Just to add a little more insight into the already mentioned results:
– Moxley got attacked by “fans” who were friends of Homicide after he insulted The Notorious 187. He and Yamato beat them down before Brodie came out for their scheduled match. Yamato had a lot of crowd support and despite taking a beating from Brodie he managed to hit a Brainbuster and then choked him out. After the match the “fans” jumped Mox again and he brawled with them to the back.
– After quite a delay we went to Jigsaw backstage who cut a promo about his upcoming freestyle match. Wasn’t worth the wait.
– Rich Swann came out to regular music and Gargano and Taylor were wearing buttoned up shirts and ties with their wrestling gear which looked funny. He and Jimmy Jacobs worked a pretty good match and Swann got the clean victory after his standing 450. Jacobs looked visibly dejected after the match. The fans begged Swann to sing the song but he was obviously far too tired and merely shouted Ronin. Taylor continued the “let us go to Japan” theme, stating they’d beat Cima and Dragon Kid later.
– More delays as we waited to hear from PAC and Masato Yoshino. Lenny Leonard said something like “you’ve gotta be kidding me” while we were waiting. PAC’s Newcastle accent is amusing to us Brits, dunno about Americans. Standard “we have titles, we are the best” affair with Yoshino chiming in with broken English at the end.
– The Freestyle was pretty wild with everybody getting a chance to do their thing. Frightmare and Jigsaw got surprisingly modest reactions considering this was Philly. AR Fox did his best to steal the show with a tiger wall kick on the apron to the outside into a moonsault and other high flying moves. Too much action to recap. Callihan won with a Sliding-D, I believe he pinned Fox. At some point later in the night he cut a promo while laughing to himself and remarking on how he was going to take out someone bigger and badder and we wouldn’t know where or when. I’m guessing he’ll challenge Brodie.
– Moxley accompanied Akira Tozawa and addressed the “fans” again. Aries brought out Reby Sky who gave him a kiss before the match. Moxley refused to do the same for Tozawa. She did a good job of appearing interested at all times and got involved near the end by giving Moxley a low blow after he shoved Aries off the top rope. Aries also scooped her up and spun her around after rolling out of the ring. Amusingly, Tozawa tried to pick Moxley up to do the same. She distracted Tozawa by giving him a kiss and leaving him hypnotised. We all thought this would lead to the loss but Tozawa countered multiple brainbuster attempts and unthinkably defeated Aries clean after a dead-lift German Suplex followed by an arm-trap German Suplex that left Aries folded up on his neck quite painfully. The announcers put this victory over as the biggest of Tozawa’s career. With Moxley seemingly visibly annoyed by Tozawa’s antics, his refusal to attack Sky last night and Mox demanding he prove himself I figured that perhaps Tozawa would break free of Kamikaze, but we’ll see.
– I can’t remember whose promo came next, but I’ll say it was Ricochet and Naruki Doi. Similar to PAC and Yoshino’s, Ricochet did the talking, Doi threw in a short phrase at the end that did nothing but make him seem silly. I think intermission followed.
– Jimmy Jacobs cut the most embarrassing promo of the night from a technical issues standpoint. He visibly nodded at the cameraman and said OK before turning to the side and staring at the floor and then turning back to camera as if the cameraman had just walked into the room. He then talked about the two losses acting as set-backs but said he’d rebound and get to the title. He then stared at the floor but the shot didn’t cut away. He turned away from camera and stared at nothing behind him and the shot didn’t cut away. He placed the mic down on a table and still we didn’t cut away. Finally, we cut away but maaaan was it awkward.
– BxB Hulk beat Jon Moxley with relative ease despite a little interference from Akira Tozawa. They didn’t do an awful lot with the No DQ stipulation other than have Mox refuse to break submissions in the ropes and to let Tozawa interfere. Moxley used an Ace Crusher again as another shout-out to Homicide. BxB did all the moves he always does and won with a monstrously stiff First Flash right to the side of the head. Mox was holding his jaw as he headed to the back.
– Ronin beat Cima and Dragon Kid to continue the weekend of shocking results. Swann accompanied them and performed the song live this time. They had surprisingly good chemistry and it was a back and forth affair. The thing I noted most was that Lenny Leonard and Leonard Chikarason apparently weren’t briefed before the show about who was a heel and who was a face. Lenny kept running Ronin down and defending Cima, while Chikarason pointed out how Cima had a change of attitude and was attacking Ronin for no good reason. I’d been to a live TNA show in London before this event so I’ll admit I fell asleep for a minute or two during this match, but what I saw was awesome. Gargano debuted a new submission move and I believe he used it to win the match. It was Alex Shelley’s Border City Stretch (a modified Crossface). After the match Taylor said this was undisputed proof they belong in Japan. Cima said they did, but they’d be going over as ‘Young Boys’. Blood Warriors gave Ronin a gang beatdown. I seem to remember hearing Super Shenlong II gets beaten down on a regular basis in DG, so I’m guessing Young-Boys learn respect the hard way.
– The main event was pretty amazing. PAC and Ricochet played a game of “can you do this?” Ricochet had the edge early but PAC won in the end with some crazy corkscrew moves. It was a battle of the Corkscrew Shooting Star and the 630 but PAC staked his claim as the world’s best high-flyer by hitting a 630 of his own. Doi and Yoshino were there too and had some really nice interactions, but as the match broke down into an aerial duel the DG natives seemed to be only interjecting themselves when they got a chance and Yoshino eventually made Ricochet tap to the Sol Naciente. PAC confirmed that he and Yoshino would get another win tomorrow and win the titles. Yoshino thanked everyone for coming.
– To recap that’s 4 Points for Ronin, 4 Points for World-1 and 0 Points for both Blood Warriors teams. Given only Ronin or World-1 can win the tournament now I’d guess the Blood Warriors teams will dance around each other and then refuse to fight resulting in some kind of improvised 8-man tag or something. They stressed the whole 1-point for a draw thing a lot ahead of time and during both of these events, so don’t rule out World-1 and Ronin drawing and ending with 5 points each… but that would be a waste of the entire triple-shot and a PPV so I hope they follow through and give the belts to someone definitively. I’d say that the fact Yoshino and PAC already hold belts in Japan and the fact PAC is a sporadic performer in the States in addition to the fact Ronin have caught on quick would mean they should get the belts, but PAC signed a deal earlier this year that seems to indicate he’ll be at DGUSA on a regular basis, so who knows.
– This iPPV was very different to the NYC show which had no intermission and every match bled together. Each of the matches here was followed by a backstage promo and pretty much every one of them carried with them some kind of technical issue. There was an intermission and there were problems with that too, namely we were promised a series of video packages but saw nothing but the GoFightLive logo and heard crowd noise. At times we heard the audio portion of some of these videos, but we never saw any of them. The technical issues were just plain embarrassing, the worst I’ve covered during the ‘iPPV era’ and it was a clear sign they’re nowhere near as proficient as ROH when it comes to executing them.
– The wrestling content was a bit better than the NYC Show in my opinion but featured just as many surprise results with Tozawa beating Aries clean, Swann defeating Jimmy Jacobs, Yamato choking Brodie Lee out, and Ronin defeating Cima & Dragon Kid.