[SPEAKER_00]: This podcast is a member of the Voices of Wrestling Podcasting Network.
[SPEAKER_00]: Visit Voicesof Wrestling.com to hear the rest of our great podcast as well as show reviews, columns, opinions, and updates across the world of wrestling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at that one so hard!
[UNKNOWN]: Hope you fall!
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to Open The Voice Gate for March 31st, 2026.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are members of the Voices of Wrestling Podcasts Network.
[SPEAKER_02]: He can find us on the Voices of Wrestling.
[SPEAKER_02]: Podcasts Network feed or on our own dedicated Open The Voice Gate feed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wherever you get your podcasts, you can follow us on social media at Open Voice Gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you like to donate to the show, click the link in there and our show notes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll take you to our
[SPEAKER_02]: Redcircle.com, landing site, you click a red box as a sponsor of this podcast, except a one-time eerie occurring donation.
[SPEAKER_02]: No obligation whatsoever for the donations, but we would like to thank all of our previous donors.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am one of your hosts.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's your old pal, Mike Spearish, you want to along your other host, K-Slow, and K-S,
[SPEAKER_02]: It seems like that a dragon gate and the greater dragon system is not leaving March in any sort of a till fashion we have to go kind of immediately today into a first an announcement from
[SPEAKER_02]: diea who were now going to refer to dragon diea as diea at a 555 central daylight time and then a a sport blog from dragon gate near immediately after 823 am central standard time that
[SPEAKER_02]: Dragon Daya has left a dragon gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is something that we were talking about.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was going to say a looting to heavily case a couple weeks ago when we were talking about the Ashima and Magnum Tokyo talk show and a dragon gate response to that.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were talking about that then, but two weeks later it's come to pass.
[SPEAKER_02]: Dragon Daya has left a dragon gate and the way that
[SPEAKER_02]: departure has been stated by both parties has been a really kind of interesting case.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I got we had to rip up the run sheet for this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had I had some boring anecdotes about old Ultimo Guerrero matches that I've been watching that I was really hoping to lead off the podcast with and don't worry at some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure we'll get to that as 98, 99, 2000 Ultimo Guerrero is becoming the only type of wrestling that I enjoy lately.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is the type of thing that you
[SPEAKER_00]: saw coming, you know, I felt very strong in my reporting from a few weeks ago that diet was definitely done with Dragon Gate, which is what we said on the Shea Magna Tocchio show.
[SPEAKER_00]: What his next step is is to be determined, I think it would be extremely foolish to not
[SPEAKER_00]: think that despite his statement saying that he is not going anywhere therefore for the foreseeable future, I think it would be extremely foolish to not still have an eyebrow raised at the ongoing super juniors announcement at the Tiger Mask Black Tiger situation going on with New Japan and CMLL.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen that mission today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't at least have an antenna up there, but there's also just a chance that Diagos away, but
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a promotion, you know, I remember making this point, when Kinto and Fujwara left a few years ago when they were ousted from the promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we did an episode in which we talked about how
[SPEAKER_00]: The amount of exits that were happening and dragging it at the time were actually not all that historically different from anything sort of post T2P on it actually has been a promotion that has seen a lot of movement in and out with the main thing being you sometimes don't notice it because there's always so much going in that sometimes the departure is the exits are not as noticeable.
[SPEAKER_00]: This dragon diet departure.
[SPEAKER_00]: feels different on a few levels.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the company responds to it is different than the normal departure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the roster response to this is fascinating.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's different than your normal departure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I also think,
[SPEAKER_00]: while there have been bigger stars that have left the promotion throughout the course of 20, 25 years, almost, I mean, God, we're coming up on 30, before you know it, you know, from the Tori-Mond landing, the departure of a Magnum Tokyo, the departure of an ATA, this one feels different and this one feels like it's gonna really, really hurt in the short term and really, really hurt in the long term.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not sure if you're somebody
[SPEAKER_00]: That is maybe only at this point watching the big shows and your lapstringy fan in your listing to this to try to keep up on on the happenings here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we'll go through the timeline of diascaref we get through some of this just, you know, boilerplate departure stuff, but there are things that dieo represents to dragon gate at large.
[SPEAKER_00]: that do not feel incidental in the way that he was portrayed and the way that he was represented on the roster and it is the type of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That even if you get really lucky and stumble into something like this, again, it is something that is incredibly hard to duplicate, you know, whereas you have your, your superstar rookies like a canto in a food war and you have your strong midcard heels like a Cosmos saccomoto or a Kaito Ashita, those are just some of the more recent names and a left.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are all names that in one way or another with where they were at in the promotion felt replaceable.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the loss of Ken to I think it's a guy who we pegged as a future dreamgate champion.
[SPEAKER_00]: The loss of Fujuara, a guy that you and I pegged as a future dreamgate champion, those losses hurt do not get me wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there is something different about what Daya is adding his career and something different about the character that Daya portrayed that I think is just a gut punch to a promotion that is just on a two month skin that in the 10 plus years now of covering Drangy, I haven't seen something quite like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen the promotion be worse for longer periods of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen the promotion suffer more bad news and bad PR.
[SPEAKER_00]: throughout the course of nearly 11 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I've seen what's happened in February and March happened though.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a very interesting point in the history of Dragon Gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it's a moment that...
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like that there's ways to look at everything that has happened essentially over over the last 45 days and look at it in a, and some sort of like hearistic kind of like this could all be connected together sort of ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like there's, there's the, the, the seeking a golden thread to connect all these things that are happening together.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it is possible, but it feels like that it's also having two events with a bunch of little ways that they have overlapped, but they just both kind of fired off at the same time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that when we take a look at the departures and especially like while we talk
[SPEAKER_02]: G's as seven years really I mean he debuted towards the end of 2018, but it's
[SPEAKER_02]: a huge cultural morale hits to the fabric of what the drag and system is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like to me, when the departures of your SPKs and Fujewars were happening in 2023 and like the big names of like, okay, these two guys are leaving in this sort of fashion and then having Kaito Ashita leaving soon after and at a,
[SPEAKER_02]: A big thing is, like, how bad is this for the a fabric of dragon gate at that time?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that we look at what happened today.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this kind of departure and one that, like, we have been seeing in kind of preparing for for a month now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think is up there of a departure as of Milano collection, AT, to be honest.
[SPEAKER_02]: and especially in the way of speaking about like the dragon lineage and how things have played out.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it really does a level of harm that he has left the promotion.
[SPEAKER_02]: In a way that I would argue that none of the other exits have to this point with the exception of Schema and the strong heart split.
[SPEAKER_02]: like this is to me at least if I want to think about it from like a spiritual sense, like a big part of the heart of Dracking Gate was uh it is not there anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've been struggling to think of the historical count for this and maybe Milano is the closest thing because it doesn't quite feel like Magnum's the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't quite feel like H is the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's too far established in his career for it's be one of the young guys that had been lost over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to go back to my point about just the short term and the long term of this, I remember when Kaito was she to left the promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was, this was at a time in which I felt like a lot of people were
[SPEAKER_00]: Voicing opinions about Drangate that were a little bit behind the April and we're covering a promotion that no longer existed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I felt like there was publicity around Kinto and Fujwara and all these other losses that were happening at the time, then I, I didn't agree with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought a lot of people misread the Ashita thing, which I, you know, accurately predicted, it was going to hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: far more in the short term than it would the long term, clay pop exactly one house, the only house they've ever popped with a sheet of and with more importantly, June, Kassai, and then a sheet of has gone on to be a completely irrelevant wrestler over the course of the last four years.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kaiju, a sheet of somebody that is that is replaced one way that Dragon Diaz done, and you're right, it goes into
[SPEAKER_00]: the heart and the soul of this promotion and something that you and I talk about especially in the context of Jackie Kame is I think the reason that you and I like Kame so much despite him being you know on his worst day I think one of the ten best wrestlers in the world and my god was he the best wrestler on that Kobe Sumble Hall show he and Rita together that at some point we're going to talk about on this episode but you know I think Kame from an in-ring standpoint
[SPEAKER_00]: represents the energizer bunny that is dragon gait the at times ganky horde Gucci escrol of justice paid by a numbers baby face that tries and has effort it has heart in a way that isn't really represented in all Japan or know our new Japan historically uh DDT it's like a fun it's like a fun eric and world class kind of thing
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's just a very specific Dragon Gate archetype that, you know, I think you and I and other people that have followed the promotion for years and years now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We sort of look at Genki Horguci as the pillar of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's why some people have Genki Horguci on their Mount Rushmore.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I draw the comparison to Kami at times being the modern day first of that, but Daya has that, not necessarily from an in rings standpoint, but he has in a way, and you tell me if you disagree,
[SPEAKER_00]: Not the face of the modern generation of Draingate, but almost the mascot of the modern generation of Draingate.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the type of thing that I just, for as good as Rio Yatenaka is, and for as good as Kame is for as good as Rita is, and I wish they would do more with Rita and Kame, even though we sit here today with something to engage champions, I still somehow think they're underpushed if we get to Kobe case.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a crazy, uh, Kame read a thing I went to propose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm looking forward to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, but those guys for as good as they are, they are not what Dio was it and the first thing that somebody hit me up about this morning, as I was talking about this with somebody that lives in Japan and goes to a lot of drag it shows that the first thing they mentioned to me was, you know, this is a huge loss.
