WHOA: JOHNNY GARGANO SIGNS WWE CONTRACT WITH A DGUSA STABLE!

'Scuse me while I just edit this real quick... ahem.

JOHNNY GARGANO

NOT JUST NXT SECURITY!

Photo - DGUSA.tv

Awesome! This comes as a total surprise to me, but I also just revealed in my last post that I haven't read dirt sheets for two weeks, so maybe everyone saw this comin'. I saw this comin' over on TH's The Wrestling Blog, who snagged it straight from the horse's twitter (Gabe Sapolsky).

I will admit I haven't seen much of Gargano, but I did just see him live and in person, in front of about 120 people in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. So there's that.

Congrats Johnny!

DRAGON GATE USA DEBUTS IN CANADA: OPEN THE NORTHERN GATE + UPRISING PPV REVIEW

What a phenomenal weekend. Last night was really fun, but tonight put a stamp on the weekend that read "that was awesome." These two nights were all about Kamikaze USA taking over and doing whatever the hell they wanted to whoever the hell they wanted.

DRAGON GATE USA

DEBUT WEEKEND IN CANADA

OPEN THE NORTHERN GATE HIGHLIGHTS

- Akira Tozawa's top rope thumbs-down BOO to the small children in the front row.

- The fast-paced action and big dives in the opening match, including a double-team dive from Team Frightening early on (and a high five with Jigsaw from me, literally right after we sat down. I feel special.) and a one-two-punch sort of dive Jigsaw and Quackenbush (who had the dive of the night - insanely high).

- Kamikaze USA proving their dominance all weekend. They attacked Quackenbush and Jigsaw after their match, they interfered in Moxley's title defence against Phil Atlas, they (Shingo & YAMATO) won both of their matches this weekend, and just generally beat the crap out of anyone in their way. This is most certainly building to something, but I'm not quite sure what yet (in a good, unpredictable sort of way).

- CIMA's top rope double knees to a sitting Jimmy Jacobs for the epic win.

- Johnny Gargano trying to join both Naruki Doi and Masaaki Mochizuki's factions by offering them gifts from America, like D2: The Mighty Ducks and a stuffed turtle. All three were hilarious in this promo, but the highlight had to have been Mochizuki kicking a DVD out of Gargano's hand, which caught some near ceiling-touching air.

- Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Naruki Doi. An awesome back and forth match that included some fast-paced, hard-hitting stuff and ended with a SICK axe kick to the top of Doi's head, putting him out for good. Crowd really showed it's appreciation for this one, including the older couple in front of me who gave it a standing ovation (first time they stood all night!).

- How over the Maximum Pro guys were. Everyone was very familiar with these dudes, including a hilarious chubby kid who yelled "TYSON SUCKS MONKEY BUTT" for the ENTIRE DURATION OF THE MATCH. To give you a better illustration of what I mean by that, try and shout "Tyson sucks monkey butt" for ten minutes and see how you feel, because this match went over ten minutes. It was hilarious. So was Tyson's interaction with the kid. Fun match that got the crowd riled up for the second half.

- The sheer speed of Dragon Kid and Masato Yoshino live. Can't get over how quick these guys are.

- An accidental nutshot to Yoshino after Dragon Kid went for a sitting corner dropkick. I was seriously afraid for Yoshino's future children.

- An INCREDIBLE main event match that was the highlight of the entire show for me. This match literally had everything and was perfectly built to, with Kamikaze USA interfering in the first two matches of the night to get the crowd really on their case. It started slow with some great back and forth wrestling between the two teams, then the pace picked up with some exciting action, then it spilled to the outside with (of all things) a CRAZY brawl that literally had me somehow legitimately frightened.

- BxB Hulk getting whipped into the barricade so hard that it hit a portly gentleman who fell out of his chair.

Really fun show that was worth the long drive from Toronto (through a crazy storm).

"UPRISING" PPV TAPING HIGHLIGHTS

- Mochizuki/Tozawa. CRAZY hot opener. Crowd was on fire for the entire thing, and for damn good reason. Mochizuki clobbered Tozawa with some stiff kicks and won with a standing kick to the brain.

- My unconditional hate for Gran Akuma. He looks so much like a raper. The crowd was split for the match - Toronto locals loved Tyson, DGUSA fans loved Akuma. Tyson was amazing as a heel last night in Windsor, but played a great babyfface tonight. I really think he could definitely be a star just from the way he looks and acts.

