Open the Freedom Gate

Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling USA

DGUSA.tv

$

Reviewed by Joe Babinsack

Already Dragon Gate’s American wing has received acclaim for its talent roster, its fast paced styles and its presentation. There’s not much more to add to the popular sentiment of the internet critics and hardcore wrestling fans (as in dedicated, not gore-loving.)

The only thing I can really add is that if you haven’t checked out DG USA, you’re missing out on the future.

As Lenny Leonard says on the DVD, it’s “today’s stars working tomorrow’s style” and while I know there are those of you out there that scoff at “today’s stars” you cannot conveniently say it’s not tomorrow’s style until you watch it with your own eyes. The blend of lucha libre, high octane Dragon Gate style, high profile American Independent, and MMA laced submissions are the future of the sport, especially for those fans fascinated by a packaging that adheres to professional wrestling tradition while it expands the envelope of skills, holds and maneuvers.

Does it have today’s stars?

No one’s higher on the food chain these days than Davey Richards. And the big names of Dragon Gate USA include CIMA, YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi, with Shingo and Masato Yoshino mentionable, and how can I forget BxB Hulk? The Leonard based announce crew calls the Young Bucks the hottest tag team in the industry, which isn’t far off, even though we know what happens to young talent on professional wrestling programs on Spike TV.

And the most ubiquitous and talented stars these days seem to call their home base CHIKARA, lead by Mike Quackenbush, with Hallowicked being the Undertaker of the indy scene, and Gran Akuma a superlative talent. And did I mention Jigsaw or Eddie Kingston?

And yes, The Brian Kendrick shows his face, if you want a long time indy star and tenured WWE talent.

Open The Freedom Gate is the title up for grabs on this DVD, featuring four “named” matches presenting an unorthodox seeding (well, there is none) to lead to a four-way battle for the newly minted championship.

A six-way, a four-way and two traditional matches lead up to the championship match. This series alone is worth the price of the DVD, but throw in one of the best tag team matches worked in the past year, and a great CHIKARA based match between Jigsaw and this generation’s Dick Murdock (Eddie Kingston) and a bonus disc featuring lesser known indy names and a defense of the Open the Triange Gate three man tag Championship, plus a highlight package, and what’s not to love?

The matches alone sell the DVD. If you don’t recognize the names, have expectations of grandeur, and already appreciate the talents, doing a match by match isn’t going to change your minds.

What Dragon Gate USA offers goes beyond the superlatives of the in-ring work.

The announce crew, with Lenny Leonard and Leonard Chikara-son (and yeah, that’s a few too many of the same name for some people) are gelling as the best in the biz. These guys tell the stories, explain the backstories, and engage the honor and tradition of professional wrestling fans, raising the product to another level.

The atmosphere is what you’d expect in Philadelphia, with the crowd that made ECW, makes ROH raucous, and instills that sense of fan engagement that also raises the product to another level. The great thing about the fans is that they’re a lot less unforgiving, and a lot more appreciative of the efforts than in the past.

The booking is a notch up from some of the standards of the indy level, but what is playing out nicely is a focus on wins and losses, and a lot less of the ‘throw-out big names and muddle through the cards’ mentality that burns everyone out.

The finishing touches are also playing out. Locker room clips of guys warming up and preparing for the big match, in-ring promos by Kendrick and a parking lot monologue by Jon Moxley spice things up. Intermixed clips of the Lennys throwing it back to the ring, and a step-up in production values, or at least a tangible effort to camouflage what could be called the low-rent indy venue are all important.

What impressed me much was the packaging of the matches.  This wasn’t about putting out big names and letting them work spectacular matches, it was putting out a structured effort to crown a new Champion – The Open The Freedom Gate Title – and establish the avenues to get there.

Sure, multiple man matches are on the surface a cheaper way to do things, but the Generation New match featured six guys that, if two of them were paired, would they rise to the level of a matchup of Richards and YAMATO? Not even with an overhyped statement would I approach that. So this way, the opener with lots of highspots, but not too much to make it too crazy, worked as an entry into the four way finale, and also worked in helping to elevate the winner to the upper ranks.

