DGUSA Untouchable STUFF (2009)

Dragon Kid vs. Masato Yoshino
Very similar to their previous DGUSA match, and it's on par with it. It's not very interesting, but it's not bad either. I think the most memorable thing for me was how brutal one of Yoshino's holds looked, because of Kid's small body frame. So that's at least one memorable thing in an otherwise forgettable bout. **


Bryan Danielson vs. Naruki Doi

Nobody brutalizes a limb more compellingly than Danielson & that truly shows here as he destroys Doi's arm in the most vicious & enjoyable fashion. That of course came as an answer to Doi's brief attack on Danielson's knee - Doi doesn't work over it a ton, but he does some stuff over it in the beginning, and it shows till the end as Danielson does some awesome subtle selling with it. Good examples of that would be him falling down, holding the knee after delivering a big move to Doi, and then a while later after he had delivered a yet another big move, he couldn't capitalize & cover because the knee was hurting, as he had to rest for a few seconds on the corner. He doesn't exactly sell it dramatically, and those two moments sound more dramatic when I write them than they actually were. I'd say it's really good selling, because like I mentioned, Doi's attack on the knee was pretty short lived, and he never really came back to it as the match went on. I also really loved the slugging-it-out portions of the thing, which were mostly all about Doi's quick slaps vs. Danielson's lethal kicks. Really good & hard hitting stuff w/ both guys bringing their own flair to the bits, making them standout from your usual generic indy/puro strike standoffs. Danielson was fantastic all the way through, but Doi was really good as well. He didn't do much with the arm that Dragon destroyed, and he was pretty great on the offense himself. There's definitely lots to love here from the viciously amazing armwork by Danielson, to his knee selling, to the strike exchanges, to the finishing stretch which had two absolutely awesome nearfalls just before Doi gets the job done with the Muscular Bomb. Great match. ****

Davey Richards vs. SHINGO

Shingo does some work over Davey's leg, Davey does some work over Shingo's arm, neither sells. Other than that, it's a painfully generic, dull & soulless bombfest w/ around 2000 nearfalls. Pretty overkill if you ask me. I can appreciate Davey getting the win w/ the Kimura though, as that makes the arm targeting he did somewhat matter, but overall this was a complete bore. In some ways, it was like a shitty epic mode!! version of Danielson/Doi from the same show. A big BLEH. *

Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito vs. The Young Bucks

It's good spotfest action as you'd expect, and there's also a very solid Matt FIP segment in there. I also really liked The Bucks working over Genki's HAIR, and I'd actually say that what elevated this match to some memorable heights was in fact the work of Genki Horiguchi. He was a really wonderful slimy heel throughout. That's not to undermine his partners, Ryo Saito's work, because he was really good too, but Genki was the obvious star here. ***1/2