Pro Wrestling Chronicle

DGUSA crowned their first champion in Philadelphia and offered two Match of the Year contenders along the way. Brian Streleckis has all of the (admittedly late) details of this big show and PPV taping.

John Philapavage and I attended this show together, sitting in the balcony above The Arena’s main entrance, apparently the source of a couple of big ECW spots “back in the day.” Great view of everything. Floor seats were sprinkled with cards hyping EVOLVE. Some of John’s friends were up there was well, and we played Pick’Ems for the title tournament matches (I think we all failed when all was said and done). Having balcony tickets entitled us to get in the building early and witness some pre-show bonus matches.

1A. Kyle O’Reilly defeated Adam Cole with a tornado DDT that segued into a brainbuster. O’Reilly has been identified as a protege of Davey Richards, has done some ROH pre-shows, and had a TV match with Chris Hero at the last set of HDNet tapings. Cole is a student of the CZW school who has also done some ROH pre-shows. The idea of DGUSA’s bonus cards is to feature guys that aren’t total scrubs going out to impress; the audience being just premium ticket-holders and the extra time between this card and the main card helps. So these two went all out, and I was pleasantly surprised. O’Reilly showed some good intensity, and the guys did a fighting spirit no-sell spot where they gave each other backdrop drivers (came off better than you’d think). O’Reilly gave Cole three consecutive double underhook suplexes, Three Amigos style. Fun stuff.

2A. Jon Moxley defeated B-Boy with a Fujiwara Armbar. B-Boy is a well-established name on both coasts. Moxley is a surely fellow building his name slowly; an Ohio native who came up in HWA and has been teaming with Sami Callihan in CZW and elsewhere. B-Boy, definitely the more over of the two, brought the stiffery to this match with chops and a few seated dropkicks. Moxley worked over him more with holds, including some attempts at a crossface chicken wing. Moxley slipped off the top rope when attempting something, but they followed it up immediately with some moves. Towards the end, they started trying to get a hold on one another (maybe better suited for earlier in the match), with B-Boy attempting a sleeper, but Moxley managed to get loose, do a double knees divorce court to B-Boy’s arm, then quickly followed up with the armbar, making B-Boy tap immediately. Pretty fun and a little spotty. Surprising result, though it set up something for later. Both John and I think Moxley has potential.

- Originally, there was going to be a third bonus match in Eddie Kingston vs. Hallowicked, but we were told before the other matches that Kingston and Jigsaw were late coming to the building due to heavy traffic while driving from New York. The bonus card and main card both started a little late actually. Ultimately, they both arrived very late, so Hallowicked (already there) was given Jigsaw’s spot in one of the First Round tournament matches.

- Main Show/PPV time. The first half of the card had the four First Round matches in the Open The Freedom Gate Championship Tournament, all of which had a special theme to them and no time limit. The four winners of each would move on to an elimination match Finals.

1. Generation New: Gran Akuma defeated Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Hallowicked, Lince Dorado, and Johnny Gargano when he pinned Gargano following a moonsault. All six wrestlers entered the ring while the lights were down and the countdown video played, so the show opened with all six guys and ring announcer Kevin Harvey welcoming us, the crowd going crazy. The Young Bucks and Hallowicked were the most over guys in the match. This marked the PPV debuts of Dorado and Gargano, who received spots in this match after winning the two FRAY! matches held before the previous two DGUSA shows. The formula here was that two of the guys would wrestle in the ring and show what they had, while the other four would bide their time on the outside. Kind of like ROH’s Six-Man Mayhem, though technically all six could be in the ring at once. Akuma and Gargano were the heels, with Gargano employing the sneak-up-and-capitalize tactics that helped him in the two FRAY! matches. All of them hit some big spots and had some nearfalls, including one for Gargano that scarily sounded like a three-count (just the ref striking the mat with his knee I guess; no one argued it was a three-count). The Young Bucks teased wrestling one another on two occasions, but the other wrestlers would break it up before they could make contact. Eventually, the Bucks pulled off a couple of their signature double teams, including giving one of guys More Bang For His Buck that would have given Matt Jackson the pinfall, but brother Nick broke it up and the shit was on. Good exchanges between the two Jacksons as one might expect. Dorado wiped out a couple guys and himself with an Asai 450 to the outside, leaving Akuma and Gargano inside to ultimately lead to the finish. Not [i]everything[/i] worked, but it was still a very good and hot opener.

