Sapolsky is back: Dragon Gate USA

[MrCanada]

Looks like Dragon Gate is expanding into the USA and has named former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky as the Vice President of the US branch (I'm guessing that means booker)


- Dragon Gate sent out the following press release today:

ANNOUNCING DRAGON GATE USA

PHILADELPHIA - Japan's Dragon Gate promotion has announced its expansion into United States with Dragon Gate USA at last night's Korakuen Hall event in Tokyo. It has named Satoshi Oji as the President and Gabe Sapolsky as the Vice President of Dragon Gate USA. DGUSA will make its online home at www.DGUSA.tv as the site was launched late last night.

Dragon Gate's roots go back to Mexico in 1999. Now Dragon Gate promotes over 250 shows per year in Japan. It will increase its schedule by running live events under the Dragon Gate USA banner every other month in the United States. The first show is scheduled for Philadelphia at The Arena on July 25th. Already announced for this event are CIMA, Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino. Tickets will go on sale on April 29th. Information will be coming soon about DGUSA's Chicago
debut on Labor Day weekend.

Oji has been a long time employee of the Dragon Gate promotion and will run an office out of Houston. Sapolsky, the former booker of ROH and office worker in the original ECW, will head the Philadelphia office.

"This is a natural progression in Dragon Gate's growth," Oji said. "The entire company in Japan is looking forward to bringing our style of wrestling to the United States. The wrestlers are all very excited to make a new home in the United States."

"This is a great opportunity to bring something new, fresh and unique to the American pro wrestling scene," Sapolsky said. "DGUSA is going to be about quality over quantity. This is the haven for pro wrestling fans. Our goal is to become known as the premium brand of pro wrestling."

We encourage you to visit www.DGUSA.tv for feature articles, a roster section, a mission statement, the chance to order Dragon Gate USA merchandise and more. All the latest information about this revolutionary promotion is now at DGUSA.tv.

http://www.dgusa.tv/

[NickC13573]

thought this might happen, as with the whole ROH/Dragon gate debacle.

[MrCanada]

Gabe speaks:


- Earlier today, Dragon Gate announced the formation of Dragon Gate USA, with former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky named Vice President. Dragon Gate USA will run its first show on July 25th from The Arena in Philadelphia, PA.

- Gabe Sapolsky made the following comments on his MySpace Blog today:

I've been trying to hint at it for a while and now Dragon Gate USA is officially here. First off, I want to thank all of you that kept reading this blog. When I first started writing it I was doing it for myself as a way to deal with things. Then I became overwhelmed by how many people were actually reading it so I continued it even when I started to feel better about almost everything. The encouragement, kind words and thoughts that I received from all of you really helped me.

There is a lot I want to blog about, but I figure there is enough new information out there for you to digest. I know I am getting overwhelmed. I'll keep this blog short and simple- THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

You have all helped me and now I look forward to continuing on together with Dragon Gate USA. I am looking forward to writing about my new outlook on things in the future right here in this blog. Right now, check out www.DGUSA.tv and join us as our new journey begins.

[CQI13]

Good for Gabe. I have NEVER seen anything from ROH, but I have seen two shoots/booking exercises with him, and he has a really solid mind for the business. I don't agree with everything he was putting forth, but I guess that comes from the Paul Heyman School of Booking. However, in the second one (which was AFTER leaving ROH) he was very classy about it. So good to see him get this job.

[MrCanada]

Paul Heyman School of Booking

No he dosnt. He never booked in ECW, helped Heyman book, or anything like that. He answered phones and ran RF Video. Thats it.

[BurningHamster]

Not sure what to make of this.

I used to love Toryumon/early Dragon Gate and was a total mark for them as I am for any entertaining wrestling. They used to be a really fun, flippy, fast-paced promotion with gimmicks, stables and more US style booking and weird comedy. They were also at one point super isolationist and very rarely used outside wrestlers which to me was a good thing as almost every promotion in Japan at that point was sharing talent and by not doing that Toryumon/DG had their own idenity.

Then the drama with Ultimo Dragon leaving, SUWA left in disgust at the "social dance club" style, they started using more outsiders, ROH got involved, Jack Freakin' Evans started showing up and forcing everyone to be a part of his goofy acrobatics act which would have been okay in another promotion, but the DG style was all about smooth, lucha inspired work that kept the flow going .... killing that to get a super duper triple flip thingy in just broke my heart. It got over with the Japanese crowds though. Then they got more and more metrosexual to the point where the entire crowd sounded like teen girls and their gimmicks pandered more and more toward this kind of audience and they almost became a parody of themselves.

The only thing I really liked since RoH got involved was that awesome 6 man that I cannot remember the date or show, but which made most of the ROH guys look boring by comparison. DG and ROH were just so different in philosophy that I don't know if them working together ever made much sense.

What the heck they are going to do in the US with Gabe Sapolsky involved beats the hell out of me but it doesn't inspire confidence. The fact the website says "there will be a revolving door of guest stars" means there will probably be a bunch of bad US high flyers involved. Nothing against US highflyers, just most don't gel too well with the good DG guys and vice versa.

I just hope I am wrong and we end up seeing some really bizarre matches, like BxB Hulk -vs- Necro Butcher or Genki Horiguchi -vs- Tracey Smothers or maybe we can see some luchas getting into the mix. That would be entertaining to me.

[CQI13]

What I meant was that some of the booking examples I've seen of him (and again, not his actual ROH work) focus on certain aspects that were common of Heyman. You don't have to have worked for someone/with someone to be influenced by their style. And I'm not saying that ALL Heyman stuff was bad. He had some great qualities (which Sapolski showed in that same interview).

[The Final Countdown]

The only thing I really liked since RoH got involved was that awesome 6 man that I cannot remember the date or show, but which made most of the ROH guys look boring by comparison.
Pretty sure you're talking about the match from Supercard of Honor (Wrestlemania weekend in 06), which as far as I know is the last ROH match to have received ***** from Meltzer.

[BurningHamster]

Pretty sure you're talking about the match from Supercard of Honor (Wrestlemania weekend in 06), which as far as I know is the last ROH match to have received ***** from Meltzer.

Aye, that's the one. DoFixer and Blood Gen. Meltzer is an odd fellow with his star ratings.