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Official Indy DVD Thread

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#1 ·
#540 ·
That's the saving grace of DGUSA. The main events are starting to feel the same, but at least they're consistently good.



Dragon Gate - Open The German Gate 2010


Dragon Kid vs. Tommy End - **1/4

Emil Sitoci vs. Masato Yoshino - **3/4

Bad Bones vs. Brodie Lee - **1/2

BxB Hulk vs. Pac - ***1/2

CIMA vs. Mark Haskins - ***3/4

Big Van Walter & Susumu Yokosuka vs. Cyber Kong & Shingo - ***

wXw Unified World Title
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Masaaki Mochizuki - ***1/4

Naruki Doi vs. YAMATO - ***3/4
 
#541 ·
ROH Eye of the Storm II


Adam Pearce and Matt Classic vs. The Set

So the set has one big guy and one really little one. It seems that most of there offense involves the big guy finding creative ways to throw the little guy at their opponents. There was also one spot where they tricked Pearce and the big guy ended up launching himself as Pearce. Other than those few moments the little guy got his ass kicked the whole time until he made the sort of hot tag. They weren't terrible but they also didn't impress me very much at all.

Matt Classic was pretty funny during this match. Near the end Pearce hit him by mistake and sent him outside the ring. Classic's response was him screaming, "Pearce, You Suck!" His other random insults at everyone else were funny as well. A very basic and short match that was good for some fun. Pretty basic for the most part though.
**


Sonjay Dutt vs. Grizzly Redwood

I was ready to take a gun and start shooting into the crowd when they were dead for the first 3 minutes and than starting marking out when Sonjay did some snapmares and started chanting for snapmares. Nothing wrong for marking out for a random move but the chants were just stupid. I did like that Dutt went for a snapmore and held up at the last minute to mess with the fans. Dutt might not be the best worker out there but he is a good heel. He knows how to work the fans and get heat.

That being said the match really wasn't all that good. There was one really ugly botch and a few other moves that really didn't look that good. The whole story of the match was that Sonjay was just a cocky bastard that took Grizzly lightly.
*3/4



Rhett Titus vs. Kenny Omega

Pretty funny to see Omega acting a lot like Titus. Some of the more obnoxious things that you would expect to see from Titus were done by Omega early on in the match. The crowd seemed to like it (it wasn't much of a pop but they didn't seem to care about anything other than Snapmares). In fact I liked the whole dynamic of the match were Titus was taking things a lot more seriously since he was in the ring with a really good opponent. Omega on the other hand was the one that was taking the match lightly; Going out of his way to taunt and humiliate Titus throughout the match.

Omega had some really good selling of the head and neck that stemmed from a dropkick that Titus hit when he pulled the ref in front of him to stop a charging Omega. Titus did a great job of taking short cuts whenever he had the chance and he really wrestled this like something important was on the line. I mean it was a pick six match and everything but this was a big match for Titus. Much more competitive than I was expecting
***



Kevin Steen and El Generico vs. Bison Smith and Erick Stevens w/Prince Nana and Ernesto Osiris

The match itself wasn't all that amazing but I feel like it did a really good job of setting things up for Final Battle (it was the next night). Everyone thought Steen was going to announce he was leaving for a while, or maybe even retire after his match at Final Battle. Whether you think wrestling is real or you're a smark you would think that Steen's knee was injured. After all his moves he would hold the knee and sell it like there was something seriously wrong with it. The less obvious fact was that Steen didn't really get involved for any extended period of time.

A lot of this match was Generico essentially fighting the Embassy on his own and only letting Steen get involved when it was absolutely necessary. You also see some signs of aggression after the match from after Generico took the fall. At the time you would think it would be all frustration at him not being able to wrestle very well because of his injury. Looking back now though, you might think he was just pissed with Generico for losing the match. I might be reading a little to into it but there some subtle hints that Steen was just getting really fed up with Generico. I'm glad I watched it as this was the weekend where feud between Steen and Generico would get started.
**1/2


Chris Hero w/Shane Hagadorn vs. Colt Cabana


Colt Cabana really is the perfect guy to have on the mid card. He has the ability to be really entertaining when he does the most basic stuff. He makes me laugh a lot and at the same time his technical stuff is always very well done. This match wasn't anything incredible but they kept an easy to watch pace and kept a good back and forth pace. For the spot they working on it was really all you expected.

