Welcome back to Dragon Gate and this is the second to last show before Shingo’s departure in a couple days, so I decided to cover whatever the network decides to air until his departure meaning this one and the next one.

We have a special appearance in this show that I’m sure most of you know at this point and I will get to it when the actual match happens.

Let’s see how this show turns out and…dive right in.

Six Man Tag Team Match
Hiroshi Yamato, Kota Minoura & Mondai Ryu vs. Natural Vibes (Kzy, Susumu Yokosuka & YASSHI)

Review: We got half of Natural Vibes opening up the show today after losing to R.E.D at the elimination tag match as Kzy, Susumu, and YASSHI will be taking on Hiroshi Yamato, Kota Minoura, and Mondai Ryu to give the fans an entertaining match to start the show. Will Natural Vibes win?

We had Hiroshi Yamato singing during his entrance, wasn’t bad. The match was mostly entertaining with Natural Vibes doing their dancing around along with their tag moves together in the match and a little comedic encounter between Yamato and Kzy when she held hands and did that dance until Yamato accidentally hits Kzy in the head. The other team didn’t do too bad either since it was just some random people paired off together which happens during the undercard of the show. Other than that, nothing really big happens here since it’s just a regular tag match. Kota Minoura would start to get some momentum over Kzy until Kzy tried to do his Running Elbow Smash, which got reversed into a flash pin but Kzy kicked out of it. Kzy would be able to pick him up for a Piledriver as Kota kicked out of it and picked him up again for the Running Elbow Smash and Natural Vibes gets the win.

Rating: Tony Schiavone and a half

Tag Team Match
Gamma & Genki Horiguchi vs. Don Fujii & Ryo Saito

Review: We got another tag match with Roy Saito and Don Fujii teaming up again as they take on Gamma and Natural Vibes member, Genki Horiguchi. Fujii and Saito are still trying to keep the ball rolling with this tag team and I still hope it leads to something for both of these guys. Will they win to get momentum or will the odd duo pull a victory out of nowhere?

It now looks like that Ryo is wearing Fujii’s gear so that they could match, think it makes sense if they’re gonna be a team. This match is just a straight-up comedy match and kinda felt like that was how it needed to go for this one with the people involved in this match. Gamma and Ryo would have a sumo type of match and even did the posing for it which Ryo would win and even Hip Toss Genki when he tried to run in. Genki would tie yellow tape to Ryo’s ear as Gamma would grab the other end of it to run around the hall, almost making it to the stairs as Fujii attacked Genki to make Gamma let go as well. Both Fujii and Ryo would do a neck twist to Genki and it looked like one of his braids fell off of his head and had to tag Gamma in as he tried to put Ryo in a submission till Fujii threw a water bottle at him. Both Fujii and Ryo would hit a Chokeslam on their opponents and Gamma took it horribly, like wow. Gamma would try to roll Ryo up but he pulled the back of her shorts down to have his bare ass out in the open and then the two would try to roll each other up with him still bare-assed as Ryo would get the final surprise pin for the victory.

Rating: Tony Schiavone and three quarters

Singles Match
KAI vs. Punch Tominaga

Review: It looks like KAI is set to have another match with Dragon Gate and I’m not sure if this is part of the tour or just doing another match or two, but I’ll take whatever I can get with him to see him wrestle. His next match is against Natural Vibes member, Punch Tominaga and feels like it could be a rather comedic but fun match. Which one of these two will win?

Punch would attack KAI on the outside to get the first advantage over him and he does appear to have him on the ropes for the beginning part of it. It was surprisingly pretty back and forth when they were fighting each other in the match since I expected it to be completely one-sided once Punch had his little fun in the beginning, but glad it wasn’t the case. KAI so far in this tour has had mediocre matches and not that they’re bad, but they’re just matches with nothing really standing out with them to make them memorable. The match was very short too, around six minutes as Punch would go for his Moonsault off the rope and misses and KAI would hit Punch with a Lariat for a two count. KAI would then bit a Brainbuster for another two count and picked him up for the Michinoku Driver and get the win.

Rating: Eric Bischoff

Eight Man Tag Team Match
Hyo Watanabe, Masaaki Mochizuki, Shun Skywalker & Yuki Yoshioka vs. Tribe Vanguard (Kagetora, U-T, YAMATO & Yosuke Santa Maria)

Review: We got our first and only eight-man tag match for the show as Tribe Vanguard takes on Masaaki Mochizuki’s team and he kinda does have a unit with people like Yuki, Shun, and Hyo but they’re not an official unit and don’t have a name. Will Mochizuki and Shun get revenge on YAMATO or Tribe Vanguard wins this?

