Dragon Gate USA – Freedom Fight 2010 – October 30th 2010

Despite it only being the end of October, the scheduling for the Japanese DG talent means this is the last Dragon Gate USA show for over three months. That’s a shame after the company debuted on ippv so spectacularly last night with their Bushido show. They have some real momentum too with BxB Hulk finally delivering a great title match to define his run as Freedom Gate Champion, and DGUSA homegrown talent starting to flourish with the likes of Jon Moxley, Ricochet and the Ronin guys all now integral to the promotion. Hopefully this show will end the year with a bang. I think by this point Gabe & co. had realised the traditional ppv model probably wouldn’t work for them, and the switch to ippv was the way to go. As such last night’s ippv taping had a stronger card…but that’s not to say there’s not a lot going on here. Austin Aries joins Warriors International members Genki Horiguchi and Ricochet to get revenge on Ronin after they formed and assaulted CIMA yesterday in Fall River. Kamikaze USA representatives YAMATO and Shingo have tough nights as they face Masato Yoshino and CIMA respectively. There’s also a World-1 vs Kamikaze USA tag, and a battle of the titans as new Warriors International member Brodie Lee faces Akebono. Lenny Leonard is in Rahway, NJ – and he’s joined on commentary tonight by Leonard Chikarason.

Jimmy Jacobs vs Arik Cannon
Man these guys have been working the indies for a long time. Jimmy said yesterday that his violent I Quit Match with Jon Moxley was the last time he’s going to be diving off balconies and bleeding all over buildings. He wants to concentrate on his wrestling and work his way into Freedom Gate title contention. He’ll need to prove his championship credentials with a convincing win here, which will be far from easy considering he faces a dangerous and highly experienced foe in Arik.

They start on the mat and, whilst Jimmy is decent there he doesn’t have the size of Cannon and really struggles to get to grips with him. MutaLock applied by Arik, emphasising just how dominant he’s been in the opening few minutes. Wisely Jacobs quickens the pace…although Cannon impresses everyone again by cartwheeling and nipping up with ease belying his size. Pescado misses, and Arik is waiting on the floor to blast Jimmy with a big superkick. REBOUND headscissors off the apron by Jacobs, followed by a TOPE SUICIDA! Back in the ring he delivers a curb stomp only for Cannon to get back to his feet and take him down with a swinging neckbreaker. Lenny wonders whether Jacobs is anywhere near 100% after his war with Moxley at Bushido, but it doesn’t stop him coming from the corner with the tornado snap suplex for 2. Rebound Ace Crusher blocked…and countered with a TURNBUCKLE EXPLODER! Cannon gets aggressive by headbutting at Jimmy’s stitched up head. In seconds he’s bleeding again! That pisses him off, and although Arik blocks the Contra Code he gets right back to his feet and lands the rebound Ace Crusher second time of asking. End Time COUNTERED with a superkick to the bloody face! PUNCH TO THE HEAD! TOTAL ANARCHY NAILED! JACOBS KICKS OUT! BRAINBUSTER! GLIMMERING WARLOCK! That’s ALL of Arik’s finishers…and Jimmy still kicks out! END TIME! Cannon taps at 11:46

Rating - *** - A very different way to start the show than the spot-heavy Freestyle from last night, but I thought this was similarly very effective. Jacobs and Cannon are old pro’s, and they embraced their differences as performers to produce a decent curtain raiser and a fine exhibition of what they’re both capable of. I didn’t like the finish as it made Arik look extremely weak, but, to be fair to Gabe – he was clearly planning to push Jacobs. It’s not his fault Jimmy decided he wanted to go back to ROH. At this point (October 2010 – well before Jacobs was back in ROH) he probably didn’t know any better and needed Jimmy to look good. I’m sure it’s also on record that Sapolsky was never a huge fan of Arik Cannon. But, with the benefit of hindsight, given that Cannon would go on to be a big part of DGUSA and Evolve in the next couple of years maybe having Jacobs kick out of every finishing move Cannon has then tapping Arik out wasn’t the smartest thing they could do.

