Really enjoyed reading the reviews in this thread. Always a good read. I might have a look in my RoH DVD collection in a bit and write a few reviews.

I think Danielson is keeping the title tonight. I think this is the right way to go, but I do think that Danielson defends the title too often, and even though the matches are always very entertaining, nine times out of ten it is extremely obvious his opponent is not going to win.

Nice review of 'Ring of Homicide' edgecrusher, I am tempted to get this on DVD, but with the number of shows increasing I dont have the funds to buy regularly, so I might wait until a must see event comes along, possibly Death Before Dishonor IV with it sounding a great event from live reports.

I have all the 2006 DVD's up to the 100th show and it has been another really good year so far for RoH.

RoHomicide IS must-see, KofmW. I was feeling leery through the undercard, but the top line stuff was beyond amazing. While ROH has its faults, there's no doubt that the company has the right people on top, and Homicide is so over it's scary. He really is getting Samoa Joe-like heat.

I've got Destiny to review, then I need to wait for the next three shows to arrive, which I ordered today. I don't think they'll be quite as good as these, after a glance at the cards, but I've been surprised before. Jimmy Jacobs is back on them so it can't be that bad. McGuinness is absent for all but one of the shows, though.

I'm in the middle of watching 'How We Roll' at the moment, with the three top matches to go it's been better than I expected so far. I remember reading the live reports of that weekend's shows and thinking it didn't look good, with Ring of Homicide looking a lot better.

There's some weirdness with the commentary on the DVD, as it's almost inaudible for Jimmy Yang vs Matt Sydal, half of the three way and the beginning of Rave and Shelley vs Homicide and Reyes.

Yang vs Sydal isn't much of an opener, Yang seems to be practising his generic WWE heel style, poking the eyes, pointing to the crowd to distract the referee, then hitting a low blow and so on, then Sydal makes a comeback and scores a clean pin with a beautiful Shooting Star Press. It could almost have been a Velocity main event.

Next up is supposed to be Delirious vs Christopher Daniels vs Colt Cabana vs Nigel McGuinness, but after the first three ring entrances (in the above order), Christian Cage comes out and chooses Cabana as his partner for the main event of Cage and ? vs Danielson and ?. There's plenty of entertaining mic shenanigans as Danielson comes out and chooses Daniels as his partner "I hear we've teamed before but I don't remember when..." on the condition that if they win, Daniels gets an ROH title shot. I like that they tied in the fact that Danielson won the title in that venue and then defeated Daniels in a title defense there too.

When they bugger off we're left with Delirious alone in the ring, and McGuinness comes out. I don't like the fact that McGuinness didn't come out while Danielson was still out there, as they should have heat following the conclusion of their title vs title match the show before, and a face off would have been interesting. We then get the announcement that the match is now a three way match...

Delirious vs Nigel McGuinness vs Kikutaro. Nigel jumps the former Ebessan before he gets to the ring, and he seriously towers over him. The former Pure champion is dominant for the majority of the match, but in between Delirious and Kikutaro get to reprise their slow motion sequence from the four way they were in at 'The Final Showdown'. It would work better if the commentary was audible though. Kikutaro also involves the referee in a comedy spot at the end (I got to see basically the same spots live at FWA Academy Supercard 4 last weekend) which puts Nigel out of the ring and Delirious quickly makes Kikutaro tap out to his new submission, the Cobra Stretch for the upset. The one fall is enough to win, obviously, despite a 'Three Way Dance' graphic at the beginning which usually means an elimination match.

There's then two tag matches to round out the first half of the show, first Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave vs Homicide and Ricky Reyes. Delightfully, this means we get Daizee Haze, Prince Nana AND Julius Smokes at ringside, which leads to lots of shenanigans. The Rottweilers assume face status from being in New York, and so Smokes can chase Nana around ringside. Rave and Shelley do most of the character work, stalling a lot early on, then spend the majority of the match isolating Homicide, which only works so well because Reyes isn't great waiting for hot tags. 'Cide busts out the tope con hilo, something he doesn't tend to use as a heel in ROH. The finish sees Nana cheat and get away with it, which draws Smokes into the ring which the ref sees and calls a DQ. Kinda fun from a character viewpoint, but perhaps too long and the finish pretty much takes away any meaning from the match.

In one of those weird ROH moments, they start a Lacey promo then cut away to Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli jumping the rail with CZW referee Bryce Remsberg. Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer come out with Todd Sinclair and we have a double ref CZW vs ROH match ala the 100th show main event. It's the first time Hero and Castagnoli have done their Kings of Wrestling team in ROH. Quite frankly, some of their double teams are wank. The contrived setup for an assisted Castagnoli shoulderblock in the corner is particularly ridiculous. Rubbishness aside, the usual CZW vs ROH brawling formula is followed for the most part, which is good and heated, then the CZW ref stops Todd Sinclair from counting an ROH victory, Sinclair is knocked down, Necro Butcher joins the match, and eventually the 3-on-2 numbers see Whitmer put through a ringside table and Pearce is pinned after a double team Heros Welcome that doesn't look that devastating at all.

Still to come, I have Roderick Strong vs Mark Briscoe, Austin Aries vs Jay Briscoe and the dream tag main event to watch. I look forward to Aries vs Jay and the main.

There's Samoa Joe vs Apocalypse too, but I've already seen that from ROHvideos.com.

I can't believe I didn't see that coming.

In a world where wrestling in seen by the mainstream as a parade of Boogeymen, vampires, astrology-telling witches, zombies, and 40 year old men pretending to be juvenile delinquents...there was wrestling last night in Edison, NJ...wrestling that didn't embarass you as an adult, and as a wrestling fan.

Meet someone who tells you they hate wrestling...then show them a DVD of last night's show...and show them KENTA vs. Davey Richards...or "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe. You'll never have to be embarassed about being a wrestling fan again.

Ring of Honor returned to Edison, NJ last night for "Fight of the Century". The show had to contend with the nicest day of the entire summer and the Jersey Shore season, yet drew a good...if late crowd.

Dark match

Derrick Dempsey submitted Pelle Primeau with the Orange County Stretch.

"Fight Of The Century"



Colt Cabana defeated Sal Rinauro via submission in a hilarious opener. As usual, fans covered the ring with toilet paper (mock streamers) for The Embassy's entrance. Cabana did the old Al Perez "Aly-copter", then locked on a reverse Boston Crab to submit Rinauro.


Top Of The Class Trophy:
Shane Hagadorn defeats Bobby Dempsey via submission in a flash submission after a shot with brass knuckles and a crossface submission.

This match was basically to set up the next segment, as "Lt. Commissioner" Adam Pierce ranted in the mike as heel Hagadorn tried to kiss up to Pierce. Pierce is gold on the microphone. Either Pierce has been underutilized...or he's been working bigtime with Cornette on promos. Adam Pearce called out BJ Whitmer to explain why he didn't save him. Whitmer said he was loyal to ROH, but also loyal to Homicide. Out of nowhere, Steve Corino jumped BJ Whitmer.


Nigel McGuinness won the Four Corner Survival over Claudio Castagnoli, Jay Lethal, Christopher Daniels, pinning Claudio Castagnoli after a lariat.


Ring Of Honor World Tag Team Championships/Ultimate Endurance
Austin Aries and Roderick Strong defeated Matt Sydal and Jack Evans, The Briscoe Brothers, and Irish Airborne to retian their Ring of Honor Tag Team Titles
* The first pinfall, under scramble rules, saw Irish Airborne eliminates Jay and Mark Briscoe. The crowd was NOT happy one bit and was pretty much dead until the next pinfall
* The second pinfall under submission only rules, Roderick Strong eliminates Irish Airborne (Dave and Jake Crist) when Strong submits Dave Crist
* The third fall, winner take all rules, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong defeated Matt Sydal and Jack Evans after Austin Aries pinned Matt Sydal with a 450 splash to retain the Ring of Honor Tag Team Titles.

Irish Airborne was working under the handicap of one of the Crist Brothers working the match with a broken (and still badly swollen) hand.

Post match, Austin Aries wondered what happened to the stolen tag team championships. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Matt Sydal, and Jack Evans all shook hands as former Generation Next members

After the intermission, Adam Pearce and Steve Corino were up in the ring with the usual Steve Corino rant on the crowd...and Corino later turning his venom on Green Lantern Fan's father, since the infamous Green Lantern Fan was still out smoking during intermission.


BJ Whitmer and Homicide defeated Steve Corino and Adam Pearce via disqualification after a Briscoe Brothers run-in, attacking Homicide and destroyed his arm (backstory: remember Cornette managed the Briscoes when he first came to ROH.)


KENTA defeats Davey Richards in an incredible match that would have been at home at Korakuen Hall .The finish saw Davey Richards escape the busaiku knee kick before finally being pinned after KENTA's Go 2 Sleep. The strikes and spots these two were throwing at each other were unbelivable stiff-looking.


Ring of Honor World Championship: Samoa Joe vs Bryan Danielson ended in a Time limit draw in an incredible 60 minute draw. Post-match, they teased giving the fans 5 more minutes, but Danielson refused. KENTA came out to confront Danielson (to link to their September 16 match in Manhattan), but the Briscoes jumped KENTA. Homicide...then Samoa Joe made the save.

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Credit: A-Dub, I'm copy and pasting from his thread.

Danielson vs Joe looks like it was a fantastic match, rest of the car ddoesnt look to bad either. I am going to order 'Destiny', 'Chi-Town Struggle', and 'Ring Of Homicide' soon. I did try and buy all of 2006 in order, but since the number of shows is increasing rapidly, I'm just going to get the events which look good to me and get the rest when I can afford them.

Kenta vs Aries looks a good match on CTS, Aries has impressed me in his tag team with Roderick Strong, I think he displays WAY more charisma than Strong (but then again who doesnt) and Danielson vs Cabana looks appealing as well.

I'm going to continue getting them in order, and review them in order.

Indeed, Wodewick is the somewhat weaker wheel of the GenNEXT team. But undeniably, he's over with the fans. In a way it's a shame because it doesn't promote him to improve his weak sides; such as the fact he doesn't project very well, has no interview capability and looks about 5.

Speaking of the tag division, who should dethrone GenNEXT when it actually happens, and what then? A second GenNEXT title reign would be utterly pointless, after all.

KENTA has been over to ROH ten times in recent months. If they set up an ongoing deal with NOAH (Too manycaps in this post!) that means they get them between tours, a transitional tag reign for MaruKENTA would be amazing for business. After that...Well, it looks like Irish Airborne are being groomed as a big deal, which quite frankly terrifies me. If only Alex Shelley hadn't left...

Alex Shelley left?! Whaaaa?! When?! Why?!

*cries*

Alex Shelley's LEFT? Why the hell? Explain immediately!

Well, nothing’s been said officially I don’t think, but it was rumoured for a while that he was going to choose TNA over ROH, he’s not been booked for a while now, he’s not booked for any future shows and ROH appear to have replaced him in the Embassy. So I’d say he’s either gone for good, or he’ll be coming in very rarely like Jay Lethal. Either way, him and Jimmy as potential tag champs is done.

But, but, Alex Shelley's the best guy IN the Embassy!

Though I guess you have a point. His absence was looking a bit strange to me, too. There was no way they were potential tag champs by the end, though. They'd been jobbed out too many times, IMO.

If they want to book an actual successor, it needs to be a team that NEVER loses. They need to build them up properly, otherwise the fans'll shit on the result. The Briscoes have that potential (the fans certainly buy into them), but The Embassy lost too much IMO. Irish Airborne will make good challengers, but it's WAAAAAAAAAAY too early to talk champions.

I quite like Irish Airborne, but I couldn't buy them as champs yet. They're in the 'pretty but green' stage.

And from what I've heard, these 4-team title matches are a BIG step in the wrong direction. I guess it gives the bookers a chance to see how the fans react to different teams against GenNEXT, but all it's going to do in the short term is reiterate, AGAIN, that they're unbeatable. That said, Goldberg got over by never losing. Maybe that's the point with this team.

The Briscoes aren't booked often enough to be tag champs. They're also shit.

Maybe ROH will put together some huge dream team, Like Joe and Richards. Or maybe the newly evil team of Corino and Pearce will take them, which would make me mark like a schoolgirl.

It's a shame due to the ROH/CZW storyline and Super Dragons other commitments (like PWG) that they couldn't have brought Davey in with Dragon as their tag team in PWG was soooo fucking good.

It might be a case of other commitments again, but I'd love to see Hero and Claudio teaming up as the Kings Of Wrestling in ROH. They'd certainly make convincing tag champs.

Personal feelings are irrelevant; the Briscoes are OVER. Far more over than any other team in ROH than GenNEXT. Well, except The Embassy, but if Shelley's gone, that team's dead.

Can't imagine they'd put a throw-together team over the champs, ever. It's that kind of thing that killed the tag titles in WWE, after all.

EDIT: It's kinda funny that you support the Kings of Wrestling but say the Briscoes are shit. I vastly prefer the BBs.

