Break It Down: DGUSA Fearless

Posted by Ryan Rozanski on 06.04.2010

The power of a bonus disc...

The show starts with Jon Moxley and Brian Kendrick in the ring. Moxley says that there is a man in the building that sickens him. That man is Tommy Dreamer. Kendrick advises Moxley that beating Dreamer won’t prove anything. He says that Dreamer is retired and Moxley is wasting his time. They head to the back.


Opening Match: Gran Akuma vs. TJP
They exchange slaps and forearms. TJP connects with a dropkick and headscissors Akuma into the turnbuckles. Akuma retreats to the floor where TJP catches him with a dive. Akuma blocks another dive and connects with the Cheetah Swipe. TJP sends himself and Akuma to the outside with a crossbody. Back in, they trade strikes and TJP hits a neckbreaker. Akuma answers with a knockout kick and his tombstone lungblower. TJP connects with a superkick but walks into a lariat. Akuma attempts an exploder from the middle rope to no avail. TJP synchs in a figure four deathlock for the win at 8:57. I think TJP will be a nice fit in DGUSA. They worked well together and managed to gain the crowd’s attention while still keeping the match predominantly back and forth. As far as dark matches are concerned, this was pretty effective. TJP was able to stand out and hopefully he will be moved up to the main show at some point. **½


Davey Richards cuts a promo backstage. Masaaki Mochizuki is on his turf tonight and he plans on taking his belt back.


Match #2: CIMA and Super Crazy vs. Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw
Crazy and Quackenbush trade holds to start. CIMA focuses too much on Quackenbush and nearly gets caught with a rollup from Jigsaw. More effective storytelling follows as CIMA tries to take a shot at Quackenbush even while locked in a bow and arrow. CIMA falls victim to some double teaming but Crazy eventually saves him. Jigsaw lands a crossbody onto Crazy and snaps off a headscissors. Quackenbush catches CIMA with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and Jigsaw adds a leg drop. CIMA comes back with a double stomp on Jigsaw. Crazy and CIMA isolate him until he hits a double DDT and makes the tag. Quackenbush and Jigsaw dropkick their opponents to the floor and follow out with stereo dives. In the ring, Quackenbush hurricanranas CIMA off the top and Jigsaw adds a leg drop. CIMA and Crazy hit stereo powerbombs. Crazy holds Quackenbush in a surfboard while CIMA connects with a flying double stomp. CIMA hits the Superdrol on Jigsaw along with a double stomp. He follows with the Schwein for a nearfall. Crazy catches Quackenbush with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and lays him out with a powerbomb. CIMA accidentally superkicks Crazy. Quackenbush rolls up Crazy for the victory at 17:49. I’ve seen Super Crazy’s recent matches in various independent companies and this was by far the best he has looked. He added personality to the match and generally played a good heel. They showcased the rivalry between CIMA and Quackenbush and it made the contest more enjoyable. The action towards the finish was innovative and they managed to improve upon their “Salute to Skayde” match from the last show. ***¼

CIMA attacks Quackenbush after the match. Quackenbush and Jigsaw connect with stereo superkicks on CIMA. They stand tall as CIMA retreats.


Match #3: Brian Kendrick vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Kendrick reveals that Lacey has agreed to appear in his corner. She comes to the ring and Jacobs immediately spears Kendrick. Jacobs tries to confront Lacey but Kendrick interrupts with an attack from behind. Kendrick controls until Jacobs blocks sliced bread and connects with a springboard back elbow. Jacobs locks in the End Time. Lacey enters the ring, causing him to break the hold. She kisses Jacobs, allowing Kendrick to hit Sliced Bread #2 for the win at 6:44. I understand the logic behind the inclusion of Lacey, but her relevance was never explained. They had solid chemistry and I would have liked to see what they could have done with more time. Instead, storyline progression took over and ended this match rather abruptly. **

Jacobs gets on the microphone after the match and references Kendrick's wife. The comment angers Kendrick, who motions to kiss Lacey. Instead, Jon Moxley just clotheslines her. Tommy Dreamer makes his way to the ring. He clotheslines Moxley to the floor as Jacobs and Kendrick brawl to the back. Dreamer throws Moxley into the crowd and hits him with a chair. Back at ringside, Moxley crotches Dreamer on the guardrail. Moxley connects with a clothesline but Dreamer answers with a DDT. Dreamer stands tall to end the segment.


