Dead or Alive is DRAGONGATE’s second biggest show of the year and marks the start of their hottest season as they go into Kobe World. The usual hallmark of the event is a wacky and wild cage match, and while there isn’t one happening this year, there’s still a very fun card coming up on May 5. A long-awaited return from injury, a couple of additions from Pro Wrestling NOAH and a Dream Gate main event two years in the making are on the schedule, so let’s have a look at what Dead or Alive 2023 has in store for us!
U-T Comeback Match: U-T & Jacky ‘Funky’ Kamei vs Kagetora & Kaito Nagano
U-T has not wrestled since the end of last year, due to being diagnosed with a torn MCL. Now, after 5 months of recovery, he returns in front of his hometown crowd in Nagoya. Teaming with Natural Vibes stablemate Jacky ‘Funky’ Kamei, U-T looks to kick off his comeback with a win against Kagetora and young rookie Kaito Nagano.
There are a couple of fun pairings in this match. U-T and Kagetora showed quite a lot of chemistry together in their King of Gate match last year. In addition, Jacky and Nagano had some fantastic chemistry in their mini storyline during DRAGONGATE’s Rey de Parejas Tournament earlier in the year. Kagetora and Nagano have also teamed on and off the past couple of months and should work well together here.
For those who may not have seen him work, keep your eyes on Nagano! He debuted in August last year and is already finding his footing as an innovative high flier. He is bound to be a highlight of this match! There should be big Brave Gate implications in this match too, since all four of these men are potential contenders to the championship. Whoever wins out of Jason Lee vs Dragon Dia should watch their back for whichever team wins this!
PREDICTION: U-T & Jacky ‘Funky’ Kamei
M3K vs Don Fujii, Takashi Yoshida, Problem Dragon & Minorita
While this is a general undercard eight-man tag, there are a few relationships in here that DRAGONGATE has been exploring. All of these involve early Rookie of the Year contender Mochizuki Junior. M3K has been going through some turmoil recently, due to the disagreements between Junior and his father, Masaaki Mochizuki. Additionally, in the past month, they have lost two opportunities at titles. M3K lost a chance at the Triangle Gate and Mochizuki Junior lost an opportunity at the Brave Gate Championship.
Minorita was the previous Open the Brave Gate Champion, who lost his title in his first defense to Jason Lee. Since then, he’s developed a rather sulky attitude and even tried to steal Lee’s title in order to guarantee a rematch (before stablemate Ben-K amusingly dragged him to the ring and forced him to apologize). This led him to become antagonistic towards Junior. After he proclaimed his challenge to Lee, Minorita attempted to undermine him, stating that he wasn’t within the weight limit for the championship. These two should have some fun moments here.
Perhaps the most intriguing at present is the feud between Don Fujii and Mochizuki Junior. Known hater of rookies and long-time tag team partner of Masaaki Mochizuki, Fujii has been antagonizing Junior and his fellow Future Class rookies as of late. He was the debut opponent for the latest rookie Daiki Yanagiuchi and Fujii roughed up both him and Yoshiki Kato during recent matches. Junior will be looking for some payback for sure!
PREDICTION: M3K (Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda & Mochizuki Junior)
Open the Brave Gate Championship: Jason Lee (c) vs Dragon Dia
Last month at Champion Gate, Jason Lee finally won his first singles title in DRAGONGATE when he defeated Minorita for the Open the Brave Gate Championship, a title he has wanted since he first stepped foot in the promotion. Lee aims to make a new record of defenses in his run (the current record is held by PAC at 11 defenses) and his first opponent is Dragon Dia. Member of popular babyface trio D’Courage, Dia has had a number of breakout performances over the last year. Dia is also a former Brave Gate Champion in his own right.
Lee originally handpicked Dia as his first opponent at Gate of Passion. However, Lee’s partner, Jacky ‘Funky’ Kamei, protested this decision since he had just pinned Dia in a tag match. Minorita also showed up, dragged by Ben-K to return Lee’s championship that he had stolen, and also laid his claim to a rematch. Then, later on, Mochizuki Junior tried his hand at going for his first career singles title. With such a competitive field, a four-way match was made, with Dia coming out the victor.
Lee aims to make the Brave Gate Championship as big as the Dream Gate Championship and this match could steal the show in Nagoya! If you’re a fan of high-speed wrestling, this will definitely be your cup of tea.
Interested in learning more about Jason Lee? Check out the Five Star Network’s interview with him!
PREDICTION: Jason Lee
Ultimo Dragon & Naruki Doi vs Diamante & H.Y.O
Diamante and Ultimo Dragon are back in the same orbit again and I am pretty happy about that!
Diamante has not had the best luck so far this year. First picking up a minor knee injury, he returned a month later and almost immediately got put on the shelf again after dislocating his elbow at the Muto Final Show. Seemingly having John Cena/Rey Fenix levels of injury recovery, however, he is back and ready to go. Diamante returned at Gate of Passion earlier this month and was added to an impromptu trios match. The match ended when he unmasked Ultimo Dragon. These two previously crossed paths in 2021, when Diamante challenged Ultimo Dragon to a Mask vs Mask match. Ultimo passed that challenge down to tribute act Bokultimo Dragon, the artist now known as Big Boss Shimizu. One of the best bases on the planet, Diamante will be looking to come back strong here with partner H.Y.O.
Though he may not be in the conversation story-wise, the addition of Naruki Doi to this match is great. Since going freelance, Doi has won the AJPW Junior Heavyweight Championship (which he still holds) and the DDT Universal Championship. He is currently competing in the AJPW Junior Tag Battle of Glory and is set to compete in King of DDT next month. Long story short: Naruki Doi has been a very busy man and wrestling some very good matches at that!
