[5.0] "This would've been an alright show if the first half wasn't so underwhelming, since only the final 3 matches are worthwhile, and not to any super impressive extent. Kzy & U-T vs Ben-K & Mochizuki Jr. was fine for its time. It was pretty damn loaded for an opener, given it had arguably 3 of DG's top 10 guys. It was the standard showcase affair, with no time for story and only a focus on quick tags and highlight work. A shame it was over so quickly. What a waste of talent. Too short; no rating. The 10-man tag was yet another highlights showcase, only longer, less polished, and with a lot more lightheartedness. No-one got enough time to properly show off anything, with everyone instead being very below average. **. Yoshida vs Kikutaro was awful. Yoshida's new 'drag' gimmick is way too embarrassing to enjoy in any way. It's essentially just a far less creative and far more annoying version of Danshoku Dino. Every single "comedy" spot was quarter-baked, with bad timing and predictable punchlines. The in-ring work itself was terrible, too. I guess the one silver lining is it wasn't a match trying to be 'good', but it still absolutely sucked. 1/4*. The Z-Brats-vs-Mochizuki-Dojo 6-man captain tag was okay, but suffered from the stipulation and short length. It started with decent Z-Brats beatdown work and was followed up with a fun Mochizuki Dojo comeback. It's a shame DG never lets any sequence just 'sit', since extended versions of these would've made the more action-packed work that followed feel more important. Instead, the match just quickly rushed into heaps of trades and lots of annoyingly convenient falls. At least there was very good energy and good technique all around. **3/4. Tanaka vs Kai was the designated gimmick match of the evening, and it was pretty mindless but still okay. They immediately jumped into all the various weapon and prop spots, almost all of which were pretty generic and occasionally with some pretty convenient set-ups, but I still had respect for the extent of the punishment they still put themselves through. I do wish they'd tried to be more creative, but I get that that's difficult in 2025. **1/2. Hulk, Kagetora & Susumu vs Dia, Kikuta & Ryoya was the first truly good match of the show. The Paradox guys are obviously a lot slower than they were even 10 years ago, but that's only really obvious because of how speedy and explosive the D'Courage guys are. I liked the idea of Paradox thus trying to grind their younger and more athletic opponents down so as to neutralise their energy, which allowed D'Courage to be sympathetic when selling and compelling in their comebacks. They eventually developed into their fun and fast-paced trades, with some notably creative tag offence from Paradox and some pretty cool final trades between Susumu and Kikuta. Even Hulk actually impressed me with how relatively athletic he was here. ***1/4. Jason & Minoura vs Kamei & Riiita was pretty easily MOTN for me. It was very action-packed right away, with an exciting babyface shine segment to start and some fun heel-beatdown work (and corresponding sympathetic babyface-selling) in response. Like always with DG, though, the respective segments were never long enough to allow either the babyfaces' or the heels' efforts to feel properly utilised. Instead they went for the classic DG route of rapid run-on trades, all of which were certainly very well-executed at an engagingly break-neck pace but still not great enough to justify such a generic structure. They eventually still won me over with how clean and explosive they were in essentially ever single interaction. Even the heels' interference and cheating spots were well-timed so as to not majorly disrupt the match's flow too much. ***1/4 - ***1/2. Yamato vs SMJ took quite a while for me to get into. SMJ controlled a lot of the first half, and none of that control work was nearly as vicious as it should've been. He had a few cool holds that Yamato sold convincingly and sympathetically, but I still thought his work was too dry and made the match feel rather boring. That was exacerbated by how easily Yamato then overshadowed him once he got his comeback, which featured all his typically explosive and slick offence that gave the match some much-needed fire. Thankfully, this brought more effort from SMJ, as he then had more-interesting, better-timed, and more-impactful attacks as they moved into the classic 50/50 trading sequence for the final 1/4th. I also liked the minor story there of SMJ's well-timed big counters and failed attempts to hit his Hammerlock Suplex. I still don't remotely buy into SMJ as a top guy in DG, but I do think he can improve a good deal with the right presentation. Ultimately a good match but nothing more. ***1/4. A very mediocre show overall, with the final 3 matches doing all the heavy lifting and no 'must-see' matches."

[6.0] "This show was above average overall. Undercard had nothing worth watching (including the abysmal "comedy" match), but the top 5 were all decent-to-good, this show just lacked a true top-end, high quality match."