Match #4: FIP World Heavyweight Title: Masaaki Mochizuki © vs. Davey Richards
They dodge each other's kicks and find themselves at a stalemate. Mochizuki is finally able to connect with a kick. Richards starts targeting his left arm. Mochizuki kicks Richards off the apron. They battle back on the apron. Richards tries a kick but collides with the ringpost. Mochizuki works over his left leg until Richards connects with a missile dropkick. Richards follows with his handspring kick and a northern lights suplex. He locks in the Kimura but Mochizuki makes the ropes. Mochizuki kicks away at Richards' bad leg and applies an ankle lock. Richards makes it to the ropes. They trade kicks and Mochizuki hits an overhead suplex. He adds more kicks but gets lured to the floor. Richards follows out with his insane dive. In the ring, Richards connects with an Alarm Clock. Mochizuki answers with a german suplex but finds himself in the Kimura once again. Mochizuki wins a kick exchange but gets german suplexed off the middle rope. Richards hits a german suplex and lands a shooting star press for a nearfall. Richards goes back to the Kimura and transitions into a cross armbreaker. Mochizuki rolls out into an ankle lock. Richards powers out and connects with a knockout kick. He hits the DR Driver for a two count. Mochizuki turns another Kimura into a close pin attempt. Richards locks in a cross armbreaker and transitions into a triangle choke to become the new FIP World Heavyweight Champion at 19:08. Unlike Richards' other two matches in DGUSA, I wasn't in love with this encounter. Richards had some selling problems throughout and the crowd wasn't fully biting on their nearfalls down the stretch. The high points of this match were their kick and submission exchanges. Those moments came off incredibly clean and fluid. Mochizuki also made a good first impression and due to him not wrestling in the United States that much (to my knowledge), he has a lot of fresh opponents in DGUSA. ***½


Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw are backstage. Quackenbush says that he is done with CIMA. They are now turning their focus towards Gran Akuma and YAMATO. They claim that they are the best tag team in DGUSA.


Match #5: Elimination: Matt and Nick Jackson vs. Shingo and YAMATO vs. Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino
Yoshino, Matt, and Shingo trade the advantage and wrestle to a stalemate. Yoshino snaps off a headscissors on Shingo. Doi and Nick connect with stereo dropkicks on YAMATO. Everyone starts a headscissors chain and Shingo turns it into a huge sharpshooter. Kamikaze and the Young Bucks fight over a suplex. Yoshino intervenes and helps the Young Bucks suplex Kamikaze. The Young Bucks hit their neckbreaker-backbreaker combination on Doi. Kamikaze work over Nick until he catches YAMATO with a spin kick and makes the tag. Matt takes Doi down with a headscissors and hits a standing sliced bread on Yoshino. He follows with a facebuster on Yoshino, who responds by synching in From Jungle. Nick breaks the hold and catches Kamikaze with a double facebuster. Shingo blocks a DDT from Nick and hits a suplex. The Young Bucks hit a double stomp-inverted DDT combination on Shingo and they follow with a splash-leg drop combination. Everyone starts trading moves. The Young Bucks hit More Bang for Your Buck on YAMATO but Shingo breaks up the pin attempt by german suplexing Matt. Yoshino lands a dropsault onto Matt. Doi follows with Doi 555 on Matt and Yoshino adds the Lightning Spiral to eliminate the Young Bucks. WORLD-1 take over with double teaming. They hit a doomsday Sling Blade on YAMATO. Shingo powers out of From Jungle and hits a powerbomb. Kamikaze catch Yoshino with a yakuza kick-death valley driver combination. Doi connects with multiple forearms to Shingo. Yoshino lays him out with the Lightning Spiral and Doi adds the Bakatare Sliding Kick for a nearfall. YAMATO misses a charge and gets sent to the floor. Yoshino takes Shingo down with the Torbellino and locks in the Sol Naciente for the victory at 18:57. Believe it or not, this wasn’t as awesome as expected. The action wasn’t fluid at points and there were some miscommunication problems. However, these three teams are highly talented and mostly made up for the awkward spots with otherwise great action. YAMATO and Shingo are a team that I want to see more of and I’m glad the match came down to Kamikaze and WORLD-1. While this was a slight step below the Kamikaze/WORLD-1 encounter from the last show, it’s still worth checking out for the frantic action that these Dragon Gate tag team matches provide. ***¾


