The Open the Triangle Gate Championship is the symbol of unit supremacy within Dragon Gate. Its lineage goes back to the UWA World Trios Championship when it belonged to Toryumon. This battle for the titles, however, is not taking place in a Dragon Gate ring. Instead, it will be at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Star Navigation 2022 in Korakuen Hall. Following the last defense of Perros Del Mal De Japon in Dragon Gate on a house show, NOSAWA Rongai called out YAMATO; ‘The Almighty’ wasn’t one to back down from the challenge, nominating the HIGH-END veteran force of himself, Dragon Kid, and Kagetora as the next challengers.
Perros demanded that this take place at a NOAH event. While Eita is a Dragon Gate wrestler, Perros Del Mal De Japon was a unit built from Perros Del Mal in Mexico and then brought to NOAH by NOSAWA. After some hot potatoing of the belts in NOAH, HIGH-END want to bring the titles back to the unit warfare one Dragon Gate. They’ve even gone as far as to say they’re the most important belts in Dragon Gate since they control the landscape. Thus, it’s a belt that’s very important to them.
📣 COMING UP NEXT: 21 July @ Korakuen 🔥
🟢 STAR NAVIGATION 2022
🗓 Thursday
🛎 18:30 🇯🇵
📺 ABEMA👑 Open The Triangle Gate Championships@Eita_Luchador @suzuki_kotaro_ @NOSAWARONGAI187 (c)
🆚@Dragon_Kid_0202 @yamato_oldtype @kagetora_dge (HIGH-END)#noah_ghc#DRAGONGATE pic.twitter.com/0jfYyOZ0ff— Pro Wrestling NOAH Global (@noahglobal) July 18, 2022
Perros Del Mal De Japon vs HIGH-END – What to Know
If HIGH-END Loses, Destruction May Follow
YAMATO acted quickly as the leader of the unit to roll with the veterans of the group. One person who took exception to this was Ben-K, someone who’s a former Open the Dream Gate Champion as well as the unit’s youngest member at 30. After a string of wins, he kept asking and pleading with YAMATO to let him replace either Dragon Kid or Kagetora, despite both having wins over Eita in singles action. YAMATO told him he understood his frustration, but he should leave it to the veterans. Since the first time he asked to be a replacement, Ben-K began acting super cocky to show he’s still at that top level.
Although, after his and YAMATO’s loss to NOSAWA and Eita, it looks like he’s come to terms with the veterans going to war. Yet, this isn’t very convincing in hindsight. Dragon Gate isn’t afraid to end units a year in, it has happened with Masquerade. HIGH-END hasn’t even duplicated the fire that unit had. They’ve failed to accomplish anything together as a unit. They haven’t been a very successful group, and Ben-K could be primed to get back into the upper tier of Dragon Gate. A HIGH-END loss here could set them on a path of self-destruction, or at the very least Ben-K pulling an “I told you so,” eventually leaving the unit. Much is riding on this match as the winner walks into Kobe World as the defending champions.
Prediction
Using some twisted logic that could be wrong in the end. YAMATO, DK, and Kagetora all have matches on one night of Kobe World. Assuming they follow the blueprint of last year where titles are defended across both night it seems like a no-brainer to have Perros retain against HIGH-END. Plus, all of the Perros Triangle Gate matches have been good. The Natural Vibes one, in particular, is great, with some fantastic action between U-T and Kotaro Suzuki to be seen. They’re also massively popular, so it makes sense for them to walk into the big show as the champions. Plus, it’s believed those belts are being saved for three Mochizuki’s.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. Looking to watch Dragon Gate? All their live shows will be on their steaming service Dragon Gate Network.
