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Fukuoka Kokusai Center, 22nd of December 2013

Final Gate, the final Dragon Gate pay per view of the year, as is implied by the title. Will Yoshino hang on to the Dream Gate? Will Hulk fulfil his promise of literally decapitating him with the First Flash? Will Tozawa and Shingo finally get some retribution over YAMATO? Read on to find out…or order the show on VOD over at ustream.tv/dragongate (expires sunday 29th).

1) U-T, Yosuke♡Santa Maria & Rocky Lobo of the Milennials defeated Jimmy Kanda, Jimmy Kagetora & Ryotsu Shimizu [9:06 Sakauchi]
Typical good times pay per view opener, and a pretty fresh one given that the Milennials and Shimizu were in there. Whoever would have thought that Shenlong III just needed to start cross dressing in order to win matches.
★★★

2) Don Fujii vs Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa vs Batten Tamagawa
– Fujii won [3:18 Avalanche double chokeslam]
The obligatory Stalker comedy match was kept mercifully short. The Fujii double avalanche chokeslam was pretty nifty.
★1/4

3) K-ness, Super Shisa & Gamma of Team Veteran defeated Cyber Kong, Kzy & Mondai Ryu of Mad Blankey [8:21 Yoshitonic]
Decent six man, but the most notable spot was the least dramatic Hikari No Wa of the year (Kzy was saved by Kong and Ryu, but there was no crowd reaction at all). Fukuoka, you so tough. I watched a couple of WWE shows last week so Shisa’s finish made me think of Goldust.
★★1/2

4) Open The Brave Gate Championship: Genki Horiguchi H.A.Gee.Mee of the Jimmyz retained against CIBA [11:00, Beach Break]
Regular readers will know what a big deal Kotoka’s PPV title shot was to me. The match turned out pretty good, with a typical Horiguchi formula of receiving an onslaught before busting out the miracle backslide. They mixed it up a bit with CIBA kicking out and following up with a Momo Latch before eating the Beach Break in a cool finishing stretch. Not on the level of Kotoka’s notable 2013 Korakuen matches, but a solid effort nonetheless.
★★★

5) Open The Triangle Gate Championship: Eita, T-hawk & Flamita of the Milennials (c) vs Masaaki Mochizuki, CIMA & Dragon Kid of Team Veteran vs Ryo “Jimmy” Saito, Jimmy Susumu & Mr Quu Quu Naoki Tanizaki Toyonaka Dolphin of the Jimmyz
– Milennials eliminated at 24:42 (Mochizuki Arm Lock to Eita)
– Jimmyz won the titles at 29:00 (Susumu World Liner to Dragon Kid)

Well this was awesome. The “Mocchy wants to kill T-hawk” sub-plot was the highlight of the early going and made me want to watch them fight each other forever. Everyone targeted Eita’s injured arm which gave the Milennials an out for losing, in a killer spot where Mocchy used his own signature armbar on him. The “Mocchy kicks people in the face to break up pinfalls” spots were the greatest though. He really was what made this epic match work so well, but everyone else put work in too, and one botch aside DK and Susumu put on a great finishing stretch. Good times.
★★★3/4

6) Open The Twin Gate Championship: Akira Tozawa & Shingo Takagi of Monster Express defeated the champions YAMATO & Naruki Doi [23:29, Last Falconry]
The spectacular payoff to the “YAMATO betrays and defeats Shingo and Tozawa” saga that has dominated the latter half of this year. The killer action that you’d expect from a Monster Express match, with a feel good finish for the duo that have been so frequently wronged  by Mad Blankey. Shingo now has some sort of retribution for what was pretty much the theft of his Dream Gate title back in the summer.
★★★★

7) Open The Dream Gate Championship: Masato Yoshino of Monster Express retained against BxB Hulk of Mad Blankey [25:50, Sol Naciente Kai]
– 3rd defence for Yoshino
Another stellar Yoshino big match, again helped a lot by the very real possibility of a title change. I would have loved the shake up of Hulk winning, setting up a heel champion for the good guys to chase in the new year, but there’s no denying that the better man came away with the gold. Yoshino is currently on the run of his career, had no idea he even had such crazily good form in him, while Hulk is…Hulk. I’m a big fan of his, but he just doesn’t look like the guy to carry the company at the moment, so not having a title change was a smart move. I was so down on the prospect of Yoshino ace push v2, but at this rate they could keep it on him another year and I wouldn’t complain.
★★★★

Closing thoughts: The show didn’t start too hot but got pretty great from the Triangle onwards. It was the polar opposite of the Empire Strikes Back esque Final Gate of 2011, with the good guys all coming out on top at the end. A fine way to close what’s been an awesome year for my favourite promotion.

Thanks as always to IheartDG for the match times.

I’ll be back in early January with the definitive top ten list of the best Dragon Gate matches of 2013! In the meantime, go watch my music video, like my band on facebook, follow me on twitter etc etc etc

メリークリスマス!

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Photo credit @katsupistols

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