Fearless DVD

Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling USA

DGUSA.TV

$20.00

Reviewed by Joe Babinsack

“Uprising” is the current Dragon Gate PPV available, but the latest DVD offering is the previous PPV, called “Fearless”, and it is well worth it to work both shows into your schedule. And so, without further product placement, the review of “Fearless”:

Dragon Gate has certainly stepped up its DVD product in many ways. While the wrestling, as always, ranges from excellent to off-the-charts, and the production values have always been awesome, there are subtle and not-so-subtle improvements on the latest DVD that suggests that the American branch of the Dragon Gate promotion, well guided by Gabe Sapolsky, is gearing up for the long haul.

With DGUSA, I don’t get the impression of a stagnant roster, nor a revolving door of matchups. I do get the impression that factions are being developed, ones that will provide the storylines and dynamics to rule the promotion over its development. And I especially get the impression that DGUSA is making excellent use of names known to the more mainstream audience, to establish its talent, and provide measuring sticks for the rather unknown wrestlers it does feature.

One thing I very much like is that CHIKARA continues to have its presence felt in the promotion, but instead of going down the path of the tired and overdone invasion angles (which ironically, CHIKARA is doing on its own shows, and doing quite well!), it has seemingly boiled down to a faction .. a completely American based faction that can better put over feuds against the Japanese speaking roster, and which has solidly established its connections to the Dragon Gate promotion (the training of Skayde) and a sense that they are the babyfaces, yet not constricted to that sense of the terminology.

Then again, the concept of babyfaces and heels in today’s industry is equally alien as the high octane styles used by both CHIKARA and Dragon Gate as opposed to the mainstream stuff.

Tommy Dreamer, and to a lesser extent, Brian Kendrick, are good performers who may only end up appearing for a limited time, but they do bring some eyes from a bigger fanbase. That they are not dominating the scene is refreshing. That they are being used to create ongoing storylines is even more enjoyable.

My gut feeling is that Tommy Dreamer doesn’t exactly mesh with this promotion, but positioning and storyline building prove to me that he’s not a distraction, and the efforts to build Jon Moxley as a credible star are well worth the efforts of linking him with Kendrick, and matching him as adversary of Dreamer.

With the combinations of storyline, excellent (and better) wrestling and inclusions of the Full Impact Pro Championship and top indy names and a sense of movement in and out of the focus, Dragon Gate USA definitely has a foundation to build upon. Mixing these strengths provides for a DVD that pulls the fan into each match, and avoids repetition.

We’ve got two top title matches, but one is a Dragon Gate fast paced style, the other is a strong style. We’ve got a three-way elimination tag match, and a tag match, the later heavily influence by CHIKARA style. We’ve got two top level American indy style matches, but one is all about storyline (and done well) and the other is an opener that builds up some names for the future.

The opener features Gran Akuma against TJP (better known as TJ Perkins.) Akuma went from final four in the Open the Freedom Gate Championship to opener here, but remains an integral part of the heel faction being established.

From his look to his talent to his well-traveled experience, Gran Akuma is one of the unheralded names of the CHIKARA roster. TJP has some definite skills, and this is a very good display of wrestling from them both, and it worked well as the opener, even following some ring time promo work by Kendrick and Moxley.

The second match, also featuring CHIKARA stalwarts (Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw) continues the feud between Quack and CIMA, with Super Crazy thrown in. The parallels between Quack and CIMA are rather vast – both are long time leaders of their respective promotions, both have nagging and rather serious health concerns, and both are considered the epitome of their promotion’s styles.

Because this match was infused with a very interesting storyline, and definitive heel/face distinctions, it set itself apart enough, and considering the guys in the ring – all top notch at what they do, it had a great feel of a meaningful match, in terms of establishing the sides and in terms of creating a story in the ring that progresses the overall storyline.

(Which is what the CHIKARA crew are masters of.)

Another storyline driven match is Kendrick vs Jimmy Jacobs. Not so much heel/face, because Jimmy Jacobs continues to play his own brand of tweener, but Kendrick is obviously the provocateur here, bringing in Lacey to “mess with Jimmy’s head.”

The angle that proceeds from this match is one that I marked out for. Not that it was particularly innovative, but because it did several things, and did several things on a plane of psychology and booking that proves that those involved GET IT.

Bringing in Lacey showed a connection Sapolsky is making to the established fans, and repaying them for following ROH from years gone by. Letting Kendrick blend the worked/shoot stuff to the Nth degree means that my investment in this DVD is well paid off today, and will be paid off tomorrow, whether or not Kendrick sticks around or is lost in the hapless oblivion that is TNA.

And then Tommy Dreamer gets involved, which creates dynamics all around, whether or not the “Innovator of Violence” sticks around much longer, and no matter what he does or does not do to Jon Moxley.

I’m not going to spell out the angle or the details, because I want you to watch this match and this awesome angle and enjoy it.

And then, if you want awesome wrestling skills on display, keep the DVD player rolling to the FIP World Heavyweight Title Match, between current champion Masaaki Mochizuki against Davey Richards.

The wrestling world will sorely miss Davey if he retires from full time or most of the time performing, but with Danielson getting a high profile and now touting the indy world, there’s less of a fear of wrestling losing the best in the world completely.

But here, in this match, the kick-based fighting of Richards/Mochizuki is so different from what you’ll expect from pro wrestling that you’ll rapidly understand that if more talent had the mindset and ability of Davey Richards, then there could be vast opportunities to capture the MMA fan base and pull some of it back where it belongs and where it originated.

MMA fans are bored WWE fans, and let me dare to say you won’t ever get bored watching Richards in action!

A true elimination match follows, with The Young Bucks (where are they now?) taking on Shingo/Yamato and the superlative tag team of Naruki Doi/Masato Yoshino.

Whatever you’ve heard about Dragon Gate speed and skill cannot be comprehended until you see it in action. Shingo as strong man is awesome, and to be honest, the Young Bucks show just how much potential they have, in hanging with the speed and double team moves expected of them, and they just aren’t pretenders.

(Stifle anti-TNA remark now.)

Great match.

Following it up is another awesome match/awesome angle combination.

BxB (beebee) Hulk is the Open the Freedom Gate Champion, and Dragon Kid is the Rey Mysterio of the day, smaller, faster and all things considered, vastly more technical in-ring.

The establishment of the heel faction of Dragon Gate USA is done well after the match. But both the match and the angle are done on a playing field established by the entirety of the DVD, and done at a level where if you complain about production values, star power and in-ring talent, I really don’t know what you watched, because “fearless” is one DVD I’d rather watch repeatedly than pay $50 for a PPV to suffer through.

And the second disc, the bonus one, cannot be ignored. From up-and-coming talent to two matches from Japan, the action is informative and the matches are excellent. There’s even a continuation of the Moxley/Kendrick storyline, and a true glimpse of the BxB Hulk entrance and a perspective of how superior the Dragon Gate Product is to the accepted version of mainstream wrestling here in the States.

Joe Babinsack can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Shoot DVD’s of Doug Basham and Allison Danger on the way, plus ISW, others and notably the infamous Iron Sheik DVDs.