Ronin are backstage, proud that they spent last night making examples out of veterans like CIMA, Austin Aries and Homicide. They have big plans for the trios tag tonight

Brodie Lee vs Akebono
As a member of Warriors International, shouldn’t Brodie to the signature ‘WOO’ thing? Anyway, he’s normally the biggest guy in DGUSA by a mile – but things are different as he faces the massive former sumo at Yokozuna rank in Akebono. They were a team last night, and although they defeated the Osirian Portal with didn’t get along at all, and had to be separated whilst brawling after the match.

BODY AVALANCHE by Akebono…only for Lee to totally no sell it and hit the same move right back at him! Bono gets 2 with an elbow drop – and that’s already more of a bump than he took yesterday. He aims another body avalanche at Brodie on the floor, but misses this time and clatters into the apron. No matter, he still gets another nearfall with a "splash". The ref gets bumped, allowing Lee to lay into him with a steel chair. He pummels Ake in the corner…but he won’t go down! Eventually he drops to one knee, then slumps on the canvas allowing Lee to pin him at 02:48

Rating - DUD - Mercifully short. I enjoyed his match yesterday, but Akebono is so big, old and immobile that he is an awful pro-wrestler. Just terrible. Poor Brodie had nothing to work with. At least it was kept brief, and as a vehicle to put Lee over this was just about acceptable

Sami Callihan cuts another emotional and oddly goofy promo, demanding a shot in Dragon Gate USA. If he doesn’t get one bad things will happen

Jon Moxley/Akira Tozawa vs BxB Hulk/Homicide
This is Kamikaze USA vs World-1. The Notorious 187 was recruited for World-1 by Bryan Danielson, and made his debut last night, defeating Rich Swann. But he was welcomed to DGUSA by Jon Moxley, who attacked him backstage to make a name for himself and Kamikaze USA at the expense of the former ROH World Champion. Tonight Mox and Tozawa will want to continue making a name for themselves, and maybe even pin BxB in the process to put themselves in the running for an Open The Freedom Gate Championship shot. Hulk intensely dislikes Kamikaze, and last night put down their stablemate Shingo in an epic Freedom Gate clash.

Hulk coming out rocking a World-1 bandana around his neck like Homicide is quite funny. The Notorious 187 makes a beeline for Moxley, beating him into the corner before BxB lunges in with a springboard dropkick to take out both opponents. Tozawa can’t deal with the pace of the Freedom Gate Champion and quickly retreats to the apron. BULLDOG/DROPKICK COMBO from Hulk and Homicide. Check out Cide going DGUSA style there! Homicide’s cheesy grin when they pulled that double team off without issue was an absolute picture. In the end Tozawa goes low, hitting Homicide in the ‘groin’ and finally managing to tag out to Moxley. The Kamikaze USA leader seemingly can’t wait to get in and put the boots to Homicide. He chokes him on the apron as well before feeding him to a succession of high impact strikes from Akira. POETRY IN MOTION HIP ATTACK! Cide and Mox are so dirty they really struggle to follow the rules when in the ring together. Homicide claws at Jon’s face…so Moxley retaliates with an eye rake! Tozawa lands a pumphandle cradlebreaker, which seems to piss Homicide off! Akira doesn’t make it any better as he steals Cide’s other bandana and throws it at him! Superplex from Moxley…but he looks to insult Homicide by beating him with his own finish. Cide ducks a Moxley lariat attempt and hits the Ace Crusher. BxB tagged, who it’s the standing corkscrew senton on Tozawa for 2. Tozawa tries that sequence of diving headbutts…but when he tries to end it with the standing senton Hulk knows it’s coming and gets the knees into the spine! BxB Star Press gets 2! EVO! Mox has to save the match this time, but he’s then hauled out of the ring by Homicide, who flattens him with a cannonball off the apron. Hulk and Tozawa trade strikes as Moxley and Homicide KILL each other on the floor. FIRST FLASH! FTX! Hulk pins Tozawa at 13:29

Rating - *** - I really liked this. All four wrestlers are very different. Mox is very cerebral but not necessarily the greatest in-ring wrestler. Hulk has all the spots in the world but his psychology sometimes lacks. Tozawa has crazy potential but can be a tad green…and Homicide tries hard but is well past his best with a body that is falling apart. Somehow they produced a clever mash-up of American street-fighting/brawling with typical Dragon Gate high octane tag team wrestling. The crowd really liked it too. I’m not sure many people were expecting much, but it was a lot of fun.