[SPEAKER_00]: because Dia is huge with children, which is the type of thing that is not quantifiable in any massive way.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't think that shakes the foundation of this promotion to its core, but this is the type of thing where somebody who goes to a lot of drink and shows here's Dia's departing and they go, oh, that's gonna be bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's gonna be bad for cares, that's gonna be bad for families, that is bad news for Dregate.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the sort of thing that Dia on top of the, hey, maybe he doesn't matter
[SPEAKER_00]: being in a new Japan tournament, but him being in a new Japan tournament matters a ton in the context of dragon gate in him doing well and being brought back, not only after the first super junior tournament, but then for a super junior tag like it then for another super junior tournament, and then he and dragon kid going to WXW last year, you know, that is the type of thing that he really seemed to assimilate into that role really nicely.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I was looking at his career
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been a lot of different things and a lot of different times.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think our expectations of Dragon Dia have wildly fluctuated throughout the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's been times where we've considered him to be the second coming of Dragon Kid, which is in essence the gimmick, the third coming of Ultimo Dragon, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are times where he's been a nice steady hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's been levels in between that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: It does feel like for whatever reason that stretch in 2024 where he went from what was not a spectacular super juniors output by any means, but just him going super juniors into that bravegate match with show at world, which was the biggest bravegate match in years.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the way through the title versus title match with the amount of the end of 2024 everything from that point on.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just felt like we finally understood who Dragon Dio was, what he was meant to do, and like he had finally found his calling within the roster, and that took up a really valuable role in this promotion that is now gone.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it's a kind of role in.
[SPEAKER_02]: really the mascot is it it feels almost a meaning but as we are recording this on the day the 20th anniversary of do fixer versus blood generation and at least his mentor and the guy who's
[SPEAKER_02]: the fact is that having this kind of mascot that is out there especially like doing the international kind of shows and the what one of like the real frustrating things about like the reemergence of dragon gate USA for me has been the rosters and essentially
[SPEAKER_02]: with what is like not necessarily like a move towards the newer generation of dragon system wrestlers, but kid and kid has always been that mascot that diet had slowly started to inhabit, especially with those new Japan appearances, really were like the
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, not to start our history with him in the middle of it, but when you look at the at least last five years of the promotion, outside of a stretch of heo, one person has been the number one most popular person in the promotion ever since.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, about five year period, it's
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like the rug getting ripped out at least when you look at where the company is and like tentatively looking towards the the future and not just like the future as in like the touring kind of like bump to month aspect, but like who is like there to kind of step up and kind of inhabit that sort of role.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think that's well said.
[SPEAKER_00]: So before I want to break down the the career of die in full, but before we do that, you have the statement from die.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the statement from the promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with the statement from die because chronologically that's what came out first and then we'll break that sort of stuff down.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it goes.
[SPEAKER_02]: This was at 555 at least central standard time to everyone.
[SPEAKER_02]: First, I sincerely apologize for the sudden absence from matches and the lack of updates on social media, which caused concern.
[SPEAKER_02]: Up until now, I've had repeated discussions with the promotion about my future after considering both sides perspectives.
[SPEAKER_02]: We came to the conclusion that I would be best for each of us to go our separate ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: Therefore, after taking in account my future and my personal life, I decided to take to leave the promotion as of this month.
[SPEAKER_02]: Additionally, in order to take time to reflect and recharge going forward, I'll be temporarily suspending my activities April 1st.
[SPEAKER_02]: The experiences and lessons I've gained in this promotion are irreplaceable assets to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm deeply grateful to everyone involved.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would have
[SPEAKER_02]: also like to again, express my thanks to all the fans who have supported me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Going forward, I will continue to walk the path I believe in and strive to return to the ring at is a more developed and improved version of myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would be happy if you would continue to support me and then he follows that up with a supplemental tweet that this is a supplementary note.
[SPEAKER_02]: It seems that a very aspect of
[SPEAKER_02]: speculations have circulated during the time where I can post updates, but there are a no-facts of major injuries or physical or mental ailments, nor any incidences or causing or being in trouble.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's also a no-fact of having a contract with any specific organization and that this decision is entirely based on my own free will.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry for this inconvenience.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's what DIA said.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's also worth noting.
[SPEAKER_02]: He has completely changed all the social media to just all caps DIA and his social media is first posts he's had since his last match in Osaka in February, 28th.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the biggest takeaway I have from that is just the clarification that there's no physical or mental told that has sideline him that to me for him to specify that is a really interesting part and it's why I think you have to keep an antenna up of like okay he says he's not going anywhere but it also would it shock me if all caps dieo finds his way on the the new Japan VTR here in just a few days but
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a it's a very interesting statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it immediately may be think of when we were breaking down the Schema Magnum Tokio Tokio Tokio from a few weeks ago, and I'm not saying that this was Magnum Tokio talking to Dragon Dio, but Magnum Tokio has the part in the in the talk show, in which he says that he was just talking to a Dragon 8 wrestler who has thought about quitting many, many times and is unsure of what to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Magnum Tokio told him that he needed to quit the promotion and and now here we are a month removed from that and Dragon Dio has no longer part of the Dragon 8 roster.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I also, it's worth noting that
[SPEAKER_02]: And as we get into what Dragon Gate says, like that there is a aspect about this that is kind of not to be, that is an open question to be frank.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a third party that is at least as probably by Dragon Gate, there's a third party who's gotten involved with this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there is a direct kind of a former conflict in these statements.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say.
[SPEAKER_00]: one of the things that's been discussed today that I don't know if anybody has proper clarification on because I you know the term agent has been used but John Carroll front of the show former voice voice ghost mentioned you know there there is the thing in Japan of hiring somebody to help quit your normal job let alone an odd job like dragging I don't know what that third party is exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so this is something that has been brought up like since the Magnum Talks, and it's something that has been a big cultural issue with an Japan itself is that it essentially employers not allowing employees to leave companies easily, like trying to, like with whole pay, with whole benefits, like just like Al Ritz that you can't quit this job, just like that kind of,
[SPEAKER_02]: extortion, and now there is a third party that will basically act as your agent into being able to quit these companies.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is something that Megan talks about with Shinshiro Tataki.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have kind of gone deep into this phrasing that's going on here.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like Dragon Gate does not make mention of a like these quitting agencies and that phrase is never used and what Dragon Gate uses.
[SPEAKER_02]: What they always what they use is a they what the the phrase that they use is dot reener and which is essentially like a representative but not a lawyer not they did not but someone who is authorized as an intermediary.
[SPEAKER_02]: Could it be one of these third party quitting companies that has been mentioned?
[SPEAKER_02]: It could be, could it be some sort of other sort of management like how a lot of the more pop culture based Joe she have, like their other like idle and talent contracts?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like could that be happening?
[SPEAKER_02]: I've never heard of diah having any sort of management.
