I just got back from Dragon Gate USA's historic first show, and let me say, without hyperbole that it was the best wrestling show I have ever seen in my life. Honestly, I have to think about it to come up with something that comes remotely close. Seven matches, all of them at least 3-and-a-half stars or better. The close quarters of the ECW Arena. Familiar and new faces. Tag team wrestling that featured more tag team psychology in one night than the WWE has shown in the last 18 months. A hot, hot crowd. This show had it all.
I missed the opening opening match as we were in line outside the arena waiting to get in. WE ended up upgrading our tickets to 5th row, but it was too late for us to see the match. I heard it was a fun battle royale type though.
Dawn Marie was our host, and although she put on a little weight, she still looked real good. Her ring announcing left something to be desired, but hey, if that's the worst part of the night (and it was), then it was gonna be a good show.
First match was Yamato against BxB Hulk. This was a fun opener, and the crowd was really behind Hulk. Yamato was probably the most over heel of the night. Hulk has some really, really good kicks. Good match, but he spent the end of the match playing up the "I'm really gonna finish him" angle, but attempted one too many finishers, missing on a top-rope move. Yamato capitalized and won after hitting a head drop (I'm foggy on what exactly it was).
Second match featured two gaijin, Ken "Kenny Dykstra" Doane against 2 Cold Scorpio. Doane played heel, and he wasn't helped by the crowd, our group included, giving him shit for several different reasons. Some of the chants:
"We want Ziggler" (in reference to his former Spirit Squad member and WWE up-and-comer)
"We want Mickie" (James, Doane's former girlfriend)
"Kenny Dykstra"
"You got fired"
"Vince don't like you"
He was eating it up though. This was a really fun match. Doane did the heel thing with a lot of restholds, chinlocks and sleepers, really ticked the crowd off. When Scorpio was on offense, he played up the confident veteran, almost toying with Doane. Scorpio still had it, proving that even at his age he's still one of the best in the world. Finish saw Scorp hit a nice corkscrew front-flip leg drop. They played up the respect angle at the end, and the crowd gave Doane his due.
Next up was the Chikara 8-man tag. The crowd was really hot for this, as the entire tecnico team (Mike Quackenbush, the Colony and Jigsaw) as did Hallowicked on the rudo team (HW being a rudo in name only for the match). Great match with a lot of great psychology. Amasis spent a good amount of his ring-time hamming it up, which was great. Gran Akuma's kicks made gunshots look tame. There were a lot of really cool team-up moves, and Quack actually looked really good for having just come back off back surgery. Again, there was more tag team psychology in this one match than you'd see in 18 months in the WWE. The best was when Jigsaw was going to go for a tope suicida on one of the rudos, and Gran Akuma just comes out of nowhere and belts him from the apron before he can launch. The finish was really one of those "special-move-o-mania" clear outs with Jigsaw and I want to say Icarus left in the ring. Jigsaw hit the Jig 'n Tonic (go to 1:20 on that video for a visual). Game over.
Quack cut a promo after the match putting over Jorge Rivera, trainer for most of the Chikara and Dragon Gate guys, and then talking about the "sibling rivalry" between the partner promotions. He issued an open challenge, which was seemingly answered by Yamato, who kicked Quack in the nuts and attacked him after saying how much he didn't respect Quack, Rivera and Chikara. Jigsaw made the save, but then Gran Akuma came out, seemingly as back-up until he kicked Jigsaw in the nuts and then started to attack Quack as well. The rest of the Chikarmy came out from the back and cleared out the ring, and thus we had set up for the Chicago show.
Next match was a barnburner between Masato Yoshino and Dragon Kid. This match was so fast-paced, as JR would say, quicker than a hiccup. I mean, it was AMAZING how quickly and crisply these guys moved. Both guys were big high flyers and DK got the duke. Post match, 2 Cold Scorpio made another appearance. He put over all the history from the Arena, mentioning Psycosis, Sabu, Rey Mysterio, Eddy Guerrero and Dean Malenko. Then he put over DK and Yoshino, saying they were the new legends of the Arena and that there needed to be a rematch, which I can only assume will happen at the Chicago show.
Intermission was next. When we came back, Dawn Marie announced that the next show in Philly would be in November and would be called "Open the Freedom Gate". It will be an 8-man, one-night tournament to crown the first ever Open the Freedom Gate Champion, which will basically become the American equivalent to the Open the Dream Gate Championship, DGJapan's main title. If you can't tell already, I will be attending that one too.
The first match after intermission was the match of the night. The Young Bucks, whom I remember from the Chikara King of Trios tournament, took on Susumu Yokosuku and CIMA. There were so many great spots, so many sick moves, so many big bumps, so many memorable moments... I didn't want this match to end. The most memorable spot out of the bunch happened right in front of our section, actually. Yokosuku draped one of the Bucks across the guardrail and held him there. CIMA went into the crowd, leapt onto the guardrail, springboarding (for lack of a better term) off the rail and onto the Jackson brother's outstretched abdomen with a double-stomp. It was a sight to behold, and in a match with more big spots than Philly has cheesesteaks, it stood out as the spot of the night. We chanted "Warriors! Warriors!" on more than one occasion. The Bucks got the big win after a big highspot flurry on Yokosuku. Afterwards, both teams got in the ring and congratulated each other on the match. Then, one of the Bucks got on the mic and basically said they were the best team in the world and were challenging anyone in the back. After watching that, I'd be hard-pressed to think of any team in the big two companies better than they were. Of course, there are a bunch of great tag teams on the indie-level, like the Osirian Portal, Los Ice Creams, the Super Smash Bros., the American Wolves and Generico/Steen, but the Bucks can hang with those teams like they did with two of the best wrestlers in the world.
The only problem with the main event was that the crowd was so drained by the tag match. I know I was. I barely had any juice for the main, but it was still another great match, this one between Shingo and Open the Dream Gate Champion Naruki Doi. There was a lot of head-dropping and stiff striking in this match. Shingo sold the leg most of the match, and there was a lot of trading blows. Doi got the win, as expected, with the Muscular Bomb. As sick as it looked on streaming video, it looked that much nastier in person. Doi is a true performer, although I thought Shingo would make more of an immediate impact Stateside.
Honestly, if you weren't there tonight, you missed out on a great show. I strongly urge you to order this on pay-per-view, more than anything else I've ever recommended in my entire life. The matches were fantastic, the crowd was hot and I honestly don't think you need to know much about the wrestlers going in, because you'll learn about who they are in each match you watch.
And special shoutouts to Tom Kingsmill and Sean McLaughlin for coming out with me tonight, and to all the folks out there that I met up from various corners of the world, including Marty Day, Stan Mikita, Mikey Nunes and the Connecticut Playaz, and of course Zia-saurus Hiltey and her Paul Bearer t-shirt. I had a great time tonight, and I hope all you guys did too.
Banner by K. Sawyer Paul
