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Dragongate Rey de Parejas 2026 Finals (September 3) Results & Review

There was an hour of this show that made me hate my life. There was another hour of this show that was fine. That is 2026 Dragongate.
Case Loweby Case Lowe•

DRAGONGATE
REY DE PAREJAS FINALS
SEPTEMBER 3, 2026
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: Dragongate Network

ADVANCE BOUT
RYU FUDA DEF. TRISTAN MOODY 

It took five years for Dragongate to do something with Ryu Fuda, but they’re starting to do something with him. On the August 30 show in Nara, Fuda made his intentions known that he wanted to be in Gajadokoru alongside his classmate ISHIN. While the two tentatively agreed on Fuda to join his first official unit (in storyline, Mochizuki Dojo has never been recognized as a unit in the same way that, say, Natural Vibes has), the rest of the unit had not yet agreed to put Fuda in. It’s very on-brand that Fuda now is in the midst of an angle and yet he was still forced to work the dark match on this show. Fuda merely existed in this contest, while I continued to be impressed by American import Tristan Moody. The thing I’ve come to appreciate most about Moody is the snap that he has on his offense. A man that compact needs to look like he has deadly strikes, and luckily for Moody, he’s starting to develop those. This was a fine, inoffensive dark match. **1/2 

REY DE PAREJAS 2026 SEMI-FINALS MATCH
EL CIELO & LUIS MANTE DEF. KAGETORA & SUSUMU YOKOSUKA 

This was a collision between the A-Block winners in El Cielo and Luis Mante and the B-Block runner-ups in Kagetora and Susumu Yokosuka. With all due respect to the former Jimmyz duo who are one of the promotion’s best tag teams in their own right, I desperately hoped that this match would’ve been Cielo and Mante against Jacky Kamei and Riiita. That would’ve worked out better for everyone. Instead, Kagetora and Yokosuka attempted to rein in the two squirely luchadores. I found that Mante and Yokosuka worked better together than any other combination involved. Not that the other pairings struggled, but we’ve seen in the past that Yokosuka can bring an extra bit of pep out of Mante, who continues to be a baffling creature. 

When the blocks were announced, I fully expected Cielo and Mante to be pushed heavily and to possibly win the tournament (nailed that, didn’t I?) in an effort to realign Mante with the promotion. He’s been without a unit for nearly two years now. He seems like he’s constantly wrestling parallel with the rest of the roster, not growing with them and not being embedded in any storylines. The usage of him since Big Hug formed, quite honestly, has been baffling. I hoped that the Mante that arrived in this tournament would remind me of the Mante of old. That has not been the case, unfortunately. The masked duo failed to generate the same level of buzz that teams like Akey and GUC, Homare and Kazuma Kimura, or even Genki Horiguchi and Yasushi Kanda generated. At no point during block play did Cielo and Mante have a better match than the one that Horiguchi and Kanda had with Kamei and Riiita. Opponents be damned, that is an issue. 

Right when this match started to heat up, it came to an end. Yokosuka countered Mante’s Vuelta Finale with a Destroyer, which certainly caused me to sit up straight. Mante then responded in kind by shaking it off and hitting a desperate Super Tigre to roll up Yokosuka for the win. This lacked polish, but did excite me towards the end. ***1/4 

REY DE PAREJAS 2026 SEMI-FINALS
KOTA MINOURA & YUKI YOSHIOKA DEF. ISHIN & YOSHIKI KATO 

Thank God I didn’t bet the house on the result of their Kobe World match, or else I’d be homeless right now. 

I thought for sure that the pairing of Minoura and Yoshioka, now dubbed (annoyingly) XenisS, would waltz into Kobe World and defeat the team that has dominated the Dragongate tag ranks all year long. From there, this tournament would be used to figure out who their first challengers were going to be. All of that turned out to be wrong. Minoura and Yoshioka, who have been excellent as a tag team, were crushed at Kobe World. They’ve continued to maintain their spark throughout this tournament, but ISHIN and Yoshiki Kato, still champions, have also continued their dominance throughout Rey de Parejas. 

