By Will Pruett

DGUSA Heat - March 29, 2012
The German Society Clubhouse, Hollywood, Florida

The first thing that struck me about this show was the venue. It had a mini-Haufbrau House vibe that actually complimented the show well. This wasn't an empty gym where wrestling may occur, it was a room with personality. I'd love to see more indie wrestling happen in places like this, instead of generic ballrooms and armories. At the very least, allow the personality of the room to show through the wrestling setup.

Production-wise, the show is well-lit, it sounded great, and the on-screen graphics (for names and things) looked really good. While it takes a little while for DGUSA to get shows out on DVD, they tend to look great when they get there.

Lenny Leonard handled the commentary duties on this show on his own. He's developed into being a quality voice for DGUSA and EVOLVE, but Leonard is never better than when he has a partner. Without a partner on this show, he was decent.

1. Low Ki vs. Bobby Fish. I am unsure whether this match was a part of the "old guard vs. young guns" theme the undercard had established or not. Either way, it was pretty much what I have come to expect from watching Low Ki in 2012. It covered the technical wrestling base, then became a series of hard strikes to make the crowd respect how hard they can hit each other.

The crowd itself was fairly quiet during this match. They woke up for the big spots, but were quiet for most of it. Low Ki hit a few big kicks in the corner, then the Ki Crusher for a win in a match that was only a little more than a squash.

Low Ki defeated Bobby Fish.

Mad Blankey (Uhaa Nation, BxB Hulk, and Akira Tozawa) discussed the Triangle Elimination main event and the fact that Blankey means bullsh-t.

2. Mike Cruz vs. Ricochet. In the beginning, this seemed like another pseudo-squash for the established star (Ricochet), but Mike Cruz had a long hope spot of sustained offense in the middle. While Ricochet looked good, Mike Cruz was missing something. At moments it seems like Cruz is trying to remember steps instead of naturally flowing through the match. Ricochet soon took over on offense again and won with a Shooting Star Press.

Ricochet defeated Mike Cruz.

After the match, Mad Blankey (BxB Hulk and Akira Tozawa) attacked Ricochet. CIMA and Masaaki Mochizuki ran out to save Ricochet.

The D.U.F. (Sami Calihan, Pinkie Sanchez, and Arik Cannon) had their turn at backstage promo fun. Calihan mentioned that he is now ignoring Sabu. They said they will prove that The D.U.F. is the dominant stable in DGUSA.

Samuray Del Sol and Masato Yoshino came out for their match, but DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Champion Johnny Gargano interrupted before they could begin. He discussed his match with Yoshino (on the Sunday show of this triple shot) and said he was going to sit at ringside and watch Yoshino's match tonight.

3. Samuray Del Sol vs. Masato Yoshino. This is Del Sol's debut in DGUSA as the "mystery luchador" that was promoted heading into the weekend. Leonard told the story of Del Sol as a former attendee of a DGUSA seminar two years ago. Yoshino's speed is always mind-blowing (I think I say that in every DGUSA review). The match was as smooth, fast, and fluid as you'll find, until one major hiccup. Del Sol had a bad botch as he tried to springboard off the ropes that hurt the momentum of the match and the crowd's spirit. Luckily, they were a nice bunch and chanted for him for avoiding injury.

In the end, Del Sol and Yoshino got back on track and Samuray Del Sol pinned Yoshino by rolling him up as Yoshino went for Sol Naciente. Yoshino was stunned afterwards.

Samuray Del Sol defeated Masato Yoshino.

Johnny Gargano climbed into the ring as wondered if Yoshino was off his game or if Del Sol was just that good. Gargano then gave Yoshino a pep talk going into Saturday night, but Yoshino was not receptive and asked Gargano not to insult him. Gargano said he wouldn't insult him, but he would beat him.

