There’s always good stuff. Sometimes, you just have to dig. Alan, Duan, myself, and Stevie J from Angry Marks have listed our picks for our awards. Also, we have Big D making his return to the site for “One Night Only”, giving his thoughts as well. You can find D at Superfriends Universe.

Most Outstanding Wrestler Of The Year

Alan – Chris Hero

Career year for Metropolis’ finest. He tore it up in NOAH, PWG, ROH, EVOLVE and wXw during the course of the year, having one great match after another. Shined in both singles and tags (as part of the Kings Of Wrestling). His matches with Akira Tozawa, the Briscoes, Martin Stone and Davey Richards were crazy good.

Duan – John Cena

Another brilliant year for Cena. He delivered his best work when needed and remains the best reason to tune into WWE TV.

Stevie J – Tie between Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston and Davey Richards.

Big D – Daniel Bryan

Fake Fired, real fired, who cares? This guy got 4-5 paychecks in the summer, was the most talked about guy on the net, and has had consistently great matches all over WWE AND the indies! He is the alpha dog.

GG – Daniel Bryan

It’s odd that in a year that he probably had less great matches than any year, I choose him for this award. But being that I watch mostly WWE these days, he was the best thing on TV all year. From his really fun match with Kaval in FCW to his match on NXT with Chris Jericho, to his really strong matches with Miz, Dolph Ziggler, and John Morrison, he was the most consistent performer on WWE television.

Pro Wrestling Show Of The Year

Alan – PWG Seven

Jesus Christ, this show was ridiculous. A five star main event, a ****3/4 star semi main and a bunch of other great stuff on the undercard. When the worst match on a show is Danielson vs. Strong, that’s saying something.

Duan – WrestleMania XXVI

Several quality matches and an epic main event. It’s the one thing WWE gets right every year.

Stevie J – WrestleMania XXVI

Big D – WrestleMania XXVI

GG – WrestleMania XXVI

If you get the chance to see WrestleMania live, do it. It was my second year in a row of being there live, and this time, I got to experience it with my kids. We had a blast. The show never hit a lull and the main event was one of the top two best matches I’ve seen live.

Match Of The Year

Alan – Caballera Contra Caballera: Shingo Takagi vs. BxB Hulk (Dragon Gate – Pro Wrestling Festival In Kobe)

One of my favourite matches of all time. The culmination of a story that began when both men debuted 5 years ago. Amazing character work, storytelling and mindblowing action all in front of a white hot crowd of 10,000 people at their biggest show of the year.

Duan – Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXVI)

It should have been impossible to follow last years effort, but some how they did it. Another classic and completely unique from the previous year’s effort.

Stevie J – Tie between Kevin Steen vs. El Generico (Final Battle), Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXVI), and The Kings of Wrestling vs. The World’s Greatest Tag Team (Glory By Honor IX).

Big D – Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXVI)

Benjamin/Haas vs. KOW came close but… this one was amazing because not only did they manage to have an unbelievably great match, they managed to follow-up one of the best ever and make it DIFFERENT. You can’t screw with these two.

GG – Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WrestleMania XXVI)

I still say that their rematch was better than the one at WrestleMania XXV. I saw both live. In the crowd, I never felt that Michaels was going win the first one. They managed to get me to believe that he had a chance in the second. It was probably the most content I’ve been watching a wrestling match ever.

Big Things In ’11

Alan – Tetsuya Naito

Came back from Mexico a new man in January. Given a huge opportunity by feuding with Hiroshi Tanahashi, and he seized it in a big big way. I see no slowing down next year. An IWGP Heavyweight Title charge is surely on tap.

Duan – Dolph Ziggler

I’m not sure exactly where Dolph’s position is in the WWE hierarchy, but I think we will find out in 2011. He’s developing his character and his ring work is constantly improving. He’s going to be great for WWE next year. It doesn’t matter whether it’s as a midcarder or main-eventer.

Stevie J – Davey Richards

Big D – I predict bad things in 2011, including the buyrates and ratings still dropping and ROH fully going under.

GG – Dolph Ziggler

I completely agree with Duan. My wish for Ziggler this year was for him to be able to wrestle a much more athletic style because he has the goods. Athletically, he’s up there with the best of the guys they have going. I loved watching him excel in matches with other guys who embody an athletic style like Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan. I see him in the main event picture sometime late next year and at least by 2012.

Moment Of The Year

Alan – The DDT roster get serious and toughen up HARASHIMA so he can save their title from Daisuke Sekimoto.

