Dragon Gate USA & EVOLVE Discussion/News/Review Thread

[gadge]

I know that a) nobody watches EVOLVE and b) it's not nice to wish injury on someone, but Johnny Gargano defending the Open the Freedom Gate title against CALEB KONLEY was set for EVOLVE 36 this weekend.. The card should improve as Konley is injured and now off the weekend, so a replacement is to be announced. Drew Galloway vs Roderick Strong is also on the show, but Drew isn't defending the EVOLVE title.

[gadge]

Probably the last ever bump of this thread, as I'm out of DVDs to review, and no-one here (including me) watches iPPVs from WWNLive...

 

Dragon Gate USA - Open The Ultimate Gate 2013 - 6/4/13

 

WrestleMania 29 weekend in New York and New Jersey was undoubtedly great for the indies: being part of a huge ROH crowd at the Hammerstein Ballroom was my personal highlight, and even DGUSA had hundreds of people, myself in the third row included, in attendance for this one. It has to be said, though, that even WM weekend fans couldn't save EVOLVE 19, held the day before this in the same venue, from being so lame a show in person that I haven't spent money on the DVD. It has to be an encouraging sign that I've spent money (again) on this one, though, right...?

 

Brian Kendrick vs Rich Swann - An okay opener, nothing more. I swear hard camera picture quality was better when I was buying VHS copies of CZW in 2002 than it is here, though I believe the WWN Live crew have spent money and upgraded since then. Swann's entrance is over, though not as over as some places, and audio quality isn't very good either. Swann wins with a spinning kick in 12:15.

 

Chuck Taylor comes out after the opener, and berates both Kendrick for turning into a loser, and Swann for being a nobody. This totally undermines everything so far, brilliant. A Six Way Freestyle follows, which may or may not be the Second Annual Chuck Taylor Invitational...

 

Chuck Taylor vs Arik Cannon vs Jigsaw vs Anthony Nese vs Fire Ant vs Shane Strickland - Despite being there live, I had no memory of this whatsoever when watching back here, so it was actually a pleasant surprise that it was a crazy spotfest in the vein of early ROH undercards. In the tradition of said matches, Strickland almost kills himself not once but twice, just seconds apart. The rest is mindless fun, the then newly-pushed Tony Nese pins Strickland with his 450 splash in 13:50.

 

Scott Reed vs Derek Ryze - Reed is accompanied by Larry Dallas. BOOOO. This is one of the things I remember from being there live, as after Reed gives Ryze too much before squashing him in 3:13, Caleb Konley comes out and tries to convince Reed to leave the interminable Larry Dallas behind. Reed ends up turning on Konley, SPLITTING UP THE SCENE, though when Konley holds his own, Reed bails. Konley looks good as a potential babyface in this segment. Looking back, I was so excited that I wouldn't have to see The Scene faction any more, though when I saw EVOLVE a year later in New Orleans, Konley was in another crap faction, as a heel, and Larry Dallas still appeared on the show. Fuck sake.

 

Trent Baretta vs Jon Davis - This was Trent's DGUSA debut, and lumbering him with Jon Davis was a moronic idea.  Davis does his drawn out entrance, complete with a ringside fan timing him and showing him the time as it ticks over on his iPhone. That always makes me chuckle. Trent wins by DQ when Davis won't stop beating him up in the corner in a mind numbing 12:19. Utter bullshit finish, terrible match, not Trent's fault at all.

 

The Super Smash Brothers vs EITA & Tomahawk T.T. - Actual Dragon Gate guys!!!! Yay!! I really like the SSB too, but they've been the recipients of that old Power Slam favourite, stop-start booking, in DGUSA/EVOLVE. This weekend is a fine example, as having beaten the Young Bucks at EVOLVE 19, they lose to the Dragon Gate youngsters here. A fine match, though, with plenty of character mixed in with the action, sees the Night Ride of Tomahawk pin Player Dos in 14:23.

