09/06 Dragon Gate USA @ Congress Theater

On the way home, I grabbed the healthiest dinner imaginable at 10pm on a Sunday night – steak quesadilla from Taco Bell with a giant Mountain Dew. Seeing as I won’t be sleeping ever again, I figure I might use my time a bit wisely and get this written up while I’m still thinking about it.

non spoiler summary: Dragon Gate USA’s debut show in Chicago was a very strong show. I’ve watched next to nil indy wrestling this year and I’m not big on star ratings, so your millage may vary. To my eyes, it had a match I thought was match of the year caliber, and it also had match which everyone in the world will think is MOTYC. There were three more pretty good matches and a couple OK match. If you’re interested in this style of wrestling, you’ll be very satisfied with the PPV and the DVD, and I’d highly recommend people checking out the next show in Chicago (01/23/10).

The rest of this is going to be the usual 50,000 words length. You’ve been warned.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen the ROH crowd, but this pretty much seemed like the same group. Maybe a handful of faces I might’ve seen the previous for the Perros del Mal show, which is kinda of a shame because this was actually similarly family friendly (no one showcasing their vocabulary as Damian and Parka did on their show, for one.) Crowd was a little bit down from last week’s lucha show, but more than I was guessing – 90-95% of the chairs set up were filled. Getting in was a bit problematic, because everyone assumed the line that was going out the front door was to get your ticket checked, but it was actually the lines for both the Highspots merchandise booth and the JR & King autograph booth. Didn’t bother with either.

DG had a different set up for their show, but the ring was basically in the same place. They put a few rows of seats on the empty stage, with a main camera behind it. (Also seemed like they had someone shooting the show from the balcony at times – maybe that was the main camera, now that I think about it- and two guys at ringside.) There was a video screen for the entrance way, but it played the same minute long DG roster photo video thru the matches, and the YouTube promo videos in between matches. There was actually an entrance curtain, and then a false side (where hidden people seemed to occasionally be watching matches), and at least one person tried to go thru the false side before figuring out their mistake.

Think the crowd got more into the CHIKARA match because we saw the post match angle about six or seven times. Same thing, to lesser extents, for the Young Bucks and Dragon/Yoshino. (Also, it’s weird how Scorpio looks exactly the same as always and 100 years old, depending on if you can see his face or not. Too bad Scorpio Jr. beat him for his mask!) Probably could’ve used videos for other guys as well; there were people who were avid DG fans, but a lot who just knew there was going to be good wrestling and didn’t necessarily know all these people. (Also, it would save us having to watch the same video 7 times. You know, word on the street is there was a bit of sibling rivalry between Chikara and Dragon Gate.) There was also an ad for AAW shown at times, but the video was so absurdly dim, you couldn’t make any one out but one shot of Jimmy Jacobs.

Besides the two video camera guys, there were about six different photo people. They were all clearly told not to hang out in the path of the main camera, so there were four people crowding around each side of the ring, leaning under the bottom rope to take photos. Which made it pretty impossible to actually see anything happening on the mat, if you were on one of those sides, like I was. DG should make some more money by selling the stage seats for $5, because it had to be more than much better view.

I didn’t dare take any cell phone pics, in fear of the digital camera gestapo taking me out. Some people were smart enough to bring disposal cameras.

Fray started at 4:37, which is pretty close to being on time. Refs on the night were Bryce and PJ. I thought they alternated the matches, but now I think Bryce somehow did the last two matches.

0) the FRAY.

                In Out
Hallowicked     1   7 (Gargano) got over as the guy lasting the whole way who might pull it out
Arik Cannon     2   1 (Hallowicked) looked good for his time in, good interacting with the crowd
Louis London    3   2 (Mustafa Ali) as Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon? Fun, way into character
Shiima Xion     4   3 (Johnny Gargona) no perfume! better run here than in AAA.
Mustafa Ali     5   4 (don't remember!)	neat finish, facing the wrong way 450 splash. Has promise, this one.
Johnny Gargano  6   WINNER! didn't impress me much; very much A Guy in a match with a lot of personalities
Great Malaki    7   5 (Flip Kendrick) fire hands bit got over, but crowd treated him as a nobody. Had his managers.
Flip Kendrick   8   6 (Johnny Gargona) hit big dive, then blew next spots in ring, then looked great again. Who he is.

