Dragon Gate Dead or Alive 2015 Review

Hello boys and girls today I have a special review for you, as I will be reviewing my first ever Dragon gate show. This is basically their big event so I figured it would be good place to start watching. This will not be as in depth as my other reviews do to the fact that I'm not too familiar with their stars, beyond say their more well known ones such as Akira Towzawa, CIMA, Shingo Takagi, BxB Hulk,Don Fuji, and YAMATO. So I will do my best to judge this show on it's merits but please remember that this is my first time watching DG so I'm going in totally blind here.

Match 1: Jimmyz (Jimmy Kanda, Aoki Tanizaki) & Super Shisa vs MAD BLANKEY(K-ness, Mondai Ryu, & Punch Tominaga)

I wasn't really into this match, I thought it was pretty mundane especially for the opener of a big show like this.  

Match Grade: C

Match 2: Kenchiro Arai & Stalker Ichikawa vs Millenials (El Lindaman & Yosuke Santa Maria)

Before I get into this match I fell I should give you a little background on Dragon Gate it was originally founded by Ultimo Dragon as the Japanese version of his Mexican promotion Toryumon, after he left and took the Toryumon trademarks with him, it became Dragon Gate. The reason I bring this up is because the promotion is very much based in the Lucha Libre/Luchareseu style, which also means they've got transgender gimmicks like Yosuke. I typically don't like gimmicks like this as I feel they're cheap and in poor taste, but the match was only six seconds long so it wasn't too bad.

Match Grade.... Wait what it isn't over yet *SIGH*

So they decided to have another match and you know what it wasn't too bad. It was a decent comedy match and didn't over stay it's welcome. 

Match Grade: C+

Match 3: Open The Dream Gate Title Match: BxB Hulk (c) vs Cyber Kong

It's weird to see a promotion have what is their main title be defended on their big show in the third match with such a small amount of time. I just want to say this, while I have heard of him before and this is only my first time seeing him, I HATE BxB Hulk!!!! That's not to say I think he sucks or anything just that he seemed to have more than one of the mannerisms/bad habits that absolutely hate in wrestlers. SUCH AS FUCKING SLAPPING HIS LEG EVERY FUCKING TIME HE THROWS A KICK!!! Ahem.... As you can imagine I was rooting for Cyber Kong to win.... But He didn't *SIGH*

Match Grade: C, pretty disappointing for a title match moving on.

Match 4: Open The Twin Gate Title Match: Monster Express (Masato Yoshino & Syachihoko BOY) vs Dia.HEARTS (Big R Shimizu & Masaaki Mochizuki)

This was slow at the start but picked up towards the end picked up. I liked it but it wasn't a spectacular match by any means and certainly not a match that should be on a big show, starting to notice a pattern here?

Match Grade: C

Match 5: Open the Triangle Gate Title Match: Jimmyz (Genki Horiguchi HAGeeMee, Jimmy Kagetora, Jimmy Susumu) (c) vs MAD BLANKEY (Don Fuji, Gamma, Naruki Doi) vs Millenials (Flamita, Kotoka, & U-T) 

The Jimmyz retain in a mess of a match. This was a match of parts the first part was literally every comedy spot ever mixed with a brawl, the second part was a spot fest, and the third part was the closet thing I actually saw to a wrestling match. I was entertained the whole way through but this was not a good match. 

Match Grade: C-

Match 6: Open The Brave Gate Title Match: Akira Tozawa (c) vs Dragon Kid

This was a damn good match. One major problem I had with it though was the selling, Tozawa goes from limping around 1 minute to hopping and running around the next. There also was a moment of absolute absurdity which I won't spoil. But unlike the rest of the matches on this card it at least attempted to tell a story.

Match Grade: B-

Main Event: T-Hawk vs CIMA vs Shingo Takagi vs Kzy vs YAMATO vs Ryo "Jimmy" Saito in a six way survival cage match. Hair vs Masks

The gimmick here is that each of these guys are at risk for losing their hair, on top of that each of these guys has a second or in the case of T-HAWK a third, that is also at risk for losing their hair or mask. This was a surprisingly good and entertaining match despite the convoluted gimmick. Easily a B to B+ match or at least it would of been if there wasn't Bullet Club/Desperado levels of interference in it.  CIMA loses and gets his head shaved.

Match Grade: C

Final Show Grade: C

Don't be fooled by this grade, this was very entertaining show and I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a show the whole way through like this. The problem? While this was a great entertainment show this was a bad wrestling show. Now that's not to say that entertainment shows don't have their place, they do, and that's not say that DG isn't capable of putting on a good wrestling show, from what I've heard they are. It's just to say that it's all a matter of taste. A big part of life is understanding when something isn't for you, and while I may of not liked this show, you may have. That's the beauty of wrestling there's no right way of doing it, everything has it's place and rightful following. And on that not I'll see you later boys and girls.