Luckily for the babyface tandem that Dragongate desperately needs, they evened the score with Team 204, scoring a huge pinfall after Minoura countered an ISHIN flash pin with a pin of his own, which came immediately after a box attack from Ryu Fuda to Minoura. Prior to Fuda’s involvement in the finish, this was the hard-hitting, no-nonsense encounter that I was hoping for. Yoshioka has been a stud throughout this tournament, rehabbing his image after poor booking and bad main events debilitated him in the first part of the year. I’m very bullish on him right now. 

Minoura is very clearly the backup dancer in this duo, but he’s putting in consistent, worthwhile performances, as well. He was marvelous down the stretch with ISHIN as the two put together a complex series of moves that peaked the crowd’s interest. A credit to XenisS, who should’ve been the obvious favorites, they sold in a way that made it seem very plausible that Team 204 could walk away with this match. The moment after Fuda drilled Minoura in the back with a box only seemed to solidify those feelings. Then, out of nowhere, Minoura got one over on the heels. 

It’s beyond silly to me that Minoura and Yoshioka aren’t currently the Twin Gate Champions. That being said, I’m fine with them squeaking out a victory here. Hopefully wrestling logic prevails and they get a big, definitive win against ISHIN and Kato in the rubber match. ***3/4  

Even after the incident with the finish, ISHIN grabbed a microphone after the match and officially invited Ryu Fuda to join Gajadokoru. Fuda, however, replied saying that he would need some more time to think about it. I found all of this to be very odd, but I’m intrigued to see where it goes. 

DON FUJII, PUNCH TOMINAGA, & TORU OWASHI DEF. JIRO SHIMBASHI, MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI, & ULTIMO DRAGON 

This match really pissed me off. 

Let me get the good out of the way because it’ll be quick. There was a spot near the finish in which Don Fujii and Toru Owashi, who was celebrating his 26th year as a pro, launched Punch Tominaga into the air with the Rocket Punch. Unfortunately for them, Masaaki Mochizuki was too close, and Tominaga sailed over him and straight into the canvas. That was genuinely very funny. 

Here’s the fucking problem with the rest of this. This company, who is desperate for main event stars and should be even more desperate given that they can’t break the glass of Shun Skywalker in case of emergency, has put more time and effort into building up Jiro Shinbashi comedy matches than they have anything else this year. It is maddening and I am sick of it. I’m sure Shinbashi’s a nice guy. The act is fine. It makes me laugh sometimes. It even popped Hideki Suzuki recently. 

Jiro Shinbashi is never going to draw money for your promotion. If for some reason you are relying on Jiro Shinbashi to get people in the building, then you have bigger problems to deal with. 

I say all of this because after the match, Shinbashi, who is wrestling Minoru Suzuki at the upcoming Tokyo PPV on 9/12, was greeted by Shin Sakura Hirota, who was dressed as Minoru Suzuki. Hirota is apparently the Open the Owari Gate Champion and won the title on a Marvelous show in May. I have covered this promotion every day for 11 years and I genuinely had no idea that happened until today. The ensuing segment dragged on and on and on. A comedy joshi wrestler dressed as Minoru Suzuki and a comedy wrestler who is going to wrestle Minoru Suzuki got more focus on this show than the Open the Dream Gate Champion Kzy. 

Although it currently escapes me in my YouTube searches, this whole thing reminded me of an old Bryan Alvarez rant when TNA had their unofficial Beer Drinking Championship. The feud was between Eric Young and James Storm and TNA, at the height of Russo zanniness, produced a hype video all about the drive and determination that it takes to be a champion…a Beer Drinking Champion. They parodied good pro wrestling for their undercard comedy feud. Dragongate has spent the entire year doing that. We have nothing booked right now for the October Korakuen EXCEPT for Jiro vs. Hirota. We dedicated far more time hyping up that match than we did the OPEN THE DREAM GATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH IN NINE DAYS. Uhaa Nation’s name wasn’t mentioned on this show! The Triangle Gate match was built up in a 90 second promo. There’s no direction for half the roster, but every single month, Jiro gets a match and angle to hype up his next opponent. It’s maddening. This promotion has gotten way too goofy and I’m sick of it. I need Jiro to go away. I need The Clowns to fuck off entirely. I don’t want to see Yosuke Santa Maria walk through that door any time soon. I hate all of this. Rey de Parejas highlighted what a deep, young roster Dragongate has, yet they refuse to book any undercard angles that don’t revolve around the salaryman goofy guy. 

