Dragon Gate runs a same-day doubleheader in Fukuoka today, which will feature the start of a tournament to crown a new Open The Brave Gate Champion. This comes after YAMATO vacated the title following his first successful defense last week against Daiki Yanagiuchi, it was never revealed why but most likely is due to YAMATO also holding the Open The Dream Gate Championship. The tournament is an 8-man single-elimination tournament with both events today having one quarterfinal match. Those participating are not headed to the US for next week’s events and will compete in Japan events happening at the same time. The Semifinals will be held on 4/26 then the Finals will crown a new champion at DEAD OR ALIVE 2025 on 5/5.
Today’s events will be held at Acros Fukuoka in Fukuoka and can be watched LIVE on DRAGONGATE NETWORK. There will be no commentary but there also will be an alternate broadcast with wrestler commentary in Japanese. The results posted here will be for the first event. There are 6 matches scheduled and with not much time between event start times this first event almost certainly won’t go longer than 2 hours. (Edit: You can also watch the first match FOR FREE on YouTube)
Today’s lineup:
Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia vs. Genki Horiguchi & Luis Mante
Madoka Kikuta vs. Punch Tominaga
Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Toru Owashi vs. Shun Skywalker, Gianni Valetta & Yoshiki Kato
Open The Brave Gate Championship Tournament: Riiita vs. Ryoya Tanaka
Ben-K, JACKY KAMEI & Mochizuki Junior vs. Strong Machine J, U-T & Hyo
YAMATO, Dragon Kid, BxB Hulk & Naruki Doi vs. Kota Minoura, Jason Lee, KAI & Homare
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 9 PM PT/midnight ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin 15 minutes before the event.
Pre-event note: There are several wrestlers who will miss today’s events, including Kzy, Susumu Yokosuka and ISHIN among perhaps others. They are in the US for independent participation ahead of The Collective.
8:45 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Acros Fukuoka in Fukuoka, Japan. There is no commentary. The alternate wrestler commentary will begin later.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. We can only see a few people right now as they’re still filing in. Normally the setup when they’re here is somewhere in the 500-700 range. I’ll predict this event will finsh with a crowd of around 450.
The matches should begin in about 20 minutes.
The event begins with the introduction of the Open The Brave Gate Championship Tournament participants.
The matches begin at 9:12 PM PT/12:12 AM ET. Your hosts on the wrestler commentary stream are Ryo Saito & Yasushi Kanda.
Match 1: Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia vs. Genki Horiguchi & Luis Mante. 15 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Genki Horiguchi & Lios Mante. Yoshioka pinned Horiguchi.
Match 2: Madoka Kikuta vs. Punch Tominaga. 15 minute time limit
Result: Madoka Kikuta beat Punch Tominaga. Squash.
Match 3: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Toru Owashi (DDT) vs. Shun Skywalker, Gianni Valetta & Yoshiki Kato. 20 minute time limit
Result: Double Countout. Immediately afterwards, Fujii with microphone. Appeared to demand a match against Valetta.
Match 4: Open The Brave Gate Championship Tournament: Riiita vs. Ryoya Tanaka. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ryoya Tanaka beat Riiita. As a result, Tanaka advances to the Semifinals.
Intermission.
The matches resume at 10:20 PM PT/1:20 AM ET. Your new hosts on the wrestler commentary version are the grumpy old men aka Don Fujii & Toru Owashi.
Match 5: Ben-K, JACKY KAMEI & Mochizuki Junior vs. Strong Machine J, U-T & Hyo. 45 minute time limit
Result: Strong Machine J, U-T & Hyo beat Ben-K, JACKY KAMEI & Mochizuki Junior. Hyo pinned Junior. Both sides continued their Tug-O-Hyo post-match ahead of a match on an upcoming event where the winning faction-Gold Class or Natural Vibes-gets Hyo.
Masaaki Mochizuki replaces Fujii on wrestler commentary for the last match.
Main Event: YAMATO, Dragon Kid, BxB Hulk & Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer) vs. Kota Minoura, Jason Lee, KAI & Homare. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Kota Minoura, Jason Lee, KAI & Homare beat YAMATO, Dragon Kid, BxB Hulk & Naruki Doi. Lee pinned Kid after Maximum Driver.
The second event is coming up after a break. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET.
UPDATE: Fujii is getting bis wish for a match against Valetta. That match will happen on 4/26 at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka.
