Instead of their usual Golden Week “DEAD OR ALIVE” blowout event, this year Dragon Gate is moving it up a week or so for “GOLDEN COLOSSEUM” 2026, which will keep most of the usual May event features intact including 3 title matches with only the Open The Dream Gate Championship not on the line. But there are still high stakes for current champion Madoka Kikuta as he is in the annual Mascara Contra Caballera 6-way steel cage match, where the loser will lose his hair or, if either Shun Skywalker or El Cielo lose, their mask…AND…to up the ante further, the losing man’s faction also must disband. If Kikuta is the loser, he won’t lose his hair but BIGBOSS Shimizu will (at least that was the original plan).
There have been some late changes to the original card due to BxB Hulk and Ben-K being pulled off the event due to injuries. Shoulder & neck contusion, respectively. Kazuma Kimura is the replacement for Ben-K. Punch Tominaga is the replacement for Hulk.
Today’s event will be held at Aichi Prefectural Budokan in Nagoya and can be watched LIVE outside Japan on DRAGONGATE NETWORK in Japanese & English. It will also be available live in Japan as a PPV on GAORA On Demand, as a NEAR LIVE broadcast on GAORA SPORTS (on a 3 hour delay) and will also be a taped broadcast on Tokai TV on 5/11. You will also be able to watch the first match FOR FREE on YouTube. There are 8 matches currently planned and with an intermission likely before the main event for setting up the cage (expect it to take possibly 20-30 minutes) this is going to be one of their longer events of the year, possibly running close to 4 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Hyo, Luis Mante & Kazuma Kimura vs. Jason Lee, KAI & ISHIN
Jiro Shinbashi vs. “Jungle Screaming Woman” (Jungle Kyona) (comedy match)
YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi & Punch Tominaga vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi & Yasushi Kanda
Yuki Yoshioka vs. Strong Machine J
Open The Triangle Gate Champions Kzy, GuC & @KEY vs. Takashi, Problem Dragon & Koji Iwamoto for the titles
Open The Brave Gate Champion Ryoya Tanaka vs. U-T for the title*
Open The Twin Gate Champions JACKY KAMEI & Riiita vs. Susumu Yokosuka & KAGETORA for the titles
Shun Skywalker vs. Homare, El Cielo, Madoka Kikuta, Kota Minoura & Yoshiki Kato in a 6-way Mascara Contra Caballera steel cage match. The loser, who is the last one left after the other 5 climb the cage and grab a flag to escape, loses his hair or mask AND his faction must disband. If Kikuta is the loser, BIGBOSS Shimizu loses his hair. No escapes are allowed in the first 5 minutes
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET. The live broadcast is scheduled to begin 15 minutes before the event.
*-Subject to change last-minute due to a U-T injury. No word yet on if he’ll be cleared in time to return. But based on posts on Tanaka’s social media earlier today, he’s planning as if U-T will be able to compete. As of 4 PM PT/7 PM ET a social media post from DRAGONGATE NETWORK indicates the match is on. (Based on a post from U-T at 5:30 PM PT/8:30 PM ET, it’s on barring anything unexpected last-second)
10:40 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has begun. We should be going to the venue in 5-10 minutes.
10:45 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Aichi Prefectural Budokan in Nagoya, Japan. Your host is Katsuya Ichikawa. The first wrestler in a rotating guest spot is KAGETORA.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It looks like they’re using the venue’s main arena which has a listed capacity of around 2250 and it already looks on track to be at least 1500, maybe close to 2000. I’ll guess it winds up being in the 1750-1800 range. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2462, a legit sellout)
The matches should begin in 20-25 minutes. Tanaka-U-T is definitely on now as well.
The matches begin at 11:07 PM PT/2:07 AM ET.
Match 1: Hyo, Luis Mante & Kazuma Kimura vs. Jason Lee, KAI & ISHIN. 15 (?) minute time limit
Result: Hyo, Luis Mante & Kazuma Kimura beat Jason Lee, KAI & ISHIN. Hyo pinned ISHIN after a middle-rope cutter.
Mochizuki Junior is the guest on commentary for the next match after being part of entrances.
Match 2: Jiro Shinbashi vs. Nettaiurin Kyona (Jungle Kyona) (comedy match). 15 minute time limit
Result: Nattaiurin Kyona beat Jiro Shinbashi. Apparently Shinbashi lost by taking off his shirt. Yeah. Comedy match. UPDATE: Kyona beat Shinbashi by DQ. Apparent sexual harassment.:
Kazuma Kimura is the guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 3: YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer) & Punch Tominaga vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi & Yasushi Kanda. 20 (?) minute time limit
Result: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi & Yasushi Kanda beat YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi & Punch Tominaga. Horiguchi pinned Tominaga with Backslide From Heaven.
