In the interests of not making this an extended Gedo circle-jerk I want to point to the Dragon Gate booking committee (it's probably Genki Horiguchi but my info is old on that) having an extraordinary three years.
Not too long ago, Dragon Gate tried one last time to force T-Hawk to the main event, after 2 other pushes that ultimately ended in failure. T-Hawk was setup as both a face and heel, and the crowd never took to him as an "ace" in either capacity. He was young, attractive, solid in ring, had sort of led his own unit (a big deal in DG) already and was very popular as a tag wrestler with Eita. But the over-push destroyed him. He never was able to string together enough high level singles performances to win over the crowd. The DG audience is notoriously fickle when it comes to young singles guys being put in the main event (they've had many, many failed aces in this mold). T-Hawk arguably got the most important non-title (and probably more important than any title) achievement in all of Dragon Gate to try and legitimize him - he was ultimately responsible for the disbanding of the Jimmyz, a unit that was together for 7, yes 7 years and was still very, very popular. This is "Brock beating Taker" level (not so much in the shock column more in the legacy column).
Anyway, T-Hawk wins the DG equivalent of the G-1, goes to the main event of the biggest show of the year, fails to garner any fan support at all, eats shit and loses to YAMATO. Push over, and now there isn't really anyone to pick up the mantle of "next big thing". Yoshino, DG's John Cena is clearly being setup for another run in an organic manner, because they are good at booking. But YAMATO holds onto the title for a long time. And then immediately after that biggest show of the year, Tozawa leaves. Remember when I said "next big thing". That was Tozawa. Extremely popular, but never held the big singles title. His departure cast a shadow over YAMATO's title reign and well, a lot of stuff happened after that.
- CK1, CIMA and Dragon Kid (CIMA is THE MAN more so than even Yoshino, he was Mr. Dragon Gate) had a record breaking tag title run that culminated in T-Hawk and Eita winning the belts together. Great right?
- CIMA, T-Hawk, Lindaman and a top future prospect Yamamura all leave to form STRONGHEARTS. There were questions that DG would even be able to survive this business wise. Booking wise it blew a gigantic hole in basically every single title scene and wiped out years of story.
- But Yoshino was right there to pick it up, right? John Cena with an organic build to save the company again after the traitor CIMA leaves. How about a presumed career ending neck injury instead?
- And who was on the other side of that terrifying incident? Shingo Takagi, another failed ace, the oppressive lead heel for the entire promotion for multiple years, HHH tier tyranny (with much, much better matches). Surely he could step up? Wrong. Put in a disaster of a long term, comedy (yes, a long term COMEDY feud with shingo takagi) agains Ryo Saito, murdering his heat and keeping him busy. And then he uh, leaves.
- Eita, T-Hawks partner, his Dean Ambrose to his Roman Reigns is thrust into the lead heel role. He's not ready, he gets lazy, his character isn't great, he has a never ending not good feud with Dragon Kid, he gets kinda fat. He's out for taking the top spot.
So we have nearly a year with YAMATO on top, presiding over a company in stasis, with young talent that's too fresh to do anything and everyone else is either hurt, or without momentum. It was looking *really* bad.
- Yoshino came back. A wrestling miracle. He should have retired (and is in fact, retiring this year due to that injury).
- Maasaki Mochizuki, maybe the most consistent wrestler on the planet at age old man, goes on a fantastic title run that re-invigorates the main event scene and gives the crowd something to feel good about. What's better than Dragon Gate's dad that everyone likes kicking people really hard and winning?
- Yoshino beats Mochi to complete his unbelievable comeback. People cry. John Cena at the 2007 Rumble type stuff, minus the backlash afterwards. We love it.
- KZY takes a huge step by getting his own, reggae themed, trance dancing unit and kills it in singles matches.
- Some young jacked dude called Ben-K starts spearing people and looks incredible for being in the bizness for a year.
- PAC comes back as a dastardly heel and starts a title reign that is so perfectly constructed it's a work of art, including a never before done and never since repeated (THEY DIDN'T RUN IT INTO THE GROUND!!) attacking his challenger during the Japanese national anthem.
- He hands off the title to Ben-K after having beaten a collection of DG's most beloved babyfaces. This is where it usually falls apart from DG - the crowd has a very strong record of rejecting this sort of thing. But they don't. Ben-K, at long last, after T-Hawk, after Shingo, after Doi, and many others, is finally a new generation ace for the promotion, instead of late 30s dude who has been there since the start.
But it's not that simple. Ultimo Dragon, the original founder of Dragon Gate (it's complicated), who trained the original class of stars and then split off like 3 times (it's complicated) and was politically persona non grata comes back. It was looking like a CM Punk title reign level derail (or uh, the Benoit WC run D:) with some old timer taking all the attention away from the main event. It kinda ended up working that way - for a bit. Ben-K ran through some big names, proving that he was a legitimate main eventer and not a flash in the pan they'd move off ASAP. But Ultimo was in all the main events. The biggest show of the year was revolving around him. Everything after it seemed to as well - clogging the top of the card with old-ass nostalgia acts that couldn't go, brother.
Remember all those failed babyfaces I was talking about? Naruki Doi was one of them. Pushed too hard, too fast. Not much of a character beyond "I'm a good guy, I'm going to try my best!". He's Naito - if Naito had been left out in the cold even longer, jobbed out in way more big singles title shots, and kind of relegated to a Goto esque role. Now, he had a big run as a heel but when he turned babyface the crowd *loved* him. He kept his edge, he'd found his voice on promos, his Doi Darts gimmick match is a yearly highlight, he's really good at wrestling and very handsome. He was the perfect blend of the guy that everyone likes, that everyone feels like deserves a shot at the main event, that is a viable main event attraction and that can put on matches that would be up to standard. When you think about guys in that vein, they generally don't tick all those boxes.
Doi-chan as champ ensures that people still care because everyone, especially the female portion of the audience LOVE him. Even in this new year, when it's essentially team Ultimo vs all the heels, Doi is keeping the title relevant.
So that's a fucking ton of words to poorly explain that Dragon Gate booking got themselves out of a horrific series of events, with big stars leaving, being injured and more to return the business to success and get the wrasslin back to that uber high standard for Dragon Gate.
