Trapped in the Cagematch: YAMATO vs. Shun Skywalker (July 13, 2025)

With Trapped in the Cagematch, Kim Wong combs through the highest-rated matches according to Cagematch’s voters in preparation for the annual FSM 50 and the year-end Match of the Year extravaganza.

YAMATO (c) vs. Shun Skywalker
Dragongate Kobe Pro-wrestling Festival 2025
July 13, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 10/1/25: 55

In the first half of 2025, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Dragongate Pro-Wrestling relied on their elder statesmen, the 46-years-old Hirooki Goto and 43-years-old YAMATO respectively, to carry their standards while their younger wrestlers found their footing and wrote the next chapter for their companies. Unfortunately for Goto and NJPW, Goto’s reign was merely a distraction, a diversion in Zack Sabre Jr.’s reign so that Sabre can pass the torch to Konosuke Takeshita. Blunting Takeshita’s momentum from the start by arranging for him to beat Sabre, an uninspiring champion, instead of Goto, whose reign was the romantic heart of NJPW, is another puzzling decision in a series of puzzling decisions. 

Just like how STARDOM found its way through the the wilderness after the talent exodus to Marigold and how NJPW is still trying to chart its way forward in the wake of significant departures, Dragongate had faced its own existential crisis in 2018 when Cima, T-Hawk, El Lindaman, and Takehiro Yamamura left the company for Oriental Wrestling Entertainment and Shingo Takagi for NJPW. PAC’s arrival helped to buoy the company until the company committed to its own youth movement by crowning Ben-K in 2019. Even though Dragongate had, in theory, leaned into its own youth movement by selecting Ben-K as their next focus, it never seemed to shake the nagging feeling of instability. Ben-K’s first reign lasted only 147 days and 3 defenses, and the Open the Dream Gate Championship seemed to float from one medium-length reign to another, which is different from how the title used to switch hands frequently and its history was punctuated with lengthy reigns.  

I acknowledge that not every championship reign needs to be long or chock full of defenses and that each reign was as long as it was for a specific reason. I also acknowledge that the root cause of the change in philosophy was the change in the company’s leadership in 2019. Nonetheless, the short reigns felt to me, as an outside observer who doesn’t follow the company through every tour stop, like a sign of instability even after the company weathered its personnel crisis and tried to commit to a series of young wrestlers. 

So, after Ben-K ended Luis Mante’s troubled reign, YAMATO reasserted himself after intentionally ceding the spotlight to the younger wrestlers. He watched from the sidelines while Madoka Kikuta declared that he, Ben-K, Kota Minoura, Yuki Yoshioka, Strong Machine J, and Shun Skywalker were the Reiwa Six, the faces of Dragongate for the Reiwa generation. After YAMATO won the Open the Dream Gate Championship for the sixth time by beating Ben-K, he declared that he was the company’s standard bearer and that the era of the self-proclaimed Reiwa Six would have to wait until they proved themselves against him. 

YAMATO’s unscripted declaration that he would be the wall that the Reiwa Six would need to break through supports the aforementioned feeling of instability. As one of the last men standing from the company’s last golden age, YAMATO told the Reiwa Six and their generational compatriots that they weren’t good enough yet and that they had to prove themselves against him.

After beating one of the Reiwa Six for the title, YAMATO defended it against the 26-years-old Kikuta, the 27-years-old ISHIN, the veteran Kenoh, the 26-years-old Dragon Dia (in a title for title match so YAMATO became a double champion to further his assertion that he was the Reiwa generation’s measuring stick), Strong Machine J, the 39-years-old Dragongate mainstay Kzy, the 32-years-old Jason Lee, and the 55-years-old Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame candidate Masaaki Mochizuki. In total, YAMATO had tested three of the Reiwa Six and found them wanting, and he also denied the claims to the throne from two other challengers from the Reiwa generation. The only one who could beat YAMATO was Skywalker, who humbled him in an unexpected non-title singles match in January 2025.

Throughout his reign, YAMATO showed that he was able to demonstrate vulnerability (see the beatdown that Strong Machine J gave him in their match), determination, and resilience, proving that he was truly the heart of the company and redeeming his reputation after previous listless reigns as the Open the Dream Gate Champion in 2016-17 and 2021. 

Skywalker, meanwhile, concentrated more on screwing with his enemies, from Natural Vibez to Dragon Dia to Luis Mante, since his second Open the Dream Gate reign ended in 2023 at Kikuta’s hands. He won the Open the Triangle Gate Championship with KAI and ISHIN in 2024, but that reign only lasted 67 days. He’s also focused on mentoring, in his own way, Homare, the promising rookie who shocked Dragongate wrestlers and fans when he declared that he wanted to join Skywalker’s Z-Brats. Watching Dragongate from afar, it felt like the company itself was holding its breath until Skywalker turned his attention from personal grudges back to the Open the Dream Gate title and that it finally exhaled when Skywalker challenged YAMATO for the title after YAMATO defended it against Masaaki Mochizuki.

Skywalker then pulled all kinds of shenanigans to put the pressure on YAMATO ahead of their generational rematch, proving that he was conniving and dastardly. Skywalker was noticeably separated from the rest of the Z-Brats; they continued to wrestle while Skywalker disappeared with a fake knee injury. Even though both Skywalker’s Z-Brats and YAMATO’s PARADOX factions were in the mix in their January singles match, they were noticeably absent from ringside for YAMATO’s defense against Skywalker. 

