Dragon Gate Champion Gate in Osaka Day 1 3/6/2021

Dragon Gate Champion Gate in Osaka Day 1 3/6/2021

R.E.D (Kazma Sakamoto, Eita and Kaito Ishida) vs MASQUERADE (Shun Skywalker, Jason Lee and La Estrella)

As usual, the faces get beaten up before the bell as Shun and Kaito stare down. Estrella does a nice over the back armdrag on Kazma then headscissors him from behind. Things slow down with Estrella taking a beating and he comes back with a springboard reverse tope.

Lee gets in and tornado ddt's Kazma off of Eita. Shun monkey flips Eita across the ring and Kazma knee's Lee through the ropes. Kaito then assists Kazma with a powerbomb on Lee. Kaito then legswept Lee and put him in a calf crusher and won in an abrupt finish to a disappointing match.

Don Fujii & U-T vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Takashi Yoshida vs. Bokutimo Dragon & Kota Minoura

Mochi, Minoura and UT went at it to begin with some three person shenanigans spots. Yoshida and Fuji copied Boku's arm mannerism and they all kind of danced around the ring. They did a three person test of strength. Yoshida did some weird head massage type of move on Boku whit UT thankfully broke up.

UT missile dropkicked Minoura off the 2nd rope then Yoshida did a head massage on Minoura. Boku and Minoura had  Yoshida up for a double suplex and Mochi and UT contemplated joining. Instead they argued and Mochi kicked UT. Fuji chokeslammed Mochy and three different pin attempts were done at one, with all failing. Yoshida hit rapid fire throat thrusts onto Fuji and UT then clotheslined them both. Mochi leapfrogged over a UT spear then dived outside on people and Yoshida ligerbombed UT to win.

This had a bunch of bad comedy and a slow pace and was not good at all.

R.E.D. (BxB Hulk, KAI & SB KENTo) vs. HIGH-END (Ben-K, Dragon Kid & YAMATO)

High End is a new DG unit and I don't see it being a particularly successful one. High End jumps RED before the bell and I think SB slapped Kid with a magazine. Hulk got shouldered over the top rope by Ben then Kai and Yamato got in. Kai held Kid in a camel clutch and Hulk axe-kicked Kid over his head. SB sat on Kid in the corner and played with his magazine then started a beat by stomping on Kid.

SB threw kid into the ropes but Kid 619'd the ropes and kicked him in the gut. Ben then came in and speared both RED members then ate a pump kick from Hulk. Hulk too a nice spin bump for a shoulder from Ben then Yamato hit an exploder on Kai for 2. Kai came back with kicks and a release german before superkicking Yamato in the head. SB and Kid traded forearms and Yamato hit a great sliding superkick into SB's face before Hulk gutwrench suplexed him. Kid then bounced SB off the mat with a swinging ddt.

Kai hit a nasty lariat on Yamato for 2 at 10 minutes. SB then hit a nice german on him but Kid made the save. SB hit a nice spinning spinebuster on Kid and Yamato hit a nice hurricanrana on SB for the win.

RED and High End fought after the bell.

The lack of crowd heat hurt this but there wasn't anything really wrong with this one. It was not close to what it could have been though if they were allowed double the time.

Open The Brave Gate Title Match - Keisuke Okuda (c) vs. H.Y.O

I think this could be good but there is no chance Hyo wins this. Okuda hits some hard leg kicks early and pumping knee's a downed Hyo. Then he mounts and pounds himn. Hyo comes back with a release back drop and RED holds Okuda's legs neat the post so they can jam a stick into his legs.

RED stacks chairs on Okuda's leg then slams a chair on it. Hyo then starts work on the leg and figure four's Okuda, who makes the ropes. Hyo irish whips Okuda who falls down in pain. Hyo then put Okudai n another figure four like move. Okuda gets out and mounts a comeback with a hard pumping knee to the side of the head. He running facekicks and running dropkicks Hyo before backdropping him.

They do a weird spot where a chair gets thrown in. Hyo gets the chair and passes it to Okuda. RED distracts the ref during this then lets him see Okuda with the chair. Hyo then pushes the ref into Okuda, sending him out. Hyo then nails Okuda with the chair. RED throws a bunch of chairs in and stacks them on Okuda and Hyo senton's the pile, hurting himself as much as Okuda. They get back up and Okuda does a go to sleep knee into Hyo's gut.

Okuda kick flurries Hyo in the chest but holds his own leg over it. Hyo fires up and they trade forearms with a fast flurry. Hyo ends up getting dropped and they have a 2nd exchange that ends with three Okuda head kicks. The ref gets knocked down but pops back up and Hyo does a roll into a TKO on Okuda. Then he backdrops him for a close 2 at 15 minutes. Okuda runs into the ropes and takes a chair then Ishida throws salt but nails Hyo. Okuda then puts Hyo in a choke and wins it.

The first half was decent but the RED interference was lame and they both lost track of the match after that. The dirty finish was unnecessary and had they just had a straight wrestling match, it would have been a lot better.

Open The Triangle Gate Title Match - Natural Vibes (Genki Horiguchi, Kzy & Susumu Yokosuka) (c) vs. R.E.D. (Dia Inferno, Diamante & HipHop Kikuta)

Vibes did their entrance dance and RED jumped them to stop that. Kikuta and Susumu go at it to start Kzy and Diamante then have a very fast section with armdrags. Kzy does a slingshot flipping senton on Kikuta then Vibes does a triple team combo that ends with a Genki dropkick on Kikuta.

Inferno then bits on Kzy's neck and RED takes back over. Diamante does a nice reverse surfboard on Genki that Vibes has to break up. Diamante butt drops Kikuta onto Genki. Genki comes back and hurricanrana's Inferno and Susumu exploder suplexes the remaining RED members. Kzy then springboard flip dives onto his opponents.

Inferno pop-ups Kzy onto his gut then Kikuta and Susumu trade chest chops. Vibes hits corner attacks on Kikuta then Kikuta takes an exploder off the top rope. Kzy then dives on him with an elbow from the top soon after for 2. Diamante gorilla presses Kzy and slams him then Inferno hits a hard pop-up powerbomb on Genki. Kikuta butt bumps Vibes and RED takes back over with a variety of moves on Kzy. Diamante goes like a gorilla press type of move into a powerbomb, but Kzy reverses it into a rana then Susumu nails Kikuta with a hard lariat.

Inferno sentons and codebreakers Genki at the same time then middle rope codebreakers Kzy. Kikuta then hits a spinning clothesline that Susumu breaks the pin attempt up on after. Kzy hits a running canadian destroyer on Inferno then a pyramid sitout piledriver to win it.

This was okay. The ending stretch was nice but I felt like it didn't really get kicking until the second half. The RED shenanigans was thankfully kept to a minimum here and didn't effect this too much. No crowd cheering did hurt this though.

Overall thoughts: The crowd not being able to cheer hurt this and only the two top matches got enough time. Hyo/Okuda was a disappointment but the main was fine.