Man, if you thought that WrestleMania was the only thing going on in Phoenix, AZ during the weekend the WWE is roosting in the desert metropolis for its marquee event, well, you might want to think again. Phoenix will be a mecca for wrestling that weekend as both ROH and Dragon Gate USA will be having shows there that weekend. This is fairly old news, but the two rival indies are starting to ramp up their drives to get people to choose one of them over the other. Some of these matches that have been announced are sounding like A-grade material. With the WrestleMania card that has been announced thus far looking like a real winner, Phoenix has a potential to be a real wrestling oasis in late March.ROH has already announced two "personal gauntlet" matches. Tyler Black will be the first to run the gauntlet when he runs up against Roderick Strong and Austin Aries consecutively on March 26th in a non-title situation. The next day, he'll be on the back-end of Strong's own gauntlet, featuring Austin Aries on the front end, in the only matches announced for March 27th thus far. I find this to be an interesting booking decision. Opening in a new market without a World Title defense on either card is a bit risky, but given the personal history amongst all three men and given how over they are with the ROH crowds, it will probably work. Still, I would have done Davey Richards vs. Tyler Black for the title on the 27th for a few reasons. One, having a similar gauntlet on two shows could run the risk of seeming stale for the WM matinee show. Two, Richards is the brand new PWG World Champion, and with Phoenix's proximity to PWG's home base in LA, it makes sense to put a guy who has that kind of credibility with the fans in a title match. Three, well, it'll add gravity to the events instead of saying "feh, Phoenix, we really don't care enough about you to give you a World Championship match". Plus, he could potentially be the TV and Tag Champion as well, so that would add an extra story to the match.
The other matches for March 26th that have been announced sound pretty tantalizing as well. As I mentioned before, Richards and his doubly named partner Eddie Edwards have their rematch against the Briscoe Bros. in what should be hot affair. I heard they tore the roof down at Final Battle, so you know they're going to put their game faces on for the new market of Phoenix. A grudge match between El Generico and Steve Corino has also been announced, which should be good. Corino knows how to bump and bleed, two things that will help Generico's offense carry the weight needed for the extra emotional charge in this match. I love Generico, but he'll need help from Corino to make his offense seem less technical/high-flying and more like he hates Corino. Finally, in another rematch from Final Battle, Rocky Romero takes on Alex Kozlov. Both guys are lucha mainstays, so it makes sense that they make another appearance for ROH when ROH comes close to their home base. Also notably appearing is Scott Lost, who's a PWG mainstay. Again, it makes sense for him to be appearing in ROH since it's so close to where his home base is, but I've heard good things about him and want to see him travel to the East Coast every once in awhile.
Since DGUSA started announcing matchups before ROH, it would be disingenuous to say they replied to that slate with their lineups, but man, they are countering with strong matches on both days so far. "Open the Ultimate Gate" on March 26th will feature a big title match, and for the first time, one of the regular DG titles will be defended on the card. In a title vs. title match, the Open the Freedom Gate Champion BxB Hulk will take on the Open the Dream Gate Champion Naruki Doi. This is the kind of match you go with when you're opening in a new market and having a show on the same weekend in the same city as WrestleMania. Hulk is one of the most over DG natives in America, and Doi's reputation precedes him. This should be an intense match with everything on the line, even if both guys are in the same stable.
Also on the card is a six-man match that will probably blow the roof off the joint - Jack Evans and the Young Bucks taking on the WARRIORS-5 team of CIMA, Dragon Kid and the debuting-in-America Gamma. Masato Yoshino will battle Shingo Takagi in a continuation of their DGUSA feud, and Paul London will team with Jimmy Jacobs against his former WWE tag partner Brian Kendrick with Jon Moxley. That's about the only match that I'm not super-psyched for if only because I find Kendrick and Moxley utterly painful to watch in DGUSA. Also announced to appear at this show are El Hijo del Rey Mysterio, whom I can only imagine is Rey Mysterio Jr.'s brother (or son?) and LA PARK, who competed as La Parka in WCW. LA MOTHERFUCKING PARKA~! That's what I'm talking about. Neither guy is booked in a match yet, but I can only imagine that they'll be facing off in the same match, either as teammates or opponents. I'm not hip enough on my lucha to know what their affiliations are, but maybe those two team against QuackSaw? Yeah, I'd dig that.
The show on the 27th will not be directly competing with ROH unlike the show on the 26th. Bell-time is at 8PM, while the ROH show is a matinee, so it's possible for a double-dip. Out of the gate, "Mercury Rising" doesn't have the cache of the Doi/Hulk title vs. title match, but it has a 6-man match that again has potential to bring down the Celebrity Theater from the inside. The main event features the aforementioned WARRIORS-5 team against the WORLD-1 team of night one opponents BxB Hulk and Naruki Doi along with partner Masato Yoshino. Also, YAMATO is booked against Susumu Yokosuka, and in the big feature name match, Tommy Dreamer will wrestle in a three-way against Jacobs and Moxley. Even though I don't have high hopes for the match, I'm glad Dreamer is still finding work. He wasn't half bad in the WWE, and I'm glad he got out of there before he had a chance to be swallowed up in a brand that wasn't ECW.
WrestleMania weekend in Phoenix sounds like it's a must-see. If you're in the greater Phoenix area, SoCal or anywhere in driving distance, make it out to the city even if you don't have tickets to WM. It sounds like there's a going to be a great weekend of grappling for fans of all kinds of the sport. But if you have tickets to one of the Friday shows, both Saturday shows and WrestleMania itself, I'm officially jealous of you. Bastard.
