Dragon Gate Truth Gate Day 9 2/26/2021

Dragon Gate Truth Gate Day 9 2/26/2021

I skipped two matches.

K-ness, Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuji Kondo vs. Natural Vibes (Genki Horiguchi, Kzy & U-T)

Shuji hits some hard forearms on UT and UT dropkicks him out. Kzy runs the ropes in an odd way then does like a side blockbuster to Mocchy, then Mocchy takes triple boots in the corner. UT puts Mocchy in a version of the figure four which he ropebreaks for.

UT gets Shuji's back and Shuji overhead throws him. K-Ness then sliding dropkicks UT. UT tries to go toe to toe with Mocchy but gets kicked down hard. UT missile dropkicks Mocchy off the top then everyone rotates in and out. Shuji does a great pop-up slam on Kzy and Genki gets combo'd by his opponents. Mocchy takes a slingshot codebreaker then smacks Kzy's head to get out of a sit down slam. Shuji throws Kzy off the top then hits a giant spear. Kzy then taps K-ness soon after with something like a Koji clutch.

This wasn't very good. They tagged in and out too frequently and the match just couldn't get any momentum or direction going due to it. The short length of the match made that even harder.

Don Fuji & Ultimo Dragon vs. R.E.D (Diamante & H.Y.O)

RED jumps the vets at the bell. Hyo and Fuji trade shoulderblocks and Fuji wins the battle. Ultimo does a nice snapmare and armdrag to Diamante then kicks him in the butt which sends him through the ropes. Fuji headbutts Hyo hard enough to hurt his own head.

Fuji charges at Hyo in the buckles, but Hyo removes the top pad and Fuji goes into it. Ultimo 1v2's his opponents without too much trouble and the faces put both heels in submissions. Hyo takes a Fuji chokeslam which Diamante saves him on.

Diamante throws his own partner onto Fuji then takes a Jerry bump for Ultimo to the outside. Hyo wins it at a little over 10 minutes after a low blow. Like a lot of Ultimo/Fuji matches, it is slow and Ultimo is rarely ever put in positions where he will look weak or take a beating. This wasn't very interesting.

R.E.D. (BxB Hulk, KAI & KAZMA SAKAMOTO) vs. MASQUERADE (Jason Lee, Kota Minoura & Shun Skywalker)

Lee runs up Kai to tornado DDT Kazma early on. Kazma and Minour trade forearms then Kazma takes Masquerade's triple dropkick. Hulk spin kicks Minoura in the head then single leg crabs him as RED dares Masquerade to try and stop it. Kai crossfaces Minoura as RED patrols again and Shun breaks it up after having enough. Minoura ginally gets something in with a water wheel drop on Kazma and tags into Shun.

Shun 1v2's RED and suplexes Hulk. Minour then flip dives onto 3 RED members outside. Lee rolls into his strike combo on Kai but ends up getting caught with a wheelbarrow suplex soon after. Hulk axe kicks Minoura in the back then in the head and corkscrew moonsaults him. Kai then nails Minoura with a lariat. At 10 minutes Hulk gets put into a wheelbarrow and is slammed down by Shun and Lee. Shun then sitout butterfly bombs him for 2. Kazma nails Lee with a knee near the ropes and Lee does a great sell for it, then Lee is triple team powerbombed. Minoura barely makes the save.

Lee recovrs like nothing then is pop-up powerbombed for 2. Kazma running knees him and wins it. This was pretty short and far from their best work but there wasn't anything too wrong with it.

Ben-K, Dragon Kid, Keisuke Okuda & YAMATO vs. R.E.D. (Dia Inferno, Eita, HipHop Kikuta & Kaito Ishida)

As usual, the faces get jumped before the bell. Kid does a nice swinging hurricanrana on Eita to send him out. Yamato and Kikuta trade chops. Ben takes a hard fall out of the ring then Kaito kicks him in the chest from the apron. Okuda and Ishida trade shots. Okuda hits a nice spin kick on Kikuta and Ben hits corner spears on him.

Ben gets beaten on in the corner. Kid comes in and handstands into a double knee on Inferno, but then Inferno bites his neck. Okuda gets hit with the box lid by Red in the hands/gut. Kento jumps on Kikuta's back and Kikuta sits down on Kid.

Red beats up on Kid for a bit in boring fashion leading up to the 10 minute mark. Kid gets a 2nd rope hurricanrana on Eita and is able to tag out. Ben runs the ropes fast and double spears RED and Yamato overhead throws Inferno. Okuda and Ishida trade rapid fire forearms and each knock the other down. Then they block each others high kicks before kicking each other in the head at the same time. Okuda hits a nice flying Knee on Ishida. Then Ishida is kicked in the head into a big spinning gutwrench from Ben. Kikuta hits some butt bumps and Okuda gets kicked in the front and back by RED.

Inferno gets caught up top then is super hurricanrana'd by Kid. Everyone gets a corner attack in on Inferno then he is backdropped by Ben. Ben then does a reverse sitout death valley driver, which RED breaks the pin on. Okuda hits a go to sleep on Inferno and wins it.

The RED beatdown on Kid went a little too long and the lack of crowd hurt this one. The flow and pacing was also just not there for the last half of this one.

Overall thoughts: While I did skip two matches, the crowd wasn't that into the show and this was not anyone's best work.