Match #6: Open The Freedom Gate Title: BxB Hulk © vs. Dragon Kid
They trade control to start. Kid snaps off a headscissors and connects with a corner dropkick. He applies an indian deathlock and transitions into a muta lock. Hulk makes the ropes and connects with a dropkick of his own. He takes over until Kid comes back with a springboard stunner. Kid follows with a springboard hurricanrana and a 619. He lands the Bermuda Triangle to the floor and adds a springboard dropkick back in the ring. Hulk responds with a springboard spin kick and a standing shooting star press. They trade strikes and Kid locks in Christo. Hulk powers out but gets planted with a tornado DDT. He recovers with a uranagi and the BxB Smash. They battle up top and Kid hits an ace crusher. Kid follows with the Ultra Hurricanrana for a nearfall. Hulk dazes him up top with a spin kick and hits the EVO from the middle rope for a two count. Hulk adds another EVO but falls victim to a stunner. He comes back with a kick and the FTX for a nearfall. Hulk finally connects with a superkick and hits the EVOP to retain his title at 17:08. These two put together a very good first-time encounter. They were able to mix their unique offenses without problem and Hulk received the chance to showcase many of his signature moves. My only gripe with the match is that they never made me believe that Kid could feasibly walk out with the title. The match never reached a higher level because I didn’t feel any suspense down the stretch despite the various finishers hit. Although I may have expected more going into this contest, these two worked well together and provided a good main event. ***½

YAMATO, Gran Akuma, and Davey Richards attack both competitors after the match. CIMA tries to stop them to no avail. Shingo comes to the ring and confronts YAMATO. Instead of helping Dragon Kid, Shingo lays him out with a lariat. Arik Cannon and Brad Allen try to help but get sent to the floor. Some members from the Chikara roster run out. Mike Quackenbush spears YAMATO and brawls with him. CIMA eventually charges the ring and cleans house with a broom to end the show.


BONUS Match: Elimination: Jon Moxley vs. Arik Cannon vs. Kyle O’Reilly vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Lince Dorado vs. Brad Allen
Allen takes Cannon down with a shoulder tackle and lands a flying crossbody. He finds knees on a slingshot senton. Moxley tags in and starts attacking everyone. Brian Kendrick runs out and joins in the attack. Moxley is then disqualified and eliminated from the match. Dorado and O’Reilly trade control and find themselves at a stalemate. O’Reilly hits rolling butterfly suplexes but Allen blind tags in. Dorado snaps off a hurricanrana on Allen but runs into a lariat. He comes back with a tornado DDT. Gargano catches him off a springboard with a dropkick. Allen plants Gargano with a spinebuster. Gargano rolls up Allen while holding his tights to eliminate him. O’Reilly blocks a superkick from Gargano and hits a back suplex. Gargano answers with a superkick and a lawn dart into the turnbuckles. They trade strikes and tag out. Dorado connects with a handspring back elbow on Cannon and follows with a springboard crossbody. He adds a lionsault but falls victim to a brainbuster. Cannon hits the Glimmering Warlock on Dorado to send him packing. Gargano catches O’Reilly with a spear. He tries another one on Cannon but gets laid out with a rope-assisted neckbreaker. Cannon connects with the Glimmering Warlock on Gargano to eliminate him. O’Reilly hits a saito suplex on Cannon, who quickly returns the favor. They trade strikes and O’Reilly hits a tornado DDT. Cannon responds with a rope-assisted neckbreaker. Another strike exchange follows. Cannon hits an exploder but gets caught with a corner yakuza kicks. O’Reilly hits another tornado DDT along with a brainbuster for the win at 11:44. This was more fun than any Fray thus far. The shorter duration allowed for little dead time and everyone received a chance to display their offense. The final exchanges between Cannon and O’Reilly especially stood out. Energetic bonus match that never felt dragged out. **¾


BONUS Match: AAW Heavyweight Title: Silas Young © vs. Hallowicked
Young shows a slight advantage on the mat early on. Hallowicked catches him with an armdrag and a hurricanrana. Young stops his momentum with a backbreaker and takes over. They both connect with yakuza kicks and fall to the canvas. Hallowicked hits a rydeen bomb. Young answers with his backbreaker-lariat combination. He locks in a full nelson stretch but Hallowicked makes the ropes. Young hits a finlay roll and follows with his headstand moonsault to retain his title at 9:11. These two worked extremely well together and I think they could deliver a significantly better match with more time. As it is, they put on a solid match and this was a nice showcase for AAW. **½


