DGUSA 09/09/2011 ‘Chasing the Dragon’ 2011 Live Review

There’s something about Indianapolis. I always seem to have a great time and really positive experiences. September 9, 2011 was another great fun night in Indy. Dragon Gate USA came back with a bang. Maybe they didn’t have their best show of the year, but there were a number of eye opening things that did happen, along with an unforgettable main event that took high flying to the next level. When I walked up to the building, I saw Salvation Army trucks. Lots of them. Not exactly a theater or a National Guard Armory is it? The doors opened close to seven, and I had the chance to select a 2006 FIP DVD as my free gift for buying front row. I picked the one with Roderick Strong wrestling Cyber Kong for obvious reasons. I’m hoping DG USA takes that as a hint TO BRING OVER CYBER KONG! Anyway, I grabbed my seat and got myself ready for the show.

The bonus card was more eventful than usual. Jesse Emerson and Chrisjen Hayme were all set to have a match until Hayme hit his shoulder and head on the floor on a dive attempt. The match was immediately stopped, and a number of officials ran out to help Hayme. Based on everything I heard, Hayme is alright, but it was a very scary situation. Not ten minutes afterward, Drake Younger fell off the middle turnbuckle onto four chairs placed outside the ring. This was the dumbest bump of the night, and it won’t even make the DG USA DVD. Dave Crist looked like the most impressive performer of everyone on the bonus card, and I can only hope Irish Airborne get a chance to shine at some point in DG USA. While watching these first three matches, I noticed no special lighting. So this is the first DG USA show ever where the stars would be under fluorescent lighting. It’ll have that authentic IWA-MS feel for better or worse. Based on this fact alone, I’m almost glad the show couldn’t be on iPPV.

Tag team discovery opened the card as The Scene of Scott Reed and Caleb Konley made their debut as a team against Remi Wilkins and Tripp Cassidy. The discovery may have been the only disappointment of the night. Wilkins and Cassidy looked like complete jobbers and didn’t have any business touching a DG USA ring. Konley, who has changed his look to not look like Brian Kendrick, and Reed are solid, but they’ve got a long way to go before the audience accepts them. It doesn’t help that Larry Dallas continues to interject himself in DG USA despite the stipulation saying otherwise. If The Scene comes out of this weekend with three wins (a definite possibility considering what happened later with Ronin) and Larry Dallas becomes a part of DG USA, this will end up being the one negative of the weekend.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was a young man by the name of Uhaa Nation as he took on Aaron Dravin. I honestly thought this match served as an excuse to have Brodie Lee come out to kill dudes. WRONG! Uhaa Nation, who will probably need a name change in order to really make it on the indy scene, looked like a beast for two minutes before executing a STANDING SHOOTING STAR PRESS! It was so damn impressive, and it’s amazing to think that Nation was in the seminar/tryout earlier in the day.I firmly believe WWE will sign the guy in a New York minute once they see his look, but DG USA should use him for as long as possible based on this performance alone. You won’t find a guy with the ability to be a complete beast but also be athletic as he is.

Jon Davis and Arik Cannon beat the hell out of each other for fun in the next match. I happened to miss some of this match because of Pinkie Sanchez on the outside. He was dressed in such a way to mock Sabu and was so great ringside. The way Davis no-sold him to the way he bumped around made him the best worker in the match. When you get the DVD, watch Sanchez flopping around after the pounce. His work in this match is worth a star all by itself. He may also be my new favorite wrestler. That is subject to change.

The next match was designed to get Brodie Lee over. Pure and simple. It was like a hammer beating you over the head, but it worked. Lee looked like a monster at the expense of everyone else. This wasn’t someone telling you Brodie Lee was a monster. This was Brodie Lee showing you he was a monster. He took out Gregory Iron even before the match began. He decimated four other competitors (with some help from his buddies in Warriors) before B.J. Whitmer sauntered out. In one moment, DG USA made Lee and Whitmer an exciting match people will want to see. Why? Lee is built as a huge monster who can beat up smaller guys. But what happens when Whitmer, who is similar in size and stature, stands up to Lee. This is not hard to figure out, but company after company messes up these simple concepts. DG USA consistently got these things right in Indianapolis. It even came into play later in the match when Whitmer was disqualified for hitting Lee with a chair. Instead of simply giving away the result in one night, they’re saving the one-on-one match for a later date (perhaps one of the two iPPVs in the Midwest?) Whitmer even has a potential match in the making with Ricochet based on him throwing the chair. Lee eliminated all but two people as he reestablished himself in the company.

Before intermission, Sami Callihan and Naruki Doi put on quite the exhibition. I’ve been extremely tough on Callihan this year, but I can honestly say his performances against Finlay and now Doi have made me think twice about his standing as a worker. Callihan turned down his act a little bit. This and a new pair of tights actually gave him a more professional look. It helped this match that Callihan was beloved by the Indianapolis faithful. Callihan is the current Insanity Pro Wrestling champion, and I’m assuming that’s why he was so over with the crowd. The story of the match was Doi trying to finish Callihan off but not being able to. I loved the part in the match when Callihan turned the Bakatare sliding kick into the stretch muffler. Very good performances from both guys. Doi showed a lot as a heel, both in the ring and with his personality. This alone might make the DVD worth getting. On a good day, I might even get this four stars.

