Open the Brave Gate Championship Match: Keisuke Okuda (c) vs. Kaito Ishida
A great match to kick off Kobe World for many reasons. This is a serious contender for Feud Of The Year based on the storytelling that has been intertwined with the company wide feud as well as having enough juice to stand out. As well as the interesting stipulation that was attached to this - Okuda only allowed Ishida a rematch if it was in the opening match, a call back to Kaito Ishida wanting his title defence against Yosuke Santa Maria to be the opener of the show out of disrespect. This is the 4th match between these two with Ishida leading the tally 2-1 but Okuda is champion and has the momentum advantage.
The match is exactly what you expect from these two. It’s very physical with a lot of strikes being thrown and aggressive but it’s worked like a sprint. They don’t waste time getting into the meat of the match either with Ishida going for Okuda’s knee instantly with kicks (and some help with chairs after R.E.D distracted Yagi). I feel like in their last match the strike exchanges didn’t work as well as they could’ve and they weren’t really sold well but they fixed that for this match. Okuda threw in some brutal bicycle knees that caught Ishida flush on the jaw once or twice. Ishida had some great suplex counters, catching Okuda out time and time again until Okuda was able to land on his feet from a half and half suplex and lock in the choke to get the definitive win. Perfect opener where they beat the shit out of each other, encapsulating all of their hits from prior matches in a compact way. ***3/4
Boku R Shimizu & Ryo Saito vs. Taketo Kamei & Madoka Kikuta
While I’m sad that Big R Shimizu, who is one of the best bell to bell wrestlers on the roster, is forced into a comedy gimmick that pretty much confirms that he’s not going to be much of a main eventer for the near future, he does well within the parameters of the gimmick. The match isn’t exactly played for laughs and is wrestled in a straight way with Kamei and Kikuta pushing Saito and Big R to their limits and actually overcomes the experience gap and wins. Shock win. Impressive efforts from the rookies, Kamei especially. ***
Dragon Dia vs. Dia Inferno
The first battle of what I imagine is the next gen version of what Dragon Kid v Darkness Dragon/K-Ness and while this doesn’t last too long, I think it was a great hint of what these two will go onto do in a bigger match. Dragon Dia got a special entrance with live singers and dancers for his Kobe World entrance, so he is being established as a star. Dia Inferno has no interest in exchanging high flying moves, using more punishing submission while trying to remove the mask of Dragon Dia. A good first step to build upon. **1/2
Open the Twin Gate Championship Match (Vacant): Dragon Gate (Kota Minoura & YAMATO) vs. R.E.D (BxB Hulk & KAI)
This could've been hindered by Jason Lee being taken out due to fever but it works just fine. YAMATO has history with Hulk and KAI (I’m confused why he wasn’t booked against these two when they didn’t climax the feud yet honestly) so he makes sense as a replacement. The start of the match had a lot of brawling and it took time for the match to simmer down into a controlled pace with R.E.D dominating the match with their team work. Minoura received most of the brunt of it but YAMATO was constantly being cut off from helping. Minoura bumped and sold well for his team, mostly being on the defensive. The match was a little sloppy and rushed. There was a lot of things that needed Minoura to be in a certain position when he was selling so it didn’t flow well like the usual standard DG match. ***1/2
Open the Triangle Gate 3 Way Championship Match: R.E.D (Takashi Yoshida, Kazma Sakamoto & SB KENTo) (c) vs. Dragon Kid, Masato Yoshino, Kagetora vs. Dragon Gate (Ben-K, Yosuke♡Santa Maria & U-T)
This fits into the whole show. It doesn’t really feel like a big triangle gate title match like you’d expect. One their biggest show, you have to raise your expectations and this didn’t really meet those expectations. Judging by the length of the match, it seems like they did attempt to have a super great match in the way DG can only do but it never peaked. For a long while, the match never seemed to progress until the end. It had all the usual hits but it just didn’t work for me. SBKENTo continues to show promise, tapping out Masato Yoshino of all people and there was a lot of fluid tag work. So there is some goodness in this. ***
Open the Dream Gate Championship Match: Eita (c) vs Shun Skywalker
I feel like a lot of Dream Gate matches get hyped up as some epic bombfests and they never are. Shingo Takagi used to have that method but others like YAMATO, Mochizuki, Doi and now Eita, it’s more technical. Perhaps not in the traditional wrestling sense but there is a certain tricky set-up for these matches. And this was the same. Shun Skywalker left DG for his excursion after losing to Ben-K and now he’s back, with more intentful submissions straight out of El Solar’s repertoire and a more pin-point tope, putting all of what he learned to beat Eita straight up. It was a definitive win. Eita was meticulous with his submissions and offence as always and he was fairly competitive but he was overwhelmed and out-fought by Shun in the end. A very good main event that sets up Skywalker as a star and rightful champion. ***3/4
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