[6.0] "Dragon Gate pendeln sich zurück im höhergelegten Durchschnitt ein, obgleich das einzig den beiden Hauptkämpfen zuzurechnen gewesen ist. Ohne jene ging man mit Show in Richtung der sieben Punkte, so jedoch riss man das Mauerwerk der Midcard ohne Grund ein. Natürlich muss man aber auch der Undercard einen leichten Vorwurf machen, abgesehen vom Opening Tag Match ging in den darauffolgenden zwei Darbietungen nicht viel zu holen. Für mich persönlich zählte GOLD CLASS vs. Natural Vibes sofort zu den Highlights, **1/4 bei ansteigender Tendenz. Konträr dazu das Multi Man Tag und der Owarai Gate Titelkampf, ** um den Dreh bzw. 1/2* im Fall von Takako Yoshida's Titelverteidigung. Mit dem Mochizuki Dojo Captain's Fall Match begann schlussendlich aber das Prunkstück vom Gate Of Bayside, *** bei ansteigender Tendenz. Ein beeindruckender Einstand der Neuauflage der Gruppierung, in dem alle wunderbar miteinander harmonierten und Masaaki Mochizuki als Legionär der Matchstory einen würdigen Kick verlieh, Z-Brats dazu ein geeignet-überlegener Gegner. KAI vs. Tanaka und der Triangle Gate Titelkampf sortierten sich drumherum ein, *** bzw. ***1/4 um den Dreh im Fall von PARADOX vs. D'Courage. Für einen Throwaway Brawl gefiel das Hardcore Match ganz gut, Masato Tanaka im Gegensatz zu seinen Einsätzen in Amerika hinzu ein bisschen fokussierter, Susumu Yokosuka sowieso im Saft und so waren dessen Sequenzen mit Dragon Kid's Schüler Dragon Dia ein netter Throwback im darauffolgenden Trios Match, ein temporeicher Austausch zwei toller Zusammensetzungen. Jeglichen Goodwill warf man mit obig angesprochenen Main Events anschließend jedoch weg, **3/4 je. Im Twin Gate Titelkampf punkteten ein paar der temporeichen Sequenzen noch, YAMATO Dream Gate Titelverteidigung über fast 24 Minuten hingegen leider furchtbar langweilig anzusehen."

[7.0] "As a DG fan for the past 7 years, this show felt flat to me. There were still good matches, like KAI x Tanaka, MinoLee x Jacky & Riiita, as well as J x YAMATO, but nothing really made me go wow! I will say to those who are new to the company, don't give up on it because of Gate of Bayside '25. Also, someone who loves the kind of humour Dragongate does, I too, wasn't big on the Owarai Gate match. I don't want this or need this."

[6.0] "I don't usually watch Dragon Gate, but I wanted to see Strong Machine J challenge for the title. This show was alright. The English commentary team was bad. Wish.com Chris Charlton who couldn't keep up with translating and the other guy who seemed to be asleep for most of it. I actually like the concept of the Open The Owarai Gate Title but this match was not a good comedy match. Crowd seemed pretty dead to it too. None of the matches really stood out to me actually. The main event was meh. Strong Machine J was presented well only to lose and YAMATO call out all the top young talent to say they're shit? Ok. I still had fun with this however it isn't something I'd tell someone else to watch."

"Unfortunately thought this show did not really serve as a great onboarding point for a newbie like myself. Trios and tag title matches were good (very good, even! ) but that was some atrocious comedy, and while having English-language commentary is a plus, it often felt like it was just a couple guys just talking over the event rather than calling the action. While I get the reasoning behind the main event, it fell *extremely* flat for me, really did not enjoy it much at all. While I'll probably give them a shot again at some point in the future, I think I'm gonna need to give it some time before I try again."

"I gave this a shot hoping that it'd be a good starting point for Dragon Gate, and was a little disappointed. I agree with the previous comment that the venue felt very low-energy, which didn't help. I did really enjoy the Open the Triangle Gate and Open the Twin Gate matches and felt like that was "what I was coming to Dragon Gate for." The main was a bit weird because of the choice to have Yamato take so much punishment for the first 20 minutes - it really detracted from what seemed like it was supposed to be an undercard story for Strong Machine J, and made it far too obvious that Yamato would be retaining after taking so much punishment early on. The commentary did a good job explaining that this was because of how much damage Yamato had taken in recent matches, but it still didn't seem like a good match structure for this match. Tanaka vs KAI was fun plunder, the undercard tags were fine, and the less said about the Owarai Gate match, the better. Takashi Yoshida made me feel bad for how much I've disliked Danshoku Dieno in the past - turns out that that kind of comedy can be so much worse than Dieno ever is."

[7.0] "As a fairly new fan of Dragon Gate, I can't provide a lot of context for this show. I thought it was pretty solid overall, albeit never remarkably great. The undercard was on the weaker side, but the Triangle Gate title match and Dream Gate title match main event were both solid. English comms did a good job at providing context for a new viewer such as myself. It looks like they drew a nice attendance, but I thought the architecture of this venue dissipated some of the crowd's energy because the space is so large and brightly lit. Overall, it was a fun show but I wouldn't endorse it as essential viewing unless you're already a well-established fan of an individual or team on the card."