Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA) is an American

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within ...

founded in 2009 as an international expansion of the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate.

Gabe Sapolsky Gabe Sapolsky (born September 26, 1972) is an American professional wrestling promoter and booker. He is signed to WWE, where he oversees WWE ID and WWE NIL, WWE ID (Independent Development), a talent identification and development initiative. S ...

, former head booker of

Ring of Honor Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011; the promotion was subs ...

, served as the promotion's Vice President.

History

Dragon Gate USA featured regular members of the Dragon Gate roster, along with notable American talent. All Dragon Gate titles and champions were recognized by Dragon Gate USA. In June 2009, it was announced that Dragon Gate USA had signed an agreement to film its shows for

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

broadcast. In August 2009, it was announced that Dragon Gate USA had signed an agreement with

The Fight Network Fight Network is a Canadian English language Category B specialty channel owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment. The network broadcasts programming related to combat sports, including mixed martial arts, boxing, kickboxing, and professional wres ...

to air DGUSA content on television. The first Open the Freedom Gate Champion was crowned following a tournament held at

DGUSA Freedom Fight Freedom Fight / Open the Freedom Gate is a series of professional wrestling pay-per-view events produced by Dragon Gate USA. Background Freedom Fight will feature an undetermined number of professional wrestling matches that will involve differen ...

on November 28, 2009. This was the main title of Dragon Gate USA. On September 7, 2010, Dragon Gate USA announced a partnership with Go Fight Live and that their first live internet pay-per-view, ''Bushido: Way of the Warrior'' (later renamed ''Bushido: Code of the Warrior''), would be taking place on October 29. In the fall of 2010, DGUSA announced that it would be holding a tournament to crown the first Open the United Gate Champions, which was their tag team champions. It was announced on December 13, 2010, that the tournament would be a four team round robin tournament that would take place over three shows from January 28 through January 30, 2011. On November 25, 2011, Dragon Gate USA and Evolve announced the unification of the two promotions. Dragon Gate USA and Evolve will still promote separate events, but the two share rosters, including stables, and Evolve recognized Dragon Gate USA's Open the Freedom Gate Championship and Open the United Gate Championship as its top two championships, until establishing its own championship, the

Evolve Championship The Evolve Championship was a men's professional wrestling Championship (professional wrestling), championship that was created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion, promotion Evolve (professional wrestling), Evolve. The ...

in 2012. On September 18, 2013, Vito LoGrasso announced that his new Wrestling School signed an agreement to be the Development Center for DGUSA. In November 2014, Dragon Gate USA, along with Evolve,

Full Impact Pro Full Impact Pro (FIP) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is currently part of the World Wrestling Network (WWN) along with Shine Wrestling. Sal Hamaoui founded the company and serves as the president, while Trevin Adams is the ...

(FIP) and

Shine Wrestling Shine Wrestling (stylized as SHINE Wrestling and often referred to simply as SHINE) is an American, New York based independent women's professional wrestling promotion. It is the sister promotion to Shimmer Women Athletes and airs events on In ...

, all under the

WWNLive The World Wrestling Network is an American professional wrestling organization known for and branded after its video streaming service, WWNLive. WWNLive hosts content both from WWN's "brands", including Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestl ...

banner, held a tour of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. The following month, WWNLive announced a long-term deal with Great-Wall International Sports Management for regular tours of Asia, starting in the spring of 2015. On December 22, WWNLive announced it was putting Dragon Gate USA on an indefinite hiatus until the promotion could secure more Japanese wrestlers for their shows. In 2015, WWNLive opened a training facility in

Trinity, Florida Trinity is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pasco County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,924 in 2020, according to the most recent census. The Trinity Community is named after Trinity College of Florida, a Bible college founded ...

named "World Wrestling Network Academy", which Dragon Gate USA shares with Evolve, FIP and Shine. On July 2, 2020, Dragon Gate USA's video library along with Evolve's assets were bought by

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

. On January 31, 2025, Dragon Gate announced that the DGUSA brand would return on April 16, 2025 at the

Palms Casino Resort Palms Casino Resort is a hotel and casino located near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. It includes 703 rooms and a casino. It was originally owned by th ...

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

as part of

Game Changer Wrestling Game Changer Wrestling (GCW), formerly known as Jersey Championship Wrestling (JCW), is an American Independent circuit, independent professional wrestling professional wrestling promotion, promotion based in New Jersey. The promotion was original ...

's (GCW) Collective under the title ''

Dragon Gate USA The Rebirth A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

'' during WrestleMania weekend. Another show was also announced with Pro Wrestling Revolution during the West Coast Pro/DPW/Prestige Vegas event at MEET Las Vegas titled ''The Gate Of Revolution''

Uprising

Uprising was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

(PPV) event produced by Dragon Gate USA that was taped May 8, 2010 at the Mississauga International Centre in

Mississauga, Ontario Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

and aired on July 9, 2010.

Partnerships

Working agreements between Dragon Gate USA and the following promotions have led to interchanges in talent. Also, matches from these promotions have appeared on Dragon Gate USA DVD releases. * Chikara (established April 26, 2009) *

All American Wrestling AAW: Professional Wrestling Redefined or simply AAW Wrestling (AAW), an initialism of its original name, All American Wrestling, is an American independent professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro w ...

(established June 15, 2009) *Hybrid Wrestling (established June 15, 2009) *

(established September 28, 2009) *

Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup The Jeff Peterson Memorial Cup was an annual professional wrestling memorial show produced by Full Impact Pro (FIP) promotion, typically between October and December. The event was established to honor the memory of independent wrestler "All A ...

(established October 13, 2009) *

Women Superstars Uncensored Women Superstars United (WSU), formerly known as Wrestling Superstars Unleashed and Women Superstars Uncensored, was an American women's professional wrestling promotion based in New Jersey which has been inactive since 2020. Founded in 2006, W ...

(established October 14, 2009) *

Maximum Pro Wrestling Maximum Pro Wrestling (MaxPro) was a Canadian independent professional wrestling organization, founded in 2010 with the merger of Scott D'Amore's Border City Wrestling out of Windsor, Ontario and BSE Pro Wrestling out of Toronto, Ontario. Histo ...

(established March 3, 2010) *Rampage Pro Wrestling *

Combat Zone Wrestling Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) is an American independent professional wrestling promotion founded in 1999 by John Zandig. Commonly associated with the 2000s hardcore wrestling genre, early CZW shows showcased a brand of wrestling dubbed by the p ...

*New York Wrestling Connection *Insanity Pro Wrestling

Championships

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon Gate Usa 2009 in professional wrestling American independent professional wrestling promotions based in Pennsylvania Professional wrestling in Philadelphia American companies established in 2009 2009 establishments in Pennsylvania Dragon Gate (wrestling) American companies disestablished in 2015 2015 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Entertainment companies disestablished in 2015 WWE mergers and acquisitions Defunct professional wrestling promotions Evolve (professional wrestling)