Actual show started at 6:07

1) Dragon Kid b Masato Yoshino

Haven’t seen the PPV, so can’t really rate how this compares to the previous one. Pretty sure it’ll come off as good; crowd was really excited to be at Dragon Gate and way into the action. Personal highlight of this was seeing people sit down in the row in front of me who were wearing business wear – buttoned up shirts and ties. Ties! Of course, they turn out to be the ones way more into the action than anyone else. As I’m a awful contrarian, kinda put me off when these two did a normal trip, cover for zero, trip, cover for zero, standoff, and crowd reacted like they just cured global warming. Match caught up with the reaction. Kid’s spinning armscissors into a spinning headscissors is very Dorada-rific; this is much more a move comment than a size one: he’s totally a missing CMLL mini tecnico. Good build to lots of near fall finishes (c&p for the rest of the show) – Yoshino survived the springboard ‘rana, and I think counted the Dragon ‘rana. Yoshino’s offense was really good, but didn’t stick in my head. May be my head. Finish was a modified crucifix rollup, which seemed a little lesser than prior near falls, but saw the same hold being used for finishes in the video packages, so perhaps it has some extra meaning. Time stamps have this ~14 minutes, but why am I bothered with the time when jae will have it later? Because I need to make this even longer, for sure.

Dragon tried to get the handshake again after the match, but Yoshino walked out on him. Some moments of this show felt quite early Code of Honor-rific.

2) Mike Quackenbush (O) & Jigsaw b YAMATO & Gran Akuma (X)

Rudos jumped tecnicos before introductions could be made, very much disappointing the people who had streamers ready. Rudos ridded themselves of Quack rather quickly, attacking his lower back, then went about destroying Jigsaw’s (left?) leg for many minutes. Even much later in the match, Jigsaw was still feeling the pain in his leg from the work the heels did, and appeared to untie the boot to check on the foot at one point, which I assumed was just dedication but others think might be more. YAMATO is a very hateable man, Akuma’s offense looked sharp, and Quack is Quack. When Quack finally got the hot the tag, it turned out the match wasn’t even close to being over – long stretch of near falls and break ups. YAMATO and Akuma got bumped into each other not long before the endgame, and YAMATO accidentally speared his partner before the finish (Quack Driver #2, I think). YAMATO had a really great looking spear early in the match; he’s the guy I came out most interested in.

After the finish, Yamato put Quack out with his Doujime Sleeper. Jigsaw was out of the ring, and out of commission, so it Hallowicked had to run out to make the save. Yamato and Akuma seemed to be on good terms as they left, so their problems seemed of the usual rudo miscommunication. Perhaps they’re setting up a trios next time?

PROMO: Young Bucks came out to repeat their “tag team of the present” speech we’d heard two or three times already. There point is they think they’re as good as any team in the world, and deserving of making the main event a title match. They demand an answer, and instead get Jimmy Jacobs (w/Mustafa Ali). Crowd is very surprised, interested to see Jacobs. Jaobs says this isn’t an invasion, but a recruitment -he’s up to something, he’s got a track record of making stars, and he’s going to do it again. Mustafa has already joined up, what about the Bucks? Bucks quickly respond that if Jacobs is working with the likes of Ali, then they don’t want any part of it. Surely as horribly offended as I was, Jacobs and Ali jump the Young Bucks. Tecnicos turn the tables shortly, but don’t get to breath before Genki and Ryo are out to clock them with belt shots. Closest the Bucks got to the titles tonight.

3) Naruki Doi b Bryan Danielson

Danielson was introduced as the man who needs no introduction. No music, just lights out, Danielson in the ring, lights on. Crowd tried but couldn’t get to singing the song. (They had a better attempt during early mat work.) Danielson worked this as subtle rudo, with the story of Doi surviving everything Danielson could give him. Crowd decided the story was Danielson is awesome and will be missed so he needs to be loudly supported. Hope Doi is righthanded, because Danielson did nasty things to his left arm early on. Really, it was Danielson getting so much from stretching the arm different ways which made me think this match was MOTYC awesome, even before the crazy near falls at the end. Had to be the match before intermission, because there was no way to follow this. Doi got the pin with the Muscular Bomb, which looked a heck of a lot better than when Joe Lider does it. (That’s called a freaking obvious comment.) WON STAR RATING GUESS: ****1/4

After the match, Danielson continues his putting everyone tour by drawing the crowd’s attention to Doi being pretty great here. Nice someone noticed. Danielson then brought up the Best In The World chants; he hasn’t felt like he’s earned it this year, because there are great people who’ve been surpassing him, like Davey Richards. And he hopes Davey or someone earns that Best in the World tag with him not around any more, and he hopes we keep supporting indy wrestling. Final Countdown plays (which must mean this part won’t air), and Danielson leaves…to go sign autographs during intermission. I beat the crowd so fast, I’m nearly trampled coming back with my food.

4) CIMA b Brian Kendrick

Brian Kendrich had his jacket, which is all I really wanted out of this match. Most unnoteworthy match of the night, it was good but just kinda there compared to the rest, and it didn’t feel like Kendrick was showing as much as might be expected. CIMA was strongly over. Kendrick speared himself on the post at one point, head stuck in the corner and backside pointed towards the ring, and CIMA decided the thing to do would be to undo his own tights and – well, whatever, Bryce saved us that. Kendrick later showed of someone of what we’ve seen, pulling CIMA’s trunks down on a nearfall. CIMA picked up the win with the Meteora, and did his gesture bit, and everyone happily did it with him. Hooray.

