DRAGON GATE
RAINBOW GATE
JULY 6, 2017
KORAKUEN HALL – TOKYO, JAPAN

Translations: IHeartDG.com

Watch: NicoNico (Guide on Ordering via NicoNico)

TAKEHIRO YAMAMURA, GAMMA, & EITA DEF. MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI, DON FUJII, & YUKI YOSHIOKA

Unsurprisingly, these six gelled quite well together. I hate that Yamamura is toiling away in the opening match with World being a few weeks away, considering the year he’s had, but he looked dominant here and picked up the pinfall over Yoshioka, who looks more and more like Mohammed Yone every time I see him. Chalk this up as another engaging Yamamura performance. He continues to be the highlight of everything he’s in, even small matches like this. ***

Mochizuki asked Yoshioka how losing felt. It sucks, doesn’t it? Yoshioka admitted it did indeed suck. Perhaps today was all Don Fujiis’ fault, but a loss is a loss. He told Shun Skywalker to also listen carefully at ringside. They are contemporaries of Ben-K. He has joined a unit, become a champion, and is frequently in important matches. They are the total opposite. This is Kobe World season. This is the season to make an impact. He urged them to do whatever they had to do.

EL LINDAMAN DEF. YOSUKE SANTA MARIA

Lindaman came into this match 2-1 against Maria since their dreadful breakup that happened in the autumn of 2016. This was quite a dominant performance from Lindaman. He ragdolled Maria around with his signature suplexes, eventually planting her with a German for a squash victory. **3/4

FLAMITA & KZY DEF. JIMMY KAGETORA & DRASTIK BOY

It was so painfully obvious watching this that Flamita is about to explode in the same fashion that the stars of Lucha Underground or the fresh crop of talent from the UK did in previous years. I think he’s been good enough to be a household name since 2014, but the world is finally starting to pay attention to him. I hope his Brave Gate match vs. Kagetora at World isn’t some sort of farewell.

You wouldn’t think it just by looking at the names on paper, but this had a nice, flowing tag structure to it. Kzy took a brunt of the beating in this match. He sold for both Drastik Boy and the current Brave Gate Champion before finally making a tag to Flamita, who produced a ridiculous hot tag sequence. I can’t say enough good things about this guy. No one flies like him. He has unparalleled body control. That body control led he and Kzy to victory as he pinned Drastik Boy with his signature Flam Fly. ***1/2

CIMA & DRAGON KID DEF. PUNCH TOMINAGA & TAKASHI YOSHIDA

I’m angry that I had to watch this. CIMA & Dragon Kid have been so lifeless, and putting them in there with two goons from VerserK certainly didn’t spark any interest. This was slow. It took 13:45 for CIMA and DK to pin Tominaga, but it felt like it took hours. I’m very sick of CK-1. **1/4

SHINGO TAKAGI & T-HAWK DEF. YAMATO & BXB HULK

My interest level only continues to decline as T-Hawk rapidly ascends to the top of the card. He has become a dreadful bore, even being outclassed in my opinion by BxB Hulk in this semi-main event tag match. Everything about him is so stale, and what seems like a new emphasis on being Shingo Takagi Jr. is certainly not helping.

It was Takagi pinning YAMATO in this match, not T-Hawk. However, it’s T-Hawk wrestling YAMATO in the main event of Dragon Gate’s biggest show of the year in a matter of days, not Takagi. Yes, it was T-Hawk’s devastating knee (one of his only bright spots) that put YAMATO in positioned to be pinned, but how on Earth do you not let T-Hawk get the visual pin in this match? Takagi showed T-Hawk up throughout the match, but it never seemed intentional. I’m sure the power-hungry Takagi will drop T-Hawk on his head at some point and challenge him for what will probably be a big-time Open the Dream Gate Championship match, but very few things sound less appealing in my head right now. I want T-Hawk out of the title picture, but that’s not going to happen.

Puzzling booking and a poor performance from T-Hawk turned my interest away from the in-ring action, which was fine. Tribe Vanguard vs. VerserK matches feel so tired. YAMATO has been champion for a year now. This was the build to World last year. Initially, I thought T-Hawk’s heel turn in September was going to be a success. It was a fresh coat of paint. The problem is, he looks chipped and frail next to someone with luster like Shingo Takagi. I hate the main event direction, which hurt what was really a somewhat entertaining affair. ***1/4

CAPTAINS’ FALL NANIWA RULES ELIMINATION MATCH
MASATO YOSHINO, NARUKI DOI, BIG R SHIMIZU, BEN-K, & KOTOKA DEF. GENKI HORIGUCHI, JIMMY SUSUMU, RYO SAITO, JIMMY KANDA, & JIMMY KNESS J.K.S.

This is one of those matches that only Dragon Gate can pull off. Not just the logistics of it, which were insane, as two men started with a rotating cast of partners entering at timed intervals, but the raw emotion that was poured out by the participants in front of a rabid Korakuen crowd was unique to this brand of pro wrestling.

Kotoka’s glee and excitement after pinning Jimmyz captain Genki Horiguchi is a visual that I will not forget for a long time. That’s the sort of stuff that gets me fired up about wrestling.

I have loathed parts of Dragon Gate this year. My disdain for the direction of the promotion has infiltrated my thoughts on wrestling as a whole. I watch what I review, and I watch New Japan. My desire to find hot bouts on sleazy puro shows has been killed because I’m at a time where I’m simply not enjoying wrestling as much as I once did, and a big part of that comes from Dragon Gate and how disappointed I’ve been in the company this year.

This one match won’t change anything, but from Genki Horiguchi’s flash pins to Big R Shimizu fighting with everything he had to stay on the apron to the aforementioned joy that shot out of Kotoka’s body which his unit came out on top reminded me of what this promotion is capable of, and that is the most engaging and interesting wrestling on the planet. ****1/4

He had been mocked and put down, but today Kotoka captained MaxiMuM to victory. He didn’t know or care how long the Jimmyz have been together. All that matters was that MaxiMuM were the best unit today. 

Final Thoughts:

This really wasn’t a great show, but it featured a great main event. I wanted more sparks to fly on the go-home before World, but Dragon Gate simply isn’t firing on those cylinders right now. Check out the Flamita/Kagetora interactions on the undercard and make time in your day to sit down and enjoy the main event. Thumbs up in the middle for Rainbow Gate 2017.