BRM Reviews DGUSA Enter The Dragon 2011: 2nd Anniversary Celebration

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews DGUSA Enter The Dragon 2011: 2nd Anniversary Celebration

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 5th, '21, 20:20

DGUSA Enter The Dragon 2011: 2nd Anniversary Celebration (6/5/2011)- New York, NY


Welcome back to BRM’s Monthly “This Day in Wrestling History” Review Series. At the end of last month’s review I said were starting a “Summer of Sapolsky.” That’s what we’re doing, but I might have misrepresented myself when I said it would be a “theme.” All of the shows we’re watching are shows that Gabe booked, but there really is no connective tissue here. It’s more of me getting this review series back to its original purpose, which was to force myself to finally get around to watching some of these DVDs on my shelf that in the pre-streaming service days when there was a lot less easily-accessible contemporary wrestling to watch, I would fill my evenings (and afternoons when I was working part-time) watching. This month, we’re watching a more recent addition to my collection, which I picked up less than a year ago during the WWN’s going out of business sale. Prepare yourselves for what will probably be the longest show title I ever type for this series: DGUSA Enter The Dragon 2011: 2nd Anniversary Celebration.

MASATO YOSHINO vs. RICOCHET (w/Blood Warriors)- 7/10
I had totally forgotten about Ricochet’s terrible mohawk. This was a great opener, but nowhere near at the speed I was expecting, giving the names involved.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Blood Warriors jumped Yoshino after the match. First Pac and then Yamato came out to make the save. The two of them proceeded to have a stare-down to build up to their main event title match later tonight.

RONIN BACKSTAGE- fine
Chuck Taylor is injured tonight so they need to find a new partner. Swann has an idea.

A.R. FOX vs. PINKIE SANCHEZ- 6.25/10
A good match brought down by some goofiness from Pinkie and a mist spot right in front of the referee that clearly should have been a DQ but wasn’t.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great
The D.U.F.s came out Sami Callihan cut a promo on Fox, resenting him for being “handed” opportunities simply because he looks good. The D.U.F.s attacked Fox and smashed his face in with a kay and a stanchion.

FRAY! IN WHICH IF AHTU WINS, LARRY DALLAS IS IN DGUSA, BUT IF HE LOSES, LARRY DALLS IS BANNED FROM DGUSA FOREVER: Ahtu (w/Larry Dallas) vs. Cedric Alexander vs. Jon Davis vs. Tony Nese vs. Sugar Dunkerton vs. Flip Kendrick vs. Louis Lyndon vs. Caleb Konley vs. Façade- 5.75/10
Ahtu got Cedric quickly, then Jon Davis came and eliminated Ahtu with a pounce. That was a lot quicker than I expected, given the situation.
More people came in. Many flips and dives occurred. The crowd was very displeased when Façade made Sugar D tap out, and continued to show their displeasure at Façade for as long as he remained in the match. Davis ran wild on Lyndon and Façade and eventually eliminated both of them. Eliminating Facade made Davis the new crowd-favorite.
Davis got knocked out of the ring to let the others do their movez to each other for a while and rack up some eliminations before Davis came back at the end and had a good segment with Caleb Konley before picking up the win.

BACKSTAGE, RICH SWANN TELLS JOHNNY GARGANO HE WAS ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY RECRUIT A THIRD MAN FOR THEIR TEAM- fine

We were told that A.R. Fox has been taken to the hospital.

MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI & SUSUMU YOKOSUKA vs. D.U.F.s (Arik Cannon & Sami Callihan)- 7/10
There was a lot of good action here. They also tried to tell a story with Yokosuka being the babyface in peril and getting his legs worked over, but that story didn’t work too well for me because the moment it was time to go back on offense, Yokosuka forget to sell his injured knee.

SIX-MAN ELIMINATION TAG TEAM MATCH: Masato Yoshino & Ronin (Rich Swann & Johnny Gargano) vs. Blood Warriors (Austin Aries, Brodie Lee, & CIMA) (w/Ricochet)- 5.75/10
Blood Warriors jumped the bell on Ronin. This felt like it happened purely so that Yoshino could be revealed as the mystery partner in a dramatic way. And then it wound up not meaning anything as the babyfaces were immediately cut off anyway.
The comedy spot with Swann apologizing to Gargano after Brodie Lee threw him off the top rope into a splash on Gargano turned the middle of the big heat segment into a joke. That was certainly the most counterproductive individual spot, but I actually had trouble connecting with Swann and Gargano as babyfaces throughout most of the heat. They just kind of came off like guys who you want to see get punched. The “shades of grey” element of the feud is certainly part of the problem (Blood Warriors seem like they’re supposed to be the heels for not respecting these young up-and-comers, but in the video package we saw, it was Ronin who started this whole thing with a sneak attack and three-on-one beatdown of CIMA. Blood Warriors tried their best to be heels here, and the fans in the building were certainly into Swann and Gargano, but to me, Yoshino felt like he was the only real babyface here, so the match was fighting an uphill battle with me… and that was BEFORE Yoshino was quickly eliminated via roll-up shortly after getting the big hot tag.
Heel Brodie Lee then started to run wild on the two remaining babyfaces, but soon injured himself throwing a Yakuza Kick and was quickly eliminated, which derailed whatever else the wrestlers had planned. The heels mostly kept dominating Swann and Gargano, which CIMA eventually pinning Swann after a Meteora. Gargano capitalized on a miscue by Aries and CIMA to go on offense and get CIMA to tap out, leaving him and Aries one on one. Those two had an excellent little mini-match together, but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to undo how hard it was to trudge through everything that came before, and even during those excellent five minutes or so, Gargano never really felt like this big babyface to me, and thus his big win at the end didn’t connect with me as the major moment it was supposed to.

OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE MATCH: Yamato(c) vs Pac- 8.25/10
Pac’s knee got worked over. This was an awesome main event. Not much else to say other than that both of these guys are great and the crowd was really into it.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Yamato grabbed a mic and told Pac he respected him. CIMA came out and kicked Pac. He said he wanted the Open the Freedom Gate Title. Ricochet attacked and helped him attack the babyfaces but Ronin came out to make the save. Gargano wound up holding the title belt and took a nice long look at it before handing it back to Yamato. Gargano then gave a speech about how both himself and the company have grown over the past two years, and thanked the fans. This was a very post-ROH Gabe Sapolsky way to end a show.


This was a pretty underwhelming show from DGUSA. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it’s not one I think I’ll ever re-watch. They played some “best matches & moments” of the second year between matches, but that and Gargano’s promo at the end were the only things gave it any sort of “anniversary” feeling, and the many of the matches didn’t deliver anywhere near as well as you’d expect on paper. Again, they mostly weren’t “bad,” but a lot of the show felt like it was “just good,” when I was expecting great. An inauspicious start to our Summer of Sapolsky. Next month we’ll be going over to EVOLVE, where we’ll see what might well be the most talked-about match in the promotion’s history.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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