[SPEAKER_02]: It looked like the one person that I would wonder like just because he does a lot of like PR hits would be if Yamato has it has that kind of thing like Yamato did like a talk about investing last week.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, that was like, let's invest with Yamato that I was just like, I really hope that this is not like one of those things that Masato Yoshino got involved in and that's why Masato Yoshino is on this side of all of the Cold War going on right now, but like, Yamato's the only one that I would suspect, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I thought that was also very telling from the the diapiece was just the mention of that because I, you know, I'm not going to pretend to have any
[SPEAKER_00]: knowledge of dragging it contracts outside of, you know, I would say the very, very basic, but I've never heard of an agent being involved for any of these wrestlers.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, and that is not necessarily something that's happened within Japanese pro wrestling writ large to be honest.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that, like your very bloom kind of agents, or I guess that's what the, whoever that guy who flamed out from that one agency who wouldn't stop tweeting, like I don't think that there is necessarily those kinds of figures within Japanese wrestling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, very much so so that is diastatement yeah, I guess before you read the company statement yeah, you know this came in chronologically I was following this in real time this morning and what I found to be so interesting was
[SPEAKER_00]: that pretty immediately, the roster started their outpouring of support, whether it be the tweet from a shoot of saying just quit wrestling, which was very funny, or, you know, Nike and I think Casey and Tanaka and Marcus Mathers, these guys sharing these very heartfelt messages sending their condolences to die and wishing him best in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is the
[SPEAKER_00]: retire, you know, I do we saw that would condestate goodbye a few years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's certainly not the treatment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's certainly not the treatment that that can't tow our food to warra or as she got in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or a, yes, or a kuna for that matter, you know, buying.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, for it when the, when like Ricky Hashie or to
[SPEAKER_00]: gratitude type tweets that were sent out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a case by case basis, and you can normally tell, where the company stands with the wrestler, based on what the wrestlers are tweeting about the departed wrestler, that's what makes the statement from Dragon Gate so interesting to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the fact that this is publicly acknowledged by wrestlers in comparison to Oklahoma or Sue's passing was not, but was not publicly acknowledged by both the company by wrestlers and self probably under pressure from the company itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: So why don't you read the statement from Dragon Gate?
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, this one is much longer.
[SPEAKER_02]: So bear with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Two are friends and all related parties.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your continued support of Dragon Gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: Recently, a statement was posted on social media by a contracted wrestler, Dragon Diya, announcing it's the parture from the company.
[SPEAKER_02]: We would like to provide an explanation from our side in regarding to this matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: First, we deeply apologize for causing concern to everyone, as well as the delay in providing this explanation.
[SPEAKER_02]: Dragon Dio had previously expressed his intention to leave the company.
[SPEAKER_02]: However, as this occurred during the term of his exclusive contract with us, it required coordination and response across various areas, and we intended to proceed through proper discussions.
[SPEAKER_02]: We did not insist on strict enforcement of every contractual obligation we believe that the best course of action would be for both sides to meet face-to-face and discuss matters directly.
[SPEAKER_02]: We communicated to this to drag and die as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: However, we were notified through his representative that drag and die would be leaving the company as of the end of February 2026.
[SPEAKER_02]: As discussions came to be conducted through a representative, we were unable to engage in constructive and smooth dialogue and were left with no choice but to proceed in accordance with the terms of the contract.
[SPEAKER_02]: From our standpoint, we cannot accept it a parture that effectively leaves behind the fans and related parties.
[SPEAKER_02]: Additionally, because discussions were being handled
[SPEAKER_02]: Through a representative, we refrain from making a public announcement from our side.
[SPEAKER_02]: We made every attempt to hold the March 15th nogano event as a home coming show for a dragon diea, but ultimately we're unable to do so, we sincerely apologize to the fans or looking forward to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in light of drag and die is recent announcement, we have determined that is necessary for us provide this explanation.
[SPEAKER_02]: As we further discussions through representatives will be required, we ask for your understandings as we are unable to provide detail information at this time tracking code, drag and gate code limited.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a lot there.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I'll throw to you first?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, first and foremost, we, uh, Dragon Gates language does not say that, uh, that they have released a diaphragm's contract, like they say explicitly that he is still contracted with Dragon Gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was something that kind of, at least in this statement, kind of raised my eyebrow a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: It does seem that there is soon as Daya had this representative third party that everything in this kind of broke down and seemed like that is essentially,
[SPEAKER_02]: Dio was on ice for a month and then Dio decided to make it public and then Dragon Gate kind of released the statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never said, yeah, I agree with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never seen in my history of the covering the promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never seen the roster.
[SPEAKER_00]: have a dissenting public opinion from what the company themselves are saying and that to me is the part of this where I took my collar and I wonder what the long-term ramifications are when you have again, you know, your motisuki juniors and your oxies and your reo yatenacas all wishing him the best and then you have what feels like a very damning statement from Dregate saying that he's in breach of contract he's not fulfilling his duties and as far as
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I do think mentioning the homecoming show and that kind of thing from Dragon Gate side, that's not usually a thing that and these kinds of things ever gets brought up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is another kind of pointy thing towards DIA about this, that essentially.
[SPEAKER_02]: At least my read of this is that Dragon Gates essentially throwing DIA under the bus for this show and if you're and saying like if you're frustrated with this, it's kind of DIA's fault for that that the something coming show did not happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say not typically the way that Dragon Gates is one thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I mean, there's a lot of like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it seems that Dio essentially said after the last match he had on the 28th that he was done in that terms of his exit should be and I don't know this.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is just me kind of reading like the reading the tea leaves here case.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kind of seems like he's like, I'm believing this in hands of this person that this third party to handle this, but I'm going.
[SPEAKER_02]: I also think it's worth noting that when DIA says he's taking time to kind of recharge and stuff like this, I don't think that that should be like seen as DIA is, and less legally there is a legal thing about this that DIA is going to go away before that's of the super-duners, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, that that's what this entire situation now reads like to me is Dio's going to change his name and it's going to go away for a little bit and whenever that drink it contract runs out and I don't know when that would be I mean, this is a guy that debuted in November of 2018 maybe he has a contract that starts in ends in November I have no idea but now it seems like he's making his stance very clear that he's just holding out until he's legally allowed to work elsewhere
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's a, that's kind of the way that I have to, that, that I can read this, you know, it did, it does kind of feel like that, you know, a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about the Sheema and Magnum things and how culture can calcify over a period of time
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not how like Dragon Gate wants to have him and do a face-to-face conversation.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to do like things on kind of their terms in a way that like, I really think that there's the cultural kind of difference towards like, free agency at least within like the contracts with wrestling, with wrestlers in Japan.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's just a part about that part of Dragon Getsing is just roast me really the wrong way about how they are now getting real kind of pointed as soon as it became not a diet exclusively towards Dragon Getsing when as soon as he brought in kind of a third party to take care of whatever needed to be taken care of in the sense that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, look, again, I go back to the thing with the roster wishing well in the company not and just having sort of an uneasy feeling in my stomach as I went throughout the day that
[SPEAKER_00]: This, and it also goes to, you know, I, we should, I should pull up J's blues guy post real quick where J said quote for promotion with a 20 year plus history of this type of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the worst one yet in quote and J said that in the, you know, quote tweeted it by saying, and I said that before getting the company side post.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh boy, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like this is going to have ripple effects that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, I don't want to say are going to be permanently damaging to the Draingate brand.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would be lying if I said it at some point today.
[SPEAKER_00]: It did it cross my mind that this could be the type of thing that eventually sinks this promotion as a relevant promotion, not specifically diet a parter, but I just started to think it's like, okay, well,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if Daya goes and then, you know, like, you know, Mochizuki Junior goes and then Sassuma, it's like, okay, well, what's, what's gonna happen here?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, this one, this one feels really bad and that's without the context of those J-pups.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is just by what is public between Daya, the company and the rest of the roster.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, the rest of the roster thing is the part that has me spooked a little bit about the future of Dragon Gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and that's kind of the other aspect of the spiritual bit about this that this is spiritually damaging and I don't know I feel like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: At least for like the last few years that with the business not kicking back up and then it's still kind of draining year to year in the optic hit in the optic hit and seeing like how things have kind of seen it and and especially how the native responses have kind of changed over the last.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say the last 12 months, I would say, do these sorts of things that it does make you wonder like the wellness spiritually of the promotion.
[SPEAKER_02]: I always like, like, after the whole, like, she and my magnum thing kind of is like our little follow up of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've had a lot of people reach out going like, what do you see?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this like the start of the end or like this?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't see it necessarily like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I,
[SPEAKER_02]: do kind of look at certain things in certain ways that things have happened over the last like year that does make me wonder if the company is looking down the road and how kind of pointed things are especially I feel about them like talking about being a Kobe company and maybe are we looking at a future.
