Dragon Gate USA pay-per-view taping
Philadelphia, Pa. at The Arena
Report by Dot Net reader John Short

First thing, the arena was PACKED!! There was give or take 1,500 people in there, and for the old ECW arena it makes it look like a sold out MSG on camera. Dawn Marie came out, she was probably the most anticlimactic thing about the whole night. She couldn't pronounce the wrestlers names properly so she sounded like a robot. But she still looked pretty good, even though she packed on a few pounds.

1. Yamato beat BxB Hulk. What a match! If they wanted these two guys to set the tempo for the night...They delivered. I think that this should have been main event, or at least semi-main at worst. BxB Hulk got the face pop and YAMATO heeled it up really well. Yamato won with a series of moves ending with a Michinoku driver to win it.

2 Cold Scorpio over Ken Doane. Okay, people are going to say that this was the worst match of the night because there was no high flying and there were no crazy over the top stunts being performed. But Doane did what any conservative heel that wanted to get over at a DG show would have done. CHAIN. The arena HATED HIM! He recieved the memorable chant of the night with a, "We want Ziggler" chant. Doesn't Vince get enough air time? Scorpio went over with the moonsault legdrop.

3. Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, Fire Ant, Soldier Ant defeated Hallowicked, Amasis, Gran Akuma, and Icarus in an eight-man tag. This match was amazing! Maybe I was a big partial to it because I am a Chikara fan in the first place, and I think Quack is a genius. There were so many huracanranas and arm drags, and a lot of high flying. Even on Hallowicked's part, even though he is a 6'4" 250lb guy. Quack, Jigsaw, Fire Ant and Soldier Ant went over via a flying cross body by Jigsaw.

After the match Quack got on the mic and thanked all of the fans for coming out. He said that he doesn't know if the "higher ups" for Dragon Gate know it or not, but he thinks that Chikara and Dragon Gate make a pretty good team. Then he went on to thank everyone and he prompted a vignette to be played of his idol, Jorge Rivera.

After the vinette, Quack got back on the mic and said that at the next Dragon Gate show at the arena, Chikara will challenge ANYONE from Dragon Gate. YAMATO then came out. He got on the microphone and said a few things in his native language that got a huge heel pop. Then he kicked Quack in the balls!!! A few Chikara workers came out to make the save as YAMATO gave us all the finger and left.

Dawn Marie the robot got on the mic and said, "He just said he does not respect Mike Quackenbush, anyone here, or ANYONE in Chikara!!" Apparently she speaks fluent Japanese. I smell Chikara vs. Dragon Gate next time around.

4. Dragon Kid beat Masato Yoshino. This match was pretty good. a lot of enziguries and roundhouse kicks. But not the match I expected. Dragon won with a brainbuster. After the match Scorpio came out and said that he was amazed in the back and he was amazed and what he saw, and he knew that the NEW Dragon Gate fans were amazed. He wanted to see a rematch at the next Dragon Gate Show.

5. The Young Bucks defeated CIMA and Yokosuka. Wow. Definitely semi-main event worthy. The crowd loved the YB from Chikara but were definitely split down the middle because they were doing CIMA and Yokosuka's WHOO and raise the arm up gimmick. Great match. CIMA and Yokosuka controlled most of the match until the YB came back with a house of fire with what ended up having all four guys doing planchas to the outside. The Youg Bucks won with a moonsault Alabama Slammer combo.

6. Naruki Doi beat Shingo in a non-title match. This was a main event worthy match. These two beat the ever living crap out of each other for about 25 minutes. Lots of falsies. They were killing each other. Whatever you can think of they did. Strong lariats were getting thrown everywhere. Drop kicks were connecting so hard that Naruki actually knocked spit out of Shingo's mouth. Naruki won with a rediculous amount of suplexes and slams but ended up winning with a modified Michinoku driver. The finish spot had 6 types of suplexes and slams.

Notes: All in all I give the show an 8 (out of 10). The match of the night was a tie between the BxB Hulk match and the Young Bucks match. The Young Bucks have really come a long way. TNA does not do them justice. Great show all together.

The only thing that kind of pissed me off is that we purchased our ringside tickets for $25. Front row was $30. General admission was $20. At intermission and after the show they were selling tickets for the next DG show at The Arena in August, But the GA tickets were the same price, and the ringside went up to $40! Front row was $70! I hope that they aren't getting too big of heads being so popular and wanting to cash out, because my friends and I were really excited to go, and didn't mind paying and extra $5 for ringside seats. But $40?!? Come on.

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