DGUSA/PWR Gate of Revolution (4.18.25) review 

 

We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada at MEET Las Vegas. I’ve seen exactly one match from this venue. The cracking Aja Kong match from Marvelous. If you’ve not seen it, you really should. It’s on YouTube. ****. Second best match of the weekend. Hosts for this show are Joe Dombrowski & Rich Bocchini.  

 

Incidentally YES, I did say I wasn’t going to review anymore Wrestlemania weekend shows. Also, I am a filthy liar.  

 

 

There’s a pre-show match with two kids and I’m not watching it. Sorry guys.  

 

Rey Horus & Vary Morales vs. Border Patrol (Colt Stevens & Dave Dutra) 

Horus comes out to Bangarang, making me think it was Angelico. I’ve not heard from him in ages and when I look him up, he’s working ROH. Huh. I should probably watch more Tonyverse stuff? The two white guys get obvious heat by having a racist gimmick. Rey Horus is 40 already. Where does the time go? Unfortunately, I can’t pay attention to this match because my brain is replaying Bangarang and probably will do for several days. I don’t even know what happened.  

They do a dive spot on the hard-cam side and holllllyyyy shit there are no fans here. I finally get my concentration back and I wish I hadn’t. Lots of thigh slapping and ugly double teams. Border Control win clean too, which is “a choice”. *½ 

 

La Estrella & Viento vs. Willie Mack & Mike Sydal vs. El Cucuy & Oni El Bendito 

I mistakenly heard “Matt Sydal” and got a little excited but it’s only Mike. El Cucuy is a BIG FAT FUCK. Every scramble match should have a big fat fuck in it. Willie Mack thrills the crowd with an inverted worm. Willie Mack fucks. To my delight El Cucuy is a MISERABLE BIG FAT FUCK. Mad about genetics brother? I feel you. He does a Shining Wizard that puts Muta to shame. I am very happy right now. 

 

La Estrella, Barcelona for The Beer, hits a tope into the fourth row. It’s a good job there were no fans there or someone might have been hurt. I am a MARK for a crazy outta control tope. Super Calo is one of my all-time favourite wrestlers. El Cucuy measures up a dive and he looks at the crowd beforehand. It’s like “move…or die. Your choice”. El Bendito kicks La Estrella in the head and finishes with the Mexican Hammer. I had a blast watching this. *** 

 

 

This El Cucuy guy is awesome. I love him. LOOK AT THAT BODY SHAPE!!! 

 

Karisma & Hyan vs. Hanan & Saya Iida 

Hanan is 20??? Where does the time go, dude. When I saw her name on the card I was like, there’s no way she’s allowed to wrestle in the USA. When I was watching a lot of Stardom (like 7 years ago) she was a literal child. I have no idea who Karisma is. Iida looks unimpressed and chops her in the tits for a while.  

 

The match never really gets going. There is effort there but not chemistry. Both the Stardom ladies keep their offence fluid but it’s clunky when the gaijin team is in charge. Tabletop suplex puts Karisma away. A prime example of the Stars girls thinking and overdelivering is Iida holding Hyan back from making the save on the floor. When Hyan hadn’t been involved for at least 30 seconds beforehand. This was fine but I’ll forget it before the end of the show. ** 

 

Ultimo Dragon & Dragon Kid vs. Susumu Yokosuka & Ho Ho Lun 

Unlike a lot of nostalgia acts over Mania weekend, Ultimo feels like he’s been inserted into this match to give youngsters the rub. That said, Dragon Kid is FORTY-NINE. How is he 49 already? I respect Ho Ho Lun for chasing his dream of being a pro-wrestler. It made him an interesting study on the Cruiserweight Classic. Put him in with a bunch of Dragon Gate wrestlers and he immediately looks shit. Cruiserweight Classic was a decade ago and if anything, he’s worse now than he was then.  

 

They do a running clothesline into the corner spot and Lun is so fucking slow on it. Slow, no impact. Awful looking spots. Just awful. I get that China doesn’t have a scene, and he had no one to learn from but he’s been working Dragon Gate for years now and he still sucks. He actively drags this match down. Dragon Kid finishes with a springboard rana on Susumu, who can take it without fucking it up. This wasn’t good and a prime example of one bad worker dragging a match down. *¾  

 

PWR Tag Team Championship 

Lucha Solos (Arkangel Divino & Ultimo Maldito) (c) vs. Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr 

This comes heavily hyped and has the Alan 4L seal of approval. The first move of the match is a tope, so we start strong. The champs do a spot of double teaming and there is a shocking amount of air in between the strikes and the targets. I guess we’re not adhering to tag rules as nobody is leaving the ring. The Panthers have thigh slapping issues. It’s not even in time with the strikes. It is ugly.  