Well, the Briscoes head popping, double stomping offence may be over, but The Kings would have real heel heat. They can hang with anyone as a team, Hero is far easier to get on with as a tag worker and “We Are The Champions “ at a ROH show would be hilarious. I think it would be a great coda to the CZW feud.

As far as thrown together teams go, AJ Styles and Amazing Red never teamed in ROH before they won the tag belts and they were pretty over for their reign.

I think Joe and Davey would make a great team. There'd be pretty similar to Davey/Dragon but that would be a good thing and if built properly they would be huge and have some great matches, plus Davey gets a huge rub and there's always the inevitable break-up fued to look forward to as Joe/Davey had a match in PWG that was excellent.

No Alison Danger all weekend? *Stops watching*

Colt Cabana Vs Jimmy Jacobs

Perfectly acceptable little match to kick off the show. Colt is starting from the bottom of the card after his humiliating loss to AmDrag ion five minutes. Does anyone else think the concept of working Homicide so much you forget how to wrestle is unintentionally hilarious? Jacobs continues on with his smitten emo kid routine. I always thought he was born to play the tiny berserker gimmick, but this shit suits him even better.
Match plays out as you’d expect, with Jacobs mooning over Lacey and being made to look foolish by the once again happy frat boy Cabana. As someone who got quite badly beat up once, I don’t think you snap back into cheerful that quickly just because you’ve had a shave.
Jacobs hits his trademark stuff around Colt’s goofy move set, including a sweet looking reverse Senton from the top. He and Lacey are a machine at the moment, all their interactions are pure gold. Lacey is pretty convincing in her character, I wonder if she’s as shrill and annoying in real life? It’d probably still be worth it. Colt as happy go lucky is well and truly restored, and we’re all very grateful, as he calls his corner butt-butt a ‘flying asshole’. Tasteful. Finish come when Colt hits a sequence of moves on Jacobs back followed by a powerbomb and a tight roll up. Good opener. Jacobs only has one more night to get a win, or Lacey’s going to leave him!

Cornette and Ker-azy Ace Steel pop down to the ring to recruit Cabana in case there’s any trouble with CZW tonight, as well as promise Claudio that he’s in a heap of trouble. The best part of this segment was Colt and Steel doing the Rockers exit from the ring.

Irish Airborne Vs Spud and Jay Fury

Wow, yesterday I watched Spud wrestle in a working men’s club in Melton Mowbray in front of 50 people. Now, here he is on my TV, working an ROH show in Ohio. Bloody strange, that.
This was an indy tag match as by the numbers as they come, but Airborne made their reputation in this area so the fans are already into them. Spud and Zeppo do mat work to start with, including the hideous leg trip-one count-leg trip one count spot and the ever awful indy stand off of doom. Spud hits a nice Déjà vu, I guess it’s all his opponents in the UK who can’t take it properly rather than him fucking it up consistently. He and Jay fluff another Do Fixer spot slightly when an assisted 619 only grazes Groucho’s head. Some fans go for the hated “You fucked up” only to be shouted down from some quarters with “Least you tried” Ahhh, bless. I find “Shut the fuck up” works best in that situation, myself.
Anyway, next on the guide to having an indy tag match is the sequence where Spud gets isolated and beat on. IA obviously enjoy having such a tiny opponent, as they take the opportunity to throw him around with abandon. This is the best part of Spud’s game though, the getting beaten up, so it’s watchable. Eventually, Spud hit a diving DDT for the hot tag, and we stop briefly for a dive chain of increasing danger and decreasing contact being made before some finisher death into IA picking up the win. Inoffensive tag with everyone looking OK.

Post match, Soup Dragon attacks one of the students working security and runs out the door, stealing a chair as he goes. OK.

Jimmy Rave Vs Delirious

What? No Nana? That sucks. Still, Daizee Haze is good enough to make up for it, and soothe a little of my pain at missing Danger this weekend. Don’t worry Alison, you’re still my number one gal, but the heel Haze is brilliant to watch. If only ROH let her wrestle more.
Is it my imagination, or did Delirous get announced as being from Atlanta at this show? What gives there? I hope they’re not trying to serious him up.
Delirious is in full weirdo effect, he even backs Rave into the corner and shouts in his face as an offensive move. The fans chant gibberish in time to the normal ‘lets go X’ in support of Delirious, which is quite cool and clever for ROH fans.
As Delirious almost lost the use of his hand against Danielson last show (On the sharp top of the new ring posts apparently…That reminds me of something that happened in my local fed recently, but this isn’t really the place) Rave spends a lot of time working the extremity over in various vicious ways. The evil, yet tasty, Miss Haze also spends time getting involved. Aren’t she and Delirous a real life couple? Doesn’t stop her Yakuza kicking him. So Rave works on Delirious with a number of painful things to do to hands, including stomps and slamming it into the turnbuckle. He even busts out a Backdrop on the hand. Delirious, very over at the moment in ROH, fights back with his usual bag of tricks, including the new fireman’s carry into head kick he’s been working in that looks great.
Eventually, Delirious locks in the Cobra Stretch, only for Haze to break it up from the top when the referee was distracted. The bell goes for the time limit. Was that 15 minutes? Very good stuff indeed. Rematch!

Nigel McGuinness Vs Christopher Daniels

I normally have around 10% interest in a Christopher Daniels match. Minus Alison Danger at ring side, this drops even lower. Luckily, this show marks the return of the sorely missed Nigel McGuinness from Pro Wrestling NOAH, and we all loves a bit of Nigel.
The ROH crowd are perpetually mental over the old man of soulless Indy crap, Daniels. There’s a few cheers for Nigel, but it’s mostly the Impact Zone habit of having to reply to the duelling chant even if you’re watching Shark Boy. Mostly, Nigel’s heeling and goofing gets the desired reaction from the ROH mutants.
Much like his match with Claudio, Daniels has no problem keeping up with the tricked out matwork in this match but needs his opponent to inject the personality. Luckily, Nigel is one of the most watchable personalities in American wrestling at the moment, great expressions and verbals, lovely jerk moves and a solid and hurtful move set. He throws in Danielson’s “I have till 5” spot to get a ‘Ooooh’ from the fans. So he gets set to wrestle for two people in this match – Daniels holds up his end of things in terms of doing stuff and selling stuff but it’s Nigel who has to pull the fans in with his performance. For a big lad Nigel takes a pasting, and the highlight of his getting hurt is Daniels countering the Corner Headstand with a Shotei and a DVD for a close count.
The finish to this is pretty superb. Daniels looks close to having the win with a arm and headlock on Nigel, who has used all his rope breaks. Nigel’s only counter is to roll them both out of the ring, where they brawl as the count out continues. Just as it looks like a double count out is in the offing, Nigel throws Mary Kate, the ROH photographer, into Daniels and scrambles back into the ring for the win. The fans are not happy and chant “Bullshit” as Nigel clutches his belt, out of breath but smug. Lovely stuff. Not a bad match, but no rematch please.

Bryan Danielson Vs Jimmy Yang

Wait, how has Yang ended up with this title shot? Never mind…Yang is frustrating to me, as I made a big fuss about him when he showed up in ROH and said that he was going to be great, and instead has been very mediocre. Danielson is Danielson, and the streak he’s on will normally mean getting a good match out of anyone. Would his powers be tested beyond their limits if the bad Yang showed up? We’ll never find out, as Yang actually brings his working boots tonight, as well as his ultra swank white ring gear.
For those keeping track, Danielson’s addendum to his intro for this match was “And the best wrestler these pricks have ever seen”. A lot of the fans believe it. Probably not the part about being pricks though.
So with a more motivated Yang we get to see him really open up with some stinging chops. Shame there were stinging chops in the last match. And they’ll be plenty in the next match. Someone backstage in ROH should stop most of the guys doing chops, if nothing else it’d give Danielson’s manky chest time to heal. Yang also absolutely pastes Dragon with kicks in this match, including cutting off a second rope uppercut attempt and just plastering him with a spin kick at the end of an exchange. He also nailed a superkick. Hey, how about we stop so many people on ROH shows doing superkicks as well?
Yang likes his trademark bumps, and goes flying shoulder first into the ring post and over the guard rail, as he does in…every match, really. Dragon has a formula as well, but his is all about finding new and exciting ways to bend your arm the wrong way whilst flipping off the fans and thinking about who he gets to fuck with next week. So it never really gets old to watch. He is so smarmy and arrogant that when normally placid guys like Yang (and AJ) wrestle him and it breaks down to brawling, like this match, you really feel like they’re just entirely pissed off with the asshole.
Still, I wasn’t feeling this match at that special level, and I guess it’s down to the fact that ROH are more likely to put the belt on Delirious than Jimmy Yang. The crowd obviously know this too, so the match never really gets to that stage of excitement where you get kidded into thinking the title change is coming. So when Yang gets crotched on a moonsault attempt and dragged into the chicken wing, you aren’t let down that you didn’t see him pull out the victory, but you are glad you watched another fun as all hell American Dragon match. Yang’s third best match in ROH.

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong Vs Matt Sydal and Samoa Joe

Remember when Joe went through that feud with the Briscoes where he’d keep coming up with new tag team partners to try and take the belts off them? Sucked, didn’t it? Imagine how good the angle is with Sydal in it instead. Still, at least Joe is more fun to watch than AJ Styles.
This was the second lacklustre title defence in a row for Generation Next. An unmotivated and possibly hungover Homicide ruined their last match, and here a general lack of chemistry between Sydal and Joe puts paid to this one. Sydal obviously has no clue how to team with someone who doesn’t frequent the same club scene as he does.
I can’t quite remember, but I think Joe was carrying some sort of injury at this point, which is why he doesn’t do much in the way of bumping. Or anything, really. A crying shame, Aries is Joe’s best opponent in ROH and I look forward to the clashes between the two. It also unfortunately leaves the body of the match to the anaemic Matt Sydal to work, he’s really not on the level of the other three guys, and besides that is an effeminate cry baby. So it’s hard to believe he’s got a chance against the elite working team of the promotion. Aries is his usual king sized self throughout the match, I loved his little “Oh shit” as Joe was about to stomp on him, and his petulant punting of Sydal after Joe kicks him to break up a pin was great. Also, the rewind/slow motion knee drop is fantastic stuff. He also gets to bust out the best tope in North America, fairs fair after Joe creamed them with the Elbow Suicida earlier.
If Danielson’s title defences have been built around the shock factor of how many ways he can beat you, then Gen Next’s are the opposite. When you see certain moves broken out, the fans begin to feel the end approaching. It’s great work, and obviously something Aries has instilled in the team if you watch him use his combos of death to similar effect in singles matches.
Still, despite Sydal having no chance in hell of beating ROH’s Brainbusters for their belts, they get at least one red hot near fall for the challengers, as Joe neatly catches Aries off the top with an Ace Crusher leaving Sydal to make the cover after that crazy standing moonsault of his. The fans chant “That was three!” but something tells me that a Joe/Sydal title reign wouldn’t go down that well once the honeymoon was over. Luckily for us, Strong just about catches Joe in the Fall Away Gutbuster, allowing him to hit Sydal with two (Unnecessary) Half Nelson Backbreakers, leaving Aries to score yet another pin with the 450 splash. Very ‘meh’ defence, but I’m stoked for Shelley and Rave going after the belts.

Samoa Joe then calls out CZW, and gets jumped by Necro, Soup Dragon and…Nate Webb. Nate Webb? For real? The dude is Jimmy Jacobs size, and his gimmick is that he dances around the place before his matches. He’s not exactly a threatening heel character. Quite a good dancer, though.
Ace Steel and Colt Cabana run out to make the save. Boy, we just got done with six months of Cabana throwing bionic elbows and wind up punches in violent brawls, I was ready to take a break from the suck. Joe fights Necro to the back, but doesn’t return, instead replaced by Claudio, who turns the tide in favour of CZW. But the cavalry is soon here in the form of “Pencil Neck” Whitmer and “Baseball For A Head” Pearce. Whitmer kills everyone with a chair, and kills the chair in the process. They chuck Nate Webb at the CZW guys on the floor, and the brawl is on! “Someone’s going to die!” Shame it’s Whitmer again, eh?
Compared to the 100th show mentalism, this is a far more muted affair. Just not having Joe makes an enormous difference to the fan support to the face side, and not having Hero means the fans don’t have as firm a focus for their hate on the side of the heels. Also, no split bleachers full of CZW mutants. As a result, the crowd are far less involved in this than the previous brawl, which was notable for it’s incredible atmosphere.
Pearce and Webb take themselves out of the equation as well, which is another real shame considering how great Pearce was in the last match. Seriously, I fucking love Pearce now, and he’s started teaming with Steve Corino as an old school heel team along with Jim Cornette! It’s like fucking Christmas.
Unlike the last brawl with it’s many diverse conflicts and storylines, this one revolves around Whitmer attempting to get his revenge on Claudio and Dragon after his near fatal adventure the week before. He manages to get an Exploder on Dragon and chops Double C’s chest into Hamburger, but it’s inevitably for naught. Steel takes himself and the Butcher out of the mix by suplexing him off the bleachers. Ouch. Cabana tries to Asai Moonsault the Soup through a table but gets the Bola from Claudio and almost dies flying backwards through it himself. It would be slightly ironic if Cabana survived six months of Homicide only to get injured in a meaningless brawl.
Anyway, Whitmer fights alone for a few more minutes, but gets put in a pendulum hold by Claudio, with his head wedged in a set up chair…then double stomped from the top by Dragon, right on his bonce. Yikes, whatever Whitmer’s cranium is made of is indestructible, they should start making planes out of it. Awesomely, Claudio decides it isn’t over, and gives him a Muscle Buster for good measure. DICKISH.
This suffered from comparisons with the 100th show brawl, as it couldn’t get near the level of hate or excitement of that match. But the end angle with Whitmer getting destroyed for an unfortunate third time in this feud was excellent. I especially liked telling the fans to go home and bringing the lights up straight away.

