Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival (2018)

The Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival (2018) or often reffered as Kobe World was a professional wrestling event promoted by Dragon Gate (DG). The event took place on July 28, 2018, at the World Memorial Hall in Kobe, Japan. It was be the 15th Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival, which is Dragon Gate's biggest annual event and its similar to NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom. The event is available in their streaming service Dragon Gate Network.

The show was headlined by the winner of the 2018 King of Gate Masato Yoshino defending the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Shingo Takagi in a rematch from the King of Gate. Another high-profile match scheduled for the show was Dragon Kid defending the Open The Brave Gate Championship against Eita. The event included Hiro Saito, Tatsumi Fujinami and Yoshiaki Fujiwara as special guest for the event.

Two other title matches also took place on the show with Big Ben (Ben-K and Big R Shimizu) defending the Open The Twin Gate Championship against Tribe Vanguard (BxB Hulk and YAMATO) and Natural Vibes (Kzy, Genki Horiguchi and Susumu Yokosuka) defending the Open The Triangle Gate Championship against ANTIAS (Takashi Yoshida, Yasushi Kanda and Masato Tanaka). All in all, the event featured nine matches (including one on the pre-show).

Background
The Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival 2018 was officially announced in January 2018. Tickets for the event went on sale on April 18, 2018. The will air live through Dragon Gate's internet streaming site, Dragon Gate Network, with Japanese language commentaries. The Japanese commentary will be provided by Katsuya Ichikawa. The event also aired on tape delay on Japanese TV Gaora Sports to be launched in Dragon Gate's ~ Infinity ~ Series. On April 18, Dragon Gate announced on Twitter that tickets would go on May 20.

The event will feature former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami, his son LEONA and Yoshiaki Fujiwara as special guests for the event. Fujinami made an appearance for Dragon Gate in May 2018, teaming with Dragon Kid, and Masaaki Mochizuki in a loss against Shingo Takagi, Takashi Yoshida, and Yuko Miyamoto. Meanwhile, Fujiwara as made appearances since 2013 usually appearing for the Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival, with his last appearance being in the 2016 Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival teaming with Masaaki Mochizuki in a winning effort against Don Fujii and Masakatsu Funaki. It was later announced that Fujinami, LEONA and Fujiwara would also participate in the event.

On June 27, it was announced that contract signing ceremony for the title matches would be held on July 21, broadcasting live for free at Dragon Gate's internet streaming service Dragon Gate Network. On July 4, Dragon Gate announced that some seats were already sold out. The following day, it was announced the full card of the event, containing nine matches, which four are contested for championships. On July 15, it was announced that LEONA would be unable to take part of the event, after suffering a broken left foot, he was replace by Hiro Saito who is also signed by Dradition. Two days later, it was reported Oji Shiiba suffered a lower back injury and would be pulled out of the show, he was replaced by Yuki Yoshioka who will compete in the event twice, on pre-show and the following match.

Storylines
The Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival was be main evented by Masato Yoshino defending the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Shingo Takagi. The storyline behind the match dates back to 2015. In August 2015, Takagi started showing some signs of a heel turn, after berating T-Hawk for losing against Yoshino at Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival and started to have some tension with Yoshino, due to forming a team with T-Hawk. Takagi and Yoshino were both parts of the same stable Monster Express. Yoshino and Takagi agreed to a match for the Open The Dream Gate Championship against Yoshino at Dangerous Gate. At Dangerous Gate, Yoshino lost the title to Takagi. After the match, Takagi finally turned heel, after turning on his Monster Express, Yoshino, and Shachihoko BOY. Takagi would then dominate Open The Dream Gate Championship title picture for almost a year, losing it once, but quickly regaining it in March. He would lose the title to YAMATO at 2016 Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival in July 2016. Meanwhile, Yoshino would spend most of his time in the mid-card defending the Open The Triangle Gate Championship, which he, T-Hawk and Akira Tozawa won defeating Takagi, Naruki Doi and YAMATO to win the vacant titles and later being sidelined for almost a year due to a back injury, which almost forced him to retire. Takagi and Yoshino would then be part of a losing disband match between VerserK led by Takagi and Monster Express led by Yoshino, which ended with VerserK forcing Monster Express to disband. VerserK kept feuding with Yoshino, Naruki Doi, and Kotoka, which led to the formation of MaxiMuM.

