Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival 2023, Dragon Gate’s biggest annual event of the year (their version of WrestleMania), is now in the books.
Today’s event was held at Kobe World Hall in Kobe and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK.
The announced paid attendance was 5150.
Pre-show Match 1: Shachihoko BOY, Takashi Yoshida & Problem Dragon beat Genki Horiguchi, Punch Tominaga & Ho Ho Lun. Yoshida pinned Tominaga after Pineapple Bomber.
Pre-show Match 2: KAI & H-Y-O beat Mochizuki Junior & Ryoya Tanaka. H-Y-O pinned Tanaka after Zero Kick.
Match 1: Dragon Dia, La Estrella & Eita beat Kagetora, U-T & Taro Nohashi (Michinoku Pro). Dia pinned U-T after DDDDT.
Match 2: ISHIN beat Open The Brave Gate Champion Jason Lee to win the title. ISHIN becomes the 48th Open The Brave Gate Champion.
Match 3: Kenoh (Pro Wrestling NOAH) & Masaaki Mochizuki beat Don Fujii & Shuji Kondo. Kenoh pinned Fujii after PFS. This was originally to have been Mochizuki & Fujii vs. Kenoh & Kondo but was changed after Kenoh disbanded Kongo last week.
Match 4: TBA, which was revealed as Shingo Takagi (New Japan) beat Ichikawa in 17 seconds. Which led to…
Match 4 (Again): Shingo Takagi beat Ichikawa by TKO. Towel.
Match 5: Open The Twin Gate Champions Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda beat BxB Hulk & Ben-K to retain the titles. Mochizuki pinned Hulk after a modified Yokosuka Cutter. V1 for the champs.
Match 6: Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan) beat YAMATO.
Match 7: Kota Minoura, Minorita & Naruki Doi beat Open The Triangle Gate Champions Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI to win the titles. Minoura, Minorita & Doi become the 86th Open The Triangle Gate Champions. Minoura pinned Kzy after Golden Rose.
Match 8: Open The Dream Gate Champion Madoka Kikuta beat Yuki Yoshioka to retain the title.V1 for Kikuta.
Main Event: In a Mascara Contra Mascara Cage Survival 5-Way Match, where the only way to escape was to climb to the top of the cage and retrieve your mask and the last one left was the ultimate loser, the participants were Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid, Shun Skywalker, Diamante & Strong Machine J. The ultimate loser was Diamante. As a result, Diamante loses his mask.
Next up is KING OF GATE 2023, the promotion’s annual singles tournament, starting Friday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.