[SPEAKER_02]: 10, 15 years that the dragon gate ends up being kind of like in a sock a pro kind of thing, or if it doesn't end up like Mitch and Goku pro and that kind of thing, but being based around Kobe and more and more it's starting to feel like that that that that could be it, but you know what the problem with that though is, and this is where, you know, the next time we talk to Jay, which I would imagine would be
[SPEAKER_00]: within the next month.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll probably do a Golden Colosseum preview with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We probably need to do it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll take it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's get through the next few weeks.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we'll try to get that on our schedule.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, the one of the points that he made, I think this was two times ago and we had him on was,
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, the veteran class of the roster is having a hard time handing down duties to the newer generation of say local promotion because they get a cut of those tickets when they sell the tickets locally and why if you're based in Osaka in our promoting a show in Osaka and our selling tickets to a show in Osaka, why would you want to give that to somebody else if you're
[SPEAKER_00]: system of affairs needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: to make that change internally, at least from what I can tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you look at the current state of the Mitch Doku Pro and you look at the current state of Osaka Pro where you look at the current state of a Q-shu Pro, you go, man, they seem to have their local marketing down in a way.
[SPEAKER_00]: They quite frankly, from what I can see and I'm happy to be corrected on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: But those promotions, those regional promotions seem to have their regional marketing down in a way that is so much more effective than whatever Draingate is doing in Kobe, let alone in Hakido when in Osaka and Tokyo and whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, that that is entirely fair to say about the disay about at least thinking about a localized future for dragging gay, but maybe like when you talk about when j talks about like the these things that haven't necessarily handed it and handed down is that part of the overall classification.
[SPEAKER_02]: the fact that you know that they have not necessarily had the ability to have this be passed out and I don't know if it's not necessarily out of the veterans or out of the younger guys and that kind of thing and is that a reality of essentially having a promotion where the inmates have ran the asylum for 30 years essentially that when it gets to like a certain point of
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe that's another aspect about the, if we look at this for a macro sense as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly what it seems like based on the information that we have from Jay is that it's just it's a promotion where
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if the youth is needed in the youth is not stepping up.
[SPEAKER_00]: The impression that I get is that the youth wants to step up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's an old guard that is saying, no, we're going to keep on keeping on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know how you combat that internally, especially when it's an inmates running the asylum type promotion the way the drain gate is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and when you compare that to like new Japan that even though you've had like the periods of a no key in soccer Gucci and then later with Gato, but like the day to day running up a promotion like there were a lot of and ends and outs and people in control and bookers and foremans and people got kind of in and out of that and
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you look over King's Roadside and outside of Baba who has like the longest run really by himself If you really want to strip it down to like a idea of like great man wrestling running the promotion You attribute to one person Baba has the this stretch that no one else really kind of has But when you look at that then that like the power structure and like the book and and really like control
[SPEAKER_02]: If we're thinking about it that kind of way of the King's Road Promotions outside of Bob and Ms. Alwa has been very It hasn't been very stable as well whereas Dragon Gate for better and for worse essentially has had people just you know to a point that up before Rio Cito got announced that like we could not tell you who the actual
[SPEAKER_02]: a real booker head booker of the promotion was up until a certain kind of point, but if it's the same kind of group for almost 30 years there, and there's not a move of like that like Yamato or like of that kind of generation when you're running that kind of style of promotion questions have to be asked, I feel like.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we have enough history now in the one word dragon gate era, the real site to era August of 2021 through now.
[SPEAKER_00]: either there were cracks in the sidewalk that were just paved over in a way where nobody could tell, you know, they were hidden from 1999 through largely 2021 with a major exception in 2018 with the WWE departure.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there were issues internally, and like I said, and I think this is over looked historically, there were massive departures, and there were departures often.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: we have now this five year history where we've just seen things with this promotion where you know you and I covering it as close as we do and onlookers especially sort of scratch their chin and go hmm okay well that's that's odd and it's a promotion that has still you know I I think been great you know oh they've had years that have been awesome you know I they've had they've had debocals a summer of
[SPEAKER_00]: it's been a promotion that has largely been very enjoyable over that time period even if I have some issues with the way the dream gate belt spent hand on even if I have the way with some of the title reigns and the way that they just feel expedited in a way that that doesn't feel right.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I went through Dio's career today, I was looking at his tag team with Madoka Kakuta and going
[SPEAKER_00]: God, it feels like they should have gotten way more out of that than they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the tag team that ended the comedy, Jason Lee, twin gate rain at zero to fences and you go, God, they should have gotten way more out of that than they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's been a heavily flawed promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if it times it has been a great promotion, but I think both externally and internally.
[SPEAKER_00]: We now have enough evidence in this new era to go, whatever structural change happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: has been a structural change that maybe maybe has not, I can't, I don't have enough information to save it's been for the better for the worse, but it has created seismic shifts that are noticeable to the public and that feels traveling.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, yeah, and we could go back to the more Alice high or better than it was before 2018 and like those kinds of aspects to it, but I think that now we're almost eight years after like that kind of seismic change, and then like the the the move to like the site of kind of era.
[SPEAKER_02]: and things don't feel right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like and that's really kind of 43 minutes of just kind of where I'm getting at is that things just don't feel right and it is feels like much more so than
[SPEAKER_02]: I really go to the OWA split as one that feels like spiritually hurts in a way that I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: necessarily how easy it is to get to bounce back into the swing of things in the promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about the career of Dragon Dia and last year everything else to add.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I have a very long list here of
[SPEAKER_00]: Just sort of beat by beat, some of the points of Dio's career, you jump in and stop me when I hit something that you wanna talk about, but I think it can't be overstated just how big the debut of Dragon Dio fell to November of 2018.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had seen Coach manure come in that July, he was the first post-OW Weekly graduate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dio was the second,
[SPEAKER_00]: At this point in time, we hadn't had Altimo dragon back in the fold yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we were looking at Dragon Dias specifically as the spiritual successor to Dragon Kid, Dragon Kid, of course, the spiritual successor to Altimo Dragon.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it felt like there was an effort being made at this time in the fall of 2018 to embrace maybe some Torium on roots that had been abandoned over the years.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike, what do you remember about the earliest days of Dragon Dias?
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought that and the tape cannon can be ruled about this case.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was not high on him.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought that the first year and a half of him essentially getting into up until like the Dragon Gate generation, the three-way generational war 2020.
[SPEAKER_02]: it was a lot of fits and starts in like moments of promise and a real situation where the idea of being the third dragon in the lineage was a real daunting
[SPEAKER_02]: uh scenario he wasn't necessarily helped out by the they had an issue for a couple of years with uh masks and and who was making masks.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you think about him and shooting skywalker, but uh you it it was a kind of a fits and starts up until really him finding his place amongst the people of his generation going into 2020.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he debuted November 2018 and it's, it's a fine debut match.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's one that historically I think you should go back and watch if you haven't seen it, but it's not as strong as the Storm Machine J debut from, you know, six months later, and it's.
[SPEAKER_00]: not as strong as some of the debuts we've seen before or sense but what's interesting and this is during a period of the promotion where I really started feeling like I had my fastball covering it is this this 2019 calendar year where very early in the year I remember recording a podcast with Alan Forel for Alan Show talking about this new generation of wrestler
[SPEAKER_00]: that Draingate had that that almost felt like some sort of banter weight, fly weight, junior, you know, junior style of wrestler, but something that was a little bit left of center to what Draingate had been doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got lucky enough to where they put them in the rookie ranking tournament in 2019.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was two years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: that you and I revisited all of those matches.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's in the archive somewhere, but you and I re-watched those rookie ranking matches.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was for the five year anniversary, but that was a time where UT finally started to find some sustained health and really come into his own, and Kaito Ashita became a world beta at that point.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when you and I started getting really high on Ashita.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is when Shun Skywalker had gone from
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, here's a fun, wacky undercard wrestler to somebody that, you know, in December of 2018, we thought, okay, future Bravegate champion, probably a really great twingate wrestler too.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's headlining champion gate in Osaka and March against Pock for the Dreamgate belt.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was a 0% chance that he was going to win that match, but it was like, whoa, they have something greater here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So all of a sudden, you had this new class of wrestler coming in and a dragon gate,
[SPEAKER_00]: just by way of generation, Dragon Daya got lumped into that group.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Dragon Daya was a part of that class, even if he was the latest edition in the one that from an in-ring standpoint, maybe didn't feel akin to a U.T.
