Like a Dragon Gaiden's pro wrestling debut was a shockingly entertaining tribute to Yakuza's goofy violence

Last night's episode of pro wrestling show AEW Dynamite featured a match called the "Like a Dragon Gaiden street fight presented by Sega," and folks, it was even wilder than that name suggests.

Pro wrestling has a long history of questionable crossovers with other brands and entertainment properties, from that time RoboCop showed up in WCW to the more recent Mountain Dew Pitch Black match in WWE. AEW has its own history of weird sponsored matches, including the Texas Chain Saw Massacre death match, which ran in promotion of the recently released video game. Leatherface was there. It was profoundly dumb.

So when AEW announced that it was being sponsored by Sega for a street fight inspired by Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, precedent had conditioned me to have low expectations. Doubly so since it seemed to be tying into one of AEW's most notable grudges without much rhyme or reason, and since it felt as if several of the match's eight participants were kind of just thrown into the whole thing at random.

I pretty much turned around on the whole thing the instant I saw rising star pro wrestler Konosuke Takeshita beat up several men with a bicycle in classic Yakuza style. He did the giant Kiryu bike swing and everything. It was perfect. The match was full of fantastic tributes to Yakuza and Like a Dragon, with the ringside area decorated by various Kamurocho-style street signs and restaurant menus - many of which naturally ended up being used as weapons. My favorite touch was the way the entrance ramp was transformed into a Kamurocho street corner, complete with NPCs wandering back and forth, many of them oblivious to the ongoing violence.

A few of the participants dressed for the occasion, too. Takeshita came in with full Majima cosplay, and noted gaming nerd Kenny Omega wore Sega-themed tights. Chris Jericho and Paul Wight essentially both cosplayed as Kiryu. While it's a bit looser in terms of connection to the Like a Dragon series, Brian Cage also showed up in tights with a, uh, 'Streets of Cage' logo. Hey, it's still technically a Sega franchise.

It satisfied me as a Yakuza fan, and it was pretty darn entertaining as a wrestling match, too. Seeing Wight - a 7 foot tall, 400 pound man - getting body slammed on the hood of car in the backlot area was a particularly memorable moment, as was watching noted daredevil Kota Ibushi take a piledriver through an absurd stack of chairs and street signs. These are the kinds of spots that pro wrestlers usually save for pay-per-view events, not free episodes of television - and certainly not sponsored matches promoting video games. 

The response from the pro wrestling fandom has been pretty universal in its positivity - a far cry from the response to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre match a few months ago. "Kenny and Ibushi willing to kill themselves for this Sega tie-in match is incredibly fitting," as Reddit user Caldris puts it. "Seriously, that was insanity. Everyone going to those lengths for a TV match is pure AEW."

"If nothing else, they truly understood the assignment when they got the Like a Dragon sponsorship, holy shit," sammywii says. "The slow walk from the Golden Dragons earlier in the night, Takeshita dressed as Majima, using shit like izakaya menus, bicycles and bottles as weapons, 10/10 street fight." 

My favorite comment, though, comes from theplasmasnake: "Thanks Sega. I look forward to the 'Persona 3 Reload Ladder Match.'"

Yes, please, bring on more pro wrestlers doing absurd video game tributes. This match was great - a perfect tribute to the weird, violent, and delightfully goofy worlds of both pro wrestling and Like a Dragon - and I'd love to see more. Just, uh… somebody make sure Wight's back is okay after that car spot, please. That looked gnarly.

Get violent in the best fighting games out there.