2014 was a grand time to be a Dragon Gate fan. The company was firing on all cylinders in the ring and with their storytelling. The feud between BxB Hulk and YAMATO, to me, was so far and away the best feud of 2014. Elsewhere, Shingo & Tozawa were keeping guard of the Open the Twin Gate Championships in the lengthiest reign to date. Flamita was setting a new standard for junior heavyweights as his Brave Gate Championship run, while still young at this point, was remarkable. If that wasn't enough, Matt Sydal was back and ready to make a statement after sitting on the sidelines for so long. Kobe World 2014 is an excellent way to cap off the Countdown to Kobe series.
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Dragon Gate Presents:
Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival, July 20, 2014
Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, & Gamma vs. Jushin Liger, Uhaa Nation, & Stalker Ichikawa
This match has disappeared from the Internet. It wasn't a special opener by any means, but seeing Mochizuki and Liger battle was really cool at the time. Not much I can say here as I haven't seen the match in a year. Looking at my initial rating, I gave it **1/2. See, not much going on here? MOVING ON.
Rating: **1/2 // NO GIFS
Jimmy Kanda & Jimmy Kagetora vs. Punch Tominaga & Mondai Ryu
Punch's entrance here is one of the coolest things ever. It's funny looking back at this a year later, but this match was completely designed to get Punch over as a crazy killer. He was pinned by Stalker Ichikawa on 7/12/15. At the time Punch looked really interesting and did, in fact, look like a crazed killer coming out of this match.
Rating: NR
Flamita vs. Dragon Kid
This wasn't a high-flying sprint like most people expected. Instead, they had a basic match with the big spot being Flamita kicking out of the Ultra Hurricanrana. This certainly wasn't the spectacle most people expected it to be going in, but long term, I think this did a lot for Flamita. Dragon Kid is a total pro, also. He gave Flamita just the right amount of shine. By the end of this, Flamita looked like a major player. Very enjoyable match, yet very different from what you'd expect.
Rating: ***3/4
Naruki Doi, Cyber Kong, & Kzy vs. Jimmy Susumu, Mr. Quu Quu, & Genki Horiguchi
This ended up being an excellent Triangle Gate match. I wasn't expecting much from it at the time simply because I felt like we had seen this combination way too much. In reality, these trios hadn't faced each other, but there was a LOT of Jimmyz/Mad Blankey interaction in 2014. Horiguchi killed it here. He's just so good as his job. He won't touch my GWE list, but boy, I love me some Genki Horiguchi. Incredible closing stretch with Susumu becoming a total machine to try and takeout Kong and Doi. Great match to close out the first half.
Rating: ****
Masato Yoshino & Ricochet vs. Matt Sydal & CIMA
It was clear that Sydal hadn't been in a match since January 2012. He was rusty here. He and Ricochet had a really rough opening exchange and there were times when Yoshino was visibly leading him in spots, but by the end, he found his groove. This was a really cool moment and a decent match. All four have had better performances in Kobe, but coming out of intermission, this did its job.
Rating: ***1/2
Shingo Takagi & Akira Tozawa vs. T-Hawk & Eita
This match finished third on my Voices of Wrestling MOTY ballot because it's a GREAT FREAKING MATCH. My God, this is great. Tozawa had been battling T-Hawk all year and hadn't been able to put him away. Plus, there was friction between he and Shingo because Shingo had been doubting him. So what does Tozawa do? Tozawa works his ass off and helps this match reach the next level. I absolutely love this match. I believe Jae from IHeartDG would classify this as hot fighting. T-Hawk looked stronger at the end of this than he has all of 2015. This was excellent. Completely different from the Twin Gate match at World 2011, also. Those four flipped around, these four had a smart, grounded match that built to an insane conclusion. This is my jam, my man.
Rating: ****3/4
BxB Hulk vs. YAMATO
I have mixed feelings about this match. There's so much good but there's also one glaring negative - that being Hulk's leg selling. For the most part, I think the conversation about "selling the leg" is mind numbing and incredibly aggravating, but Hulk really did do a terrible job here. It's a shame because YAMATO was so great working over his legs. There's a point where YAMATO has Hulk in Figure Four and proceeds to verbally and physically assault him. Flair never did something this good on the canvas. Hulk, on two healthy legs, fought back and was able to put YAMATO away with the Phoenix Splash. Overall, I liked this match. Hulk was established as the ace after this and brought stability back to the Dream Gate Championship, which had been in utter chaos since CIMA lost it at the prior World. This did more good than bad, even with Hulk's selling, or lack of it.
Rating: ***3/4
Closing the Gate: This was an excellent way to put this series to bed. The Twin Gate match is one of my favorite matches of the project, the Triangle Gate match really over delivered, and the other two title matches were quite strong. I will be back to Close the Gate on Kobe after World 2015 (I may or may not have a review on here - undecided at this time). This was a lot of fun. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this as much as I did.
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