Posted in

Dragongate The Gate of Miyane 2025 (September 24) Results & Review

Mike Spearsby Mike Spears•
gate of miyane 25
gate of miyane 25

Dragongate

The Gate of Miyane 2025

September 24, 2025

Korakuen Hall – Tokyo, Japan


Watch Here: Dragongate Network

A constant topic for Dragongate in 2025 is how they’ve been forced to deviate from their established touring schedule due to venues either closing (Aichi Prefectural Gym/Dolphins Arena) or undergoing massive renovations (The Edion Arena complex in Osaka). Simply put, most of the promotion’s bigger shows over the second half of the year aren’t happening this year, and that makes Tokyo Korakuen Hall the biggest venue they’ll run until February, when the former Final Gate building, the Fukuoka Kokusai Center, makes its return.

This scheduling roadblock meant that the company shifted its booking focus from the larger shows in Osaka or Fukuoka to more title matches on smaller shows, providing something special each time they rolled into Korakuen Hall. This second Korakuen of September, for example, is Dragongate bringing The Gate of Miyane to Tokyo and having a special general manager for the night, Yomuri TV panel show host Seiji Miyane.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand who Miyane is and why Dragongate went this route of special appearances. Seiji Miyane is a Kansai-based host of “Information Live Miyane-ya,” a nationally syndicated daily two-hour news program. I’d best describe “Miyane-ya” as your typical network nightly news, with events of the day and politics, but also a healthy dash of the tabloid TV shows, your “Extra’s”, your “Entertainment Tonight’s.” 

Dragongate’s relationship with Miyane extends back to 2023, from what I’m able to tell. They did a PR mini wrestling show in the plaza of the Yomuri TV headquarters as a part of the “Miyane-ya” TV show. That relationship expanded last year with a special Kobe Sambo Hall show entitled The Gate of Miyane. Seiji Miyane would hand-pick matches he’d want to see, and a feud with Shun Skywalker led to a special tag team match of Skywalker & BUSHI versus Ben-K & Great-O-Khan. The Gate of Miyane was both a critical and a commercial success. Dragongate claimed a sell-out of Sambo Hall and an announced attendance of 1,100, the largest since a New Japan Road to Wrestling Dontaku show in 2023.

With all that said, it makes perfect sense why Dragongate would bring this concept to Korakuen Hall. Although Miyane is a polarizing figure, the company got endless coverage on “Miyane-ya” over the last few weeks, and it allows them to space out the title matches they’ve been booking on Korakuen Hall shows over 2025.

Jacky Kamei & Flamita Def. Luis Mante & Ryoya Tanaka

Flamita pinned the Open the Brave Gate champion Tanaka with the Flam Fly in an incredible opener.

Over the last year, Dragongate has stumbled upon a formula for breaking unit affiliations and letting the guys go out and do whatever they put their minds to in excellent matches. It began with the impromptu pairing of then-unattached Jacky Kamei with Riiita against Flamita and Luis Mante last December. They hit on something and decided to ride with all the possible Mexico vs Japan combinations until Seiji Miyane blew it up and gave us something truly special.

It’s remarkable that Flamita is this good and shows no signs of slowing down or pain after a decade of wrestling this highly physical style. No one should be able to do a ringpost quebrada with such force on impact to land flat on his feet. Following it up with one of the more spectacular hurricanrana variants I’ve seen this year (Mante catapulting Tanaka to a stunned standing springboard position Flamita), feels like criminally breaking physics.

The way this match turned out to be a Brave Gate preview for Tanaka and Flamita was apt and fitting. Ryoya Tanaka is attempting to accomplish something rarely seen before: three Brave Gate defenses in a singular month. After his strong defenses against Ryu Fuda in Sendai and Jacky Kamei in this building, he now has “Mr. Brave Gate” Flamita on offer this Sunday in Kobe. Their chemistry (and the chemistry of everyone involved in this Japan vs Mexico experience) was profound. I bought into Tanaka winning the match after the big nearfall on Flamita’s Tiger Driver, only to be surprised by the ripcord Flam Fly for the win. Afterwards, Flamita put a boot on Tanaka’s chest and held up the Brave Gate belt. My expectations are STOKED by these men on Sunday.

It may seem like I’m ignoring Jacky Kamei and Luis Mante in this review, but they had phenomenal sequences scattered throughout the match. Big Hug was a colossal mistake; Kamei and Mante should never team up again and be forced to be on opposite sides in all future matches.

I think it’s going to be hard at the end of the year to not have this match on my Match of the Year list, and at the very least, the best opener to a show I’ve seen in 2025. ****1/2

Dragon Army (Ultimo Dragon, Ultimo Machine, Susutimo Dragon & Washitmo Dragon) Def. Ben-K, Kzy, Takashi & Kagetora

The shenanigans fest ended with Takashi getting disqualified for unmasking Susutimo Dragon.