 

Akira Tozawa vs Ricochet - This delivers exactly what you would expect, namely Tozawa and Ricochet doing their thing for nearly twenty minutes. It's great that Ricochet isn't being forced into an unsuitable bad guy role in DGUSA any more, though on the other side of that, Tozawa gets cheered despite having Christina Von Eerie at ringside and the Mad Blankey thing going on. Really good stuff, Ricochet wins with the 630 in 19:56.

 

Sami Callihan vs Uhaa Nation - Man, the time elapsed since this happened really hurts this one. Back here, Uhaa is just back from almost a year out with a knee injury, and is aligned with Mad Blankey, so doesn't show nearly as much confidence and charisma as he has in PCW and across the UK in 2014. Sami Callihan, meanwhile, has dropped into the mists of WWE developmental, without any indication that he might be appearing on NXT TV any time soon. This match is also fairly long at 16:17, though unlike the previous match, there's not much that particularly stands out. They do some stuff, crowd reactions are mild, then Uhaa wins clean with the Uhaa Combination. 

 

Open The United Gate Championship: CIMA & AR Fox vs The Young Bucks - Anyone who has ever seen and enjoyed the Young Bucks, especially in PWG, should particularly enjoy this, but while the last few minutes of sprint are particularly good, the match sends confused messages overall. It's mostly because the crowd want to cheer the Bucks, so don't respond like a PWG crowd to their baiting and shenanigans in the first half as they work over CIMA and Fox. Once the hot tag is made this develops really well, though it's a bit jarring how quickly Fox recovers from one particular combination of powerbombs into the tandem tombstone near the end. More Bang For Your Buck sees the United Gate titles change hands to a huge pop at 19:29. I'd say I'm looking forward to the Bucks' reign, but who am I kidding?

 

If the show had ended at this point, I'd say the three matches featuring the Dragon Gate talent were all worthwhile, but the dodgy EVOLVE undercard probably doesn't make the show worth a purchase as a whole. However...

 

Open The Freedom Gate Championship: Johnny Gargano vs SHINGO - As much as it's taken me an age to watch this back, my memory of how much I enjoyed this live hasn't faded over time. Gargano deserves loads of credit for assembling a Dream Gate-esque main event match with SHINGO for his Freedom Gate belt, here on the biggest DGUSA show of the year, in front of their biggest crowd. The first 20 minutes goes by without the ever losing the crowd, yet without them getting close to the business end of the bout. Then, after a spell at ringside, they pick things up, and the crowd immediately senses it and comes unglued accordingly. 

 

While I won't go into the move-by-move, the last ten minutes is brilliant, despite a couple of cringey chants. The good thing about all that heat, though, is that the crowd is completely taken in when Gargano then turns heel out of nowhere, capitalising on the referee eating an errant elbow by low blowing SHINGO, then choking him out with some tape while it appears to the referee to be the regular Gargano Escape, and SHINGO's hand drops three times to give Gargano the victory at 33:27. A superb match, and a killer angle that no-one saw coming. Yep, this is definitely among the best things I saw in wrestling in 2013, and fits right up there in my memories of that weekend with seeing the ROH World title change hands, and Undertaker's last defence of the streak vs CM Punk. 

 

The show closes with Gargano super sarcastically doing the "Did Everyone Enjoy The Show?" routine and proclaiming how great it is that everyone loves him, and that he loves them too. THIS IS BRILLIANT.

 

Overall - That main event makes this a must buy, and despite the dross undercard in places, you can't complain about value for money as DVD run time is an immense 3 hours, 33 minutes.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

To mark the demise of DG:USA...

