I'm a Wrestling fan BUT..?

[ShaunGBD]

I'm a wrestling fan.I used to go to ROH shows in Chicago, but after I fell out with WWE and ROH went to a TV show it was show to keep up. So I have a few question.

 

But what is Dragon Gate USA and Chikara? I know they are Indy shows and Dragon Gate USA has shows on PPV.

 

1)Who are the stars in Dragon Gate USA and Chikara?

 

2) Who are the champ in DG and Chik?

 

3) Are they more like ROH in a TON of wrestling in their shows?

 

4) What is this "New Ring of Honor?"

 

5) When will we see the "New Ring Of Honor" (Meaning they pick a date)?

 

6)What is Chris Hero doing now and days?

 

Thanks

[Self]

Both CHIKARA and Dragon Gate USA (I assume the US version would be more of interest to you to begin with) have plenty of wrestling. Of the two, DGUSA is the more modern, action packed cruiserweighty style that I personally adore. Everyone trying to steal the show. CHIKARA is more focused on wacky, colourful characters, with the wrestling style toned down a little and more comedy.

 

I'd advise you to go to their websites to see the rosters. Bit tough to explain all their stars.

 

DGUSA have an iPPV on tonight, that you could watch on your computer for just $15 on wwnlive.com. It's great quality, and the shows should be awesome. They'll be up for on-demand replay pretty quick too, which is good for folks like me who like to watch on their own time.

 

Hero is mostly working RoH and NOAH in Japan.

[Self]

Tonight's DGUSA iPPV line-up.

 

Open The United Gate Title Match - PAC & Masato Yoshino defend vs. YAMATO & Akira Tozawa

Blood Warriors vs. Ronin Grudge Match #1 - Austin Aries vs. Johnny Gargano

Blood Warriors vs. Ronin Grudge Match #2 - CIMA vs. Rich Swann

Special Challenge Match- Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Sami Callihan

Special Attraction Match- Ricochet vs. Susumu Yokosuka

6-way - AR Fox vs. Arik Cannon vs. Scott Reed vs. Tony Nese vs Brodie Lee vs ????

 

Should be a really fun show. That main event tag title match is insane. Tozawa is like the greatest man alive. The only match I'm not psyched for is the 6-way, which is more of a way to give guys exposure than anything. Words cannot express my excitement for Susumu Yokosuka vs Ricochet.

 

If you like Cruiserweights, watch this on iPPV. It's going to be awesome.

[ShaunGBD]

Blood Warriors vs. Ronin Grudge?

 

Whats that?

[Self]

Blood Warriors are a new super-stable in Japanese Dragon Gate. Kind of an nWo type faction, ever expanding and becoming more dominant. CIMA, Austin Aries, Brodie Lee, Ricochet, Naruki Doi, Ryo Saito, Genki horiguchi... that's all I can remember. They're a deadly force that threatens to sweep through Dragon Gate like an unstoppable tide.

 

Ronin are a trio of ****y young Americans; Chuck Taylor (injured his groin recently, bah) Johnny Gargano (the cat's pajamas) and Rich Swann (tiny, crazy dude who does a standing 450). They began as heels, but were so fun you couldn't help but love them. Austin Aries turned on them a few months back, so they've become the main American opposition to the Blood Warriors faction.

 

I'm a MASSIVE fan of Ronin right now. My favourite trio in wrestling. Especially Rich Swann. So amazingly agile. So completely insane. Love him.

[Remianen]

I'd advise you to go to their websites to see the rosters. Bit tough to explain all their stars.

 

And YouTube. If $15 is especially dear to you, YouTube would give you an idea of the kind of style each promotion uses. It wouldn't give you all the details (like CHIKARA's awesome storylines) but you'd have a gist of each promotion.

 

Personally, I was a believer the first time I saw Naruki Doi's Muscular Bomb, which led me to Masato Yoshino's From Jungle and Torbellino and Lightning Spiral which led to CIMA and so on. In TEW, when I think 'Modern', Dragon Gate immediately comes to mind.

[ShaunGBD]

What are some of the CHIKARA's awesome storylines

[OctoberRaven]

Re: CHIKARA

 

Major stars: Mike Quackenbush, Eddie Kingston, Claudio Castagnoli are their top names. Also established names that are more in the midcard include Sara Del Rey, Daizee Haze, Delirious, Sinn "Kizarny" Bodhi, Chuck Taylor, Brodie Lee, and Frightmare. Oh, and I guess Johnny Gargano but he ruined FIST so boo to him.