Well, this was just a good time predicated on gently making fun of Ultimo Dragon (who played this as Ultimo as possible). When this was announced, it was pretty clear to me at least that it’d have Susumu and Strong Machine J in their roles, so I was a bit embarrassed for the “No Duh, Washitimo = Owasahi” moment as he came out of the entrance.

Everything in the match was played for laughs, but it’s worth noting how good of an Ultimo Dragon impression SMJ did. It might be the dancing background helping him, but the spinning headscissors takedown was a nice touch. It’s been evident for 26 years that there wasn’t ever going to be an Ultimo Dragon Jr, but if he ever needs a guy to be under the mask, I know who I’d call.

Other hijinks included the longest Asai Moonsault Tease Train of all time, Ultimo Dragon having a spirited performance with Ben-K, and the three impostors arguing so long over who would get to do the La Magistral to Kzy that Kzy could slowly scoot out of the ring and be replaced by Takashi. Soon after this, Takeshi had way too much momentum/turned into a beast, unmasking Susutimo for the disqualification. An enjoyable time! ***

Danshoku Dino (DDT), Don Fujiko & Oka Masaaki Def. KAI, Hyo & BXB Hulk

Dino did a kissing pin on KAI to win after the Danshoku Driver.

This match was announced after KAI won a Royal Sambo earlier this summer. It’s a rough fate for Hyo and Hulk; Miyane considered them “handsome men” on last year’s show. The special rules for this match were that only pins where you’re kissing them at the same time.

I’m not going to bother entertaining this match with the standard kind of review, like how I handled Takashi’s cross-dressing gimmick Owarai Gate tenure: Only Japan doesn’t get lambasted for doing gay panic humor in 2025. We all get the relative overness of the gimmick (Dino’s had a career for almost 25 years doing this) and that it plays to this audience, but when you have this stuff streaming worldwide? It’s an awful and indefensible look.

After what felt like a lifetime, Dino’s ass corner attack took out referee Takayuki Yagi, necessitating the deputized Seiji Miyane to referee the finish. He then did Danshoku Dino things to Miyane. NR

Kota Minoura and Riiita vs Jason Lee and Mochizuki Jr – No Contest

Seiji Miyane wanted to see tag team partners go against each other and a reunion of the former Gold Class pairing. Of course, Riiita and Kota Minoura weren’t going to cooperate with this match, so things broke down relatively quickly, with all four reverting to the unit alignments and ISHIN interfering for referee Duke Sato to mandate the No Contest call. ISHIN was insulted that he wasn’t booked and let Miyane have it. ISHIN claimed that there were no more cards up Miyane’s sleeve for an impromptu six-man tag, but lo and behold, Kazuyuki Fujita was here to support his friend Miyane!

Kazuyuki Fujita (NOAH), Riiita & Mochizuki Jr Def. Gajadokuro (ISHIN, Kota Minoura & Jason Lee)

Ol Ironhead pinned ISHIN after a gnarly-looking face kick in a quick squash.

Fujita basically stood around until the finish, where he flattened ISHIN with a lariat and damn near sent ISHIN’s head up to the balcony with Jae and Ho Ho. The combined matches and segments were a good enough time, didn’t overstay its welcome, and provided a needed palate cleanser. Just hope ISHIN’s brain didn’t get scrambled in the meantime. **1/2

Powered by RedCircle

Gajadokuro (Madoka Kikuta & Yoshiki Kato) Def. Homare & Yuma Anzai (AJPW)

Dream Gate champ Kikuta won with a rolling lariat on Homare.

Like his mentor, Shun Skywalker, Homare’s match was booked by Miyane with a mystery partner. Homare revealed on “Miyane-ya” a few weeks ago that his partner was All Japan dynamo Yuma Anzai. 

This tag match was more representative of what a viewer can expect from a Dragongate plus outsider match. With Naruki Doi (absent this show) promoting a Dragongate vs All Japan show in November, it made all the sense in the world to get All Japan’s top young star onto this. It gets All Japan fans in the door, continues to condition the DG fan on the All Japan roster, and, for the complete “Miyane-ya” civilian, you get the air of an all-star match on this show.

Anzai’s ability to quickly gel with the Dragongate house style added to the appeal of this match. With his size, it was smart to put him against the two tallest guys on the roster. The constant faceoffs with Kikuta, whom he lost to during the Champion Carnival, make me wonder if we might get a rematch down the line, either in this company or in the other.

Kikuta’s top heel run has been such a success so far that it makes moments like Homare kicking out of the running hip attack noteworthy. Since turning in the cage, Madoka Kikuta has been putting more zest behind the move. Strong Machine J, Shun Skywalker, and Ben-K have since taken knockout losses from it. The crowd fully bought into the hip attack being the finish, which made the discus lariat immediately afterwards feel like a coup de grâce. ***1/2

Kikuta took the microphone afterwards and ran down Anzai. He directed his comments towards Ben-K after their 9/21 Osaka match that finished with the hip attack, saying If that happened in a tag, imagine it in a singles.” Ben-K came out and addressed him, building up their Dream Gate match at the October Korakuen.

