ROH Dragon Gate Challenge

With the wrestling business being so competitive right now, Ring of Honor has managed to differentiate itself by bringing in some of the top talent from Japan. Whether it is the like of Kenta Kobashi or KENTA from Pro Wrestling NOAH or in the case of this show, the stars of the Dragon Gate promotion like Cima and Dragon Kid, it helps add to ROH shows and makes them feel more important than being just another average indie show.

So with 3 shows in 3 days over Wrestlemania weekend this March, ROH brought in 6 of the stars from Dragon Gate and put on possibly the best run of shows that the company has ever run and so quite rightly this comprises the core of the Milestone Series. Dragon Gate developed from the ashes of Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon promotion and is in many ways the Japanese equivalent of ROH. Based around high impact tag matches between rival stables, Dragon Gate fuses the best of the junior style of Japan with the lucha style of Mexico, and prides itself on being the cutting edge of wrestling in Japan, just as ROH is fast becoming in the US.

The weekend started with Dragon Gate Challenge in Detroit on the Friday and was headlined by a series of matches featuring ROH stars taking on the stars of Dragon Gate. Jimmy Yang started the show for ROH taking on Ryo Saito, while later in the evening AJ Styles and Matt Sydal took on Dragon Kid and Genki Horiguchi of the Do Fixer faction. Then, in the rubber match Generation Next of Jack Evans, Roderick Strong and Austin Aries took on the Blood Generation faction comprising Cima, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino. All 3 of these matches really showed the fans what to expect from these Dragon Gate stars and, perhaps with the exception of the Yang vs. Saito match, would exemplify the high impact, innovative wrestling that the Dragon Gate stars would bring to ROH. Fortunately fo the health of ROH as ao company in it's own right, the ROH guys more than held their own against the stars from the Orient and produced the kind of matches that on any other show would have been matches of the year. (Not to mention earning themselves future bookings for Dragon Gate in Japan) So good were these matches over this weekend, that everytime one ended and the crowd had finished chanting 'this is awesome' another match would eclipse it and create yet another gold standard for the ROH fans to judge future matches by.

As well as the Dragon Gate stars, there were a number of important matches for current ROH stars. Samoa Joe and Chris Daniels faced off for what was billed as their final series of matches in ROH and the Friday saw the pair face off one on one for 'the last time'. Unfortunately because this feud was delayed from earlier in the year when Joe was out with a staph infection, this lacked a lot of the drama that 2 ROH legends who have been feuding for over 2 years should have garnered. I also think the Dragon Gate tag matches as well as Joe and Daniels' work in TNA also over shadowed them and, despite having some technically very strong matches, they failed to deliver the kind of matches you would expect from men of their ability.

The other major feud that would develop through the weekend would be Colt Cabana vs. Homicide. Another feud which was delayed in reaching it's climax by an injury, however by having Colt Cabana taking on Homicide in his own home territory of the mid west, it made for a real slow boiling feud that would culminate in a fantastic match at the end of the weekend. For this opening night though, a falls count anywhere match was the opening chapter of this weekend long feud and so perhaps it is unfair to say it was a dissapoint becasue looking at the bigger picture it was just the start of something really strong. However as match on it's own it didn't really go anywhere and lacked a strong finish.

In other matches the Embassy of Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley took on ROH champion Bryan Danielson and a partner of his choice. Danielson arrogantly chose Delirious, believing he could win with any partner, even someone who has never won in ROH and this set-up an interesting story for future shows between Dragon and Delirious when the masked man lost the match for his team. The show also saw BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs escape serious injury when they fell from the top rope attempting a power bomb in a real must see/car crash type moment and the ROH vs. CZW feud also continued with appearances from Chris Hero and Necro Butcher who confronted Hero's former best friend Claudio Castagnoli.

Overall verdict: B+
"Running three shows in three days was a huge gamble for ROH and this debut show would set the tone for the weekend. Featuring a great mix of strong wrestling, some crazy brawling and some truly staggering, innovative wrestling from the Dragon Gate stars. This is often the forgotten show of the trio because of the two that would follow it, however that is perhaps unfair, as this is just as strong a show from top to bottom as any show of that weekend and in fact any show in ROH's history. A perfect place to start for any new fan looking to get into ROH and a must have for any true ROH fan."