Hello, all of you happy people that follow this website. Before I begin, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself and what I’ll be bringing to the table.
First off, my name is Mathew, and I’m one of the people from The Chairshot that is now migrating here to eWN. I cover promotions from the Japanese wrestling scene that are NOT New Japan Pro Wrestling, this is because my goal is to be able to provide different content to help expand your wrestling tastes. The main promotions I will be covering here outside are Stardom and All Japan Pro Wrestling. You might see some stuff from different promotions or special shows if they’re uploaded reasonably, or if there’s time.
Now that we’ve gotten the introductions out of the way, let’s talk about what this article is really about. This one is mostly about Dragon Gate and to let them know that this is now a good time to start following them if you’re new to the product. The new year started and with the current storylines going on in the promotion, it’s simple to follow and you could right in to get yourself started.
The main storyline for the company right now is the generational warfare between three units that started in December as it involves Toryumon, Team Dragon Gate, and R.E.D. This all occurred ever since Ultimo Dragon made his return to Dragon Gate ever since he left in 2003 for WWE when it was called Toryumon Japan. While people in Dragon Gate have welcomed him home with open arms, Eita and his crew in R.E.D did not feel the same and would do everything in their power to get him out of the company.
On December 18th, 2019, the line would be drawn when BxB Hulk betrayed YAMATO by joining R.E.D, it was announced that all units except R.E.D would disband and would now be whittled down to three.
- R.E.D – lead by Eita, for the heels of Dragon Gate
- Toryumon – lead by Ultimo Dragon, for people who were apart of the promotion when it was originally called Toryumon Japan.
- Team Dragon Gate – lead by YAMATO, the babyface unit for people who were a part of Dragon Gate after the Toryumon era.
Now that we have a general idea of what is going on with their big story leading into the year 2020, everything is still fresh and developing.
R.E.D currently has a majority of the gold at this time with Open the Brave Gate (Kaito Ishida), Open the Twin Gate (BxB Hulk & KAZMA SAKAMOTO), and Open the Triangle Gate (Takashi Yoshida, H.Y.O, & Diamante) Championships but they don’t have the top title of the company. The Open the Dream Gate Championship is held by Team Toryumon’s Naruki Doi. Now, you’re probably asking who the current ace is in the company and as of right now, there is no real #1 ace. They have a few top guys to act more like Ace by committee, Naruki Doi, YAMATO, and Masato Yoshino. But if you wanna talk about who they’re building up currently to be a future guy, then that would be Ben-K, who is the man Naruki Doi beat for the Open the Dream Gate Championship after he broke PAC’s undefeated streak to start a nearly six month reign.
If some of this sounds interesting, you may be wondering how to watch. Great! They have a streaming service for you to subscribe to and watch at https://dragongate.live/ There are two plans with the basic one being 999 yen (roughly 9 USD) and the ultimate one for 1,500 yen (roughly 14 USD) a month.
What’s the difference?
The basic version won’t let you watch live events and you would have to wait until it airs on television, which could take a couple of weeks to a month. For the ultimate version, you get access to live events but you have a week to watch them before they take it off and re-upload it when it airs. While that part of the service is not the greatest, just be sure to watch it once they get uploaded so you don’t miss the action.
So do you like Lucha style of wrestling mixed with some Japanese wrestling?
Then you’re going to be in for a treat as they’re able to mix the two styles well. And guess what? They also recently partnered with MLW. Which means you’ll be seeing them in MLW for those who follow the promotion and will give you a chance to see what they’re all about. If it turns out that you like what you see, then that means you should subscribe to Dragon Gate Network to see more of them including their big shows.
Thank you all for taking the time out of your day to come and read my first article for this website. I’m happy to be apart of this new journey and I would like if you all joined me to see what I will provide. As a bonus, I will add a couple of Dragon Gate matches here to help convince you.
