Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE Discussion

[Troy]

DGUSA began in 2009 and is an international expansion of the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate and it was headed up by former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky. EVOLE was founded in 2010 and was started by Gabe Spolsky as well out of Philadelphia. In late 2011 it was announced that the promotions had unified. They share the same roster yet they still run separate events. This thread is for all discussion pertaining to these two companies, talk about upcoming events, the roster or previous events that have been run by these two companies.

DGUSA currently has two active titles. The DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Championship is a singles championship currently held by Johnny Gargano and he has held that title for over 500 days. He is only the third wrestler to hold the title in it's three and a half years of existence. Aside from DGUSA this title is defended in Dragon Gate and EVOLVE. The Open the United Gate Championship is a tag team championship and is currently held by the team of AR Fox & CIMA. They are only the fourth team to hold the titles in their two year existence.

DGUSA's are running two iPPVs WM weekend. April 6th is Open the Dragon Gate 2013 and April 7th is Mercury Rising 2013.

EVOLVE used to have an emphasis on the win-loss records of the roster but are doing away with that and are crowning the first ever EVOLVE champion in less than a week on April 5th. There will be a tournament to determine the first champion and the win-loss records of the talent were used to create the seeding for the tournament. The champion will be crowned at EVOLVE 19 and the bracket for the tournament is listed below.


Bracket A:
First Round Match - Four Way Freestyle
#5 Rich Swann (3-2) vs. #6 Samuray Del Sol (2-3) vs. #7 Sami Callihan (3-7) vs. #8 Jigsaw (1-3)Semi-Final
#1 Chuck Taylor vs. Winner Of First Round Match

Bracket B:First Round Match
#3 AR Fox (7-6) vs. #4 Jon Davis (5-4)Semi-Final
#2 Ricochet vs. Winner Of First Round Match
Tournament Finals To Crown The First EVOLVE Champion
Bracket A Winner vs. Bracket B Winner

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If anyone is interested in purchasing any of the iPPVs from DGUSA or EVOLVE then please click on the image at the top of this post. It is a WS affiliate link for WWNLive any from any purchase made through that link WS gets a small percentage.

A few members mentioned DGUSA and EVOLVE in the thread that I created and I thought that since they are essentially linked it would be best to put them together in one thread for discussion. Pretty big weekend coming up for both companies with iPPVs for both and with EVOLVE determining their first ever champion

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[AZUCAR!]

I should really catch up on DGUSA. It's a good job they haven't released any new DVD's in the past 6 or so month's. I still need to buy around 3 or 4 shows.

Evolve, I do too. I have the first 10 DVD's but have only watched 1 or 2 of them. I was going to go for Jon Davis to become the first ever Evolve champ at Wrestlecon, but he won the FIP title around 2 months ago so I don't see it happening. Chucky T or Richochet would be my picks to win the tournament.

 

[Rated R Superstar]

I haven't had the opportunity to watch either show, but I have heard great things. I think a few indy guys say it's their goal to work for either company. If that's the case, both companies must be doing something right.

 

[The New F'n Show]

Saw DGUSA in Windsor, Ontario, Canada a year or two ago for Open the Northern Gate. Have followed them pretty much since the start. Never really followed Evolve though.

 

[Andrew]

Looks like a decent card there, probably will wait until the release on XWT or something.

Next weekend is going to be huge, with Mania at 9am Monday (Thanks God I am not working that day)!

 

[Keith]

Saw Dragon Gate a few years back on their UK Tour and was impressed with the work rate of the roster and the mix of techical, stiff style and high flying wrestling. It was a very well recieved show. Would like to check Evolve out at some point.

 

[Troy]

EVOLVE 19 results

EVOLVE Championship Tournament Quarterfinals: #7 Sami Callihan def. #5 Rich Swann and #6 Samuray del Sol and #8 Jigsaw via Stretch Muffler on Samuray del Sol.
EVOLVE Championship Tournament Quarterfinals: #3 AR Fox def. #4 Jon Davis by disqualification after Jon Davis accidently clotheslined the referee. After the match, Davis tried to powerbomb the ref through a table but another ref stopped him with a warning to suspend him from all other matches this weekend if he did.

Tony Nese came down to the ring and announced that he was joining EVOLVE and DragonGate USA.

Tag Team Match: Open the Freedom Gate Champion Johnny Gargano and Brian Kendrick def. Drew Gulak and Orange Cassidy w/ Swamp Monster via Sliced Bread #2 from Kendrick to Gulak.

