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The Open The Owarai Gate Championship is a semi-active comedy-based championship in Dragon Gate. Otherwise known in English as the "Open The Comedy Gate Championship", is a unique championship that is awarded not based on the match results, but rather of the performance of the competitors.

Once the actual match was finished, the audience decided who amused them the best. Sometimes the fans would end up choosing someone who was not actually in the match itself simply because they found them funnier than the competitors.

The belt returned in June 2023; despite that, Dragon Gate does not recognize the championship as part of its Triple Crown and Grand Slam.

Overview[]

The championship was established when Stalker Ichikawa embarked on his first trip to the United States in May 2007. A fan of the wrestler, then-Pro Wrestling Guerrilla Commissioner Dino Winwood issued a request for the development of a championship for Stalker to have. Dragon Gate officials agreed and created the belt. Ichikawa was initially provided with ten free tickets that could be used to ensure a successful defense regardless of the outcome. However, the tickets were destroyed by Kikutaro prior to his challenging for the title, forcing Ichikawa to defend the belt on his own merit. He was able to successfully retain due to unusual circumstances since, such as his mother appealing to the crowd and later his opponent feeling sorry.

When Kikutaro did finally win the championship in 2009, he made three defenses before he presumably lost it in his otaku room for roughly one and a half years. The title was seemingly forgotten about by virutally everyone until Dragon Gate began planning for the Don Fujii Homecoming in Mie on April 10, 2011. They finally managed to contact Kikutaro to not only appear, but to defend the Open The Owarai Gate Championship. Fujii officiated the match and appealed for a fan vote that resulted in his winning the championship, thus returning it to Dragon Gate for good. The music theme leading into the championship defenses uses snippets from the main theme of the Super Mario Bros. video game.

The championship was deactivated on May 5, 2018 at Dead or Alive, when Shingo Takagi, per stipulation, was the last person to escape the cage in the Hair vs. Hair Steel Cage Survival seven-way match. On June 3, 2023, the company announced the belt would be returning, with Konomama Ichikawa becoming the interim champion until a new official champion would be decided at the Buyuden Zero vol.2. event on July 8, 2023. At the event, Kikutaro defeated Ichikawa to become the lineal champion. Despite, the belt returning, Dragon Gate does not recognize the championship as part of its Triple Crown and Grand Slam.

Title History[]

