Dragon Gate USA
“Bushido: Code of the Warrior”
October 29th, 2010 Belltime 8:00pm
PAL Hall in Fall River, MA
I will try and keep this review somewhat spoiler free, but a few things I can’t help but to mention.
CIMA comes out and welcomes Ricochet to Warriors International, and says that there could be one more member added to the group before the night over and it could be from someone from this next match.
~ The sound is off for the iPPV, and I mean the sound is happening before the video even shows what happens… makes me a little sad :(. Though I can live, and will try to review this to the best of my ability.
~ Homicide drafted to WORLD-1 this afternoon before the event!
Four Way Freestyle
Chuck Taylor vs. Ricochet vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Arik Cannon
~ Great opener, though I missed most of it because of issues on GoFightLive. I will update this match here soon when I get to re-watch it, hopefully with the issues corrected.
I heard from a friend that it was a good opener and had an interesting outcome.
Special Challenge Match
Homicide vs. Rich Swann
~ Homicide is now a member of WORLD-1 and the announcers even mentioned that he is being looked to fill the void that is being left because of Naruki Doi turning on WORLD1 and joing Takuya Sugawara, and the other ex-members of the heel faction Deep Drunkers.
Homicide is an excellent addition to WORLD-1 and he will have a great flavor to add to the faction.
Rich Swann comes in as the underdog in this match but a lot to gain if he can have a great showing against the Notorious 187. Swann indeed brings in to Homicide showing that he has some fight and heart in him. Swann has impressed me though it seemed he might have been trying to hard, because he showed that he is not a completely polished in his outing. He still shows a lot of room for growth and a future if he keeps training and learning. Homicide though showed that he is the veteran in the ring and why he is one of the top names in the Indy scene.
[63%] ~ For what we where given it was a descent match, and from what I seen from Swann he could branch out in the next few years.
Dream Match – Non-Title
Open The Dream Gate Champion Masato Yoshino vs. Austin Aries
~ Pure Speed vs. Pure Style, that is what I am going to label this match as. Early on Aries tries to run the ropes with Yoshino, but with Aries struggled to keep up. Aries aims to eliminate the legs of the fastest man in professional wrestling. Aries showed the greatness of his technical abilities, busting out the Figure-8 and the Horns of Aries. Yoshino would counteract everything that Aries could dish out by going back to what he does best by utilizing his speed against the methodical Aries. I the end I wanted to love this more than I did. I think the issue is that Yoshino fast style may not have been the best mix with Aries way of wrestling. Even though it seemed to be a dream match on paper, it sort of didn’t catch the crowd’s attention and sort of fell on a odd place when it shouldn’t have.
[62%] ~ It still had some good moments in it, but like I said it was “off” on the steps to deliver it to a higher rating. I still enjoyed seeing them wrestler for the first time
I Quit Match
Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jon Moxley
~ Big start with Jacobs making a dive from the balcony onto Moxley. This match turned into a garbage match quick with Moxley busting out the spike and busting Jacobs up early. The match really didn’t seem to go anywhere from hence forth. Jacobs took the punishment that was dealt and managed to lock in the End Time even with his arms tied behind his back with a strap.
[42%] ~ In the end I couldn’t get into this match at all. I am not the biggest Moxley fan in the world, and this match not being that much of a “wrestling” match did not help things. Just turned into a “blood” match with Jacobs bleeding all over the ring.
Giant Tag Team Attraction
Brodie Lee & Akebono vs. The Osirian Portal
~ Coming into this match I do not know what to expect really. Knowing that The Osirian Portal and Akebono were in this match I was expecting a comedy set up/style. The Portal pull out a snake charm on Akebono and cause him to attack Brodie.
[25%] not much of a wrestling match, but more of a set up for tomorrow’s show which should be interesting to see. It gets a for more points just for building up some heat for tomorrow in my opinion.
Dragon Gate Tag Team Wrestling At Its Best
CIMA & Genki Horiguchi vs. YAMATO & Akira Tozawa
~ I have not seen Tozawa in action much as of late even though I have liked what he has had to offer to the wrestling scene. This match was very good in my opinion, and best so far of the night. All four of these men brought their A game tonight and were landing moves after moves on one another. Horiguchi stands out as someone who has seemed to be doing well for himself since joining up with the WARRIORS, maybe it just made him more noticeable in my opinion.This match was hard hitting and action filled.
[88%] ~ Fun match, hard hitting, solid, clean everything I love to see in DGUSA.
Open The Freedom Gate Title
BxB Hulk defends vs. Shingo
~ The moment I heard this match was on the iPPV I knew I had to see this event. One of the first events I reviewed this year was the Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling Festival KOBE 7/11/2010 PPV, and in that event we got one of the contenders for the match of 2010 between Shingo Takagi and BxB Hulk.
Both men had something to prove going into that match, as it was also a hair vs. hair match. BxB Hulk came into that match as the the Open the Freedom Gate Champion, and beat Shingo in DGUSA for the belt nonetheless, and that did not help Shingo with his hatred towards Hulk. This match was a culmination that spaned all the way back to the Summer of 2008 when Shingo used to call Hulk a weakling. Hulk would do much to prove that he is not a weakling and him having a belt around his waist was proof of that. When the dust settled in that match, well if you are a regular follower of DGUSA you saw the change the beset Hulk without his hair on his head. That match had everything that I could have wanted to see in it and it has and still goes down as a contender as matches of the year for 2010 in my opinion.
So this brings us to today when these two meet again, and I am very much interested in seeing if they can make it two contenders in one year!
Well this match I believed delivered though compared to their match back in July I would still give the edge to the their outing back then over tonight’s, but this is not meant to take anything from the what I just saw tonight. These two have great chemistry with one another and both know each others tactics and moves like they know themselves. Hulk came in using what he knows best and this is his speed and Shingo utilized the power edge that he has over Hulk. Both men would come out fighting and land solid move after solid move throughout the match. You have to give it up to these guys as they seem to keep pushing themselves further and further to the brink of exhaustion. I really do not know how these two can go this hard, but they do it and we the fans get to see one of the more solid matches that DGUSA can offer to us.
[92%] ~ Like I mentioned I usually do not grade on the matches that they had before hand, but it is hard for me not to remember their match earlier this year when it is one of the contenders as standouts this year.
My final thoughts on this event is mixed at best. The final two matches are very much so worth viewing while everything else sort of comes off as something that can be passed for the average fan. Though I would say if you are watching these events in order that it would be worth watching just to see all the “factions” that are officially being formed and what it means for the future events in DGUSA. A few surprises and a two stand out matches do not make this event a complete waste of time, but it does leave me with wanting to see a bit more. Final Score I would say is about a [62 without the first match] but because of the story development and the positives I heard from the first match I will waver it to about a [70%]