I was really happy to see that Cabana made the elbows from Hero really mean something. The first one almost ended the match and when Hero used the loaded elbow pad it was the end of the match. Good stuff but nothing great. They could certainly do better if they really wanted to.
***


Kenny King and Austin Aries vs. The Young Bucks

I loved the promo right before. Aries and King displayed some horrendous 80s ring gear. Aries was unhappy to say that their tassels hadn't arrived yet but they would get them in time for the shows that actually matter. He also pointed out that he wanted to get the match over with quickly so they didn't get snowed in....

It was nice to see the Bucks wrestle with some real heels too. They really are pretty ridiculous looking and while I like them as a team it was a blast to see Aries and King make fun of them and mess with them constantly during the match. It was actually a little like watching the PWG Young Bucks wrestle the babyface Young Bucks. I mean Aries and King were doing synchronized somersaults to set up a stomp. The beginning of the match had it's fun moments and the stuff in the ring was pretty good as well. My biggest problem that just when the match as really starting to pick up it ended. Still a good match, a few more minutes and we might have had something really awesome.
***



Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Black

So this match really pointed out everything that is wrong with Tyler Black. In a big match in front of a hot crowd he can get away with a lot more. In this case the match was kind of meaningless and the crowd was pretty much dead. Strong focused so much of his offense on the back and Tyler just didn't sell it. You say I know wrestling isn't real but looking at some of the moves that he took I thought his back might actually be hurting, but he just didn't sell it. He didn't need to go crazy or anything with the selling but maybe acting like his back was in some pain, or going that extra mile and you know grimacing in pain and grabbing his back....

The action and the work rate was incredible and they went out there and told a pretty compelling story. Black put on a great effort and Strong came out there with a game plan, stuck to it, and it worked for him. The match was still really good and I enjoyed it but I kind of wanted to go up to Tyler after the match kick him in the back really hard so he could actually act like his back was in pain.
***1/4


The American Wolves and Alex Koslov vs. The Briscoes and Rocky Romero


Well after seeing the first few minutes I wish they had just sent Edwards, Koslov, and the Briscoes home and let Davey and Romero wrestle a singles match. their encounter to start the match was awesome. It was pretty funny to see Romero and the Briscoes all hit the a fall away slam at the same time and watch the crowd flip out. It was even better when Davey flipped out, took his tag title belt, put on Koslov's furry Russian hat, and left. After that they pretty much ended the comedy portion of the match and had a good back forth match where they kept a great pace. I would almost say that they were too fast. I feel like I almost needed a breather in the middle of it.

The Briscoes and Wolves ended up brawling out of the ringside area leaving Koslov and Romero in the ring alone. They were really good in the ring together for a few minutes, we saw one of the best looking super kicks that I've ever seen. The ending was a little lackluster but I think it was one of the guy's finishers so I guess it made sense. This was really good and this was one of the matches that would be great to see live. MOTN
***1/2

Not the best show but it was less than 2 1/2 hours and had some quality matches. It's missing that one great match but everything was solid for the most part. It was a lot better than Buffalo Stampede II for what it's worth. And it came for free with Final Battle so even it sucked I really couldn't complain that much.
 
#543 ·
Well, it's good to see that after so many months they actually improve the DVD Covers. The front is great but the back is messed up because of the blending they do with the action photos.
 
#550 ·
ROH Final Battle 2009: A Hostile Encounter


Alex Payne vs. Andy Ridge

Nice little match actually. It was only 3 minutes long but I was entertained. I enjoyed it more than Strong/King from the later on in the show... I can't rate it very high but I was happy with how it turned out.
*1/2


Claudio Castagnoli vs. Kenny Omega vs. Colt Cabana vs. Rhett Titus

For a good portion of the match you had the heels and the faces working together. Omega and Colt are just a hilarious combination, I can only imagine how great things could be from a technical and comical standpoint if they ever had a singles match. The match wasn't anything amazing but it was a lot of fun. Everyone got there spots in and they kept me entertained the whole time. It made me laugh at times and had me thinking it was awesome at other times. Good opener.
**3/4


Erick Stevens and Bison Smith w/Prince Nana vs. Delirious and Bobby Dempsey

So Necro Butcher was snowed in wherever it is that he lives leaving Delerious without a partner going into the match. He didn't really feel like he needed one as he just came out and attacked the Embassy on his own. He got his ass kicked, badly for a couple minutes before Pelle Primeau (sp?) came out to aid him. He got his ass kicked as well. All hope appeared to be lost for the good guys, they didn't have a chance. That is until we got... Bobby Dempsey. Thankfully they were in New York and he got a great reaction and had the fans chanting his name when he hit the ring.