# Wrestler Reign Date Location Length Defenses Notes
1 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 1 May 25, 2007 Burbank, California 136 Days 7 Conceived during a visit to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla; officially defended on June 10 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka.
2 CIMA 1 October 17, 2007 Hyogo 1 Day 0 Defeated Ichikawa and K-ness in a three-way match. Ichikawa failed to gain fan support, thus the match winner earned the title.
3 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 2 October 17, 2007 Hyogo 1 Day 0 Won the title by fan support.
4 CIMA 2 October 17, 2007 Hyogo 1 Day 0
5 Jackson Florida 1 October 17, 2007 Hyogo 94 Days 2 CIMA fails V1 against Ichikawa for various reasons. Jackson Florida becomes champion through fan support since he was sitting at ringside.
6 Masaaki Mochizuki 1 January 19, 2008 Nagoya 14 Days 0 Lost a three-way match with Jackson Florida and Turboyan by disqualification, but won the title through fan support.
7 Jackson Florida 2 February 2, 2008 Hakata, Fukuoka 160 Days 4 Won a three-way match with Mochizuki defeating Ichikawa and received the most fan support.
8 Johnson Florida 1 July 11, 2008 Tokyo 10 Days 0 Lost singles match with Jackson Florida by ring out, but won the title through fan support.
9 ICHIKAWA 3 July 21, 2008 Kumamoto 26 Days 2 ICHIKAWA stole the belt after winning a non-title three way-match with Johnson Florida and K-ness. Repeated attempts to contact title commissioner were met with only his voicemail, so ICHIKAWA was just named the champion.
10 Jackson Florida 3 August 16, 2008 Toyama 212 Days 4 Lost a three-way match with ICHIKAWA to K-ness., but won the title through fan support.
11 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 4 March 16, 2009 Kumamoto 4 Days 0 Lost singles match with Jackson Florida, but won the title through fan support.
12 Kinta Tamaoka 1 March 20, 2009 Kobe 0 Days 0 Ichikawa fails in V1 against Mochizuki. Tamaoka becomes champion through fan support since he was officiating.
Vacated March 20, 2009 Hakata, Fukuoka Tamaoka vacated title immediately after winning it.
13 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 5 March 29, 2009 Fukui 6 Days 0 Ichikawa defeated Jackson Florida in a decision match.
14 Anthony W. Mori 1 April 4, 2009 Nagoya 41 Days 1
15 Kikutaro 1 May 15, 2009 Tokyo 695 Days 3 Lost singles match with Mori, but won the title through fan support.
16 Don Fujii 1 April 10, 2011 Mie 133 Days 0 Kikutaro defeated Ichikawa in a three-way match with Ryo Saito, but Fujii becomes champion through fan support since he was officiating.
17 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 6 August 21, 2011 Hakata, Fukuoka 76 Days 2 Lost singles match with Fujii, along with restart against Karaoke Machine, but won the title through fan support.
18 CIMA 3 September 24, 2011 Niigata 0 Days 0
Vacated September 24, 2011 Niigata CIMA vacated title immediately after winning it.
19 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 7 October 27, 2011 Ishikawa 9 Days 0 Ichikawa defeated Jackson Florida in a decision match.
20 Rich Swann 1 November 5, 2011 Gifu 50 Days 0
Vacated December 25, 2011 Hakata, Fukuoka Presumably declared vacant after Naoki Tanizaki stole the title from Rich Swann and had been seemingly forgotten about afterward.
21 Kenichiro Arai 1 August 2, 2012 Tokyo 140 Days 0 Lost decision match with Ichikawa, but won the title through fan support.
22 Kikutaro 2 December 20, 2012 Tokyo 75 Days 2 Lost singles match with Arai, but won the title through fan support in singing portion of the contest.
23 Ryo "Jimmy" Saito 1 March 7, 2013 Tokyo 626 Days 5
24 Jimmy Kanda 1 November 23, 2014 Saga 73 Days 2
25 Yosuke♥Santa Maria 1 Febuary 4, 2015 Kasukabe 53 Days 2
26 Akira Tozawa 1 March 29, 2015 Saga 230 Days 3
27 Mr. Nakagawa 1 November 14, 2015 Fukuoka 10 Days 0
28 Masato Yoshino 1 November 23, 2015 Okayama 135 Days 0
Vacated April 7, 2016 Kobe Yoshino was stripped of the title after failing to defend it within the previous three months.
29 CIMA 4 April 10, 2016 Mie 1 Day 0 Defeated Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa for the vacated title.
30 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 8 April 10, 2016 Mie 588 Days 8 Since CIMA did not want the title, his opponent Ichikawa was awarded the championship.
31 CIMA 5 November 19, 2017 Miyazaki 7 Days 1
31 Masaaki Mochizuki 2 July 16, 2016 Mie 0 Days 0
32 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa 9 July 16, 2016 Mie 491 Days 2 Masaaki gave Ichikawa the title.
33 CIMA 6 November 19, 2017 Miyazaki 7 Days 0 Won singles match against Ichikawa and won the title through fan support.
Vacated November 26, 2017 Miyagi CIMA vacated the title due to personal reasons.
34 Ryo Saito 2 November 26, 2017 Miyagi 100 Days 2 Won singles match against Ichikawa and won the title through fan support.
35 Shingo Takagi 1 March 6, 2018 Tokyo 61 Days 0 Won singles match against Saito and won the title through fan support.
Abandoned May 6, 2018 Aichi The title was abandoned after Takagi escaped the Dead or Alive seven-way steel cage match, where if Takagi escaped the championship would be declared inactive.
Konomama Ichikawa June 3, 2023 Tokyo 35 Days 0 On June 3, 2023, the company announced the belt would be returning, with Konomama Ichikawa becoming the interim champion until a new official champion would be decided at the Buyuden Zero vol.2.
36 Kikutaro 3 July 8, 2023 Tokyo 48 Days 0 Defeated Konomama Ichikawa to become the lineal champion.
37 Lingerie Mutoh 1 October 5, 2023 Tokyo 469 Days 2 The match ended in a double knockout; therefore, won the title through fan support.
38 Takashi Yoshida 1 January 16, 2024 Tokyo 44 Days 1
39 Kuishinbo Kamen 1 March 1, 2025 Osaka 80+ 0

Combined Reigns[]

Rank Wrestler # of
Reigns
Combined defenses Combined
days
1 "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa/
Konomama Ichikawa/
Ichikawa
9[a] 21 1,337[b]
2 Kikutaro 3 5 820
3 Ryo "Jimmy" Saito/Ryo Saito 1 726
4 Lingerie Mutoh 2 469
5 Jackson Florida 3 10 466
6 Akira Tozawa 1 3 230
7 Kenichiro Arai 0 140
8 Don Fujii 133
9 Masato Yoshino 132
10 Jimmy Kanda 2 73
11 Shingo Takagi 0 61
12 Yosuke ♥ Santa Maria 2 53
13 Rich Swann 0 50
14 Kuishinbo Kamen 80
15 Takashi Yoshida 1 44
16 Anthony W. Mori 41
17 CIMA 6 17
18 Masaaki Mochizuki 2 0 14
19 Johnson Florida 1 10
20 Mr. Nakagawa 9
21 Kinta Tamaoka <1

Notes[]

  1. 10 with his interim championship reign.
  2. 1,372 days with his interim championship reign.

Gallery[]

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