DRAGON GATE USA "UNTOUCHABLE" DVD McReview

DVD CONTENTS:

"Open The Untouchable Gate" disc:
1) Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino
2) YAMATO & Gran Akuma vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw
3) Naruki Doi vs. Bryan Danielson
4) CIMA vs. Brian Kendrick
5) Shingo vs. Davey Richards
6) Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito vs. The Young Bucks
Plus: Jimmy Jacobs and others!!!

Bonus Disc:
1) FRAY! featuring Arik Cannon, Hallowicked, Johnny Gargano, Flip Kendrick, The Great Malaki, Shiima Xion, Mustafa Ali and Louis Lyndon.
2) "Open The Untouchable Gate" Alternative Angle Highlight Package
3) "Untouchable" PPV Preview & Promo Spot
4) Bonus Match #1: Matt "Evan Bourne" Sydal, Magnum Tokyo & BxB Hulk vs. Jimmy Rave, Gamma & Naoki Tanisaki (7/09/06 - WrestleJAM)
5) Bonus Match #2: Davey Richards vs. Shingo (6/10/06 - FIP "Impact Of Honor" - Orlando, FL)
6) Bonus Match #3: Davey Richards vs. Shingo (11/10/06- FIP "All Or Nothing" - Inverness, FL)

Before getting into the rundown, I may have jumped the gun on the DOI Year End Awards. The DOI gave "Open The Historic Gate" top honors in our Show Of the Year award. Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer also did the same. However, I thought this show blew away Open The Historic Gate and is the best DGUSA show to date.

I have said in my other reviews, how I'm more of an old school fan. Maybe because I watched this show after seeing 2 other DGUSA shows, that I can now say DGUSA is starting to grow on me a bit. When I watch DGUSA I go into it knowing it's a different style of wrestling. It's kind of like a movie. You know you're not going to get great acting in a zombie movie, but fuck "Dawn of the Dead" was great anyway. You're not going to see Adam Sandler accepting the Best Actor award at the Oscars, but his movies are funny. While DGUSA is winning awards, the point I'm trying to make here is that I have accepted their style and it has become a nice change of pace. However, I wouldn't want all of wrestling to be like this as this is what makes DGUSA unique.

This is easily my favorite show of 2009. I guess to justify "Open The Historic Gate" winning Show of the Year by the DOI and other sites, we can all agree that Open The Historic gate was indeed historic and allowed DGUSA to continue. Who knows, if Open The Historic Gate bombs, maybe DGUSA folds. But as far as in ring action and excitement, this show blows away anything I've seen all year, including WWE & TNA.

I mean just look at the line-up. Davey vs Shingo. Doi vs Danielson. Cima vs Kendrick. The main event tag match. I'm not into the star system, but all of these matches are 4 stars plus. Danielson vs Doi and Shingo vs Davey were just amazing.

With that said, here's the rundown:

MATCH ONE
Dragon Kid d. Masato Yoshino
This was a very strong opener that could've main evented most indy shows. This was a rematch from "Open The Historic Gate". This match also gave you a clue of what DGUSA is all about.

This match was very fast paced and saw alot of pretty moves. There's stuff these guys are doing that's just never been done before on the American scene and when you put this on PPV, it really stands out.

I liked this match better than the first one. Instead of traditional even-steven booking, Kid wins this match to go up 2-0 after a funky crucifix pinning combination after a series of false finishes.

The one thing I'll add to about DGUSA that irks me, is that these guys kick out of everything. I understand that's the style. But how do you kick out of all these big ass moves, but then get pinned by a roll-up, a crucifix or something out of the blue? I understand that anyone can win at any time, but if you can kick out of anything short of a gun-shot at times, how does a little crucifix hold you down?

MATCH TWO
Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw d. Yamato & Gran Akuma
Easily the worst match on this show and not because I'm not high on the Chikara dance choreography style of wrestling. Jigsaw hurt his knee in this match and it showed. After seeing what Yamato is capable of, I don't really want to see him in these bullshit dancing tag team matches. I'd rather see Quackenbush do the choreography for the next Brittney Spears video than waste a match with Yamato, especially since Quack had a pre-existing back injury in this match.

This was the only match with a true personal rivalry, as Akuma turned on Quack at the first DGUSA, but that didn't stop these guys from doing the Chikara waltz. Instead of a brutal beating we got all the fakeness that alot of fans do like, I have to say that.

