Match A Day 02.17.10: Week 44 - Dragon Gate USA Is My New Drug

Posted by Jake Chambers on 02.17.2010

The mind-bending brilliance of Davey vs. Shingo, the heart-warming importance of DVD packaging, a defense of Internet wrestling criticism, and more!

Previously on Match A Day:

- Wow, was Wrestlemania 25 ever bad! After months of theorizing the demise of modern mainstream pro-wrestling in my old column Wacky Wrestling Theory, I decided to stop letting the big companies tell me how and what I was going to enjoy! Sure, I'll never be able to give up watching WWE, in some way, but I'm certainly no longer going to watch it every week and buy into their hype and bullshit! Nope, from now on I'm just watching one match a day. Classic or recent, but on my own terms and at my own speed!

- I revealed to the MAD readers that I am straight edge, just like our pal CM Punk, and that I never drink alcohol, do drugs or smoke cigarettes. And yes, the cliché is true, that makes me better than you!

- Better than my old friends as well, that's why I stopped talking to most of them… until my high school wrestling-watching friend Eddie got in touch with me, and then flew all the way to Seoul, South Korea, to visit!

- Usually a wild drunk, Eddie seemed to have reformed… that was until I caught him smoking hash in my apartment, and the next thing I know he's buying all kind of expensive stuff… because now he's not only doing drugs, but selling them as well!

And now MAD Week 44 can begin…


[All Matches Are From DGUSA Open the Untouchable Gate, September 2009]

Match #297 – Sunday, January 24th
FRAY! featuring Arik Cannon, Hallowicked, Johnny Gargano, Flip Kendrick, The Great Malaki, Shiima Xion, Mustafa Ali & Louis Lyndon

Hey look, this Dragon Gate USA thing is just phenomenal. I love the concept of a Japanese wrestling promotion on US soil, I'm happy that such a thing exists, and I plan to buy every DVD that comes out! In that way, even though I'm straight edge, you could consider this MY drug.

Here's a great feature of the DGUSA so far, these epic FRAY bonus matches that come with the DVD. This gauntlet/rumble style match features an array of independent talent that is fresh and impressive, showcasing a lot of different characters and styles. As well, considering this is an Asian-heavy company, I'm glad to see plenty of ethnic diversity in this pre-match; as it's good to know that the future of pro-wrestling in the States won't rely solely on the tribal tattoo-ed shoulders of burly, ex-football-ing, second generation white guys. Participants that stood out were Louis Lyndon and Johnny Gargano, as did the entrance of Malaki, who lit his hands on fire on the way to the ring!

What really needs to be noted is the unique DVD packaging that Dragon Gate USA uses. The box for the DVD set is in a special 3-way, hard cardboard fold out that is very cool to look at and makes for a nice bookshelf piece. And while I had been expecting to be impressed by the matches on the DGUSA DVDs, I hadn't been prepared to be so impressed by the bonus DVD that contained this FRAY match as well as a series of relevant bonus matches from FIP and Dragon Gate Japan that were well worth revisiting.

Match #298 – Monday, January 25th
Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino

Here's the match that actually started the event, and a good pace setter for the high level of intensity, speed, innovation and drama that the rest of the matches on the card would follow.

I've always found these two to be much more compelling in tag matches than in singles in Dragon Gate proper, and neither this match nor their match from the first DGUSA DVD did much to change my mind. Both are good matches thought, with this one being a bit better, just not crazy good. I really liked the idea that they are building a rivalry between these two directly in DGUSA, and particularly that their feud is over wins and respectful handshakes, as that seems to be a big part of the constant faction feuding that takes place in Japan.

Match #299 – Tuesday, January 26th
Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs. YAMATO & Grand Akuma

Just like the first match, this one rolls directly out of a dispute over respect from the first DVD, when YAMATO, and his 5-star smarm, insulted Quackenbush, CHIKARA and trainer Jorge Rivera (all cleverly done on the DVD in subtitles). While I like CHIKARA, and I'm all for establishing factions in DGUSA, I think so far these matches have contained too much ‘foreign' talent for my liking, as I'd prefer to see more genuine Dragon Gate Japan competitors on these DVDs. That being said, there is little to complain about with the in-ring action here though, as the match itself was totally awesome!

Match #300 – Wednesday, January 27th
Naruki Doi vs. Bryan Danielson

Couldn't ask for a better contest to see for my historic 300th MAD match than this dream match that I'd been salivating over ever since Doi started killing it as a solo star in Japan. I'm a huge fan of both wrestlers, so the chance to see them lock up, before Danielson went to WWE, was a great treat. While his exit from the independents predetermined the outcome in this match, Danielson, as usual, can take even the most jaded, smarky fan like myself and make them lose themselves in the moment.