- Jon Moxley's weekend of domestic abuse. This dude brought out a girl for both nights (different looking -ahem- "woman of the night" each night, yet wearing the same dress each night), and tossed her around light she was his friggin' opponent. He practically oozes slime, he's such a sleazebag, and I love it.

- Jimmy Jacobs showing shades of his former self. This weekend Jimmy felt a little (er... more than a little, but I love the guy so I find it so hard to rag on him) watered-down. He's had some crazy brawls in Toronto (No DQ vs. The Briscoes, Dog Collar Match vs. Delirious, Markham Street Fight vs. Delirious) so I think I was expecting something just off the chart bonkers tonight in his No DQ match with Moxley, but it didn't quite live up. He did show more signs of his crazy side tonight than in Windsor, which was nice, and the match itself was fun (with an AWESOME dive-into-End Time from Jacobs), but with me expecting blood, I guess I shot myself in the foot.

- The showstopping match that was PAC/Naruki Doi vs. Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw. Both teams went all out on this one. Literally can't write words that could describe with any semblance of justice PAC's top rope Shooting Star double-shin kick to a bent over Jigsaw that connected with such a thud that I can only assume Jigsaw's kidneys are now scrambled.

- Brodie Lee blasting a referee with a big boot to interrupt a match between two guys selected by CIMA from a pre-show tryout.

- ALL of YAMATO & Shingo vs. CIMA & Dragon Kid. Not even worth describing the insanity that went on here. But, apparently, I will try anyway. The two spots that stick out to me most were YAMATO grabbing CIMA in a waistlock for Shingo to hit the ropes and clothesline him, but CIMA reversed it, then YAMATO reversed it, and so on, and so on, in hilarious fashion, while Shingo pulled his hair out trying to figure out when to go for the the clothesline. So so funny, I really hope it translates to PPV. The other spot was no big deal, y'know, just a top rope standing hurricanrana from Dragon Kid to Shingo, who was perched ON CIMA'S SHOULDERS. HOLY BALLS.

- BxB Hulk's never ending dance.

- By the time the main event rolled around I was a tad (completely) drunk so Yoshino and Hulk were just a blur in the ring, but that's more because of how superhero-fast these guys are. Really great match, felt shorter than the tag match before, but that doesn't matter. This show, top to bottom, will be a hit on PPV for sure.

Such a fun weekend overall. And I bought a Vader mask from the High Spots table. And got CIMA's autograph. And had enough adrenaline to write this monster review. Time to try and make my brain stop rattling around in my skull long enough to sleep!

RECHARGING FOR DRAGON GATE USA: UPRISING - TONIGHT

WHEW! Last night was super fun, and I wasn't even drunk - how's that for a review?!

I'll do a full review in a couple days of both shows, but for now, since I'm rebooting for a big night tonight in Toronto for the DGUSA PPV Taping (which will be just completely crazy if last night was any indication of what they deliver for a smaller non-PPV crowd), here's my timeline from last night.

OPEN THE NORTHERN GATE TIMELINE

2:00: Arrive at Steve's (Burning Spirit) to get ready to go.

2:05: Debate whether we will watch Smackdown! before we leave.

2:10: We leave.

2:30: Sit in traffic for an hour.

3:30: Arrive on highway still in traffic.

4:00: By now we start wondering if we're going to make it at all. I spinning backfist the car seat in blind rage.

7:00: Drive through some serious Abyss-cutting-a-slobbery-promo weather.

8:00: Arrive at the show.

8:01-11:00: Watch some awesome wrestling featuring a mind-blowing main event.

11:15: Get backed into by another DGUSA fan in the parking lot.

3:00: Arrive back in Toronto.

Tonight's timeline will feature less crappy weather, more beer, and equal-to-more awesome wrestling. I'm going to go get an hour of cardio* in before the show since just WATCHING Masato Yoshino run the ropes like Wally West made me collapse in exhaustion.

Review coming soon!

* = eat pizza, probably.

THIS WEEKEND: MY FIRST DGUSA EXPERIENCE - WINDSOR & TORONTO

I feel like I need to start doing push-ups and pulling cars in the snow to properly brace myself for this weekend. I literally lose my breath just watching Dragon Gate on PPV, so I'm almost certain I'll have some sort of fatal asthma attack seeing it live. This is supposed to be a testament to how intense DGUSA is, not to how much of a pile of crap I am.