Jon Moxley takes the stick and verbally lays into Homicide as YAMATO runs in and lays out Hulk with his own title belt for the second night running. Mox succeeds in goading Homicide back into the ring so they can have another brawl. It goes all over the building, and unfortunately DGUSA don’t have the lights or camera equipment to handle it. It becomes something akin to a blind guy watching a live gay porn show as you can’t see sh*t but can hear lots of smacks, 2 guys grunting and a crowd cheering them on. Eventually Moxley ‘wins it’ by going after Cide’s bad shoulder before they are separated. You’d think officials would separate them before they’d fought around ringside endangering fans wouldn’t you? Bit of a silly segment, which reeked of Gabe trying to give Mox and Homicide something to do rather than because you believed they wanted to fight.

Austin Aries (flanked by Genki Horiguchi and Ricochet) tells Ronin that they picked the wrong people to make their names at the expense of. I like that, even as a babyface, he makes a point of saying he really is only in Warriors International for one night only.

Shingo vs CIMA
These two are former stablemates who go back a long way in the Dragon Gate promotion. They are now two of DG’s biggest stars so getting them for a singles match in DGUSA is definitely a big deal. It’s also the second time this weekend that CIMA will do battle with Kamikaze USA. Yesterday he and Genki Horiguchi lost to YAMATO and Akira Tozawa in a hotly contested tag bout.

Leonard and Chikarason openly wonder whether Cima will actually have to be the one to resort to nefarious tactics in this match to negate the pronounced power advantage Shingo clearly possesses. He rocks Shingo with a kick…but just as he looks to be using his speed Shingo simply mows him down with a shoulder tackle. Cima goes after the leg – always sensible strategy against a powerhouse like Shingo. It’s not particularly effective though, and Shingo soon has him on the canvas with a urinage backbreaker. He relentlessly attacks the Dragon Gate icon’s back, using high impact slams, unforgiving stretches and frequently nothing more than a straight forward clubbing forearm across the spine. Adrenaline rush from Cima though, and he comes out of the corner with a double stomp to Shingo’s chest. Slingshot basement dropkick scores too, and for the moment Cima is even selling the back! He pummels Shingo with kicks and a rolling senton (again with selling) for 2. He DDT’s Shingo into a guillotine choke…but of course Shingo has scary power and he COUNTERS that from the canvas all the way into a fisherman buster! Blood Fall countered with a spinning heel kick…so Shingo drills Cima with a spinning backbreaker. NO SOLD! Lungblower by Cima…and both men are down! Crossfire Bomb gets 2 for Cima! CROSS-LEGGED SUPERPLEX! Meteora misses! STAY DREAM FROM SHINGO! BLOOD FALL! PUMPING BOMBER! FOR 2! MADE IN JAPAN! STILL 2! Cima gets up and starts trading strikes with Shingo! SCHWEIN! This time it’s Shingo that kicks out! METEORA! This time Cima does win – in a time of 17:07

Rating - *** - I’ve rated this one rather harshly, but if I’m honest I was a little disappointed. A better crowd might have helped add some drama during the opening ten minutes…but this felt like two guys stalling for a while before hitting all their big spots for some cheap pops then going home. That was fine, and the last few moments were red hot, but I just felt like these two were capable of better. Definitely two of Dragon Gate’s top stars wrestling in house show mode. And in fairness, after he and BxB tore each other apart last night, you can’t blame Shingo for taking it a little easier on this show.

