Hey everybody, a very tired Matt Waters back again for more Dragon Gate USA action. This card was made an iPPV at the last minute but arguably boasts the most important match of the triple-shot as Cima & Ricochet of Blood Warriors challenge the Junction 3 duo of PAC & Ricochet with both the Open the Twin Gate titles and the United Gate titles up for grabs.

As with before, I’d really appreciate your vote in DGUSA’s video contest. Mine is the first video. Thanks.

Let’s get to it!

 

The Scene vs. Chuck Taylor & Rich Swann (Ronin)

Despite their impressive roll throughout the first two Tag Team Discovery matches, The Scene were unable to defeat the Ronin duo of Rich Swann and Chuck Taylor, with Taylor pinning Scott Reed with the Awful Waffle after an extended melee on the top rope that left Reed sitting up top with his back to Taylor, not a position you want to be in. The feed unfortunately died quite early on so I can’t comment on the portion of the match we missed, but it seems there were a lot of shenanigans, but are we really surprised given who’s involved? Swann may challenge Akira Tozawa for most charismatic man in the company, singing his team to the ring and turning a test of strength fake out into Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance a la El Generico. He and Chucky showed some surprisingly good teamwork considering they’re not the regular duo for their stable. The Scene put up quite the fight, using a lot of huge power moves, particularly on Swann. The job of the match was to establish The Scene as a potential regular team, with Larry Dallas clapping his new signings after the match.

– Silas Young came to the ring and told Brodie Lee that he’d accepted his open challenge as Brodie had been bullying Silas’ wife (who accompanied him to the ring). Not sure when this was supposed to have happened, but hey-ho.

Silas Young vs. Brodie Lee

 Despite a valiant effort, Silas Young fell to the awesome power of Brodie Lee, being felled by a huge powerbomb, though he kicked out of the Truck Stop moments earlier. Silas appeared to have the match won, but Akira Tozawa came out and distracted him, allowing Brodie to recover and get the win. Young seems to be a lot more agile than the last time I saw him, flying around the ring and hitting a nice moonsault off the apron at one point. Not to be outdone, Brodie freakin’ Lee hit a suicide dive to the outside moments later, and a running hurricanrana later on. The story here was Silas using the good old hit-and-move strategy against the Big Rig, who proceeded to flatten him when he finally caught up to him.

 

– Brodie mocked Silas after the match and challenged anyone in the building to fight him. Jon Davis answered the call (though there was a chant for Uhaa Nation) but Tozawa blindsided him, allowing their scheduled bout to get under way.

 

Akira Tozawa vs. Jon Davis

Jon Davis’ personal challenge series went the way of The Scene’s weekend, winning the first two matches but falling in the difficult third stage, with Akira Tozawa putting him down with an Emperor German Suplex. The match was reasonably short, with each man getting a chance to be in control for a few minutes, before Tozawa managed to hit a running knee strike to soften Davis for his huge german suplex variant. Tozawa could honestly main event this company; his presence is undeniable and he controls the crowd like nobody else. Davis’ power is somewhat scary. At one point he lifted Tozawa from his knees up and into a Jackhammer in one quick motion.

– We’re heading to intermission earlier than planned as apparently enough people have complained about the very low lighting that Gabe’s decided to try and fix it. Before that we hear from Lenny Leonard that BxB Hulk vs Yamato in a No Ropes, No DQ match has been signed for the Boston show in Novemeber, but for some reason the Freedom Gate won’t be up for grabs. Why on earth not? Leonard calls it the biggest feud in DGUSA. Hmm.

 

Sami Callihan & Arik Cannon (D.U.F.) vs. AR Fox & YAMATO

The D.U.F. got the better of AR Fox despite having the Open the Freedom Gate champion as his partner, with Callihan knocking Fox out with the Stretch Muffler while also kicking him repeatedly in the face. Cannon & Callihan isolated Fox for most of the match, just like last night with Sabu as his partner. Conversely, whenever Yamato got in the ring he dominated, as you’d expect from the company’s champion, but he didn’t really seem to belong in the match, taking a hike the moment it ended. Fox still doesn’t really impress me beyond his Look-What-I-Can-Do high spots. Like so many other indie workers he’s guilty of flying all over the place with limitless energy and then collapsing and pretending he’s too tired to crawl a few feet over to his corner to make a tag. It’s a small thing, but it bugs the hell out of me. That being said, at one point Fox hit a flying ace crusher from the top rope onto the apron on Callihan, which was pretty cool.