2. Redemption: BxB Hulk defeated Brian Kendrick with the FTX (pumphandle half nelson driver). BxB Hulk was BxBeloved, though he didn’t have any dancing girls this time. Kendrick turned into the heel of the match and worked a more conservative Randy Orton style with all of the mat work, while Hulk fought back with the flashier stuff, including his wild kicks. Kendrick initially got the upper hand by targeting a body part and going from there. One moment saw Kendrick attempt to hit the Sliced Bread #2, but Hulk countered by shoving him to the outside. Kendrick voided a dive attempt by Hulk after this by jumping the rail and ducking into the crowd in a funny moment. Some more chain wrestling and kicks from Hulk lead to the finish. Solid stuff overall, possibly meant to cool down the crowd. Hulk looked very good, while Kendrick played it differently.

- Kendrick stuck around in the ring selling and Kevin Harvey tried to get him out, but Kendrick grabbed the mic saying how bad his neck is. Harvey took it as a threat since Kendrick started by angrily asking “How’s your neck?” while describing the resting angle of his own. Kendrick cut a promo about being an artist in the ring, only wrestling for himself and not for the lazy fans. He even remarked about perhaps smoking too much pot in WWE, but he said he actually left because he’s an artist. The crowd gave him shit for this promo, digging up the Steve Austin “What?” chant from its grave as Kendrick kept rambling on. He did have one great line about how people might see The Young Bucks as artists, but they would be artists along the lines of Britney Spears, while he’s an artist like Picasso. Refs, crew members, and Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole tried to get him out of the ring, which just made Kendrick angrier. Jon Moxley walked down and said he agreed with what Kendrick is saying, how he is a “have” and other people are “have nots,” and then he went on to help him beat up the other people. Moxley went on a failed crazy tirade (rustling the guard rail and making it loose, attempting to slam the ring bell to the floor but opting instead to spin it like a top) that was more funny than anything. Kendrick seemed to grab and tackle a fan, but I didn’t see the other guy do anything (may have been a plant). Pretty damn weird and kind of a failure for the most part, but the Kendrick/Moxley tandem is interesting, especially with Jimmy Jacobs potentially doing a similar angle in Chicago.

3. Salute to Skayde: CIMA defeated Mike Quackenbush, Super Crazy, and Jorge “Skayde” Rivera after catching Rivera in a lucha rollup. Big pops for the four guys, especially Crazy. It started with two of the guys going at it and the other two following suit before all four began to tangle. At one point, Rivera, who was looking good so far, sold a knee injury. CIMA attempted to attend to to him, but Crazy tossed him to the side and knocked Quack to the floor so he could work over Rivera. Crazy was the defacto heel here (story was that Rivera was a mentor to Quack and CIMA, but Crazy lost his mask to him at a young age), but fans still chanted for him. Crazy stopped the other two guys again, but then Rivera managed to recover enough and fight back. I thought this ended up being a very good match. Both CIMA and Quackenbush showed their respect to Rivera afterward, but then Quack shoved CIMA and took offense to him getting the win, so expect these two to tangle down the line.

4. Next Level: YAMATO defeated Davey Richards with the Galleria Special. Both guys would have been considered heels at this point, but Davey seemed to adopt the face roll with his popularity. This match was in this spot for a reason. The two exchanged strikes and holds early, with Richards targeting the arm for later. YAMATO matched him with strikes. They fought to the outside, where Richards threw YAMATO into the guard rail, causing it to collapse onto a female fan in the first row corner. Richards followed it up with yakuza kick that further caved in the guard rail. As Richards brought YAMATO inside, the woman got back in her seat and received a “She’s Hardcore!” chant for her troubles. Richards continued getting the upper hand before YAMATO bailed to the outside, went under the ring, and then came out the other end to surprise Richards (busy looking for YAMATO from the apron) from behind. YAMATO then began working over Richards’ leg. Comeback, strike exchanges, and Richards hit YAMATO with his usually insane dive that takes him into the crowd that I’m now dubbing Tope Con Hell. Richards got close to a submission with the kimura, whereas YAMATO got one a little later with the ankle lock. Huge exchanges of moves that saw YAMATO, like Shingo in the past, no-sell a superplex, only to be taken down with big strikes. Also, Richards nailed a high-arching German suplex for a nearfall, seemingly making YAMATO loopy and late kicking out by nano-second, that everyone shouted was three. This was getting insane in a good way. Richards fought back from death out of a sleeper hold, but got nailed with a sleeper suplex. The dueling yakuza kicks made a brief cameo. Richards survived a few more big moves with the crowd rallying behind him before the Galleria Special (sit-out tombstone piledriver) put him away. Richards seemed like the heavy favorite going into this show, but the fans still gave YAMATO his props. An awesome match, and my favorite up to this point.