CIMA thanks the fans and announces that on the first DGUSA shows of 2011 we will be crowning the first ever DGUSA Tag Team (Open The United Gate) Champions.

Sami Callihan vs Shane Smalls
This is the popcorn match after intermission. Sami has popped up on both the last two DVD’s cutting promos about feeling like an outcast all his life, and pleading for a chance in DGUSA in somewhat ridiculous fashion which I can’t decide if I really like or really can’t take seriously. He’s won dark match Freestyles at Bushido last night and here this evening, so has definitely earned this spot on the main show. An impressive win is needed to get onto DGUSA’s regular roster.

Smalls like what you’d get if you mashed Pac, Adam Cole and Nate Webb together. Sami is in AMAZING shape compared to how he used to look and is emphatically the crowd favourite. He nearly takes Shane’s head off with some horrifying elbow smashes in the twenty seconds. He then pins Smalls on his front to give him repeated unprotected elbow strikes to the back of the head. Shane tries to go high risk with a springboard elbow…and is countered in mid-air to a neckbreaker from Callihan. The crowd are really booing Shane, and he gets distracted by it as Sami gives him ROLLING BACK DROP DRIVERS! Running elbow, then the Stretch Muffler. Smalls taps at 02:33

Rating - * - Emphatic win for Sami which was needed…but he could have done with a better talent to put him over. Smalls was horrible, and was rightly getting absolutely pasted by Callihan for it. The reaction of the crowd (who, like the recent ROH show taped in this building I reviewed, have been very quiet) should have told Gabe all he needed to know about Sami…i.e. he should be on the full time, permanent roster from now on.

Jimmy Jacobs reiterates what he said last night – that he is now focusing all his attention on getting into the running for the Open The Freedom Gate Championship.

Johnny Gargano/Chuck Taylor/Rich Swann vs Austin Aries/Genki Horiguchi/Ricochet
This is the first time Ronin have competed in DGUSA as a trio, having debuted as a faction yesterday. After winning the first match of the night Chuck Taylor surprised everyone by declining CIMA’s offer to let him join Warriors International. Later Rich Swann pissed off Austin Aries by shoving him to the canvas and refusing to become his protégé. And after CIMA and Genki had lost to Kamikaze USA Gargano came to ringside and assaulted him (whilst Chuck and Rich laid out Ricochet). Fair to say they pissed a few people off then…and it could come back to bite them on the ass as A-Double joins the Warriors for one night only and comes for revenge on the renegade new American faction.

Taylor starts with Ricochet and immediately finds his crazy athleticism hard to deal with. He soon retreats to bring Gargano in, with Genki coming in to oppose him for the Warriors team. Swann and Horiguchi have a dance-off…but Rich bails before Aries can get into the ring to fight him. Austin amusingly grabs Gargano and forcibly makes him tag Swann in. Even forced into the ring with a guy who hates in, Swann is still cracking jokes and mocking the Warriors signature pose. Austin is happy to bide his time, and when Swann does finally try to wrestle him he basically makes him his bitch. Rich then puts him in a grounded headscissors and eats the escaping basement dropkick like a noob. Ronin finally get Swann out of the ring, allowing Taylor and Gargano to get in for a 2-on-1 beatdown on Horiguchi. With an opponent now beaten down, Swann gleefully tags himself back in and starts working over Genki’s hair. I love this guy! A-Double comes to the aid of his partner, clearing all of Ronin out. SLINGSHOT SPEAR BY GARGANO! FROG SPLASH BY SWANN! That high octane double teaming by Ronin allows them to finally trap Aries in the ring for an extended beatdown for the first time. DOUBLE BIEL SENTON triple team for 2! At last Austin gets a tag to Ricochet, and of course business immediately picks up. He takes it to Ronin with flying headscissors from more angles than you can count, getting 2 on Gargano with a standing moonsault. Handspring headscissors COUNTERED to a flapjack by Chuck. Half crab/camel clutch combo on Rico by Taylor and Gargano. So Aries and Horiguchi come on for STEREO ABDOMINAL STRETCHES on them at the same time! Naturally Swann is the odd man out of that equation! He drags Ricochet out of the ring for a pescado. HEAT SEEKING MISSILE BY ARIES! CHOCOLATE RAIN BY RICOCHET! Taylor blocks the Beach Break…and suddenly Aries is in the ring trying to fight off all three opponents. SWANN WITH AN SSP OFF GARGANO’S BACK! IED/BACKSLIDE FROM HEAVEN COMBO from Aries and Genki for 2! Sole Food from Taylor to Genki! Power Drive Elbow on Chucky! BACKFLIP KICK FROM BY RICOCHET! SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP TO THE FLOOR! SUPERKICK FROM GARGANO! LAWN DART! RONIN WITH A DOUBLE STOMP/ELEVATED DDT TRIPLE TEAM! HURTZ DONUT! GARGANO PINS RICOCHET! It’s over at 21:14