 

Champions: Highest title in CHIKARA right now is their tag belts, held by Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw. Also there's a Young Lions Cup title that's part tournament part championship held currently by Frightmare. They're crowining an overall singles champion, which will likely be Eddie Kingston.

 

Non-wrestling content: Post match antics are an uncommon happening. Most promos are done either via CHIKARA's website or two minuite long backstage skits. I'd say 95% of the show is wrestling.

 

Awesome storylines: Ultra Mantis Black (who is pretty much one of the most awesome people in CHIKARA period) and his new stable The Spectral Envoy are both trying to free Delirious from the evil German stable BDK's mind control while at the same time waging war with Sinn Bodhi and the Batiri (the former tried to rip UMB's mask off) and Eddie Kingston wanting to decapitate Claudio Castagnoli with a backfist. Most of the booking is being centered around the title tournament which is basically a two-block round robin tournament.

 

CHIKARA does have lots of wacky characters and comedy but their homegrown workers (which includes nearly everyone) are all fantastic. They also have a lot of emphasis on tag and trios matches, though singles matches are commonplace as well. Most of their ringwork is lucha and American/Japanese cruiserweight style but they have some hard hitting brawlers as well. The only market CHIKARA really doesn't cater to in some way are the hardcore/deathmatch fans. You can pretty much count the gimmick matches CHIKARA has had in it's 10 year history on one hand.

[TLLK]

4) What is this "New Ring of Honor?" ROH was recently purchased by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, "one of the largest television broadcasters in the country and which owns and operates, programs, or provides sales services to 58 television stations in 35 markets across the United States". They have CW, myTV, and FOX affiliates across the country. New ownership is this new ROH, which is huge news following the ending of the HDNet contract. Being owned by a broadcast group, similar to the feature in TEW, means that...

 

5) When will we see the "New Ring Of Honor" (Meaning they pick a date)? "The month of September will see the debut of the new Ring of Honor television program which will be syndicated across the Sinclair network of stations, and with it, ROH will become the only wrestling promotion in the United States with a major, multi-market presence on broadcast TV. But if you don’t live in a market with a Sinclair station, fear not, says (ROH owner Cary) Silkin. 'Through our revamped website we will be able to make the TV show available to anyone in the world with internet access.'"

[ShaunGBD]

OMG!! I will become a ROH fan again

[shawn michaels]

That is good news.

[BHK1978]

I just got back from the Dragon Gate show. It was a good show, I personally liked the Austin Aries vs. Johnny Gargano the best out of all the matches. There was a lot of audio problems throughout the start of the show.

 

I must admit I wish they would have kept the show in Foxboro or even held it in Fall River again because the Wonderland Ballroom (which was home to the infamous Mass Transit incident) sucked.

[ShaunGBD]

Who won? I was looking for the results on Wiki but they aren't posted.

 

Why wasn't it held in Foxboro, was their a reason they change locations?

[BHK1978]

Who won? I was looking for the results on Wiki but they aren't posted.

 

Why wasn't it held in Foxboro, was their a reason they change locations?

 

Okay as embarrassing as this is to admit, I do not know who a lot of these wrestlers are especially the ones from Japan. This was only the second time I saw one of their shows so I have no clue as to who is who.

 

I know Rich Swann, Brodie Lee, and Austin Aries and that is about it. Austin Aries won other than that I am not really sure who the other wrestlers were. Maybe Self who knows what he is talking about, can tell you.

 

As far as why the moved the show out of Foxboro, that I am not sure of. If I had to hazzard a guess I would say poor sales as the show did not have a great crowd. ROH drew much better when they held shows in Boston, I am not sure if people are like me and they are not familiar with the product or what. Like I said the crowd was not that great.

[Self]

Just finished watching the replay a few minutes ago. I was disappointed with the show. Not because of the wrestling, but because of the venue, the production values, and the general lack of atmosphere. I'm a MASSIVE fan of the iPPV concept, and I've seen a couple of great ones, but this suffered from an all-too-common complaint of balancing the Commentary audio too loud, and everything else too quiet.

