Countdown to Kobe: Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival 2010

Dragon Gate came firing back after a lackluster 2009 Kobe World. Doi's reign was over and he had been delegated back to the midcard, BxB Hulk and Shingo Takagi were set to end their feud with an explosive hair vs. hair match, and the young YAMATO found himself atop the promotion defending his Open the Dream Gate Championship against the veteran, Masato Yoshino. Hulk and Takagi are the real stars of this show as their match is one of the best matches in Dragon Gate history, but I would like to touch on YAMATO here in the opening. When I first got invested in Dragon Gate, YAMATO was not a guy I kept my eye on. He wasn't what grabbed my attention towards the promotion. He didn't kick hard like Mochizuki or flip like Dragon Kid, he was just a solid professional wrestler. As my Dragon Gate fandom has grown, I've learned to appreciate YAMATO for what he really is - an EXCELLENT professional wrestler. He isn't the most technically sound guy, but he makes up for that with incredible wit. He's smart in the ring, both from a kayfabe sense and in a shoot sense. YAMATO hit a home run with his performance on this show. 

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Dragon Gate Presents: 

Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival - July 11, 2010

Kzy, Kenichiro Arai, & Yasushi Kanda vs. Kotoka, Naoki Tanizaki, & Mark Haskins

This was rather dull. Deep Drunkers was a Kzy-led stable that never got over and had a very short run. Kotoka never clicked with me until this year, actually, and Haskins has never wowed me. That left Tanizaki to do a lot of heavy lifting in this match and, well, he was fine. A nothing, yet inoffensive opener. 

Rating: **1/2

Akebono & Abdullah the Butcher vs. Jackson Florida & Johnson Florida vs. Stalker Ichikawa & Syachihoko Machine

There are only so many hours in a day. I felt 0 motivation to watch this one, so I skipped it. If I missed some sort of gem here then please let me know and I'll watch it, but I'm 99.9% sure I made the right choice here. 

Rating: NR // NO GIFS

Cyber Kong & KAGETORA vs. Naruki Doi & PAC vs. Ryo Saito & Dragon Kid vs. NOSAWA Rongai & TOZAWA Kengai

Akira Tozawa, who would headline this show in 2012, is doing a NOSAWA tribue act here. Incredible. This was an excellent showing for PAC. He got his big dives in and stood out more than anyone else in the match. KAGETORA also showed signs of being really good here. The pairing of he and Kong, who is certainly less athletic and nimble, actually made for a really fun pairing. TOZAWA took what seemed like a majority of the offense in this match. He would leave for U.S. excursion after this match and two months later would have his brains beat in by Chris Hero. 2010 was not his year. This was more action than wackiness and it resulted in a really solid undercard match. 

Rating: ***1/2

CIMA, Gamma, & Genki Horiguchi vs. Black Buffalo, The Bodyguard, & Tigers Mask

This was so much better than it had any right to be. I hadn't seen Buffalo or The Bodyguard going into this and I had seen enough of Tigers Mask to know I didn't want to see him again. This ended up being a fun Triangle Gate match with the WARRIORS crew dominating most of the match. This lacked any sort of heat because the crowd absolutely did not care about the Osaka Pro trio, but other than that, I had no issues with this. It's also great to see Genki Horiguchi back as a babyface and not anywhere near Real Hazard, which luckily, wasn't a thing by this time. Ugh, Real Hazard...

Rating: ***1/4

K-Ness & Susumu Yokosuka vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii

None of these four are high-flyers and this resulted in an interesting match for a Dragon Gate show. Mochizuki and Fujii dominated Yokosuka for most of this match in ways that only Mochi and Fujii could do. Yokosuka was treated as if he were a young boy, which I love about Mochizuki. He's an excellent babyface, but when he gets in control of a match and starts belittling people, that's when he's at his absolute best. K-Ness is no spring chicken by this point and has been dealing with a shoulder injury for years. He's not as crisp as he once was but that doesn't mean he still isn't super fun to watch. He gives Mochizuki all sorts of trouble and because of that, he and Susumu are able to pick up the win. This is good stuff. 