Hyo is the guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 4: Yuki Yoshioka vs. Strong Machine J. 20 (?) minute time limit
Result: Yuki Yoshioka beat Strong Machine J
Horiguchi is the guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 5: Open The Triangle Gate Champions Kzy, GuC & @KEY vs. Takashi, Problem Dragon & Koji Iwamoto (Independent/Freelancer) for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Open The Triangle Gate Champions Kzy, GuC & @KEY beat Takashi, Problem Dragon & Koji Iwamoto to retain the titles. @KEY pinned Dragon after a spinebuster. V1 for the champs.
Dragon Kid is the guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 6: Open The Brave Gate Champion Ryoya Tanaka vs. U-T for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Open The Brave Gate Champion Ryoya Tanaka beat U-T by submission to retain the title. V10(!) for Tanaka. That means in his next defense he will go for a tie for the all-time record for most successful defenses, which currently is 11. Still a ways to go to the longest reign though, he’d have to hold the title until mid-October. (The current record is about 14 1/2 months)
Kzy is the guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 7: Open The Twin Gate Champions JACKY KAMEI & Riiita vs. Susumu Yokosuka & KAGETORA for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Open The Twin Gate Champions JACKY KAMEI & Riiita beat Susumu Yokosuka & KAGETORA to retain the titles. Riiita pinned Yokosuka after Riiitanic. V3 for the champs. They also won some other tag team title I’ve never heard of that was held by Yokosuka & KAGETORA.
Intermission. This is to set up the ring area and cage for the main event. The main event should be coming up at around 1:45 AM PT/4:45 AM ET.
1:35 AM PT UPDATE: Less than 5 minutes to main event.
The event resumes at 1:37 AM PT/4:37 AM ET.
YAMATO is the guest on commentary for the main event.
Main Event: Shun Skywalker vs. Homare, El Cielo, Madoka Kikuta, Kota Minoura & Yoshiki Kato in a 6-way Mascara Contra Caballera steel cage match. The loser, who is the last one left after the other 5 climb the cage and grab a flag to escape, loses his hair or mask AND his faction must disband. If Kikuta is the loser, BIGBOSS Shimizu loses his hair. No escapes are allowed in the first 5 minutes. No time limit
Order of escape: Kikuta, Cielo, Kato, Minoura, Skywalker.
Result: Homare loses. As a result, Homare loses his hair AND PSYPATRA must disband. As is the case after these matches, the initial buzz job was pretty bad. It’ll be properly finished backstage. After the winners left, Cielo cut some of Homare’s hair before leaving. Skywalker then finished the job to cement his turning on Homare, which might signal the start of a face turn for Homare. As Skywalker left, Homare mustered a “thank you” to Skywalker to end the show.
The taped NEAR LIVE GAORA SPORTS broadcast started during the main event.
The next event is Wednesday at Hiroshima Industrial Hall in Hiroshima. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
UPDATE: In post-event social media comments, U-T seemingly has tried to deflect criticism for his performance and coming into the Brave Gate title match at less than 100% following injury and a seemingly lackluster finish, noting it was solely his decision.
The promotion also announced what will be their final Shinjuku Face event for 7/13, coming shortly before the venue closes permanently.
Also, a couple of letters to fans & stakeholders have been posted by the promotion in Japanese to social media and their official news blog. I’m trying to get translations of what they mean but social media comments suggest some kind of reconciliation between the promotion and former wrestler Magnum Tokyo, who had a huge falling out with Dragon Gate years ago. This is leading to fan speculation about a potential reconciliation with CIMA, one of the promotion’s former top stars until he left just before the pandemic began to help start GLEAT, which he recently departed from while injured. We shall see.
UPDATE 2: Tokyo Sports has confirmed the documents are from Dragon Gate President & CEO Toru Kido and Magnum Tokyo and they have resolved their past issues. The unspecified events date back nearly 20 years to when Tokyo retired from the promotion. It’s unknown but unlikely Tokyo will return to wrestling as he is now 53.
UPDATE 3: In an unrelated development that has come to light post-event, Dragon Dia has left the promotion. Possibly a contractual dispute as both the promotion and Dia have put out conflicting statements with DG saying Dia requested to leave in mid-February and his contract was terminated as of 3/31 while Dia released his own version of events and quoted it again today on social media, apparently he didn’t want to say anything about negotiations but an announcement from the promotion forced his hand. He intends to continue wrestling elsewhere. His profile has been removed from Dragon Gate’s roster page already leaving D’Courage with just Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka. Dia is only 27 and, with 8 years experience, still has a lot of career left in him. This was just followed today (4/27) by a brief one-word quote response from Dia’s trainer, Dragon Kid, wishing him well.