Dragon Gate Open 1/13/2022 The New Year Gate Day 5

Dragon Gate Open 1/13/2022 The New Year Gate Day 5 

DG had about 5-6 shows in a row to start the new year then probably won't have anything new until February for us.

Open the Twin Gate Championship - R.E.D. (SB KENTo & H.Y.O.) (c) vs. Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia

Yuki hits a nice dropkick on Hyo early and Dia standing moonsaults him. Yuki gets thrown into the post outside. Dia takes forearms from both opponents then a double shoulder block. Hyo stands on Dia and Dia comes back with a corner hurricanrana. Dia does a tope con hilo onto both opponents then back in the ring, Dia does a handspring back elbow in the corner.

We get a nice forearm exchange with Hyo and Yuki then Hyo hits a fireman's carry roll into a tko. Hyo hits a cool black panther clutch then SB hits a nice german on Yuki. Dia hits a wild combination that ends up in Hyo getting headscissored and then SB soon after hits a neat seated death valley driver. Dia hits the vampire headscissors from the top and hits SB with the christo. Dia hits his nice ddt from the top, then 450's SB then Yuki follows with a frogsplash from the top for the win.

It started out slow but it picked up with fast action and cool moves after. The heels mostly controlled things for the first half of the match then Yuki and Dia hit a bunch of moves and won it.

Kaito Ishida vs Takumi Hayakawa

Takumi charges into a big boot to start then gets kicked on the outside while Kaito is on the apron. Kaito taps him with the ankle lock in 40 seconds in a total waste of time.

HIGH-END (Ben-K, Dragon Kid, Kagetora & Keisuke Okuda) & Ultimo Dragon vs  Don Fuji, Gamma, Masaaki Mochizuki, Shuji Kondo & Yasushi Kanda

Mocchy and Okuda trade kicks early here. They have a bizarre section where Mocchy headbutts an Okuda punch and both are completely confused after. Ben and Shuji trade some forearms and Ben powers over Shuji with a shoulder. Gamma comes in and chokes Kagetora with his kendo stick.

Kid gets in and handstand knee's Kanda but Kid gets bullied around for a bit after. Kid gets a fron behind kubinage suplex on Kid but then Kid headscissors Kondo. Ultimo gets in and hits his usual combos. We get the star in the ring with 4 guys then a hurricanrana in the middle of it. Mocchy takes a double 619 then gets a penalty kick from Okuda. A little after, Ben-K slips a spear in on Kanda and wins it.

There were a ton of people here and not a ton of time but it wasn't bad for a sprint. Not much substance to it but just  ton of people getting their moves in.

Gurukun Mask & Natural Vibes (BIG BOSS Shimizu & Susumu Yokosuka) vs MASQUERADE (Jason Lee & La Estrella) & Takuma Fujiwara 

Masquerade just broke up the day before here but Lee and Estrella are still wearing their colors.

Gurukun Mask does the Natural Vibes dance with the crew but is confused and messes it up. Takuma is thrown down early by Shimizu and gets run over with a shoulder. Estrella gets in and does a bunch of flips and a reverse tope on Susumu. Lee hits a nice sliding dropkick on Gurukun.

Estrella puts his knees up on the top rope and flips over on Guru. Takuma and Shimizu exchange some hard chops and Takuma takes a great bump on a backdrop before taking a fallaway slam. Takuma hits a nice dropkick on Guru and Lee battles out of a 2v1. The faces get some dives in and Guru hits a flip senton. Shimizu then does a weird dance before a splash on Takuma.

Takuma springboards and is caught with a spinebuster then Shimizu wins with a top rope splash. This was also a sprint but Shimizu and Takuma matched well here together and it was fun.

Ishin Iihashi, Kzy & Rikin Iihashi vs Ryu Fuda, Shoya Sato & YAMATO 

Fuda and Kzy have a fast exchange with a bunch of Fuda kicks. Kzy gets triple boots in the corner. Riki and Yamato trade chops then Fuda kicks Riki hard in the back. Sato does a nice judo throw on Riki and they trade chops.

Fuda comes in with a nice boot on Kzy and some chest kicks. Kzy does his battering ram into the corner on Yamato. Fuda top rope dropkicks Ishin and he does a nice sell on it. Sato hits a great judo throw on Sato and Fuda gets a bunch of charging elbows in the corner. Fuda hits a high kick on Kzy then Kzy wins it with a slam and a running forearm. This was another quick one and was pretty fun. Fuda's the man and Sato's judo throws were really nice here.

Kota Minoura, Naruki Doi & Takashi Yoshida vs R.E.D. (BxB Hulk, KAI & Shun Skywalker)

Hulk and Yoshida trade power shots early and Yoshida shoulders everyone over. Hulk does a nice spin kick early on Doi and Shun standing moonsaults him. Yoshida hits some mongolian chops on Kai and we get an ugly exchange with Yoshida and Kai with both guys not really hitting their shots.

Hulk hits an axe kick on Doi but Doi puts his knees up on a standing moonsault attempt. Minoura then hits some suplexes on Hulk. Doi hits a nice sliding kick on Hulk. RED refuses to give Kai the box for an attack and Yoshida does a weak ligerbomb on Kai for the win.

This wasn't good at all. Yoshida sucks, Hulk is over the hill and Minoura wasn't ready for this one.

Overall thoughts: I skipped Santa Maria/Eita and Natural Vibes vs Strong Machine and Arai. Other than the main, I liked what I saw here. DG's got a lot of good young talent and we got some of the quick fast paced matches DG is known for.