Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Brian Streleckis runs down one of the biggest cards in Philadelphia in a good while: a new Japanese venture, a new promotion, and a PPV taping all in one.

I was alongside John Philapavage and his friend Gene Boyer (who’s done some things on the site in the past and hasn’t been to a live show in a long time), and we met up before and after the show with some other huge wrestling fans. We didn’t have VIP tickets to get us in early, so we didn’t see The Fray (an eight man Royal Rumble where guys are eliminated via pinfall and submission), but I read elsewhere it was won by Lince Dorado (other participants included Cheech, Cloudy, Ohio’s Johnny Gargano, and Florida’s Chris Jones). Going in, I haven’t seen the Arena this packed since Glory By Honor VII last September. I noticed up in the production area that live commentary was being handled by Lenny Leonard and Leonard F. Chikarason, then later by Lenny and Mike Quackenbush. Mike Kehner and Bryce Remsburg were our refs, plus Dawn Marie was the ring announcer. She definitely looks like a mom now, and she was barely adequate as the ring announcer, simply saying who was coming out to the ring stat-free. The fact that the music was much louder than her mic also hurt. The show began with a video on the big screen counting down to when they’d begin taping.

1. YAMATO defeated BxB Hulk with the the Galleria Special (sit-out piledriver). Hulk came out to his instantly identifiable music with two dancing girls, one of whom was Daizee Haze (no clue about the other one, also blonde, but she was mighty attractive). Classic Hulk entrance/dance routine, though Haze nearly got hit by Hulk’s standing moonsault off the top during this. YAMATO was the total heel here, wearing down Hulk with submission moves working over his knee. Hulk would come back with some awesome looking kicks, as well as a top rope exploder suplex/Spanish Fly-type move. Good stuff. The show wisely started with some Dragon Gate star power.

2. 2 Cold Scorpio defeated Ken Doane when he Dropped the Bomb with a moonsault leg drop. Scorpio was pretty over and looked pretty good (but old) throughout. Doane received chants of “Kenny Dykstra,” “Spirit Squad,” and (later I learned) “We Want Ziggler,” which seemed to get a legit laugh out of him. This match was somewhere between just okay and not very good. They didn’t screw up anything, but Doane (the clear heel) did a lot of stalling early and they seemed to overstay their welcome. This was more like a typical WWE match, and the spot it had on the card was pretty much the only place it could be. Doane, who showed a lot of potential at 18 years of age back in OVW, still has that potential, as he started bringing the goods with a double knees counter to a crossbody and a few good suplexes. He worked a lengthy headlock too that some might shit on, but one of the guys we met up with after the show is really into the old-school stuff and loved it. Scorpio, who hit an Arabrian Press early, missed another top rope move, but then Doane missed the top rope leg drop to lead to his downfall. They shook hands afterward. This might play a little better on DVD.

3. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw & The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant) defeated Hallowicked & Amasis & F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma) when Jigsaw hit Icarus with the Jig n’ Tonic. A strong Chikara fanbase in the bleachers and spread out a little throughout the building, as people seemed psyched for this. Chants for Hallowicked (selected at random to join the rudo side here, as Ophidian was originally scheduled for it but broke his arm in the past month) and all of the technicos, a huge ovation for Quack coming out, plus a chorus of boos for Icarus (his hair growing back again) when he entered the ring. This was billed as a Chikara showcase and followed through in spades, as they made the most of the platform given to them. A terrific match that everyone was very hot for, and it stole the first half of the show. Quackenbush was already booked for the second DGUSA card in Chicago in September, and by virtue of his scoring the pin here, Jigsaw earned a spot on the Chicago card as well. Chikara chants post-match.

- Quack stayed behind in the ring and said that Chikara and Dragon Gate make a great partnership. He said the two compaines are a part of the same extended family due to Jorge “Skayde” Rivera, who he credited in helping train him, CIMA, and the majority of Chikara and Dragon Gate stars. He then introduced a brief highlight video of Rivera (I love how they incorporated videos into this show; it seemed a lot more major league). Then he mentioned how he’s sensing a bit of sibling rivalry, so he issued the challenge for any Dragon Gate wrestler to wrestle any Chikara wrestler of his choosing. YAMATO came out, said in Japanese (later reiterated in English by Dawn Marie for all our benefit) that he had no respect for Quack, Rivera, or Chikara, then kicked Quack in the knee (or low-blowed him, didn’t have a good view of this) and beat him down. Jigsaw came back out to help, but didn’t have much luck. Akuma came back out, Jigsaw asked for his help, but Akuma sided with YAMATO and helped beat down both Quack and Jigsaw. Cheech & Cloudy ran out to help but were quickly tossed out, but then Lince Dorado and the Colony sent the heels packing. This – I think – logically sets up a tag team match down the line between Quackenbush & Jigsaw and YAMATO & Akuma. I love how Chikara is a part of an angle within this promotion.

