I've really been digging the 2009-2010 Dragon Gate USA shows that I've purchased. So I thought to look online to see if there's any other well regarded matches available. And wouldn't you know it, there's a bunch! I'm pretty sure the account that's posted them will be taken down imminently so I'm jumping on the opportunity. Below is a kind of "best of" watch list from what's available. I've used a couple sources like Cagematch as well as my own preferences to guide my selections. I'll list the show title and year as a header. Then, I'll have the match ups for that show. Let's look!

Open the Historic Gate 2009

Shingo vs Naruki Doi - Hell yeah! This was an excellent battle. I think Doi & Shingo are pretty evenly matched. Shingo might have more strength but Doi is a tad faster. There's a good portion where they do some leg work but they just kinda move on past it. It's typical of NJPW juniors and it's no different here. It's what holds it back from being a classic but they put effort into it (doesn't feel like going through the motions) and they don't spend too much time on it. That's to say, it's not a story point. I feel the story is more about two of Dragon Gate's most explosive wrestlers squaring off. Near classic battle. Sick finish too!

Young Bucks vs CIMA/Susumu Yokosuka - So much fringe & tassel! Beyond that, this is an absolute balls to the wall Bucks spot smorgasbord! Where this gets great is the awesome stuff that CIMA & Yokosuka bring to the match. They just gel flawlessly with each other. I've seen this called a classic but I won't go that far as we've seen the Bucks build off this framework since 2009. Still this is non-stop "tag rules be damned" wrestling. 17 minutes of exactly what you want.

Definitely a great start to the promotion!

Open the Freedom Gate 2009

Naruki Doi/Masato Yoshino vs Shingo/Dragon Kid - I might have said this elsewhere but Doi & Yoshino vs MCMG is a match that made me get excited about newer wrestling... that was a TNA Impact match from '08. Go look that up on the 'tube So for a minute here I thought this was going to a very good but by the numbers tag match. I'm pretty familiar with the Speed Muscle tag spots just like I'm familiar with the Young Bucks'spots. They are still impressive and exciting but I know'em when I see 'em. What keeps this fresh is Shingo & Kid screwing with those spots...cutting them off, countering etc. One I really dug was seeing Shingo absorb Doi's rapid fire slaps and firing back with a stiff punch to the jaw. I haven't seen anyone do that... it's simple but surprising. In addition to that we get great escalated spots where moves normally done are now done off the turn buckle, off the ropes etc. They were a little slow going in the beginning and I think it was to make this longer (it's almost 20 minutes) but when they got cooking, there was no stopping them. I would say this was a near classic DG tag match. 

Mercury Rising 2010

BxB Hulk/Naruki Doi/Masato Yoshino vs CIMA/GAMMA/Dragon Kid - This was pretty good but it definitely felt like a level below their very best stuff. It felt slower and looser than the top notch DG 6 man matches or tags. I think we could have settled for Yoshino and Doi vs CIMA and Dragon Kid. But we sorta get that in the above match if you swap Shingo for CIMA. Perhaps I have seen too much of this lately and you'll like it more than me. The Wrestling Observer gave it ****3/4 stars another source gave it ****1/2 so with my rating...it averages out to ****1/3 or a near classic... I mean if you're interested I would definitely recommend checking it out. It wasn't my cup of tea but it was many other people's.

Uprising 2010
Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs Naruki Doi/Pac - The Pac vs Quack opening is a thing of beauty. Things never really let up and while not as poetic as the first few minutes, this was awesome go-go bananas shit. Doi seemed to be the most tame of the bunch but he kicked things up and all four dudes were on fire by the end. I should note no one sold a thing beyond getting knocked down for a pin or rolling out of the ring for safety. That goes without saying for many of these tag matches. It's just the style so I can't use it as a criticism. I bring it up because that's really the only "flaw"... this was as bat shit of a Dragon Gate style tag as you can get...even more notably with one native Dragon Gate wrestler! At 15 minutes it ended on a perfect note. This was a classic in my book.

Shingo/YAMATO vs CIMA/Dragon Kid - This was different as the majority of the match was a heel vs baby face tag match. Then the final third they kicked it into Dragon Gate madness... but even the it wasn't that crazy. With Shingo and YAMATO is was closer to what you'd get from NOAH or NJPW juniors wrestling. They knew to let the previous match be the bat shit high speed "Dragon Gate match." That said, this was still very awesome and a near classic. Dragon Kid was at his best here playing face in peril /new age young Rey Misterio Jr. with his fancy moves.

BxB Hulk vs Masato Yoshino - Lightning fast wrestling! Holy cow! I'm really not sure how to rate this because this was not very deep but the fireworks were top notch... and at 75 mph. Things could have broken down especially on Hulk's end but no! execution was flawless. And then when BxB started nailing his kicks...that's what really sealed the deal for me. This was a classic to me...probably the best singles DGUSA match without Shingo or Danielson so far.