BONUS Match: FIP World Heavyweight Title: Davey Richards © vs. Masaaki Mochizuki
This is from Dragon Gate’s Gate of Generation 2009 on December 6th, 2009. Mochizuki immediately charges with a yakuza kick. They battle on the apron where Richards misses a kick and connects with the ringpost. Mochizuki hits a shinbreaker on the apron and back suplexes Richards to the floor. Mochizuki follows out with a dive and continues to attack the left leg back in the ring. Richards blocks a springboard and connects with a missile dropkick. He drives Mochizuki’s left arm into the apron and sends it into the ringpost. Richards now works over the left arm and eventually locks in the Kimura. Mochizuki makes the ropes but falls victim to a divorce court from the middle rope. They trade kicks, making sure to target each other’s bad limb. Mochizuki connects with the Ikkakugeri but Richards answers with his handspring kick. Richards hits a german suplex but Mochizuki responds with one of his own. Richards synchs in another Kimura but Mochizuki turns it into a pin attempt. Mochizuki then finds himself in a cross armbreaker. He is able to reverse the hold into an ankle lock but Richards makes the ropes. Mochizuki connects with a knockout kick. He runs up the ropes but Richards catches him with a german suplex. They exchange yakuza kicks and Richards connects with an Alarm Clock. He adds a diving headbutt but misses a shooting star press. Mochizuki connects with the Shin Saikyou High Kick and hits Twister for a nearfall. Mochizuki follows with another Shin Saikyou High Kick to become the new FIP World Heavyweight Champion at 19:06. Now this is more like it. They wrestled a much more focused match while still incorporating their fluid kick exchanges. Mochizuki would kick the left leg while Richards would target the left arm. Despite the quieter crowd reaction (consider the stark difference in crowds), I found myself more engrossed in the finishing stretch during this contest. Mochizuki once again left a good impression and I am curious to see his future performances in DGUSA. While their match on the main show is worth watching, DO NOT skip over their original encounter on the bonus disc. ****


BONUS Match: Open The Freedom Gate Title: BxB Hulk © vs. Susumu Yokosuka
This is from Dragon Gate’s Gate of Generation 2009 on December 6th, 2009. Hulk attacks before the bell with a dropkick. Yokosuka answers with the Jumbo no Kachi. He takes Hulk to the outside and throws him into some chairs. Yokosuka slams a chair onto Hulk's left knee and continues to target it in the ring. He even hits a shinbreaker onto the blue box. Hulk comes back with a springboard dropkick and a dive off the apron. He follows with a springboard spin kick but finds knees on a standing moonsault attempt. Yokosuka hits an exploder into the turnbuckles and an exploder from the top rope. Hulk avoids a superplex and snaps off a hurricanrana. Real Hazard and WORLD-1 both get involved. Masato Yoshino lays out Yokosuka with the Torbellino and Hulk lands a standing shooting star press. He follows with the EVO from the top rope for a two count. Ryo Saito crotches Hulk up top, allowing Yokosuka to connect with the Jumbo no Kachi. Yokosuka follows with the Aikata off the top and another Jumbo no Kachi for a nearfall. Hulk fires back with some kicks but falls victim to a half nelson suplex. He pops up and hits the EVO for a nearfall. Hulk finds success with two more EVOs but Yokosuka responds with a Jumbo no Kachi. Hulk hits one last EVO to retain his title at 22:10. At the very least, this match made Hulk and the Open The Freedom Gate Title more credible. Yokosuka spent a lot of time working over the left knee and Hulk’s resilient comeback put him over nicely. The one aspect of the match that I disliked was the continuous slew of finishers toward the end. It was pretty obvious that Hulk was going to retain here and the multiple finishers didn’t help add any suspense. The action surrounding Hulk’s knee was solid and despite my annoyance with the finishers, this match is still a good first title defense for Hulk. ***¼

The 411: In my opinion, Fearless is the weakest offering from DGUSA thus far. That should tell you something about the quality of these shows. The final three matches of the main show all delivered very good wrestling. The elimination tag team match even had potential to reach the next level if not for a few awkward spots. The best match came from the bonus disc as Richards and Mochizuki had a match that topped their meeting on the main show. Also included is Hulk's first title defense which was a smart addition and a solid match. I can easily recommend this show due to its consistency. It's well worth a purchase and DGUSA just keeps on rolling with terrific wrestling.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]