Dragongate has been plagued by the same issue that CMLL has been plagued by this year. There’s a lot of “programming” and not a lot of “booking”. The fun part of Rey de Parejas was seeing all of these teams with something to latch onto. Now the tournament is over and everyone is back to spinning their wheels. Matches come, matches go, they don’t really mean anything, and as a result, the wrestlers themselves don’t either. Dragongate has largely done two angles this year: 

  1. Overwrought heel interference 
  2. Comedy bullshit 

If you aren’t pitching one of those ideas, it’s probably not getting on the show. It sucks. It’s bad. I thought they were headed in the right direction after August but they are not. They can’t get out of their own way. I look forward to Kazuma Kimura wasting away in nothing matches for the rest of the year while Jiro gets all of the shine. 

Fuck this. *1/2 

GENKI HORIGUCHI, KENICHIRO ARAI, & YASUSHI KANDA DEF. JASON LEE, KAI, & MADOKA KIKUTA

Oh, good. More bullshit. 

The following matches have taken place at Korakuen Hall this year: 

  • 1/18: Jason Lee & Kota Minoura vs. El Cielo & Homare (3:35) 
  • 2/5: KAI & Yoshiki Kato vs. El Cielo & Homare (5:49) 
  • 4/6: Kota Minoura & Yoshiki Kato vs. El Cielo & Homare (1:58) 
  • 5/8: Jason Lee, KAI, Kota Minoura, & Madoka Kikuta vs. Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi, Masaaki Mochizuki, & Yasushi Kanda (5:02) 
  • 6/4: Jason Lee, KAI, Kota Minoura, & Madoka Kikuta vs. BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi, Susumu Yokosuka, & YAMATO (4:31) 
  • 7/2: ISHIN, KAI, Madoka Kikuta, & Yoshiki Kato vs. Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi, Masaaki Mochizuki, & Yasushi Kanda (5:35) 

And now today: 

  • 9/3: Jason Lee, KAI, & Madoka Kikuta vs. Genki Horiguchi, Kenichiro Arai, & Yasushi Kanda (2:40)

What am I missing? Why isn’t Gajadokoru allowed to wrestle more than 6 minutes on the undercard in Korakuen? They haven’t alluded to any story about the unit losing matches quickly. Month after month, they are shoved into a multi-man match in this building that has no time to build and doesn’t go anywhere as a result. The only months I don’t have listed are March (they wrestled an 8 minute undercard match and a putrid 20 minute main event) and August (both RDP teams wrestled 10 minutes). 

You can’t sink your teeth into a match this short when it’s short for the sake of being short. It doesn’t help that this victory for The Olds will now lead to another Genki Horiguchi title match, his fourth in a Dragongate ring this year. Since his one-day Brave Gate reign in 2021, which was widely thought to be his last vestige of being a pushed commodity, Horiguchi had only had two title matches, a Brave Gate challenge in 2023 and a Triangle Gate challenge in 2024. He lost both. This year, we’ve seen him go for the Brave Gate belt and take up precious time on Dragongate shows with the All Asia belts that belong to All Japan. Now we get him in a Triangle Gate match that he could very easily win. 