Yuki Yoshioka & MAO (DDT) Def. Dragon Kid & Dragon Dia

Yoshioka pinned his Twin Gate partner Dia with a High Fly Flow.

In the middle of an incredible story about the customer service of the sponsoring Art Moving Company, Jae Church discussed a post-match promo from Masaaki Mochizuki towards Yuki Yoshioka after their Dream Gate match in 2022. Mochizuki remarked that Yuki Yoshioka had it all as a wrestler, the technique and the physical ability to execute, except that he was too serious all the time. Sometimes, Mocchy mused, you got to be a bit of an idiot.

In the semi-main event of the Dragons of Dragongate, Kid and Dia, going up against look-a-likes Yoshioka and MAO from DDT, we got a whole lot of Yoshioka acting the idiot, and we ended up the better for it. Yoshioka and MAO dressed as Art Moving Company employees, complete with moving boxes, and played off their similarities throughout the entire match. Dia and the crowd got into the Killer Bees aspect, constantly referring to Yoshioka as MAO. Their constant psyching-up routine of locking arms and spinning in a circle ended up winding Yoshioka, which was played for laughs as well. Naturally, the moving boxes became weapons for MAO, and we ended with a High Fly Flow to Dia while MAO did a corner quebrada to DK on the floor.

There is most certainly a better, more serious version of this match. If you dropped the moving company schtick, you’d probably get closer to the all-star match that one would think more fitting for a show like this. That’s all fine and good, but for this kind of show and these kinds of stakes/potential new audience, a more jokey match plays to the tone of the card. ***1/4

YAMATO & Minoru Suzuki (Pancrase MISSION) Def. Shun Skywalker & X = Takashi Sugiura (NOAH)

Minoru Suzuki did Miyane’s dirty work and pinned Skywalker after a Gotch-Style Piledriver.

Miyane announced Suzuki and YAMATO as Shun’s opponents back in August. Skywalker teased the X over the next few weeks, which turned out to be Sugiura in what appears to be somewhat of a reciprocal relationship with NOAH’s Team 2000X.

One of the Shun Skywalker topics of note over the last few months has been his style of character work. As a heel mastermind of Z-Brats, his histronics were accepted and seen as great work. His babyface turn has been a success, but sometimes the same character work he did a few months ago feels out of place. I’ve likened him to Bugs Bunny, as there are some moments where Shun Skywalker acts like he’s transported into a Looney Tunes cartoon and is trying to trick Elmer Fudd into not shooting him. Ninety percent of the time, Shun is perfect in every way; we are just now seeing that 10 percent where things come off too wacky by half. 

Fortunately, the tone of the show, combined with having an opposing wrestler who specializes in outsized character work, such as Minoru Suzuki, meant Shun didn’t feel out of place. Perhaps some of it was that Skywalker got to do his tried and true heel bits in crowd work. It became kind of the glue of the match whenever Suzuki got to isolate Skywalker and go to town on his limbs.

Although less critical in terms of the match, Sugiura and YAMATO’s work together was excellent. The physical nature, along with YAMATO’s willingness to be tied into knots or chest blocked extremely, hard grounded the match, where it could have been a DDT Campground Wrestling match if left to Shun and Suzuki. If this Shun/T2000X is more than a one-of, I’d be up for more Sugiura appearances.

It wasn’t just crowd work and cartoon actions from Skywalker and Suzuki; their sequence towards the end of the match was excellent. I don’t think a crowd has popped more for Shun hitting the Blaster than they did for him doing one where Suzuki dead-weighted or attempted to fight out of it. That was pretty much the end of Skywalker’s luck, as Suzuki was able to get out of an SSW to apply a sleeper and, soon enough, Gotch-Style Piledriver. ***1/4

Post-match, Miyane was willing to put things aside with Shun Skywalker. He has an impressive rolodex and would like to help Skywalker’s battle against Kikuta and Gajadokuro. Shun sprinted to the back as his response (also to run into OZAWA and get booked on NOAH’s upcoming Sumo Hall show.) Miyane then brought everyone out ringside and closed the show, wondering where they’d do The Gate of Miyane next year.

Final Thoughts

This isn’t a regular Dragongate show; instead, it takes Dragongate wrestlers and subjects them to something new/out of the ordinary, more often than not for laughs. Aside from the Dino six-man tag, everything was a fun time. And when you add the incredible opener to this show? It makes it a clear THUMBS UP.

Your Ol Pal "Iron" Mike Spears co-hosts Open the Voice Gate on the Voices of Wrestling Podcast Network and writes Dragongate and Dragon System related content. As well, he creates content under the Spearsovations banner across all of pro wrestling.

You might also like

VoicesofWrestling.com - Hiroshi Tanahashi Road to Tokyo Dome

NJPW Road to Tokyo Dome (December 19) Review

VoicesofWrestling.com - ROH NJPW Global Wars 2017

ROH/NJPW Global Wars 2017: Night 4 (Chicago) Results & Review

Jey Uso WrestleMania 41 Saturday

WWE WrestleMania 41 Night 1 (April 19) Results & Review