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The crowd was down from the debut area, drawing somewhere around 550 fans, although fans were arriving as late as 10:30 due to traffic issues. The crowd was more along the lines of what Gabe Sapolsky expected for the debut event in July, which he was surprised at drawing as well as it did. Sapolsky was ecstatic that the company finally sold all of their ringside seats out the afternoon of the show, since those were higher priced tickets.
There was a 18 wheeler truck that overturned around Exit 5 of the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday at 1 PM that destroyed the flow of traffic. Someone I know left the Philly area at 6 PM and wasn't able to get to NYC until 11 PM last night. There were fans and wrestlers who found what is usually a two hour trip turned into a six hour odyssey. It was an absolute nightmare and we heard from fans today who had tickets to the show that gave up and went home.
Eddie Kingston and Jigsaw were trapped in the snarl and missed their scheduled matches as they arrived after the official show took place. Hallowicked, who was supposed to face Kingston, went into a Six Way in the title tournament. Since they were advertised and were booked, DGUSA made the call to put Kingston and Jigsaw against each other after intermission in order to make sure fans got what they were promised.
As of now, last night's event is the final show for several months in the Northeast as they are heading to Chicago in January (Dragon Kid vs. BxB Hulk for the DGUSA title will headline) and then Phoenix, Arizona in March. The Arena wasn't available for the initial spring dates the company was looking to schedule, so it's looking like a summer return, and not necessarily in Philadelphia.
There were no injuries coming out of last night's show.
The full talent roster for the 1/23 Chicago return will be announced this week. DGUSA is doing a $5 discount on Golden Circle and stage seats to Chicago for Cyber Monday at www.dgusa.tv.
I am under the impression Super Crazy will be returning, which is great to hear as he was awesome last night. He was closer to ECW era form than the Mexicools era Crazy we saw in WWE.
Jon Moxley and Brian Kendrick will be linked going forward. Kendrick's mic work was actually my favorite thing about his work last night. He hasn't shown a real spark in the ring here yet.
There may be additional international talents beyond Dragon Gate wrestlers in for the Phoenix weekend.
Kyle O'Reilly, who really impressed last night, is a Davey Richards trainee. After his excellent bout with Adam Cole, Gabe Sapolsky noted to me that matches like that were what he hoped his EVOLVE promotion would be - a proving ground for new names to begin making their buzz.
Sal Hamaoui was there running production. PPV Producer Ken Gelman was also in attendance.
There was a lot of conversation among fans after the show about RF Video's Joe Ferrara being used as a ringside cameraman on the show last night. I am told basically DGUSA needed a cameraman and Ferrara was tapped since he lives in the area. DGUSA had looked into some of the Smart Mark Video staff but it didn't work out. For those who have asked, RF Video is not working with DGUSA as a video outlet or distributor. Gabe Sapolsky said any rumors along those lines stemming from Ferrara working the show were "completely false." In regard to a recent photo of himself and Rob Feinstein that popped up online, Sapolsky said they had made amends and were leaving the past in the past.