There was nothing to this. KAI lost via the Backslide From Heaven. **1/4 

YAMATO 20TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES
HIDETAKA MONMA VS. YAMATO: 10-MINUTE TIME LIMIT DRAW

In a sense, the upcoming Dream Gate match between Kzy and YAMATO has been built up for the last 20 years. Graduates of the Dragongate Dojo in 2006, YAMATO was the prized pupil who became the winningest wrestler in Dragongate history while Kzy spent a decade wasting away before transforming his body and slowly climbing the ranks until he finally won the big one in July at Kobe World. The story writes itself. I get that. I also understand that on the televised shows in Kobe and one of the Fukuoka shows this last month, YAMATO and Kzy were on opposite sides and got to build up their Dream Gate match there. Given that we are in Tokyo, however, and that the PPV on the 12th is also in Tokyo, shouldn’t they have wrestled in a tag on this show? With all due respect to ex-Pancrase trainer Hidetaka Monma, I don’t care about him whatsoever. YAMATO’s vanity anniversary celebration can come later. This did absolutely nothing to get me excited about the Dream Gate match that is nine days away. In fact, this match was so unbelievably boring that it killed a lot of my excitement for what’s to come. 

This had the vibe of a Grapplefuck-era EVOLVE match. Those matches died a death in front of their crowds, this match died a death in front of this crowd. I am very interested in seeing YAMATO out-grapple the Dragongate roster. I am not interested in seeing YAMATO get out-grappled by an old Pancrase guy NINE DAYS BEFORE A GOD DAMNED OPEN THE DREAM GATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH. WHY DID THIS COMPANY FORGET HOW TO BOOK THIS YEAR? WHAT IS HAPPENING? 

It finished in a time limit draw because of course it did. The only redeeming part of this was YAMATO going for a double leg early in the match and eating a skull-altering knee. Otherwise, this was terrible. ** 

GIANNI VALLETTA, HYO, JACKY KAMEI, MOCHIZUKI JUNIOR, & RIIITA DEF. AKEY, GUC, KZY, STRONG MACHINE J, & U-T 

Fair play to Dragongate, I really enjoyed this match starting with Flamita and Gianni Valletta and the work that those two did with one another. Valletta is already on a flight back to Malta, but I hope that when he comes back, we see more of that combination. Luckily, after an hour of hell, Flamita and Valletta kicked off a match that was full of enjoyable pairings. 

It would become official after the match that while Valletta was returning home to Malta after this match, he’d officially become a Love & Peace member upon his return. Thus, this was our first real glimpse of Valletta in Love & Peace. It should come as no surprise, given how malleable Valletta has been with how talented the entire unit has been, that this seems to be a winning combination. The unquestionable high point of this match was Flamita attempting to monkey flip Riiita into Valletta, only for Valletta to catch his new teammate and powerbomb him back towards Flamita. I loved that. I would love it if we got some extended tag action between Valletta and Riiita upon the Maltan’s return. 

Oh, Open the Dream Gate Champion Kzy was in this match. He was an afterthought on the Rey de Parejas tour and he was an afterthought on this show. Well done, Dragongate. He did nothing of note in this match. He didn’t even get what I thought was going to be an obvious win. He was launched off the top rope by Valletta and then bailed to the floor so that U-T could eat a King Kong Knee Drop for the finish. Need I remind you that there is a Dream Gate match in nine days? 

Jacky Kamei also has a horrible new haircut, but we will deal with that some other time.

This was a good match in a vacuum. ***1/2 

Valletta announced that going forward he would be with Love & Peace, then headbutted and lariated everyone in the group. English commentator Jae Church tried to sell this as them getting “jumped in” by their new unit member, but it just came off silly. Before Valletta left, he grabbed Lucky Odashima and dragged him to the back. You have no idea how badly I hope that is the last time we ever see Odashima. 

BXB HULK, DRAGON KID, & NARUKI DOI DEF. HOMARE, KAZUMA KIMURA, & RYOYA TANAKA 

Finally, we have a match that builds to Tokyo Infinity Hectopascal on September 12. 