Stevie J – Shawn Michaels “legit” retiring after another awesome match with Undertaker.

Big D – While HBK’s retirement is the most emotional, Nexus’ invasion had more people talking than anything and was the biggest “holy shit” moment of 2010.

GG – Even though we knew there was a good chance he’d show up, my favorite moment of the year was when Daniel Bryan came out as John Cena’s surprise man in the elimination tag match with Nexus.

Photo of Daniel Bryan shared via Wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Firstly, the results:

- In a dark match: Brad Allen won The Dragon Gate Fray.
- Yamato defeats Luke Hawx with a brainbuster. Bob Saget (Yes from Full House) was the Special Ring Announcer. The match was taped for Saget’s A&E series.
- Susumu Yokosuka and Grenki Horiguchi defeat Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw when Yokosuka pinned Quackenbush with a Tiger Driver 98 set up into a DDT
- Yamato defeats TJP with a sleeper.
- Brian Kendrick and Jon Moxley defeat Paul London and Jimmy Jacobs when they get a rollup on Jacobs. Moxley attacks Jacobs after the match. London took a really nasty spill right before the finish and it shows on his back. Moxley and Jacobs brawl and Jacobs sets Moxley up on the table outside for London to put Jon through. London and Kendrick are now in the ring talking. Kendrick is on the mic telling him that it’s not worth the cheers to do this. He tells Paul that it isn’t worth it. Teddy Hart comes out and says that London has lost his balls. Hart does a moonsault and puts Moxley through the table. London tells Teddy to do another moonsault and Teddy backflips into the ring. London and Kendrick attack Hart. Teddy is now attempting to get back in the ring and is asking where is Jack. London and Kendrick come out and are attacking him but Teddy makes a comeback and eventually dives from the ring onto them. Teddy left and London and Kendrick also leave. Hart appeared to have hit his head hard on the ground when he made the dive to the floor. Before the main event, Jack Evans returned and said that Teddy Hart is supposedly on his way to the hospital with a broken clavicle. Evans wants London and Kendrick in some form tomorrow night.
- Masato Yoshino defeats Shingo with the Sol Naciente in what was described as a great match. After the match, Jon Moxley comes out to help Shingo.
- LA PARK and Hijo De Rey Mysterio defeat Derrick Niekirk and G.Q. Gallo by disqualification after Gallo hit LA PARK with a low blow.
- BxB Hulk defeated Naruki Doi with the E.V.O.P. to retain the Open the Freedom Gate Title.
- CIMA, Gamma, and Dragon Kid defeat Jack Evans and the Young Bucks when Cima pinned Matt Jackson with Meteora.

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And now… the story

On Friday night, 3/26/2010, I got to attend my second DG USA show. This was the first time in two years that Dragon Gate attended mania weekend (a practice since 2006 until the split in the partnership with Ring of Honor). This was my second DG USA show, having attended the September Chicago show.

First off, here is a rundown of the matches. I thought for the most part, the in ring action was very solid. The Yoshino/Shingo match was probably my MOTN. Everything else, bar the LA Park tag, was at least decent. The main event, and Doi/BxB stick out besides Yoshino and Shingo.

Now onto the venue and crowd. I will say that I was surprised by the amount of people (or lack thereof) at the show. There could not have been more than 200 people at this show. I don’t know what ROH’s crowd seemed like, but I can’t help but feel that both companies screwed over their respective shows by forcing fans to have to choose like this. Most of the crowd did not seem too enthused by what they saw. In fact, LA Park’s match had a bigger crowd reception than ANY of the other matches. For the rest of the matches, the crowd seemed to sit on their hands.

Keep in mind, I am a huge fan of Gabe and Sal and really appreciate their work, but I could not help to feel anything but cheated by the seating arrangement. I bought my seats to these two shows the moment they went on sale in November last year for $80 a piece. These front row seats were so low due to the platform that the ring was on that I could hardly see anything on the other side of the ring due to my position. This was a very poor scouting attempt on their part. On top of the fact, due to the low crowd, people from GA were moved down into the more expensive seats, which makes myself (and other people who bought the more expensive seats) feel even more cheated

Gabe also did say on Facebook that there would be dives, despite the platform. Yes, there were dives (particularly a very nasty one from Teddy Hart during the post-match after London & Jacobs/Kendrick & Moxley), but the wrestlers were obviously limited by it.

I don’t mean to come across as nitpicky, but merchandise was also more expensive. Stuff in the bargain bins at the highspots table were an additional $5 a piece due to the venue, and some of the DVDs on the actual table were more expensive.

