susumu will most likely score the fall since he’s potentially challenging for the title at Korakuen (more on that later).
Prediction: Susumu pins Shachi after Mugen
Match 2) Mr Quu Quu Tanizaki Naoki Toyonaka Dolphin & Jimmy Kagetora of the Jimmyz vs Don Fujii & Gamma of Team Veteran vs Mondai Ryu & Kzy of Mad Blankey
Possibly the most random looking match in history. Kage and Tanizaki recently put their differences aside, started dressing up in weird body paint, attempted to eat the Milennials then ended up pissing off Team Veteran too. They’re up against MochiFujii at Korakuen, so I guess they win here as part of the hype for that. PPV kind of setting up tv might sound weird to western fans, but Dragon Gate’s booking is pretty much regional (Tokyo shows set up the next Tokyo shows, Kobe shows set up Kobe shows etc) so the PPVs are often just thrown in the middle.
Prediction: Tanizaki pins Gamma with the Implant
Match 3) CIMA (Team Veteran), Masaaki Mochizuki (Team Veteran), CIBA & TSUBASA vs U-T, The Former Super Shenlong III Yosuke Watanabe, Rocky Lobo & Flamita of the Milennials
The PPV debut of the Milennials, with new additions Watanabe, Lobo and Flamita. If the awesome Veteran/Milennials match from Korakuen is anything to go by, this should be pretty great. I’m going to go for the risky prediction and say that rather than Mocchy stomping on U-T’s head again, the finish comes as a result of young Kotoka “CIBA” Shiiba turning on his veteran teammates and aligning with his post-1990 generational peers. If that wasn’t going to happen, surely Kotoka would have been teaming with his buddy Shimizu in the opener, while Team Veteran member Shisa allied with his stablemates in this match?
Prediction: U-T pins TSUBASA (Canadian Destroyer after CIBA turns on the veterans)
Match 4) Open The Brave Gate Championship: Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee of the Jimmyz (c) vs Anthony Nese of Monster Express
Nese’s TV debut will air in Japan before the PPV, but I think it’s just the day before so this will be the first time a lot of folks have seen him (which may be for the best, since the word on the street is that there was a pretty big spot blown between the two at Sambo Hall). Nese will get his shit in and hopefully get over before falling victim to the backslide.
Prediction: Horiguchi retains (Backslide From Heaven)
Match 5) Open The Twin Gate Championship 29th Champion Team Decision Match: 28th champion team Dragon Kid & K-ness of Team Veteran vs Summer Adventure Tag League Winners/Interim Twin Gate Champions Eita & T-hawk of the Milennials
The jury is out on the Milennials since their return to Japan. Their Korakuen matches against the Jimmyz and the Vets were killer, but I’m having a hard time picturing DK-ness going out there and carrying the young upstarts to greatness. Eita and T-hawk have endless potential, they’ve just been a bit…questionably guided during their international excursions. I think we’re in for a weird lucha submission extravaganza. Milennials dominating until a K-ness comeback could work, but this could go either way quality-wise.
Prediction: Dragon Kid taps out to Eita’s Numero Uno (Milennials win the titles)
Match 6) Open The Triangle Gate Championship: YAMATO, BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong of Mad Blankey (c) vs Akira Tozawa, Shingo Takagi & Uhaa Nation of Monster Express
If you had told me a month ago that YAMATO wouldn’t be defending the Dream Gate at this show, I would have been both shocked and saddened. Life goes on though, and going off recent encounters between Monster Express and Mad Blankey (most notably their latest at Korakuen) this should be pretty great. I sense a title change, another big victory to further establish the new top babyface unit.
Prediction: Tozawa pins YAMATO with the package german suplex (MX win the titles)
Main Event) Open The Dream Gate Championship: Masato Yoshino of Monster Express (c) vs Naruki Doi of Mad Blankey
And here it is. Yoshino’s first defence, against his best-bud-until-he-turned-heel-on-him (again) last month; Naruki Doi. Like I mentioned earlier, the Dream has been changing hands like crazy lately, it’s a very real possibility that it could for the fourth time in three+ months here, then again at Korakuen next thursday. Crazy times in Dragon Gate. I don’t see Yoshino ace push v2 happening, this seems more like a part of the Dream Gate chaos story that was detailed fantastically on the latest IheartDG podcast, so I’m saying Doi’s super mega killer finish takes down the hero that could have been.
Prediction: Doi pins Yoshino to win the title via the Muscular Bomb
Korakuen?
Next thursday at Korakuen (which will be aired later as Infinity 314), there’ll be a key hunting match between Tozawa, Hulk, Susumu and T-hawk, with the winner challenging for the Dream Gate in the main event of the same show. Like I said, I reckon Doi wins it at the PPV…only to lose it here. Tozawa seems like the most logical choice for a winner, you can’t argue with them putting the belt on the hottest babyface in the company, but that’s one they may want to save for the next Kobe World Hall show. I’m saying Hulk wins the four way, beats Doi for the title, then is booted from Mad Blankey and turns babyface. This chaos could go on through to Final Gate, with whoever leaves that show as champion hanging onto the belt until at least Dead Or Alive or World. Who knows, maybe YAMATO could end up taking the title again before the year is out…
What do you think? Am I way off, or have I called the whole show? Let me know on Twitter @HellionLee. Be sure to order the show too, or if you want some free entertainment, go watch my band’s music video!
I was going to be here covering the show live on sunday, but turns out I’ll be at work! Yeah, Zombiehater and PWP don’t quite pay the bills yet. I’ll be watching the show on demand on monday, so my review will be up either that night or on tuesday. Follow @dragongatejae for live results, and enjoy the show!