Dragongate
Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival 2026
July 20, 2026
Kobe World Hall
Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
Watch: Dragongate LIVE
An oft-cited quote (usually misattributed to Albert Einstein) states that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. For many Dragongate fans, this could unfortunately describe their relationship with the promotion in the first half of 2026. As a collective, we switch on the Network to watch the latest Dragongate show, hoping against hope for an uptick in form, for something to sink our teeth into, for something that points to a more hopeful immediate future for the company.
Nearly every single time, we are left disappointed.
Whether it is that aforementioned insanity, or just a form of hopeful naivety that means we return each month even as the promotion offers little to tantalize, intrigue, or excite, many Dragongate fans will be turning on Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival, hoping that the event can light a spark for the second half of the year. Whether that’s KZY finally winning the Dream Gate after so many years of being the nearly man, whether it’s Ryoya Tanaka becoming the most successful Brave Gate champion of all time, or whether it’s Kota Minoura and Yuki Yoshiaka becoming some puro version of the Mega Powers and taking the gold from Team 204, there might just be something there. However, once bitten, twice shy: the promotion has been one step forward, two steps back all year, and with booking the occasional boggles the mind, it is just as likely we are left on Monday scratching our head and questioning our sanity.
Pre-Show Six Man Tag Team Match
Mondai Ryu, Shachihoko BOY & Takashi vs. Ho Ho Lun, Punch Tominaga & Tristan Moody
Usually, I wouldn’t bother giving this match much thought, but it at least has one noteworthy reason for exploring in a little more detail. This is the official Dragongate debut of Tristan Moody, a worker who impressed during trials held over WrestleMania Weekend. With money tight at the best of time, the powers that be must think a lot of Moody to fly him out in order to join the Kobe World card, even if only on the pre-show. Moody’s debut elevates what otherwise feels like a match thrown together to give people some part of the Kobe payday as much as anything else. If they are as high on Moody as they seem to be, it wouldn’t surprise me if they give him/his team the victory in this opening contest. Prediction: Ho Ho Lun, Punch Tominaga, and Tristan Moody
AKEY & Ryu Fuda vs. Kazuma Kimura & Mochizuki Jr.
One of the biggest problems with this card is that you can see wasted potential almost everywhere you look. Arguably, nowhere is that more egregious than the (official) opening match of the card as AKEY and Ryu Fuda battle Kazuma Kimura and Mochizuki Jr. Whilst it is perhaps understanding why some of these workers are lounging in the curtain jerker (Fuda’s inability to maintain consistency and stay healthy for longer than a month or two a clear example), Mochizuki Jr.’s continued irrelevance boggles the mind. Having been involved in a number of significant matches and moments since his debut, this is the most aimless that the younger Mochizuki has felt. The promotion’s seeming ambivalence to Love and Peace doesn’t help; they have had some gold, sure, but they are often underutilized in the wider scheme of things.
Kimura has at least been given some direction by ending up the first choice for Ryoya Tanaka’s new unit, though unfortunately, this development leaves him in somewhat of a holding pattern until that group officially begins. As for AKEY, he ends up here as much due to being the odd man out of Natural Vibes and needing a spot on the card. What I do believe is we are in for a good (if short) match as all four can bring it when required and will want to showcase what they are capable of. As for the winners, it could go either way really but I feel that Kimura’s positioning alongside Tanaka makes a victory for his duo more likely. Prediction: Kazuma Kimura and Mochizuki Jr.