I'll be hitting up both Windsor (driving the four hours or whatever it is from Toronto) and Toronto (obvs) and then I fly to Europe on Sunday for two weeks, so I am being a complete douchebag to my girlfriend. But this is just the kind of behaviour you would expect from a wrestling nerd when Dragon Gate comes to Canada for the first time.

Looking over the cards for both nights makes me realize how fun this will be. I'm getting to see a TON of guys I normally would never see (not just DGUSA guys, but CHIKARA guys that appear in both like Quack, Jigsaw, etc.), plus PAC is making his debut with the company this weekend.

Not only that, but FIP World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley (a dude I've mentioned before) is on both cards, so it'll be fun to see him. I think he's badass, at least from what little I've seen.

Here's the full lineup for this weekend. I'll have some sort of review for the shows eventually as well:

DRAGON GATE USA

DEBUTS IN CANADA

Photo - DGUSA.tv

OPEN THE NORTHERN GATE - WINDSOR, ON

Friday, May 7th, 2010

MAIN EVENT

Open The Freedom Gate Champion BxB Hulk & PAC

VS.

Open The Dream Gate Champion YAMATO & Shingo

2/3 FALLS MATCH

Dragon Kid VS. Masato Yoshino

FIP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE

Champion Jon Moxley VS. Challenger Phil Atlas

SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH

CIMA VS. Jimmy Jacobs

TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH

Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw VS. Gran Akuma & Akira Tozawa

MAXIMUM PRO WRESTLING TAG TEAM ATTRACTION

Tyson Dux & Jon Bolen VS. Brad Martin & Xtremo

BONUS CARD

Johnny Gargano VS. ???

UPRISING PPV TAPING - TORONTO, ON

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

MAIN EVENT #1 - OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE

Champion BxB Hulk

VS.

Challenger Masato Yoshino

MAIN EVENT #2 - TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH

CIMA & Dragon Kid

VS.

Open The Dream Gate Champion YAMATO & Shingo

SPECIAL TAG TEAM CHALLENGE

Naruki Doi & PAC VS. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw

SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH

Masaaki Mochizuki VS. Akira Tozawa

GRUDGE MATCH

Jimmy Jacobs VS. Jon Moxley

SPECIAL ATTRACTION MATCH

Tyson Dux VS. Gran Akuma

BONUS CARD

FRAY! - feat. Phil Atlas, Brodie Lee, Cheech, Cloudy, Xtremo, Brent B, Anthony Fiasco & Michael Elgin

I believe tickets are still available - you can buy them from the DGUSA.tv Store.

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK: ROH & DGUSA

Are you one of the lucky douchebags that gets to go to WrestleMania? Then, if you didn't know already, your wrestling weekend actually starts on Friday with FOUR massive cards from Ring of Honor and Dragon Gate USA. If you could fill your body to capacity with incredible pro-wrestling, you would burst at the seems this weekend and you would spray Mountain Dew: Code Red and Quizno's all over EVERYONE.

First, check out what may be the longest ROH VideoWire in history with a flawless Chris Hero promo smack dab in the middle:

ROH VIDEOWIRE - 3/23

ROH DEBUTS IN PHOENIX

And here is the schedule for both ROH and Dragon Gate for Friday and Saturday. If you are in Phoenix for 'Mania and you don't go to these shows, you need to re-access your status as a wrestling fan.

FRIDAY - RING OF HONOR

Tickets + Info

PERSONAL CHALLENGE GAUNTLET

ROH World Champion Tyler Black battles Austin Aries & Roderick Strong in back-to-back matches

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Challengers The American Wolves

ANYTHING GOES - NON SANCTIONED

Jerry Lynn vs. Kenny King

GRUDGE MATCH

El Generico vs. Steve Corino

GRUDGE MATCH

The Necro Butcher vs. Bison Smith

FINAL BATTLE 2009 REMATCH

Rocky Romero vs. Alex Koslov

SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH

Kevin Steen vs. Kenny Omega

TAG TEAM CHALLENGE MATCH

Scott Lost & Scorpio Sky vs. The Kings of Wrestling

PLUS

- Colt Cabana

- Joey Ryan & Shawn Daivari of the Embassy

- "Skullkrusher" Rasche Brown

FRIDAY - DRAGON GATE USA

Tickets + Info

OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Champion BxB Hulk vs. Challenger Naruki Doi

DRAGON GATE STYLE 6-MAN TAG

CIMA, Gamma & Dragon Kid vs. Jack Evans & The Young Bucks

GRUDGE MATCH

Shingo vs. Masato Yoshino

SPECIAL TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH

Brian Kendrick & Jon Moxley vs. Jimmy Jacobs & Paul London

SPECIAL TAG TEAM ATTRACTION

Susumu Yokosuka & Genki Horiguchi vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw

SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH

YAMATO vs. TJP

MEXICO VS. USA

LA PARK (original) & Hijo De Rey Misterio vs. Derrick Nelkirk & G.Q. Gallo

SATURDAY - RING OF HONOR

Tickets + Info

PERSONAL CHALLENGE GAUNTLET

Roderick Strong battles Austin Aries & ROH World Champion Tyler Black in back-to-back matches

TAG TEAM CHALLENGE MATCH

Colt Cabana & El Generico vs. The American Wolves

8-MAN TAG TEAM WAR

ROH World Tag Team Champions Jay & Mark Briscoe, The Necro Butcher & "Skullkrusher" Rasche Brown

vs.

The Kings of Wrestling, Joey Ryan & Bison Smith

FIRST TIME EVER

Kenny Omega vs. Rocky Romero

SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH

Jerry Lynn vs. Steve Corino

SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH

Kevin Steen vs. Scott Lost

PICK 6 SERIES MATCH

(5) Kenny King vs. Scorpio Sky

SATURDAY - DRAGON GATE USA

Tickets + Info

THE SIX MAN TRADITION RETURNS

CIMA, Gamma & Dragon Kid vs. BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino

OPEN THE DREAM GATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Champion YAMATO vs. Challenger Susumu Yokosuka

THREE-WAY DANCE

Tommy Dreamer vs. Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jon Moxley

SPECIAL ATTRACTION MATCH

Shingo vs. Genki Horiguchi

TAG TEAM CHALLENGE MATCH

The Young Bucks vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw

SPECIAL CHALLENGE MATCH

TJP vs. Brad Allen

PLUS

- Paul London

- Brian Kendrick

- Jack Evans

- BONUS MATCH: Feat. The Cutler Brothers, Irish Airborne, Malachi Jackson & More

WRESTLING WEEKENDS = 4 FOR 4 5 FOR 5

Just a quick note:

Two weekends ago - Awesome DGUSA PPV

This past weekend - EVOLVE2

This weekend - ROH in Toronto, Destinaton X on PPV

Next weekend - WRESTLEMANIA

UPDATE

Weekend after that - The Big Bang - ROH's Debut in Charlotte on GoFightLive!

Something to look forward to at the end of each week, all from different companies.

And tonight there's three wrestling shows on, which will be the norm for who knows how long. Pretty decent time to be watching wrestling when you look at it that way.

I'm off to go walk around shirtless in a leather vest to get myself psyched up for tonight.

SMACKDOWN! PREVIEW: 03/12/10

Friday nights have become a pretty sweet night for wrestling lately. With Smackdown! usually being top drawer (although it can most definitely fluctuate in quality), Dragon Gate USA has swooped in by delivering exhaustingly good PPVs that air on Fridays as well.

Those PPVs may come several months apart (I'm almost certain there's one for every season) but hey, it's still bolstered Friday nights if you're a fan of wrestling.

I caught last week's event not on the Friday, but on the Monday morning at 11. Watching a wrestling PPV replay at 11 in the morning on a Monday gives me two feelings:

1) When they would have school dances in elementary school but they would have to hold them between like 2:30 and 3:30 in the afternoon. So you felt all weird because it was dark and people were dancing like it was a club (but not really because clubs are somehow more lame).

2) That I have lost the will to live.

Seriously, a wrestling PPV REPLAY at 11:00 in the morning on a Monday?! What has my life become. Good god.

In spite of all of this self-hate, the PPV was pretty awesome (no surprise there), even for 11 in the morning. Davey/Mochizuki was my favourite from the show, and the Elimination Tag with the Bucks, Shingo/YAMATO & Doi/Yoshino was essentially at full-tilt from bell to bell. I started wheezing halfway through it.

Anyway, no DGUSA tonight. Just Smackdown:

SPOILER-FREE SMACKDOWN! PREVIEW

THE HIGHLIGHT REEL RETURNS

World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho welcomes his guest, Edge

SINGLES MATCH

R-Truth (with David Otunga) vs. WWE United States & Unified Tag Team Champion The Miz (with Daniel Bryan(!))

