DGUSA: Freedom Fight 2012 Review

Dragon Gate USA Freedom Fight 2012 DVD Review

My first venture into the world of Dragon Gate USA. Let's see how it goes!

1) Jon Davis vs. EITA
Not too familar with either of these guys so they had the chance to impress me. Unfortunately, this was a quick opener basically just to make Davis look strong. EITA did some nice highflying though. Not much going on here, short opener.

Match rating - *3/4

2) Caleb Konley & Scott Reed vs. Tony Nese & Papadon
The only two guys here that I knew much about were Nese and Konley. They put in a great
performance as expected. Their respective partners put in a good performance as well and the result was a solid tag team match. Nothing more, nothing less.

Match rating - **1/2

3) Arik Cannon vs. ACH
Since I watch alot of PWG and ROH, I'm very familar with ACH so I expected this to be pretty good since he's outstanding. I've heard a good bit about Cannon, but never seen him compete. None the less, this didn't last too long, but was fun while it lasted. Another rather short match though.

Match rating - **3/4

4) Super Smash Bros vs. Jigsaw & Fire Ant
And here we have one of the main reasons I ordered this DVD, to see more matches from the Super Smash Brothers! They really impressed me on some PWG shows and I was dying to see more. This match met my expectations as it was just awesome. Jigsaw & Fire Ant impressed me as well with alot of innovative manuevers. Fantastic tag team match here and the first standout match on this show.

Match rating - ***1/2

5) Chuck Taylor vs. Rich Swann - No DQ Match
Two other standouts from PWG here so I was expecting a good match and that's exactly what we got. This wasn't your typical No DQ match as Taylor and Swann used some different weapons here including a screwdriver and a pair of pliers. At one point, Chuck put the screwdriver in Swann's mouth and started poking it into the side of his mouth. While that was pretty brutal, the most breathtaking spot had to be Taylor's DDT on the concrete floor to Swann. This wasn't a hardcore match by any means because no one bled and there were no tables, but it was certainly a quality match and these guys took advantage of the stipulation. Great match.

Match rating - ***1/2

6) CIMA vs. Sami Callihan
Callihan was on a roll going into this match with a big victory the previous night against El Generico in a 2/3 Falls match. But could Callihan defeat the icon of Dragon Gate, CIMA? He certainly tried. This was a hard fought contest with alot of strikes and submissions. Both men threw everything they had at each other, but in the end CIMA came out victorious. Another great match.

Match rating - ***3/4

7) El Generico & Samuray Del Sol vs. Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito
I'm a big fan of Generico and Del Sol so I expected alot out of this one. Some nice wrestling throughout the match and it was very fast paced. Unfortunately it didn't last as long as I hoped, but it was alot of fun while it lasted. Good match.

Match rating - ***1/4

8) Johnny Gargano vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Ricochet vs. AR Fox - Four Way Elimination Match for the Open The Freedom Gate Championship
I've seen all four of these guys tear the house down in other promotions and they did the same exact thing here! So many breathtaking moments such as Ricochet holding up AR Fox on his shoulders on the outside only for Johnny Gargano to run and dive through the ropes sending Fox into the front row of fans. Then Tozawa dove out onto all three men! After this Fox stood on the railing and ran his feet up a pole to deliver a sliced bread on Ricochet. Just amazing stuff from Fox there, but he ended up being the first one eliminated about 15 minutes in after Ricochet targeted his leg with chair shots and submissions causing him to tap out. Ricochet was the next man out leaving Tozawa and Gargano as the final two men. The exchange these two had was phenomenal. Tozawa suplexed Gargano right on his head multiple times, but Gargano would get right back up and superkick him. In the end, Gargano gets the victory after an amazing match.

Match rating - ****1/2

Overall thoughts: This was my first Dragon Gate USA show and I really enjoyed it. I'd seen alot of these men compete in other promotions before such as PWG so I expected it to be really good. The first three matches weren't bad, but they were too short to mean anything. After that, the show stayed pretty consisent. The main event was easily the match of the night, it was phenomenal. I'd recommend checking out this show as there are four quality matches and an outstanding main event.

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