Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Okay so I've fallen behind on my wrestling reviews, there's many reasons for this mostly, I've either been watching them with my mates and have been distracted, or I've just been busy with other things, but I've got all the free time In the world at the moment and it's time to catch. I simply had to check out Dragon Gate US in preparation for my Match of the Year award. I still haven't decided on the format, three different lists was too much work last year and left me little time for anything else so this year I'm thinking a top 25 matches across all promotions. Anyway enough waffle back to the show.

Well it looks just light Ring of Honor but with must improved production quality but equally bad sound on the microphones. The crowd is red hot for the start, and the show already as the air of a must see, something that Ring of Honor hasn't had since Gabe left.

I love BxB Hulk, I'm not exactly sure why, he has a tremendous look for a Japanese wrestler and his entrance dance routine is just insane. Whether you love or hate him there is something about him that's incredibly watchable. I haven't seen much of Yamato, I think this is the third time but he's pretty good and plays the heel roll well. The wrestling in this one was a little spotty but incredibly slick, the way they exchanged sequences and ran through counters was simply sublime. The spot where in mid ring Hulk ran up Yamato's body backfliped and delivered a lariat was inspired. The kickcounter and sweep sections were equally draw dropping. It has to be said the arm striking was very weak, the forearms looked terrible but the crowd we're having too much fun with the "boo-yeah" exchanges to care.

I have to give these guys great credit because these super slick exchanges were done with great intensity and never looked gimmicky or pre planned, it felt very dramatic and organic, it felt like it was straight out of the Borne Ultimatum. I have to say for an opener it was too dramatic, I think if this wasn't the first Dragon's Gate show they could easily burn the crowd out with this tempo. Also on the negative side there was alot of overselling on display, and all the work on the leg in the early half of the match pretty much dissapeared towards the end when it turned into a moveathon, it wasn't quite a spotfest but it wasn't quite a well laid out dramatic match either, but was it was, was a crisply executed superb opener. (***1/2)

Okay so next up with an eight man tag match brought to us by Chikara. Now in case you didn't know Chikari is a light hearted promotion that brings Mexican style wrestling to the US. It combines great athleticism with a quirky sense of humour. Now many of you know I strongly dislike Mexican wrestling, and this tag match is Lucha Libre rules with the Rudos vs. The Techincos but the light-hearted spirit of Chikara makes this style of action far for palatable to me. It's hard to describe this match, it's full of over the top colourful characters and absolute non-stop action, some of the athleticism was incredibly impressive but to me this felt too fake. I know it's supposed to be the joke, but there is little story being told and there isn't a jot of psychology on display. Now don't get me wrong some of the action was truly draw dropping but hardly anyone benefits from this match no one got there characters over. To the uninitiated this match would appear totally unintelligible. However on the positive side some of the sequences were so insane they simply have to be seen to be believed and these guys are incredibly innovative. But really it was too much too fast, it's like throwing a throwing a million things at you at once, it's cool, it's an experience but nothing really sticks and to be honest once you've seen one you feel like you've seen them all. Good for what it was, but what it was wasn't all that much, if you've never seen one of these matches before this is well worth checking out. (***1/4)

This match was really well plotted out and paced, it had bursts of insane action but was notably slower paced than the earlier matches. It went through all the gears naturally and was the first match that felt gruelling and seemed like it was taking it's toll on the participants. This felt like a war not a gymnastics meet. That being said when they put their mind to it they pulled out all the stops with some incredibly OTT offence, with dives, flips and an absolutely brutal ultimate ranna to finish. I really liked the consistent selling and that it built to an impressive climax. The counters throughout were excellent and the spots were paced for maximum reaction, that said, the insane nonstop pace of the other matches was hard to match and it has to be said for that reason the match felt anti climatic. (***1/4)

Now I have to say I'm excited about this one. I've had limited exposure to the Young Bucks but I absolutely love Cima and Yokosuka. The opening to this match was insane fun with the crowd completely into both teams with them playing one upsmanship and making fun of each others gimmicks. Some of the Young Bucks double team moves are really tremendous and very innovative for American wrestlers, I especially liked the spinning neckbreaker onto a back breaker, it's was one of the simplest sequences but it looks like a million bucks and painful as hell. In many ways this match felt like a culture clash but it never felt awkward it just made the match more intriguing watching the two different styles of combination and double team wrestling coming together. What was particularly impressive is the way both teams teed up so many intricate double team moves without it ever feeling contrived, double teams literally came out of nowhere, it was nearly impossible to predict what would come next or where it would come from.

There are some negatives it was the standard ROH style tag match breaks down into spotfest style but this was so spectacular and so all out I can't complain, it felt fresh and inventive rather than stale and OTT. It wasn't the perfect spotfest however, some of the Young Bucks double teams in particular to the outside were noticeably rough around the edges. However I felt the insane pace that kept building and building made up for some of the rougher moments, it came across as an intense scramble to win rather than an a nervous actor rushing through his lines. The nearfalls were of course ridiculous, but unlike the Chikara match it never felt like a pain, it was constantly exhilarating and didn't overstay its welcome. Ultimately exhilarating is the right way to describe this match, it was a thrill ride, you only really need to see it once, it was never in danger of feeling epic like Micheals-Taker or even a really good Randy Orton match but while it lasted it was one hell of a ride. (****)

Now finally to the main event of the evening! They certainly had a tough act to follow, could they pull it off? Of course they could, but not in the way you'd expect. This match was a really refreshing change of pace, two big insane spotfests in a row would be a bit much, but this was a strong style heavyweight match up, with lots of good selling, and hard hitting work from both men. Shingo delivers power moves so brilliantly, I absolutely loved one sequence where Doi had Shingo down in the corner and went for a cannon ball, he hit it but Shingo caught hold of him and lifted him up into a monstrous powerbomb. They also threw in some classic strong style spots including a thirty second hanging vertical suplex which was a nice touch. It feels like I've written this for every match on the show but the counter sequences and one upsmanship games were incredibly impressive, these guys have such tremendous chemistry you feel like they have a counter or reversal for each and every move you could possibly think of. Doi's sliding kick is utterly superb, it's such an easy move to execute but it looks devastating, I'd love to see someone in WWE adopt it. What I really enjoyed about this match in particular was it's focus on high impact and good selling, each move really felt like it had a consequence and really looked like it hurt making the near falls doubly dramatic. They built the anticipation brilliantly and conclusion was dramatic as all hell with Cima refusing to die. (****)