I actually think Bobby Dempsey prevented this from being a bad match. I mean it wasn't particularly good by any means but he did add an interesting dynamic to the match and he was over. Pretty much what you expect from the Embassy today.
**


Fight Without Honor
Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Hero

This is what a hardcore match is supposed to be. Everyone knew that these guys just hated each other going into the match and the match that they went out and had told a great story. I know I went into the match rooting for Hero because he's the man but by the end of things I was cheering for Kingston. This also had one of the most brutal spots that I've seen. I remember watching it live and thinking it was one of those spots that the wrestlers only tease because you can't possibly do the actual spot in a match. Well they did it in this match.

A great performance from Kingston, he took a ton of punishment and he just kept fighting. Hero was in full heel mode and came across as really unlikeable. They got the hatred across which I think is always the most important thing to do in a hardcore match. Pretty awesome stuff and I thought the ending was a really fitting way to end the feud in ROH between these two. That being said I'm sure they will find their way into a ring together again.
****


Kevin Steen and El Generico vs. The Young Bucks

I know everyone talks about how great the Steen/Generico feud was and how great Steen was as a heel but after seeing the Eye of Storm II and now this mach I'm really becoming a fan of the build to it. Steen really had me fooled that he was injured, he was literally selling the knee after every move that he hit, and the Bucks never targetted the knee. They were a lot of high impact moves that they hit over the course of the match and they kept it at a good pace. It never got to the crazy overkill mode which was probably for the best.

I loved the story that they told with Steen. He was seriously injured and just wasn't able to put the effort forth that he wanted to. He tried to but he just kept falling short. The way he went out was also very similar to a way that someone would take a pin of they were retiring. In a last ditch effort he kicked out of More Bang for Your Buck and then got his head kicked off about 6 times by the Bucks. Great match.
****


Post-Match

Wow, this might be my favorite, non comedy promo, ever. Steen sold the knee while walking around and delivered an amazing retirement speech. Would you think less of me if I said I almost had tears in my eyes when he started to cry? There was the initial pop when he turned on Generico but after that it was this shocked near silence in the crowd. They had no idea what to do. I remember just standing there thinking, "What just happened?" with my mouth hanging open. Amazing segment and would go on to start one of ROH's best feuds ever.


Kenny King vs. Roderick Strong

This match is exactly how I remember it. It sucked. These guys really needed to go back to wrestling school and learn how to work a match after seeing this. I can't make a summary about what this match was about as after seeing it twice all I have been able to figure out is that they both did a lot of moves and than it ended. I was hoping that seeing this on DVD would give me a different perspective on it but it hasn't changed. I can't describe why I hate this so much really. They just sort of went out there and wrestled a the same pace the whole time and it just wasn't interesting. It might be something that I can't exactly put my finger on but I do know that was terrible, worst match I've seen from either guy.
*1/2



Rocky Romero vs. Alex Koslov

I wouldn't have wanted to be either guy for this match, everyone was pissed that Teddy Hart and Jack Evans weren't in this match, and Rocky told everyone they weren't going to make it because of the storm. This ended up being pretty awesome though. Koslov was really over to the point where it was comical at how much everyone liked to chant "Russia!" for him. The technical stuff was very good and once they started going for the high impact moves it was still pretty awesome. I got the impression that they could have an amazing technical match if they were in front of a crowd that would be more appreciative of it. Awkward ending as the bell rang too early. Still a very fun short match that made me want to see more of these guys in ROH.
***1/4



ROH Tag Team Championship Match
The Brisoces vs. The American Wolves(c)

Good job getting the intensity and dislike of each other across. It was the little things like each team taking cheap shots on their opponent that was standing on the apron. Other than that anger there really wasb't anything more to the match. The pace was good and the spots were better but when things broke down they just kept things going for far too long. I mean there was a period of like 10 minutes were they just didn't make any tags. The match was fun to watch live but not as much on DVD. It was still a good match but it was far from great and I was expecting better from these two teams.
***


Christmas Miracle Match:

Teddy Hart vs. Jack Evans

I seriously have no idea how these two made it to New York in the middle of a blizzard...

I'm sure a lot of people hated that this happened but I have to say that it was one of my favorite moments of the night when these two showed up in the ring. They gave the fans what they wanted to see, which was Jack Evans and Teddy Hart going crazy and doing insane things in the ring. I'm not going to rate it (since as a match it wasn't all that great but it was amazing to see none the less) but it has a lot of awesome bumping from Evans and some really cool looking offense out of Teddy Hart.



