[2019-08-24-Dragon Gate-Dangerous Gate] Ben-K vs YAMATO

Review courtesy of Makai Club #1 (some sort of glitch meant that this thread wasn't working)

After Ben-K got crowned Dream Gate champion last month and is now considered ace of Dragon Gate, it was only right to face the former Ace in YAMATO. Joint top record holder with Masaaki Mochizuki with four title reigns spanning 656 days in total. One of the most successful wrestlers of the promotion. And big-time rival, mainly as tag opponents for when Ben-K teamed with Big R. Last time they faced each other was the opening day of the King of Gate tournament with Ben-K actually winning. So YAMATO has something to prove here as well. 

Heated start to the match. Some good mat exchanges to open with Ben-K shooting in, YAMATO, with his MMA background, being able to block it and transitioning from his back to a keylock. YAMATO had a great grin when he bested Ben-K afterwards. Ben-K did some damage to the ribs, setting it up for the spear later in the match, once given the chance and works on it nicely with a shoulder breaker and a tight waist lock. There are some great transitions of control really early in the match, like YAMATO catching Ben-K with a guillotine choke when Ben-K tried to hit a spear on the apron which was followed up by a brutal suplex on the apron (with Ben-K landing on the corner). Which also lead to YAMATO working on the neck for some time of the match. Ben-K was much more expressive in this match than he has been before. He was pretty much a “grunt” before but he added tons more facial expressions to his game and played to the crowd more. After Ben-K hit an awesome looking spear through the ropes with YAMATO on the apron and regained control for a while, he played to the crowd to get them on his side more. I thought the match as a whole was built really well. The start of the match wasn’t slow but it tease a few big moments that’ll come later in the match (like the spear on the apron), set up the work on the ribs (by Ben-K) and the neck (By YAMATO) then as the match grew into itself, the heavy offence started to come out with awesome counters like YAMATO catching Ben-K in motion with a frankensteiner into a triangle choke and some really great strikes which you don’t really expect from Dragon Gate matches. And a simple yet really good closing stretch with a KO tease followed up by Ben-K killing YAMATO with each thing he has until he got the win. A heck of a match. It was able to make both guys looked great, YAMATO in defeat especially. Ben-K got the big win and looked great doing it. The struggles for control were well done, they didn’t go over the top with much and had a few nice wrinkles like good striking and mat work opposed to the bomb-heavy style that big-time DG matches can have. ****1/2