I attended both the Dragon Gate USA debut & WWE Night of Champions PPV with two distinctly different sets of people on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, I attended with a big ROH fan, a former fan who has turned to MMA and a current fan.

On Sunday, I attended the WWE show with my brother who isn’t really a fan (but knows generally all of the characters).

Both shows succeeded in satisfying everyone I attended with because they played well to their audience.

I would give both shows a thumbs up despite neither having any blow away matches.

On Saturday, I’d estimate about 600-700 people were in the old ECW Arena and the crowd was comprised mainly of guys in their 20’s and 30’s. They were hot for most of the show, particularly the BxB Hulk/Yamoto opener (well the last 7-8 minutes that I made it for), the Chikara 8-Man, the Young Bucks/ CIMA & Yokosuka match and the Shingo/Doi main event.

The remaining moments of the opener were very good and served the rev the crowd up well.

The Scorpio/Doane match was ok, and made me wonder why WWE gave up on Doane so quickly. He has their look down to a tee combined with great athleticism.

The best way to describe the Chikara match would be ‘fun’. The crowd was with them the entire way and they worked a fast paced and crowd pleasing 8 man tag. Jigsaw in particular was very popular and the Chikara guys certainly showed they belonged on the card.

The two biggest disappointments on the DG USA show was the Dragon Kid/Yoshino match and the Young Bucks/ CIMA & Yokosuka match. Don’t get me wrong, both were good matches, but the former had a lack of heat compared to most of the rest of the card and suffered from trying to cram a bit too much into the ending of the match.  That complaint can be carried over moreso to tag match.  I’m not sure I was watching the same match a lot of other people were. While there were some great athletic moves, there was *way* too much pandering to the crowd, especially on the part of CIMA & Yokosuka to where several times during the course of the match, they would almost stop what they were doing and command the crowd to start clapping. Frankly, it hurt the flow of the match and came across as rather bush league. The ending was a sprint and not in a good way as there were too many spots crammed in to make any of them mean a thing.

However, the main event of Shingo/Doi made up for the flaws of the other matches. It started out slowly and built accordingly instead of trying to work at a total breakneck pace. The work was crisp and it was easily the best match on the show. It went a long way towards giving the show a thumbs up and left me excited about seeing more DGUSA shows.

Almost everyone seemed positive about the show afterwards, though I don’t think anyone thought it was a must see.

The next night was a stark contrast in terms of crowd make up. There were tons of kids and families at the Wachovia Center and it was packed. I’d guess in the 15k range allowing for the stage block off. 

Reading some of the big criticisms of the show, I wonder if people realize who WWE is catering mainly to right now.

There were tons of Jeff Hardy, Cena and Mysterio fans.  I wonder about the dead crowd reports since I was in a section (216), where people were way into things (the Mickie James/Maryse match excepted) and loud the entire evening.

While Big Show was a letdown to me as Jericho’s partner, the crowd was into him and I thought the opener was a decent tag match. The heat wasn’t the best, mainly because it was 4 heels in the match, but Jericho and Show ended up being the de facto babyfaces by the end.

I enjoyed Christian/Dreamer more than most it seems. Christian worked really, really hard and the crowd was into it by the end. I enjoyed the finishing sequence and Christian, in his post match really put over winning the ECW title as something big, which, the way ECW is treated, is saying something.

The 6 man for the US title was, like the Chikara match the night before, a fun sprint that the crowd was really into.

Everyone hit their trademark spots and the match even built in a nice little story with the Colon brothers.

I enjoyed Kofi winning, but am hopeful they eventually go to Swagger with the US title, since he seems to have the most upside of this group.

The Michelle McCool/ Melina match was pretty good too, particularly by WWE women’s standards. They worked hard and had a nice little match, though the ending looked botched.

The positioning of the 3 way on the show led me to believe Orton was retaining.

As tired as these three together are (and it’s very tired), the crowd was buzzing for this entire match.

I had some very vocal Cena fans (teenage girls, kids) in my section as well as Cena detracors (all adult males)

There was a small Orton contingent, though he got pretty good heel heat and Triple H was pretty over, (though not incredibly so). These guys had a very, very good match. I noticed in this match and a little later on, that more guys were using submissions, perhaps in an attempt to gravitate the crowd that way.

Anyway, Orton retaining is for the best, but these three really need to be paired up with new opponents for the foreseeable future.

The Maryse/ Mickie James match played to almost total silence. They were in a bad spot on the crowd and the work, while not atrocious was a step down from everything else on the card (including the other women’s match).

