Indy Wrestling Express

Lee here with live coverage of Dragon Gate USA: Open The Golden Gate. The show is airing live on IPPV from Los Angeles right now! I will edit all of the results (and my thoughts) into this post, so keep refreshing the page. 

The show is scheduled to start at quarter past the hour. 

Match 1: Low Ki vs BxB Hulk

Winner: Low Ki (pinfall after the Warrior’s Way)

Thoughts: Very good opener. It was marred slightly by some bad camerawork in the early going, but fortunately that was sorted out. The many kicks that I had expected (and hoped for) were delivered, as well as some cool mat wrestling. It didn’t quite go into overdrive like it may have if it was higher up the card, but it didn’t need to since it was just the opener. 

- Rich Swann missed his flight. Chuck Taylor is on his own.

- The Young Bucks attacked Chuck Taylor, but Scorpio Sky makes the save!

Match 2: The Young Bucks vs Chuck Taylor & Scorpio Sky 

Winners: The Young Bucks (pinfall after More Bang For Your Buck on Scorpio Sky)

Thoughts: Decent tag match. The debuting Scorpio Sky delivered the most impressive performance. 

Match 3: Masato Yoshino vs Naruki Doi

Winner: Masato Yoshino (Doi submitted to Sol Naciente Kai)

Thoughts: This one really heated up down the stretch. Really good stuff from the former allies. 

Match 4 - Tables Match: Sami Callihan vs AR Fox

Winner: Sami Callihan (powerbomb through a table)

Thoughts: AR Fox was back body dropped onto a guardrail (wedged between the guardrail and the ring), then did a post assisted moonsault from the apron onto Sami on the guardrail, then later he took a powerbomb from the ring to the guardrail, before being finished with a powerbomb through the table. His back has to be hurting a lot. The moonsault was very cool, but I can’t help but think the other guardrail bumps weren’t worth the damage to his back. I appreciate the effort, but I hope we see Fox back in wrestling matches rather than hardcore matches soon. 

INTERMISSION

Thoughts: Solid first half. Low Ki vs Hulk is my favourite match so far. I think I’ll enjoy that one even more on demand if they fix the dodgy camera work near the opening. 

- The “Tribute To The Arena” segment from Evolve 10 is playing during intermission. This aired before the show too. 

Match 5: Jon Davis vs Caleb Konley

- I forgot to mention, Chuck Taylor joined Lenny on commentary a while back. 

- The feed vanished half way through the match. For everyone. It just isn’t there anymore. This is a disaster. 

- Jon Davis won, apparently. 

- The feed returned during PAC vs Tozawa. Not sure how long the match has been going. 

Match 6: PAC vs Akira Tozawa

Winner: Akira Tozawa (pinfall with a bridging straight jacket german suplex)

Thoughts: I’m not sure how much we missed, but what we saw was great. The final few minutes were fantastic. 

Main event - Open The United Gate title match: CIMA (c) & Ricochet (c) vs Masaaki Mochizuki & Jimmy Susumu

Winners: CIMA & Ricochet (CIMA pinned Susumu after Meterora)

Thoughts: Great main event. All four worked well together, and there was some awesome double team offence (my favourite possibly being Mochi and Susumu’s sankakugeri/powerbomb combo to Ricochet). It really seemed like it could go either way near the end, I thought Mochi and Susumu had it won when they nailed CIMA with the sankakugeri and the jumbo no kagi respectively. 

- After the match, Tozawa and Hulk attacked everyone, until Low Ki made the save. Ki talked for a while, putting everyone over, and ultimately hinted at a match with CIMA at the next DGUSA shows. 

- CIMA played face while Ricochet played heel throughout the match. However, Ricochet stood by CIMA when his stablemates attacked at the end. CIMA delivered the show closing speech, and Ricochet played along, even high fiving some fans in the crowd. Maybe Ricochet will officially turn face when he gets back to Japan. 

Closing thoughts: A solid show, that was marred only by technical difficulties. I’ll write my review after I’ve seen PAC/Tozawa and Davis/Konley in full. Thanks very much for following along with me tonight! If you missed the show, you will soon be able to catch it on demand over at WWNLive.