- Intermission.

5. Jigsaw defeated Eddie Kingston with a top rope double stomp. Both guys were given this bonus match, very likely to be a DVD exclusive, after arriving late. Jigsaw used his quickness and kicks in an attempt to take down the larger Kingston. Running charges proved futile. Almost a classic big-man/little-man match, though with lucha and between guys roughly the same height. Kingston dealt out the chops. A fun little match, better than the one they had in ROH a little over a year ago.

6. WORLD-1′s Speed Muscle (Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino) defeated Kamikaze (Shingo & Dragon Kid) when Yoshino made Kid submit to his cross-armed/cross-legged choke submission. This match ruled the world. It was the next best thing to seeing the classic Dragon Gate 6-man tag in person; just lots of fast, crisp, impactful, and brilliant exchanges of moves. Too many to remember, but it definitely had some vintage Speed Muscle double-teams, a Sling Blade/powerbomb combo by Speed Muscle, and Dragon Kid giving Yoshino a hurricanrana off the shoulders of Shingo while he perched on the top turnbuckle. It was set up well, and it’s unreal to witness it in person. Plenty of smaller moments, such as one I remember seeing in the past where Kid and Yoshino tussling with one another while having Doi and Shingo in Octopus Stretches (the crowd loved this). Doi and Shingo exchanges, Yoshino and Kid exchanges, greatness all around. One of John’s friends behind us guessed there would be twelve false finishes, and it ended up going to ten. I loved it. As if that wasn’t enough, The Young Bucks came out afterward to congratulate Speed Muscle, then challenge them to a match in the future. They acted pretty ballsy here, calling Speed Muscle one of the best tag teams in the world, but not THE best, as that would be themselves.

7. 4-way elimination title tournament finals: BxB Hulk defeated YAMATO, CIMA, and Gran Akuma to win the Open The Freedom Gate Championship. CIMA came to the ring with a broom, signifying that he would sweep the competition. Four way stand-off, followed by YAMATO and Akuma shaking hands and calling back to their allegiance on the last two shows. Hulk attempted to shake CIMA’s hand and unite with the other babyface, but CIMA just kicked him and encouraged the heels to double-team him in a funny spot. Punchline: CIMA ended up getting double-teamed too. CIMA was the first guy eliminated when YAMATO took away the ref’s attention in the corner, Akuma kicked him in the groin, and YAMATO rolled CIMA up. The fans rallied behind BxB Hulk, who then got worked over by the heels. It seemed like some fans were starting to shit on Akuma at this point. Hulk fought back and attempted to eliminated Akuma on a few occasions, but YAMATO kept breaking it up. The heels had some miscommunication, Hulk sent YAMATO to the floor, and eventually Hulk sent Akuma packing with a move I can’t remember. So it came down to Hulk and YAMATO, who were in the first match on the first DGUSA show against one another. The two exchanged kicks and strikes, Hulk gave YAMATO his Spanish Fly Exploder off the top, and then a little later the finish seemingly came out of nowhere as Hulk pinned YAMATO with the E.V.O., a pumphandle sideslam. A good match with one of the more popular guys winning (winner of the Redemption match getting the ultimate redemption), but no way did it top the tag team semi-main event, nor YAMATO-Richards.

- Speaking of Richards (who I noticed watching the match from near one of the merchandise tables), he came out to the ring as Hulk was celebrating with the title belt. He told Hulk, “There are two ways to send a message to a champion. You can make a challenge, or…” and then kicked Hulk right in the gut. Rudo to the bone. YAMATO, after a brief staredown with his earlier opponent, joined in on the beatdown on Hulk before Dragon Kid ran down to make the save. It was already announced well before this show that Dragon Kid would receive the first shot at the Open The Freedom Gate Championship at the following show in Chicago. Kid handed the belt back to Hulk, then indicated that he would win it from him.

Overall: Holy shit, another great night. Certainly a monumental one with the first champion being crowned, and that first champion being a very popular and charismatic individual, but the show will be remembered above all else for YAMATO-Richards and Yoshino/Doi vs. Kid/Shingo. Can’t say enough good things about those two matches; expect to hear a lot more about them when this show debuts on PPV on January under the title “Freedom Fight.” Also nice to have more matches teased for down the road. The next live shows are January 23rd in Chicago and March 26th & 27th in Phoenix, AZ, capitalizing on WrestleMania weekend and promising the return of the Dragon Gate 6-man tag match.