Pro Wrestling Ponderings

The independent puroresu company, Dragon Gate, made their debut in the United States on September 5th, 2008 in Los Angeles, California on a Friday night. Along with many Dragon Gate wrestlers being included on the card, several prestigious championships were also defended on this particular event. After the fantastic fan reactions at this event, Dragon Gate went forth with creating a new promotion — Dragon Gate USA. I guess that just shows you how well this show went.

To date, DGUSA has only released two DVDs, including “The Best of Dragon Gate Vol. 1″ and the one I am reviewing right now, “Live in L.A.”. I can’t say that I was exactly satisfied with the “best of”, so I was a little hesitant about picking this event up at first. I’m sure all of the matches were fantastic live, but there is a lot that needs to be taken consideration on a home video, including commentary and sound quality. With all that being taken into consideration, is this DVD worth twenty bucks? Keep on reading to find out.

Retired Pro Wrestling Guerrilla wrestlers and California natives, Excalibur and Disco Machine, are on commentary. Yes, the rumors are true. These guys are known for their comedy on the microphone, so if you’re into serious stuff, then I can immediately tell you that you won’t be getting it on this DVD. I’m not a huge fan of either guy, personally, so I can’t say I’ll be the happiest man in the world if they continue providing commentary for DGUSA shows in the future. That remains to be seen, however.

El Generico defeated Genki Horiguchi via pinfall (brainbuster) - A solid match, but I can’t say I cared for it much. Generico entered the ring in some sort of soldier uniform. Excuse me for not knowing where he was going with the attire. Anyways, both guys wrestled crisply and they provided a nice introduction to the Dragon Gate style of wrestling to fans who are new to the product. Towards the end of the match, Generico botched his split-legged moonsault, so he had to go for it again. This came off a little awkward on camera, I’d say. After avoiding some inteference from YAMATO, Generico nailed Horiguchi with a brainbuster for the win. **½.

Horiguchi, Gamma, Yasushi Kanda, and YAMATO began beating down Generico after the match was over. Doi, Yoshino, and BxB Hulk of WORLD-1 quickly came out to make the save. Despite the fact that Generico is not a member of the WORLD-1 stable, Excalibur made it clear that all six men have a Open the Triangle Gate Championship match scheduled for later tonight. Doi and Gamma exchanged some words, including Naruki Doi surprisingly talking some smack in English.

Necro Butcher defeated Stalker Ichikawa via pinfall (stiff punch) - For those of you who are not familiar with Stalker Ichikawa, he is basically the fortified “funny guy” or “loser” of the Dragon Gate promotion. Excalibur let us know that this match was apart of Ichikawa’s ten match trial series of moving to the heavyweight division. Ichikawa rolled into the ring and told the Los Angeles crowd that he is more “dangerous” than his opponent. Necro gets hears him, gets pissed, and runs out like a mad man. The bell rang and Ichikawa slapped Necro across the face. Necro clocked Ichikawa with a stiff punch and he’s done for the three in literally seven or eight seconds. DUD.

Not even having to break a sweat, Necro quickly celebrated and began heading towards the backstage area. Ichikawa stopped him, though. He wants a rematch right here and right now. Necro does not have to hesitate and accepts his challenge. The bell rings and these two are at it again.

Necro Butcher defeated Stalker Ichikawa via pinfall (chair-assisted Tiger Driver) - Early in the match, Necro goes for the big punch again, but Ichikawa wisely ducks out of the way. Ichikawa successfully lands the Kanchou, but it has no affect on Necro. Ichikawa goes for it again, but he comes up with the same result as before. Necro swings at Ichikawa, but he gets out of the way, and delivers a diving Kanchou to Necro’s rectum. Necro became angry and began throwing Ichikawa all around the arena. Ichikawa got in some inside cradles here and there, but it was pretty much all Necro from this point on. Necro put Ichikawa out of his misery with a Tiger Driver onto a pile of chairs for the win. Fun times. *½.

SHINGO defeated PAC via pinfall (MADE IN JAPAN) - SHINGO was the Open the Dream Gate Champion at this point in time, but it should be noted that this match was non-title. The story was that SHINGO tried hitting PAC with every move in his arsenal to try and ground the “Man That Gravity Forgot”. However, PAC was able to counter with high-flying moves of his own. The crowd seemed rowdy for this match, but because of the crappy sound quality on the DVD, I could barely hear squat. PAC kicked out of a Last Falconry, Blood Fall, and even the Pumping Bomber. SHINGO was able to block the British Airways with his knees. A crazy number of near-falls happened at the end, but MADE IN JAPAN proved to be enough for the inevitable three. Great match, but I think the show’s live reports significantly overrated it. ***½.

