Your classic mix-em-up.
Sure, there’s some classic Dragon Gate stable stuff here. CIMA and Dragon Kid are in Over Generation, and most of the other team is a classic Monster Express line up with superman Kaasa added in. Yes, you can track a few yearslong stories in this, from Mochizuki and T-Hawk continuing to disrespect each other whenever possible to the slower simmering Mochi/Big R issue, you can even go back to much longer term issues between Yoshino and both CIMA and Dragon Kid.
If you need to believe every great match is a wellspring of storytelling and character work, I suppose this match allows you to convince yourself that is the case.
For the rest of us though, this is just a perfect sort of ten thousand miles an hour Dragon Gate match.
As usual with any match like this, it’s as much about construction as it is execution. Spending time early on setting things up, relationships between people involved, strengths and weaknesses, etc. Gotta set the table before you drop a thousand tons on it from outer space, you know? In an execution sense, everyone in this match delivers in some way. There are moments of jaw dropping flying, the exact right mix of moments and sequences that have such a high degree of difficulty but never go on long enough to make one wake up and think this shit is all phony, and your moments of real brutality and higher impact offense. It’s exactly as long as it should be, beautifully put together, and performed with grace and precision and violence all in equal measure. A real hoot.
Beyond it just being the sort of thing you watch the promotion for, it feels like a perfect advertisement for the company itself, and all the styles, stylistic variations, and ideas that it has to offer.
In a year full of spectacular Dragon Gate fireworks shows, this was one of the best.
HANDWERK 