DGUSA Fearless 2012
Everett, Mass. at Everett Rec Center
Report by Dot Net Member Zim

Rough crowd estimate at 250. Very disappointing. Of the 250 in attendance, the five of us were the only hot fans all night. If you watch(ed) this show and heard fans yelling and cheering, you were hearing us and only us, as the remaining 245 simply refused to start chants or give any heat to any match other than one. It was the worst crowd I’ve been a part of.

1. DGUSA Champion Johnny Gargano defeated EITA (ay-ta) via submission to the Garga-No Escape. EITA is the top up and comer in the Dragon Gate system and certainly didn’t disappoint one bit. Most notably, young EITA utilizes a brutal modified Cop Killa and also possesses one of the prettiest moonsaults I’ve ever seen. Great moveset on a great young athelete. Gargano was solid in the ring as always, but even he didn’t get a very strong reaction from the crowd which proved to be dead all night, which was surprising.  A fantastic back and forth match.

Post-match, Jon Davis came to the ring and hit 5 spinebusters on Gargano before the refs came to stop it. Davis then hit a 6th spinebuster. They played up an injury angle on the storied injured back of the Champ when Gabe Sapolsky came out to help Johnny get back through the curtain.

2. The Scene (w/Larry Dallas and Trina) defeated Arik Cannon and Pinkie Sanchez when Reed hit Pinkie with a CrossRhodes. Pretty good tag team action. Pinkie Sanchez is brilliant as the "super sexual spider-monkey" character and with Arik Cannon as his bully tag partner, their chemistry is great. The Scene, well they’re simply obnoxious.

3. Sami Callihan defeated Samuray Del Sol with El Generico’s buckle brainbuster. Very solid match, but slightly awkward meeting of styles as the beat-down style of Callihan didn’t always mesh up with the acrobatic Del Sol. It is rare that wrestlers perform a move never before seen, but a top highlight in this match saw Del Sol hit a flip-DDT on Sami; Imagine the Canadian Destroyer from a DDT position. Sami yelled "OLE!" before hitting the brainbuster, which continues their rivalry and I assume will set up one of Generico’s final DGUSA matches before he goes back to ROH for his imminent feud with Kevin Steen.

4. Rich Swann (C), CIMA, and ACH def. The Gentleman’s Club of Chuck Taylor (C), Drew Goulak, and Orange Cassidy (w/Swamp Monster). A six-man ‘Captains Match" in which the finish could only occur with one captain pinning the other. Swann pinned Chucky T after CIMA landed Meteora (Top-Rope double knee drop to a sitting opponent). Orange Cassidy was hugely entertaining, wrestling drunk. In my personal favorite spot of the night, The Gentleman’s Club had CIMA cornered, Taylor ran across the ring and hit a clothesline, Goulak followed hit an elbow, followed by Cassidy who passed out while he was running across the ring and fell face first into CIMA. Laugh-out-loud comedy from the Gentleman’s Club, as usual.

INTERMISSION. I spoke with Arda Ocal about his Aftermath podcast. There’s an issue between two divisions at The Score and being a TV employee, he can’t just record the podcast, but he’s searching all available avenues to get it going again, with Mr. Korderas of course.

5.  Jon Davis defeated Akira Tozawa after a pair of lariats. Match of the night. Tozawa was the only wrestler tonight with any reaction from the other 245 in attendance, taking the Pop of the Night honors for sure. Davis has really hit his stride as this badass on a mission. Pre-match, Davis slowly made his way around the ring, stopping to stare down some fans. When he made his way to me, it was on. To his credit, He didn’t blink for the entire 45 seconds; to my credit, I spend all 45 of those seconds telling him about how Tozawa was going to knock his teeth down his throat. The fan behind me said "I bet you won’t get in his face and say that." So I did. I got a pop for that, cool moment. Overall, hardest hitting match of the night, with the only complaint being it ended too abruptly and everyone was caught off guard. Tozawa is the most over man in DGUSA at the time being.

6. The Jimmys (Ryo Saito and Genki Horiguchi) defeated The Super Smash Bros (Player Uno and Player Dos) when Horiguchi hit Dos with a straightjacket piledriver. Very good tag team match, as is expected on a DGUSA card. Though I’m not entirely clear on the gimmick of the Japanese wrestlers working Jimmy into their names and forming a stable for it, they were a very impressive team. Not quite as many awesome double-team spots from The SSB as I expected though.

7. AR Fox (w/CIMA defeated Ricochet after Lo Mein Pain (Arabian moonsault side-slam). The match started out super hot, with Fox sending Ricochet to ringside and hitting a Tope dive, followed by his Kickflip (running moonsault to the outside, springing off second turnbuckle), followed by a springboard 450 to the outside. When he went for a second 450, Ricochet moved and Fox "injured" his leg, which was the story for the match. Ricochet did a great job of innovating offense to work the leg. Ricochet has grown so immensely in every aspect: his in ring skills are near-flawless, his facial expressions are brilliant, and he finally slowed down just a little bit this match and began to display some cocky heel tendencies which I think could be really successful for him.

Notes: Overall, a really fun, action-packed in-ring show which suffered significantly from the lack of almost any heat from the crowd. Every single slow clap, every single chant, every single yell, came from one of us 5 in the front row, hard camera side. None of the matches exceeded 4 stars, but its entirely understandable given one, the crowd, and two, the fact that there are still two shows left in this DGUSA weekend. On that note, I’ll likely be attending the Sunday show from Deer Park, NY. Please check back for my live report and notes from that show as well.

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