 

Results obscured below, in case anyone is dodging SPOILERS

 

CIMA beat Rich Swann

Arik Cannon won the 6-way

Susumu Yokosuka beat Ricochet, which surprised me

Masaaki Mochizuki beat Sami Callihan, enciting a looooon brawl

Intermission showed an excellent Japanese tag match with BxB Hulk & Yoshino vs Mochizuki & Nakajima (who I hate from the recent NOAH UK tour)

Jon Davis squashed Pinkie Sanchez

Austin Aries beat Johnny Gargano

Masato Yoshino & PAC successfully defending their tag titles against YAMATO & Akira Tozawa.

 

Good wrestling, poor presentation. Even for an indy show.

[MiniBoosh]

It was the first full show of a promotion other than WWE/TNA I've watched and I was actually quite impressed. Obviously the actual in ring action was fantastic compared to your regular RAW/Impacts but I didn't think the production was too bad.

 

I actually found the commentary too quiet in some places, and did you have a problem with the video pausing whilst the audio carried on? That annoyed me but I assume it's not their fault.

 

I think I will definitely have to look at getting some indie DVD's from America, will they work over in the UK though?

[Self]

It was the first full show of a promotion other than WWE/TNA I've watched and I was actually quite impressed. Obviously the actual in ring action was fantastic compared to your regular RAW/Impacts but I didn't think the production was too bad.

 

I actually found the commentary too quiet in some places, and did you have a problem with the video pausing whilst the audio carried on? That annoyed me but I assume it's not their fault.

 

I think I will definitely have to look at getting some indie DVD's from America, will they work over in the UK though?

 

Every wrestling promotion I've ever bought DVD's from make them Region 0, playable everywhere.

[OctoberRaven]

As far as production goes, CHIKARA has really improved in leaps and bounds in that department with their recent DVDs. They've always had good quality IMO but they've added a lot of flash that makes it more professional looking.

 

They're also gradually shifting away from licensed theme music, which I feel is a mixed blessing as some of the new themes are a bit underwhelming.

 

CHIKARA also has some great commentary, most of which is done by the wrestlers themselves. Ultra Mantis Black is amazing as a color man, and Quackenbush is absolutely spot-on as a play by play man, up there with Joey Styles in being able to follow fast paced action.

[BHK1978]

Just finished watching the replay a few minutes ago. I was disappointed with the show. Not because of the wrestling, but because of the venue, the production values, and the general lack of atmosphere. I'm a MASSIVE fan of the iPPV concept, and I've seen a couple of great ones, but this suffered from an all-too-common complaint of balancing the Commentary audio too loud, and everything else too quiet.

 

Good wrestling, poor presentation. Even for an indy show.

 

Exactly, I never yell or chant anything at any kind of sporting event that is just the way I am. And it seemed that the fans at the DG show were the say way as well, the crowd was not vocal at all (well there were a few people that were) which did kind of take away from the show a bit. The audio in the arena sucked, first they could not get the mic to work. And then the sound guy kept on screwing up, playing the music before the matches were over and stupid stuff like that.

[ampulator]

It's because that "kind" of fan isn't watching much wrestling anymore.

[OctoberRaven]

CHIKARA fans tend to be pretty lively, actually. Some of the front row people even wear replica masks or cosplay.

 

DGUSA kind of tends to the lucharesu crowd, and Japanese crowds tend to be noticibly quieter than American counterparts in general. They'll chant and cheer on occassion, but usually they'll stay quiet only to applaud very dramatic moments.

[Self]

It's because that "kind" of fan isn't watching much wrestling anymore.

 

Passionate, vocal fans still exist. I was in Germany in March for wXw and the atmosphere was insane. Loud, boisterous, constant chants. Live a football game. It was amazing.

 

Japanese crowds are quieter, but I dig their style and the atmosphere they bring. They watch quietly and appreciatively, studying the action. They applaud impressive moves or sequences or near-falls. Slowly they get more into it Ooh'ing and Aah'ing. A great match can whip they up into a frenzy that rivals any fans around the world. I love it. That Japanese match DGUSA showed during intermission had fabulous atmosphere.

 

That being said, typically I've found DGUSA crowds to sounds nothing like their Japanese counterparts. In the early goings, when it was fresh and unique and exciting, those dudes were as loud as any RoH or PWG crowd. Maybe it's just become old hat, or the hardcore maniacs aren't willing to drive the distances they once were.