Uprising 2010, based on those 3 matches, was amazing! It actually might be a DVD I  might  buying and doing a full show review down the road. Of course, I'm trying not to buy more DVDs...

Bushido 2010
Austin Aries vs Masato Yoshino - A great match and something different than what "we" have been watching. This is more Aries' style but Yoshino is perfectly at home with this. He's just as good at it as Aries. Here there's a focus on Aries' arm and to a lesser extent Yoshino's leg. And you know Yoshino doesn't really sell the leg at all so I take back what I said about being as good as Aries in this style. Austin sells the arm all match long...even opting to use over hand chops instead of his elbow strikes. Yoshino not selling the knee is OK but definitely would have been nice...but going after the knees of a wrestler that use the ropes and turn buckles is kinda dumb. It forces them to blow off the knee work or sell it and have a lame match. So good for Yoshino to not even sell it. Anyway, I didn't even think of any of that selling b.s. with Yoshino until after the match. I was enjoying the story they were telling too much to notice. Of all the short term big stars to temporarily wrestled in DGUSA, Aries is the best fit. Great match!

Jon Moxley vs Jimmy Jacobs – I Quit Match - Lenny Leonard on commentary helped this match, I won't lie. The crowd really needed to be ravenous for this to hit in the right way. And as I know, the longer DGUSA goes on the smaller the crowd gets. Nonetheless this was a very good match! And like their previous stuff, it's mainly due to Jimmy Jacobs. He kinda gets the idea behind hardcore spot matches and is willing to take a beating. He gets bombed against the guardrail for instance. Both guys bleeds. Chairs, a belt and the spikes are in play and this ends in a very sick finish... and ends just in time before it over stayed its welcome. 

BxB Hulk vs Shingo - This is one I thought "oh this is very good" for about 50% of the match. Then, for the next 25% "yeah this is a great match actually." So we're at 75% or 3/4 of the way through. Then they really kick it up and I'm like "this is a near classic... they are really just upping things to that next level" for the next 20% of the match. And that final 5%..they do absolutely what they needed to do to make this a classic. BxB hitting Shingo with some of the stiffest kicks to the face & head for instance. But there's more than that...the layout was pretty great at the end...the fans were eating out of the palm of their hands. This is a longer one and definitely is more in that NOAH Jr./ROH style of pacing and layout as opposed to Dragon Gate. Chalk up another awesome singles match for Shingo...Hulk too.

Very good show from these three matches. Obviously the main event raises the rating there. Maybe not one I would buy unless there's other things on there that interest me... plus I think it might be a little more uncommon of a show.

Freedom Fight 2010

Johnny Gargano/Chuck Taylor/Rich Swann vs Austin Aries/Genki Horiguchi/Ricochet - This got recommended by a trusted source but I'm going to have to disagree. Maybe in 2010 or watching each show would make things better. I can't stand Gargano or Ricochet here. Ricochet looks not engaged in an athletic contest but performing a gymnastics or dance routine. Gargano is just hamming it up so much that the HBK would think its too much. I mean it's sort of a comedy match but eh...I'm not watching these for this. If this was on an FIP card (the crowd size is starting to resemble one), I might have dug it a little more. But don't get me wrong its a good match but not a great one. This is the future of DGUSA... people are wanting to see lucharesu & ROH style stuff..but this is something else. 

YAMATO vs Masato Yoshino - I got vapor locked on the first half of this match. There's a lot of good leg work by YAMATO but also a lot of stomping :S Things do pick up but at the cost of all of the leg work. Yoshino needs his legs to do "his" offense. He's not going to sell at an equal level and well we basically wasted 10 minutes with the beginning. I dunno, they kinda lost me. I've heard this called a great match so maybe you should check it out??? Yoshino does have a tendency to blow off selling and sometimes it's OK  (see match vs Aries) and sometimes not. There was a disappointing Yoshino vs Shingo match from 07/22/18 where the poor selling wrecked the match in my eyes (see my post from 2018 - Spotlight: Dragon Gate 2010's - Shingo & YAMATO).

2010 doesn't end on a strong note unfortunately.

2010 is the first "full" year of shows for DGUSA and is that golden period. As you know I cherry pick but, it's clear that the promotion is very much Dragon Gate in the USA. Not just another "Gabe project" yet. However you can see that Gabe S. wanted/needed to push some American talent. This is good from one perspective but the quality of wrestling is not as high. The 6 man match is a great example of that. If you were an ROH fan then I would definitely recommend checking this stuff out. I truly was luke warm about it back in '09-'10 but have come around to really digging it. I knew that I liked Danielson, YAMATO & Shingo Takagi so I focused on getting those DVDs. But yeah, this is fun stuff. I'm not sure I would want to watch it all of the time but, for a few shows in a month... it's worth the while. If the YouTube channel is still up, I might check out a few matches from 2011. I'm still going to watch my final DGUSA DVD but just might watch those first... just in case that YouTube channel goes bye-bye sooner rather than later.

Thanks for reading!