4. Dragon Kid (w/ Shingo) def. Masato Yoshino (w/Naruki Doi) with a springboard hurricanrana AKA the Ultra Hurricanrana.. Yoshino is blonde again. This was the match I was most excited to see, and I thought they had a very good match. However, they did have a tough act to follow in the Chikara match, plus, even though I thought all of the matches here were given plenty of time, this one could have stood to go longer. The moments of lightening speed both guys can show were brief but amazing. Kid broke out the Deja Vu and the Bermuda Triangle (the corner moonsault to the outside). Lots of close finishes before Kid scored the pin.

- Kid offered a handshake after the match, but Yoshino vehemently turned it down and got in his face. Shingo and Doi had a bit of a face-off afterward. Scorpio came back out to calm down the situation, then put over the Kid-Yoshino feud, comparing it to other feuds held in the ECW Arena like Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko, Rey Mysterio vs. Psicosis, and himself vs. Sabu. Pretty over the top to compare a current feud to a feud of the past rather than wait for the feud to play out itself, but it was still nice to have an English language mouthpiece for these foreign wrestlers. Scorpio suggested these two should have a rematch, which they seemed to agree to, than Kid celebrated in the ring.

- Dawn Marie announced that after the Chicago show in September, Dragon Gate USA would return to Philadelphia on November 28th with a show called “Open The Freedom Gate.” This show will consist of a tournament to crown a champion specifically for Dragon Gate USA, which will be the Open The Freedom Gate Champion. She then began to announce the next match, but then was corrected and announced it was intermission. Some wrestlers were at tables signing autographs.

5. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) defeated Warriors-5 (CIMA & Susumu Yokosuka) when they gave Yokosuka More Bang For His Buck. Wow, I know the Young Bucks have been looking quite good to me recently, and both CIMA and Yokosuka are quite awesome, but I was really blown away by this match. As great as it was seeing all of these Dragon Gate stars, it was especially awesome seeing CIMA live. Early portions had the Warriors with the advantage, beating down Matt, and periodically raising their fists from their knees to above their heads going, “HOOO!” I guess this is a Warriors-5 thing, but it caught on quickly with the crowd (and me). The Bucks were not to be outdone, periodically pumping their fists and yelling, “C’mon Baby!” Some spectacular sequences of moves throughout, inside and outside the ring, including CIMA going coast to coast. Plenty of near finishes, including from Yokosuka’s lariat and CIMA’s Schwein. After spending most of the match on the defensive, the Bucks came back from the brink of death to hit their trademark combo finisher. This will be the match that will get the most publicity from this show, and once again shows how much Dragon Gate shines in tag team scenarios. The crowd went the most apeshit for this one and chanted “Dragon Gate!”

- Matt cut a promo afterwards, putting over CIMA & Yokosuka as two of the best in the world, then saying he and Nick have gone from being the tag team of the future to the tag team of the present. He then threw down the gauntlet for any other teams to step up to the plate.

6. Open The Dream Gate & Open The Brave Gate Champion Naruki Doi defeated Shingo in a non-title match with the Muscular Bomb (wheelbarrow lift into a head-dropping driver). Doi had some catchy music and was sporting a sleeveless Flair-like robe with a feather boa collar. Not to be outdone, Shingo’s hair was indescribably amazing. The two of them proceeded to have a big power battle, trying to take one another down and generally beating the shit out of one another. A lot of big nearfalls here, with Shingo nearly scoring the victory with Made In Japan (a pumphandle wrist clutch driver, essentially the Here It Is Driver as done by Matt Sydal) and that big lariat of his, and Doi coming close with the combination of Doi 5′s and the Bakatare Sliding Kick (thank goodness for DGUSA.tv for having all of this information on the signature moves). Pretty damn great in its own right, even if the finish didn’t quite live up to the previous moves in the match. A decisive victory for Doi that establishes him as the top guy.

- Dawn Marie thanks the fans and gives final plugs for the vendors in attendance, which remained open after the show, and a portion of the crowd chanted, “Thank you Gabe!”

- As a quick aside, while spending some time outside the Arena talking with friends after the show, this van drove by, and out popped Ophidian on the passenger side sporting his surgically repaired arm. Myself and some other folk shouted to him to get well. He just hissed. Two seemingly drunk gents were doing some Jackass shit in the area with a shopping cart and asked to trade rides with him, to which he responded in the negatory. As if that wasn’t cool enough, I noticed a car drive right by us (apparently I was the only one in this group of eight that saw it), and Christian was in the passenger seat (makes sense with WWE’s Night of Champions PPV in town tonight; one of John’s friends had heard that the band Rancid was playing tonight, and that CM Punk was attending it).

Overall: This was a fantastic show, full of good-to-great matches, a hot crowd, and an especially strong “first show” aura. The top two matches were the best of the night, and I can’t quite argue with either one being better than the other. The Chikara 8-man tag and Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino were also quite stellar. Really cool how some angles were set up already, and they’re easy to follow at that. Definitely a strong first outing with a nice presentation, though I’m sure they can still improve on things here and there like any other promotion can. Two days before the next Dragon Gate USA show in Chicago – “Open The Untouchable Gate” – this show will air on PPV September 4th, under the title “Enter The Dragon.”