ROH Championship Match

Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries(c)

I really do appreciate what they were trying to do with this. I still wish they hadn't gone to an hour draw but from a storyline and booking perspective it was a good idea. Just NYC after an already 3+ hour show during a big snow storm was a bad idea. Aries came in as the champion and he was determined that they were going to wrestle his kind of match. He took his time with everything and played his heel role really well. Black did what he had to do and had that ticking time bomb down really well, he wanted to get his chance to just go crazy on Aries but for the most part Aries prevented it from happening.

While the story they told was awesome and the last 5 minutes as well as the beginning of the match it really drags at points. They needed more of a story behind the match other than MOVESZ and SPOTZ to keep me interested. It was still a very good match but some flaws really hurt it. I am also embarrassed to say that I was part of this crowd. The match had problems but the crowd shouldn't taken such a big shit on it.
***1/2



This is a really long show. It was good but no need for it to take so long. Along with Eye of the Storm II you really get your money's worth out of the DVD but Final Battle is a tough show to sit through in one sitting. There were a good amount of quality matches on the show but some of the matches that were good look like they should be great on paper.
 
#558 ·
I now have my copy. I don't know if I'm ever going to get around to watching it. A few matches look good but it's pretty close to the bottom of the list.

And to anyone that preordered Untouchable 2010 and Way of the Ronin they had them at the DGUSA show last night. So they're done and I would imagine they will be shipping really soon.
 
#562 ·
Evolve 5: Danielson vs. Sawa


Chuck Taylor (3-0) vs. Mike Quackenbush (0-0)

My opinion that Chucky T is God’s gift to wrestling and Kentucky still stands after seeing this. Actually this made my opinion of Taylor even stronger since this was so unlike a lot of the other matches of his that I’ve seen. For the most part he’s been in these crazy spotty matches. This had some amazing technical wrestling; Quack is always a blast to watch when he’s in the ring with another good worker. They took things off the mat for a little near the end and that was just as good. Fast pace and easy to watch. It really shows off the style that Evolve is trying to work (or at least was as I’m not sure there is going to be another Evolve show…)
***1/4



Aeroform (1-3) vs. Up in Smoke (2-0)

Good to see Cheech and Cloudy are in heel mode. Unfortunately I really dislike Aeroform and agreed with Up in Smoke about being disgusted with a lot of tag teams in Evolve. This match was pretty fun with Cheech and Cloudy finding a good medium between being heels and high fliers. Aeroform flew around like they always do. Good stuff and I like where they are taking things with Cheech and Cloudy.
**1/2



Adam Cole (1-1) vs. Jimmy Jacobs (3-1)

It’s amazing how much more I like Jimmy Jacobs when there is a feud or storyline involved. They might have based this whole match off a single promo but it was enough for Jacobs to turn it into a compelling match. Basically he thought Cole was a joke and nowhere near on his level. From the start it just seemed like he was toying with Cole in the ring. Adam Cole did a good job of not letting all the antics get to him and he was able to hang with Jacobs during the match. It’s amazing how Jacobs goes from average at best when he’s just booked in a random match to awesome when there is a feud involved. I wish we could see a rematch as this was awesome.
***1/2



Drake Younger (2-0) vs. Sami Callihan (2-0)

Exactly what I was expecting. They were really stiff, took some crazy bumps, and there was blood. I still liked it as it was a good change of pace for the show. Actually there had been 4 matches to this point and all 4 had been very unique. I feel bad for Younger sometimes, he really isn’t a bad wrestler but he gets so much heat because he is a CZW guy. Anyways very entertaining and a good watch.
**3/4


Don’t Call it a Scramble:
Brad Allen (2-1) vs. Johnny Gargano (2-2) vs. Gran Akuma (1-1) vs. Jon Moxley (0-1) vs. Frightmare (0-0) vs. Rich Swan (0-1)

Moxley is awesome. He started the match with Allen and at one point Allen went for a moonsault, botched it, and pretty much landed on his head. Instead of doing something stupid Moxley stood there and raised his hand in the air and celebrated like he did something impressive. It may have been a bad botch but I think it ended up being better than if Allen had actually hit the move, every time he would go to the top after that the fans would just start yelling at him not to do that. It was pretty funny actually and Allen pretty much had to go heel to counteract it.

