Brian Leahy, Torch specialist (8.0)

DGUSA’s “United: New York” iPPV was fast flowing, solid, and action packed show. On the other hand it was also a slight let down, lacking a “big show” feel, and was unaided by a New York crowd that was less than electrifying, all of which was unaided by rubbish audio quality.

The was plenty to enjoy about the wrestling on the card, even the undercard matches featuring mainly American talent were enjoyable, but it’s obvious DGUSA is still relying on Dragon Gate wrestlers to provide the majority of buzz-worthy action on the card. Rest assured if you purchase the reply of the event, there’s nothing offensive on the undercard: everything is two and a half stars or better, but it’s the two tag bouts and the Open the Freedom Gate Title match where you’ll find the best value for money.

BxB Hulks title defeat to Yamato was a strong match left down by a finish that apparently nobody in the building was expecting. The match closing Gallaria piledriver was met with what I can only assume was disbelief mixed with surprise. Maybe this should be taken as an example that fans become immune to finishers when they’re kicked out of too often. Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see what replaces BxB Hulk’s advertised defences for the next two nights.

The two tag matches are everything you’d expect from a DGUSA double division. CIMA & Dragon Kid vs. Yoshino & PAC and Doi & Ricochet vs. Taylor & Gargano both generally follow the tried and tested Dragon Gate formula of about ten minutes slow build followed by ten minutes of break-neck action. The bar for these matches has been set extremely high, and I suspect that it’ll be Sunday night before that bar is reached. Never the less, two four-star matches on night 1 of the tournament is nothing to be ashamed of. The tournament continues tonight, and it’s still unclear exactly where it’s going. There’s still a number of ways it could play out using the W-D-L/2-1-0 points format, leaving it nicely poised for nights 2 and 3.

All in all, a pretty entertaining couple of hours if you can handle the pace (I don’t recall any reprieve from the action) and the dodgy audio. The camera work wasn’t bad, but it was very tight at times. I’d like to see a few wider shots at tonight’s show as well as an improvement on the audio. A good show, but it’s hard to recommend the reply when you could spend the same $15 on tonight’s show instead.

Jimmy Eaton, Torch Specialist (7.0)

This was a great PPV overall, but iti had it's share of head-scratching moments. To begin with the positives, it featured two great tag team matches and some very solid undercard matches. My surprise of the night goes of course to the title change (More on that later) and Brodie Lee, who I was pretty impressed with for a guy his size. I'm not shocked with how good most of the in-ring action was, but nevertheless the show wasn't without it's issues.

With an average star rating of around *** throughout the night, I thought the matches were very solid but the whole show moved so fast that I couldn't keep up half the time. It's still fun, but with no video intros, backstory, full entrances, etc. this came off incredibly rushed. It's a shame that they booked a title change on a night like this because it didn't seem important as that title usually does. They can fix that, sure, but it still hurts. They didn't explain much going on at all so in a way it was disappointing to see such good wrestling rushed, with technical issues, and odd finishes.

Again, I liked the in ring action but it was difficult to hear almost all promos. Go Fight Live has a history of these issues and while the overall experience wasn't that bad, it took away from the times I could rest a bit. There was no chance to breathe after the title match and the finish didn't help. Thankfully the tag matches were more than enough to carry the show along with a nice showing from Rich Swann and Brodie Lee against Jacobs and Aries. The opener set a good tone, but maybe tried a bit too hard. It was followed with a quick Moxley match (At least he was entertaining in most of his time on the first third of the show), then one of the tag matches. This is when it picked up a bit with Lee and Jacobs telling a good story (Although Jacobs losing doesn't help him in the title picture.) followed by a very good title match with a flat finish. The crowd seemed dead even for the change and the announcers didn't seem to put a lot of emphasis on the change. Congrats to YAMATO though! Then we had another nice singles match with Aries and Swann followed by the main event tag match. This was great, but for me the match of the night was the first tag bout between Ronin and Blood Warriors. I'm a big Genki Horiguchi fan so it sucked not to see him out there though.

Overall, I'd recommend the show if anything, to see how bad a show with no breaks, videos, or interviews can be, and because of the great in-ring action. Some hit and miss parts here and there with botches once in a while, but that's to be expected. If you like the style and can deal with no-selling (They try, but sometimes forget which can be amusing), it's a worthwhile watch if you can overlook the audio issues, odd booking at times, and incredible rushed pace.

Sean Radican, Torch columnist (6.0)

This was a frustrating show to watch for me in many respects. I was expecting a lot out of DGUSA's NYC debut, but the pacing of the show was too frenetic for me to enjoy anything. I'm hoping this isn't an indication of the new direction for the company that DGUSA booker Gabe Sapolsky referred to recently in his BLOG on Heyman Hustle. The positives here are that there was a lot of good in-ring action if you enjoy the DGUSA style, but the crowd and some production issues were a distraction here.

The first two matches on the card were fine, but forgettable. I was expecting more out of Jon Moxley here, but he went the cheap heat route and ran down NYC before getting into it with "Giant Girl" Reby Sky. The most stunning thing on the undercard was YAMATO taking the Open the Freedom Gate title from BxB Hulk on the first night Kamikaze USA's gauntlet challenge. It also didn't help that YAMATO wasn't able to execute his finish properly on Hulk. The crowd seemed stunned and the moment didn't get to sink in once Jacobs hit the ring about 30 seconds after the title change.

Jimmy Jacob's quest for the Freedom Gate title was derailed with a loss to Brodie Lee. I'm really impressed with Lee's work lately. He's improved a lot. I wasn't thrilled to see both men going against each other here because neither could afford a loss from a storyline standpoint, but they delivered some good moments in a short amount of time in the ring.

Both tag title tournament matches were a lot of fun to watch. I liked the Taylor & Gargano vs. Doi & Ricochet match a little more than the main event tournament match featuring Masato Yoshino & PAC beating CIMA & Dragon Kid.

Ronin got a boost with their Taylor & Gargono's win over Ricochet & Doi. They showed some good personality in the ring. The most memorable match of the night the Aries-Swann encounter. Swann carried himself very well as a heel in the ring and got a ton of offense before Aries finished him off in impressive fashion.

If you can put up with the pacing of this show and lack of PPV feel, this show is worth a look. It's disappointing that the title change didn't mean more after YAMATO beat Hulk. Some of the production issues were a detriment, as there were some dark spots around the ring when the wrestlers brawled outside that were impossible to see. I thought the commentary was much improved tonight, as the announcers spent more time telling the story of the match as opposed to shouting out moves.

We suggest these recent related articles...

CALDWELL'S ROH ASE PPV REPORT 9/18: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of All-Star Extravaganza - Jay Lethal defends two titles, ANX, more

RADICAN'S "EVOLVE 47" iPPV REPORT 8/15 - Tremendous all-around show, Bailey vs. Chris Hero, Thatcher-Sabre for EVOLVE Title, more

RADICAN'S NJPW "G1 Climax Finals" PPV Report 8/16: ReDRagon-Young Bucks, KUSHIDA-Ricochet, Tanahashi-Nakamura match for the ages in final