Friday, January 18, 2013

Dragon Gate USA Bushido: Code of the Warrior 2011 Review

D.U.F. gets their shot at the Spiked Mohicans!




Dragon Gate USA Bushido: Code of the Warrior 2011
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 11/12/11

Bonus

1.) The Scene vs. BJ Whitmer & Uhaa Nation: **

The Scene have been having so issues with Uhaa Nation as of late. This was a fine pre-show match.

After the match, Brodie Lee came down and laid out BJ Whitmer, but he left after a stare down with Uhaa Nation.

Main Show

1.) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans – AR Fox vs. Masato Yoshino: ***

This was a fine opening match. While AR Fox didn't win, he did look good here against Yoshino.

The Spiked Mohicans come out, and Ricochet reminds Yoshino that he's facing CIMA on tomorrow's show, saying he won't beat CIMA. They attack Yoshino until PAC makes the save. Ricochet says he & CIMA won't fight now because they have a match later, but notes that since PAC is dressed to compete, he can have his match now. Brodie Lee & Akira Tozawa, fellow Blood Warriors members with The Spiked Mohicans & BxB Hulk, come out and we get our next match.

2.) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans – Brodie Lee vs. PAC: ***1/2

I was curious as to how these two would match up, given their size and clash of styles. It actually turned out to be pretty good. Both guys got to showcase their stuff.

PAC catches Tozawa trying to attack him, which brings out Ronin members Rich Swann & Johnny Gargano. Swann challenges Tozawa to a rap battle. Tozawa declines and decides to sing instead...quite impressively actually. His voice gets cut off by a superkick and here we go...

3.) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans – Rich Swann vs. Akira Tozawa: ***

Much like the opening match there wasn't anything spectacular here. A fun match for the time it got.

BxB Hulk comes out and.....you guessed it.....we get a match!

4.) DGUSA Homegrown Roster vs. Dragon Gate Veterans – Johnny Gargano vs. BxB Hulk: ***1/2

Another very good match. Gargano looked really good going into his title opportunity the next night, and BxB Hulk worked pretty hard here to put on a good match. Plus, Gargano's win here was against the first Open The Freedom Gate Champion....ominous sign? It definitely proved to be.

5.) South Philly Street Fight – Sabu vs. Pinkie Sanchez: **1/4

This was ok. A roughly 8 minute match with the usual weapon nonsense you would expect from a Sabu match. Fellow D.U.F. members Sami Callihan & Arik Cannon run out and attack Sabu. This leads to AR Fox coming out, but he is unable to succeed. Jon Davis, who was not allowed to compete on this show due to an injury suffered the night before, came out and quickly disposed of D.U.F.

6.) Open The Freedom Gate Title – YAMATO vs. Chuck Taylor: ***1/4

While the story telling here with the false finish and the restarted match were the really important moments of this match, as it build up Gargano's Title shot the next night and increased the tension between Gargano & Taylor. Other than that, the match itself was actually good, but nothing great. Rather slow at parts.

7.) Open The United Gate Titles – CIMA & Ricochet vs. D.U.F. (Sami Callihan & Arik Cannon): ***3/4

This got off to a bad start as their was a lot stalling and dueling pre-match promos. However, as the match got going, it really picked up, especially at the end. I was wondering how this would play out considering their were two heel teams involved. It turned out to be good.

Overall: 7.5/10

On paper this looked like a really good card, but it didn't up delivering on the high level I was expecting. That does not mean we didn't get good stuff here. Lee/PAC, Gargano/Hulk & The Main Event were all very good and the rest of the matches were decently solid. It was a good show, but not a great show.

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