This was a big come down from a good run of shows for ROH, and is certainly a missable card. For completists only, as they say.

Catching up on some ROH, I have 3 2005 shows that I wanted to see, then everything in 2006 from 4th Anniversary up to Destiny, without the Weekend Of Champions and How We Roll shows. I've seen 3 of the milestone series already though.

Saw ROH This Means War 2005 tonight, and I have to say, the show was really bad, probablyh the worst ROH show I've seen.

Claudio v Shelley opened up. I don't usually like these exhibition style matches but I dug this for the most part. They engaged in what turned out to be a fascinating matwork battle for the first 10-12 minutes, and it only really dropped off when they got a bit cliched towards the finish. The angle with Nigel helped, as did Shelley's great charisma. Was a promising start. **3/4

The Blade/Mikaze v Azreial/Andrews tag was really bland. None of the 4 bring anything different or interesting to the table, it doesn't say a lot for Azreial that his finest ROH hour was being squashed by American Dragon. Wrestling was actually OK, but nobody was interested. 3/4*

While it was very fun watching Reyes squash the despicable Mitch Franklin, there didn't seem to be much point in it. Especially since all his push did was set him up to lose to Aries a few times. 1/2*

The Kikutaru/Whitmer/Nosawa/McGuiness match was a waste. Why they continue to book these pointless bouts is beyond me- especially since they brought it two imports for this one. As 4-Ways go, this was right down on the lower end of the spectrum. There was some failed comedy, some dull wrestling, and this show is getting worse. 1/2*

Styles/Aries is supposedly an Indy Dream match, but I can't say it's ever popped up in any of my naps. It isn't all that good either. They don't mesh well together, and while there's a few cool things to see, it's another nothing match. I like Aries when he's doing character work, such as his grumpy ROH veteran act, but in terms of his offensive reportoire I find him rather 'indy' for my liking, for lack of a better term. Still, he's better than AJ. *3/4

Cabana/B-Boy was just dismal. The wrestling was stale, Cabana couldn't seem to decide on his character, B-Boy wasn't over and there was never any doubt about the result. Not especially bad, just totally boring. The after match brawl with Homicide was also pretty bad, not helped by the fact the fans cheered loudly for Homicide, when he was booked as the despicable heel. 1/2*

Please never let Lethal or Daniels attempt comedy again. To be fair, the crowd seemed to enjoy it, but it came accross as terrible on tape. Then again, when they got onto the wrestling it was maybe even worse. I had a forlorn hope that as Curry Man Daniels might be a bit better, but here he is, his same old self. Another waste. 1/2*

Dragin/Strong saved the show. Dragon is the cocky prick who thinks he's better than everyone, Strong is the young upstart with a lot of heart but whose not quite on Dragon's level. Some great moments, too many to mention, liked the struggles for the Strong-Hold, like the finish coming out of nowhere, loved Dragon flipping of the fans when they beckoned him to come and do the ole ole kick on the other side. Not a perfect match by any means, and the work they did was really simple, but it succeeded because of that. They didn't give away too much with their first match, yet told a compelling story and the time flew by. Very good, though I hope they'll go on to better things. ***1/2

So yeah, without Dragon/Strong this show sucks.

Next, it's Vendetta.

We last saw Homicide standing tall, standing victorious. Immediately, my DVD player’s doing the silly buggers dance and refusing to play the bloody thing. Sweeeeeet. Oh wait, no, that’s a LIE. Little bastard’s finally working.

We start off with another GenNEXT promo, and within three seconds I want Wodewick Stwong to die. Apparently the Briscoes have said that GenNEXT got lucky, but they’re having none of that, they’re the most dominating force in wrestling today, and on this very show they’re going to beat the Briscoes later. Great. So the Briscoes lose twice in consecutive shows, taking away another believable challenger to the tag titles. Wonder if they’ll go for another ‘dubious’ finish or not, though?

Next up we have a superb little video showing Homicide’s storied attempt to win the World Title and showing how many times he’s failed.


1st Match: Jimmy Rave Vs. Davey Richards

Pretty small toilet paper shower here. Davey Richards is making his debut, and he’s certainly got lots of energy. He’s being hyped plenty on the forum, so let’s see if he’s worthy. I’m told to watch the ROH recap, but I’m afraid the program has exploded into anti-personnel shrapnel every time I’ve considered it so far, so I’ll have to turn that advice down. Logically, it isn’t likely to show something I haven’t seen.

Fans are well into Richards from the start. Jimmy wins the first lockup and gives Richards a bit of a shove across the back of the head to piss him off, but he’s having none of it. Uses a cartwheel to apply a top wristlock into grounded armbar and hammerlock. Has some fun playing with Jimmy’s other hand while he’s got him pinned, before Rave breaks free. Davey turns a bit more aggro with a kick and some knees, then a very interesting bridging shoulder kick to escape a top wristlock. Almost the same exact sequence that Danielson uses, but with a kick on the end instead of the leg slip into arm wringer. Rave spits in his face, pissing him off, so he gives Rave a bunch of kicks to the chest before working a bunch of arm based mat work. He’s pretty charismatic, certainly has the moves. Rave eventually gets in after a missed clothesline countered with a clothesline to the back of the head. Rave’s his usual annoying self with petty cheating and fairly low-level but nasty looking offence. His abdominal stretch variant is quite nice, and makes sense, holding on to both hands. Just occurred to me, where’s Daizee Haze??? The Embassy looks tiny at the minute...

Rave gets hammered when he goes up top, superplex, they start hammering each other on their knees, Richards wins but Rave grabs his head and throws him down before he can go nuclear. Rave tries a high knee in the corner Richards rolls out, then hits a very nice tope where he hits him kind of side-on. Looks weird but effective. Rave immediately clutches at his knee, which is a rather unusual response. Missile dropkick to sweet handspring to feet, nice KENTA style martial arts kicks into a german suplex for a near fall for Richards. Okay, I’m feeling it. This guy is really rather good. Richards tries to run in for the corner clothesline again, but gets speared half to death then double bustered. Greetings from Ghana blocked, some rolly rollies back and forth, and Richards applies a Brock Lock they call a horsecollar. Richards does a springboard off the ropes into a Low Ki kick (Tajiri’s elbow is better). He then finally throws his elbow pad off and hits a running elbow in the corner into charging lariat for a close near fall. Kicks, then Rave hits a sweet Ghanarea (I love that move), but Richards kicks out! Richards finally hits a double underhook BRAINBUSTER for the three count. OW. That doesn’t look a bit dangerous now, does it? Still, strong debut, and he’s certainly got the power to go far. Being a debut, it’s kind of lacking in drama. You expect him to win too much.

**1/2

2nd Match: Shane Hagadorn Vs. Derrick Dempsey

This is for the top of the class trophy. Derrick’s held the trophy for six months apparently. Some wrestling happens, and Hagadorn wins with a Sleeper/choke variant submission. The match is sub ten mins, I think. It really didn’t attract my attention much.

Post match, Haggie reguses to shake hands with the other students and poses with his trophy. He’s certainly hatable enough to be a low card heel.

*

3rd Match: Sara Del Ray Vs. Daizee Haze

Ah, THAT’S where Haze was. Or something. Sara enters to some generic heavy metal track, and of course Haze comes in to The Embassy’s music. Why the hell wasn’t she with The Embassy earlier? Weird. Daizee spits in her glove before shaking hands. Nice. Haze dodges the lockup a few times, before getting hammered into the turnbuckle a couple of times. Haze has control for a while, before Death Ray starts overpowering her over and over. She’s not playing up her technical skills at all here, just bowling Haze over repeatedly with shoulder tackles and other moves. Death Ray gets her in a nasty but weird little submission intermitted with forearms to the face. Haze eventually turns a crucifix into a weird ass standing arm bar for a nice pop, then sunset flips for a near fall, which gets some boos. Haze is seemingly a lot more over than Death Ray. Haze applies an indian deathlock and converts into chinlock/deathlock. The way Death Ray’s working this match is really strange. It’s all good, but it’s really strange. A trio of Death Ray yakuza kicks half-kills Haze, before a rake of the eyes saves Haze’s life. She kicks Death Ray in the back, then works an interesting leg choke in the ropes. She tries it again and Death Ray chuckes her over the ropes to the outside, then irish whips her into the guard rail. Lots of back and forth in the ring. They’ve worked this match very equal. Haze tries the Heart Punch, but misses and rolls up for a near fall, then nails the Heart Punch/Yakuza kick combo, only for Death Ray to be in the ropes. Haze tries to counter an electric chair into hurracanrana, but gets powerbombed into the Butterfly Powerslam for the three count. Death Ray’s debut ends with a victory, and I’ll be surprised if anyone seeing this is upset by its inclusion. I preferred this to the Richards/Rave match. Well worked, some nice and dramatic moments, and lots of nice innovation. An EXCELLENT advertisement for SHIMMER.

***

Bryan Danielson’s out, and there’s a ‘HOMICIDE’ chant. Followed almost immediately by a ‘SHUT THE FUCK UP’ chant. It’s then revealed that Sara Del Ray is roughly an inch taller than Bryan Danielson, much to his obvious amusement and chagrin. He then bigs up Sara and sort-of plugs SHIMMER (he just assumes that we’ve all seen the DVDs, rather than saying how good they are, nice pitch), and he then says, of course, that she was trained by him, ‘The Best, Wrestler, in the world!’. He switches over to heel mode again and gets on with the night’s business; bigging up his defense with Homicide later in the show. “The powers that be decided to come to Kenneticut, and I thought it was a HORRIBLE idea. With my power as ROH World Champion, and the trainer of the ROH wrestling school, I am lobbying to never come back here again.” Full prickmobile mode here. He explains why the show’s called Destiny, and says it’s Homicide’s Destiny to lose again.

4th Match: Adam Pearce Vs. Colt Cabana Vs. Jason Blade Vs. Delirious

Delirious throws his jacket onto a camera. Hee hee hee. Somehow, everything’s funnier when it goes on the camera. Pearce’s dress sense is horrible. Colt Cabana is his usual self. Yay he’s happy, yay he’s waving to people. He puts a towel on a camera. As usual Delirious is nuts, and doesn’t quite understand how the tag rope works (he chews it, of course). Cabana works an array of fun and imaginative comedy spots. Delirious comes in and rants, much to Pearce’s bemusement, until Pearce pretty much lariat’s Delirious’ head off and takes control on him. Cabana hiptosses everyone out of the ring and hits his worst asai moonsault ever on all three of his opponents, but unfortunately he can’t get the win, as he’s still not legal. OH! The match is for no. 1 contendership for the title. I see they’ve stopped bothering with the rankings. Adam Pearce gets pissed with Cabana and the two start fighting more seriously. Blade hits a big cross body (he really hasn’t done much so far), then runs up into an enziguri on Colt Cabana, but he can’t superplex him until Delirious comes over to help, and they can’t until Adam Pearce double electric chairs them for one of those super-indy multi-man spots that everyone either loves or hates. Delirious tries the cobra backbreaker to clutch on Pearce, but he counters with his own finisher, a bog-standard piledriver. Cabana hits a punch of shit looking shots to the head and some better right hands, then a dropkick. Blade hits a headscissors school boy for a two, that’s new, then gets vanished by Pearce out of the ring, who hits a spinebuster on Cabana. There’s a moonsault, some stuff, Cabana wins with a weird-ass submission while Delirious is getting on the turnbuckles. Not one of my favourite 4-ways. Really no atmosphere at all, not even the hyper-energetic one that is really the only point to these matches most of the time.

*1/2

5th Match: Christopher Daniels Vs. BJ Whitmer

Allison Danger’s in a schoolgirl outfit with lollypop, so that sorts out Leicester’s perv-opportunity for the card. She does look pretty hot, it must be admitted. I believe there’s some history between these two, but I’m not sure. Whitmer’s been with the company a long time, and I haven’t. BJ’s got the mic, and thankfully does a bit of explaining. Oh yeah, he beat up Allison Danger. He apologises to her, right there in the middle of the ring, because he never truly hated either of them. He’s discovered that he truly hates CZW, see. They call it quits, shake hands, and decide to have one hell of a wrestling match. Awwww, ain’t they cute?