With a singles feud between Ultimo and Diamante potentially on the book for Kobe, the winner of this one will be interesting!
PREDICTION: Ultimo Dragon & Naruki Doi
Open the Triangle Gate Championship: Gold Class (c) vs Natural Vibes
Gold Class has held the Open the Triangle Gate Championships since the beginning of the year when BxB Hulk defected from Z-Brats to join the stable. The group itself has had a pretty good year so far. Hulk and Kota Minoura had a solid run in Rey de Parejas. Minoura produced a fantastic match with Madoka Kikuta for #1 contendership for the Dream Gate Championship (more on that later!).
Their challengers are the particularly strong Natural Vibes team of Kzy, Big Boss Shimizu, and Strong Machine J. Kzy and Shimizu spent a lot of the year as the Open the Twin Gate Champions before losing the belts to Kenoh and Shuji Kondo. Strong Machine J was Shun Skywalker’s first Dream Gate challenger at Champion Gate. He has also been putting forward some very good performances this year so far. Natural Vibes beat the M3K team of Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki, and Yasushi Kanda to qualify for the title match.
Gold Class vs D’Courage might be a potential feud for Kobe World, since D’Courage only need the Triangle to complete a stable Grand Slam. However, if Kikuta wins the Dream Gate, this might not happen, so either team winning is really possible.
PREDICTION: Gold Class (Kota Minoura, BxB Hulk & Ben-K)
YAMATO & Yuki Yoshioka vs Dragon Kid & Naomichi Marufuji
The first of the NOAH guests competing at Dead or Alive, Naomichi Marufuji returns to DRAGONGATE for the first time since April 2020. He teams with Dragon Kid against YAMATO and previous Open the Dream Gate Champion Yuki Yoshioka. Yoshioka and YAMATO wrestled each other for the Dream Gate last year.
Interestingly, while he hasn’t competed in DRAGONGATE for a few years, Marufuji did wrestle Shun Skywalker, KAI, and Diamante this year at Keiji Muto’s retirement show. He had quite the comical exchange with Skywalker in particular at the press conference, feigning falling asleep whilst Shun was talking about his opponents (among other tidbits like being related to a famous Muto impersonator). Marufuji also expressed interest in going after the Dream Gate championship, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
Another interesting facet of this tag match is the unitless status of YAMATO and Dragon Kid. YAMATO expressed interest in remaining outside of the unit sphere for a while, but Dragon Kid is different. In fact, after teaming with Dragon Dia during the Rey de Parejas tournament, many thought Kid might join D’Courage. Dragon Kid and D’Courage member Yoshioka facing off might bring that possibility back. If Kid does end up joining the group, he would undoubtedly be a fantastic addition.
PREDICTION: Naomichi Marufuji & Dragon Kid
Open the Twin Gate Championship: Kenoh & Shuji Kondo (c) vs KAI & ISHIN
New Open the Twin Gate Champions Kenoh and Shuji Kondo make their first defense against Z-Brats members KAI and ISHIN. Two-thirds of the previous Triangle Gate champions, KAI and ISHIN have demonstrated good teamwork since ISHIN made the jump to Z-Brats.
Kenoh, in my opinion, has been one of the most fun wrestlers to watch this year. He’s certainly my NOAH wrestler of the year. He has put on fantastic matches in his home promotion this year, as well as winning AJPW’s Tag Team Championships with Manabu Soya. Shuji Kondo, a DRAGONGATE regular, is also a great wrestler in his own right.
The prospect of Kenoh wrestling at Kobe World is an exciting one. Should Skywalker lose the Dream Gate, Skywalker and Diamante on the card as a team a year after their classic with Kung Fu Masters would be a fun time. Regardless, if Kenoh is sticking around for a bit, expect the NOAH-adjacent team to win their first defense.
PREDICTION: KONGO (Kenoh & Shuji Kondo)
Open the Dream Gate Championship: Shun Skywalker (c) vs Madoka Kikuta
Two years ago, at Dead or Alive 2021, the then HipHop Kikuta challenged Shun Skywalker for the Dream Gate Championship. Less than five minutes into the match, Kikuta injured his shoulder and the match abruptly ended. Kikuta would spend nearly a year on the shelf before returning to DRAGONGATE.
Kikuta struggled to find his footing at first when he returned in 2022. A lot can happen in a year in DRAGONGATE and virtually the entire unit scene had been restructured. He eventually found himself in an assistant-type role for Yoshioka and Dia, before joining D’Courage officially. This led to his first title, the Twin Gate Championship, and later his breakout moment against former DRAGONGATE wrestler Shingo Takagi on Christmas Day last year. Many would consider this the moment when a switch flipped in Kikuta, so to speak.
Since facing Takagi, Madoka Kikuta has been on a hot streak. He had a standout performance in Rey de Parejas and had a fantastic #1 contender match with Minoura earlier this month. After winning that match, Skywalker took to the ring and taunted Kikuta over his injury from two years prior. Skywalker would then test Kikuta in matches dubbed the “SSW Quests.” The first was a three-on-one handicap match against Skywalker, H.Y.O, and Diamante. The second match was against stablemates Yoshioka and Dia, before special referee H.Y.O got involved and the match evolved into a full-on unit vs unit battle. Whether there will be a third quest before Dead or Alive is yet to be seen.
Kikuta’s shoulder is already taped up, which will be a weak spot for Skywalker to target. Otherwise, these two have been pretty electric together in these preview tags. That hard-hitting work should translate in their title match. Kikuta will have the crowd behind him and, with the amount of momentum he has, he could absolutely come away with the championship. Whatever the company has planned for Kobe World will dictate who wins here and I think there are more options for Skywalker as champion.
PREDICTION: Shun Skywalker
WHERE TO WATCH: DRAGONGATE Network
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