Travicity
01-27-2011, 11:14 PM
Dragon Gate USA will kick off their 2001 season this coming weekend with their first ever triple shot, which will span BB Kings in New York City on Friday, the ECW Arena in Philadelphia on Saturday, and the ACE Arena in Union City, NJ on Sunday. As DGUSA announced earlier this week, the NYC and Philly shows will be streamed live on the internet at www.gofightlive.tv, so if you want to watch the Friday and Saturday shows live as they happen, head over there for information on how you can buy the feeds to those events.
Also, DGUSA Vice President Gabe Sapolsky did a 45 minute interview yesterday with Mike Johnson in the Elite section discussing this weekend's events as well as internet PPV vs traditional PPV, his thoughts on DGUSA's first show in New York, Dragon Gate's perception of New Japan's decision to start running shows in the United States, Austin Aries, Bryan Danielson, and several other topics relating to Dragon Gate USA. Go check it out now if you're Elite, and if not, then now's a great time to sign up and check out the interview with Sapolsky as well as a SLEW of other audio, and you can try the site free for three days before making any commitments.
The main focus of this weekend's events will be a tournament to crown the first ever Open The United Gate Tag Team Champions (or, for brevity's sake, the DGUSA tag title) with four teams competing for the right to become the inaugural champions. The tournament will be held under round robin rules like most tournaments in Japan, at two matches per show, with a win being worth 2 points, a draw being worth 1, and a loss obviously getting you nothing. Here are the teams and matches for each show:
New York: CIMA & Dragon Kid vs Masato Yoshino & PAC, Naruki Doi & Ricochet vs Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano
Philadelphia: Masato Yoshino & PAC vs Naruki Doi & Ricochet, CIMA & Dragon Kid vs Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano
Union City: CIMA & Dragon Kid vs Naruki Doi & Ricochet, Masato Yoshino & PAC vs Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano
I think the obvious expectation is that one of the Japanese teams will win, which is a reasonable expectation since the focus of the company is on the core Dragon Gate talent and that's what happened with BxB Hulk winning the Open The Freedom Gate Title in late 2009. I think it would be awesome if Taylor and Gargano won, because it would really make a statement for them to essentially make their debut by going over three established Dragon Gate duos to get the title, especially if they have Rich Swann running interference. Alternately, it would be really cool to see three of the teams go 2-1 to force a sudden death, three way finals.
Just below the OTUG Title Tournament on the weekend's marquee is BxB Hulk defending the Open The Freedom Gate Title all three nights of the tour against members of Kamikaze USA. He's got YAMATO on Friday, Jon Moxley on Saturday, and Akira Tozawa on Sunday, and if Hulk loses in either of the first two matches, then the remaining matches will have special stipulations to make up for their not being title matches. I find the sequence interesting since you wouldn't think Tozawa, as the junior member of the group, would be put into the position of facing Hulk after he's already gone through the other two. Sapolsky mentioned in his interview with Mike Johnson that he was thinking it may be time to do some things to shake the company up and make some headlines, and Hulk beating YAMATO and Moxley only to fall in the end to Tozawa would certainly qualify.
But if we think about this rationally, I don't think Tozawa is really in a position to headline for the company as the DGUSA Champion, so either YAMATO or Moxley take it and then Hulk takes out his frustrations by destroying Tozawa, or he hangs onto it through the entire question. That then brings up the question as to who he'll eventually drop the title to. He's already gone through most of the Dragon Gate main eventers, including current Open The Dream Gate Champion Masato Yoshino, and CIMA is really the only Japanese guys left that he hasn't beaten in title matches. It's at the point where he's all tapped out on Japanese opponents and will now have to start defending against American guys, which makes sense since it's Dragon Gate USA.
So what Americans do I think are in the running? The obvious top contenders in my book would have to be Jon Moxley and Jimmy Jacobs, because Moxley has become a major player in DGUSA, EVOLVE, and FIP as well and they clearly have big plans for him. Jacobs has made a run at the DGUSA Title his entire storyline coming out of his feud with Moxley, though I don't see that title shot coming for at least a few months, so it's possible someone else beats Hulk in the meantime.