It’s typical ROH showcase stuff at first, with competitive, athletic technical wrestling and no real edges on either side. Daniels slowly edges into the lead, getting the better of the majority of the exchanges, but it’s obvious Whitmer’s hits are having impact. Someone shouts “Shut up, bitch” at Allison, resulting in her rather impolitely returning the favour while Whitmer gets a near fall on her man and works a rest hold. Sorry, sleeper hold. He breaks free, but Whitmer’s right back in control after a missed quebrada leads to a few neckbreakers. Daniels eventually hits back with his big moves including his STO. The fans aren’t really into this match, Allison’s by far the loudest noise in the building during this match. Another of Whitmer’s great lariats fetch a near fall, before he goes for the Exploder suplex, Daniels blocks, counters, then comes off the ropes and runs right into one. Daniels’ sweet Koji Clutch fails to get a submission, Whitmer ends up trying the top rope powerbomb that nearly killed Jimmy Jacobs, sunset flips and tries it again, but gets hurracanranaed into a near fall. Daniels finally hits the Angels Wings... and doesn’t get the three! Impressive. Best Moonsault Ever wraps things up, though. Good match, but the epitomy of the kind of match Lantern complains about. It’s pretty, doesn’t actually have any limb psychology, but it’s cold and lifeless. It’s well constructed, but there’s not much of a reason to watch.

**

Post match, Daniels bookends their feud. Puts Whitmer over as the ultimate man fighting for a cause, and says that he’ll gladly rematch him any time, and he’ll gladly tag with him if he needs to. They do what I presume is the ‘Prophecy’ symbol, and I guess they’re even. Danger has a Danielson moment when someone tells her to shut up “I have the mic, so you shut up”. Danger says that she did bad things to Whitmer, and he did bad things to her, and then she apologises, and finally they hug to put that one black spot on BJ’s ‘I’m a super-face, me’ record to bed. Is that Green Lantern fan? He’s wearing a green lantern shirt. I think HE was the one telling Danger to shut up, since she singles him out.

It’s intermission time with Gary Michael whatever, and he’s interviewing The Embassy. Nana tells him to shut up, and he’s pissed off about Richards winning. “You think you can come in here with your... moves, and your smile” hee hee hee. Rave’s pissed as well. He’s still sore about the match stoppage in his World Title match. He’s intending to rematch Richards, it was a fluke, he NEEDS this rematch, sooner the better, and you just know it’ll be good. So there. Grargh.

6th Match: Shingo Takagi Vs. Ricky Reyes

Now this one I’m looking forward to, after hearing so much about Shingo. Shingo looks about six different kinds of hard, music’s cool too. Someone shouts “KONNICHIWA” at him, and he grins cheekily. Oh my fucking God! Julius Smokes looks ESPECIALLY insane tonight, chewing on a gigantic cigar. Reyes looks as pissed off as ever, bet he had that expression when he was born. I like Reyes’ music, though Homicide’s is better. Smokes gets the fans doing his weird bark thing, there’s no handshakes here. And we’re on.

Open up with forearms, end with headscissors from Reyes sending Takagi outside, and I’m liking this already. Reyes works on kicking Takagi to pieces, before hitting a butterfly suplex flawlessly into a jujigatame armbar, which Takagi does NOT appreciate. My DVD then dies AGAIN. SHIT. I get it working, try to fast forward to where I am, and it dies again. DOUBLE SHIT. Okay, we’re alive again, and Reyes is kicking Takagi in the back and chest. He hulks up and applies a sleeper hold into a giant swing to come alive again. Takagi eats an enziguri, but counters a fisherman buster with a suplex. Reyes hits a neckbreaker and fisherman’s buster, and I’m wondering what the hell that guy who said this was a squash for Takagi was talking about. He’s getting his fucking ass kicked. He manages to escape the dragon sleeper before Reyes is able to lock it in, pastes him with a clothesline, then puts him up top and hits a top rope brainbuster. OW. And there was me thinking that move only existed in No Mercy. He powers up goes for a torture rack pick up, gets kicked in the head but lariats, lifts Reyes but gets dropped into a triangle choke. He powerbombs out of it, then hits a running lariat of doom for a near fall, and wraps it up with a torture rack/sit out dominator. Way too short to mean much of anything, but Takagi got to look tough as nails from absorbing all that punishment.

*1/2

7th Match: Homicide Vs. Bryan Danielson

Okay. The card has been, let’s be honest, a bit shit so far. Aside from Haze/Death Ray there’s very little on the undercard that’s worth seeing. Davey Richards’ debut match was okay but it sure as hell wasn’t mind-blowing. THIS needs to be excellent. It has the potential. Let’s see if it’s got the tools. The fans are into it from the start. They want Homicide to win here, and they want to see Danielson lose. There’s a lot fewer Danielson fans in the audience than usual. Then out of nowhere, Samoa Joe heads to the ring. He gets the mic, and he has a little chat with Homicide. Apparently everyone appreciates Homicide saving ROH. Bryan takes the mic for a moment before Joe cuts him off, for he is our special guest ring announcer. A position he uses to completely wind up Danielson, of course. “Ladies and gentleman, by Bryan Danielson’s request, the PALEST wrestler in the world, American Dragon, Bryan Danielson”. Classy. Okay, things are off to a good start.

Homicide won’t shake his hand, of course, and we’re off. We open up nice and even for a stretch, with small momentum shifts back and forward. Homicide bites Dragon’s hand leading into a wristlock that Dragon rolls out of (eventually) and elbows Homicide’s head off. Homicide goes to work on Dragon’s arm, but when the referee warns him he’ll be disqualified if he tries to use the ring bell on it, Danielson gets pissed off and hits back at him with elbows and punches, and they brawl at ringside for a bit until Danielson suplexes him on THE EDGE of the announcer’s table. Homicide twats him with the title belt, then sets up a table against the guard rail and tries to suplex Danielson out of the ring and through it. That doesn’t work, naturally, but Danielson tries, and fails, the same trick, before getting kicked off the apron. This is very good. Oh dear. Homicide gets belly to belly suplexed onto the table. It doesn’t break. Table bumps ALWAYS look nastier when they don’t break. Back in the ring, Danielson switches back to technical wrestling and goes to work on Homicide’s arm. On the outside again he wraps Homicide’s arm in the barricade, then smashes it with a chair despite the ref’s argument. Of course, he doesn’t CARE if he gets disqualified. Homicide sells the arm very well indeed, as it gets more and more hammered on. Smokes is mental at ringside. He starts shouting “Breathe through your nose and out through your mouth” at Homicide. Of course that’s actually fine managerial advice and very technical, it just looks surreal coming from Smokes. Danielson uses one of Reyes’ moves from the previous match, the butterly into jujigatame, then hits a missile dropkick into nip-up. He’s on fire and pumped for this, then of course he mocks Homicide’s ‘chest slap’ pose and flips off the fans. Homicide tries to hit back, only to get launched into the steel post, Jimmy Yang-style. Homicide returns Danielson’s many favours with an armbar, but it doesn’t help much, as he gets hammerlocked on the outside and thrown into the post shoulder first, then irish whipped hard into the barricade. Randomly, a big “DRAGON” chant starts up, before a much bigger “HOMICIDE” chant kills it. Homicide hits an inverted atomic drop from the middle rope, misses a sliding dropkick to the floor but hits a neckbreaker, and blasts Danielson with a chair. Smokes offers him a huge knife that he got from... somewhere, but that doesn’t get used. Back in the ring Homicide hits the ace crusher, still selling that shoulder like a trooper. He misses the frog splash, then dodges the diving headbutt. Great buildup, and I sense the climax coming soon. They go into a forearm/punch exchange that Homicide wins until Danielson rakes the eyes, but he ducks the roaring elbow and kicks his face in, only to get dragged down into Cattl Mutilation out of nowhere, Crippler Crossface-stylee. Hot stuff. Homicide gets a RED HOT near fall on a frog splash, but the lariat of death is met with a dropkick into dragon suplex for a near fall that pisses Danielson off rotten. He locks the chickenwing in, Homicide low blows into death lariat for another near fall. He’s going for the Cop Killa, but its gonna end in tears, Danielson rollws out and forearms Homicide in the... um... arms, Homicide tries the ace crusher, gets driven into the turnbuckle for a super back suplex for another HOT fall, then repeated elbows into the shoulder for a referee stoppage victory, continuing Homicide’s ‘I got screwed’ angle as relates to the title. Massive ‘BULLSHIT’ chant. Danielson looks half dead afterwards.

Homicide gets on the mic and goes fuckng apeshit. Fans demand five more minutes, Joe demands fivemore minutes, everyone wants it but, of course, for Bryan Danielson. The referee can’t be persuaded, and the decision stands, while the fans heckle the FUCK out of Bryan at ringside. OH, but here comes Adam Pearce, and now they’re actually pinning Homicide down after he went for the referee. Danielson’s still out there at ringside. He’s on the phone to Cornette. Another huge ‘FIVE MORE MINUTES’ chant. Pearce calls for silence, and declares he never saw Homicide tap, or give up. The ruling is in: and Jimmy UPHOLDS the ruling. Homicide IMMEDIATELY goes for the ref again, biting his hand and attacking him, and Danielson takes his chance to chop block Samoa from behind in his back knee. Homicide is eventually dragged out of the ring by Smokes. The fans heckle the ref a bunch, then chant “SCREWJOB”, and Homicide finally declares he’s sick of ROH, and storms out through the crowd. Awesome, awesome stuff. Thank fucking God for Bryan Danielson and Homicide, or else this show really wouldn’t have been all that good.

****


8th Match: GenNEXT Vs. The Briscoe Brothers

It’s a rematch from the previous show, and the Briscoes are determined to take home the belts tonight. There’s handshakes all round, but the Briscoes jump GenNEXT from behind, for they are scuzz punks and want them belts.

Briscoes get double dumped, and double dived by big body press and a tope double clothesline from Aries. Briscoes get beaten down on the outside a bit until the BBs start brawling back with irish whips into the guard rails and steel chairs oh my. Double piledrivers on the floor are double blocked and backdropped out of, and GenNEXT reply with a second rope elbow to the outside on both Briscoes. A very stark contrast between the two teams’ approach so far. First cover is Wodewick on Mark, leading into the chop, backbreaker, slingshot senton combo into frog elbow. Double atomic drop into double backdrop continues the punishment. Stwong hits his first backbreaker, then chops Mark’s chest in. Aries hits a chop in the corner, but he sucks at it so he tags Stwong back in to do the chop death. Stwong whips Mark into the buckles, but he jumps onto the second rope, then springs off into a HIDEOUS forearm to finally get a chance to tag and give the Briscoes some offence in the ring. Compared to GenNEXT, Briscoes are a lot more grounded, hitting much more basic, and violent, moves. Double three point charge, for example. Jay starts choking Stwong behind the ref’s back, then hits a bunch of headbutts on Wodewick. They pull the EXACT same spot with Jay ducking an enziguri that hits Mark, allowing Aries to hit a rolling fireman carry that puts Mark on Jay so he can frog splash both of them at once. Then, Aries hits a back rake, but that’s as far as it goes as his super elite swank comes up short and he gets uranaged half to death. The Briscoes, continuing their ‘baseline’ offence just THROW Aries halfway across the ring, face first. Think a flapjack with more horizontal movement. Aries continues to get beaten up, threatening to escape a few times but always getting cut off at the last second. Mark Briscoe gets caught BLATANTLY and deliberarely using the ropes for a pin. Aries finally tags in Wodewick, who of course kills both Briscoes. Belly to bellies one on the other, falcon arrows, and stuff before getting a bit killed with a stunner variant and a yakuza kick. This lasts about thirty seconds before Aries and Stwong kill Mark Briscoe with the Aries dropkick into super pushed flying yakuza kick of doom. Hart Attack on Jay, double backbreaker and chop/brainbuster on Mark. Go for their finisher, but it gets blocked, leading to Aries eating a splash mountain bomb/neckbreaker combo. Nice. Try the Doomsday Device but Aries counters into a victory roll. Jay Driller attempt goes nowhere, Stwong’s half nelson backbreaker gets blocked into a rollup as they try their finisher again, but the spiked driller is blocked by Aries shaking the ropes into a missile dropkick/powerbomb combo for the win.

Yay. GenNEXT are completely and utterly unstoppable, can take on the Briscoes as a team individually and can’t even be touched as a team. Why do I care about their title reign, then? The Briscoes never looked like they had a chance of winning. There was no way this should have been the main event. Good match.

***

Aries kills the GenNEXT name. Now it’s just Aries and Stwong. There you go. End of show. Davey Richards does a little promo, not bad at all actually, and basically says that Rave can have his match and he’s going to die for asking for it. I kind of agree. Richards certainly has potential.

