Line #3 YMMV/DragonGate


1	* AmericansHateTingle:
2	** Hagure Gundan/Aagan Iisou was one of the hottest stables of its time, but there were many fans in the West who never understood quite what Japanese people saw in it, given that it was rather dull stable by Toryumon standards and its only real trait was to be TheJuggernaut. The controversial decision by DG to bury Aagan Iisou after the breakup with Toryumon stirred up deept trouble backstage by them, but it almost looked like a rational decision from an international viewpoint.
3	** The worst individual of the group was Takuya Sugawara, a non-luchador with a pretty limited moveset, a boring wrestling style and a very standard gimmick, which often had Western peope wondering why was he supposed to be so popular. It only got worse when Aagan Iisou moved to El Dorado Wrestling, as Sugawara immediately became the resident CreatorsPet there to a degree unseen even in Toryumon.
4	** A strange example in which the foreign spinoff of a promotion is disliked in said foreign country. Dragon Gate USA had a promising start in the States, but over time it became increasingly viewed as an inferior imitation of the real Dragon Gate. It didn't helpt that less and less of the Dragon Gate roster proper appeared through the years until the promotion eventually folded. Ironically enough, the only times DGUSA broke the 10,000 mark was outside the USA.
5	* ArcFatigue: It's well known that Dragon Gate bookers know only one type of storyline (namely, gang war-style stable rivalries) and that they have been playing it since the promotion's opening in 2004. This is ironic (or not so much, depends on how one views it) considering that one of their reasons to break away from Toryumon is that Último Dragón's storylines and characters were becoming too outlandish.
6	* BadassDecay: KAGETORA. He went from being the BigBad of Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling (and a strong player in El Dorado) to a low/mid-carder of many humiliating angles in DG.
7	* BrokenBase: Dragon Gate is one in Japan, due mostly to being the most "Americanized" promotion in terms of style (CIMA himself is famously a big fan of United States indy promotions) and one who draws heavily from a punk/young/female audience (with most of its roster being J-rock singer-style pretty boys with punkish gimmicks). The former has been softened a bit with the gradual Americanization of other promotions, like Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, but it is still a breaking point.
8	* FandomRivalry:
9	** With Wrestling/{{Toryumon}}'s remnants, obviously. The rivalry is mostly symbolic, as said remnants barely exist or have fans today.
10	** Marginally with Wrestling/MichinokuProWrestling, as MPW took in most of the Toryumon X trainees who should have gone to Dragon Gate before the split. Also because Dragon Gate occupies today the niche MPW had in TheNineties as the premier and most coolest junior heavyweight promotion, only with the opposite flair (MPW has a lot of folkloric gimmicks, aged stars and a big emphasis on traditional Japanese culture, while DG is made of hip characters, American influences and young punks both in age and spirit).
11	** DGUSA has some with Wrestling/RingOfHonor.
12	* ItsTheSameNowItSucks:
13	** One of the great downsides of the Dragon Gate system is the sheer immobility of his roster. Aside from occasionally adding rookies, DG has had mostly the same main names on its cards for ''decades'', even before the split from Toryumon. Its wrestlers have so much history together that it's difficult to take the stable wars seriously when everybody has been partner to everybody at least thrice on their careers.
14	** Although Dragon Gate proclaimed to have ditched the isolationism it suffered when its name was Toryumon Japan, it is still the most isolationist mainstream promotion in Japan today, to the point most of the top visitors in Dragon Gate history have been just guest opponents for Stalker Ichikawa. They make up a bit by being much more open towards American promotions, as well as some selected native indies (DDT and OPW being the main ones), but many fans's dream matches of DG wrestlers against names from NOAH, AJPW or NJPW will probably never leave the dream world.
15	** There were some calls to simply have Evolve absorbed into Dragon Gate USA when the Dragon Gate regulars by and large stopped appearing. Drew Galloway and Timothy Thatcher both defended the Evolve title and Open The Freedom Gate at once, partially giving these fans what they wanted though Evolve was more likely to absorb DGUSA, rather than the other way around. Indeed, that's what happened, as the DGUSA titles, the last remaining bit of DGUSA were retired in 2015.
16	* LGBTFanbase: The promotion is apparently popular among LGBT people in Japan, probably due to its many pretty boys.
17	* {{Narm}}:
18	** Dragon Gate's famous finisher obsolescence. A casual viewer can be understandbly freaked out when he watches a wrestler receiving seven finishing moves at a row and still kicking out the pin. Ironically, many promotions have taken to this in recent years, especially Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, US indies, and even {{Wrestling/WWE}} by way of its NXT brands, making DG's "finisher spam" style something of a trailblazer.
19	** The name of some stables, especially when using the proverbial GratuitousEnglish WordSaladTitle, can be quite jarring. Do FIXER, Deep Drunkers, ''Mad Blankey''? Seriously? (No, "Seriously" is not the name of another stable, in case you thought so, but it doesn't sound very far.)
20	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
21	** Aagan Iisou being immediately DemotedToExtra after the Toryumon breakup. Even if the concept of the group could have used some work, it was still wildly popular in Japan and people just wanted to see them. Instead, they were booked very randomly and almost given no segments. There is even a theory that their RoleEndingMisdemeanor was either deliberate so they could move to other promotion or a coverup for a collective resignment.
22	** Many people resent that Dragon Gate did almost nothing with the few Toryumon X trainees it got access to in 2008, like Wrestling/TakuyaSugi, Takeshi Minamino and Shinjitsu Nohashi (and Hayato Fujita if he counts as one). They weren't acknowledged as former Toryumon men storyline-wise to begin with, and only Sugi received a mild push that everybody knew would go nowhere. KAGETORA is another example of a X trainee that has been wasted for years and still is.

Context YMMV / DragonGate