Just got back from the third DGUSA card, Open the Freedom Gate, where they crowned their first ever American-based Champion. Hey, remember when I predicted that it would be Davey Richards going over CIMA for the Open the Freedom Gate Championship? Yeah, I was way off. Neither guy was involved in the final fall.I sprung for the upgrade and got to catch the dark matches. There were supposed to be three, but we were all informed that the start of the festivities would be delayed by about 15 minutes to allow all the fans to be able to get to The Arena, as there was a nasty accident on the PA Turnpike. Then, they announced that Jigsaw, who was slated to be in the six-man qualifier for the title, and Eddie Kingston, who was scheduled to be in the main dark match against Hallowicked, were caught in that traffic jam. Neither of them made it on time, so Hallowicked got bumped up to the qualifier, and then Kingston and Jigsaw were put in a match that actually made the PPV. Score for both King and Wicked!
The first dark match featured Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole, two up-and-comers. The crowd was hot for O'Reilly, who came out dressed in Irish-themed tights and to the Dropkick Murphys' "Shipping Up to Boston". Fun match, and O'Reilly really likes to use chain move combos. He won the match with a tornado DDT rolled into a brainbuster.
Next up, B-Boy, a familiar name whom I'd never seen before, took on Jon Moxley. Moxley had like no heat whatsoever, and was really bland. The crowd ate up B-Boy, who looked like Homicide missing some of his front teeth. Okay match that ended way too abruptly and haphazardly. Moxley hit a double-knee armbreaker out of nowhere (and not in a good, hey-the-Diamond-Cutter-can-finish-you-at-any-time out of nowhere either) and then B-Boy weakly tapped to a Fujiwara armbar. Yawn.
PPV cameras started rolling after that, and we were off with our first qualifying match, Hallowicked vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Gran Akuma vs. Lince Dorado vs. the Young Bucks. This was a very fast-paced, very indieriffic spotfest that made the most out of displaying everyone's strengths. The Bucks teased implosion throughout the match, but worked as a team for the most part until about three-quarters into the match. They tussled and the crowd ate it up. Some really jaw-dropping spots, mostly perpetrated by Lince, who cleared the guardrails on a plancha. Amazing. Akuma took the finish by hitting Gargano with a head-and-arm spider superplex and then a moonsault in rapid succession.
The next qualifier was one of the two singles matches, BxB Hulk taking on Brian Kendrick. Okay match, not much to write home about. Crowd was red-hot for Hulk though, lukewarm for Kendrick. Hulk won, and then afterwards, Kendrick cut a strange promo about how he was an artist and how he was in it for himself. He verbally threatened both ring announcer Brian Harvey and referee extraordinaire Bryce Remsberg and threw what amounted to a temper tantrum in the ring when everyone came out of the back (and by everyone, I mean Cole, O'Reilly and Moxley). Moxley got on the stick, said something that agree with what Kendrick was saying and then both of them started beating up on everyone in the vicinity. I'm guessing they'll be a tag team in the future, especially should they add tag belts for the American side (and with the Bucks, Doi/Yoshino, CIMA/Susumu, that Jimmy Jacobs vehicle they debuted in Chicago, YAMATO/Akuma and of course, the Open the Twin Gate Champions Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito, they certainly have enough tag teams).
Third qualifier was the Salute to Skayde, which pitted Skayde himself, Jorge Rivera against CIMA, Super Crazy and Mike Quackenbush. Very fast-paced lucha-fest. The best part of the match was Rivera and all his lucha wizardry. CIMA got the win though, which prompted a shove from Quack post-match. Don't know what they're going for exactly, but I'm guessing it'll be a feud between Skayde's two best pupils who aren't getting tossed around by Batista in the WWE.
The final qualifier and the final match for the first half of the card pitted Davey Richards against YAMATO. It was a fine match, alright, Richards with his kicks and YAMATO with his various arm strikes. Richards got some major air on a shooting star press that YAMATO actually blocked. The spot of the match came early as Richards knocked YAMATO into the front row of the crowd onto some fans with a big strike, so much so that the crowd chanted "She's hardcore!" at the chick they landed on for taking it so well.
Both guys were set up as major heels on previous cards, but both guys got really good reactions from the crowd as faces. Weird. Anyway, my prediction of Richards being the first OtFG Champion was shot to hell when YAMATO pinned him clean with the Galleria (go to about 2:10 on the video). I was stunned. Crowd loved it regardless, although I thought the match went about five minutes too long.
The best three matches of the night took place after intermission. The first one was the aforementioned battle between the two guys late to the show, Kingston and Jigsaw. If you've seen either guy wrestle in Chikara, it was like that. Very fun match, a lot of energy, a lot of counters and strikes. Kingston caught a lot of shit from the crowd for his weight. IF he can't escape that in an indie crowd, imagine how he'd be treated in the WWE should he make it there. Anyway, Jig won with a double stomp from the top.
THe next match was one-half of the main event and the match of the night from where I sat. Masato Yoshino teamed up with Naruki Doi to take on Shingo and Dragon Kid. This is the match that stemmed from Yoshino refusing to shake Kid's hand after the match they had in Chicago. This was what we'd come to expect from the DGUSA wrestlers. Lighting-fast action, a lot of high-impact moves, a lot of drama and a lot of stiffness. Match ended with Dragon Kid tapping to Yoshino with the Sol Naciente (0:59 on the vid). Afterwards, Yoshino mockingly offered his hand to Kid, which got Shingo's panties in a bunch. After Shingo and Kid were separated from them and left, the Bucks came out and challenged Yoshino and Doi to a tag match "any time, any place", which I'm assuming will either be at the next Chicago show or at the big WrestleMania shows in Phoenix. Again, I'm sensing the construction of a tag division.
The final match was the four-way elimination for the title, Akuma vs. Hulk vs. CIMA vs. YAMATO. Another fine, fun match. Akuma and YAMATO, best buds from when they ran down Quack and Skayde and double-teamed Quack and then Jig at the first DGUSA show, teamed up the entire match. In a funny bit, CIMA feigned alliance with Hulk, attacked him, offered a 3-on-1 with Akuma and YAMATO and then got attacked by the two rudos. CIMA is a riot. Really great performer all-around. I thought he'd be the one to take the final fall against Richards. He was the first to be eliminated, taking a fall against YAMATO. The two heels worked over Hulk, but Hulk worked back and found a way to take out Akuma, which left him and YAMATO for the title. Hulk, the crowd firmly behind him, took out YAMATO with a sitout tombstone and became the first ever OtFG Champion.
Post-match, Richards came out, said that there were two ways to put a Champion on notice, one being to challenge him, and before he came with the second one, he put a boot to Hulk's midsection. YAMATO came out and joined in the beatdown.
My final thought was that it was good but disappointing. The first half of the card felt like it dragged, something I didn't get at any point in the first card. I guess they set the bar so high with the first Philly card that my expectations were too high going in. Still, the second half more than made up for it, and I think that if they kept coming with shows of this caliber that it'll be a worthy once-a-year expense for a live ticket and very worth following on DVD or Youtube.
