DGUSA Open The Historic Gate (2009)

BxB Hulk vs. YAMATO

This starts off very well - great atmosphere, and they just do some very nice back & forth wrasslin'. Eventually YAMATO sees a target in Hulk's right leg, and he goes to town on it. YAMATO is really solid working the leg w/ kicks, stomps & some holds. His whole control period is pretty enjoyable. Of course eventually BxB Hulk gets back into the thing, and what is his first real comeback move? A picture perfect springboard missile dropkick, of course! Now I can't say I'm disappointed, because when YAMATO started attacking that leg, I certainly wasn't expecting Hulk to sell it much at all, but it's still always annoying to see that kind of stuff, and it definitely made the match quality drop quite a bit. He sold fine when he didn't have to do any of his movez, but when it was his time to do his thing, he didn't sell. OH WELL. Everything other than that shitty selling was pretty fun though - YAMATO looked real good in control & other than the no-selling shizzat, Hulk was fine too. Great atmosphere, great energy, solid match. **1/2

Amasis, Hallowicked & Team FIST vs. Jigsaw, Mike Quackenbush & The Colony

This was solid, yet very forgettable, but it more than served its job as a great showcase for all the CHIKARA guys. They all got to do their flashy stuff & the crowd seemed to be loving it, so can't hate on that. **

Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino

Athletic, high speed action from bell to bell. Kind of similar to the CHIKARA tag in that while it was perfectly okay, it was also very forgettable at the same time. **

CIMA & Susumu Yokosuka vs. The Young Bucks

Matt has a solid FIP segment, which is of course then naturally followed with a Nick Jackson hot tag, and that is when the match goes balls to the walls & delivers some pretty exciting spotfest, finishing stretch action. Far from the best Bucks stuff of that kind, but with them it's usually always at least solid, and such was the case here. **1/2

Naruki Doi vs. Shingo Takagi

The legwork by Naruki Doi was, of course, completely pointless & lead to nowhere, and the rest of the match is your usual bomb heavy Dragon Gate big match action. Shingo can be more interesting than many others when it comes to that, so I wouldn't say the match was bad, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea either + the bad selling was annoying. **