One thing I would have liked to have seen better use of was the brilliant arm work Danielson used early on play an actual role in the later stages of the match (as was so beautifully accomplished in his match against Go Shiosaki at the first ROH Tokyo event) particularly since that same arm is key to the application of the Muscular Bomb finisher that Doi hit with one try in the end.

Match #301 – Thursday, January 28th
CIMA vs. Brian Kendrick

A second intriguingly cool, unique match-up in a row, this time with the freshly de-corporatized Kendrick matching up with the Dragon Gate icon CIMA. In my opinion, I think in ten years or so, as CIMA gets older and adjusts his style, we're going to be talking about him the way we do now about modern legends like Kobashi, Misawa and Kawada. This short and fun match kind of tries to establish Kendrick as a mini-heel, much to the surprise of Lenny Leonard on commentary who claims these shortcuts are a new side of Kendrick. I guess Leonard is living the gimmick of indy announcer and had avoided all WWE TV Kendrick matches from the previous year.



I'm not sure what was going on in CIMA's head, as a babyface, but at one point he had Kendrick bent over, with his head below the middle turnbuckle and his backside sticking straight out, and then CIMA started untying his trunks and implying that he was about to ass-rape Kendrick? Is this a new addition to the repertoire of CIMA? Maybe I need to take back what I said before… and just straight up declare now that this man is a legend!

Match #302 – Friday, January 29th
Shingo vs. Davey Richards

This is the kind of match that makes you ask yourself if you a fan of pro-wrestling or if you fucking love pro-wrestling! If the second half of this match doesn't rip the eyes right out of your socket and make you watch as it picks up your body and drops you on your head then you must wonder if you even actually exist on this earth and that you're not an unfeeling ghostly presence whipped up by my imagination to contrast my pure love for this match.

One of the great advantages of being a step outside of the pro-wrestling continuity and not reading the news or results of shows like this, means that when I actually get to see ROH, CHIKARA or in this case, DGUSA, you don't know what to expect. I would have thought that Doi vs. Danielson would have been the best match on the card going in, but this one just goes and goes with such intensity, people in the crowd are actually chanting ‘Please Don't Stop' as if this was a Wrestlemania Weekend DG 6-Man Tag Team match! If you haven't seen this match yet, who are you and what are you doing reading this… go and get a copy now!

Match #303 – Saturday, January 30th
Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguichi vs. The Young Bucks

An odd choice for a main event in my opinion, as I hardly think Saito & Horiguichi are main event level in Japan let alone the green Young Bucks. It was especially sad to see the shenanigans in the ending compared to the cleaner matches on the undercard, but I suppose that is Real Hazard style. Regardless, this is still a decent match with some very exhilarating moments, and mainly just a nice cloud to float down on from the high of Richards/Shingo.

What makes an event like this such an addiction is not just that the show is incredible to watch, but the way it charges a fan's imagination. I know that many in the pro-wrestling business hate that fans on the Internet second guess and criticize many of the decisions they make, but I just find that is the ultimate expression of my love for the show. In the cases of TNA and WWE, when I watch their lame shows these days, nothing about it strikes me later or stays with me from the moment the show ends. With this DGUSA show, not only did I find myself wholly satisfied after the initial viewing, but I felt like thinking about it later and replaying scenarios and ideas surrounding it in my mind.

For example, I would have liked a more gloves off match between Danielson and Doi, one that could truly main event and go for a serious length of time. As a model, I would call on the Samoa Joe farewell match against Homicide in Ring of Honor that seemed almost like it would be a throwaway match, but turned into a truly unpredictable epic. In this case, while the match was really great, it's place on the card combined with the outside knowledge that Danielson was signing with WWE removed me slightly from the overall drama. You see, tiny thoughts like this flow through my mind for days after the event, and then it makes me want to go back and watch it again, and get in line for the next DVD purchase. DGUSA has truly filled a void in my pro-wrestling addiction that disappeared sometime after Bryan Danielson lost the Ring of Honor World Title.



Now then, a little information about my good friend Eddie. Last week he told me that he'd started selling drugs while living at my place, which infuriated the hell out of me, for a number of reasons, the biggest of which was the serious prison time that goes with that kind of illegal activity here in South Korea. But then I was intrigued when he told me about the drug that he was actually selling.

First he started by telling me why he left Canada. Rather than just having heat for selling drugs back home, as I'd figured, strangely he claimed that he'd been experimenting with some drug mixtures of his own in a friend's makeshift laboratory. Turns out he stumbled upon a very potent new concoction, and started selling it in pills he called ‘Madness.' According to him, the strong high from Madness lasted for 24 hours and had no after effects. The sales of Madness became so popular that the real drug dealers in his area were pressuring him for the recipe, but he was scared about what they would do to him once he sold it to them, so instead he just took off.

And now he's here in Seoul. At first he found people selling hash in order to make the connections he needed to set up a new lab to start producing Madness. And now it's selling like crazy. Yet, the craziest thing of all is that now he wants ME as his partner!