Yoshino and Takagi would cross path again in May 2018 during the King of Gate tournament, where Yoshino and Takagi were placed in block D. Takagi would end up defeating Yoshino for the second time in almost two years since their last match. Takagi would finish the tournament with a record of two wins, one double count out, and one loss against Susumu Yokosuka cost him a place in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Yoshino won his block with a record of two wins, one loss, and one draw, advancing both to the semifinals of the tournament. On June 1, Yoshino defeated Takagi's ANTIAS (formerly VerserK) stablemate Takashi Yoshida to advance to the finals of the tournament. On June 9, Yoshino defeated YAMATO in the finals to become the first wrestler to win the King of Gate for the second time. The following day, Yoshino defeated Masaaki Mochizuki to win the Open The Dream Gate Championship for the fourth time tying Takagi's record of most reigns as Open The Dream Gate Champion. Following the match, Takagi confronted Yoshino and called his win against Mochizuki and YAMATO a "fluke" and that his lost against him was the only decisive match he had was when he lost to Takagi. Takagi stated that he didn't accepted Yoshino as champion and that he should give him the title. This led to General Manager Takayuki Yagi making the match official for the main event of the Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival. On July 5, Takagi requested that if he defeated Yoshino for the title at the main event, he would declare himself President and would change Dragon Gate and close the door to the previous era and create one in his own image. Takagi was also upset at Kido after Yoshino was included to the Board of Directors and he was left off, following the Dragon Gate restructure.

On April 7, 2016, Eita invited Dragon Kid to join Over Generation, which he accepted. The two subsequently formed a team as part of Over Generation. On May 5, at Dead or Alive, Eita and Kid, unsuccessfully challenged Big R Shimizu and T-Hawk for the Open The Twin Gate Championship. In August, Eita and Kid took part in the Summer Adventure Tag League. They ended up winning the tournament defeating "brother" YASSHI and Naruki Doi in the finals of the tournament. This led to them receiving another match for the Open The Twin Gate Championship, this time losing to Jimmy Kagetora and Jimmy Susumu. During this time, Eita won the Open The Brave Gate Championship, but the title was declared vacated in March of the following year. On November 8, Eita turned on Kid and rejoined VerserK revealing he was their newest member. In May 2018, Eita and Kid took part in the King of Gate tournament. Kid would face Eita in his first tournament match. Eita would injury Kid on purpose, leading to him forfeiting the rest of his matches in the King of Gate. On May 21 at Dragon Gate NEX Sanctuary.165, Kid served as special ring announcer for the show, Eita would make an appearance at the show attacking Kid. During the tournament, Kid and Eita agreed to a losing disband match between Over Generation and ANTIAS (formerly VerserK) on July 5, due to Kid being injured. On June 10, ANTIAS defeated Over Generation, with Eita pinning Kid to gain the advantage in the Losing disband match on July 5. After the match, Eita stated that Kid was "devaluing the championship", leading to General Manager Takayuki Yagi to make the match official for the event. On June 30, Eita and Takagi defeated Kid and Yoshino to win the prelude match, with Eita pinning Kid for the win. However, on July 5, Over Generation would be disbanded after 4 falls with Eita pinning agin Kid for the win.