I think that Austin Aries and Homicide are probably both in the running as well, and both came into DGUSA with much fanfare after having already proven themselves as longtime headliners in other independent companies. But while they'd both make realiable headliners, it would also feel a bit like going back to the well by putting the strap on either of them, and DGUSA is in a place where there's a major focus on elevating new talent. You can see that in the way Homicide has been putting Jon Moxley over every which way in both companies and also in how Aries has been programmed with Chuck Taylor and his goons in DGUSA and EVOLVE.
But that's another discussion for another day (even though I've gone on for several paragraphs about it already), and let's get back to the shows to discuss the undercards, and talking about Aries working with the young guys segues perfectly into his matches this weekend, as he's got Rich Swann in New York and Akira Tozawa in Philly. The Swann match will play off Swann disrespecting Aries after Aries offered to mentor him at the iPPV back in October and their six man match the following night in Rahway. Swann's got talent and a lot of potential, and he's a great athlete, but he's also still very young and while I think he's come along great so far, working with Aries is only going to help him get better. Same goes for Tozawa, who will be wrestling Aries a night after facing Sami Callihan in New York. I have to be honest, I expect Tozawa to get killed in both matches, which makes the idea of him following those losses with a title victory on Sunday even more intriguing and will provide him with ready made challengers.
Brodie Lee has a big weekend ahead of him, wrestling Jimmy Jacobs in New York, YAMATO in Philly, and Rich Swann in Union City. Brodie's gotten over big time with Dragon Gate management both here and in Japan, and has been going to Japan pretty regularly the last few months. He's stepped it up big time and stands to break out as a major player in 2011, and he's certainly booked into some important matches this weekend. I don't know that he's going to come out of it with a lot of wins since Jacobs and YAMATO both have their thing going, but I think he's going to get good matches all the way around the horn and continue to build his stock. Talking about potential future DGUSA Champions, I can definitely see him getting that push and cutting loose and terrorizing Dragon Gate on both sides of the Pacific.
Jon Moxley's also going into an important weekend: he's got Jigsaw on Friday (which should be a gimme) and I already talked about his title match on Saturday, but then he goes into a No Rules Streetfight against Homicide in Union City, the site of Homicide's vicious, drawn out attack on Moxley at EVOLVE back in November. Moxley and Homicide have been fighting in just about every indy they've worked in over the last few months and have had some really entertaining brawls that usually see them tear up whatever building they're in as well as each other. The EVOLVE match was held under strictly competitive rules, and the streetfight environment will alow them to really cut loose in an intimate environment where a fight like this will seem even more grueling. This feud's probably going to keep going for a while yet, so I'm expecting Moxley to find some way to beat Homicide and lead into an even more violent match next time around.
To round out the rest of this weekend's matches, I already touched on Sami Callihan's match against Akira Tozawa, and then Callihan will go on to a Six Man Freestyle in Philly that will also include Frightmare, Jigsaw, Scott Reed, AR Fox, and Rexx Reed. Callihan had a breakout year in 2010, getting into great shape and having some of the stiffest brawls on the indies. Now he's starting on a new course as a bitter reject (an angle I'll talk more about in a minute), and has been tearing through everyone in violent fashion since, and I think that's going to continue this weekend.
Jimmy Jacobs will wrestle Rich Swann in Philly (again, good thinking getting Swann in there with the veterans), and then Jacobs, Austin Aries, and YAMATO are all scheduled to appear in Union City, though they haven't had matches announced yet. In an added attraction, Kaiju Big Battel will present Live Monster Mayhem at the Philadelphia show, and I don't know much about it other than it appearing to be some kind of anime/martial arts fighting show, but it'll be there. Finally, Reby Sky (a Playboy Playmate and Ms Howard Stern 2009) will be appearing on all three shows. She has a wrestling background and has already worked with Dragon Gate USA management when she appeared at EVOLVE 6, and this weekend we'll find out what her continued involvement with DGUSA will consist of.
As you can see, Dragon Gate USA has a really packed weekend, and none of the three events are going to be throwaway shows, something important is happening on all of them. They're all within a very close geographic vicinity, so if you're able to make it to all three shows, I highly urge you to do so because these are some really loaded lineups.
