[5.0] "DG remains at the same mostly mediocre level with its major shows, even while some seemingly good things are bubbling up. Hyo vs Ryoya was a nice high-flying sprint, with good chemistry throughout all their slick and fast-paced trades. It was quite surprising but very welcomed to see Ryoya get the win. **3/4. The Z-Brats vs Mochizuki Dojo 6-man was an even quicker match, but more of an angel to play up Valetta's dominance, which it was effective at. Too short; no rating. The 10-man tag was very much just a 'best of' showing from everyone as they all took turns cycling in and out. The work was still good all around, but with typically very mindless focus on action above all. **1/2. The Paradox vs Natural Vibes Triangle Gate match was good. It was a pretty standard 50/50 match, with all 6 guys initially showing off, then both teams trading beatdown segments, and then moving into the bigger and more rapid trades. Everyone was good here, but special shoutout goes to Hulk for his impressive bumping and Flamita for his firecracker high-flying. They had good escalation of their action and near falls, especially as the creative tag sequences and spots came out. ***1/4. U-T vs Homare was MOTN and one of the best DG matches of the year thus far. The intensity never let up as U-T struggled to finally to win his first ever singles title, and in his hometown no less, against the dastardly and aggressive Homare. U-T sold well for Homare's beatdown work and showed really good fire and slickness in his comebacks, while Homare was really impressive with his athletic and explosive offence. The match became very exciting as they brought out their rapid near-fall trades and run-on counters, and the crowd pop for U-T's win was great. ***1/2. Yamato vs Jason was decent but disappointing. The only thing truly interesting here was Yamato bringing back his old heel look and tactics to try match Jason's intensity and aggression. Unfortunately, the action itself was far more restrained and generic than it should've been, and the whole structure was very predictable. Yamato briefly targeting the leg was cool, but Jason never bothered meaningfully selling it. Even the big ref bump and Jason's mist spot felt really inconsequential because Yamato not only very easily weathered and countered it, but was ultimately very dominant as he won. ***. The 6-way survival cage match was decent but definitely one of the less creative and ultimately weaker ones I've seen from DG. It was 3-vs-3 on the surface, but obviously there was the question of Kikuta's loyalty coming in, given the tension between him and Yoshioka. The action was standard cage brawling, limited wrestling exchanges, and then standard flag-grab attempts and wacky outside unit interference. Kikuta was the star of the match, from his spotlight offence to his rallying with Yoshioka and Dia. That's what made his 'shocking' turn on Yoshioka all the more confusing, because he'd spent so much time destroying Shun and Z-Brats only to eventually join them. There were definitely far more convincing 'dastardly' and 'shocking' ways to do such a betrayal-type turn, because that was classic dumb wrestling. ***. Kikuta turning heel and hopefully getting a major singles push again is definitely something I can get behind at least."

[8.0] "It took a very long time to set up the cage for the main event. You can fast-forward if you watch it on-demand but on live-stream it was painstaking. If they can't find a better way to do this, I would hope that they would stop having cage matches. Th main event was disappointing anyway thanks to Shun's nonsense, but the rest of the add was good, from the pre-show to every championship and setting up for Natural Vibes vs. GOLD Class in a couple days."

[8.0] "A very solid show. From the opener, that had Ryoya Tanaka beating Hyo, to the multi-man tags before the title matches. The Open The Triangle Gate match, which had Natural Vibes winning the titles, had an emotional Strong Machine J after the match, and on the topic of emotions, U-T was able to complete his dream and win the Open the Brave Gate Title, in my personal match of the night, against Homare, who is shaping up to have on hell of a rookie year. Following that, the Open the Dream Gate title was defended and retained as Yamato was able to get the victory over Jason Lee in this defense. Had Jason Lee won this match, he would've been the first wrestler from Hong Kong to win a major Japanese title. For the main event, I thought Ishin was going to be the one to lose, so when he was the first one out I was shocked. Madoka Kikuta betraying D'courage was also shocking to me. I had thought it would be the time we would see Shun Skywalker get his comeuppance, but that was not the case. The final shots of Kikuta forcing Dragon Dia to use his injured arm to shave Yuki Yoshioka's head, Shun laughing at what is left of D'Courage, and the shot of all the members of Z-Brats is something I will keep thinking about as the year progresses. Solid show if this is the last Dead or Alive that will be happening for a while."

[7.0] "I thought this show was pretty decent but no individual match was remarkably good. The last four matches were all solid and the cage match provided some spectacle."

[7.0] "Overall Dead or Alive 2025 definitely had a big show feel with a large crowd on hand for the final show in the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. The singles action was very good as usual, Dragongate builds so well to singles action by keeping it tags and sambos in their weekly shows and I was highly anticipating this show for that reason. The Triangle Gate match was a great end but not a particularly noteworthy match for me. The cage final was a sloppy cage fest, but was entertaining enough. It was always going to be Shun, Kikuta and Yoki at the end of the match, but the finish was still enough of suprise to enjoy."

[8.0] "It was a good Dragon Gate show. Very happy to see over 4, 000 people come to watch. I hope it continues like this."