Rating - **** - This probably isn’t the best DGUSA show ever, but it’s still well worth getting for this match alone. Ronin are such a fun group act already. They might not necessarily be the best wrestlers, but they are all so charismatic that they make compulsive viewing. In particular here Rich Swann was the undisputed star. As the least experienced man in the match his odd mixture of goofy mistakes and crazily OTT confidence made him a brilliant whipping boy for the Warriors in the first half of the match. Likewise, Ronin’s use of cheap tactics and clever combo moves to isolate Aries and wear down their most experienced adversary was equally great to watch. And of course, with a seasoned DG trios worker like Genki alongside great high fliers like Swann and Ricochet, entertaining spot merchants like Gargano and Taylor and the brilliant Austin Aries this was always going to be awesome once it broke down in the closing minutes. This may well have stole the show, and was a great way to debut Ronin

Everyone gets a standing O, although Ronin continue to act like dicks until they leave. Genki and Ricochet convince a reluctant Aries to join in a Warriors ‘WOO’ thing…

Jon Moxley tells everyone that Homicide isn’t tough and that in just one night he’s put him on the shelf. YAMATO is there too, and Mox instructs him to beat the Dream Gate Champion tonight so Kamikaze USA end 2010 on a high note.

YAMATO vs Masato Yoshino
The Open The Dream Gate Championship is not on the line here. Yoshino is looking for revenge for his World-1 stablemate BxB Hulk who is being relentlessly chased by Kamikaze USA for the Freedom Gate Title. Both last night and earlier in this show YAMATO has snuck up on Hulk, stolen his belt then laid him out with it. Yoshino promised to ‘deal with him’ here in our main event.

Yoshino taunts Yamato with the Dream Gate belt – significant since it was actually the Speed Star that defeated Yamato for that belt. In response Yamato tears his skirt away and is fighting in trunks to emphasise how seriously he’s taking this. He takes the match straight to the match to stop Yoshi building up any speed at all. He can’t keep him on the ground forever though, and Masato does get to his feet and sprints at his opponent to hit a satellite headscissors. The Dream Gate Champion takes aim at one of Yamato’s arms – a sensible strategy if he can force his stronger opponent to fight him with just one good arm. He does some serious damage…but stops to mock Yamato, who slaps him into an anklelock in an instant. Yoshino makes the ropes, but Yamato refuses to break the hold – which appears to seriously injury him. Yoshi tries to leave the ring, but is chased around ringside and has to endure multiple kicks right onto the now-damaged leg. Yamato is such a consummate heel he actually stalks Masato from behind, ducking out of his sightlines so he can jump in with more stomps. Anklelock applied again! He escapes that…so Yamato grabs him again for a shinbreaker/dragon screw combo then puts him in a Figure 4, which is a particularly effective hold as it doesn’t need him to use his bad arm at all. Out of nowhere Yoshino sprints at Yamato for the Sling Blade…but as soon as he’s hit it he rolls around on the canvas holding the leg. Running dropkick from the floor to the apron comes next, and again he then lies on the apron crying out in pain. He tries an ill-advised double stomp, misses and is belted with a flying forearm by Yamato as he nurses his leg again. From Jungle! The champion goes right back to the arm as a defensive strategy! SNAP GERMAN from Yamato! They go up the turnbuckles…SPRINGBOARD SLING BLADE BY YOSHINO! But he takes too long setting up the Lightning Spiral and gives Yamato sufficient time to recover and hit the spear. DOUBLE STOMP TO YAMATO’S ARM! TORBELINO! Sol Naciente blocked…Galleria blocked too! Yoshi takes him down with an inverted DDT to counter that and both men are down! Yoshino is up first to deliver that crazy height missile dropkick…and hits the Lightning Spiral right afterwards for 2. Masato goes back upstairs…and Yamato shows his cunning by dropkicking the top rope to crotch him. Superplex nailed by the Kamikaze USA man…but at over 20 minutes deep neither man is particularly quick to get back to his feet. CHOKE SLEEPER…SLEEPER SUPLEX! BRAINBUSTER! YOSHINO KICKS OUT! And still Yoshino blocks the Galleria! SIT-OUT PILEDRIVER GALLERIA! STILL 2! Yamato is in disbelief, whilst Yoshi is now so fired up that he’s not even feeling the punches raining down on him. ROLLING TORBELINO’S! SOL NACIENTE! COUNTERED TO A SMALL PACKAGE FOR 2! COUNTERED BACK TO SOL NACIENTE! IT’S OVER! Yoshi wins at 23:41