* * *
Just a few other things to discuss before I wrap this column up, and one thing DGUSA has been doing lately that I've really been enjoying has been all the YouTube promos. Jon Moxley did a series of YouTube videos (the links to which you can find under the News Alerts section on dgusa.tv) talking about everything from Kamikaze USA failing in 2010 because they didn't take the DGUSA Title from BxB Hulk, to putting Akira Tozawa over for taking SHINGO's matches this weekend, and even telling Homicide how much he sucks and how he's going to take him out this weekend in Union City. We also recently got one from Jimmy Jacobs talking about how he accomplished some of his goals in 2010 by winning his feud with Moxley, but wants to make 2011 his year by winning the DGUSA Title.
But far and away my favorite video came from Sami Callihan, you can watch it here and it has to be seen to be believed. Callihan does this promo from a literal shrine of hate where he's got pictures of all the DGUSA roster on the wall with their eyes and faces crossed out, and he's telling himself he doesn't need any of the factions because it's been just like all his life when people kept telling him he was never good enough for anything. He says that he's coming to the DGUSA shows and he's going to make everyone respect him, and let them try and stop him. It was so insane and creepy that it was awesome, and I love what an unbelievable performer he's developed into. His wrestling is great, his character is interesting, and his delivery on promos is spot on.
Callihan is a star, no doubt about it, but I think the important point to take away from these videos is that they're great for building and progressing storylines, and are also really easy to do produce since most of the wrestlers do them on their own time at home or wherever they are. It's also a big load off DGUSA's internal production load, all they need to do is tell the wrestlers the important points they need to get across and turn them loose, the wrestler can connect the dots and take advantage of their own creativity by choosing an appropriate environment and telling their story in their own words. It's exactly the kind of creativity and freedom to develop your own character in your own words that you don't get in WWE's stiflingly micromanaged environment. I'm a big fan of these videos, and the more they can do, the better.
Also, DGUSA has a lot of great columns going up in the Feature Articles section on dgusa.tv, and just this month they've done columns about the history of the Homicide-Jon Moxley feud, what's at stake for all the DGUSA wrestlers this weekend, and also what to expect at this weekend's events from a live experience perspective. YouTube videos are great, but the written word is important too and they can complement the video to help keep the storylines going during those month to two month long breaks between shows.
Okay, that's going to wrap it up for this column. I'll be in attendance at all three DGUSA events this weekend and will be providing live coverage from each show as they happen. For Elite members, I'll be doing a postgame audio looking back at the events sometime early next week. In the meantime, you can find out information about the shows or anything else DGUSA related over at www.dgusa.tv.
PWI
Also, DGUSA Vice President Gabe Sapolsky did a 45 minute interview yesterday with Mike Johnson in the Elite section discussing this weekend's events as well as internet PPV vs traditional PPV, his thoughts on DGUSA's first show in New York, Dragon Gate's perception of New Japan's decision to start running shows in the United States, Austin Aries, Bryan Danielson, and several other topics relating to Dragon Gate USA. Go check it out now if you're Elite, and if not, then now's a great time to sign up and check out the interview with Sapolsky as well as a SLEW of other audio, and you can try the site free for three days before making any commitments.
The main focus of this weekend's events will be a tournament to crown the first ever Open The United Gate Tag Team Champions (or, for brevity's sake, the DGUSA tag title) with four teams competing for the right to become the inaugural champions. The tournament will be held under round robin rules like most tournaments in Japan, at two matches per show, with a win being worth 2 points, a draw being worth 1, and a loss obviously getting you nothing. Here are the teams and matches for each show:
New York: CIMA & Dragon Kid vs Masato Yoshino & PAC, Naruki Doi & Ricochet vs Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano
Philadelphia: Masato Yoshino & PAC vs Naruki Doi & Ricochet, CIMA & Dragon Kid vs Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano
Union City: CIMA & Dragon Kid vs Naruki Doi & Ricochet, Masato Yoshino & PAC vs Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano
I think the obvious expectation is that one of the Japanese teams will win, which is a reasonable expectation since the focus of the company is on the core Dragon Gate talent and that's what happened with BxB Hulk winning the Open The Freedom Gate Title in late 2009. I think it would be awesome if Taylor and Gargano won, because it would really make a statement for them to essentially make their debut by going over three established Dragon Gate duos to get the title, especially if they have Rich Swann running interference. Alternately, it would be really cool to see three of the teams go 2-1 to force a sudden death, three way finals.