SINGLES MATCH

John Morrison vs. Unified Tag Team Champion Big Show

SQUASH SINGLES MATCH

WWE Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Aaron Bolo

DIVAS MATCH

WWE Women's Champion Michelle McCool vs. Tiffany

TAG TEAM MATCH

Cryme Tyme vs. The Hart Dynasty

SINGLES MATCH

Kane vs. Luke Gallows

SORRY MARCH: A MISSED WEEK IN REVIEW

Time to go over (in lightning fast fashion) what I missed when I was not on the internet this week.

SHOWS

I saw this one:

MONDAY NIGHT RAW

GOOD IF YOU DON'T LIKE WRESTLING

Photo - WWE.com

I liked all of the shit that wasn't a wrestling match on this show. Wait. I should clarify. All of the shit that wasn't a wrestling match or a skit involving non-wrestlers. Hold on. Maybe I should just say I liked Batista's Road Warrior AWA attire & HILARIOUS quips, John Cena's "welp, I tried" face & real talk, and HBK's "DONTEVENTOUCHMETRIPS" to Triple H. MVP's slow motion squash of Zack Ryder to a mute crowd was also just great.

I did not see these ones:

WWE NXT, SMACKDOWN, ROH ON HDNET, IMPACT

FORGIVE MY TRANSGRESSIONS (NOT YOU IMPACT)

Photo - WWE.com

I'll be able to catch NXT later, and maybe even Smackdown. I'll definitely be checking out ROH on YouTube. Hunting down Impact to watch would be like fishing for an old car tire when you already have a big pile of delicious salmon to eat.

NEWS

I missed some sweet announcements while I was gone:

DRAGON GATE USA

COMING TO TORONTO

This is super exciting. Having seen every PPV they've aired and just fell down in excitement when it was over, the chance to see DGUSA live cannot be passed up. The problem is, I'm not sure if I'll be in town. But I'm pretty sure we'll just buy tickets anyway and see what develops. Also, this event features the debut of PAC! Holy nutrageous.

WWE RELEASES...

SCOTT ARMSTRONG

This is the most upsetting release to me. Does this mean we'll never know who was screwing the Undertaker? Who was the goddamn higher power!? I hope it wasn't Maria, because she's gone too! The irony of getting fired right before being on a show where the goal is to not get fired tickles my pickle.

TNA IMPACT

TO DEBUT NEW THEME SONG

Here's a PBS exclusive preview.

What else did I miss? Anything crazy? Worth mentioning?

I'll be previewing the ROH shows coming up since the cards are really starting to take shape for Michigan, Ontario and the Phoenix WrestleMania weekend events. Plus, probably a full post about Eddie Edwards becoming the first ever ROH World Television Champion (YES).

Can't wait to get my mind freaked tomorrow night. By both Criss Angel and Hulk Hogan wrestling Ric Flair.

WHOA: DAVEY RICHARDS PULLED FROM DGUSA, EVOLVE EVENTS

Thanks to Monkey Man for alerting me to such a puzzling tweet from Gabe himself.

Can't really guess what the hell this means. Either way, it's bizarre. Hopefully nothing super crazy.

In other news, Smackdown! is off to a wild start. Should destroy RAW yet again. Even with the bait and switch of Teddy Long changing the Tag Title match to two new singles matches, it's still going to be a good lineup.

But seriously WTF DAVEY?! I can only speculate that he got EVEN MORE COMPETITIVE and kicked Gabe's booking book of secret booking plans into his face, then EVOLVED into a DRAGONZORD.

I don't know what any of this means, I'm just all hyped up on Smackdown.

MATCHES, STARS 2009: FEATURING DAVEY RICHARDS

Okay, this 2009 recap is just spiralling out of control (and into February), so I think it's about time to wrap things up.

I was hoping to hold off on mentioning matches until I finished watching the Final Countdown tour, but that's not going to happen for a few days, and I want to put a stamp on this thing by the weekend.

So that brings me to this alternate-style of recapping the matches of 2009...

2009 IN MATCHES

AKA A YEAR OF DAVEY RICHARDS

Nobody else put on as many great matches this past year as Davey Richards. In fact, let's see what that looks like (Davey vs. everybody else):

MOTY'S WITH DAVEY RICHARDS

Davey Richards vs. KENTA (ROH: Supercard of Honor IV)

Davey Richards vs. Shingo (DGUSA: Open The Untouchable Gate)

Davey Richards vs. Kevin Steen (ROH: Never Say Die)

Davey Richards vs. Austin Aries (ROH: Aries vs. Richards)

American Wolves vs. Tyler Black and Bryan Danielson (ROH: World Tag Title Classic)