Rating - **** - A great main event for DGUSA to end 2010 with. YAMATO’s body of work in DGUSA has been frighteningly awesome. Since Open The Historic Gate he’s been freakishly consistent, works so hard and is seemingly in a showstealing match on almost every DVD. Here the combination of his awesome wrestling skills and wise-beyond-his-years cunning was the perfect foil for Yoshino to do his usual Speedy Gonzalez sh*t around. Had either man been bothered to sell their respective injuries I think the crowd would have been even more into it and we could have been talking an MOTYC. Without that selling and subsequent emotional resonance that provides it did start to get very spotty at the end. Although this is DGUSA so you sort of expect that. The counter sequence around the Sol Naciente at the end was of amazing quality. It also rounds off a bad night for Kamikaze USA – who finish 0-3 at this pay-per-view

YAMATO is beaten, but not broken as he walks out gesturing at BxB Hulk that he’s still coming for his title. Yoshino does the ‘thanks for coming’ promo and promises a return to New Jersey next year.

Tape Rating - *** - It’s not a spectacular blockbuster of a show like Bushido last night. That had the draft angle going through the whole show, tons of great 4* plus matches, an epic MOTYC main event and lots more surprises along the way. This was more of a solid wrestling show…and there’s nothing wrong with that. The two main events are well worth checking out and certainly give you value for money if you are purchasing this DVD. It has a few more lulls in it than the previous evening’s show (Brodie/Akebono, the brawl between Homicide and Moxley and Callihan/Smalls), plus I don’t think CIMA/Shingo lived up to the major hype people had for the match…but that doesn’t make it a bad show – far from it in fact. As ever with DGUSA, you’re almost always getting your money’s worth.

Top 3 Matches
3) CIMA vs Shingo (***)
2) Johnny Gargano/Chuck Taylor/Rich Swann vs Austin Aries/Genki Horiguchi/Ricochet (****)
1) Masato Yoshino vs YAMATO (****)

Top 5 Bushido: Code Of The Warrior/Freedom Fight 2010 Weekend Matches
5) Johnny Gargano/Chuck Taylor/Rich Swann vs Austin Aries/Genki Horiguchi/Ricochet (**** - Freedom Fight 2010)
4) Jimmy Jacobs vs Jon Moxley (**** - Bushido)
3) Masato Yoshino vs YAMATO (**** - Freedom Fight 2010)
2) YAMATO/Akira Tozawa vs CIMA/Genki Horiguchi (**** - Bushido)
1) BxB Hulk vs Shingo (****1/2 - Bushido) 

Make a free website with Yola