 

Speaking of ugly, and this is a standard lucha thing, the Irish whips in this STINK. As do the ‘ducked’ clotheslines. Maldito drags me back into this by throwing heavy elbows. They immediately throw away this good will with a series of thigh slaps. It’s just so distracting. Of course they can hit the big high spots. That’s what wrestling is now. Just a bunch of high spots to pop the marks.  

 

Of course they do the god damn Tower of Doom. They do some awkward standing switches and the wrestling basics in this match are garbage. They just drag me out of the action. The high spots are cool. I’ll give them that. The double springboard 450 splash for example. The match would look good as a highlight reel. Where they could clip out the dreadful transitions and sluggish set ups.  

 

It’s safe to say I didn’t like this at all. I generally don’t like spotfests but when spotfests are good, it’s because they plan them well. This wasn’t well planned. Like the big super rana on his partner, to the floor, from Divino requires massive suspension of belief. You’ve got both Panthers just stood there looking up at them for 20 seconds. Just move? Anyway, this is a prime example of wrestling that doesn’t work for me. * 

 

Especially on a Dragon Gate show where DG wrestlers do stuff that’s better than this in almost every single match. Not that it wasn’t innovative, because it was, but Chris Kanyon was also innovative, but it doesn’t mean he was good. I would rather you did everything neat and tidy and at pace than half-pace a bunch of jaw dropping nonsense. But hey, that’s just me. I think most wrestling sucks.  

 

YAMATO vs. Rich Swann 

YAMATO is not defending the Dream Gate belt here. Swann wants a jokey, memes match and YAMATO shuts that down immediately. Attaboy. Every time I see a DG wrestler in another promotion I think “why don’t I watch more Dragon Gate?” and then remember that every time I do watch Dragon Gate I just get really confused. YAMATO likes to lay it in, which is totally my shit. Make me feel it.  

 

Swann, thigh slapping his way through life, tries hard to drag this down. YAMATO is constantly trying to get it back on course and his work is tight but even on his offence Swann is still slapping away at his thigh.  

For a guy that has such slick moves and cool facial expressions, if he could just stop doing stupid things he could be great. I find myself screaming “STOP IT” at him as he slaps his thigh on EVERY SINGLE SPOT. Then, they out dumb everything in the last match with a fucking SUPERPLEX from YAMATO into a reversed suplex by Swann. What the fuck is wrong with you fucking idiots? YAMATO gets the pin, and this match was actively ruined by wrestler stupidity. Take out all the dumb shit and it would have been good. However, it is full of dumb shit so it’s bad. * 

 

Ben K, Kzy & Hyo vs. Z-Brats (Shun Skywalker, Kota Minoura & ISHIN) 

Shun gives his verdict on Rich Swann.  

 

This is chaotic with a lot of crazy shit being pulled together in the name of trios action. There’s a lot of character work, which Dragon Gate are good at. Shun provokes a big old crowd brawl. It looks like it was fun in the building. This leads to Hyo being isolated and the Z-Brats are jerks about it. It is an issue that Z-Brats just pile in 3 on 1, and the ref lets it happen while the idiots across the ring just patiently wait for a tag. It’s properly like wrestling against Germans. “It is impossible to enter the ring without a legal tag!”  

 

Kzy vs Shun is excellent. They do near misses into cool, innovative spots. The contest provokes some more traditional high-speed one-on-one action. It’s all smooth as silk. When DG wrestlers turn it on, it’s hard to pick faults. They even hold Minoura in place for a missile dropkick so he can’t move. That’s why it makes sense that’s he’s just stood there while Ben K mounts the buckles. 

 

They start popping off big spots, but they have logic to them. We’ve built to this. Ben K twice slays it on the selling by missing his spots. The first time into the ring post, the second time into Minoura’s knee strike. Oh, it’s so fucking sweet. Crowd erupts into a “Dragon Gate” chant and they’re not wrong. The coordination and planning are elite here. As you would expect from DG. The double dive to set up the Ben K spear is perfect.  

 

Ok, now THIS was fucking good pro wrestling. I benefit from parachuting in here because they probably have better matches than this all the time in DG but hey, I can only judge on what I see. ***¾. Probably my third favourite match from Mania week. The only ones I liked more was the women’s three-way that opened Mania N2 (****¼) and the Aja match (****). 

 

The 411: 

A lot of this undercard wasn’t good and that was mainly because of ugliness. Either in the transitions or the execution or stupid spots. This was heavily rectified in the main event, although it took them a while to get going. Also, big shout out to The Ringbreaker, El Cucuy. The rotund force of nature that he is.