Not one of the best. Good Danielson defence, but GenNEXT continue on their slide to boring me. Would it really hurt for them to have one or two believable challengers? Apparently so. I can’t think of a single team in the company that I’d actually consider a believable challenge anymore. The Embassy are kind of broken up, the Briscoes just got hammered, and everyone else is new. They’ve beaten foreign tandems as well as loads of throw togethers. To be honest, they need a feud. Not just a series of matches, an actual feud where they can get away with beating a team repeatedly but still have an excuse to keep on going.

I have a final crack at the video recap, and it crashes the program to end my viewing. Awesomeness. The next batch had better not be this fucked. And now I just need to wait for the next three shows to arrive.

Watched ROH Vendetta yesterday.

Delirious/Ace Steele v Chad Collyer/Nigel McGuiness was an acceptable enough opener. They didn't bring anything fresh or interesting, but they had a nice little story worked around Steele and Collyer, and it was at least watchable. Can't say it did a lot for me though. *1/2

Jimmy Jacobs v Sal Rinauro was suprisingly good. In fact, Jacobas has become one of the most watchable guys in ROH right now, with his new gimmick with Lacey. Anyway, some successful comedy, some decent wrestling towards the end, just wish ROH didn't have to have 5 nearfalls and people kicking out of finishers every match. **1/4

BJ Whitmer v Claudio Castagnoli didn't grip me at all. Don't get me wrong, the work wasn't so bad, but I have zero interest in Whitmer, and Claudio having a good match usually depends on him having a game opponent. 3/4*

I can't believe Christopher Daniels is still so over. Another depressing 'Daniels' style match, made worse by the fact he was facing the best wrestler in the world, Samoa Joe, and still couldn't produce something good. Joe wasn't at his best here, I wasn't feeling the feud, Daniels was himself. Not a car wreck, but Joe can do so much better. *1/2

Adam Pearce v Davey Andrews is one of the worst debuts I've ever seen. Pearce is so dull both in character and what he does in the ring, and Andrews doesn't bring anything to the table either. It wasn't even one of those fun squashes where somebody gets totally destroyed. 1/4*

The second Danielson/Strong match was good, but it's very overrated, and not a patch on the first. The transitions were weak and the offence switched far too ofetn. Dragon's selling was pretty crap for a lot of this: he takes a slam on the steel ramp, and 10 seconds later is back on top after a kick to the gut. It was also too long, and Dragon's smirk and heeling felt out of place 30+ minutes in to a gruelling match. The beginning was great, but at times they looked like they were killing time out there with some stuff. Sometimes this looks like a real top drawer bout, and like I said I enjoyed it. Dragon once again did some nice heeling, Strong did a good job at playing the plucky underdog, it had a lot of things going for it. But it should have been 30 instead of 47. Don't know why people prefer this to the This Means War match. ***

The Generation Next/Embassy 8-Man was fun. Ending was shocking, and Shelley's attack on Evans was awesome. Honestly, you will cringe at some of the stretches. Everyone was showcased pretty well, and everyone established their role, and stuck to it nicely. Pretty entertaining for the most part, even if it was just there to whet your appetite for Steel Cage Warfare. ***

Not one of the better ROH shows. The 2 main events are definately worth watching, and it was booked well. Better than This Means War but didn't hit the heights of the previous Dragon/Strong match with anything on the show.

----------

Also watched ROH Steel Cage Warfare today.

Ring Crew Express v Blade/Mikaze had some reasonable high flying action, but the problem is nobody actually cares about these teams. No structure, no character, no point. 1/2*

Have to admit I liked Andrews/Primeau. Perhaps because it was the opposite of the above match, but Andrews squashing him was good to watch. Extra marks for the numerous Ricky Reyes squahses after the match. *

Colt Cabana/Milana Collection AT v Sal Rinauro/Tony Mamaluke was fair. Serious Cabana sucks, but I enjoy MIlano, and the tag champs are serviceable at least. Won't blow your mind, but was a passable outing. *1/2

Dragon/Romero was really great. In fact, there's probably nothing to choose between this and the first Strong match as Dragon's best defence. It also happens to be criminally underrated, don't know why it was easily the best match on this show. Loved the work around the kicks and submissions leading to the big moves, everything felt real, an engrossing contest. SElling both through the facials and actions was good, and just an all round quality piece of wrestling. ***3/4

Joe/Lethal was good as well, I'd probably put it around the same level of their Manhattan Mayhem match. Action before the heel turn was good, with Lethal believably playing the underdog face, then getting frustrated when he couldn't match up to Joe and put him away, so resorting to the chair. Simple story that they played out, Joe showed why he's the best in the world by being an awesome sympathy face, a role he's not exactly used to playing. Liked Lethal going over clean. Couple of blown spots, but they don't detract from the match, it was a little methodical in the beginning, but overall it was good. ***1/4

Homicide/Corino was basically ruined by Cide's shoulder injury. Even then though, they managed to put on a more than watchable bout, and the attacks to the ear with the fork were both sickening and entertaining. Cide's character work came across really well, with his sadistic smiles after the attacks, and Corino at least brought some intensity and hate. Could have done without the contrived board spot at the end, but they deserve great props for pulling a decent match out here. **1/4

The Embassy/Generation Next Steel Cage Warfare I have mixed feelings about. As a feud blowoff, it wasn';t as good as it could and should have been. It really drags at times, a lot of the action is predictable, and it feels more like an angle than a match at some pojnts. Then again,t here are some really fun moments, most of them bring the hate, adn they had some good ideas. It was good no doubt about it, but just too long and meandering to be anything special, and it's only the third best match on the show. **3/4

This was better. I doubt I'll ever watch the first 3 matches again, but Dragon/Romero is worth getting the evn for a alone. Chuck in a damn good Joe/Lethal match, and two other reasonable matches, and you have a worthwhile show.

Just downloaded some classic ROH matches.

Joe v Kobashi was a great match. However, I really don't think it lived up the hype if you get me. I've heard this being called one of the greatest matches ever. It's good but it's not that good. The crowd really help make this match. I'd rate it at **** and no more.

I also watched Low Ki v KENTA just before. I enjoyed this more than Joe v Kobashi. It went for about 25 minutes and not one of those minutes dragged. I was hooked. The chops, kicks and double stomps were brutal. I'd rate it at about ****1/2 stars. One of the matches on 2005.

I'm downloading In your face has anyone seen the show? Thoughts on it?

Watched ROH Final Battle 2005, my last 2005 show before I get onto the newer stuff. Must get round to writing full reviews for these, I've only done ROH Final Showdown and a couple of random matches.

Anyways...

Rave/Milano was a good opener. Classic heel/face structure, well put together, the sort of simple match ROH needs more of on their shows. **1/4

Cabana/Azreial was a joke. Azreial is just useless, and Cabana isn't much better unless he's doing comedy, so as you'd expect, this sucked. 1/2*

Claudio/Nigel was solid. They made good use of the two referee's, told a nice little story around Nigel not being able to cheat, once again a good heel/face structure built around a decent feud. Castagnoli can be a little uninteresting, and Nigel is kind of inconsistent, but it was OK. **

Shelley/Corino was really a bit random. Corino is the face, but nobody really likes him and anyway, why have face or heel when you can do duelling chants? The match itself was once again a solid affair, but very forgettable. Some decent arm work, Corino did a pretty great job of selling it actually, I can't fault him for that, but just seemed a bit out of place. *3/4

I usually hate 4-Corner Survial's, but at least Dragon/Joe/Whitmer/Lethal had some purpose, and with the variety of angles they took into the match, it was always going to be somewhat interesting. Joe was so far above the rest and it showed, and his perfornmance saved the match from mediocrity, bit too much non selling and chucking out random offence at the end, but the finish made sense and it was an altogether fun bout. **1/4

Strong/Aries v Mamaluke/Rinauro was good. I like Aries and Strong as a team, and they had the roles nailed down really well, with the champs having to cheat to get the advantage against the superior challengers. Mamaluke looked really good here, so not so subtle heel work, and I lvoed the multiple barricade attacks on Aries. The built well to the hot tag, and once again they got the right finish. **1/2

Danielson/Marafuji was good, but didn't blow me away. There were some great moments, but the match just seemed to lack direction. I wasn't digging the Eddie/Dean throwback spots either. It's the kind of match that's technically good, and you can't analytically find a lot wrong with the psychology or selling, but it didn't have a lot of depth, and ends up being just another title defence. Kobashi took Marafuji to a much better match than this. **3/4

Ki/KENTA kind of fell victim to its own hype. The cries of 'best match ever' and the like had me going in expecting a classic, which in all reality, it wasn't. It was nice and stiff, but after the first 5 minutes there was little to shout about up until the strecth. Low Ki busts out all his spots, Kenta busts out a few of his, there were times when this match looked great, but it didn't come together for them in the end. This is good-very good, and if you mark for stiff battles you'll probably go crazy over this. Apart from the stiffness, there isn't a lot to set this apart from a regular ROH main event. I would have prefereed gangster Ki, and some of his selling was rather dodgy at times, overselling when he hit a move, yet when Kenta was on offence his selling was pretty average. They got the big match atmosphere down nicely, and the action was good, you'll rpobably get more out of the match if you come in expecting less. ***1/4

Why does Christopher Daniels get a promo on DVD every show? He's an awful interview. I beg ROH to stop this happening.

I liked the show. Everything on the undercard beside the Cabana match was solid, and a lot of it was pretty good. Add in two main events which while they don't live up to the hype, are certainly an enjoyable way tgo spend an hour, and you've got a good show all round. Not the best show they've done, but most will like it. Solid all round.

Simply put, Daniels is over like fuck in ROH and he is at least a consistent talker. He's far from awful, he just isn't very expressive. If ROH has one major problem it's that while it's improved drastically on star presence and charisma and character; most of the roster still can't cut good promos.

I think part of the reason why Danielson's getting such an uber push is that he's the best talker the company's got, and they know it.

I don't see Danielson as that good a talker, decent perhaps, when he's doing his heel act, but not original and doesn't have great charisma.

With Punk gone they don't really have any great talkers, I like Jack Evans and Alex Shelley, though Shelley will be gone soon and Jack's not going to cut any amazing promos, just fun ones.



I really haven't a clue why. He's an average wrestler at best, and an even worse talker. He has no charisma, no character, he's completely boring in every respect.

I finished watching 'How We Roll', but first I'm going to go back a bit...

ROH Weekend of Champions Night 2

Yeah, I'm basically skipping reviewing Better Than Our Best (good but overrated), The 100th Show (I enjoyed this a lot, but everyone seems to have reviewed it) and Weekend of Champions Night 1 (a bit dull really, nothing much of note at all) in favour of starting again at this show, which everyone should see.

This is the second show in Cleveland, Ohio after Dissension earlier in the year. This show is better.

Before the first match, we get promos from Lacey and then Aries and Strong, then in the ring BJ Whitmer comes out, neck brace and all after the events of the 100th show, only to get talked out of actively going after CZW until his neck heals by Adam Pearce and Jim Cornette. Well, for now. Oh, and don't forget to check out the recap, mainly of the 100th show, added to the DVD as originally seen on ROHVideos.com. Unless you already saw it on Night 1, of course.

Conrad Kennedy III and Colt Cabana vs Irish Airborne

Cabana is in the opening match for the second show of the weekend, because jobbing to the World Champ in 5 minutes means you have to go back to opening the show and work your way up again. That's what you get for overreaching your upper midcard bounds, Colt. CK3 is making his debut here, and looks alright. Irish Airborne aren't really anything special, but they're a team and the Ohio area seem hot for them, so I guess it makes a change from the Ring Crew Express and co. They're certainly better than the seemingly disappeared (thankfully) Blade and Mikaze.

Reasonable opening match fare here, with Cabana naturally getting the win in the end.

Delirious vs Chris Sabin

Oooh, I like the look of this on paper. Delirious is one of my favourite gimmicks on the indies, and Sabin is one of my favourite underexposed TNA guys. This is only Sabin's second ROH match since before the Reborn era, after a title match with Bryan Danielson in his home town of Detroit at 'Showdown in Motown' which was reasonable enough.

Thankfully, this delivers the goods as well as looking nice on paper. Sabin looks bemused at Delirious and his stance of stone in the corner when he tries for a handshake, which naturally turns into the masked man going beserk at the sound of the bell. Already the match is in my good books. They then go on to have a really good 15 minute athletic-style match, the likes of which you just don't get to see out of Sabin in TNA.

Delirious wins with his new Cobra Stretch, which I like because obviously Sabin isn't a regular and Delirious has earned his stripes now, and has a grudge to settle soon after with Bryan Danielson. Good luck with that though, lizard face.

Six Man Mayhem

Continuing in an effort to make my reviews easier to write, here's a quick overview of who's in the match:

There's Trik Davis out of IWA-MS who I don't think much of, Jay Fury from Florida who's OK but never going to be a major player in ROH, and Flash Flanagan making a one off appearance. More notably, our very own Englishman Spud makes his second appearance after a unspectacular tag match the night before. Then there's Jimmy Jacobs, complete with awesome Ballad of Lacey entrance, who needs to win here or Lacey will never speak to him again. Bless. Finally, there's Jimmy Yang who gets the last entrance honours, but is basically out of the major spots on the card now.