Just below the OTUG Title Tournament on the weekend's marquee is BxB Hulk defending the Open The Freedom Gate Title all three nights of the tour against members of Kamikaze USA. He's got YAMATO on Friday, Jon Moxley on Saturday, and Akira Tozawa on Sunday, and if Hulk loses in either of the first two matches, then the remaining matches will have special stipulations to make up for their not being title matches. I find the sequence interesting since you wouldn't think Tozawa, as the junior member of the group, would be put into the position of facing Hulk after he's already gone through the other two. Sapolsky mentioned in his interview with Mike Johnson that he was thinking it may be time to do some things to shake the company up and make some headlines, and Hulk beating YAMATO and Moxley only to fall in the end to Tozawa would certainly qualify.
But if we think about this rationally, I don't think Tozawa is really in a position to headline for the company as the DGUSA Champion, so either YAMATO or Moxley take it and then Hulk takes out his frustrations by destroying Tozawa, or he hangs onto it through the entire question. That then brings up the question as to who he'll eventually drop the title to. He's already gone through most of the Dragon Gate main eventers, including current Open The Dream Gate Champion Masato Yoshino, and CIMA is really the only Japanese guys left that he hasn't beaten in title matches. It's at the point where he's all tapped out on Japanese opponents and will now have to start defending against American guys, which makes sense since it's Dragon Gate USA.
So what Americans do I think are in the running? The obvious top contenders in my book would have to be Jon Moxley and Jimmy Jacobs, because Moxley has become a major player in DGUSA, EVOLVE, and FIP as well and they clearly have big plans for him. Jacobs has made a run at the DGUSA Title his entire storyline coming out of his feud with Moxley, though I don't see that title shot coming for at least a few months, so it's possible someone else beats Hulk in the meantime.
I think that Austin Aries and Homicide are probably both in the running as well, and both came into DGUSA with much fanfare after having already proven themselves as longtime headliners in other independent companies. But while they'd both make realiable headliners, it would also feel a bit like going back to the well by putting the strap on either of them, and DGUSA is in a place where there's a major focus on elevating new talent. You can see that in the way Homicide has been putting Jon Moxley over every which way in both companies and also in how Aries has been programmed with Chuck Taylor and his goons in DGUSA and EVOLVE.
But that's another discussion for another day (even though I've gone on for several paragraphs about it already), and let's get back to the shows to discuss the undercards, and talking about Aries working with the young guys segues perfectly into his matches this weekend, as he's got Rich Swann in New York and Akira Tozawa in Philly. The Swann match will play off Swann disrespecting Aries after Aries offered to mentor him at the iPPV back in October and their six man match the following night in Rahway. Swann's got talent and a lot of potential, and he's a great athlete, but he's also still very young and while I think he's come along great so far, working with Aries is only going to help him get better. Same goes for Tozawa, who will be wrestling Aries a night after facing Sami Callihan in New York. I have to be honest, I expect Tozawa to get killed in both matches, which makes the idea of him following those losses with a title victory on Sunday even more intriguing and will provide him with ready made challengers.
Brodie Lee has a big weekend ahead of him, wrestling Jimmy Jacobs in New York, YAMATO in Philly, and Rich Swann in Union City. Brodie's gotten over big time with Dragon Gate management both here and in Japan, and has been going to Japan pretty regularly the last few months. He's stepped it up big time and stands to break out as a major player in 2011, and he's certainly booked into some important matches this weekend. I don't know that he's going to come out of it with a lot of wins since Jacobs and YAMATO both have their thing going, but I think he's going to get good matches all the way around the horn and continue to build his stock. Talking about potential future DGUSA Champions, I can definitely see him getting that push and cutting loose and terrorizing Dragon Gate on both sides of the Pacific.
Jon Moxley's also going into an important weekend: he's got Jigsaw on Friday (which should be a gimme) and I already talked about his title match on Saturday, but then he goes into a No Rules Streetfight against Homicide in Union City, the site of Homicide's vicious, drawn out attack on Moxley at EVOLVE back in November. Moxley and Homicide have been fighting in just about every indy they've worked in over the last few months and have had some really entertaining brawls that usually see them tear up whatever building they're in as well as each other. The EVOLVE match was held under strictly competitive rules, and the streetfight environment will alow them to really cut loose in an intimate environment where a fight like this will seem even more grueling. This feud's probably going to keep going for a while yet, so I'm expecting Moxley to find some way to beat Homicide and lead into an even more violent match next time around.