On July 5, ANTIAS forced Over Generation to disband after defeating them in a Naniwa Elimination Rules match, with Eita pinning Kid. Following the match, the leader of ANTIAS Shingo Takagi challenged Natural Vibes (Kzy, Genki Horiguchi and Susumu Yokosuka) to a match for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. However, ANTIAS had only left two members which were Takashi Yoshida and Yasushi Kanda. Takagi announced that Masato Tanaka as the newest member of the stable, having now a third member to challenge for the titles, leading to General Manager Takayuki Yagi making the match official for the Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival. Early that night, Natural Vibes made their first successful title defense against Don Fujii, K-ness and Ryo Saito.

In the Open The Twin Gate Championship, Big Ben (Ben-K and Big R Shimizu) will make their second title defense against Tribe Vanguard (BxB Hulk and YAMATO). On June 16, YAMATO and Hulk teamed with their Tribe Vanguard stablemates Kagetora and Yosuke♡Santa Maria in a winning effort against Shimizu, Ben-K and their MaxiMuM stablemates Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino, with YAMATO pinning Shimizu after Doi an accidentally cost him the match. After the match, YAMATO and Hulk challenged Ben-K and Shimizu to a title match, since Ben-K and Shimizu had defeated their stablemates Kagetora and Maria before to make their first successful title defense, leading to General Manager Takayuki Yagi making the match official for the Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival.

Preliminary matches
The pay-per-view started with a match between Kota Minoura and Yuki Yoshioka (who replaced Oji Shiiba after suffering a lower back injury), which was won by Yoshioka after submitting Minoura with a Boston Crab to end the pre-show.

The pay-per-view opened with and intro, which was followed by Katsuya Ichikawa and YAMATO on commentary and then the Dragon Storm theme by JAM Project while also displaying the full match of the event and all championship matches at the event and also introducing Hiro Saito, Tatsumi Fujinami and Yoshiaki Fujiwara as special guest for the event to introduce the show.

In the first official match for the show, U-T, Kaito Ishida, Shun Skywalker, Hyou Watanabe and Yuki Yoshioka faced Gamma, K-ness, "brother" YASSHI, Mondai Ryu and Shachihoko BOY. In the end, Skywalker performed the Skywalker Moonsault on BOY for his team to win the match. After the match, Skywalker reaffirmed that he and Masaaki Mochizuki were going to the AJPW's Jr. Tag Battle of Glory with the intention of winning the tournament and was just one step for him to the top of Dragon Gate. YAMATO would then leave the commentary table, he would be replace by K-ness.

Next it was a singles match between Ryo Saito and "Hollywood" Stalker Ichikawa. During the match, South Korean mixed martial artist Choi Hong Man was seated at ringside and had an altercation after Ichikawa who challenged him to get to the ring and even tried to perform a body splash on him, but failed and the two were quickly overpowered by him, prompting an apology from them and both wrestlers returned to the ring. In the end of the match, Ichikawa was pinning Saito with a leverage pin, but broke it and complained to referee Takayuki Yagi for couting too slow, which led Saito telling Yagi to cot faster, which Saito took the oppurtunity and pinned Ichikawa after a schoolboy after Yagi made a fast count resulting in Saito's win.

The following match featured Natural Vibes (Kzy, Genki Horiguchi and Susumu Yokosuka) defending the Open The Triangle Gate Championship against ANTIAS (Takashi Yoshida, Yasushi Kanda and Masato Tanaka). Before the match started it was showed a promo of the title match. Following the entrances, started the championship ceremony between the two teams. During the introduction of Natural Vibes, ANTIAS immediately attack them. Mondai Ryu would replace K-ness in the commentary table. In the last moments of the match, Yoshida would hit Kzy with the Poison mist, which was followed by a schoolboy by Kanda, which Kzy kicked out at two. Kzy would pin Kanda with the Skayde Schoolboy on him for the win. Takashi Yoshida would then take the title from the referee Takayuki Yagi, until Yagi returned the titles to Natural Vibes and the three would celebrate their victory.