I don't know what DGUSA sees in Akuma. To me, I understand elevating the guy, but not at the expense of wasting Yamato on a show.

On a side note, does anyone else think Yamato looks like James Iha from The Smashing Pumpkins? Additionally, I think Mike Quackenbush looks like that dude from Alien Ant Farm who ripped off that Michael Jackson song.

Quack pins Akuma after a "Quackendriver 2", which is basically an Owendriver. I would say hopefully this ends the feud, but...

POSTMATCH: Yamato beats up Quackenbush. Hallowicked runs out for the save. All is good in Mortal Kombat land.

However, from this point on in the show, you are going to get 100 or so consecutive minutes of the best wrestling of 2009.

Before we get to these four just fucking awesome matches, we had a promo with The Young Bucks.

The Bucks did a promo they did at the last show, about how the aren't the team of the future, they are the team of now, blah blah blah. They also said they are fighting Dragon Gate's Open The Twin Gate Champs (Tag Team Champs) in the main event in a non-title match and the Bucks wanted it to be a title match.

Jimmy Jacobs & Mustafa Ali then came out. Jacobs wanted to recruit the Bucks for his new stable. The Bucks said no. Jacobs & Mustafa attacked The Bucks. The Bucks fought back hitting a More Bang For Your Buck on Mustafa.

However, before the Bucks could celebrate, The Open The Twin Gate champs, Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito ran out and beat down the Bucks. What a legit Pearl Harbor job here, heynow! Genki told the camera man afterwards, "No title shot." At least we established a defined heel team and a defined face team for the main.

MATCH THREE
NON-TITLE MATCH
Open The Dream Gate Champ Naruki Doi d. "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson
I'm torn. I don't know if this was the best match on the show or Davey/Shingo was, but what a good problem to have.

This is MUST-SEE. Fucking amazing.

Again, I had to tune out my fondness for old-school, because there was a true lack of selling and way too many false finishes, but I guess with a wrestler of Danielson's status and the fact Doi is a champ, it is really no different than a WWE main event with guys kicking out of their finishers.

This match is easily a MOTYC and was only the third match on this show. I'm telling you, there is nothing wrestling related on PPV more worth your money (except for maybe Wrestlemania for the brand name.)

Going into this match, we all knew this was Dragon's last hurrah before the WWE, something the announcers commented on. Oh yea, while on that, we had Lenny Leonard as the lead voice of DGUSA, and he does a great job of describing everything. Quackenbush would also join the commentary booth after his match on the show.

I can't even describe this match. Just go see it. The DVD is worth it. This review is late and this has already aired on PPV, but if this is what DGUSA is all about, then every PPV is a must-buy.

This was really hyped up well by the announcers as the best in America (Danielson) vs the best in Japan (Doi).

This match really kicked into a higher gear as it got towards the end, with a frustrated Danielson rifling in 20 or so elbows out of frustration on Doi. Dragon came back with his patented finisher, the cattle mutilation, which Doi freed himself of. Dragon then hit a picture perfect high angle back drop from the top, but Doi kicked out of that too. Once he kicked out of that, I figured there was nothing else Danielson could do to win.

Doi then came back with fire and hit 3 big moves in a row. Doi hit a F-5 (called Doi-5) from the top rope. He followed that up with his sliding kick right to Danielson's grill. Doi finally pinned Danielson after a muscular bomb.

Amazing match that just puts over DGUSA as a company and Doi over the most credible indy wrestler in the world.

POSTMATCH: Danielson cut a goodbye babyface promo to a good crowd reaction. Danielson then announced Davey Richards as the best independent wrestler today. With great power comes great responsibility. Dragon was a true pro here. We'd find out how Richards handled his power later on in the show.

MATCH FOUR
Cima d. Brian Kendrick
I have seen about 10 Kendrick matches since he returned to the indies and I think this was the best one yet. It's funny Kendrick is kinda like the old guard here, as he's been to the big time, won national titles, but he's still so young. The rest of the roster are hungry guys all about pro wrestling making their name in DG, while Kendrick's name has been made.

I always read and hear fans talk about how great Cima is, but to me Yamato and Shingo surpasses him in my eyes. This was the best Cima match I've seen, which tells you I haven't seen a long body of his stuff.

Good match here, with Cima getting the win after a top rope stomp. If you're keeping track, that's two single matches with the established DG talent going over the established American talent...

MATCH FIVE
MY PICK FOR MATCH OF THE NIGHT
Davey Richards d. Shingo
Fucking Incredible. Just wow. I have to say it again. Fucking incredible and an easy MOTYC.