[SPEAKER_00]: or that era of shune skywalker or that era of coachmenora, even.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Dia, you know, spends the rookie ranking tournament.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gets bounced in the first round.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he broke his collarbone very early in his career.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was battling the flu for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dia debuts in November of 2018.
[SPEAKER_00]: And
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, he is just a real presence until that fall of 2019.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you're exactly right.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he only wrestles 43 matches in 2019.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that includes Prime Zone and Dark Matches.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first half of the year, he's really not on TV that much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the second half of the year, like June through November, he's kind of only wrestling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Corkins like he was a one to twice a month wrestler and then gate of destiny 2019 and I remember this very well they I think that was the first royal sombo they did.
[SPEAKER_00]: since Osmo had come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if it wasn't the first, it was one of the really early ones.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Dio won that, and then Dio beat Cosma Sakamoto when a singles match at final gate 2019.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was, you know, now we're talking about a year into his debut.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got Yoshioca in about to go to Mexico or already in Mexico, soon either in Mexico to Mexico or already in Mexico.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got some contemporaries there.
[SPEAKER_00]: that are well beyond where Dias had to get coachman or his closest contemporary, not being pushed super hard, but certainly feels more elevated and more present than Dias did by that point.
[SPEAKER_00]: But by the end of 2019,
[SPEAKER_00]: You start to at least give the idea that a they have some faith in this kid and b by this point in time I was very intrigued by what he was doing and so is the counter turns to 2020 and you get this generational warfair between
[SPEAKER_00]: He was presented as a main character in that story before he had necessarily earned it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we go into the pandemic with one of the weirdo triangle gate championship teams and history between Daya and Binkay and Strang Machine J.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at that point in time, I feel like he was being pushed above the level that he was actually at, but by the time that storyline ends and diet jumps to masquerade at the end of the year, diet had earned that push in felt supremely more popular than he did at the end of 2020 than he did at the beginning.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I feel like when we talk about the 2020 year, Coach of Menorah's breakout fall is the big topic of it, but an underlying thing for that year, well, with that trial gate team was,
[SPEAKER_02]: At least to me was the idea of like finally, Strom Machine J is moving on from from from from Strom Machine Army kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is doing things with the roster and I feel like that that was like a constant refrain for me for a long time for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And for Daya, it was the first glimpse of him actualizing on the advantage that Daya got because I really want to underline how well he was kind of treated on that debut and how that kind of set him up and away.
[SPEAKER_02]: At a time where the dojo was, you know, fits and starts, fits and starts, this was a symbol, like after the class of 2016 and then 2017 not necessarily having a great stand out and then 2018.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that he is like the four runner for all the like Jackie Comey and Kabune in 20 and things like this, but it really felt like that after the launch 2020 that the front half of the year for him felt like that he was finally getting into form and allowed him to end 2020 and really kind of like
[SPEAKER_02]: being the tracking kid air that we were hoping for him to be when he was given the mask.
[SPEAKER_02]: He finally felt like that he was inhabiting that role by the end of 2020 on his own merit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He ends that year in masquerade.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess it's the interesting thing with Dia is
[SPEAKER_00]: He had three very specific restarts in his career when you include the debut of his, of him the beginning of his career.
[SPEAKER_00]: That all felt massive in a way that I'm not sure that I, I definitely do that every drag it rest or doesn't gonna handle like this, but I even struggled to find other comps where
[SPEAKER_00]: His debut was made to be such a big deal that the fact that he's hurt and sick and just kind of there for the first year of his career made the hype of his debut detrimental and he had to really overcome that hurdle to get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, despite being a covert era product, I mean, I still think so highly of Dragon Gate in 2020 and for most of 2021.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that meant we would mask a reach showed up in Hokkaido on that December tour.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that that felt massive to you, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah and especially like the way that it was the momentum of shune coming back from the excursion and it's first match winning the dream gate saying oh I'm not doing this uh the this generational warfare thing I I'm collecting a group to go forward and really like that that
[SPEAKER_02]: 60 day period to end out the year with like masquerade and then introducing La Strea with such an exciting kind of weights for to solidify someone at like such a crucial moment in his career in shune sky walker, but it also really kind of allowed a great platform for Daya to become kind of the breakout young guy of that unit when he already had them in Oli tag team.
[SPEAKER_02]: and fits and starts.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it was kind of, it became like the perfect platform for him at that point.
[SPEAKER_00]: That December of 2020 is so huge for that unit because they debut, they have three shows and a kind of, they have two Corrigan Halls that month.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have final gate and they have the year-end show in Kobe, which was headlined by Masquerade versus the Dragon Generation, a sort of finality of that program.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, when I go back and look at my 2020 match the year spreadsheet, there's so much December 2020 Draingate in there, and it's all from those masquerade guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just came in and do exactly what that act was.
[SPEAKER_00]: They looked amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They worked as a unit tremendously.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they hit the ground, running, the issue is that diet gets hurt at the end of December of 2020.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's out from the end of that year through Dead or Alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he misses the first four months of 2021, which is tough because diet inferno had been introduced to the October of 2020.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this all feels like ancient history now, but you had that weird lame duck period where diet inferno gets introduced.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know they're going to build to diet inferno versus dragon diet
[SPEAKER_00]: But then Dragon Diagets hurt, and so Dianne Ferno is, you know, he's like wrestling every once in a while, but without Dianne there, he doesn't really have a reason to be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I think Dianne Ferno gets banged up a little bit after Dragon Diagets healthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just a very strange summer where you look at the summer of 2021, and Dianne becomes triangle gate champion.
[SPEAKER_00]: with Jason Lee and with La Strea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember really liking their matches at world that year.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had the world match and the speed star final match.
[SPEAKER_00]: One against RED, the other against Anganisu.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they did the gimmick where they defeated both hill units in one weekend, which was really strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember dying really good in those matches.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember dying really good in the dead or alive match where they win the triangle gate belts.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember that match well because Dias' father had passed away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some diet dedicated to that match to him and Daya was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was a train wreck loss, stray a match.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were just getting hit from so many different angles of quality over the course of one match.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they win those triangle gate belts.
[SPEAKER_00]: They hold them for most of the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we eventually do get this payoff with Daya and Daya and Ferno, a few that I don't think
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think anybody goes like, God, remember how great that feud was, all those interesting chapters along the way, but what matters is they stuck the landing on the payoff, created, I would say, one of the five most, remember one of the 10 most memorable moments in Dragon history on 12, 12, 21, it's the,
[SPEAKER_00]: Crooks of Dragon Dias career.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the thing that made Shune Skywalker, Shune Skywalker.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the thing that Dia will forever be remembered by in my mind, and they nailed that and Dragon Dias at the center of one of the most memorable things to happen in the history of
[SPEAKER_02]: The thought I have about 12, 1, 21, I'm going to put a pen on just because we'll talk about it and what when we put a bow on this because it feels like that essentially modern era of dragon gate started with that match.
[SPEAKER_02]: and that everything really has been in service for the last five years almost of like everything the fallout and everything kind of coming back together and people coming back together and and like all of that was based off of the the fact that she and skywalker turned on
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's unbelievable.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's undeniable that that is the match that kickstarted modern day, Dren Gate and that sort of my question going forward is how they handle the presence of Dia because you know that the reason I want to go through this timeline of the way that we're doing it is you see especially after that match.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are 2019.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He beats Cosmos Nakamoto 2020.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, trying to get champion whatever, but
[SPEAKER_00]: If they choose to handle Dia and his departure the way that they've handled some of the other departures where they try to erase Dia from history or conveniently ignore him from certain things, you're losing your 2020s because this guy's been involved in almost everything that's mattered since that day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that that was what I was putting up a pen on because I didn't know if you wanted it to get into that because Because like when I talk about like the spiritual hurt of this loss and like a fact of things that are missing and like now more so than the other departures this is the kind of feeling it's because like
[SPEAKER_02]: You think about the the kids that they always bring up into the ring for like when they restarted doing first-gong kids and like with us the name that's always kind of brought up is that that when they asked me for a wrestler it's more often than not dragon dia and it's just like
[SPEAKER_02]: How can a family like a parent go back to a company and like, and especially given how just like price living and all of this and and and fork out the money for like their kids like that that the company that they that they
[SPEAKER_02]: Go to visit and their kids favorite wrestler is essentially going to get deleted from the narrative and like they But you're going to have a constant reminder of that case because the company is too cheap to Replace their banner so die is going to be looking down at like your kids and as like a reminder of like oh he's not here anymore and now You're still here like how can you take your kids to the shows at that point?
