Sorry for the delay! I figure with Mania & the solar eclipse people would have some diversion for a few days. So I gave myself a couple more days to cover Dragon Gate USA for 2011. This is pretty much the end of the beginning for DGUSA. Although it rarely was simply Dragon Gate in the U.S. only, this early period really does focus on the Japanese talent being the centerpiece of the promotion. 2010 sees the formation of the Ronin stable which despite being a Japanese word/concept is comprised of Americans. The guys (Gargano, Taylor, Swann) are in essence the future of the company. Although my reviews don't show it Sami Callihan also is coming to prominence along with other indie talent of this era. The cards on a whole are more independent wrestling with some DG guys vs Dragon Gate USA. Personally I think this is at least one reason the company got absorbed by Gabe's other group Evolve. But I am just giving some background on this as we look at some of the best of DGUSA in 2011.

Masato Yoshino/Pac vs CIMA/Dragon Kid (United NYC 2011) - Yeah that was a sick finish! And this was a great match overall. It wasn't trying to be a barn burner from start to finish and I can appreciate that as this was a 20 minute match. Eventually they kicked it into high gear and it was flawless. The PAC/Yoshino team is insane. And while I have seen a good bit of the Kid/CIMA team they are kinda the gold standard for teams in DGUSA. They have the moves, the character, the history etc. 

Austin Aries vs Akira Tozawa (United Philly 2011) - Wow! That was a fantastic match. The pacing was just excellent... there was action yet also included a bit of comedy & a touch of shenanigans. They seamlessly worked all of that in without losing momentum. Tozawa and Aries are a great pairing. They both have that jack-of-all-trades/all-arounder style - hard hits, explosive, unorthodox attacks etc. I'm going to be conservative and say this was a near classic. But part of me wants to say "classic"...it just hit everything perfectly at around 15 minutes.

Akira Tozawa vs BxB Hulk (United Finale 2011) - Tozawa is getting booked into the big matches and he is delivering. This is another one I'd put in the near classic category. This was so very stiff and intense. I don't think that the pacing was a excellent as the Aries match but the ferocity exceeded the previous bout. Hulk just unloaded on Akira. However he got it right back...a couple of those bicycle kicks were nasty! As were his elbow strikes. Tozawa is on a roll in 2011. Let's hope he keeps it up! This looks to be the last BxB Hulk match that I have so big shout out to him. He can be spotty at times but when with the right opponent he can be absolutely fantastic in this style of wrestling.

Mercury Rising 2011

PAC vs Akira Tozawa - Great match but not as great as the previous two bouts with Tozawa. Early on this was on track to be better by the fact that there were some organic moments that made this look damn real. I think what prevents this being a near classic is the pacing. This thing was in 3rd gear the whole time. And had it really gone to 4th gear then I think that would have helped. Or had it built up to a 4th gear... that too would have been good. It seemed to lack an urgency or a real intensity. I guess they wrestled the night before (oh this is when they started doing the Wrestlemania double shot weekends) so that comes across here a lil' bit. Still you might really dig this and I'm a fan of PAC & Tozawa so I'm liking it too.

YAMATO vs Austin Aries - The only thing that would have made this better was a submission victory. And don't believe they weren't going for those way later in the match than you would have thought but, a submission win would have sealed the deal on this being an all time classic. It is damn close. As good as Tozawa vs Aries was Aries vs YAMATO is an even better pairing. This is more on the technical side of Aries' talents and I dug it. It's like Aries vs Danielson in that the technical wrestling sets the foundation of the match. And more so than "oh let's work a body part." Here and in the best matches, we're reminded that wrestling holds hurt and end matches & and win titles. When the wrestlers treat them seriously then we do too. And then we in turn treat everything else a little more seriously as well. One mistake, one wrong step can end it. That's the story you're telling whether the match ends like that or not. That's always in the back of your mind. This match does that... some of my favorite matches do that. You could say, "they didn't sell the leg work enough" and I would say you're over thinking things. You're watching with you head and not your heart here. They don't blow the work off, they are limping, staggering, staying on the mat longer. They are hurt but not incapacitated. It is a thin line to walk but they walk it. This is a classic match. It's more in that golden era ROH style despite it taking place in a Dragon Gate USA ring in 2011.

Fearless 2011

Austin Aries vs Johnny Gargano - Very good match...there were moments that this was actually pretty great. I'm docking points for when Gargano is on offense. There's that "why do the same move simply when I can do it fancy" indie tendency. Like everything has to be a signature move type habit...and it comes across as you're not trying to hurt the opponent to win the match or exact revenge... it's like you're performing. He seems to be a fast learners so I'm hoping he grows out of this. I remember watching some later DGUSA where he was the ace and I think he'd greatly improved. All that said, this was a very good TNA style main event match (if you catch my drift). A review I read elsewhere comments on how Johnny sold the shoulder (which was taped up) and that contributed to the quality of the match. Hell if I could tell because that's news to me! I watched this with the sound off so I suspect there was a bit of announcers doing the storytelling. Be that as it may, this was still pretty good. 