Rating: ****

BxB Hulk vs. Shingo Takagi

Lads - this is the good stuff. Two Kobe Worlds prior these two met in a match that was more of a coming out party for Shingo. In that match, he looked dominant. He bullied Hulk and was able to put him down with less trouble than he did here. Hulk, coming into this match, had matured. He lost the dancers (he should've kept them), he lost his goofy smile, and he came into this match with something to prove. He and Takagi just beat the crap out of each other. This wasn't a strike-heavy match, this was more two dudes suplexing each other around for 30 minutes. This never dragged or got stale. Hulk put up the best fight he possibly could but still came up short in the end. The rivalry between these two is so incredible. Separate, they're great wrestlers. Hulk, while sometimes very annoying, has been able to produce a number of high-caliber matches, while Takagi, who almost never annoys me, is rapidly climbing up my GWE list. When these two come together they bring the best out of each other. Hulk was an excellent babyface in this match and Takagi was an animal. I'm not going with the full 5* here, but don't think I didn't consider it. This is quality, quality stuff. 

Rating: ****3/4

YAMATO vs. Masato Yoshino

As I said in the intro, YAMATO was a star here. His entrance was electric. He came across as a superstar. Yoshino was great here as well. Once again, this match fell into the trap of having 15 minutes of wrestling in 30 minutes of wrestling. Unlike the previous main event (CIMA vs. Doi), however, the finishing stretch was fantastic. YAMATO has been able to get the Sleeper Hold over as a legitimate finisher and that adds to the HOT FIGHTING down the stretch. Yoshino is so incredible here. He's so crisp. Yoshino is able to submit YAMATO here in an excellent closing stretch. 

Rating: ***3/4

Closing the Gate: This is an easy show to watch. Everything is solid with the Hulk/Shingo match being tremendous. This is a much better show than the prior Kobe World. Next up is Kobe World 2011 with Mochizuki/Hulk, Tozawa/Shingo and Ricochet & CIMA vs. PAC & Dragon Kid. I am SUPER excited to watch this show (again). 

Countdown to Kobe: Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival 2009

Dragon Gate's 2009 installment of Kobe World looked to be the weakest of the bunch on paper. After letting things play out, I think it's safe to say that this is the weakest Kobe World of all-time. The glaring problem here is that Naruki Doi was positioned to be the ace of the company and honestly, I don't know if anyone wanted to see that. Doi is good and can be great at times, but he's no ace. Even on this show, Doi gets nowhere near the reactions of Shingo Takagi, YAMATO (more on him later), or even his tag team partner, Masato Yoshino. With all their might Dragon Gate tried to make Doi into something special and because the main event fell flat, I put the blame on him. Everyone here worked hard but these matches just weren't up to the quality that they normally were. Part of that was because the Real Hazard interference shtick was so overdone and obnoxious at this point, the other part of that being that the matches simply weren't good. Kobe World 2009 is a show - a show like none other. 

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Dragon Gate Presents:

Kobe World Pro-Wrestling Festival - July 19, 2009

K-Ness, Super Shisa, & Shisa BOY vs. Cyber Kong, Yasushi Kanda, & Kenichiro Arai

The combination of K-Ness and the two Shisa's had me all excited, but this was the first of many matches that let me down. Dragon Gate is a promotion that, in-ring wise, almost never seems to fail. I mean that in terms of quality and execution. Here, both things failed. The Shisa team was sloppy with their usual combinations and that completely took me out of the match. Kong's side, representing Real Hazard, had to interfere, of course. I have been a sucker for these Kobe World opening matches but this falls short of the mark. Kong puts Shisa BOY away with a nasty looking Powerbomb to end things. 

Rating: **3/4

Stalker Ichikawa vs. Abdullah the Butcher 

Stalker is back to being a comedy figure that no one is supposed to take seriously. Sadly, that means ICHIKAWA, the vicious rudo who PINNED The Great Sasuke is no more. I applaud these two for only going two minutes. This didn't need to be any longer and it was totally fine for what it was. Ichikawa puts in another thrilling performance in Kobe. 

Rating: NR

Anthony W. Mori & Super Shenlong vs. NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA

Oh boy, this was something (bad). Shenlong is Mondai Ryu (sorry, UPROXX) and it's safe to say that I prefer 2015 Ryu to 2009 Shenlong. He's still bad now, don't get me wrong, but he's learned how to be bad. He's uncomfortably awkward in this match. Mori, who now has a sweet haircut, is almost a non-factor here. NOSAWA and MAZADA are a little too sleazy for me still, so this was another match that I just wasn't feeling. 

Rating: **

Kzy vs. Naoki Tanizaki

Another match hindered by Real Hazard being a REAL ANNOYANCE. These two hate each other so they waste no time going after one another. This was at points, a really good Dragon Gate brawl. Then, once again, guys had to interfere and the referee was out of position a couple of times. I don't box attacks of clothesline trains or any other Dragon Gate gimmick when it's done right. This show, however, was an example of how to not do it. Everyone was out of position and it was just too much. This was fine. 