[SPEAKER_02]: If they go about the leading like the history like if I was a parent and and and like in that kind of scenario there and like my kids favorite wrestlers essentially like getting screwed over you know the thing I'm doing for the next time that that diet shows up I'm going to that promotion and not dragging it anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: like that's like a real like I for lack of better words like moral risk that dragon gate with the way that they operate is risking to put themselves into right now by deleting the the potential history of dragon daya.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well the promise that history is ongoing and lingering because after the mass first is mass crash we get the formation of decourage and
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, maybe it's the type of thing that we've become used to because Dia as strange as this is has existed for longer as a wrestler without a mask and he was a wrestler with a mask, but Dia coming out on that skateboard at the January 2022 quirk and the first 90 beats has become to for the Brave Gate title of 90 seconds.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second night he and Yoshioka when the twin gate belts and they formed decourage from there, that's the third big chap or his career.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have his debut.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you have decourage and you know, we can pause on the history of diaphyrges II because Mike, what the hell do you do with decourage now?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, decourages that like it, it's a shambling corpse that is going to exist until they may be at cork and on Monday, uh, Yoshioka and Tanaka say it's dead, but it's dead.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's dead.
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, sorry, Marcus matters.
[SPEAKER_02]: You joined it like 33 days until like it's heart is getting ripped out.
[SPEAKER_00]: to just put Montet in Dio's spot and act like nothing ever happened, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, there's absolutely no way, and that's a fraudulent thing that if they do that, then that's just... Definitely do that though.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I mean, that then makes me go look at the people making decisions in this company because like that's exactly not what should happen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like what's happened is like die is left.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is this as like the soul of decourage.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are going to go our separate ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like that's like the only thing to do you let like you can't treat this like fucking over generation.
[SPEAKER_02]: or the last few weeks of monster express, like you have to, like just immediately, you just go like, it's over, it's done well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the problem is, and this is why I can't ignore this possibility is you just reshuffle the deck with vibes and vibes is working and Gucci is incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you just, for his sake alone, I wouldn't want to touch vibes.
[SPEAKER_00]: is unspectacular, but there and they serve a purpose and right now, I wouldn't necessarily want to take her with Paranox.
[SPEAKER_00]: If they touch love and peace, I might quit covering the promotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're just going to leave love and peace alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would assume that between menorah and Ishaana,
[SPEAKER_00]: you have some sort of face-turn coming in some sort of minor shake-up happening with Gaja Docaro, but for all we know that person could then trickle down on the Sci-Patra, and so you look at the unafiliated guys and it's Monte, and if you want to get really creative which this company doesn't always seem to want to do, it's Kazuma Komora and Rio Fuda.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we just went through the vibe shake-up,
[SPEAKER_00]: And all the other units feel pretty solidified, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, again, unless you want to break a paradox, which I hear you out on, but that just doesn't seem like something that Drangit would want to do right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I mean, within the LK, so you break up, decorate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say, yeah, get a greater view.
[SPEAKER_00]: They go, okay, well, we can't have the decourage without the D part of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're you're talking about the two guys you I think are the favorites to headline coming world this year either Yoshioka or Tenaka and where do they go?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do they do from there?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you almost have paradox absorbed them like you you like this and that feels I'm not saying you're wrong, but all that feels ice cold just being instant.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or you got to do like a brand new unit and one of the two has to go do something else because you can't have them just immediately start a new unit, but like It's stuff because then you're like, okay, where does Tanaka go versus what should Yoshioka do and then it's just like you don't.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really, there are the units that are now solidify that you don't really want to mess with.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you wonder, could you go for another unit at this point or another two units?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think you can go for two units.
[SPEAKER_02]: So someone has to join a new unit if you break up, encourage, which sorry to take everyone down that route, but I don't know what the good answer is at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've been pitching a Yoshiooka hill turn for three years, but a Yoshiooka hill turn at this moment in time is the least appealing thing I've ever heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even think it would be bad in execution, but it wouldn't even make sense for a storyline perspective.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't think you can get away with Yoshiooka turning on Tanaka at this point in time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Either this is, this is not good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, I think they're in trouble here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they're just going to stick Monta in D-Courage for the time being in call it D-Courage.
[SPEAKER_02]: God, that's just gross.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I'm not.
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like this is not a company that takes a lot of wild swings with their units.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just struggling to think of what the swing is here.
[SPEAKER_00]: What they'd even be trying to make contact with.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because it's not because we have the full card for get a passion on April 6th, Tanaka versus junior in the opener.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the semi main event, the 10th anniversary debut special
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't feel like Yoshi Oak is going to like figure into that match.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that feels like you know what the bold thing and the big swing is is that Yoshi Penn Skywalker in that match.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that's what they should do and that match.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but Skywalk is headlining your paper view at the end of April.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, I, I, I don't think they can do that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, if there's one person who I merely go to and go like who he's not one of one, he's not going to become like Dragon Panther or anything like that, but the one person that I feel like is best equipped to step into that position and if not take that position, go further with it, it would have been heo.
[SPEAKER_02]: And
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't know like I'm looking at this the show like I don't know what you do if you're Shioca other than him coming out and challenging no he yeah like he's on kind of on ice until after golden call scene at the very least right like in the dream gate picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems like because they have the card laid out the way that they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is not what I would do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would figure out the direction of decourage at this cork and show.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would, I would, I would do an angle to either keep it or get rid of it, but not let it linger and let it fester.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it does seem like they can buy themselves a month and handle this after golden Coliseum if they have to, which is not what I would advise them to do, but I think it's what they're going to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, because Golden Colosseum is pretty well set up at this point, of this section with the exception of really triangle gate at this juncture and dream gate, I guess, but we'll see what happens with that coming out of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just, it does feel like it's that,
[SPEAKER_02]: that with the card construction and with everything happening with like their statement case, doesn't it?
[SPEAKER_02]: And like a weird way, I feel like Dragon Gate was caught completely unaware with this, or at least is acting like they were that they've been and kind of kept unaware given how this card is constructed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they're acting like they're completely unaware, but when I know that dragon die is leaving the company, I would hope that the people working within dragon gate would also be aware of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, that is a very true.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you're you're dead on about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, so it's so I don't have the card in front of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's it's Tanaka versus Junior and it's been in tune against Yoshioka and heo.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I wonder if they just throw him in love and pace.
[SPEAKER_02]: a seven person love in peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you got seven people in God, I don't grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, six included for me to and vibes, you've got six in Paradox.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it could be Ben and Heo trying to get Yuki his smile back as a storyline.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's really what I want out of this year is I want them to do something with the class of 2016.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I fucking, I lobbied for
[SPEAKER_00]: Benio Yoshio, because six maids were in WrestleMania weekend to celebrate the class of 2016.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that's going to happen, but I don't think anybody booked that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that was my idea to everybody that asked me was you got to do something there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that would.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know and that that feels like that would solve a lot of problems if you just put together a super unit for a little bit because then you can break up Hommara and CLO.
[SPEAKER_00]: I again for as much as I love Valetta I don't really need him back but then but then you're taking Ben out of love and peace and I just you know even as I watched that Kobe show I was going I just think I think love and peace on papers one of the best things this promotion has ever had
[SPEAKER_00]: Period and I still was almost one year on that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was if it was in the main event It was given the main event time out of the notebook on it
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think that unit is still, and I understand, you know, they were trying to get champions and twin gate champions at the start of the year, they're still twin gate champions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think that unit is wildly underpushed, and I don't understand why the promotion isn't revolving around 11 pieces at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we've seen them have success with that, because we'll hop back on the diet time right here just briefly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to finish this out, but you know, 2022 is the best year of his career, because he wins the brave gate belt, he wins the twin gate belt,
[SPEAKER_00]: That champion gate in Osaka, he has the Takuma Fujiwara Brave Gate match the first night, and then he's in that great twin gate match the second night that's Diane Yoshioca versus Ata and Maria versus yo and sbkenta, which might as well have taken place 35,000 years ago at this point, Deniro live 2022 is built around dial wrestling.
