Countdown to Kobe: Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival 2008

Kobe World 2008 is a landmark show for the Dragon System as it showed the new generation being ushered into the main event scene. Going all the way back to 2002, CIMA or Masaaki Mochizuki had been in the Kobe main event. This was the first time Dragon Gate had landed in Kobe World Hall and the show wasn't headlined by either man. Instead, it was Shingo Takagi and BxB Hulk, two standouts from the Dragon Gate dojo who stepped up to the plate to battle for the vacant Open the Dream Gate Championship. Genki Horiguchi does battle with the young mcKZ to decide the next Brave Gate Champion and 12 men meet in a WACKY~! Triangle Gate Championship match. Needless to say, this card is a lot of fun. 

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Dragon Gate Presents:

Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival, July 27, 2008

K-Ness, Super Shisa, & Shisa BOY vs. Akira Tozawa, Yuki Ono, & El Generico

Seeing the pasty white El Generico walk down to the ring with nothing but boots, his mask, and a black trench coat on brings me great joy. What an oddball. Hope he's doing well in Mexico. After kicking things off with a tag match last year the six-man returned to being the opener here. If I sound like a broken record now when I compliment Super Shisa for his performance, wait until I get to Genki Horiguchi's match. Everyone worked hard here and in the end, Generico picked up the win for his team. Fun, fast, and inoffensive. A successful opener to Kobe World 2008. 

Rating: ***1/4

ICHIKAWA vs. The Great Sasuke

Stalker Ichikawa is no longer the joke of Dragon Gate. He's a serious competitor that's looking to take it to the legend on the biggest show of the year. Or, well, that's what he wanted us to think. ICHIKAWA comes out smoking and with all sorts of plunder, much like Sasuke did during his highly entertaining BattleArts run. I died. The match is largely nothing as Sasuke is old and ICHIKAWA is himself, but then the finish happens...Stalker Ichikawa pins The Great Sasuke. Clean. Well, sort of clean. Regardless, it's a pinfall victory for the man and he's going to take it. I was left with my jaw on the floor. This is something else. Stalker Ichikawa is a magical man. And as for you, Sasuke, you've already got the Under Armour shirt on. There's no reason for you to be diving onto ladders. 

Rating: *1/2

Cyber Kong & TAKEMURA vs. Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai

A largely nothing match with Kong and Arai, who had pants on that were annoying large on him, doing the heavily lifting. Kong threw some Makabe-like punches in this match which certainly didn't help things. Arai was plucky enough to fight the good fight, but he was no match for the Cyber Bomb. It was a match. 

Rating: **3/4

Genki Horiguchi vs. mcKZ

Oh boy this was good stuff. This was the payoff to a long feud revolving around Gamma, the Open the Gamma Gate Championship, Dr. Muscle, Genki Horiguchi, and somehow mcKZ (Kzy). The feud, as silly as it sounds, was done quite well. Gamma, the super heel, won the Brave Gate title and turned it into the Gamma Gate Championship. Dr. Muscle, who ended up being Yoshino, "Mr. Brave Gate", beat Gamma and restored the title back to its former lineage. Horiguchi and mcKZ are now meeting to decide the 11th Open the Brave Gate Championship. This went just over 10 minutes and was all action. mcKZ took control from the start and brought everything he had at Horiguchi. Horiguchi was able to cheat his way into grabbing control of the match. The finish saw some insane nearfalls because Horiguchi protects his Backslide and because he does that his finishing stretches are among the best. 

The one thing that takes away from this match and hurts it from getting the 4* treatment and maybe even ****1/4 is CYBER KONG. Why? Kong just runs in whenever he pleases. This wasn't even a case of the referee being poorly distracted in the corner, this was just Kong running in whenever he pleases. Rarely do I care about interference in Dragon Gate, but this was just absurd. It killed a portion of this match. Kong aside, Horiguchi and mcKZ worked their asses off and turned in one hell of a match. 

Rating: ***3/4

Ryo Saito & Susumu Yokosuka vs. NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA

"NOSAWA out of the question" is here, baybay! The super sleazy team of he and MAZADA (at least it's not Masada) battled it out with RyoSuka for the Twin Gate Championships here (the first time the title has been defended at Kobe). Saito and Yokosuka really worked hard to get the most out of the two indie veterans and the end result was a solid match. I've certainly seen better RyoSuka matches and I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find better NOSAWA matches, but this was perfectly fine. More power to them. 

Rating: ***1/2

Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi, & Naoki Tanizaki vs. Dragon Kid, Anthony W. Mori, & PAC vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, & Magnitude Kishiwada vs. YAMATO, Gamma, & Yasushi Kanda

Okay, a lot of people doing a lot of STUFF. This had moments of Dragon Gate magic and moments where I just wanted this to end. Gamma also spit water and eggs on people but I have no desire to talk about that anymore. This was like most huge multi-man matches in Dragon Gate history. Instead of working with two guys in the ring and way too many guys on the outside, most of the time there were three or four men in the ring at once. It creates an interesting dynamic that only Dragon Gate has been able to do successfully. A lot of spots, like Don Fujii chopping everyone, then everyone chopping Don Fujii, I have seen before but I always enjoy them. Masato Yoshino and Dragon Kid really held this match together. The trio of YAMATO, Gamma, and Kanda were the clear heels, the rouge crew of MochiFujii and Kishiwada were mostly a non-factor, so that left the Typhoon and WORLD-1 trios. Everyone looked good, but Yoshino and Dragon Kid looked great. This went too long (28:00) for it to be considered one of the best matches I've seen during this project so far, but it was still great and up to this point, the best match on the show. 

Rating: ****1/4

BxB Hulk vs. Shingo Takagi

Imagine not loving Shingo Takagi. This guy is an all-time great. He's slowly climbing up the ranks on my Greatest Wrestler Ever list. Not saying he's Top 10 material, but Mr. Takagi might find himself in my Top 25. That's a shoot. He spent 35 minutes bullying BxB Hulk. His heat segments aren't just heat segments, they're abuse - physically, mentally, and verbally. He and BxB Hulk came up around the same time, joined forces in New Hazard and found success, but Takagi got fed up with Hulk's shit. This was payback for two years of the BxB Dance and dealing with Hulk's gimmick. Takagi was out here to show that he could put this company on his back and he would be the one leading Dragon Gate into the future. Ultimately, that failed, as we'll come to find out later on in the Countdown to Kobe project, but Takagi did a damn good job of convincing me that he was the future of this company here. Hulk, for as much as I like to make fun of him sometimes, was excellent here. Takagi brings the best out of him and vice versa. These two had an all-out war that I absolutely loved. I'd still put this behind their Kobe World 2010 match (which I'm super excited to rewatch) and their Final Gate 2014 match, but this was still something special. Two thumbs way up for this. 

Rating: ****1/2

Closing the Gate: Another really good show. They trimmed a lot of the fat out of the first half of the show and gave the last two matches plenty of time. That worked better than, say, Kobe World 2006, when everything got time and as a result, the show dragged heavily. Horiguchi and mcKZ's sneaky good match with the two main events result in this show getting two thumbs up. Next time on Countdown to Kobe we unify gold as Naruki Doi and CIMA battle in a Brave Gate vs. Dream Gate match! Also, Akebono and Abdullah the Butcher stop by and KAMIKAZE makes their presence felt in Kobe~!