Dragon Kid and Kendo beat Keni’chiro Arai and Taku Iwasa via pinfall (Ultra Hurricanrana) - Apparently, Vampiro was supposed to be Dragon Kid’s original partner, but he no-showed. Kendo, a masked Japanese junior heavyweight, is his replacement. Excalibur and Disco Machine are nowhere to be heard. Where the hell did they go? Can’t they keep the commentary consistent? Kendo was terrible and slowed the match down tremendously. He was gassed about three minutes into the match and botched almost every move imaginable. At the end, though, he managed to pull off a decent-looking plancha through the middle rope, so props to him on that. Dragon Kid pins Iwasa with the Ultra Hurricanrana for the win to end a brutal bout. No wonder why there was no commentary. **.

Following the match, Genki Horiguchi ran out and attacked Dragon Kid and Kendo. I was so happy when Genki started stomping on Kendo’s face. A wrestler in a green lucha mask ran down to make the save. The unknown luchador then proceeded to nail Horiguchi with the Schwein. The mystery man teared off his mask and was revealed to be CIMA, much to the crowd’s approval. CIMA grabbed a microphone and thanked the fans for showing up. CIMA refused to shake hands with Dragon Kid before leaving.

Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka beat Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson via pinfall (Premium Bridge) to retain the Open the Twin Gate Championships - Excalibur wisely pointed out that this was the first time a Dragon Gate championship has been defended in the United States. They played it up as if the Young Bucks had home-field advantage, which I found cool. Match was mostly split until the very end, which saw RyoSuka take control of the bout. Matt and Nick nailed their finisher, More Bang For Your Buck, but it was broken up before a three count could be made. Ryo Saito picked up the victory for his team after pinning Matt Jackson with the Premium Bridge. Excellent tag team contest that may have been slightly better than SHINGO/PAC from earlier in the show. It’s crazy to think about how good the Young Bucks are at this stage in their early and young careers. ***½.

Gamma, YAMATO, and Yasushi Kanda beat Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, and BxB Hulk via pinfall (avalanche Flashback) to retain the Open the Triangle Gate Championships - Fairly back and forth match except for a long heat sequence on BxB Hulk, as he was getting beaten down by Real Hazard. As usual, Gamma spit an insane amount. At one point, he even spit some contents of a protein shake into BxB’s mouth. Out of all the guys in the match, I’d have to say that Doi, Yoshino, and Gamma looked the best. Dragon Gate always excels in trios matches and this one was no different. Gamma scored the win for his team after pinning BxB Hulk with an avalanche Flashback. Hands down, the best match on the show. I wouldn’t even say anything else came close to beating it. ****.

Honestly, I don’t recommend purchasing this show at all. Every match was forgettable, including the main event. If you’ve seen a bout for the Open the Triangle Gate Championships before, then that’s what you’re going to be getting here. The Open the Twin Gate Championships match and SHINGO versus PAC were both great, but they weren’t anything special.

The graphics and sound quality are both pitiful. Before each match took place, a picture would usually pop up, displaying the competitors’ pictures and names. Now, these looked terrible and appeared like they were done on Paint. Either fix these things up soon or get rid of them completely. The sound, on the other hand, was just as bad. When I watch a wrestling match, I like to hear crowd reactions and different sounds from the ring (for example when a wrestler crashes into the mat). You virtually could not hear anything on this DVD. As one could imagine, it got really annoying after a while.

Excalibur and Disco Machine did a solid job on commentary and clearly researched the promotion’s history and stoylines beforehand. This was something that wasn’t too apparent on Dragon Gate’s “best of” DVD when Prazak and Leonard were in control of commentating. Nevertheless, I can’t say that I would like to continue hearing them on future DGUSA DVDs. There’s just something about their style that begins getting old after a while. Then again, I guess they’re better than Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard.

If this review still hasn’t convinced you to pass this DVD aside, then you are more than welcome to look into buying it by clicking here. I will continue buying DGUSA DVDs because I am interested in seeing how the company progresses through their United States tour. After all, this could turn out to be the one mediocre show that Dragon Gate puts on. Who knows for sure, though?

- Anthony Perillo

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