This is a six man mayhem, so it really needs to be judged on those terms. There is fast action, well executed. There's a big sequence of dives, with no horrible contrived setups. Spud takes a notable beating, and doesn't look out of place one bit, not even in terms of size. Finally, Jacobs picks up the win he needs with a top rope Contra Code on Trik Davis, who I guess had some use in the match after all. There is hope for the romance yet!

Jacobs exits celebrating, then Flash Flanagan throws a hissy fit and doesn't follow the Code of Honor, leaving Yang, Davis, Fury and Spud who do the handshakes and exit in turn. It's only worth mentioning because Spud is the last one up the ramp, and gets a nice little chant. Funny how ROH fans in the states took to him, and he got booed in Liverpool, as I mentioned in the live report.

The other reason for the camera staying on the crowd then becomes evident, as instead of cutting backstage, Claudio Castagnoli turns up on the balcony to some good heat, and challenges Samoa Joe not to a fight, but a wrestling match. Joe comes out, takes this piss in some entertaining mic work, and agrees, hilariously getting the crowd to change "Joe's gonna kill you" into "Joe's gonna wrestle you"....

Samoa Joe vs Claudio Castagnoli

This is really fun. Joe still uses his natural power advantage, but for the most part they do actually stick to the wrestling match idea. Castagnoli being the heel naturally can't live up to his promise to outwrestle Joe, and starts resorting to shortcuts like hugging the ropes so Joe can't get to him then scoring cheapshots. Joe still retains the advantage, and is about to finish him off with the muscle buster, when Nate Webb and then eventually Necro Butcher run in, drawing the DQ. Good match though.

Joe and Claudio disappear to the back and we get left with Webb and Necro brawling with Adam Pearce and Ace Steel all around the arena. It's much fun, then just as Team ROH is going to score the major move with Ace going for his middle rope tombstone reminiscent of Death Before Dishonor 2 Part 2, Super Dragon runs in and Team CZW takes over with the 3-on-2 advantage. That is until Whitmer 'can't stand it any more', leading to...

BJ Whitmer vs Super Dragon

Far be it from me to really like a Super Dragon match, but.... I really liked this. Really. Sorry Lantern. In the context of the CZW feud, in the context of Whitmer's fighting spirit, this is great. Even with Super Dragon in it. After being absent from the brawl around the building, the commentary team rejoin us for the actual match, and I have to say I like the whole bell to bell only commentary gimmick, even though I do like the team of Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. Whitmer is all agressive and "RAAARGH" while Super Dragon is more arseholey, repeatedly bruatlising Whitmer's 'injured' neck and taking time to fuck with the ROH fans too when Whitmer is down.

The basic story is, even though the injury is hampering him, Whitmer wants revenge for the Psycho Driver off the apron through a table that injured him in the first place at the 100th show. He won't lay down, even though he takes a curb stomp on a chair and a series of other headdrops, to increasing fervour from the crowd and Prazak on commentary. Super Dragon takes a beating too, to be fair, and despite controlling the majority of the match can't repeat his Psycho Driver trick, and BJ lays waste to him with an exploder off the top rope through tables on the outside, then rolls him back in the ring for the pinfall.

One of the best matches of the ROH vs CZW feud so far for me. Amusingly, Steel and Pearce return to check on Whitmer, and when he revives he gets them to 'get rid of the trash', at which point they drag Super Dragon through the fans, out the front door and dump him face down on the street.

Christopher Daniels vs Matt Sydal

Uh oh, how is Lantern going to watch this?

The good news is that this is not the standard Daniels-works-a-bodypart match, as this is all about Sydal looking for a win against the veteran, where he failed at Dissension even though Daniels battled through a freak knee injury on that show. For the most part, Sydal is actually the one working the body part in this match, working over the midsection of Daniels. The thing about Sydal, much like Delirious, is that even though he's become pretty much established in ROH, he hasn't actually won much with any of his major moves, so figuring the key to singles victories has been difficult for him.

So, Sydal continues working the midsection, but his trademarks like that standing frog-moonsault aren't good enough to pick up the win. He even upgrades that to a quebrada, again good enough for a nearfall. Daniels has to resort to fighting spirit offense to stay in the match, busting out a desperation lariat and at one point chaining some back suplexes into his Blue Thunder Driver. Relying on his trademarks doesn't do Daniels any good for the most part though, as the BME hurts his injured midsection and Sydal gets the knees up on the Arabian Press. Sydal himself is getting desperate though, as rollups don't do the trick, he can't hit the Here It Is driver, misses his shooting star press, and one attempt at a headscissors too many sees Daniels hit the Last Rites out of nowhere for the pin.

I enjoyed this quite a lot, as they both played the roles well, better than say Sydal vs Styles where they went all out athletic style rather than concentrating on their roles. Sydal losing to one move out of nowhere means he still has that win to chase, so if Lantern reviews this negatively, he's only got two more matches between them upcoming. Ha ha.

Title vs Title: Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness

Writing this will probably be quite difficult, as I'm still on a high from seeing their Liverpool match two days ago. Anyway...

This is Pure title rules. So, that's three rope breaks, 20-count on the floor, no closed fist strikes to the face, the Pure title can change hands on a countout or DQ.

Nigel has been using countouts to his advantage recently, getting that rule over more than the 3-rope-break stuff that used to dominate Pure Title matches.

Danielson has been the all conquering World Champion, beating Roderick Strong, Lance Storm, Colt Cabana in 5 minutes, Delirious and Jimmy Yang since I last properly reviewed a show just 5 shows ago.

Naturally, this starts with matwork. Really good no nonsense, as Danielson wants to show he's "the best Pure wrestler in the world" as well as rounded World Champion. It's mostly even, but Danielson has the edge early on. After about ten minutes, he manages to get Nigel to use his first rope break on a cravate, such is his control. Nigel knows he's good, but he also knows how to use the Pure rules to his advantage, so his method of comeback is to go to the World of Sport playbook to punch Dragon without the referee seeing and get Dragon using closed fists in retaliation that the referee sees and deducts a ropebreak. With Danielson infuriated Nigel then scores with his wristlock/low dropkick combo that allows him to do some damage to Danielson's arm, and get a second ropebreak soon after.

From there, Danielson keeps having to work around his arm, but with only one ropebreak left decides he needs to be more aggressive and levels things up with his diving headbutt and the crossface chickenwing, but it then backfires as he gets hit with the Tower of London and loses his final ropebreak. McGuinness then makes a mistake of his own as he goes for the Tower of London again too soon, and Dragon counters with Cattle Mutilation, so bang goes Nigel's last ropebreak.

The match really picks up from here on, as they dramatically tease a countout, with Nigel holding Danielson under a table then rolling into the ring at 17, leaving Dragon to just sneak in at 19. Danielson then gets Cattle Mutilation again, and Nigel has to go not just to the ropes but maneuver himself all the way to the outside to escape, almost tapping out several times in the process and actually screaming as he finally frees himself. While Nigel tries to recover on the outside, Dragon nails him with a tope and throws him into the fans, but while he gets back in the ring and the count gets to 16, he goes for his springboard into the crowd rather than a countout win and Nigel gets a chair up rather than take the dive himself. As Danielson lays in the crowd, Nigel slowly gets to ringside and beats the new count at 19, with Danielson then counted out still in the crowd.

Ring announcer Bobby Cruise then gets his announcement as far as "The winner of the match - and NEWWWWWWWW... " before referee Todd Sinclair cuts him off, then the ruling is made that only the Pure title can change hands on a DQ or countout. That's just mean. Nigel and Dragon get handed their belts, and the crowd around Danielson start chanting "Best in the World" for him".

Awesome match, but to be honest the first time I watched it I lost focus between the end of the ropebreaks bit and the first countout spot, and, well, basically I fell asleep. Serves me right for watching ROH after a days work and an evening meal.

ROH Tag Titles: Austin Aries and Roderick Strong vs Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley

The Embassy get their tag title shot, having won a series of tag matches over the wrestlemania triple shot, and with the combination of Rave and Shelley never having faced Aries and Strong in a straight tag team match, this should be interesting.

Rave and Shelley come out to a toilet paper frenzy, then when things calm down Shelley starts badmouthing the audience to great effect. "Oh yeah, toilet paper, I thought ROH fans are supposed to be intelligent" made me chuckle, especially as a smartass in the crowd immediately replied "yeah because TNA fans are so damn cool". There's a distinct lack of Prince Nana at ringside, though Daizee Haze is there to heel things up.

The match starts with the champs dominant and the Embassy having to play the usual stalling game, until Gen Next get too cocky playing chops and baseball humour with Rave and Haze sneaks in and low blows Aries.

There's then several minutes of Aries being isolated by The Embassy, and they work him over brilliantly, cheating at every opportunity. Unfortunately, once Strong gets the eventual hot tag, the match is way closer to the end than you may have hoped. Strong's cleaning house is as good as ever, but after a couple of nearfalls by the Embassy, the usual combo of backbreakers and a 450 splash by Aries gets the win for the champs.

Good match with a great spell of Embassy dominance in the middle, but a little underwhelming for me after the length and drama of the title vs title match and certainly not up to what I'd hoped for out of the Embassy's tag title shot. Still worth watching, though.

There's then a backstage promo from Nigel and the DVD is done at 3 hours, 16 minues. Perhaps the best single disc DVD release so far now ROH are no longer restricted to 3 hours by the VHS versions.

I'd say all evidence points to you being wrong on all counts. Obviously he's not Rock II or Austin II, nobody is. But I think Danielson cuts some of the best promos out of anyone on the Indy circuit and he's definitely on par with CM Punk.

Charismatic? If he wasn't then the fans wouldn't get into his matches PROPERLY. You know the difference, when they stop the duelling chants and actually unload their hatred on him. He proved at Arena Warfare he can cut great, long promos that rile the crowd up and in his pre-match promo on Delirious he riled up the fans to such a degree that they went mental for Delirious' reply and the start of the match.

Not sure how you define 'original' in this industry. Not many people are. Some of his adlibs are very original, though. Every interaction he's had with the CZW fans has been goldust, IMO.

Obviously I'm not saying you can't not like him, but there is a lot of evidence that points to him being a very capable talker. He's a lot better than Joe, who only ever talks for a couple of minutes (but is buoyed by the fact he doesn't have to).

IN YOUR FACE

A blazing rage is threatened as, yet again, the fucking DV-fucking-D player starts pissing about. Yet again no video recap for you fine people. Oh wait, no, it’s alive! Recapping Colt Cabana’s utterly unbelievable(in all the wrong ways) rise to being the no. 1 contender.

Danielson cuts a promo. He’s pissed about the fact everyone gives him shit for being so pale. Colt Cabana comes along and talks about comparing tan lines. Danielson cuts him off repeatedly, Colt ends up on top. Nope, I don’t buy him as a threat to the title, either.

Recap moves to KENTA’s tour of ROH, showing all his previous matches, and Davey Richards’ debut match. That double arm brainbuster still looks fucking deadly.

Finally we have a Daniels interview. Seemingly backstage after the How We Roll main event. He is distinctly pissed that Danielson abandoned him to get pinned. He wants Christian to come back one more time for a one on one match to try and beat him. He’s pretty sure that he can win such a match. You go Daniels. Okay promo, nowt to be upset about.

We open with a Briscoes’ promo. Yet again they say Stwong/Aries got lucky, they intend to beat people and take the titles. No surprise. They sound right, that’s for sure. Aries/Stwong promo, Aries saying how awesome they are, Strong looks like he’s barely out of puberty yet. The shocks, the horrors. Run of the mill stuff, inoffensive but okay.

MATCH ONE: Sterling Keenan and Jason Blade Vs. Briscoes

Well, this one’s built as a showcase for the Briscoes, who are as over as ever with the ROH crowd. Let’s face it, we know who’s going over here. Seems Kid Mikaze’s not being used anymore, or maybe he just wasn’t available. Sterling Keenan and Blade get a bit of early offense, but it’s largely equal back and forth. Mark Briscoe pulls off a fucking amazing move. Keenan’s on the apron, about to go foran asai moonsault following a Blade dive on Jay B. Mark charges over, leaps over the ropes and hurracanrana’s him to the floor! That’s a new one for me. Some of Blade’s selling is way over the top, and he totally miscues on a snapmare/kick to the back spot by just lying flat. Briscoes start firmly taking him apart with tagging until Blade dropkicks for a near fall, exploder’s for another, then tags out. Keenan promptly gets booed, because the fans want a squash and you know they do. The Briscoes are the stars in here, the other guys are just fodder as far as the crowd are concerned. For all that, Keenan gets a little nice, but typical ROH offence before the tag out and Briscoe fireback from Mark. Uranage kills Jason Blade, chop/headbutt/splash mountain neckbreaker kills Keenan but Blade breaks up the three. Briscoes get Blade on their shoulders, and promptly launch him into space with the highest fucking flapjack I have ever seen, and they finally killify Keenan with the spike Jay Driller for the win. THIS is how they should have built them up to face Strong and Aries in the first place. They looked awesome here.