YAMATO and Skywalker represent different generations of Dragongate; Skywalker is one of the Reiwa Six, while YAMATO is one of the first set of graduates of the Dragon Gate dojo, back when the company’s name was two words instead of one. YAMATO dethroned Skywalker back in 2021, which sent Skywalker into his spiral to become the grunting, fan-kidnapping weirdo leader of Z-Brats that we see before us. We can see the careful signaling that Dragongate did to prime the audience for Skywalker’s victory and for what comes next. YAMATO’s reign and Skywalker’s ascension represent a focus and approach to channeling the tension between the old guard and the young upstarts that is absent from NJPW’s recent handling of its headline championship.

One might say that Dragongate tried to gild the lily in the build-up to this match at Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival 2025 with all of Skywalker’s shenanigans. I understand why they felt it was necessary; after Skywalker so thoroughly dominated YAMATO in January, it felt inevitable that Skywalker would dethrone YAMATO the next time Skywalker would challenge him for the title. I don’t think they quite succeeded; the outcome still felt anticlimactic because Skywalker continued to dominate YAMATO throughout the match, leaving YAMATO with a last gasp of offense near the end to try to capitalize on Skywalker’s frustration.

We started the match with a reminder that Skywalker is a strange dude.

Shun Skywalker really outdid himself with this mask.

As we saw in their match in January, Skywalker got the better of most exchanges early and absorbed YAMATO’s strikes.

Skywalker was only pushed to defense when he gave YAMATO space, such as when he charged into a knee strike from YAMATO from the opposite corner, which YAMATO then chains with a dropkick from the top turnbuckle.

The fighters moved outside the ring and to the long elevated entrance ramp, where Skywalker showed that he can also turn YAMATO’s reliance on momentum against him by lifting a charging YAMATO and dropping him with his double underhook driver, the Blaster.

Though YAMATO was able to stumble back into the ring before the referee could count him out, Skywalker remained in control of the match, kicking YAMATO in the corner with a pumping front kick in the corner and landing a running single legged dropkick to YAMATO’s head. Nonetheless, the crowd remained firmly behind YAMATO, even as he fell to Skywalker’s uranage and moonsault double knee strike.

Skywalker then tried to knock YAMATO out with the BT Bomb, a stalling crucifix powerbomb.

YAMATO broke free from Skywalker’s attempt to finish him with his swinging powerbomb, getting enough space in the process to hurt a charging Skywalker with a headscissors and build momentum for the first time in the match.

YAMATO would then use Skywalker’s momentum against him again by catching his charge and lifting him for his Gallaria driver.

YAMATO applied a sleeper hold to Skywalker and spiked his head with a sleeper suplex, but Skywalker got a second wind and a demonic grin. YAMATO baited him into a standing forearm strike exchange, which he won, and chased a retreating Skywalker with a dropkick in the corner. YAMATO capped his offensive burst with a series of Go to Hospital jumping kicks to Skywalker’s head and another Gallaria, but Skywalker refused to be pinned.

The end came when Skywalker used his long body to slip out of YAMATO’s grasp as YAMATO tried a third Gallaria. Skywalker landed his SSW, a spinning driver, his moonsault, and one more SSW. That was enough to keep YAMATO down for the three count and cement Skywalker’s victory.

The match’s ending felt flat to me since I was expecting some more escalation, but I suppose it makes sense within the match’s narrative. Skywalker was almost as dominant in this match as he was in their January match, though he would get frustrated or feel cocky and make mistakes, like letting YAMATO get spacing to start his offense and getting baited into strike exchanges that would end in YAMATO’s favor. When he focused, however, he was consistently able to get YAMATO on the defensive, and he didn’t need that much to finally finish YAMATO and end his reign.

Of course, that’s not where the story ends.

After the match, Madoka Kikuta, Skywalker’s fellow Z-Brat, fellow Reiwa Six, and the man who ended Skywalker’s second reign, betrayed Skywalker and hit him from behind with a lariat. Kikuta then declared that Skywalker was actually weak, usurped his leadership of the Z-Brats, and walked away with everyone except Skywalker’s protégé, Homare. Since then, Kikuta unseated Skywalker as the Open the Dream Gate Champion, ending Skywalker’s reign after just 35 days. (To return to the point about short reigns signalling instability, Skywalker’s brief reign would be evidence against that perception, since the brevity is by design.) 

So, unlike how NJPW used Goto’s reign as a breather until they could retreat to Zack Sabre Jr., Dragongate used YAMATO’s reign to set up its next main story between an aggrieved Shun Skywalker and a rival from his own generation, Madoka Kikuta. We were also able to witness YAMATO redeem his legacy as he set the tone for the company. All in all, Dragongate handled its tension between the old guard and the young upstarts about as productively as it could have.

The match and the show can be watched on the Dragongate Network.

Next time: 

“Hear me, puroresu fans! No longer am I the Hayabusa you knew! I am fire! And life incarnate! Now and forever – I am Hayabusa!” 

vs.

“I’m Masato Tanaka, fella.”

The tension between the old guard and the young upstarts can be felt even in ZERO1, and we’ll check out the battle between the ageless Masato Tanaka and the new Hayabusa.