Funny to see the Young Bucks going at it in the middle of the mayhem: they started slow but once engaged, it was a good effort.

Redemption was an interesting match. BxB Hulk was without his awesome entrance, but Leonard (Lenny, not Chicky) noted that this showed his focus for the match. Nice touch there. Kendrick is mostly just passing through, and his “artiste” gimmick is more annoying than heat generating, but at least it showed a change of pace in the end, at the end of the match.

The Salute to Skayde was the epitome of what makes this promotion work: storyline, talent, backstory and a history dredged up, but a history that played into what happened in the ring, and what happens next. To sum it up, Super Crazy lost his mask to Skayde way back in AAA, at about the age of 15. Of course he has a grudge!

But Skayde, in being the man who trained Mike Quackenbush and CIMA, can be claimed as the father of both CHIKARA and Dragon Gate, and that’s a salute that’s worthwhile on multiple levels.

The fourth of the named Tournament Qualifiers is Next Level, and it certainly puts an exclamation mark on the moniker. Davey Richards is without a doubt the best in the world, and YAMATO proves his equal in this match. Both guys have inherent talent that allows them to work a match to another level, in displays of creativity, character and attitude.

The interlude between Qualifiers and Finale includes two matches: Jigsaw vs. Eddie Kingston, and an off-the-charts tag team match.

What’s great is that both have their own merits, and while the Jigsaw/Kingston match wasn’t as quick, crisp or at the same heights of creativity, guest commentator Mike Quackenbush pointed out that the match contained 3 of the four members of the second CHIKARA training class, if you include referee Bryce Rensberg, and noted the importance that the fourth of that class was Gran Akuma, who would fight for the Open The Freedom Gate title a little later.

Kingston has that level of reality, that, despite his gut, he’s able to work a match and work the crowd into the match. Jigsaw in many ways is the prototypical CHIKARA veteran: tall, thin, fast, high-flying and with the lucha base. They meshed well together.

But even so, the tag match was a world apart.

Dragon Kid and Shingo are the technicos, and Naruki Do & Masato Yoshino the rudos. There’s an absolute speed in their matches that defies reality, and their take on the lucha base takes the artform of professional wrestling into the depth of this century. Combining submissions, rope-work and double team maneuvers, the action isn’t just fast, it’s impressive.

If you think a certain masked and undersized Mexican in the WWE is awesome, well, you probably haven’t seen the Dragon Kid yet. Can you imagine a dream match of Rey Jr circa 1998 against Dragon Kid of today?

But the next best thing is even better, because Dragon Gate USA features the Dragon Kid and all his post modern creative holds and moves and lightning quick action, plus the power base of Shingo, and the nearly as fast action of Doi & Yoshino. Previous DVDs of Dragon Gate USA lead up to this match, and the Yoshino/Kid feud is huge. So huge that behind the scenes clips in Japanese don’t lose any intensity of the confrontations, and the highlight reels are highlights indeed.

Shotgun drop-kicks, Bermuda Triangles, Lightning Spirals and all the dives and top rope maneuvers, as well as the double teams of the Dragon Hawks are, in a word, spectacular.

The Four-way Elimination match may seem to be an afterthought after this battle, but it is not.

Actually, the challenge of the Young Bucks is rather anti-climactic, but it does lead to a match during the WrestleMania weekend, which does point to future things and thus makes the match more meaningful.

The elimination aspect is much welcomed, as there is nothing so diminishing as a multiple man match with only one winner and multiple losers by default. Having a sequence of pins at least means that the losers were specifically taken out of the running, and it also removes that ridiculousness of stopping pins.

The important part of this match isn’t just in the ring, but in the presentation and the prestige accrued to the new title. This is a Championship that four men battled hard through two matches to attain. At it leaves with several story lines and chants of “Dragon Gate!” to finish.

Dragon Gate USA’s Open the Freedom Gate is one of the must-see DVD’s of the year.

Joe Babinsack can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  More action from ROH, CHIKARA, SHIMMER and EVOLVE coming up. Look for the Dragon Gate USA contest for some great tix and DVDS.