4. The Scene (Caleb Konley and Scott Reed) w/ Larry Dallas and Amber vs. CIMA and Masaaki Mochizuki. The Scene's entrance is still super gross, but it's supposed to be. That makes it effective, right? This match mixed the serious and the comedy quite well. CIMA and Mochizuki got involved with Larry Dallas. The crowd was into the Dragon Gate originals the entire time.

It became a hard-hitting affair after numerous shots to the crotches of both Scene members. Amber (the girl with The Scene) distracted CIMA. The match broke down with all four men entering the ring. CIMA hit Meteora on both members of The Scene and CIMA and Mochizuki pinned them both.

CIMA and Masaaki Mochizuki defeated The Scene.

Mad Blankey attempted to attack, but Ricochet stopped them. Uhaa Nation evened things up and Mad Blankey dominated that exchange.

Ronin was shown backstage. Johnny Gargano said his back was feeling better. Chuck Taylor is going to sleep with a Hispanic girl. They cut an interesting meta-promo. They pretended to be upset. It was quite entertaining. This promo was one of my favorite parts of the DVD.

5. PAC vs. A.R. Fox. This match was surprising to me. PAC seemed to play it safe and go for a more technical style. Fox followed PAC's lead and they put together a pretty good match that was totally different than what the crowd expected. The crowd, while they enjoyed the match, seemed to greet it with polite applause rather than genuine passion until after the pin. This was PAC exploring a different style with a skilled opponent. It's great and worth watching, but it won't be what you are expecting.

They began and ended the match with mutual respect in the form of handshakes. The finish came with PAC kicking out of a 450 Splash from Fox, hitting a German Suplex followed by a Reverse Hurricanrana. He then hit Fox with a sit-out Powerbomb for three.

PAC defeated A.R. Fox.

6. The D.U.F. (Sami Calihan, Arik Cannon, and Pinkie Sanchez) vs. Mad Blankey (Akira Tozawa, BxB Hulk, and Uhaa Nation) vs. Ronin (Johnny Gargano, Chuck Taylor, and Rich Swann) in a Triangle Elimination Match. Eliminations in this match occurred with one member of a team being pinned and the entire team being eliminated.

The match started with utter chaos, as all nine men brawled. Cannon attempted to share his PBR with BxB Hulk. Cannon instead spit it out. As many of the wrestlers took off for the outside, the match boiled down to focus on the ring. There weren't many rules. The referee seemed to only be there to count a pin or signal a submission.

Prior to the first elimination, the match boiled down to a fair amount of outside diving, leading to a big moment where Uhaa Nation (who was amazing throughout the match to this point) dove over the top rope, but miscalculated and injured himself hitting the apron on the way down. He was helped to the back after this.

BxB Hulk pinned Pinkie Sanchez to eliminated The D.U.F. for the first pin in the match. It then became a three-on-two affair of Mad Blankey vs. Ronin. Tozawa ended up pinning Gargano after a Straightjacket German Suplex.

Mad Blankey defeated The D.U.F. and Ronin to win the Triangle Elimination Match.

Post match, Tozawa cut a short promo, then Mad Blankey left. Johnny Gargano looked disappointed in himself as he left, then the show faded away.

Final Thoughts: Overall, this was an entertaining affair, but it was part one of three. It set up the weekend of shows well, but it wasn't the best show on its own. The top of the show consisted of non-competitive matches with a theme (old guard vs. young guns). They were decent matches, but nothing extraordinary. Samuray Del Sol's debut, the semi-main event, and main event delivered. They are worth seeing, even with occasional botched moments.

I'd have to give this show a C. There weren't enough meaningful moments to justify a purchase. It's a fine part one of the three show weekend, but it is also the weakest part.

This disk definitely has my favorite packaging of the DGUSA DVD's I've seen. It also contains two CZW Showcase Death Matches (I have a personal no death match policy, unless claymation is involved). It's definitely packed with action though.

The DVD is available in the store section of DGUSA & EVOLVE's website.

Hey people! Let's talk about this show and DGUSA! Feel free to email me at itswilltime@gmail.com or to follow me and chat me up on twitter at twitter.com/itswilltime.

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