All eight of these men delivered in this match with them giving us fast-paced action throughout the entire match with both teams going back and forth, hitting their moves out of nowhere whenever someone else breaks out of a pin or hits a move of their own. Tribe Vanguard were more consistent with their maneuvers due to them being a well-established stable in this match and I gotta give it up for U-T and Kagetora for being the highlights of the match since both of these guys just did great and stood out more in the match, but doesn’t take away from guys like YAMATO and Yosuke.

Mochizuki’s team would also match up with them as Shun would once again deliver in the match and so did the other guys in the match to show that they very well could be a future unit in Dragon Gate if they’re serious about being one or they’ll just keep teaming and doing solo stuff without forming a unit, that’s all up to them. When I talk about the non-stop action of the match, U-T would have someone in a Kneebar and once it was broken up, Kagetora would hit a Diving Elbow Drop out of nowhere. Mochizuki would be in a hold and Shun would try to Moonsault off the top ropes, but was being held onto by Tribe Vanguard and Yuki out of nowhere would hit the Standing Moonsault while they were too focused on Shun. U-T and Hyo would be in the ring now and U-T would lock in Skayde hold onto Hyo to make him tap out as he gets the win for Tribe Vanguard!

Rating: Bruce Prichard and a quarter

Six Man Tag Team Match
MaxiMuM (Dragon Kid, Jason Lee & Kaito Ishida) vs. R.E.D. (KAZMA SAKAMOTO, Takashi Yoshida & Yasushi Kanda)

Review: We got a six-man tag match with MaxiMum going to war with R.E.D this time after having them assault MaxiMuM at the last show once the main event was over. We got Dragon Kid leading the charge this time with Jason Lee and Kaito Ishida as they take on Takashi Yoshida, Yasushi Kanda, and KAZMA SAKAMOTO. I do we get to see more for KAZMA here in this match but we will see what happens here. Which of these units will win?

I think it was kill Kaito Ishida on R.E.D’s agenda because he certainly took the majority of the beatings in this tag match. We got to see a little bit more of KAZMA in the match and he did a slightly better performance in this one compared to his return at the last show and could be a better powerhouse guy than Takashi if given the opportunity to. MaxiMuM were quick in this match due to relying on their agility since they took on the powerhouses of the R.E.D unit and Dragon Kid would mostly be the one to outmaneuver the opponents while Jason Lee would try to keep up, but they kept on getting overpowered.

Dragon Kid and Kaito would do a combo with Kid hitting the 619 while Kaito would hit a Dropkick at the same time and it would’ve been a really cool spot if they timed it up a little bit better in the match. Kaito would have Kanda sitting on his shoulders while they were both on the turnbuckle and Dragon Kid would jump the ropes to hit a Super Hurricanrana. KAZMA got back in the ring with Kaito and slammed him down as he signaled Takashi and Kanda to hit the Diving Elbow Drops onto him and Kid would break the hold. KAZMA would hit the Pop-up Powerbomb on Kaito and picked him up on his shoulders so Takashi would hit the Doomsday Device and top it off, Takashi picked him up for the Cyber Bomb and R.E.D wins it.

Rating: Eric Bischoff and a half

Tag Team Match
Big Ben (Ben-K & Big R Shimizu) vs. DoiYoshi (Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi)

Review: So we officially have a date for the Open the Dream Gate Championship match between Masato Yoshino and Ben-K as it’s set to take place on November 4th at the show, The Gate of Destiny. For now, we got a tag match with Yoshino teaming up with Naruki Doi as they take on Ben-K and Big R Shimizu. I’m excited to see how this feud will turn out and this will be the first step to see where this direction will go. Will the champion win or will Ben get the early advantage?

Instead of R.E.D going in for the attack, DoiYoshi would attack them first before they got into the ring. I gotta make this comment before I continue further and I’m kinda disappointed with how they changed Ben’s look. I’m saying this because he originally looked like this shogun badass with his attire and now he just looks like a generic powerhouse with his change in appearance. I think he still could’ve kept the gear and just made it red, but with what they gave him now, I don’t like it personally but I still like him despite that. Moving on, seeing DoiYoshi teaming up together with just them was fun to see and they did pull off some sweet tag moves together which I will get to in a little bit. We’ve seen Big Ben wrestle as a team on here before and we know they’re good together despite Big R not being that good, to begin with, but them as a tag team works and we got a solid match between the two teams.

