Dragon Gate USA: Ringing in 2011 with a New PPV and a Huge Northeast Triple Shot

2011 is a huge year for Dragon Gate USA.

The promotion, an American branch of the popular Japanese company Dragon Gate, began in 2009 under the guidance of former Ring of Honor booker Gape Sapolsky.

In 2010, it became a hot-bed for the cream of the crop North American independent wrestling wrestlers, regularly featuring up and comers and major players who have competed in promotions like ROH, CHIKARA and CZW.

Those competitors, combined with wrestlers from the roster of Dragon Gate in Japan, have turned DGUSA into one of the hottest alternatives to the mainstream “sports entertainment” product offered by the WWE and TNA.

The talent level in DGUSA has continued to prosper and grow, especially with names like Austin Aries and Homicide recently joining the mix.

The New Year brings new opportunity for DGUSA as they broaden their reach and attempt to continue building on the momentum gained in 2010.

This Saturday marks the promotion’s return to pay-per-view as they present Freedom Fight, an event taped back in late October in Rahway, NJ. The main event will be a battle between Masato Yoshino, the current Dragon Gate Open the Dream Gate Champion (their top title in Japan), and YAMATO.

These two rivals have had some outstanding matches against each other, including the incredible match last July in Kobe, Japan where Yoshino defeated YAMATO for the Open the Dream Gate title. They are set to have another awesome battle on Saturday’s Freedom Fight PPV.

The show also features a grudge match between two of Dragon Gate’s finest, CIMA and Shingo. They are perhaps two of the most popular stars in Japan and both have been major players in DGUSA. The stage is set for what looks to be an excellent match-up.

Also on Freedom Fight, Homicide teams up with the Open the Freedom Gate Champion, BxB Hulk, in a tag team match against Kamikaze USA’s Jon Moxley and Akira Tozawa. Austin Aries returns to DGUSA in a six-man tag, teaming with Genki Horiguchi and Ricochet to take on the new stable known as Ronin, made up of Johnny Gargano, Chuck Taylor and Rich Swann.

It looks to be a solid show, well worth the $20 price tag that is essentially half the price of a WWE or TNA PPV event.

The final weekend of January brings the debut of DGUSA in New York City; a round robin style tournament will crown the promotions first ever tag team champions. The Open the United Gate Championship will be decided after a Northeast triple shot weekend in NYC, Philadelphia and Union City, New Jersey.

Four teams will compete for a chance to become the first to hold tag team gold in DGUSA. Three of the stables in DGUSA will be represented.

Ronin’s team consists of Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano. The Warriors team features CIMA and the Dragon Kid, and World-1 brings the duo of Masato Yoshino and PAC to the tourney. Naruki Doi and a mystery partner of his choosing round out the field.

It will be interesting to see who Doi picks as his partner and even more interesting to see how these round robin matches play out over the course of the three show weekend.

Each team will compete against the others, with two points awarded for a win, one point awarded for a draw and nothing for the losers. Whoever winds up with the most points after Sunday will become the Open the United Gate champions, which makes each match of the tournament incredibly important.

It is a refreshing change of pace from the usual bracket style used in tournaments and should give the fans some outstanding, action-packed tag team matches.

BxB Hulk, the Open the Freedom Gate Champion, will have an incredibly busy weekend—thanks to Jon Moxley and his Kamikaze USA stable mates.

Over the past several months, they have made life extremely difficult for the champion with constant post-match attacks. Moxley and company have laid out a gauntlet style challenge for BxB Hulk, where he must defend his championship against a different member of the stable at each of the three shows.

YAMATO gets the first crack in Manhattan, Moxley takes his shot in Philly and Akira Tozawa hopes to pick up the scraps in Union City.

If any of the members of Kamikaze USA are able to defeat Hulk for the title, the other matches will still take place so the stakes remain high for the champion. Even if he loses his championship, he must still attempt to run the Kamikaze USA gauntlet and make it out in one piece.

Hulk has been the champion for over a year and has persevered through every difficult challenge placed in front of him. Can he overcome the odds once again, or will Kamikaze USA finally grab the gold?

Austin Aries will once again step into the DGUSA ring. His opposition has yet to be announced, but “the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived” is slated to appear at all three shows. His presence in the promotion gives fans a name they may recognize and the potential for some top notch matches.

Unfortunately, Shingo will not make the first bunch of DGUSA shows in 2011 because of a shoulder injury. The report from the Wrestling Observer states that he will be out of action for several months, which is a blow to the promotion.

Shingo has been one of the top stars in Dragon Gate and its American offshoot, consistently turning in outstanding performances. His absence will be felt in DGUSA, but even without Shingo, the first shows of 2011 look to be shaping up nicely.

If the WWE and TNA have got you down, or you’re simply looking for something different in the world of pro wrestling, now is the time to check out DGUSA. We are not even a week into 2011, and things are already looking exciting for perhaps the hottest independent promotion going today.