After intermission, my new favorite wrestler in the world came out to face Louis Lyndon. Now Lyndon is a guy who’s improved dramatically in the last couple years, but he hasn’t been able to gain traction in DG USA yet. Since Pinkie Sanchez is in D.U.F and wrestling Sabu the next night in Chicago, he needed to get the win here. He also needed something after being humiliated by Jon Davis  earlier in the evening. This was a fairly basic encounter, but we did get a dragon screw nut whip. I leave it to the reader to figure out what something like this might look like. The way Sanchez behaved and his antics… you know… I was actually looking forward to Sabu killing him the next night. That might have been the biggest upset of the night.

Things got serious in the semi-main event. Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano wrestled Yamato and Masato Yoshino in a contest with all sorts of implications. Taylor and Gargano each made their intentions for the Freedom Gate title clear. This is where we began to see the first signs of strain in the Ronin trio. It was also an interesting match since Gargano had been teasing in his video the fact that he thought Yamato would tap to the Gargano Escape if he applied the hold. In this match, Gargano  applied the hold twice, only for it to be broken up. At the end of the match, duel submission holds were applied. Gargano has the Escape on, while Yoshino had Sal Naciante applied on Taylor.  Just as Yamato was about to tap, I guess Taylor submitted first. The referee didn’t make this clear at first, and there was a lot of confusion about the finish. The implication I made is Taylor may have submitted on purpose just so Gargano couldn’t get the victory over the Freedom Gate champion. He was smiling at Gargano after the match, hence my implying the situation as stated. Overall, the match was magnificent. Yamato and Yoshino pulled out many of the old Speed Muscle double teams and looked like they’d been teaming for years. Taylor and Gargano looked excellent as well. It was interesting to see the dichotomy of Yamato’s interactions with Ronin. With Gargano, it was all about the wrestling and the competition. With Taylor, there were shenanigans and more comedy. I wonder if this will play into the reason Gargano eventually gets the deuce over Yamato instead of Taylor because Gargano is the one who takes himself and his career more seriously now. The video that was put up by DG USA seemed to be getting that message across too.

All that needs to be said about the main event comes in the opening sequence. To describe everything that went on and to describe moves would be a great disservice. This is a match that needs to be seen to be believed with some of the incredible moves these six athletes executed. The improvements Swann and Fox made in Japan shined big time. PAC is of course an awesome high flyer. Akira Tozawa was almost a forgotten man (think about that for a second) on his team because of how great Cima was as the real captain of Warriors. Ricochet’s heel turn has come off great. His personality comes through so much better, and he doesn’t have to worry about hitting wacky moves to get himself over. Now it would be one thing if these six guys had a great high flying contest. But there was a story attached. See, the captain’s rules made it clear that only Ricochet and PAC could pin each other. This could have killed the match dead like so many other stipulations coughRevolutionRulescough, but these six men executed the stipulation so brillitantly, I think it will be hard for DG USA to try the stip again. A week or so ago, one wrestler mockingly posted a tweet about working on various flip moves to put the wrestling back in wrestling.  While this match certainly had a lot of flipping, it also had a story. It has intensity. It had a purpose for happening. Both teams focused on working over the captains throughout the match. There were a minimum of false finishes, and that meant the actual finish meant more. Tozawa and Cima each hit finishers before Ricochet hit the 630 to get the win. There’s a good chance this ends up on my top ten for the year because this was such a spectacular way to the end the show AND it had a tale to weave. In front of a bigger and better crowd, this contest would have been even more epic.

An angle actually took place after the main ended as Warriors began beating down Rich Swann and PAC. Yoshino and Yamato made the save. It still wasn’t enough. Gargano and Taylor made the save, and the ring finally cleared out of all Warriors members. Taylor got on the microphone and pointed out just who made the save before once again making it clear he wanted the Freedom Gate title. He superkicked Yoshino in the face, setting up a little something for the big four way in Chicago. Taylor asked who’s side Rich Swann was on since he came out rapping about Junction Three and was wearing their colors. Swann reluctantly walked back with the other two members of Ronin. It should also be pointed out that Gargano looked displeased with the actions of Taylor. It appears DG USA is setting up a break-up angle for Ronin. We’ll have to see where this goes the next two days. This was a very interesting way to end the show.

Overall, this was an excellent first night for DG USA in the Midwest. The semi-main and main event were spectacular in different ways. The rest of the card fit nicely together. Doi and Callihan may be even better upon second viewing. Other than the lighting and the crowd, I thought this was a very positive night for the DG USA. Lots of good matches and some storyline. An easy recommendation to buy when it comes out on WWN Live and/or DVD.