4/6 Dragon Gate USA Open The Ultimate Gate: Johnny Gargano vs. Shingo for the Open The Freedom Gate Title, CIMA and A.R. Fox vs. The Young Bucks for the Open The United Gate Tag Titles, Brian Kendrick vs. Rich Swann

DGUSA "Open The Ultimate Gate" iPPV (replay available at WWNLive.com)
Secaucus, New Jersey at Meadowlands Expo Center
Report by Dot Net contributor Zack Zimmerman Twitter.com/zzimm22.

Another great sized crowd, similar to the Chikara crowd, perhaps slightly larger. I would estimate at or above 3,000 fans in attendance.

Rich Swann opened the show by singing himself to the ring to Lionel Richie's "All Night Long"

1. Rich Swann beat Brian Kendrick. The crowd utterly split between the two, great support for both men. Swann won with the Tornado Spin Kick.

2. Tony Neese won a six man freestyle match over Chuck Taylor, Shane Strickland, Fire Ant, Jigsaw and Arik Cannon. This match was off the charts fun and exciting with everyone having plenty of time to shine and show their stuff. Neese picked up the win with a 450 on Strickland.

3. Scott Reed (w/Larry Dallas) beat a jobber. Post match, Caleb Konley came out. Dallas told him to take the night off, but Konley was there to tell Dallas to STFU and that he and Reed were sick of his crap. Essentially turning babyface. Marty Belle came out and attacked Dallas. Reed attacked Konley, effectively ending their team and cementing Konley as the face. Konley hit a Samoan Driver on Reed and left with Belle.

4. Trent? beat Jon Davis by DQ. Trent slapped the hell out of Davis and Davis snapped with headbutts until the ref called for the bell. The crowd was not happy about the finish. Davis killed the ref with a Lariat and hit 3 Seconds Around the World on Trent.

Davis cut a long, boring promo challenging anyone, but nobody answered. The crowd was just relentless through the whole thing. The promo was long enough for me to grab a slice and a Gatorade and make it back, so no complaints here.

5. Tomahawk TT and EITA defeated The Super Smash Bros. EITA's third trip and Tomahawks first; The Japanese rookies were incredibly impressive. They showed great charisma and looked very comfortable in this atmosphere. Great near-fall off a Doomsday Codebreaker from the rookies. EITA took out Uno with his spectacular moonsault to the outside, allowing Tomahawk to defeat Dos with an inverted powerbomb. "Please come back" chants post match.

6. Ricochet beat Akira Tozawa with the 630 senton. Expectations were high for this one, and it absolutely met them. Fantastic back and forth match, with some dazzling high-risk and brutally stiff offense.

Intermission

7. Uhaa Nation beat Sami Callihan with the standing Shooting Star Press. Not much heat from the crowd for this match, likely due to re-settling after intermission, but both guys worked hard.

8. The Young Bucks beat CIMA and AR Fox to become the United Gate Champions. Stellar match from four of the most exciting wrestlers DGUSA has. The crowd came to life again and was into everything after they reached 2nd gear. Bucks won after More Bang for Your Buck, and the crowd was very pleased with the match/finish.

9. Johnny Gargano pinned Shingo to retain the Open the Freedom Gate Championship. Incredible match, with both men taking some crazy bumps that they will likely regret tomorrow. Both men hit everything in their arsenal, neither able to win clean, but the crowd was more solidly behind Gargano than early on. Following a quick ref bump, Gargano low-blowed Shingo, and used his wrist tape to apply the Garga-No Escape. Shingo couldn't answer the referee, so he called for the bell. The crowd completely turned on Gargano, who had pulled off a very well-excecuted heel turn after an incredibly successful 500+ day reign as the babyface champion. Great storytelling for the finish.

Notes: DGUSA rarely-if-ever disappoints, but this was over the top good. After wondering if anything could match the quality of the six-man freestyle, the tag match did, followed by Tozawa/Ricochet, and the Bucks title victory, and the hot main event with the great heel-turn, the show just kept getting better. Fans could be heard complaining about the finish post-match, but I would argue that it was a fantastic story with a logical build, and simply put, it's very positive progression. This show was stellar.