I think the next set might have a Dragongate guy or two.
Oh, yeah! I'm really excited about this because I'm actually the one who brought Dragon Gate into Filsinger Games!
Last month after my Roderick Strong signing was announced, I said that my signing I was most excited about (even though I certainly consider Strong an awesome signing too) hasn't been announced yet. Although there are really cool upcoming LOW wrestlers I signed too (perhaps one of them might actually be the biggest signing I've ever made?) who haven't been announced yet, that signing I was referring to was a Dragon Gate wrestler.
Tournament Master revealed/mentioned the Dragon Gate thing, so I want to tell a pretty cool story without giving the names away.
It happened back in March when I was in Phoenix for the weekend of Wrestlemania 26. On the Saturday afternoon of that weekend, I went to a ROH show (I made two signings there too) where I sat with Knapik. Afterward we went separate ways as Knapik went to the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony at the Ford Theatre while I took a cab to that night's Dragon Gate show at the Mercury Theatre.
Inside the bar at the Mercury Theatre before the show, there was a meet and greet for fans like me who had a Golden Ticket (a ticket for a seat in the first 3 rows for the show.) At that meet and greet was the majority of the Dragon Gate roster. Mike Quackenbush was there too and he signed my LOTF card of himself while also talking to me about the game for awhile (he didn't know at the time about the two recent sets that included guys like Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness.)
I knew the Dragon Gate wrestlers would be awesome signings, but I really wasn't sure how I could get it done. But then I looked in Quackenbush's direction again and an idea suddenly flashed through my head because I remembered how Quackenbush once did a podcast with Chikara for LOTF.
(These quotes are almost, if not exactly, verbatim)
Mr. Vegas: "Mike, these guys (indicating the Dragon Gate wrestlers) would be great to get in the game."
Mike Quackenbush: "Yeah, they'd be awesome!"
Mr. Vegas: "Do you know if they can sign?"
Quackenbush: "I don't see why not."
Mr. Vegas: "Well, different feds have different policies."
Quackenbush: "You see that guy standing behind the table selling the photos in the glasses? He's the guy you want to ask. Wait until the line goes down, be professional, and I think you might like your answer."
So, since it's a bar and I have to wait for the line to go down first, I order a beer and nurse it for about the next 45 minutes. When the line is about done, I went back up and talked to the guy Quackenbush told me to talk to. The problem was this guy didn't seem to know English very well, but fortunatly he had a translator at Dragon Gate.
So, on the eve of Wrestlemania 26 in this bar in Phoenix, this Dragon Gate official Mike Quackenbush told me to talk to is asking me questions in Japanese (I didn't understand a single word of what he said to me in Japanese, but I made sure to be polite the entire time) and then the translator would ask me that question again in English. I responded in English (obviously
, I don't know Japanese) and the translator then talked to the Dragon Gate official in Japanese and so on.
(I also think it really sort of helped me that some of the non Japanese wrestlers participating in that Dragon Gate show who were also at that meet and greet were guys like Quackenbush, the Young Bucks, Brian Kendrick- a wrestler who I personally signed to the game last year- and Paul London. I showed this Dragon Gate official those cards- although I forgot my Jimmy Jacobs card and he was there at the time too as was Jigsaw but his card wasn't released yet- and he could see it was indeed OK to sign and become part of the game. I also showed them the cards of the Japanese wrestlers such as Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, and Rikidozan who were in the game.)
Some of the questions I was asked by Dragon Gate were:
"How does the game work?"
and they also asked:
"How successful is the company?"
I told them that Filsinger Games, IMO, was pretty successful since it's been around for about 2 1/2 decades. They seemed to like that answer and it was after that particular question that the Dragon Gate official then again talked again to the translator who then said to me "You have permission to sign up anyone in Dragon Gate you want" and the entire roster was still sitting there at the tables for the meet and greet!
I went straight to this one wrestler (a
huge Dragon Gate name!) who was sitting next to Quackenbush. Earlier, Quackenbush showed him my Giant Baba card and, because he's apparently a big Giant Baba fan, he eagerly signed it. So I actually have a Giant Baba card signed- but obviously not by Baba himself.) I was trying to get this wrestler to sign up and Quackenbush was telling him "I just saw him (indicating me) go talk to the guy, you can sign." But he took out his cell phone and called the very same official I just talked to (which indicates to me that this official was indeed the guy who can make these decisions).
That official answered the call and then walked up and in Japanese apparently told this wrestler he could sign and then suddenly every Dragon Gate wrestler in the area all had their hands up because, once they heard what that official said, they seriously all wanted in the game!
Quackenbush assisted me in signing this one wrestler in particular who is probably my personally favorite Dragon Gate wrestler by helping me explain to him how to sign the form. I signed him (when he wrote his name down on that form, it really was one of the most exciting moments of the year for me so far- I actually took his signed release form with me the next day to Wrestlemania 26 beacuse I didn't want to leave it alone in my hotel room. Seriously, it's a major Dragon Gate name!) and 3 other Dragon Gate wrestlers too. I could have signed more than just those 4 Dragon Gate wrestlers, but it was at the end of the meet and greet when they were all about to leave to prepare for the show and I just ran out of time because I was by myself.
But, Tournament Master previously mentioned Dragon Gate probably being in the next set, and there are indeed some awesome Dragon Gate names I signed coming to LOTF!
, I don't know Japanese) and the translator then talked to the Dragon Gate official in Japanese and so on.