Dragon Gate: Gate of Destiny 2017 Predictions

It’s prediction time again! November 3^rd sees Dragon Gate, the number two wrestling promotion in Japan (just behind New Japan Pro Wrestling) putting on their Gate of Destiny 2017 event. It’s a strong looking card once you hit the first title match, and I expect a lot of good things! The question is, can I predict the winners? Let’s find out …

 

PRE-SHOW
SHUN SKYWALKER VS. HYO WATANABE

The DG rookies go one on one in the pre-show. This’ll likely be a five-minute time limit draw. While I’d like to see them get a bit more of a chance to shine, I can’t see it going any other way.

 

GAMMA, MONDAI RYU, KAITO ISHIDA, JASON LEE VS. K-NESS, SHACHIHOKO BOY, YOSUKE♡SANTA MARIA, MISTERIOSO

An atypical Dragon Gate random tag. As much as I love Yosuke♡Santa Maria, this is not a match that she’s going to win. Honestly, she’s not winning much at all at the minute, and that really sucks. The big thing here though is the return of Mondai Ryu in a babyface role, and that’s what’ll be pivotal in my eyes. I see Gamma, Mondai Ryu, Kaito Ishida & Jason Lee winning something short and inoffensive.

 

DON FUJII, RYO SAITO, U-T VS. VERSERK (T-HAWK, YASUSHI KANDA, PUNCH TOMINAGA)

This could go either way, really. In a way, it’s an odd position for T-Hawk, as he was looking set to be a top guy for a while. With Kanda back as a heel too though, Verserk should take the win.

 

OPEN THE BRAVE GATE CHAMPIONSHIP:
KAGETORA © VS. GENKI HORIGUCHI

The dissolution of the Jimmyz stable left a lot of good workers without a group to call home. As a result, we now have the secondary singles title being contested between two stableless workers. Horiguchi has a long history with the Brave Gate, but I do think that there’s still some milage in Kagetora. This will be a great match though, with Kagetora retaining.

 

SPECIAL SINGLES MATCH:
EITA VS. RICOCHET

Ricochet is doing his farewell tour before he starts at NXT. With the exception of Neville, DG tends to have people lose on their way out and I see no reason that this will go any other way. Eita should pick up the win in a really good match.

 

OPEN THE TWIN GATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
CK-1 © (CIMA, DRAGON KID) VS. BIG BEN (BIG R SHIMIZU, BEN-K)

The veteran champs are now almost a year into their reign. Honestly, every time it looks like they’ll be dropping the belts, they manage to cling onto them, but this really seems like a prime opportunity for them to elevate some of the new breed of DG. I’m not certain that I’m right here, but I’m gonna go with Big Ben scoring the upset.

 

OPEN THE TRIANGLE GATE 3 WAY CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: VERSERK © (SHINGO TAKAGI, TAKASHI YOSHIDA, EL LINDAMAN) VS. TRIBE VANGUARD (YAMATO, BXB HULK, KZY) VS. MAXIMUM (NARUKI DOI, MASATO YOSHINO, KOTOKA)

A staple match type in Dragon Gate, the 3-Way elimination match has been given a break through 2017. Looking at the names involved though, this is a great match to use to reintroduce the format. This one will be a must-see example of how these matches look in Dragon Gate, and I expect a title change to take place. The time has come for MaxiMuM to take the gold.

 

OPEN THE DREAM GATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI © VS. SUSUMU YOKOSUKA

Former Jimmyz leader Susumu Yokosuka has been a favourite of mine, going right back to when I saw him wrestling as Susumu Mochizuki in DG’s predecessor, Toryumon. While not related, these two have been linked to together as allies and rivals from the get go. As much as I want to see Susumu get the title again, he won’t. Masaaki Mochizuki, at 47 years of age, is having one of the best years of his career – and he’s had some great ones before now – and I don’t see his title reign coming to a close so soon. These two should go for over thirty minutes, put on the match of the night, and end the show with the champ retaining.

 

So, there we have it. Let’s see if my Dragon Gate predictions do any better than my WWE ones.