Independent News and Notes: Results and Analysis Of DGUSA, ROH and PWG

The majority of the wrestling world is discussing the results of last night’s WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view event, but this weekend also brought us incredible action from some of the top independent promotions including Dragon Gate USA, Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.

Dragon Gate USA had their first ever triple shot weekend, including two shows broadcast live on Internet PPV via gofightlive.tv. The “United” weekend featured the crowning of new champions and showcased the high level of excitement that DGUSA has become known for.

Here are the quick results from the New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey shows, courtesy of the fine folks at PWTorch and PWInsider.com.

United: NYC
- Akira Tozawa defeated Sami Callihan.
- Jon Moxley defeated Jigsaw.
- YAMATO defeated BxB Hulk to become the new Open the Freedom Gate Champion.
- Brodie Lee defeated Jimmy Jacobs.
- Ronin (Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano) defeated Blood Warriors (Naruki Doi and Ricochet).
- Austin Aries defeated Rich Swann.
- World-1 (Masato Yoshino and PAC) defeated Blood Warriors (CIMA and Dragon Kid).

United: Philadelphia
- Open the Freedom Gate Champion YAMATO defeated Brodie Lee in a non-title match.
- Rich Swann defeated Jimmy Jacobs.
- Sami Callihan wins a 6-way match also featuring Jigsaw, Frightmare, Scott Reed, AR Fox and Rexx Reed.
- Akira Tozawa defeated Austin Aries.
- BxB Hulk defeated Jon Moxley in a No DQ match.
- Ronin (Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano) defeated Blood Warriors (CIMA and Dragon Kid).
- World-1 (Masato Yoshino and PAC) defeated Blood Warriors (Naruki Doi and Ricochet).

United: Finale (Union City, NJ)
- Brodie Lee defeated Rich Swann.
- AR Fox defeated Cheech.
- Akira Tozawa defeated BxB Hulk.
- Jon Moxley defeated Homicide in a No DQ match.
- Rexx Reed defeated Pinkie Sanchez.
- Blood Warriors (CIMA, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi and Ricochet) defeated Jimmy Jacobs, Austin Aries, Sami Callihan and Open the Freedom Gate Champion YAMATO in an eight-man tag match.
- World-1 (Masato Yoshino and PAC) defeated Ronin (Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano) to win the round robin tournament to become the first Open the United Gate Champions.

It should be noted that Moxley only defeated Homicide in their match because Homicide put a brutalized Moxley on top of him and let him get the win, only to continue assaulting him once the match ended. The feud between these two looks to continue based on the results, especially given that at one point Homicide was looking to cut Mox’s tongue out with scissors before Tozawa came in to save his Kamikaze USA partner.

Some of the results were quite surprising. Jacobs going 0-3, after being hyped up as a potential contender for the Open the Freedom Gate title, was an interesting twist.

BxB Hulk losing the belt on the first night of the triple shot was also a shock. YAMATO is one of the top wrestlers in DGUSA and it will be interesting to see what happens next with him and the championship.

Akira Tozawa had a career-defining weekend in DGUSA, picking up three huge wins. All of his matches were reported to be great, especially his huge win over BxB Hulk on Sunday.

Masato Yoshino and PAC became the promotion’s first ever tag team champions by winning all three of their matches over the weekend. The World-1 duo should make great champions and will very likely produce some thrilling title defenses.

The Ronin stable making the finals of the tournament also proves their legitimacy and chances are they will continue to stay in the hunt for the Open the United Gate titles.

While DGUSA was tearing up the East Coast, Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla were taking part in the WrestleReunion festivities in Los Angeles.

Here are the quick ROH results from Friday night’s show:

- The Bravado Brothers defeated Caleb Konley and Cedric Alexander.
- Jay Briscoe defeated Colt Cabana.
- The All-Night Express defeated The Cutler Brothers.
- Davey Richards defeated TJ Perkins.
- ROH World Television Champion Christopher Daniels defeated Mark Briscoe.
- Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas defeated the ROH World Tag Team Champions, the Kings of Wrestling, in a non-title match.
- ROH World Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong defeated El Generico.

The reports from the ROH Forum and PWInsider.com make this sound like a good show, well worth checking out. Richards and TJP apparently put on an awesome match, said to be one of the best of the entire weekend in LA.

The biggest news of out the event is the huge win by the World’s Greatest Tag Team. Now that they have avenged their loss to the Kings at Glory By Honor IX, it seems as if a championship match is inevitable. Will Benjamin and Haas be the ones who finally dethrone the Kings?

ROH continues to build momentum as they head towards their next PPV, the ninth Anniversary Show.

PWG presented their big WrestleReunion show, Kurt RussellReunion II, on Saturday night. Here are the quick results from the show:

- Cedrick Alexander, Brandon Gatson, Willie Mack and Candice LaRae defeated Jake Manning, Peter Avalon, Caleb Konley and ODB in an eight-person tag match.
- Mr. Aguila defeated Rey Bucanero.
- Joey Ryan defeated Shane Helms.
- Low Ki defeated Davey Richards.
- Jake Roberts defeated Sinn Bodhi in Roberts’ retirement match.
- “Rowdy” Roddy Piper won the Legends Battle Royal.
- Chris Hero defeated Kevin Steen
- The RockNES Monsters (Johnny Goodtime and Johnny Yuma) defeated The Young Bucks, the Cutler Brothers and The Fightin’ Taylor Boys in a 4-way tag match to become the first team to qualify for the 2011 DDT4 tournament
- PWG World Heavyweight Champion Claudio Castagnoli defeated El Generico.

Much like the ROH show the previous night, the reports from PWInsider and the PWG Forum indicate that this was a top notch show.

The Legends Battle Royal came down to Roddy Piper and Terry Funk, marking the first time these two have ever done battle inside the squared circle. A very interesting note, especially given where it happened. PWG can lay claim to that little piece of history involving two of the biggest names in the history of the business.

PWG was also the place where Jake “the Snake” Roberts wrestled his final match, he picked up the win over Sinn Bodhi, who was briefly employed the WWE as Kizarny. Roberts’ legendary and controversial career has now come to an end; will he finally be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame now?

The first month of 2011 comes to a close with a huge weekend of pro wrestling action; there was something for everyone this weekend.

If you’re in the camp of fans that were unhappy with the WWE Royal Rumble, perhaps checking out one of the other promotions that were in action this weekend is in order.

Check out their respective web sites for more information and keep an eye out for the next edition of news and notes from the independent scene.