There are a few standout singles matches and the best match Dragon Gate produced this decade may well be a straight two on two tag team match, but the specialty of the company will always be these six man tag team matches, and those beyond that. It‘s not only the thing that they do best, the thing they arguably do better than anyone in the world (at their peak, inarguably), but most importantly, when everything else misfires or falls victim to any number of stumbling block in the company, it’s matches like these that rarely fail to deliver.
Case in point.
On an otherwise disappointing UK show (the show’s namesake match being some realut house show effort stuff, combined with Doi and YAMATO nearly offering up a complete repeat of their DG Brained title match earlier in the year, not that the British have ever minded performative limbwork or foreign stars mailing it in), this is the sole match on the show that really delivers on a level matching its potential, and absolutely whips ass.
The match is much more of a 2006-8 ROH WrestleMania weekend kind of showcase in front of a foreign crowd kind of Dragon Gate six man than it is something more complex and layered like the best of what you might find on a home show, but that’s fine by me. You don’t judge an apple harshly because it isn’t an orange, this match wants to be one sort of specific thing, and it does that incredibly well.
Everyone in the match gets to do the things they’re best at and nothing else, even in some cases like Yoshino or Mochizuki where they were capable of more on offense than this match really allowed them to get into, and mostly, it’s better for it. Unlike other matches on the show, nobody is bogged down by any silly ideas of how to fill space, or even the idea that space has to be taken up before the Good Parts. Every part of this is one of the good parts, as yet again, the ability to constantly rotate the people and pairings in and out and around benefits them so much. Nothing gets tired because, save for a control segment on BxB Hulk in the middle of the match, nothing lasts long enough to become tiresome.
Additionally, there are, I think, two very interesting/impressive things to me here, on top of how well the formula works.
The first is not by design.
On this ring, presumably English rented/borrowed, the ropes are just a little loose. Not so much that anyone is in danger running off the ropes, but that after a few springboard moves see guys come down at lower angles than usual, it becomes noticeable. At that point, it becomes a little scarier every time, especially when BxB Hulk takes a truly nasty header off of a top rope rana from Dragon Kid (had this been filmed better, you’d see a GIF here). Again, by total accident, it winds up helping the match, not only because of a gross landing, but also because PAC nearly slips at the end, only to adjust himself, get a wider base, and manage an imploding 450 Splash on Kid to win anyways. It might feel like a lesser finish otherwise, like the fourth coolest thing PAC can do off the top rope at this point, but the accidental struggle becomes its own story, with a surprisingly great payoff.
Most impressive to me, this time on purpose, is how the match achieves a clear and obvious aim, but without it ever becoming overpowering.
Being a show in England, PAC is obviously the most popular guy on the show and the star of the match at the end, but the match manages an impressive balancing act. It is about PAC, in so much that he gets a huge win at the end, but the match never makes it entirely about him. It feels like a little bit of a gamble, given the hugely positive reaction to him at the start and one of the sole negative reaction for the visiting stars all night when CIMA is briefly rude to him, but it feels like the complete correct one. PAC’s greatest utility at this point is an unbelievable athlete who can do some truly remarkable things on offense, and by keeping the match almost entirely focused on pure offense, the match feels like the best possible version of itself.
Not one quite on the level of the famous WrestleMania weekend 2006 touring all-offense six man or maybe even the 2008 one that I’m maybe the big high man on historically, but compared to a lot of later attempts at it — particularly the DGUSA ones that never quite seemed to click right — one that I enjoyed far more than I expected to.
The fireworks show the way it ought to be, and among the most underrated one of the decade due to where it happened.
HANDWERK 