American Wolves vs. Roderick Strong & KENTA (ROH: Violent Tendencies)

American Wolves vs. Young Bucks (ROH: ROH On HDNet)

American Wolves vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico (ROH: Glory By Honor VIII) (Okay, still haven't seen it, but if it doesn't end up in this list after I see it, I assume it was because my eyes fell out of my head or something)

MOTY'S WITHOUT DAVEY RICHARDS

Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker (WWE: WrestleMania XXV)

Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio (WWE: The Bash)

Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston (ROH: Final Battle 2009)

Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black (ROH: ROH On HDNet)

Nigel McGuinness vs. KENTA (ROH: 7th Anniversary Show)

CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy (WWE: SummerSlam)

Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black vs. Jerry Lynn (ROH: Manhattan Mayhem III)

I'm obviously missing tons of stuff here (TNA, PWG, CHIKARA, NOAH, etc.), but I can only go by what I've seen this year, and I really don't see much of the above, although I will be getting around to it this year (minus TNAlol).

And I'm even probably missing some stuff that I have seen and just plum forgot about, but I'm just rifling these off of the top of my head and taking it a little more casually.

And maybe I'm being a little (a lot) biased because of the title of this post. So while this post seems to be all high and mighty on Davey, despite me not seeing every wrestling match to happen in 2009, I'm sticking by my word!

ENOUGH EXCUSES!

The point is Davey was in a shocking amount of stellar matches this year. And he is well on his way to becoming a world champion outside of FIP.

Photo courtesy of Scott Finkelstein's Get Lost Photography.

DRAGON GATE USA: FREEDOM FIGHT PPV REVIEW THAT'S NOT ABOUT MATCHES!

It's only not about matches because everyone and their tag team partner (I modified that old saying to be wrestling themed!!) will talk about them - and for good reason. They were punch-yourself-in-the-head awesome. Literally exhausting to watch. In the best way.

But since errrbody else has the matches covered (PWInsider covered them really well, and tons of people have their own reviews), I just want to mention a couple other things. Starting with this fella:

JON MOXLEY

WHO ARE YOU BUD

I had never seen Moxley up until last night, and I was impressed. Granted, he didn't wrestle. But he did cut a pretty cool (Heath Ledger comparisons will probably be drawn) promo, and momentarily align himself with Brian Kendrick in a neat segment.

What I like about him is that he could totally stand out in a promotion that's all about workrate by having so much personality (or so it seemed just from last night).

I know nothing about this guy, but I felt like he should get some due while the rest of the wrestling blog/twitter/community/etc. will be all over the matches.

Uh... well, which they should be. Shit was bananas.

Also, tonight (actually right now) Dragon Gate USA is taping an event in Chicago with yet another stacked card, pushing them closer by the second to my 2010 prediction.

"FEARLESS" PAY-PER-VIEW TAPING

OPEN THE FREEDOM GATE TITLE MATCH

BxB Hulk defends vs. Dragon Kid

FIP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH

Masaaki Mochizuki defends vs. Davey Richards

ELIMINATION THREE-WAY TAG TEAM DREAM MATCH

Shingo & YAMATO vs. The Young Bucks vs. Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino

TAG TEAM CHALLENGE MATCH

CIMA & Super Crazy vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw

SPECIAL ATTRACTION MATCH #1

Brian Kendrick vs. Jimmy Jacobs

SPECIAL ATTRACTION MATCH #2

Gran Akuma vs. TJP

PLUS

Tommy Dreamer will appear (or, uh... some other "Extreme" "Innovator of Violence")

This card is just completely loaded from top to bottom. I can only hope that someday Dragon Gate makes the trip to Toronto. Or maybe I'll have to make a trip to Dragon Gate.

2010: DRAGON GATE USA HAS FIRST-EVER 6-STAR MATCH

Doi vs. Shingo was insane.

Davey vs. Shingo was fucking crazy.

And those were just the main events.

The matches just seem to mutate into greater beings as they progress, and at this pace, I don't think my prediction is farfetched.

Could happen in the next couple weeks, in fact.

The Freedom Fight PPV on January 22nd (taped event Open The Freedom Gate, I think) has a stellar line up.

And the next night in Chicago they'll be taping another, called "Fearless." And yes. The card is crazy.

And then there's the WrestleMania weekend shows in Phoenix, which will most definitely deliver the best wrestling (er, alongside ROH and PWG) to take place that weekend.

So I know I'll be watching on the 22nd to see if there's a 6-star match that breaks the internet.