Rating: ***

Akebono, Masaaki Mochizuki, & Don Fujii vs. Gamma, Susumu Yokosuka, & KAGETORA

Akebono in Dragon Gate sounds weird, but everything I've seen of him in this company (haven't watched the Doi match - never will) has actually been really good. This match is no different as he plays his part very well. He's a wall (at one point he represented a wall) and the smaller wrestlers representing WARRIORS-5 just don't know what to do with him. Yokosuka's lariats, which seem to take everyone down, couldn't even take this big man down (Side note - I could watch Yokosuka hit Akebono all day long). My only real complaint with this match is that when WARRIORS-5 finally got the big man off of his feet, it looked pretty lame. KAGETORA practically missed with an Enziguri and then Gamma and Yokosuka hit him with a Back Suplex. Disappointing, as I think Yokosuka finally chopping Akebono down would've worked much better. Mochizuki and Fujii worked really hard in this one to keep up the pace. Very fun match. 

Rating: ***1/2

PAC, BxB Hulk, & Masato Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid, Akira Tozawa, & Taku Iwasa

Yoshino is golden here. Literally. Bleached hair, gold gear, and a tan that would make Hulk Hogan jealous. While we're on appearances here, the BxB Dance was at an all-time high and watching this reminded me that I really love that entire act, including the great theme song. Hulk is a geek, but a likable geek. This is the MOTN. Yoshino and Dragon Kid are two of the most over acts on the show and the crowd really gets into what they did together. PAC put on an impressive performance here, as did Tozawa. Iwasa, who I didn't realize was still with the company at this point, was actually a nice feature in this match. This was worked much slower than most Triangle Gate matches and part of that was because of Iwasa, who, for whatever reason, got real sick of PAC's flippy shit real fast. A hot finishing stretch makes me give this a double thumbs up. Props to both teams involved. 

Rating: ****

YAMATO & Shingo Takagi vs. Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito

A video package aired before the match showing YAMATO's exit from Real Hazard and him joining forces with Shingo Takagi in Kamikaze. The video package was great. The music mixed with the editing had me totally on board with this team. Then, Shingo and YAMATO make their entrance and Kobe is 100% behind them. Their entrance was an absolute spectacle. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for this match to kick some serious ass and then Real Hazard happened again. Referee Yagi was so out of position for most of the interference spot that it killed any investment I had in this match. Takagi gets brutalized with chairs at one point and then taped to the turnbuckles. He finally gets free and reveals a bunch of blood on his forehead and I still didn't care. This match was so disappointing. I was sitting here, ready to throw out some serious snowflakes, and then this debacle happened. The action down the stretch appeared to be very good but I just didn't care. Clearly, Real Hazard needs to go. 

Rating: **1/2

CIMA vs. Naruki Doi

CIMA is coming into this as Brave Gate Champion, Doi as Dream Gate Champion. By all means, this was a match to make Naruki Doi "the guy" - the next CIMA, if you will. CIMA actually came out after Doi with this grand entrance and looked much more important than Doi ever did, even with his fluffy jackets. This match was horribly boring. I've mentioned on here numerous times that Dragon Gate main events are cumbersome. The big ones start slow and have a big finish. The problem is, anything before the big finish is dreadful. It's limb work that is just "there". I never expect Doi to make anyone submit so I hated seeing him work CIMA's leg over for an eternity. CIMA's comeback wasn't even special, it was just sort of there. And yes, CIMA was the one that made the big comeback, not Doi, who was being groomed for the top spot. This was a match filled with a whole bunch of stuff that didn't mean anything and didn't even satisfy my needs of a hot finish. Doi goes over to continue his lackluster reign which was eventually ended by YAMATO in a match that I really enjoy. Meh. 

Rating: ***1/4

Closing the Gate: Not every show can be a homerun. This was like getting thrown out at third when the game is on the line. Dragon Gate made a risky move and it backfired. Doi was never the ace they wanted him to be and it's showing as now he's much better off as a midcard heel for Mad Blankey. Watching this show felt like watching a WWE PPV in 2015 and I really don't like that. There was nothing on the undercard, a bright spot about halfway through, and then a lame main event. This was not the show for me. Luckily, things look much better for 2010 as YAMATO and Yoshino duke it out for the Dream Gate Championship, Knesuka battles Fujii & Mochizuki, and BxB Hulk and Shingo Takagi put it all on the line as they battle in an epic Hair vs. Hair match! 

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~!