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Jiro Shinbashi
One of those moments where I just hold my hands up and say that I don’t know Funaki. I’ve heard of the name, know of his links to Pancrase, but don’t think I have ever watched a match he’s been in. People seemed excited to see him up against Jiro Shinbashi, and as long as I see Shinbashi’s falling dive that never fails to pop me, I’ll be happy. I do think too much of Shinbashi’s shtick plays to the native audience, which is to be understood, so it does put somewhat of a cap on my enjoyment, but this’ll be largely inoffensive. Prediction: Masakatsu Funaki
Open The Triangle Gate Title Match (vacant)
Natural Vibes (GuC, Strong Machine J & U-T) vs. Love And Peace (Hyo, JACKY KAMEI & Riiita)
I echo Case Lowe’s concerns about the placement of this match in the running order. Having spent the last few months messing about with title changes on small independent promotions, the company isn’t exactly putting this match to crown the 100th Open The Triangle Gate champions in a particularly prominent place. This is a particular shame when you have at least four of your best current workers in the match (GuC, Hyo, JACKY KAMEI, Riiita), one of the most underrated tag workers in the company (U-T) and…well, Strong Machine J, who couldn’t be colder if he tried. On paper, this could be something special, but in all reality, it’ll be lucky to breach the ten-minute mark. I trust in what these two teams are capable of from bell to bell, it is just a shame that they aren’t in a position to do more. Sadly, this speaks volumes for the derisory way in which the Triangle Gate titles have been treated for a while now; you’d think that a milestone such as the 100th champion might be easy enough to build to and make feel important, yet somehow they’ve pissed that all away.
Hyo, KAMEI, and Riiita feel like the team that should come out on top in this match, though my concern is that it will be to feed into a wider Strong Machine J heel turn narrative that could play out across this show and beyond, more so than them being positioned as the better team. How the company continues to overlook KAMEI and Riiita in particular is beyond me. They are a team that consistently delivers when given the chance (he isn’t dubbed ‘Big Match’ Jack for no reason), and they are one of the lingering bright spots in a promotion that has lost its way in 2026. Gold around the L&P trio should at least mean that they get some more prominent spots alongside some momentum going forward, but the way this promotion has been booked this year, it’ll probably be only to drop the titles to a team of fifty-plus-year-olds and some point further down the line. Cynical? yes. Possible? Wouldn’t put it past them. Prediction: Love and Peace (Hyo, JACKY KAMEI and Riiita)
Dragon Bane, Flamita & Luis Mante vs. Gajadokuro (Jason Lee & KAI) & Alpha Wolf vs. El Cielo, Gianni Valletta & Shun Skywalker
This match is a perfect example of a contest that you know will probably be good but you can still feel largely apathetic about its existence. Many fans seem to have quickly come to terms with Shun Skywalker’s decision to leave the promotion, but his exit ramp has felt– like many things this year – half-baked and largely unsatisfactory. This, what one can assume is Shun’s final Kobe World for a long while if not ever, could have been a special chance to throw some names into a match that could serve as a celebration of Skywalker’s decade in Dragongate, yet what we got instead is a couple of workers linked to Shun, a couple of outsiders, and a Psypatra reunion that no-one was really asking for. There are a number of good to great workers in this match and that should mean that the actual spectacle should be well worth our time; it just doesn’t feel like the special offer that it could have been.
This is possibly hurt by the lack of Ben-K through injury, who feels like someone who would have been effectively positioned either alongside or in opposition to Shun in a match at Kobe World. Jason Lee and Luis Mante have had their issues with Shun over the years, so their inclusion ticks a box, yet the way the card has been booked means there is no chance to utilize Hyo, Yuki Yoshioka, Kota Minoura, or Homare. This could also be argued as a match that most obviously is hurt by Dragon Dia’s decision to leave the company. A nod to Shun’s turn on Dia and the latter’s mask loss would have been good to play up on Skywalker’s way out. Alas and alack, there is no turning back.