– The D.U.F. got cheers after the match until they continued to beat Fox up, with Pinkie Sanchez coming out to join his comrades. Fox tried to fight back but the numbers were too much… until Sabu hit the ring! Sabu throws some chairs and then starts an impromptu match with Sanchez.

Pinkie Sanchez vs. Sabu

The live feed died during the match so I have no idea who won or how, but what we did see was Pinkie Sanchez bleeding a hell of a lot from various Sabu weapon shots. It was mediocre violence, and I can’t say I’m devestated to have missed it.

– When we rejoin the feed Callihan and Cannon have returned and laid out Sabu. They tie AR Fox to the ropes and Callihan beats the holy hell out of him while Pinkie and Cannon fend off a job squad who try and save Fox. D.U.F. are eventually forced from the ring, though they amusingly leave Pinkie behind to get a 10 on 1 beatdown. Fox is helped to the back.

 

Fourway Freestyle

Facade vs. Sugar Dunkerton vs. Flip Kendrick vs. Uhaa Nation

The behemoth Uhaa Nation won this freestyle match, overcoming a pair of highflyers in Facade and Kendrick, and the ballhog Dunkerton, picking up the win over Sugar after a trio of powerbombs. This was the kind of match I think a live crowd is going to enjoy far more than a home audience. It was by no means bad, but not really worthy of the reaction it was getting if you ask me. It was basically an exhibition for Nation who has been a revelation this weekend, with Kendrick getting a chance to shine after a brief flurry. Facade didn’t do a whole lot, and Dunkerton spent as much time talking trash as he did wrestling, but that’s his gimmick to be fair.

Johnny Gargano vs. Naruki Doi

Johnny Gargano took a huge step on his road to the Open the Freedom Gate by making Dragon Gate ace Naruki Doi tap out to the Gargano Escape in another competitive match. Gargano got off to a quick start, applying the Gargano Escape and working Doi’s arm, but the former Open the Dream Gate champion quickly suppressed him and dominated for several minutes. Gargano fired back by hitting a slingshot spear as Doi went for his signature sprinting dropkick while Gargano was tied up in the ropes. It wasn’t long before both men were exhausted and trading huge strikes, and Doi got the better of it, allowing him to hit a huge Avalance Doi 555’s, but Gargano somehow kicked out. Likewise, Doi kicked out of the Hurts Donut, but a second one left him prone for Gargano’s signature submission hold. The match was pretty good, though it was basically the same Naruki Doi match you’ve seen dozens of times before.

Gargano gets on the mic – which keeps cutting out – and says he feels he is now the number one contender to Yamato and wants his title shot to be on November 13th in New York. Chuck Taylor comes out (in a Colony t-shirt of all things!) and drops an elbow on the microphone, causing the crowd to erupt with praise. He instead yells his promo, stating he’s using the power he earned through his win last night to challenge for the title the night before on November 12th. Both men insist the other go after the tag titles with Rich Swann, who comes out in a Junction 3 shirt. Gargano leaves and Taylor and the crowd demand Swann pick a stable. “I’m with both.”

United Gate Titles & Open the Twin Gate Titles Unification Match

CIMA & Ricochet (Blood Warriors) vs. PAC & Masato Yoshino (Junction 3)

Blood Warriors reign supreme in tag team wrestling, capturing the United Gate titles after Cima hit Yoshino with Meteora for the win, moments after Yoshino had kicked out of an Avalanche Schweinn. A reasonably sedate first ten minutes was peppered with some clever little moments, with about three minutes worth of J3 control and seven of Blood Warriors before things began to pick up in pace. Yoshino saved the titles after Cima and Ricochet dropped some bombs on PAC, including Ric’s 630. Yoshino caught Ricochet in the Sol Naciente and he was actually tapping out but the referee was distracted by Akira Tozawa, allowing Cima to break it up. One ref bump later and it was pandemonium as all of Blood Warriors took turns to charge PAC in the corner, followed by J3 doing the same to Cima. The Japanese representatives of each team then took turns to go crazy on each other, leading to PAC hitting British Airways, but Ricochet broke up the pin. PAC & Ric fought to the outside, leaving Cima and Yoshino alone and the rest was history. The extremely intense final minutes made this match a must-see, though it was pretty formualic to start with. The fans chanting “Dickochet” might have been my favourite part of the entire show.