I know I have come across as negative in the past few paragraphs, but don’t get me wrong. It was a good show and totally worth seeing (particularly for Yoshino/Shingo, the 6-man, and BxB/Doi) but I can’t help but feel disappointed. I expected more out of the matches, I expected more out of the crowd (especially after the great Chicago crowd that I got to be in in September) and I especially expected more out of the seating arrangement considering the price.

The show would have been a much more enjoyable experience for me personally had I actually been able to see most of the show. That really took a lot of feeling away from the show for me. I should not have to pay $80 to have to rely on a video screen to see an independent wrestling show. Plus, had the fans not been seemingly hooked on ritalin for the majority of the show, (excluding LA Park’s match), their energy also could have contributed to the experience. I can only hope that tomorrow’s show is better in at least half of my queries (since the in-ring action is some of the best you will see in the world).

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I asked JP about Teddy Hart’s injury. His response:

I thought he would have been concussed, not had a broken bone. He landed right in front of my friend and you could hear his head hit the ground and (Brian) Kendrick immediately crawled over and asked if he was ok.

We are unsure as to whether or not Teddy is going to compete at tomorrow night’s DGUSA show. In addition, was Teddy one of the planned Harts to appear at the Stu Hart Hall of Fame Ceremony or perhaps even at Wrestlemania during the Hart/McMahon match?

Keep coming to FightGameBlog for exclusive coverage of this huge weekend!

The project has been worked on in secrecy for months and I heard clues and hints about it at the last FIP show I attended, but as usual they worked me. Bastards. Seriously though, this partially explains the union between Dragon Gate and FIP as now Sal plans to expand into the Northeast market.

The company is beginning the tease with an online viral campaign, starting with this YouTube video, teasing the birth of the company.

The company’s homepage is already in effect over at www.EVOLVEwrestling.com. There is no word as to whether or not they will feature Dragon Gate talent, but I have a feeling that they will. Will they compete against Ring of Honor? Well considering DGUSA is running in Arizona the same day that ROH is for Wrestlemania weekend, that seems to be the case. I don’t know if competing for the same 2000 or so fans is that great of an idea, but whatever.

I’m excited to see what this trio can come up with!

Let’s get it Alan!

- Lince Dorado defeated Cheech, Cloudy, Johnny Gargano, Chris Jones, Louis Linden, Aaron Arbo, and Andy Harper in an 8-Way Fray Dark Match. This will not be on the PPV or DVD.
- Yamato defeated BxB Hulk
- 2 Cold Scorpio defeated Ken Doane
- The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant), Jigsaw and Mike Quackenbush defeated F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma), Amasis from the Osirian Portal and Hallowicked in the Chikara 8-Man Tag Match
- Dragon Kid defeated Masato Yoshino
- The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) defeated Warriors-5 (CIMA and Susumu Yokosuka) - Open The Dream Gate & Brave Gate Champion Naruki Doi defeated Shingo to retain the title

This is not the type of site that typically just has random results from cards without some kind of meaning. To me, the meaning of this is the show itself. I’ve been looking forward to “Open The Historic Gate” for months and months. This is a very historic show and a historic moment for independent wrestling. Possibly the first time that a Japanese wrestling company has legitimately tried to expand into North America and been wildly successful, and they had the ECW Arena rockin. While DGUSA did not sell out the building, tickets were moved quicker for this show than perhaps any debut show for an independent in the history of the US. “Open the Historic Gate” was indeed historic and I can not WAIT to see what else happens. Former ROH Booker Gabe Sapolski, who was fired from his position a little under a year ago (possibly due to jealous eyes), and now, with recharged batteries and along with the most talented roster of young wrestlers on Earth, plans to take Dragon Gate USA into the next stratosphere.

Open The Historic Gate will be broadcast on Pay-Per-View as “Enter the Dragon” on September 4th, 2009. From what I’ve read – you MUST buy this show!

Next up Chicago will host Open the Untouchable Gate, featuring the two MVPs of ROH, “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson and Davey Richards. Add some Chikara and DG talent and you’ve got the recipe for another unbelievable show.

Alan dammit we’re doing it! We’re doin it baby!!!

Be sure to check DGUSA.tv for updates.

The first show will be in Philly on July 25th.

The roster will see a combination of established Dragon Gate stars such as Shingo, Masato Yoshino, CIMA, YAMATO and more, along with top international indy names and a handful of under the radar indy names that are just waiting to explode and make their name.

The website is up at www.dgusa.tv with more details.