The old school wrestling fan in me wants Skywalker to go out on his shield, and he did already give up a fall to Valetta in recent weeks. However, the part of me that thinks I can visualize the finish to this match is a King Kong Knee Drop on Jason Lee in order to give Psypatra the win, if not Skywalker, the direct pinfall victory. Prediction: Psypatra
Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi, Kenichiro Arai, Masaaki Mochizuki, Ultimo Dragon & Yasushi Kanda vs. PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Dragon Kid, KAGETORA, Naruki Doi, Susumu Yokosuka & YAMATO)
I feel like a toy stuck on repeat when I say that this also seems like a somewhat wasted opportunity. The amount of attention the company wants to put into an anniversary match is ultimately up to them, but given the person (YAMATO) and the time (twenty years) being celebrated, it is a little weak to give the touch football match of the night as your celebratory event. YAMATO was the Dream Gate champion not that long ago and has been drifting aimlessly for the past year, with this match symbolic of how much it feels like the company has forgotten one of their best ever. What this match at least does is tie down some of the workers who have been over-exposed in positions that they really shouldn’t be in at this advanced stage in their career, meaning that they can all be dealt with so to speak in one match rather than spread their prevailing sense of mid across the whole card.
I don’t really care for this match, nor who wins it really, but I hope they at least give the victory to YAMATO to make up for the apathetic manner in which this match has come about. Prediction: PARADOX
Open The Twin Gate Title Match
Gajadokuro (ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato) (c) vs. Kota Minoura & Yuki Yoshioka
The biggest problems with the booking for Dragongate this year have been its safety, whilst also being very protracted at times in its execution. Therefore, you know what is coming, yet you have to wait what feels like forever and a day to get it. This is what the Kota Minoura turn – or more appropriately, his expulsion from Gajadokuro – felt like. Nobody was surprised when they ousted him; nobody was surprised when Jason Lee didn’t join him; nobody was surprised when Yoshioka came out to save Minoura and the two decided to team up. All of this could have been resolved a lot sooner, and we could have done more work to establish the Minoura/Yoshioka pair by this point.
However, green shoots of recovery and all that – the reaction of the Korakuen Hall fans to Minoura and Yoshioka joining forces was very positive. This might give each man some much-needed momentum; Minoura has never really managed to overcome the botched main event push several years ago, whilst Yoshioka’s return from injury has led to flickers of what he once was, but he hasn’t been able to reach the heights he once set. The lack of overt charisma within both men would need to be addressed in any prolonged unit involvement, though if the fans are at least making positive noises, it can only be a good thing.
My hope had been that ISHIN would actually be the one who turned face, working towards a more significant push as a face. His involvement with the various tag team title shenanigans – All Japan and Ryukyu Pro titles briefly finding their way around his and Kato’s waist – has at least had him in a prominent position on the card, yet he still feels somewhat underutilized for what I feel he could offer. Kato is one of the few net positives about Gajadokuro, benefitting from being surrounded by a range of strong individual workers, even if their unit as a whole isn’t quite working out.
A Yoshioka/Minoura win feels like the only acceptable end to this contest: a Team 204 successful defense would cut the newly minted face duo off at the knees, and I don’t think the idea of some form of double decision (countout, DQ, no contest) would really benefit anyone. You get the tag gold off of ISHIN and Kato as a starting point to what could be a bad night for the heel unit, using this as a catalyst for improvement (as well as some re-shuffling of units) going forward. Prediction: Kota Minoura and Yuki Yoshioka
Open The Brave Gate Title Match
Ryoya Tanaka (c) vs. Homare
Bang the bad booking drum once more! On paper, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this match. Indeed, this feels like it could be a dry run for a much more significant match three to five years down the road if both workers continue to live up to their potential. However, with Tanaka one Brave Gate Title defense away from becoming the sole owner of the record for most defenses in a single reign, the plugging of Homare into the match – and the way he has been booked up until that point – just feels poorly judged. What could be a genuinely exciting semi-main event (which should, it must be said, deliver in the ring irrelevant of booking decisions outside of the ring) has been hampered by how weak Homare has looked since losing his hair in the Dead or Alive cage match.
If the company knew that they wanted Homare opposite Tanaka in this spotlight match on the card, all they needed to do was to use the embarrassment of having his hair shaved and ending the existence of Psypatra to have him go on a tear. Give him some victories, meaningful victories, and it wouldn’t take much to see him as a viable contender to the belt and someone who could stop Tanaka from taking the record. Unfortunately, the company seemingly decided that beating him like a drum for a couple of months was the opportune way to treat their next Brave Gate contender.