Other than that this match was all spots. It was a lot of fun but it was still just spots. Gargano was clearly the star of the match (and not only because he ended up winning). He was the most over by far and he got plenty of offense in. Good match, and they had a Homicide/Gargano segment after so it couldn’t get much better.
***



WSU World Champion Match
Mercedes Martinez(c.) (4-0) vs. Amazing Kong (0-0)

Why didn’t this have an ending? I would love to the know the reasoning behind that. The action in the ring was pretty good. Nice to see Martinez not dominate the whole match and Kong is always a good monster heel. I was really getting into the match when they abruptly ended it. This was one of the main draws to this show and it sucks that it was such a let down. Too bad we might not be able to see a rematch for a very long time.
**



Kyle O’Reilly (2-1) vs. Ricochet (1-2)

Very interesting clash of styles. These two are literally exact opposites of how they wrestle but they seemed to pull this off well pretty well. It was really cool to see Ricochet start some crazy flippy move only to have O’Reilly reverse it into some crazy submission. O’Reilly eventually tried working the leg of Ricochet and managed to keep the match to his style for a good amount of time. Ricochet managed to fight back but there was always some really painful looking move to stop his momentum, including a lariot that would make that Japanese announcer that scream, “LARIOTO!” proud.

This was a really good effort from both guys. I’ve always thought of Ricochet as spot monkey or a great tag team wrestler. This is the best singles effort that I think I’ve ever seen from him. I think O’Reilly has a great future ahead of him. He impresses me every time I see him wrestle.
***1/2



Bryan Danielson (1-0) vs. Munenori Sawa (1-0)

If I remember correctly people were worried that Danielson would be able to do a lot of things because he was under WWE contract. And they were kind of right, he didn’t take any crazy bumps, I don’t recall any shots to the head that he took, and there were less stiff shots from Sawa than I expected. But it’s Bryan Fucking Danielson he had an awesome match anyway. I’m so happy that we got to see a little bit of Danielson back on the indies. The technical things that they were able to do were amazing. I was taken back by how quick and crisp some of the moves they were doing were. It’s not Evolve’s best match but it’s right up there.
****1/4


This might be the easiest to watch ever. At the 2 hour mark the main event was almost over. I've already watched almost a full ROH show today and I say down and watched this in one sitting with ease. I really hope that they can get the next Evolve show on DVD soon and eventually tun another show.
 
#567 ·
DBD8 is anamorphic widescreen as well, but the quality isn't that great.
 
#572 ·
Generico took off the black mask and put on his old one. Perfect time as once he got the new one on he stood right up in sync with his theme song and everyone screamed "ole" as he celebrated. Steen also got a standing ovation with lots of thank yous and all that stuff. He just flipped everyone off and left.
 
#575 ·
Dragon Gate USA - United: NYC


Akira Tozawa vs. Sami Callihan - **

Jigsaw vs. Jon Moxley - **

Open The Freedom Gate Title
BxB Hulk vs. YAMATO - ***1/4

Brodie Lee vs. Jimmy Jacobs - **

Open The United Gate Title Tournament
Ronin (Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano) vs. Blood Warriors (Naruki Doi & Ricochet) - ***3/4

Austin Aries vs. Rich Swann - **3/4

Open The United Gate Title Tournament

World-1 (Masato Yoshino & PAC) vs. Blood Warriors (CIMA & Dragon Kid) - ***3/4



Dragon Gate USA - United: Philly

YAMATO vs. Brodie Lee - **

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Rich Swann - **3/4

Six Way Freestyle
Jigsaw vs. Frightmare vs. Sami Callihan vs. Cheech Hernandez vs. AR Fox vs. Rexx Reed - **3/4

Austin Aries vs. Akira Tozawa - ***1/4 - ***1/2

No Disqualification
BxB Hulk vs. Jon Moxley - *

Open The United Gate Title Tournament
Ronin vs. Blood Warriors (CIMA & Dragon Kid) - ***3/4

Open The United Gate Title Tournament
World-1 vs. Blood Warriors (Naruki Doi & Ricochet) - ****1/4


The Philly show overall was better then the New York City card, better flow overall despite technical issues on the promos. Taylor & Gargano showed they belong in DGUSA with two very solid showings and Tozawa is quickly improving. And let's pray Hulk and Moxley never meet in the same ring ever again.

 
#576 ·
I just finished that United: NYC show and I didn't care for it at all. It wasn't actively bad or anything (except for the title switch, which was botched on just about every conceivable level), but I had forgotten about it immediately after it was over and that never happens to me with wrestling shows.

I don't know, I'm just really growing tired of the style that's influenced more by gymnastics and choreographed dancing than by real fighting.
 
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