Dragon Gate rant he second half of their year-opening doubleheader today in Kobe.
Today’s event was held at Kobe Sambo Hall in Kobe and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK. You can also watch the first match FOR FREE on YouTube.
The paid attendance has not yet been announced.
There was a last-minute change to the card today because of the announcement that BIGBOSS Shimizu, who has been inactive for most of the last year due to an investigation over potential breach of contract, would make his return today. A planned 6-man tag match became an 8-man tag as a result. Shimizu aligned himself with Natural Vibes for his return and going forward.
Match 1: Hyo, JACKY KAMEI, Riiita & Mochizuki Junior beat Ryu Fuda, Daiki Yanagiuchi, Akihiro Sahara & Kazuma Kimura. KAMEI pinned Yanagiuchi after JFK.
Match 2: BxB Hulk, KAGETORA & Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer) beat Masaaki Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda & Demus. Hulk pinned Kanda after First Flash.
Match 3: Shun Skywalker beat Jiro Shinbashi in 13 seconds.
Match 4: ISHIN won a 9 man battle royal.
Match 5: Yuki Yoshioka, Dragon Dia & Ryoya Tanaka beat YAMATO, Dragon Kid & Susumu Yokosuka. Yoshioka pinned Kid after High Fly Flow.
Match 6: Madoka Kikuta, Kota Minoura, Jason Lee & KAI beat Strong Machine J, Kzy, U-T & BIGBOSS Shimizu. Kikuta pinned Kzy. The finish came after Shimizu possibly turned on Natural Vibes.
Main Event: Yuki Yoshioka beat El Ciero.
The next event is a same-day doubleheader Sunday at Nagoya International Legend Hall in Nagoya. Both events are legit advance sellouts. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin Saturday at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET for the first event and Sunday at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET for the second event.
In other news, it was announced that the promotion will return to the USA as part of The Collective 2026 on 4/15 at the Horseshoe Casino & Resort in Las Vegas, NV, part of the now-annual WrestleMania week series of independent events before the WWE flagship event. As perhaps part of this, independent US wrestler Marcus Mathers will make his Dragon Gate debut on 1/18 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and will be part of D’Courage while in Japan. New Japan is also set for The Collective with an El Desperado Produced event.
Injury Report: Maybe this is why that match went just 13 seconds-Shun Skywalker is now off both events tomorrow. Shoulder.