– After the match Blood Warriors pose with their four belts, and Cima pretends to be a dog peeing on the United Gate belts. Ricochet tries to cut a promo but a portion of the fans boo so obnoxiously that you can’t hear a word he says. This wasn’t just booing heels, it was utterly annoying. I think he said something about being the best high-flyer and proving he was better than PAC. Cima said Blood Warriors are the best, they gave their call-sign, they left. Show over.

Overall Show Thoughts

While not as good as last night’s event, this was still a great way to spend a Sunday evening if you’re a wrestling fan. The lighting was super low, forcing an early intermission so they could try and fix it. It did get brighter, but not much. I just got used to it to be honest, and it didn’t really detract from the show quality. There were also a few issues with microphones cutting out, and the stream froze a few times, most notably during the Sabu/Pinkie Sanchez match so we didn’t see who won, but it didn’t really matter given what took place after. There was also an extremely annoying fan heckling almost every match to the amusement of nobody.

Ronin vs The Scene was fun, Brodie and Silas surprised me, and Tozawa vs Davis was exactly like Davis and Swann in that it threatened to steal the show despite not being very long and taking place before intermission. D.U.F. vs Fox & Yamato was only ok to me, but I don’t care for Fox or Callihan so if you do then you may have liked it. Yamato felt wasted here, entering the ring sparingly and dominating when he did, and getting out of dodge the moment the bell rang. I wish they’d found him something better to do here. Pinkie and Sabu beat each other up in a generic hardcore match with the winner unclear. What was clear was that Callihan beat the zombie-jesus out of Fox after it was over, signifying the Fox/D.U.F. war is not over. The freestyle was fine, but it’s good it was kept short as really only Uhaa Nation and Flip Kendrick got to do anything, and Nation far more than Kendrick. Still, Nation’s a made man after his efforts this weekend and it’ll be interesting to see if he’s available for bookings come November.

Gargano and Doi was great, and making someone held in such high regard in Dragon Gate tap out was a huge moment for Gargano, arguably bigger than making Cima tap in a tag team match. He still has a few things to tweak before I can see him holding the Freedom Gate, but I’d say he’s certainly the strongest candidate to hold the title next. The tension between Ronin was great, with Taylor demanding a title shot before Gargano, reminding me of The Embassy’s title shots at Bryan Danielson. Apt considering the comparisons between Gargano and Alex Shelley. Rich Swann meanwhile refuses to pick a side, annoyingly. It’s looking like the predicted implosion of the group may come to fruition. The main event took a while to really get going but when it did it was fantastic. The right team won, and though I’m a fan of PAC, I didn’t like him and Yoshino as a team, especially when compared to Cima & Ricochet.

There’s enough quality here for me to easily recommend you give this event a watch, but I don’t think it’s a contender for show of the year or anything like that.

4 thoughts on “DGUSA “Way of the Ronin 2011” iPPV LIVE RESULTS”
  1. Any word on who won The Fray tonight?

    Not surprised Tozawa/Davis was short given the war Gargano/Tozawa was last night.

  2. Weird that Silas Young, a flyer type, is Stan Hansen’s nephew. Not at all what you’d expect. As for Tozawa, he’d could main event seemingly anywhere-he knows how to play to the crowd for all it’s worth, and that’s what makes him a GREAT wrestler.

  3. @wrsisyphus I always forget that Silas is the nephew of Stan Hansen. To me, he’s not really a high flyer. He knows how to pick his spots and adapt to the situation. In AAW, he wrestles a deliberate heelish style. And of course Tozawa should be a main eventer. Honestly, he should be the next Freedom Gate champion even with gargano turning in as many quality performances as he has.

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