Whilst it always felt like Tanaka was being handed a run at the record from early on in the reign, a sense of peril as to whether he would etch his name in the record books would be good. Instead, they are left with Tanaka beating a guy that you’d expect him to beat – I mean, who hasn’t beat him recently? – or Homare winning out of nowhere and potentially undoing some of the good work Tanaka has done this past year in elevating the gold. This run of matches has been too good to completely undo it by botching the landing, but in a time where Tanaka has been talked up as a viable Dream Gate challenger at this very show, to not execute the switch effectively would waste all that forward momentum.
What this boils down to is the simple question: why would you have Homare beat Tanaka? Hopefully, the answer is just as simple. You don’t. Prediction: Ryoya Tanaka
Open The Dream Gate Title Match
Madoka Kikuta (c) vs. Kzy
Booking the main event on your biggest show of the year should not be that difficult, especially when your champion is the leader of the heel unit that has run roughshod over the promotion for what feels like an interminable length of time. You decide who you want to be the guy who usurps him, you spend two or three Korakuen cycles having that choice knock off noteworthy opponents – hell, you have a whole unit full of them – and make it feel like this will be ‘the guy’ who finally topples the dominant heel champion. Cue cheers and tears amongst the Dragongate faithful at the dawning of a new era.
Instead, the Dragongate fans are being given a match that feels as thrown together as it has been. Having been a guy who has been skirting in and around the main event throughout my time as a Dragongate fan, this past year has felt like a down year for Kzy. He continues to deliver in the ring, sure, but outside of the Shimizu versus Vibes feud from earlier in the year, Kzy just hasn’t felt that important to the promotion’s storylines. Kzy had been a wrestler that many fans would have loved to see win the gold a couple of years ago, but many of those same fans felt like they had largely accepted that he would never achieve the big one. What could have felt like a real moment – all it would have required is a build that had Kzy rallying the troops to try and down Gajadukuro once and for all – instead feels like a desperate measure. Whilst I will still enjoy if (and when, in my eyes) Kzy wins the gold at Kobe World, it feels like the moment may have come that bit too late to be the celebration it should have been.
There has been some discussion as to whether Kzy was always the likely choice for this role, though battling against a Dream Gate carrying Shimizu instead of Kikuta. To me, that feels like people trying to offer the promotion a way out of what has been, at best, a rushed booking and, at worst, a poor one. Shimizu had barrelled through Vibes pre-injury and it very much felt like that chapter was closed. Even if this was the direction the promotion was heading, Shimizu’s injury occurred long enough ago that they could have course-corrected, yet seemingly haven’t. Therefore, you end up with a title match pitting a champion who has been a net negative to the title against a popular worker who feels about as cold as he has in the past three years.
The one positive that I can throw in the direction of the match is that I do think it has the potential to be really good. KZY is a sympathy machine when he gets going and if they lean into Kikuta the bully, building towards the B Boy overcoming the odds to topple the champion, this has the potential to be the best match of the reign up until now. Admittedly, that is a low bar for a reign that hasn’t always delivered in the ring, but you take what you can get.
Ultimately, that is my hope. I think the obvious off-ramp was for Kikuta to lose to Yuki Yoshioka at Uno! Dos!! Tres!!!, but with that being ignored, I think Kzy will at least give the fans something to enjoy. Sure, it may lead to a Strong Machine J heel turn, and there is no indication that he (or the company) will be able to stick that landing, but the Kikuta run has gone on too long with few, if any, tangible benefits. Get the gold on Kzy, let him have some no-nonsense title defenses, and just stabilise things with a popular champion as you work on getting your house in order underneath him. Prediction: Kzy
The promotion’s problems will not all be fixed by close of play on Monday 20th. However, they do have the chance to begin to move the pieces at their disposal into better positions for the future at Kobe World. Taking the title from Kikuta will be the first step. Kzy time might not be the time we all want, but it is – in our heart of hearts – the time we need.
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