 

15 Best Singles Matches in DG:USA: 

 

 

1)      Brian Danielson vs. SHINGO – Enter the Dragon, 24/7/09

2)      Chris Hero vs. Masato Tanaka – Open The Ultimate Gate 2014, 4/4/14

3)      Shingo vs. Johnny Gargano – Open the Ultimate Gate 2013, 6/4/14

4)      Brian Danielson vs. Jon Moxley – Way of the Ronin, 26/9/10

5)      Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Akira Tozawa – Open the Ultimate Gate 2012, 30/3/12

6)      Chuck Taylor vs. Johnny Gargano – Enter the Dragon 2013, 29/7/12

7)      BxB Hulk vs. Masaaki Mochizuki –Enter the Dragon, 24/7/10

8)      Davey Richards vs. Shingo – Open The Untouchable Gate , 6/9/09

9)      Davey Richards vs. YAMATO – Open The Freedom Gate, 28/11/09

10)  Akira Tozawa vs. Shingo – Mercury Rising 2013, 7/4/13

11)  Johnny Gargano vs. Chris Hero – Freedom Fight 2013, 7/11/13

12)  CIMA vs. Jimmy Jacobs – Open the Northern Gate, 7/5/10

13)  Austin Aries vs. YAMATO – Mercury Rising 2011, 2/4/11

14)  Sami Callihan vs. Naruki Doi – Chasing the Dragon, 9/9/11.

15)  Johnny Gargano vs. Akira Tozawa – Untouchable 2011, 10/9/11

 

The Ten Best Tags: 

 

 

1)      The Young Bucks vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw – Mercury Rising 2010, 27/3/10

2)      Masato Yoshino & Ricochet vs. Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano – Open the Ultimate Gate 2012, 30/3/12

3)      CIMA & AR Fox vs. El Generico & Samuray Del Sol – Untouchable 2012, 28/7/12

4)      CIMA, Ricochet & Naruki Doi vs. Chuck Taylor, Rich Swann & Johnny Gargano – Mercury Rising 2011, 2/4/11

5)      Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid & Shingo – Open The Freedom Gate, 28/11/09

6)      Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi & BxB Hulk vs. Shingo, YAMATO & Akira Tozawa – Way of the Ronin, 26/9/10

7)      AR Fox & Maasaki Mochizuki vs. The Young Bucks – Freedom Fight 2013. 7/11/13

8)      Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. Naruki Doi & PAC – Uprising 2010, 8/5/10

9)      CIMA & Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino & PAC – Open the United Gate: NYC– 28/1/11

10)  CIMA & Ricochet vs. Sami Callihan and Arik Cannon – Bushido: Code of the Warrior 2011, 13/11/11

[Tuna Taco]

Good list (though I haven't seen much of it post 2011 as I lost interest in the product) but suprised you didnt list Danielson vs Naruki Doi, thought that was far superior to the Shingo/Davey Richards match from the same show.

[Benno]

Twitter has been alive with rumours about some kind of working relationship happening between WWN/Evolve and WWE today. There's going to be something in the Observer tonight and Meltzer said this on his board in a thread about it >>>>
 

No deal had been signed as of this morning.

Story in progress.  Will have more in the issue, but it's more a connect the dots at this point.  But it'll be written in a way to lead you to the correct conclusion.

It's a REAL big deal to WWE right now for reasons that may sound petty, but are really not.

 

People are surmising it's either a deal to be some kind of feeder territory or to do with Network content but the former seems most likely to me. Doesn't seem to be a coincidence so many WWN people have been getting tryouts recently. Sapolsky has been pretty funny on twitter, teasing an announcement as the rumours broke and then his big announcement being Zack Sabre Jnr appearing on a show. He was caught vanity searching though when he tweeted this instead of typing it in the search bar.



That was quickly deleted. Interested in seeing what it says in the Observer.

[tiger_rick]

Just read about this. Seems a bit odd on the face of it but with Triple H talking about NXT being a brand itself, having an actual development promotion would make sense.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Its sort of an admission that WWE's developmental system is a massive failure, since the only people who make it to the main roster are people they bring in from the indies with a lot of experience already. It must have set alarm bells ringing when that hippy bloke asked for his release so he could learn how to wrestle and come back eventually. I imagine this is what they'll be looking for. Sending people who they've hired from scratch to go and learn how to work before coming back to NXT. Because unless you are more or less ready made, those NXT fans are bastards to you.