2012 was a year of transformation for Dragon Gate. Junction Three disbanded in February after losing one final match to Blood Warriors and Blood Warriors, now led by Akira Tozawa and BxB Hulk, transformed to Mad Blankey. The Jimmyz, Windows, Akatsuki, and WORLD-1 International all formed within the coming months. There is a large gap of footage that I haven't seen from 2012 because I believe there's a period where no footage turned up. To the best of my knowledge, the only version of Kobe World 2012 that ever circulated was a digest version (yuck). This show feels more like a supershow instead of a key show with many important matches. It lacks the intensity that World 2011 or even 2010 had. Even with that in mind, this is a super fun show. Well, a super fun show when Onita isn't around.
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Dragon Gate Presents:
Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival, July 22, 2012
Genki Horiguchi, Jimmy Kanda, Ryo Saito, & Naoki Tanizaki vs. K-Ness, Kenichiro Arai, Super Shisa, & Shisa BOY
There's no way this couldn't be super fun, right? Right. By this point all eight men are super experienced and they know their roll. There's a few hot near falls down the stretch but they don't go overboard. Super Shisa shined here. He's so great and doing these opening matches. Really fun stuff.
Rating: ***1/2
Chihiro Tominaga & Super Shenlong vs. Kotoka & Rich Swann
It's crazy to think that Swann is nearly the same age as the other three and yet, he's so much more polished and over. Shenlong is now Yosuke Santa Maria. As silly as the Santa Maria gimmick/lifestyle is, it's been nothing but a success for the former Shenlong. Under the mask, he was nervous and awkward. With the makeup and the boobs and the pelvis-based offense, Santa Maria actually looks confident. It's also funny to see that Tominaga was really solid on the mat here. Swann was lightyears ahead of everyone else, though. No issues with this.
Rating: ***
Atsushi Onita & Stalker Ichikawa vs. Kzy & Mondai Ryu
This was hot garbage. I did not enjoy this and I normally enjoy Ichikawa and Kzy. I don't want to see Onita in 2015 (or 2012). This was just a waste of time. Worst match of the project thus far.
Rating: DUD
Dragon Kid vs. Ricochet
These two stole the show at World 2011 in a tag match that I consider to be a 5* match. This match left a little to be desired. They didn't do the typical "big match" in Dragon Gate where they started off slow with boring limb work and then had a hot finish, instead, they just had a really boring start. It wasn't focused and it was really hard to get invested in. Things picked up towards the end with Ricochet kicking out of an Ultra Hurricanrana and then missing a Double Moonsault. Kid puts him away with a Dragonrana. Good, but it could've been great.
Rating: ***3/4
Jimmy Susumu & Jimmy Kagetora vs. Shingo Takagi & YAMATO
This is a great example of how great Jimmy Susumu is. As much as I love Takagi & YAMATO, they struggled during this time period. Takagi was largely boring. He lost the fire he had in J3 or the drive he had in 2010 with Kamikaze. YAMATO had his head shaved in October and since then had been working with a shorter haircut. Normally that wouldn't make a difference but it really hurt YAMATO's charisma. The hair adds so much to his act. He came across as a very generic wrestler during most of this run. Susumu brought some fire to this and his battle with Takagi was nothing short of excellent. This was my favorite match of the night. Great stuff from Susumu.
Rating: ****
PAC, Masato Yoshino, & Naruki Doi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, & Gamma vs. BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong, & "Fake" Naoki Tanizaki
There was a point in 2011 where Cyber Kong went from a fun, decent worker to utter trash. This was the peak of his trash run. He was just horrible here. Everyone else was fine with PAC, who was wrestling his last match for the promotion, shining the most. There weren't a lot of Dragon Gate antics here. This was really just nine guys doing some moves with little heat. Hulk and PAC had really good chemistry. This was fine. I've certainly seen better Triangle Gate matches and even better three vs. three vs. three Dragon Gate matches.
Rating: ***3/4
CIMA vs. Akira Tozawa
This match was odd. Tozawa was the clear heel (even backed by Larry Dallas), but CIMA worked on top for a majority of this match. CIMA went out there to prove that Tozawa wasn't in his league. For the most part, he did just that. Tozawa didn't get a lot of offense. When he did, it was hampered by his leg injury that CIMA targeted throughout the entire match. Tozawa put up a good fight but the experience of CIMA led him to a victory. This wasn't a classic and their next match in 2013 was much better, but this was better than CIMA's prior to World main events. Solid.
Rating: ***3/4
Closing the Gate: This show was fine. It went by quick with the exception of the Onita match. Nothing here was great, but most things were very good. It's one of the weaker shows of this project, but still much better than the 2009 show. Things ended on a high note here as the Dragon Gate roster came out to honor PAC after the main event. It's emotional and very interesting. Go watch it.
Next time, CIMA's reign is threatened by Shingo, Mochizuki battles YAMATO, and the Twin Gate match offers some of Dragon Gate's best work. 2013 is good stuff!
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