EVOLVE Championship Tournament Semifinals: #7 Sami Callihan def. #1 Chuck Taylor via Stretch Muffler. Throughout the match Callihan sold an ankle injury (or a legit one) that he injured on the way to ring with a slip.

EVOLVE Championship Tournament Semifinals: #3 AR Fox def. #2 Ricochet via crucifix after a missed 630 attempt from Ricochet.

NO Disqualification Match: Arik Cannon def. Scott Reed via Brainbuster. Many people got involved in the match and Uhaa Nation made his return to EVOLVE Reed during the match and Cannon afterwards.

Tag Team Match: Super Smash Brothers def. the Young Bucks via Fatality.

EVOLVE Championship Tournament Finals: #3 AR Fox def. #7 Sami Callihan via Lo Mein Pain to become the first ever EVOLVE Champion.

Can we read anything into Sami Callihan not winning the title? Could this mean that he is heading to WWE sometime soon? Haven't seen much of AR Fox so can't comment too much about him.

Apparently there were some issues with the stream early on but nothing during the mainevent. Not the best weekend for iPPVs with ROH and EVOLVE having problems.

 

[AZUCAR!]

I don't think you can read too much into Sami not winning the Evolve title. Just a case of Gabe probably swerving everyone who thought that Sami was going to beat AR Fox, when from what i've read lately, AR Fox has been doing very well in DG & Evolve.

 

[Keith]

I don't think you can read too much into Sami not winning the Evolve title. Just a case of Gabe probably swerving everyone who thought that Sami was going to beat AR Fox, when from what i've read lately, AR Fox has been doing very well in DG & Evolve.

Don't know how I feel about that sort of booking, surely you just put a title on the right person regardless of whether the fans expect it or not.

 

[Troy]

I don't think you can read too much into Sami not winning the Evolve title. Just a case of Gabe probably swerving everyone who thought that Sami was going to beat AR Fox, when from what i've read lately, AR Fox has been doing very well in DG & Evolve.

That's fair enough if that is the case, be interesting to see what happens with Sami in the near future as he has had a WWE tryout and it seems inevitable that he will be signed eventually. AR Fox was DGUSA tag team champion, until last night actually, so he has been in the mix.

Young Bucks actually won the DGUSA tag team titles last night to start their first reign with the titles. They would have to be one of the top tag teams on the indy scene right now and will surely be back on the big stage in either TNA or WWE in a few years.

 

[AZUCAR!]

I wasn't surprised The Young Bucks won the titles last night. Gabe was quick to get them back into DGUSA, after ROH didn't know what to do with them and they're one of the best Tag Teams on the indy scene at the moment.

 

[Troy]

Gabe Sapolsky announced the following today online, making it clear that Dragon Gate USA and its sister promotions would be doing their own thing this coming Wrestlemania weekend in New Orleans:

"OK, since I'm being asked a lot here is the deal with Wrestlemania weekend in New Orleans next year. DGUSA, EVOLVE, SHIMMER and Kaiju Big Battel will not be a part of WrestleCon. We will start the WWNLive Experience next year. There will be DGUSA, EVOLVE, SHIMMER, Kaiju Big Battle and other shows on Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday in New Orleans on Wrestlemania weekend. We will have more details hopefully by next week. However, the important info now is that it is not part of Wrestlecon and there will be DGUSA, EVOLVE, SHIMMER and Kaiju Big Battel plus other shows throughout the
entire weekend at the WWNLive Experience."

When I reached out to Sapolsky, he noted that they would not be working with Wrestlecon this year as they could not come to a "business arrangement" with Highspots.com, the primary promoter/sponsor of the event due to the costs involved with the Wrestlecon venue.

Announced for the 7/27 Dragon Gate USA debut at the Elks Lodge in Queens, NY is Tony Nese vs. Akira Tozawa, which sounds amazing on paper. Chuck Taylor vs.
Jon Davis is also set for Queens.
The 7/28 Fourth Anniversary Show at the Highline Ballroom in NYC will feature a CHIKARA tribute match featuring Jigsaw, Fire Ant, Frightmare & Amasis vs.
Chuck Taylor, Ophidian & The Batiri. The Manhattan return will also feature The Young Bucks vs. Ricochet & Rich Swann.

It is a long way away but still big news that they are no longer part of WrestleCon and are going out on their own over WM weekend. They have enough talent to get it done and there is a good mix there with SHIMMER as well.

Can anyone fill me in on Kaiju Big Battel?

 

[Kiffy Lube]

It's more like a production company that has matches like pro wrestling. It's weird and most of the characters are monsters.

 

[Troy]

Thanks for the info. Strange combination then to have the seriousness of DGUSA with a show filled with monsters.