Mickie winning did get a mild pop and it would be nice to see her paired with Gail Kim, which could produce some nice women’s matches.

Rey/Ziggler was pretty good. Dolph was fine, though he needs to introduce some transitions other than the chinlock.

He’s got the tools and Rey is a great opponent and fantastic underdog (I know I’m blatantly stating the obvious there).

Crowd interest was minimal at the start, but they were with them at the end.

CM Punk did a nice job on his promo early in the show to build heat and he was pretty roundly booed for the main event, though there were pockets of fans for him. I was worried with Hardy on his way out soon, that word might have spread about it. Hardy got a superstar reaction coming out and there was zero talk of him leaving soon in my section (again made up of mainly of kids and families). I thought they had a good, solid match, probably in the ***1/4 star range, below the level of the 3 way. The ending 5 or so minutes was really good, as everyone bought the Go to Sleep as the finish.

Punk’s looking to leave with the belt when he’s claimed he’s never taken the cheap way out was a nice heel touch.

Hardy winning got over huge and people leaving were all talking about it and seemed generally very pleased with the show.

Though the WWE product has some severe issues with being stale right now, I thought last night’s show at the least delivered.

Paul Jacobi

Vince is getting sloppy in his old age
 
  I thought it was really clever to start with the tag match because 
the mystery partner is a good way to get the crowd to pop and get into 
the show early.  BUT....
 
The fucking Big Slow? How about Swagger, Miz, or Ziggler.  Or even 
Kane who looks rejuvinated after some much needed time off.
 
Or since tag teams mean nothing in the WWE, why not go with Morrison 
and then have Legacy win so it naturally progresses into a 
Jericho-Morrison feud.
 
Also; now we have deal with the Big Slow for 2 shows a week.
 
The Big Slow has never been more worthless to the WWE.  He has X-Pac 
heat.  He sucks the life out of the crowd.  And yet he is continuosly 
put into high profile programs.
 
 
They are booking Orton (and Legacy) to have zero credibility. The only 
way the Legacy act is going to get WHITE HOT HEAT is if ALL the 
members are built strong.  But because Rhodes and DiBiase are 
Hawkins/Ryder 2K9, the results of their matches are grown inducing.  
Not to mention ORton never looks strong in defeat.  Where's the 
horsemen beatdown that leaves them in a pool of blood?
 
I don't think there is anything worse for someone then to be booked 
into a feud with Cena or HHH.  The only people who have ever 
benefitted are Edge (w/Cena) and Batista (w/HHH).  Steiner, RVD, 
Booker, Kane, Orton, Goldberg, Jericho, Umaga, Big Slow, Miz all had 
their credibility destroyed by the feuding with either or in some 
cases both Cena and HHH.
 
By the way THumbs down for NOC
Best: Haryd/Punk
Worst: Divas Title
 

Michael Thomas

Hey Dave,

Thumbs Up
Match of the night - Jeff Hardy vs. C.M. Punk
Worst Match - Maryse vs. Mickie James (killed the crowd)

I think if they picked almost any other wrestler on the roster besides the Big Show for Jericho's partner, I would have been more excited. Leave it to the WWE to pick the worst choice. Christian, Jack Swagger, The Miz all would have made a lot more sense. The match wasn't too great. Big Show gets the hot tag? Can't wait to see Show on both shows now. Again the WWE has a chance to create a new star and blows it!

C.M. Punk promo - awesome promo by Punk. His heel turn using the straight edge persona has been great.

Christian vs. Tommy Dreamer - Solid match, I thought Christian really carried Dreamer to an above average match. Koslov might be a bit harder to carry.

U.S. Title Match - Really fun match with everyone working hard. All of these guys deserve a chance to be higher on the card.

Michelle McCool vs. Melina - The best WWE Woman's match I've seen in a long time. McCool gets the pin so I guess the feud continues.

Randy Orton vs. HHH vs. John Cena - First thing I thought was Jeff Hardy is getting the belt tonight. Good match but weird ending. Orton taps but still has the belt? Do we really want to see these guys wrestle again at Summerslam? We really need a new program for the title.

Maryse vs Micki James - This match sucked! Maryse shouldn't be in a match longer than a few minutes. Maybe time to put her with the Miz.

Misterio vs. Ziggler - Match wasn't bad but after the woman's match it was in a bad position.

Jeff Hardy vs. C.M. Punk - Good match with a really great finish. I guess Hardy keeps the belt until Summerslam.