5) Davey Richards b Shingo

Shingo’s buzz cut caught most by surprise – he did a lot of head rubbing as he entered, to point out what he was missing there.

Probably about 12 minutes into this match, I was sure 99% of the crowd would’ve picked this match as Match of the Night, and I was mentally writing my dissident article about how Danielson/Doi was actually better: this was brutally stiff at points so I had the “you’re only supposed to pretend to hit each other, dorks!” bit ready, plus the lack of indy wrestling I’ve seen probably means I hadn’t gotten as much over Richards looking like Chris Benoit’s sprite from WCW vs the World come to life (even standing just like every character in the game, chest bowed out just so) not to be a bit disconcerted about that – I had plenty to work with, I feel. I’m not writing that paragraph, because this kept going for seemingly 15 minutes, getting better the whole, and I’d have to be insane to actually believe this was lesser.

Spot of the night was Richards pulling a solo Ultimo Dragoncito – Shingo ducked out (and had previously pulled in the barricade to keep it out of the way), and Richards tope con giro took him into the third row, and probably into a fan since they weren’t clearing out too fast. Seemed like everyone was OK.

ROH-type matches sometimes get bad raps for going too long; passing up a really hot finish for a less impressive one a few minutes down the road. Thought that was going to happen here at times, but they kept going bigger and better, and then kicking out of that. (Pretty true of the show, overall.) Not that everything hit wasn’t hit hard, but Shingo had some hellacious looking lariats. Finish was a Richards SSP, Shingo kicking out, and Davey staying on top for the Kimura with neckscissors. C&P from wikipedia really does work!

Davey gave Shingo credit for a hard fight (and gave his wife credit for telling him he was wrong when he said it’d be an easy night.) Davey called out Danielson, as his quasi-mentor, to tell him in person if he earned that Best in the World. Danielson put him over strong, Davey thanked him, and then promptly laid him out. Richards angrily yelled that he doesn’t need anyone to anoint him, he’s the best, and he’s winning the Freedom Gate. Davey stormed off, Danielson quietly left.

WON STAR RATING GUESS: ****3/4 – which doesn’t make much sense, because there was more than a half star rating between this and the other one. Davey Richards is still missing a personality or an aura, but Danielson seemed to get one just by being awesome and trying strange things, so it can happen.

6) Ryo Saito & Genki Horguchi b Young Bucks

So, yea, follow that. Not going to happen. Because of how the angles were laid out, and because surely they want to make new stars of the US based talent, this order made sense, but it was a very tough situation. Crowd seemed most unfamiliar with the tag champs of all the DG-Japan guys (and it’s not like the Bucks are that well known yet, and they really need to do something to look less like the Hardy Boys as the Rockers) – the hardcore DG fans were doing H-A-G-E chants, while people near me were making “AJ Feeley? HA HA HA HA” jokes. Match seemed to have a slow start, but picked up as the rudos took control. Fun spot was Nick (?) Jackson getting dumped over the barricade at a high rate of speed (everyone smart having cleared out of the way), Genki making a pile of every available chair, and dumping Nick on them. There were early spots that revolved around the Bucks attacking Genki’s weave, and the rudos later retaliating by going after one of the Jackson’s ponytails.

Lot of near fall break ups in the end game. Nick (?) accidentally killed Bryce with a superkick and, as it always goes, the tecnicos immediately destroyed Saito – I guess the melody of moves was “More Bang for Your Buck” – but of course Bryce was dead and could not count. Genki returned to blow blue mist in Matt (?)’s face. Nick was removed, and Saito finished Matt with the Double Cross for the win. Nick complained about the obviousness of the mist after the match. Bryce did check it out, but apparently decided he wasn’t going to overrule the decision in favor of a pushy guy who kicked him in the face. Fair enough!

Show cleared out pretty rapidly, though the merchandise stands got one final look over. There was a very nice Averno mask that almost came home with me, but I couldn’t justify paying $35 for it when I know I can find one cheaper elsewhere. I looked over the DVDs a bit, but the Mask vs Mask match had Angel Azteca vs Arkangel, and I don’t want to see it again. Looked a little bit for CHIKARA merchandise but didn’t see much (probably needed to look better), then gave up and headed home. And then typed this!

Next show is 01/23, and I’d be surprised if I didn’t go. Next show of any wrestling kind at Congress is LuchaVaVoom. I’m feeling the total opposite as I did most of last week’s show – I had such a fun time, I can’t wait to go. Plus, much like DGUSA, LuchaVaVoom is professional enough to keep things moving. Also, being the only human being to pay to go to all three shows may earn me the crown as most eclectic hipster wrestling fan, and I do need a new hat. We’ll see if I feel excited. on on the 19th.

I can’t imagine anyone still has a question after this, but if you survived all that text and want to know something, there is a comment section below. No, really!