Dragon Kid set his sights on record-setting Brave Gate Champion Ryoya Tanaka last month, and now Kid is ready for his first Brave Gate challenge since 2022 when he lost to Hyo. Since then, Kid has battled numerous injuries and for a while, people thought would never be healthy enough to get in the ring and compete for a singles title again. Thankfully, he showed just how well he can still move around in this table-setter contest for next week’s title match. Kid looked vibrant while in the ring with Tanaka, who at this point is more likely to carry the veteran to a great match than the other way around. I remain very bullish on their match, given what I saw from these two tonight. 

On the whole, the trio of Homare, Kimura, and Tanaka remains as strong of an act as anything in the promotion right now. Homare and Kimura were excellent throughout Rey de Parejas as this team, positioned the way they are, finally gives Homare a chance to be a high-flyer in the way that he was born to be. No longer does he have to live underneath the shadow of Shun Skywalker. He has brought a ton to the table in this unit. He hit such a stellar no touch tope as this match veered into the finishing stretch. 

While the focus of this bout was mostly on Kid and Tanaka, I must note that Tanaka attempted to catch Naruki Doi with a Back Handspring Ace Crusher, which Doi countered by hitting a mid-air schoolboy-powerbomb combo on the Brave Gate Champion. I’ve never seen anyone do that before and it looked absolutely incredible. 

Dragon Kid pinned Ryoya Tanaka with the Ultra Hurricanrana just before the 12-minute mark. ***1/2 

REY DE PAREJAS 2026 FINALS
EL CIELO & LUIS MANTE DEF. KOTA MINOURA & YUKI YOSHIOKA 

As I predicted when the blocks were announced, Rey de Parejas 2026 belonged to El Cielo & Luis Mante. Unfortunately, their rise to the top of the tag ranks coincided with one of the weaker outputs in the tournament. 

I realized watching this match what my issue with this team has been. Cielo and Mante put together incredible closing stretches. When these matches get going, they really get going. The problem is that in the lead up to that, they seem lost. Mante has been without a character or direction for two years. Cielo, while talented, is vague in every way he’s presented. They are not able to hold my attention when they are in the early portions of matches because they aren’t compelling enough, and I’m not invested in either man. They just exist and they happen to do cool moves when the time calls for it. This ended up being a great match, but it took a long time to reach that point. 

Right when I was getting ready to fully divest from what was a slog of an opening third, Minoura and Yoshioka turned up the gas and brought life into a match that desperately needed it. The match truly started to take a turn for the better when Yoshioka launched Mante backwards with a German Suplex, only for Mante to roll to his feet and then dump Yoshioka on his head with a Michinoku Driver, which put both men down for an extended period of time. This match desperately needed that flurry of action. 

From there, this was the XenisS show. Yoshioka and Minoura dug deep and brought something out of Mante and Cielo that no one had been able to do previously. Even in their bout on 8/30 to decide the block winner, I don’t think Minoura and Yoshioka were able to bring this out of the faux-luchador team. For the first time in ages, it looked like Mante was desperate to win, rather than get out of the ring. Yoshioka seemed to challenge him in a way that I really enjoyed. If anything, this match served as a nice reminder for what an athletic freak Mante can be between his incredible vault over the top rope in which he landed on his feet and reckless suicide dive right before the finish. 

Cielo was not quite as stellar as his partner was in this contest. He botched a one-man Spanish Fly off the top rope right when this match was really starting to become something great. He fell to the apron while Yoshioka got knocked to the floor. The following minute saw guys noticeably frazzled by the botched spot. 

Even with all of that in mind, the final two minutes of this match were pure bliss with Minoura and Yoshioka swinging wildly at their opponents and their opponents being able to outlast it all. In the end, Cielo dropped Yoshioka on his head with a Spinning Tombstone for the win. **** 

Cielo & Mante will challenge ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato for the Open the Twin Gate Championships on September 12 in Tokyo.

Final Thoughts

There was an hour of this show that made me hate my life. There was another hour of this show that was fine. That perfectly describes Dragongate 2026. Thumbs down for the finals of Rey de Parejas 2026.

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Reviewing AAW and Dragongate for Voices of Wrestling. Lucharesu historian. @_InYourCase on Twitter.

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