Dragon Gate USA "Open the Untouchable Gate" show report
September 6, 2009
Chicago, Ill. at the Congress Theatre
Report by Dominick Mayer, Torch ECW TV specialist

The first match of the night was a "Fray!" match that was only for the people who bought the Golden Ringside tickets. Of note: I paid $40 for ringside seats that weren't actually ringside. The Congress has an odd layout, so the ring was slightly downhill and the seats under the hard camera, where I was, were actually up on the venue's stage. Johnny Gargano won the Fray right as I arrived.

Main card

(1) Dragon Kid beat Masato Yoshino. An absolutely fantastic opener. It's absolutely true that until you've seen Dragon Kid do his thing, you can't understand the kind of true athlete that this man is. The crowd started off just a tad bit silent between spots, as I noticed that most of them were in WWE t-shirts. They probably just saw this show advertised, especially with J.R. and Jerry Lawler doing a signing beforehand, and came for that. By the end of 15 minutes, they were popping for every move and every nearfall. The match ended with Kid going for what looked like a huricanrana, but spinning around into a crucifix pin. Yoshino had a fair amount of chants going for him as well. Just a great opener.

(2) Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw beat YAMATO & Gran Akuma. Good tag match, though because it was paced slower than the mile-a-minute opener, some people got lost until the end. I wasn't sure if Jigsaw was actually hurt or just selling really well, but after only a few minutes of Akuma working his leg over, he was limping and selling the hell out of it the rest of the match. It was impacting all his moves, so if that was just a sell I give him a lot of credit, because he went as far as blowing spots to keep it up. Quackenbush was over with most of the crowd, though some were booing the fun, goofier character. Someone in the crowd called his finishing spike piledriver the "Flying V," which really needs to stick. He got that on Akuma for the pin and the win. Yamato got a ton of heat in this match, as he would jaw to the crowd every time they started cheering for him. (Cheering for heels was a theme of the night.) After the match ended, Akuma and Yamato started beating on Quackenbush until Hallowicked came out to make the save. He helped both Quackenbush and Jigsaw to the back.

Next was some promo time, as the Young Bucks came out to a really big reception. They did a lot of the same "we're not the tag team of the future, we're the tag team of right now" stuff that they did at the first PPV. Then, Jimmy Jacobs came out with Mustafa Ali to try and recruit them. The Bucks took a pass, and a brawl ensued. Just when the Bucks started to take over, the tag champs Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito came out and jumped them from behind. They left the Bucks laying and walked out.

(3) Open The Dream Gate champion Naruki Doi beat Bryan "The American Dragon" Danielson in a non-title match. They had Danielson come out first and without any music. The crowd picked up for this by singing the first few minutes of "The Final Countdown" while he made his way around the ring. Doi came out to an equally positive reception. This match was another really great one, though in a different manner than the opener. This was just pure wrestling, and the fluidity with which these two move is something that has to be seen to be believed. Every time one would go for a pin, the other would kick out, which would immediately segue into a submission hold or another move. It was just absolutely flawless chain wrestling. The crowd was into this throughout, though there was a fairly small but insanely vocal contingent that was very against Danielson, which was to be expected. The end came when Doi hit a nasty looking combination of a spike piledriver and a Muscle Buster for the pin.

Danielson took the mic after the match and acknowledged Doi. Doi bowed out of the ring, and the Dragon gave another goodbye promo. He talked about the crowd's "Best In The World" chants that had been ringing out throughout the entire match, and said that he might not have that chance anymore. While that's true, I'm really intrigued that he would go on record saying that. He then talks about another man on the card who has all the tools to take that title over from him, Davey Richards. He gives a nice passing-of-the-torch speech in favor of Richards and challenges him to be the best later tonight. He ends by thanking the fans and telling them to keep supporting independent wrestling. As he leaves the ring, he actually gets exit music, but that doesn't stop the whole venue from singing along to Europe.

The ring announcer came out and let everyone know that it's intermission time, and that Danielson would be signing autographs right away during the intermission. Nearly everyone ran for the back of the theater at once.

(4) CIMA beat Brian Kendrick. Good match, but not as great as I feel it could have been. One guy audibly yelled "He's actually wrestling!" at Kendrick, and because it had gotten quiet at that point, everyone heard and lost it accordingly. There was a really strange spot where Kendrick was wedged in the corner and CIMA started undoing his ring tights. On the spectrum of things I never thought I'd see in a wrestling ring, that's up there, and I've seen Roddy Piper rip Goldust's clothes off and kiss him. CIMA won with double knees off the top rope and Kendrick rolled out to let CIMA celebrate pretty quickly. A lot of people tonight have been attempting to be heel despite cheers, but Kendrick was the first one to really get heat from a majority of the audience.

(Brief note here: There was a slight delay before the next match started. To kill the time, the crowd started a "Cena still sucks!" chant. Ah, unity amongst wrestling fans.)

(5) Davey Richards beat Shingo. Match of the night, by far. Both these guys worked insanely stiff the entire time. Because of his ring tights, build and demeanor, I can't help but think of Chris Benoit just a little bit when I look at Richards. Even though his name is basically a swear word nowadays, it doesn't change the fact that he was great in the ring, and I think Richards lives up to the comparison. Shingo is that perfect build where he can wrestle like a main event heavyweight, but he's still agile enough to execute moves most heavyweights wouldn't even attempt. Richards had one spot where he suicide dived straight into the crowd and chairs, which left everyone in awe. This was the one match that had everybody hanging on every pin attempt, every submission hold. Richards won the match by hitting a shooting star press, which Shingo kicked out of, but then transferring straight into a modified triangle choke for the submission.

After the match, Richards got on the mic (there were some PA problems throughout the night, but this was the worst, I missed half his promo) and talked up Danielson's earlier speech and asked him to come out. Danielson comes out, and Richards talks about them living together and training together, before superkicking him for massive heat. That is, except for the anti-Dragon guys from earlier, who were loving it. Richards said something else on the mic that really was indiscernible, and then left Danielson laid out.

(6) DGUSA tag team champions Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito beat The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) in a non-title match. The Bucks actually didn't get that big of a pop coming out for the main event, probably because they'd already appeared on the show. Genki and Saito were having a terrible time trying to stay heel, because people were chanting for them throughout. Genki's ring attire is atrociously bad in the best way. At one point, when the Bucks started their flurry of two-man offense, a "Hardys" chant got going. This was hard to deny, especially when they did the same senton/legdrop combo the Hardys used to do. The match ended with Genki spitting mist into Matt's face, allowing Saito to hit a cradle facebuster for the pin. After the match, the champs celebrated a little and then left Nick to argue with the referee about the mist.

Overall, the show was really strong throughout. Unlike the first PPV, there were definitely some matches that stood out more than others (Richards-Shingo being the definite frontrunner), but Dragon Gate as a brand is establishing its own identity already, and that's the key thing right now, differentiating itself from ROH and other American independent organizations. On talent alone, I think they're going to be golden going forward.

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