To round out the rest of this weekend's matches, I already touched on Sami Callihan's match against Akira Tozawa, and then Callihan will go on to a Six Man Freestyle in Philly that will also include Frightmare, Jigsaw, Scott Reed, AR Fox, and Rexx Reed. Callihan had a breakout year in 2010, getting into great shape and having some of the stiffest brawls on the indies. Now he's starting on a new course as a bitter reject (an angle I'll talk more about in a minute), and has been tearing through everyone in violent fashion since, and I think that's going to continue this weekend.
Jimmy Jacobs will wrestle Rich Swann in Philly (again, good thinking getting Swann in there with the veterans), and then Jacobs, Austin Aries, and YAMATO are all scheduled to appear in Union City, though they haven't had matches announced yet. In an added attraction, Kaiju Big Battel will present Live Monster Mayhem at the Philadelphia show, and I don't know much about it other than it appearing to be some kind of anime/martial arts fighting show, but it'll be there. Finally, Reby Sky (a Playboy Playmate and Ms Howard Stern 2009) will be appearing on all three shows. She has a wrestling background and has already worked with Dragon Gate USA management when she appeared at EVOLVE 6, and this weekend we'll find out what her continued involvement with DGUSA will consist of.
As you can see, Dragon Gate USA has a really packed weekend, and none of the three events are going to be throwaway shows, something important is happening on all of them. They're all within a very close geographic vicinity, so if you're able to make it to all three shows, I highly urge you to do so because these are some really loaded lineups.
* * *
Just a few other things to discuss before I wrap this column up, and one thing DGUSA has been doing lately that I've really been enjoying has been all the YouTube promos. Jon Moxley did a series of YouTube videos (the links to which you can find under the News Alerts section on dgusa.tv) talking about everything from Kamikaze USA failing in 2010 because they didn't take the DGUSA Title from BxB Hulk, to putting Akira Tozawa over for taking SHINGO's matches this weekend, and even telling Homicide how much he sucks and how he's going to take him out this weekend in Union City. We also recently got one from Jimmy Jacobs talking about how he accomplished some of his goals in 2010 by winning his feud with Moxley, but wants to make 2011 his year by winning the DGUSA Title.
But far and away my favorite video came from Sami Callihan, you can watch it here and it has to be seen to be believed. Callihan does this promo from a literal shrine of hate where he's got pictures of all the DGUSA roster on the wall with their eyes and faces crossed out, and he's telling himself he doesn't need any of the factions because it's been just like all his life when people kept telling him he was never good enough for anything. He says that he's coming to the DGUSA shows and he's going to make everyone respect him, and let them try and stop him. It was so insane and creepy that it was awesome, and I love what an unbelievable performer he's developed into. His wrestling is great, his character is interesting, and his delivery on promos is spot on.
Callihan is a star, no doubt about it, but I think the important point to take away from these videos is that they're great for building and progressing storylines, and are also really easy to do produce since most of the wrestlers do them on their own time at home or wherever they are. It's also a big load off DGUSA's internal production load, all they need to do is tell the wrestlers the important points they need to get across and turn them loose, the wrestler can connect the dots and take advantage of their own creativity by choosing an appropriate environment and telling their story in their own words. It's exactly the kind of creativity and freedom to develop your own character in your own words that you don't get in WWE's stiflingly micromanaged environment. I'm a big fan of these videos, and the more they can do, the better.
Also, DGUSA has a lot of great columns going up in the Feature Articles section on dgusa.tv, and just this month they've done columns about the history of the Homicide-Jon Moxley feud, what's at stake for all the DGUSA wrestlers this weekend, and also what to expect at this weekend's events from a live experience perspective. YouTube videos are great, but the written word is important too and they can complement the video to help keep the storylines going during those month to two month long breaks between shows.
Okay, that's going to wrap it up for this column. I'll be in attendance at all three DGUSA events this weekend and will be providing live coverage from each show as they happen. For Elite members, I'll be doing a postgame audio looking back at the events sometime early next week. In the meantime, you can find out information about the shows or anything else DGUSA related over at www.dgusa.tv.
PWI