For the second half of Global 2days, Pro Wrestling NOAH and Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling ran a special cross-promotional event full of matches with both promotions facing off against each other. No title matches but no doubt a lot of pride on the line.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 1209. This is the highest Korakuen number I’ve seen period, or at worst the second-highest, since the pandemic began, which is outstanding. It meant no vocal support but that’s still close to double what has been “normal” the last couple years (Under normal circumstances, this would be 55-60% of the venue’s max capacity).
Match 1: Yoshiki Inamura, Yasutaka Yano & Kai Fujimura beat Madoka Kikuta, Ryu Fuda & Mochizuki Jr. Inamura pinned Fuda after Oklahoma Stampede. On an interesting side note, Mochizuki Jr. is the real-life son of NOAH & Dragon Gate wrestler Masaaki Mochizuki.
Match 2: In a timed-entry 5-way elimination match, Manabu Soya & ISHIN beat Mohammed Yone & BIGBOSS Shimizu, Ben-K & Minorita, Eita & Super Crazy and Susumu Michizuki & Yasushi Kanda. When one member of a team was eliminated, their partner was as well. Order of elimination: Mochizuki/Kanda by Yone/Shimizu, Eita/Crazy by multiple teams, Ben-K/Minorita by Soya/ISHIN, Yone/Shimizu by Soya/ISHIN. Eliminations were by pinfall, submission or over the top rope.
Match 3: Kzy, JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI & YO-HEY beat Ryo Saito, Genki Horiguchi & NOSAWA Rongai. Kzy pinned NOSAWA.
Match 4; Satoshi Kojima beat Konomama Ichikawa. Likely a comedy match (it was short).
Match 5: Atsushi Kotoge, Dante Leon & Punch Tominaga beat UT, Jason Lee & Strong Machine J. Leon pinned Lee after Inferno. Strong Machine J is another second-generation wrestler, he is the son of former New Japan Pro Wrestling veteran Super Strong Machine.
Match 6: YAMATO beat Seiki Yoshioka.
Match 7: AMAKUSA (Haoh) & Takuma Fujiwara beat Shun Skiywalker & Tadasuke. AMAKUSA pinned Tadasuke.
Match 8: Dragon Kid, Alejandro, Dragon Dia, Ninja Mack & Extreme Tiger beat BxB Hulk, H-Y-O, Diamante (not the US female wrestler who has competed in All Elite Wrestling), Hajime Ohara & Hi69. Mack pinned H-Y-O after Ninja Bomb.
Main Event: Kenoh & Kota Minoura beat Kaito Kiyomiya & Yuki Yoshioka. Kenoh pinned Kiyomiya after Ring Of Fire.
Before this event, I had previously decided I was going to add more Dragon Gate coverage to the site in the near future, and now I have decided that will start in January 2023. Dragon Gate is what I consider to be the #4 promotion in Japan, and is very popular with younger fans for it’s emphasis on Jr. Heavyweight style fast & furious action and also faction warfare being very integral to the promotion. It previously branched out to the USA in the late 2000s & early 2010s but ultimately failed after a strong start due to lack of support on the US side among other things. Among notable DG alumni competing elsewhere now is Shingo Takagi, who has been in New Japan Pro Wrestling for a few years and was the rare heavyweight in the promotion and has become one of the top wrestlers in Japan over the last two years.
The next event is NOAH the BEST 2022 on 11/23 at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English will begin on 11/22 at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.