SQUASH match *1/2


McGuinness gets a promo, introducing his shot for the tag team titles and his partner. McGuinness seems to be kind of working face all of a sudden, nothing even remotely pricky. Nice interplay between Guinness and Cabana, brief segment, nice watching. Pacing on this DVD is breakneck, I must say.

Highlights of a Reyes/Dave Christ match, ending with the dragon sleeper. Smokes then jumps the other Christ while Reyes refuses to let go of the sleeper. Cabana then runs in and blasts smokes with his CZW title belt. Presumably as vengeance for Homicide’s actions the other night. Homcide hits the ring and the place goes nuts. Homicide calls Hero out to face him, but of course no-show.

SECOND MATCH: Davey Richards Vs. Jimmy Rave

Of course, the fans rip Rave a new one the second his music hits, and start brandishingthe bog roll. Jesus the fans are close to the ring here. Fans very enthusiastic with throwing the bog roll here. Still isn’t as good without Shelley. Richards gets polite claps. He’s far from being super-over as yet. Rave jumps him immediately, and we’re off!

Davey no-sells an early toss into the guardrail and kicks Rave against the guard rail. Back in the ring Rave gets back in control fast with a knee in the corner and neckbreaker. Apparently there’s glass in the ring, so I guess someone chucked in a bottle. Nana cheapshots Richards with style, while Jimmy jaws with the fans. They really do not like Rave here. Nana’s constant ranting pisses the crowd off, as well, and he starts getting heat on them. Is that Green Lantern Fan again? I don’t know much about him but I’ve heard he tends to sit in the front row where he’ll always be seen by the cameras. Richards fires back with a springboard jumpy kick, then tries to suplex Rave into the ring, looks like he’s been cut by the glass in the ring, just as Rave has, then they end up doing a vertical suplex from the INSIDE of the ring to the outside. That looked really nasty. Ghanarea fails back in the ring, Richards kicks him half to death then german suplexes for a near fall. Goes for the brainbuster, but its blocked into shoulder blocks in the turnbuckle. Rave tries to block the elbow, does, gets suplexed to death, then takes the elbow of death/lariat of annihilation combo for a very close near fall. He then misses a missile dropkick and gets kneed in the face for a near fall. He tries the elbow again and gets speared to death. A northern lights bomb gets two, and this is building beautifully. BIG ‘LET’S GO DAVEY’ chant. Rave nearly gets a cheap win, only to go into an armbar for a shock tap out. Fairly short,but they worked this one smart and the closing stretch was red hot. Richards is looking good, I confess. He’s yet to prove that he’s a step above the usual ‘move set master’ fare, though. Anybody can get over working opposite Rave, after all.

**1/2


Jimmy Jacobs gets an interview, and Jacobs talks about the BJ Whitmer match and the powerbomb of death. This is great. “Everybody told me there was this devastating fall, and really I didn’t think anything of it, because I didn’t remember any of the match”. Sweetness. He actually picks up the DVD of the event and says he watched it. Of course, it all comes down to the obvious: If I’d died, Lacey wouldn’t be protected, and that’s just not cricket, dammit! Jacobs challenges BJ to a rematch, for revenge, for almost leaving Lacey protectorless. This is great stuff. Apparently Jacobs has a shot at the World Title in the near future. Apparently, Danielson’s never faced someone with the power of love in his corner. I love Jimmy Jacobs. I want to hug him and put him on my shelf to watch him moon over Lacey for eternity. He’s so cool. Oh, match. I’m a numpty. I didn’t realise the rematch is later on THIS card. *smacks head*

THIRD MATCH: Aries/Stwong Vs. McGuinness/Cabana

WOW. This is a step down the card for the champs. Fun on the entrance. Cabana does McGuinness’ entrance with him, but he can’t get it right, such as McGuinness’ signature slide into the ring and stand up that he hurts his leg on, or gets stuck on the ropes, or whatever. Fun. I’ll give Aries/Stwong one thing, they have good entrance music. Out comes Aries, showing ten times the presence and charisma of his wooden partner, and out comes Stwong. I just can’t be excited about him anymore. Aries is mega over with the fans. It’s notable that Stwong hardly ever gets chants in this team. Everyone’s shaking hands, and we’re off.

McGuinness controls the opening, including a great spot where he blocks all the chop attempts in the corner and gives him the finger. Aries is tagged in, and gets the better of an exchange, resulting in McGuinness tagging out. Cabana beats Aries on an exchange, and Aries tags out to Stwong. When Stwong and McGuinness enter the ring again, Stwong finally nails the laser death chops, including a series of them when Aries nullifies the handstand in the corner, holding him there for Stwong to have his way with. The champs take over on McGuinness. This lasts until Nigel is able to hit a headstand counter on Aries and hit the soccer kick/forearm to the chest combo before tagging out to Cabana... who gets BOOED. The fans here REALLY like Aries. There’s a REALLY complicated double team submission from Cabana and McGuinness that I couldn’t possibly describe even if I wanted to, which gets the first of the dreaded duelling chants. (Cabana/Aries, for those who aren’t interested). McGuinness works on Aries with a grounded cobra clutch submission, then spins him out into a left arm lariat effort, but Aries ducks it. McGuinness distracts the ref and indicates for Cabana to attack, but he won’t so McGuinness comes over and tags him in instead. McGuinness is fucking HUGE! He makes Aries look like a midget. Of course, McGuinness ISN’T huge, he’s about average sized for a man in this industry. He also blows his nose at Stwong. Heh heh heh. Bonus points to Nigel for that one. Of course Aries almost immediately tags out and Stwong gets revenge on Nigel with his hard-hitting offence. The signature Aries/Stwong combos start coming out, before McGuinness hits his unique power toehold and tags out to get a rest. Cabana hits a remarkable quebrada to take out the champs, then there’s a nice series of moves ending with McGuinness’ headstand mule kick. Cabana his a tornado fisherman’s suplex, then misses a missile dropkick and gets rolled into the Stwonghold. McGuinness eventually breaks it up, I get the feeling that there was a miscue here as he just kind of stood around watching his partner in pain for a bit, and he didn’t seem to be obviously heeling it up or anything. This is great. However, I have a gripe with it. Get to that at the end. McGuinness hits the Tower of London off Cabana’s shoulders (OW) for a near fall, broken up by Aries, Cabana and Aries spill to the outside. McGuiness goes for the headstand for the fourth time, and it goes horribly wrong with a lightning dropkick from Aries into a death kick from Stwong for a heart in the mouth near fall, then the powerbomb/dropkick for another nearfall, before McGuinness taps to the Stwonghold. Great stuff.

Now for the gripe. Where the fuck’s the logic in making McGuiness/Cabana look like a far stronger tandem than the Briscoes, when you’ve got about three other Briscoe/Stwong and Aries matches planned for future shows? This is the kind of stupid shit booking that eventually killed the WWE tag division. Throw together teams should NEVER be better than named, long-term tandems. It’s just, fucking, logical. GRRR. Anyway, Aries and Stwong are off for a while, so that should freshen them up for their return.

***1/2

FOURTH MATCH: Jimmy Jacobs Vs. Lacey

Ah, Jimmy, I’ve missed you. The new entrance is REALLY catching on. Lots of firelighters out there tonight. This show’s been great so far, and I think it’s going to continue. I love Jacobs and like BJ, so this... oh here it goes.

Jimmy charges Whitmer on the floor, punches him and stuff, then gets nearly fucking KILLED on a pair of throws into the guard rails. Third time it’s Whitmer into the rails. They enter the ring, and of course Jacobs starts getting abused immediately. OH, MOTHERFUCKER! Jacobs hits the no-hands headscissors. HAPPY DANCE! MsChif stomp in the corner, and Jacobs is in control. Raven says you should master four moves, and that’s two of them. Whitmer’s head gets dropkicked into the steel post. OW. Jacobs bites at Whitmer’s head, then goes to blowing kisses to Lacey. As per usual, this results in a come back, as Whitmer wins a chop war, but Jacobs cuts him off with a dropkick to the knee. I just noticed that Lenny Leonard’s on commentary. That’s not a good sign. He’s so eminently forgettable that I didn’t actually notice his existence for the first hour of the show. Prazac’s audible enough, though. Ahem. Jacobs tries a jumping DDT from the turnbuckle, but it’s countered into a brainbuster. Yes, a brainbuster. BJ’s now bleeding on the eyebrow. No idea how that happened. Side fisherman’s suplex into small package gets a near fall. That would make a good finisher, actually. Jacobs gets a ‘YOU SICK FUCK’ chant for wiping BJ’s blood on his own brow. Lacey aproves of this antic, of course. Oh dear. Top rope rana is reversed into a powerbomb drop onto the turnbuckle, but a german suplex goes into a victory roll for a near fall. Then Jacobs nails Whitmer with a death valley driver. Top rope senton lands on the knees, apparently this is a trademark of Jacobs. He promptly lands on Whitmer’s knees. OW. Come on, Jimmy! I know he’s technically the heel here, but come on JIMMY! Oh shit. Contra Code is countered into Austin-killer piledriver, for a very near fall indeed. The dream’s alive! Lacey’s on Jacobs’ case, Whitmer’s going for the kill... come on, Jimmy. OH! HA! Lacey grabs Whitmer’s leg, goes to hit her, then kisses her! Jacobs spears Whitmer, punches and bits his head. Lacey’s screeching like a banshee, spits on one of the crowd (GLF, if I’m correct), Jacobs dives on Whitmer. This is all great stuff. Whitmer goes flying into the crowd. This match is great! One half of the arena starts chanting ‘WE CAN’T SEE SHIT’ so Jimmy flips them off. Back in the ring and back up top, Jacobs tries a super Contra Code, but it gets blocked... and Whitmer powerbombs him INTO THE FUCKING CROWD. The crowd go fucking mental, of course. I’m pretty sure the powerbomb was onto some ROH wrestlers, but I’m not sure. Even Lacey looks worried for a change. The referee calls a stoppage no-contest. The fans don’t like that.

Bloody hell. Shit finish, but what a ride. It actually adds to it rather than takes away, in my opinion.

***

Richards cuts a promo. He’s sporting one hell of a swollen right eye. Decent promo. Short.


FIFTH MATCH: Shane Hagadorn Vs. Mitch Franklin

This should be okay. Good cool off after the insanity of the end of the last match. Hagadorn’s a rather sleazy, scuzzy heel. Kind of what you’d expect of the Briscoes if they worked heel instead of tweener. I like Hagadorn getting the referee to take his shirt off. Nice touch.

Hagadorn potatoes Franklin on the handshake and takes over on him. Hagadorn works pretty well here, Franklin’s energetic on offence but not exactly compelling. They’re both sloppy in a couple of places. Ends when Hagadon gets a sleeper, throw into grounded choke for the win. Fairly short, inoffensive but not brilliant. Hagadorn’s definitely the best in the ring, and wouldn’t look out of place on the main show undercard.

*1/2

SIXTH MATCH: Adam Pearce Vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Pearce gets the mic amid a heavy ‘ROH’ chant. Basically gives himself a match with CC and calls him out to the ring. Lots of ‘HEY’ chants as CC appears, sharp dressed as always, in the far section of the crowd and starts winding through the fans to the ring. Pearce attacks, and we’re on.

Pearce beats him fora while, until CC takes over with cheap moves and lots of chokes, including one with his tie while blocking the ref with his body. Pearce tries to fight back but gets poked in the eye and choked with CC’s shirt. The fans give CC some real shit, as you’d expect. Pearce again tries to come back and gets beaten savagely down with knees to the gut and a suplex. Pearce finally hits a spinebuster, and this is very much a WWE style match so far. None of the usual ROH technical work at all. Pearce takes over and CC begs off like a proper coward. When it looks like the match is over, splash-style, in comes Hero with the belt to hit Pearce in the head. The fans immediately chant for Homicide, leading us into the next match.

SEVENTH MATCH: Chris Hero Vs. Homicide

Chris is on the mic, being Chris Hero. He has no fear, he has intestinal fortitude, he has lots of fans hating on him. The fans start throwing some bog roll at Chris Hero. The lights go out, and it’s HOMICIDE TIME. And by fuckery he’s over with the fans.