I just mentioned how DG talent went over on American talent up to this point in the show. I wonder if that was booked by design, making Richards stand out as the only American to score a win against a DG guy on this show.

I'm writing this after the Richards/DG/ROH fiasco, but wow, what a fucking match.

Yea, the criticism of this match is that this whole match is built around Shingo destroying Davey's left knee while Davey is destroying Shingo's left shoulder. After 15 minutes of that, Davey just no sells the fuck of it and starts doing tope con hilos, brawling in the crowd, shooting star presses, kicking and everything else under the sun. I guess the tradeoff is it all looks impressive, but what's the first 15 minutes of the match for? Just to eat time?

Still, I can't hate on this match. It was just exciting and insane.

This match had a crazy amount of false finishes and flashy moves were on full display.

Shingo hit a reverse burning hammer, followed up with a huge lariato on Davey. Davey came back with a DR Driver for 2 (Davey Richards, get it, he might be creative in the ring, but not so creative naming his moves.) Shingo came back with a made in Japan. Finally after about 25 minutes or so, Davey hit a SSP on Shingo. When Shingo kicked out at 2, Davey grabbed the left arm and put him in a kimura for the submission victory. Just pure excellence and excitement in this one.

POSTMATCH: Davey did a big babyface promo, thanking the fans, thanking DGUSA, blah blah blah. Interesting line though was when Davey said, "Now this is the pro wrestling you all have been missing." I wonder if he said that for leverage in his ROH deal.

Davey then said he wants to thank Dragon for the comments he made earlier. Davey said he doesn't want to read Dragon praise him online, he wants to see him face-to-face.

Dragon came out. Dragon put over Davey once again. Davey looked accepting of it, but then boom, turned heel on Dragon. A really good heel turn here that was well executed. Who know that DGUSA were nostradamus by booking Davey as a two-face here? Davey said he doesn't need anyone's endorsement. He didn't say though if he really needed an extra $150 a show.

All jokes aside, fantastic match and the promo was well done. However, it's not like we could get Dragon vs Davey anyway with Dragon in the WWE.

MATCH SIX
NON-TITLE MATCH
Open The Twin Gate Champs Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito d. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

This was another good match, but really, it wasn't going to follow up what we just saw. This was also the only match on this show to have a funky finish, but the finish made sense, as I'll get to below.

Despite three awesome matches in a row before this, the crowd stayed hot for this match. DGUSA kinda proved that all you really need is 6 strong matches, rather than 3-4 extra matches of filler to fill up a PPV or DVD.

This was a classic heel vs face match, and DGUSA did a good job of getting that over with the promo earlier on the show.

I never seen the Twin Gate Champs before and after seeing them, I'd like to see more of them in DGUSA, although I understand that Saito has an injury right now.

After some fast snazziness, the match slowed down with Matt Jackson getting ragged on until he could hot tag in Nick.

With everything moving in warp speed, Nick accidentally superkicked the ref. The Bucks tossed Genki to the outside then hit the More Bang For Your Buck on Saito. The Bucks had Saito easily pinned, but the ref was out. This is the first ref bump in DGUSA by the way.

With the ref out, Genki came in and misted Matt. Nick was tossed to the side. Saito then hit a power bomb variation on Matt for the win.

Good finish - I don't know if it's political but I'm guessing the champs couldn't lose here. This made the Bucks look strong and protected them. Still, if the champs were going over anyway, why not just make it for the belts so DGUSA can say their tag belts were defended in the United States? Maybe it's a political thing.

Final McWord
I thought this was the strongest DGUSA show I've seen yet, although I heard somehow the last Chicago (1/23) event topped this. I don't know how, but I'm looking forward to that release.

With all the crap going on with Richards/Young Bucks, it's hard not to feel sympathetic for DGUSA because you can see how they were being booked and progressed through the card. Still, with talent like Shingo, Yamato, Cima, etc, DGUSA will be fine. Plus the line-up for their Arizona show looks like something out of a dream.

This is definitely a DVD worth going out to get. You won't be disappointed. This show even made me for get about the old school and I really enjoyed this event.

Another thing about DGUSA too is that they don't cram the card with crap to fill up time. The show flies by and is just easy to watch.

Overall
Something any true fan of wrestling should go out of their way to see.

For more on DGUSA, visit DGUSA.tv

Sean "The MiC" McCaffrey
BULLSMC@aol.com

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