We had Naruki on the top rope Yoshino held Ben-K up for him to kick and as Naruki hits the Dropkick, he landed on Big R for the Senton at the same time and would get a two count out of it. Big R would go for the Shot-put Slam on Naruki and would turn it around to a Crucifix as Yoshino Dropkicked Big R to make Naruki land the pin for a two count. Big R would try to go for it again as Naruki would hit a Flash Pin for another two count and as Yoshino went for the Torbellino, Ben-K caught him for a Spear before he could land it all. Ben was also able to hit Naruki for a Spear and would kick out of it at two. Yoshino would hit the Torbellino this time and had Big R on his knees so Naruki would hit the Bakatare Sliding Kick and would pin Big R for the win. Yoshino would get the first win in this feud between him and Ben-K and it was a good way to start it off, but now we gotta see if they can keep the ball rolling here.

Rating: Eric Bischoff and three quarters

Tag Team Match
R.E.D. (Eita & X) vs. BxB Hulk & Shingo Takagi

Review: We got our main event here as Shingo Takagi and BxB Hulk are teaming up before their big match as they agreed and R.E.D weren’t very keen on that decision and told Shingo that Eita and a mystery partner will be facing them for this tag match. It looks like R.E.D will be having a new recruit after this match is over and it looks like Shingo is officially out of the group while Eita is in charge. Who is the mystery partner and can Shingo & Hulk defeat them?

I was right to say that Eita would be kicking out Shingo since that is exactly what he did before the bell would ring and as he introduced his partner, the lights would go off for a moment and when the lights go on, we have the return of PAC fka Neville. That’s right, PAC has returned to his home in Dragon Gate instead of going to the obvious places like NJPW/ROH and I’m glad he chose Dragon Gate since this is the best place for him right now. PAC still looks good like he never lost any of his muscle and now it’s time to see if he has any ring rust or not. Also, the reaction on Hulk’s face during this reveal was priceless.

There were two stories in this match and one of them was Shingo and R.E.D since he was out of the group and what R.E.D do to him during the entire match with these weapons was pretty much telling him karma was a bitch and this is what he’s getting back. The second story is PAC and the progression of his character and personality from when he left six years ago to when he came back with his new attitude and personality, I’m glad he kept his WWE look from when he was a heel since that was one of the bigger highlights of his career until the very end and would now try this new persona on a different playing field. As for the ring rust, he really didn’t have much almost as if he never lost a step, but it’s hard to tell due to it being a tag match. The match itself was very solid and it was mostly the story of it that carried the match than the actual wrestling of it and that’s kinda fair due to the atmosphere of the match. Shingo would hit the Pumping Bomber on both Eita and PAC for a two count and Kanda hits Shingo with the black box to distract him enough for Eita to pick it up. Eita went to hit him with it but Shingo caught the box and threw it outside but accidentally hits the referee when he bumped into him, which lead to R.E.D to come in for all of them to hit their moves on Shingo and Big R tops it off with the Shot-put Slam on him. PAC would get Shingo to the corner and hits the Red Arrow to give R.E.D the win.

After the match, YAMATO would get in the ring and told PAC that he wanted to fight him. MaxiMuM got into the ring next and they all talked about how they wanted to fight PAC now, and now Natural Vibes does the same thing and it looks like everyone wants a piece of PAC now since he’s back in Dragon Gate, but it looks like the four units will be having a war coming soon. Speaking of PAC, I wonder what title he’ll be going for? I wanna say Open the Dream Gate, but it all depends on if Ben-K can get it or not. If that’s the case, he could go for the Open the Brave Gate against Dragon Kid or he could team up with Eita to fight for the Open the Twin Gate titles. He has a lot of different options and curious to see which route he takes.

Rating: Bruce Prichard

Overall: The undercard of the match was really weak, but the last four matches made the show more tolerable and we have the return of PAC to close off the show as Shingo now has one match left before he departs from Dragon Gate. Will these changes be for the better or for worse? We’re gonna have to find out soon enough.

Favorite Match: Hyo Watanabe, Masaaki Mochizuki, Shun Skywalker & Yuki Yoshioka vs. Tribe Vanguard

Least Favorite Match: Hiroshi Yamato, Kota Minoura & Mondai Ryu vs. Natural Vibes

Score: 7.5/10