Masato Yoshino/Pac vs YAMATO/Akira Tozawa - Holy crap! This was sweet! One of those matches where it builds from pretty good -> great -> classic match by the time the bell is rung. I thought Yoshino was taking the night off but, I guess he was just conserving energy. Pac did a phenomenal job here as he really did the lion's share of the work during the early & middle portions of the match. I would say Yamato & Tozawa shared their duties pretty equally. Things picked up in the final portion and it really elevated this to a classic. Glad I got to see another Pac/Yoshino match as well as more Yamato & Tozawa.

CIMA vs YAMATO (Untouchable 2011) - Now we're talking! A match with a injured limb story. This reminds me of a '06 Danielson title defense match. Yamato is Danielson here...not flashy but patiently brutal. He's taking his lumps, waiting to punish his opponent for their mistake. CIMA is that flashy, confident challenger. He's got an attack for every situation and every angle. CIMA is the one you're looking at. He's doing the cool moves and eventually he's doing the heavy selling. And that is what makes this great. A lot of times Danielson is doing the selling where his opponent often doesn't do enough to get their pain across. Here CIMA, the senior, does a fantastic job selling his pain. He delays his follow ups, he's constantly trying to get his joint to pop into place or adjust his protective gear to optimize support. But he never over does it and it allows him to still wrestle an exciting Jr. style match. Which is fantastic as YAMATO makes him pay for that decision I additionally enjoyed how much like Danielson didn't focus all of his efforts on that one injury. He eventually transfers his aggression to another body part after his opponent's defenses have been compromised.

Way of the Ronin 2011
Johnny Gargano vs Naruki Doi - I'm not gonna lie, this is a "let's run through a bunch of moves" match. This is a high level version of that indie tendancy. But it still is what it is. And this isn't what I'd call a fireworks match either. Just like a fireworks display, there's a build to a finish. And the dueling chants by the fans...ugh...it was interesting back in the late 90's & early 2000's because it really felt organic. Like you were actually rooting for a wrestler even if it still corny..this is the beginning of the end with chants...I fucking am so over fans being marks for themselves. It's the biggest turn off of modern wrestling and this is a great example. It's the equivalent of the beach ball at a concert. Like, are you not entertained? Ugh...I'm not anymore...Nearly gave up to on this one. I did not like this. It was OK but they had no transitions between control and Gargano would just do a fucking flurry of fancy moves right after taking a beating. You what know dude...do a fucking scoop slam, a snap mare, suplex or two...maybe try a Boston crab or a sleeper hold. This was junk food wrestling at its worst. Matches like this are why I stayed away from this at the time. This reminds me of that Teddy Hart vs Jack Evans match where all they do is crazy shit for 15 minutes. This is not encouraging for my DVD which features Johnny vs Shingo...

Masato Yoshino/Pac vs CIMA/Ricochet - I was thinking this was pretty good... probably too many crazy moves in the middle...like having Pac & Ricochet in one match is a bit much...I'd gladly take Pac btw...no goofy selling & mannerisms like Ricochet...but when it got to the end it was great. They focused things so the action meant something and felt dramatic. There was even a bit of shenanigans but what easily could have sunk the match actually helped it. Not as great as the other Masato Yoshino/Pac tags but, still worth your time.

That was a great way to end this little side project. 2011 was still looking very good for DGUSA...at least in the big match department. I very much stayed away from the US indie talent if you couldn't tell. That generation of wrestler is kinda when things started to sour in my opinion. I was probably a little harsh since I enjoyed them on the DVDs I own. To be fair, I really wanted to see the Japanese talent. That's the whole reason I was ever interested in DGUSA along with seeing them go up against the top US (former ROH) talent like Bryan, Davey & Aries. These matches have exceeded my expectations. I have really enjoyed the '09 - '11 period of the promotion. Gargano is still a work in progress. In a tag setting, I think his shortcomings are less noticeable but Gabe strapped a rocket to him. In fact, he defeats Yamato for the title at the very end of 2011...which is bullshit and am glad I didn't see this. Ricochet, while irritating, is a heel now and wisely is paired with the veteran CIMA.  For 2011, if you're an old ROH fan and haven't checked any of this stuff out OR maybe only saw a match or two of these guys in ROH, I'd recommend digging a little deeper. The Dragon Gate natives are absolutely the reason to seek this stuff out. Everything from this post and last is online (for a limited time probably) but, many of the DVDs are available on eBay.