[SPEAKER_00]: two matches, the brave gate match and the twin gate match, his brave gate ring gets bogged down a little bit after dead or alive because he kind of becomes the third man in a show, esp canto story that never gets resolved because canto left for Mexico and the never return, but his brave gate ring that time around sort of ends with a whimper, but after world that year, he goes into a team with Kukuta,
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are great tag team again, you know, Jason and Jackie when the 28 belts were shoot a Montaia world that year, one of the best matches in company history, zero successful defenses.
[SPEAKER_00]: They lose in their first defense to die in Kuta, which is a move that I still disagree with it's a move that I wish they wouldn't have done, but die in Kuta together.
[SPEAKER_00]: were a great team.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you go back and look at the SFM 50 that year, this is not overall, but I put Dia 7th on my ballot, which I believed caused Joe lands of severe health problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was so upset with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he finished really, really well in the rankings that entire year.
[SPEAKER_00]: 2023 is an odd year for Dia because he doesn't really get pushed anywhere near a strongly as he did in 2022.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's just really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in a bunch of just really, really fun, multi-man matches throughout the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in one of those other weird curveballs for Daya, this affected Kukuta, this affected Tanaka, and of course, Yoshiyoka.
[SPEAKER_00]: But right when they add Tanaka to the group, they have the one match as a foreman unit, and then Yoshiyoka hurts his eye, and he's gone for an extended period of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So 2024, when you roll into that year with Yoshiyoka hurt,
[SPEAKER_00]: Decourage becomes this weird lame duck unit where like dyes and rate a prey house with dragon kid that year, and it just doesn't seem like he has a lot going on at sort of the first time since 2020 that he feels a little bit lost, but then he goes and wrestles in the super junior tournament and and everybody knows that story where.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, Gato in particular has it's been noted.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is not a very big fan of dragon die, but Gato does not have final say or even the way it's been explained to me at times, a ton of say in the juniors division, and so the people that like Dio won out, he goes there, he has an average showing in super juniors, but it connects with the Drain Gate audience, because it was the first time and over a decade that it had sent somebody into that tournament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And diet comes back, you know, for world that year, and they do die of versus yo, yo's in the midst of a really strong brave gate run, die of feels really hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the hottest brave gate match in years up to that point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, maybe since die of versus kento at dinner live 2022, but if not, you'd have to go back.
[SPEAKER_00]: to long before that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe Kento versus UT from 2021.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be something in that Kento era of the Brave Gate run.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dio wins the belt there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an okay Brave Gate run, but sort of like the Dio and Furno storyline.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay, but the thing that really needed to be great was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was Dio versus Yamato, final gate 2024, title versus title.
[SPEAKER_00]: They nail the series
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... in the king of gate opening ground dia beats menorah and the king of gate finals and then they have this incredible match at final gate twenty twenty four and that to me will forever be the legacy match of dragon dia
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it gave us a moment at least winning King of Gate and going into the match with Yamato where it did kind of leave you with like the air of
[SPEAKER_02]: Man, he is almost a clip at that moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: It clipsing for one night where dragon kid ever got to.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the, it was easily like his peak is enough, but it also in a lot of ways became, I mean, if you wanna talk about like moments of the dragon lineage, like,
[SPEAKER_02]: Virtually my expectation and we'll see how things like really kind of change.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think we'll see a dragon diet to anytime soon, but it feels like the last great moment of the dragon lineage now that we know that that moment and the lineage at least at this point is done, you know, I mean,
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it a bigger moment at time at, at, at, at, at its time than kid versus darkness dragon at absolutely a menteo to I don't know like that's kind of where you would kind of compare the two together at least with those two and ultimo has had I would argue bigger moments than that but it felt like it was the peak for him absolutely
[SPEAKER_00]: And what it did to bring this full circle is it just sort of put die on a level that he hadn't been at previously.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as you roll into 255, he was a guy, you know, became a guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it was never it's sort of like in the the nebulis that he'll exist in right now, where
[SPEAKER_00]: He sniffed that dreamgate belt.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we all felt like, okay, he didn't win it there.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the closest he's ever going to get to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just structurally, he matters to Drangate so much now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in 2025, it's a lot of the Yukio Shioke rehab project.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's things like him being in the Tana Hashimatch at Kobe World in nobody batting an eye.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody kind of going, like, yeah, this is, this is kind of what Drangate I should be doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Tana Hash is going to stop by Drangate and work a tag match,
[SPEAKER_00]: Dragon Dio feels like he's in the right place being in that match and you know that carried him through the end of 2025.
[SPEAKER_00]: We saw him and Marcus Mathers have a 28 match right before Dio's exit at the end of February and it's a bummer you know it is that it is an absolute bummer that Dragon Dio's gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think I think you nailed it you know 12, 12, 21, really started the modern era of Dragon Gate in the same way that maybe Neruki Doi joining
[SPEAKER_00]: Define to sort of an era through God, when would you say that ends your motto winning the dreamgate belt in 2010 maybe and then kind of that your motto in the blood warriors and junction three.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that sort of ends when Shingo wins that dream game belt in 2013 and then Yamato winning the dream game belt in 2013 from Shingo, I think it's another five year era that ends with the OWA split, but he's just a guy that when you look at things from 2021 on almost everything that mattered he was involved with he was one of coach menorah's best opponents he was one of shoe skywalkers best opponents.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was one of UT's best opponents.
[SPEAKER_00]: I always really liked the work that he and Madoka could do to did with one another as a tag team and against one another as opponents.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a loss that is going to be felt by this promotion in the ring and out of the ring.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it feels much different than a lot of the other recent departures.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess the final thought I have on this because I was thinking about this today is,
[SPEAKER_00]: when Ata left Dregnathen, then Dregnathen was, because Ata, you know, Ata was a former drink at Champion Grand Slam Champion, one of the most successful wrestlers in the history of the company.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Ata, Ata, he was an odd guy, and you and I were talking about Ata, didn't really feel like he belonged and Dregnathen times, even when he was being pushed and featured super heavily.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, he and Dregnathen worked out the deal to where he would be slowly phased out by the time that Ata actually left,
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like a lot of people went, hey, where's A to you know, it was, it was a slow exit and one that was beneficial for both parties.
[SPEAKER_00]: This guy, one is different, you know, die of felt to the core like a dragon gate wrestler and it'll be interesting to see when he pops up again, if he is one of those guys that is just so talented that he succeeds wherever he goes or if he's one of those guys that just makes more sense of this promotion specifically, but it's a promotion that he can no longer call home.
[SPEAKER_02]: It really, I think that the overall, at least to me, case, the diet situation will have kind of more like not even a big picture.
[SPEAKER_02]: I really said drag and gay, but big picture as it relates to the Japanese wrestling landscape.
[SPEAKER_02]: Conversations, as this situation kind of moves, I do think that it
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not just the end of an era in Dragon Gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that there's a new working order that is going to be so drastically different from what we've seen at least in the 2020 so far.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is just the start.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quickly, Mike, any thoughts on the Kobe Sambal Hall show before we preview this Corcoran Hall show coming up next week?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so they were in Kobe Samba Hall on the 29th.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just going to pull up.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't even have my notes for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Actually pulled up for this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I figured we were going to go that deep on diet and not have time for this, but as we were talking about very briefly that Atomico Ben Jackie Rita and Junior versus the original Jimmy's and not hug.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just.
[SPEAKER_02]: real great stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it had some pep for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The sprint section of it was really, really exceptional.
[SPEAKER_02]: And
[SPEAKER_02]: And, in case I have an idea that if this happens, this is how we get out of the doldrums.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is how we're able to start to rebuild.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have coming out of that match, a double tag team match in I.G.
[SPEAKER_02]: titles, original Jimmy's putting on the so-reo, a re-acute drag and tag team belts against the open the drinkate titles of Jackie Rita.
[SPEAKER_02]: What if somehow we get a triple crown of tag team belts on Jackie Rita?