The next match was the Open The Brave Gate Championship match where Dragon Kid defended the title against Eita. Before the match started it was shown a promo of the title match. Following the entrances, it was given to Dragon Kid a boquet of flowers, which Eita stole and tossed it outside of the ring, leading to the championship ceremony and then the introduction of both wrestlers. In the final moments of the match, Eita would hit Kid with the Murder Kick on him, but he kicked out at two. Eita would then put in the third turnbuckle and he would hit Kid with a chair, whixh was followed by the Salamander to become the new champion. After the match, Eita took Kid's mask, Kid's former Over Generation stablemate Kaito Ishida covered his face with a towel, which Eita also took off, and Ishida would help Kid to get to his feet and taking him to the backtsage. Kid accepted his loss, but vowed to pay him back for taking his mask. Eita would then bragged about forcing Over Generation to disband, defeating him for the championship and taking his mask. He stated that if they meet again he would end his career once and for all.

The following match was the International Six-man tag team match, where Tribe Vanguard (Flamita, Kagetora and Yosuke♡Santa Maria) faced Bandido, Jason Lee and Naruki Doi. Before the match started Susumu Yoksuka joined the commentary table, replacing Mondai Ryu who was on commentary for the fourth match. In the end, Flamita would perform the Flam Fly on Bandido, but he kicked out, Flamita would hit Bandido with the Phoenix Splash to win the match. Following the match, Flamita would help Bandido get to his feet. Maria would also shake Lee and Bandido's hand, but he would kiss instead of shaking his hand.

Following the match, the pay-per-view would stop for a break. During the match it was showed a match between Shingo Takagi and Masato Yoshino during the King of Gate. Ryo Saito would replace Susumu Yokosuka on the commentary table during the break. In the end, Takagi would hit Yoshino with the Pumping Bomber to win the match. Following the match, Katsuya Ichikawa announced the schedule for the August series. Naruki Doi replaced Ryo Saito on the commentary table and then Ichikawa would ask Doi his opinion on the upcoming Open The Dream and Twin Gate Championship, which Doi MaxiMuM's stablemates would take part of that matches.

After fifteen minutes of break the pay-per-view continued and it was followed by a Six-man tag team match, where Hiro Saito, Masaaki Mochizuki and Tatsumi Fujinami faced Don Fujii, Punch Tominaga and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. In the end, Mochizuki would hit Tominaga iwth the Buzzsaw Kick, which was followed by a stading senton splash by Saito and then the Dragon Sleeper by Fujinami to end the match. After the match, Saito Mochizuki, Fujinami and Fujii shook hands, while Fujiwara grabbed Tominaga and blamed him for the loss, Fujiwara would shake Fujii's hands and leave to the back, which was followed by Fujii, Tominaga, Mochizuki, Saito and Fujinami.

The following match featured Big Ben (Ben-K and Big R Shimizu) defending the Open The Twin Gate Championship against Tribe Vanguard (BxB Hulk and YAMATO). Before the match started it was showed a promo of the title match. Following the entrances, started the championship ceremony between the two teams.

Main Event
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Reception
Luke Hickey in his review of the event for Indy Corner stated that the event was "a very good" while also praising the semi-main event and main event. Case Lowe in his review of the event for Voices of Wrestling the exceeded his expectations "from an in-ring standpoint" [...] and was also "fun, which Dragon Gate lacked this year". He also praised all title matches, except the Open The Brave Gate Championship, which he didn't like the end and the build up of Dragon Kid escaping the Murder Kick and Numero Uno, calling it a "poor job" from them. He would compare their match with the last years Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival Open The Brave Gate Championship between Kagetora and Flamita for both matches not standing out in some manner.

Aftermath
Following the event, Dragon Gate announced that BxB Hulk and YAMATO would defend the Open The Twin Gate Championship against Big R Shimizu and Naruki Doi. It was also announced that Dragon Gate would hold live events in Hong Kong on October 22 and 23 and later secure a venue to run regular events. The shows will also be streamed on the Dragon Gate Network.