[SPEAKER_02]: and the all Asia goes on them next.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wouldn't that be a fun thing to at least hang our hat on for 26?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, God, yeah, I feel like I don't want to be the person to run that idea by all Japan pro wrestling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like they have a very specific idea of what wrestlers are, and it is not Jackie Kame or Rita.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think they're worse off for that, by the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I would be very entertained by that idea.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like other than that on like the show, uh, the benefit of that match.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I want to point out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the the upcoming matches of Sumo and Kagatora challenging for those belts, but there is some, and I mentioned this anytime they're in the ring together, there is some Rita Doe chemistry that is just impossible to ignore.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord knows I don't have the pencil in this company right now, but if I did,
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have commentary to win this match, and I would immediately begin building to Yamadaoi challenging for the twin gate belts at World, and I would have Jackie and Rita win that match as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I, there, I, man, Rita doing a gather.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is just, that is what I like out of wrestling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those guys are so good with one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And unfortunately, for the guys involved in that Golden Coliseum tag, Kame Rita, Susuma, Cagatura, the expectation is they have a match to the year container, and it is unfair to ever put people in that position, but with those guys in their history of tag team wrestling, that's what I'm expecting out of them on that show.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, it's big match, Jack's time to, you know, bail out a Dragon Gate show once again by having a four and three-core Star tag team match that we scream about and try to get people to, to the scene they think that we're just writing idiots, yeah?
[SPEAKER_02]: I see how the features gonna play out for us, bud.
[SPEAKER_00]: What other thoughts do you have on COVID?
[SPEAKER_02]: I liked the show closing goal.
[SPEAKER_02]: The main event was Cypatra versus Coetaminore Easton and Cato.
[SPEAKER_02]: Basically a crowd brawl kind of central.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it kind of built up after a Cato and Cielo face off there that it was a misfire.
[SPEAKER_02]: into an S.S.W.
[SPEAKER_02]: on E.C.N.
[SPEAKER_02]: C.L.O.
[SPEAKER_02]: goes for scissors on Kato, but then Menorra breaks it up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Goes after Hamari's hair, cuts his hair.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hamari loses it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they just have a,
[SPEAKER_02]: one of the wilder polar part brawls that I think we've seen in wrestling in a long period time.
[SPEAKER_02]: It goes on for essentially the next 10 minutes as soon as trying to cut a promo shit talking a big Bosch and Mizzou.
[SPEAKER_02]: How am I spits up and nowhere?
[SPEAKER_02]: They start fighting again.
[SPEAKER_02]: They spontaneously fight.
[SPEAKER_02]: during like the last parts of Shun's promo, and then right after that, Kato Attack Cielo, love the chaos of the post-match more so than the match itself, but it does feel like we are moving on to a plan B of maybe having a hamari and menorah in on that cage as well, with no real answer about Shimazu's condition right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I have no feel for where they're going with that cage match.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we obviously, the entry here is the ongoing issues between manure and e-shin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought once this match has actually got into the ring, which it took a long time to get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But once it got into the ring, I found the action to be pretty solid, but for
[SPEAKER_00]: a big five show main events that is less than a month away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this isn't even inherently a flaw.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just surprised that I'm having such a hard time gleaning any possible direction from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really have no idea what they want to do with that cage match this year.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it feels like a weird cage match and in the way of the per house and creepy cage match that seemed to exist to do a big show, main event for S.P.K.
[SPEAKER_02]: before he was off on excursion.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, because that's kind of have a little bit of that kind of energy at least with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But like, I, I, I,
[SPEAKER_02]: don't really have a feeling other than Shun's not losing his mask.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything else I feel like is at play.
[SPEAKER_02]: At this point, with nothing feeling a lot like a good strong long term direction.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like before all of this, I thought Kato was getting his hair cut or Shimizu maybe had to get his hair cut as like a punishment dating back to last year for whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like all of that was, but now no idea other than Shun's not losing his mask.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really like the opening match on this show as well, Tanaka Nio Shiro covers his Aki and UT, it's just a style of wrestling that I really enjoy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm quite all right, this was actually a cage ranch has a list of Aki and UT, but this was Aki and Gucci was it not?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Aki and Gucci and Aki like taking a heat for this match was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Gucci is is for me now I shoe in for 30 under 30 this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's absolutely incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been one of my favorite wrestlers to watch in 2026.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought he and Tanaka had some blind chemistry in this match as Tanaka continues to rack up these brave gate defenses.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand why UT is getting the match and I HE I wish it was drinking kid.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm okay with a rematch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I I really hope before this rain is over that we get
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, and especially now a brave gate match for Gucci where he is not like coming in as like the loser who's just wants the brave gate back But like as a legit performer, I feel like is a it is an interesting match potentially on offer should we look at this cork and come up on Monday.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, let's do it
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, we talked a little bit around this show.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're opening with real Yoth knockovers as much as you can.
[SPEAKER_02]: Junior, match to Kazuma Komora and Jiro Shimbashi tagging.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I guess we get the class of 2025 out there together versus Jason Lee and Eshen, Ultimo, Monte and Punch versus Toro Washi, Takashi and Mondai Ryu.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yamato, Dragon Kid, BB, Hulk, and Doy vs. Strong Machine J, Kazy, Gucci, and Oki.
[SPEAKER_02]: Match 5, Hamari and LCLO vs. Menoran, Kato.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so this is the way that we get to match six is the way that we get to my idea of Jackie Rita holding three sets of tag belts because it's a twin-gate, sorio tag, and all Asia tag prelude
[SPEAKER_02]: Jackie Kamay and Rita, the twin gate champions versus the so here tag team champions, uh, the original gem is the all Asia tag team champions, Mochi Fuji versus the, uh, challengers in Fukuoka coming up in, I think, two weeks, uh, Ginki Hora Guji Azushi kind, uh,
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of my main event is that 10th anniversary of the class of 2016's debut, students, guy walker and bankavers is Yo, and Yukio Shio, and the main event, the open-the-dream gate title, made at the impromptu battle royal on the Gajidoker approach show Madoka Kakuta versus Kai.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have three thoughts on this card.
[SPEAKER_00]: One, I think this is,
[SPEAKER_00]: the coldest dreamgate match since maybe Yoshida vs. Kai in 2022.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying it's gonna be bad, but I'm certainly not looking forward to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the flip side, I think the class of 2016 tag match is the most excited I've been about a match on paper and drink it this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am very excited for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mike, I'm gonna say some words that I've never ever said before, but as I look at this four-way tag match with Kameh Rita, so sumo Kagatora, Mochi Fuji,
[SPEAKER_00]: Ganky who are Gucci can fuck off.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, he's one of my favorite wrestlers ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot deal with him having serious matches in 2026.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought they were stretching it with that brave gate match, but for them to come back around and now have him in an all-age attack match, look at all Japan belts to undercarthig and during eight, ultimately who cares, I can't fucking deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: with more hobbled broken Genki Horaguchi wrestling actually important matches that is the type of thing that in this company in 2018 when they were at their lowest we were getting a lot of big yosushi condom matches and big punch tabanaga matches and big cyber cog matches that is the sort of thing that I cannot stand in this promotion and Horaguchi has become the poster child for
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're going to get Horiguchi getting his knee worked versus Don Fuji who has had his career being based on his knee getting worked in Fuquaoka.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really I'm really sour on the presence of Genki and Connor right now and it's going to bleed in the mochi and Fuji before long.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it's also so much of a West Japan play to like, it's in Fukuoka.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Ginki Horguchi has to have something to do, I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't feel it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not into it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not here yet, but you said three things, but I think you got off on a tangent.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, I dreamgate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not excited for 2016 class.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm really excited for and Ginki Horguchi as of right now can fuck off.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, thank you for not three.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought that was a tangent, but it was not I'm interested to see more serious Jim Giro.
[SPEAKER_02]: I largely agree for what you said about those three big points, but
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm really ready for Jiro to be doing serious things on because the match against Heo on Kobe was just took forever and it was just all it was all character work which I like but I was just I want to see more of this guy doing more things and hopefully being in this kind of context.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think this is actually his first tag match on TV too.
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
[SPEAKER_00]: That'll be fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's become somebody that I, I enjoy it small doses.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found the Heo match on Kobe to be about five minutes too long for a 10 minute match, but I make here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm curious to see what he does on the show.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hear you on that and we'll be back next week to talk all about that case.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's everything we have on at least on my point list about diet, any of the last thoughts?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I do not have any.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, you can follow us on social media at Open Voice Gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's both Twitter and Blue Sky cases that underscore on your, in your case, on Twitter.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm at Fuji hay at there as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: The voices of wrestling discord were we posts all about open the voice gate in the Open the Voice Gate channel.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's where we'll have match listings for our historical and those days content whenever we have schedule updates.
[SPEAKER_02]: We post those as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: as well as the discord having a dragon gate channel a lot of discussion in there of course today with the news about dia but that's going to do it for us this week.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll be back with you next time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Take care everyone.