He grabs the CZW title and tosses it contemptuously to the mat, then has a face to face with Pearce, and some hard words back and forth before a tope con hilo flattens Hero. Pearce chases Claudio off, and the match is down to where it should be. Bell rings, and we’re on. Homicide hammers Hero relentlessly, battering him all around the ring. Herotakesa verticalsuplex on the metal ramp, which looked REAL nasty. Hero tries to escape under the ring, is dragged out along with the bog roll from Rave’s entrance, and he weakly throws some at Homicide. Yes, that is his best offence so far. Back in the ring, we switch gears into some wrestling, which naturally results in Homicide coming out on top. Hero finally gets a decisive move with a big boot while Homicide’s on the apron. Hero takes control with a little mat stuff, some light submission work and bits of brawling, lots of crowd interaction. Homicide tries a comeback but gets cut off with a kick to the head. Later a sunset flip leads into a cravatte, then a run up the ropes, roll into snap powerslam to keep things on Hero’s side. Tries a Cop Killa to piss off the fans, Homicide rolls out right into a cravatte. He misses a moonsault, however, leading to Homicide’s comeback. His signature punch-block-acecrusher gets a near fall, and they enter the back and forth stage. Homicide applies an STF, which amusingly leads to a loud ‘FUCK JOHN CENA’ chant. Hero hits a Hero’s Welcome for a close near fall, then does Cena’s ‘you can’t see me’ taunt for some easy heat. Homicide hits the three amigos suplexes for a loud ‘EDDIE’ chant, before he gets cut off by Hero and running powerbombed through a table that Hero had set up in the corner for a very close and very hot near fall. Hero tries a top rope Hero’s Welcome, but Homicide blocks and counters with a frog splash. Homicide’s pissed with the ref’s count. Hero grabs the CZW belt, then twats Homicide with it for... a two count. This show has been really a cut above. Homicide seems to be dead. Hero plays with him, then charges into a boot, ducks the lariat, but gets KILLED on the layback, and Homicide gets the win via lariat of utter destruction. Superb.

****

Post match, Homicide gets a thunderous ‘NYC’ chant going, after demanding that Hero get carried out like the trash he is. A little more difficult than usual here, and Hero eventually breaks free and escapes through the crowd. Homicide cuts a great promo about being fucked over and screwed around with. He declares himself the MVP, and says it’s his long-term destiny to be a World Champion by the end of the year. He calls out Gabe Sapolsky, and says if he doesn’t get his shot he’ll quit the company, and go to better places with more money. I assume it’s a veiled reference to TNA, where, of course, he is in fact wrestling.


EIGHTH MATCH: Bryan Danielson Vs. KENTA Vs. Samoa Joe

Starts off with a massive ‘JOE’ chant. Really there’s no way this can go wrong short of one of the participants having a heart attack and dying right there in the ring. And even then it’d still have a memorable finish. KENTA’s looped entrace music accompanies him to the ring amid lots of fists on the guard rails. Danielson looks MEGA pissed on his way to the ring. Probably thinking back to the Go To Sleep that knocked him out last time. This match is non-title, and that means it could be anyone’s match. All the heat’s on Joe, of course, as usual. Tonight, playing off Homicide’s earlier chant, Danielson is from ‘The best city in the world, Aberdeen, Washington’. He always has something good to make the referee say for him. Mixed Dragon/Joe chants, KENTA’s completely lost in the mix so far.

KENTA’s got no interest in the code of honour, and won’t shake Joe’s hand despite it being indicated to him by the referee. Danielson does shake Joe’s hand, but when he goes to shake KENTA’s, KENTA gives both Danielson AND Joe the finger, and the first big ‘KENTA’ chant kicks up, as he’s his usual cocky, rebellious self. Punk. It’s pointed out that KENTA’s not in a special attraction, he’s with the company on an extended tour, and that this is his first EVER three way match up. Danielson tries to avoid locking up at first, then attacks both opponents by going after their eyes and european uppercutting them until they double team him with repeated kicks to the leg and chest. KENTA then slaps Joe violently across the face and goes for him until Joe dumps him flat on a leapfrog counter. Joedoes his usual slow walk away on a Danielson cross body, and Green Lantern Fan starts giving Joe double middle fingers. Danielson starts punking out KENTA; wrong move. Don’t do that to el guapo. KENTA fires back with a couple of rock hard kicks, then pulls his jump over the ropes to super punk move. Joe hits him with a single slap and knocks him out. The fact that he goes dead when Joe’s trying to pick him up makes me wonder if he actually DID knock him out. Replay of Joe’s slap, and actually it does look like Joe knocked KENTA out, he went down like he was poleaxed. Danielson plays chickenshit with Joe. KENTA’s back in before long, though, with a springboard double dropkick after some light work from Joe (I’m guessing to make sure he’s awake). So far it’s mostly the Joe show. Theme continues with Joe kicking KENTA’s head off and STJoeing Danielson onto him. Punks KENTA, they get into a Japan spot with repeated running moves and neither falling down, before Danielson drags KENTA out to set up a Joe elbow suicida. Joe continues working over KENTA, drags him around the ring, then Joe grabs Green Lantern Fan by the throat and shouts something at him. No idea why. They go into the crowd, resulting in Danielson diving from the ring to the crowd, flattening them both, but it looks like he’s fucked his knee on one of the chairs. He pulls his kneepad down, and he seems to have difficulty standing up. Ow. I’ve hurt my knee before. It sucks. Especially it sucks when it happens during athletic activity (Judo, in my case). Back in the ring, Joe does his contemptuous walk off from a double missile dropkick effort, takes out both of his opponents with more stuff. Joe show continues. KENTA, however, hits the Busaiku knee in the corner, something which Prazac and Lenny Leonard completely fucking miss. It’s only, like, his prime finisher. No reason they should know or anything. Danielson’s leg seems tobe okay after all. Up top Danielson gets blocked, leading to KENTA nailing JOE with the leap up to falcon arrow. WOW. Danielson gets Cattle Mutilation on Danielson, but Joe breaks it with a senton. Joe goes to finish KENTA with the muscle buster, but Danielson chop blocks his back knee. There’s a sequence of clipping half-dodges between KENTA and Danielson that kind of flattens the crowd, but KENTA’s combogets them alive as KENTA charges into the roaring elbow. Joe comes backin and gets roaring elbowed down by Danielson, before KENTA fights free of the chickenwing, then nails a tiger suplex for a close near fall. Joe assaults KENTA, but his bad knee gets elbowed, and he’s tripped into a texas cloverleaf which he sells like a trooper, almost crying. Danielson rolls KENTA into the chickenwing pin, but KENTA gets out, then goes for Go To Sleep only to get his eyes raked. Danielson lands on Joe’s shoulders, then dropped onto KENTA’s knee... fuck... Busaiku Knee kills Joe, and Go To Sleep kills Danielson for the three count!

Crowd were not as hot for it as they could have been, but by fuck this was a great match. At least in my opinion. Energetic, full of hard hitting offence, great selling, and lots of twists and turns. A great overall card.

****

KENTA gets the mic. He calls NYC ‘his home’ and gets a good cheer. Says he wants a championship match. His English ain’t half bad. Joe grabs the mic, says he needs to worry about him if he wants a championship match. Bitch slaps Danielson a couple of times, then walks out. KENTA shakes Danielson’s hand, who is still selling the Go To Sleep like KENTA’s knee was loaded with C4. Ends with the man from Japan alone in the ring, and his cool, yet slightly underwhelming music playing.

Final segment back stage with Aries and Stwong saying how great they are, and the Briscoes getting in their faces saying they want those titles. Again, ROH is OBVIOUSLY, and I mean so BLATANTLY building the Briscoes as Aries/Stwong’s only real challengers in the company, so why the fuck haven’t they been made to look stronger in their challenges? Madness.



A little side rant. ROH feels to me like it’s developing a glass ceiling. EVERY title belt in the promotion is locked down SO tightly that nobody in the company can actually advance anywhere. Danielson’s eaten his way through the roster to the point that everyone knows only one or two people have even the chance of dethroning him (even though Danielson does his very best to make his challengers look good), and Aries/Stwong are even more dominant. It does indeed look like they are absolutely and utterly unstoppable. Which is fine. But when EVERY champion looks unstoppable, and the whole promotion is built around competition, ostensibly, for the titles, it basically means that most of the matches on a show are de facto pointless. They’ve clearly realised that the rankings system makes no sense and have dropped it, which makes the average match even less worthwhile. I’m notnecessarily saying they need to take the titles off people, after all they’ve got them for a reason, but they DESPERATELY need to come up with something for everyone else to do. The CZW feud is nearly over, and without that angle for people to get over even MORE people are going to be left with very little to do. I like ROH, and I don’t get the feeling of impending doom that the average WWE show used to provoke in me, but there’s some obvious holes in the product that need filling ASAP. Priorities about who they’re pushing included.

Anyway, watch this show. It’s awesome. Great pacing, lots of backstage segments and promos, lots of good matches, entertaining all the way through. Hot crowd helps most of the matchescome across even better.

According to fans at the event, people throwing toilet roll at Rave managed to break some of the chandelier above the ring, hence the glass.

He's a COCK. He set out to become a Superfan by always wearing a Green lantern shirt and sitting front row, he treats wrestlers like they're his mates and harrases them online, and he went to Chris Candido funeral, despite fans being told not to go, and treated it like a wrstling convention. Plus, he's such a notorious douchebag that no-one else can wear Green Lantern shirts to wrestling shows for fear of being compared to him dick brain.

You were the one complaining that Gen next never made people look good in matches...Anyway, Cabana/Nigel used to be a regular team in ROH a little while ago, so they're not exactly thrown together.

He did. All three guys got battered to fuck in the match.

Like what? He looked good on the mic in the Shelley match, but even then I thought Shelley looked better than he did.

His promos from when he first returned in 2005 were really average.

Basically I find his interviews fun when he's insulting kids and doing his heel act, but if he ever gets serious, he isn't that good at all.



The fans get into his matches because they have the belief he's a great wrestler and most of them really enjoy his matches. Roderick String has no charisma at all and yet the fans still get into his matches. And what do you mean get into his matches 'properly'?

If you mean he plays a successful heel act I think you're pretty mistaken, as even when against top faces he gets his fair share of chants, and the people who boo him seem to be booing him because they think he 'plays a good heel', rather than any actual hatred they have towards him.



Well, actually, I've seen little of this. Care to point me to any matches where this happens?



Yes, like I said he cut a funny heel promo on the CZW fans. Problem was, a lot of the things he said he was getting cheered for. And it wasn't as if his promo was anything revoloutionary. He did his 'I'm better than Benoit' act, he insulted a couple of fans, what's new? Shelley's promos in that match were far more effective.



Something new and different. Rather than 'I'm the best in the world' stuff.



Yeah, I've enjoyed his stuff with the CZW fans.

Seems like as good a place as any to ask but does anyone know the name of Jimmy Yang's ROH music and from what fantastically 80's american kung fu movie it inevitably comes from???

I think Yang's theme is 'Dwight David - The Last Dragon', but I couldn't tell you where it came from.

It's good that GenNEXT made McGuinness/Cabana look strong, but what's the fucking point of putting over a one-time team and not putting over your long-term feud rivals?



He always does the tweener role in the CZW/ROH feud, and to be honest he's switched to a largely tweener role in general rather than pure heel. McGuinness is closer to a total heel.



Off the top of my head, both defences against Delirious, particularly the second one.



Yeah, but what's new and different? I've not seen or heard of anything legitimately new or different in ages. Isn't it more important to pull off the gimmick you've got well? Of course if you don't think he does then that's a different issue. Obviously I do.



Getting into it to the point that they're too busy booing him out or cheering for the other guy to duel chant or 'this is awesome'. The ROH crowd is overly smarky at times and there are very few workers in the company who can get them properly involved into the action. Danielson's one of those who almost always can, by riling them up and by belittling his opponents until the fans legitimately want to see his head get knocked off.

Yang's music was from the awesome 1980's film 'The Last Dragon' & the full name of the song has been previously mentioned.

Damn you Edgecrusher for being so damned far ahead. I need to watch Ring of Homicide still.

Oh and I edited in the review for the last match of WoC night 2.

I'm currently "obtaining" Throwdown. Apparantly it's a really entertaining show. I'll give it a watch tomorrow and maybe do a quick write up in here...

I'm doing Throwdown this very night. Feel free to put up yours as well. Nothing wrong with two or three reviews per show, to get different opinions and stuff.

Question for the ROH faithful:

On the DVD opening montage there is footage of an outdoor show.

When/where was this show and was it released on DVD?

Thanks in advance.

Well, whilst not one of the ROH 'faithful' I can answer this for you. It wasn't an outdoor show per se, but ROH did a couple of spots for the morning news where they set a ring up down town and had bits a pieces of wrestling going on, while the reporters talked to workers and generally ran a piece on the company. They used these opportunities to run angles, the first around Low Ki Vs Aries and the second around Jacobs Vs Whitmer.

Cheers... thanks for you help!

Now onto 2006 ROH with ROH 4th Anniversary Show.

The Briscoes v Mamaluke/Rinauro v Mikaze/Blade tag opener was a waste. The only point of it was to put the Briscoes over and they didn't even spend most of their time in the action. A few head drops later and they get the win. I thought they got rid of this garbage in 2002. 1/2*

Claudio/Pearce/Azreial/Fury was next. 4-Corner Survivals are usually pointless and average. Add 3 crap workers to the mix and they become terrible. Pearce was boring as hell, nobody cared about Fury, Claudio's gimmick is annoying as hell, Azreial is just plain awful. No need for this stuff. 1/4*

Joe/Lethal was decent-good. Not as good as their previous 2 matches- Lethal was leaving, and it showed, having the blowoff to a feud in the early portion of the show, and it not being a match that either put 100% into. I enjoyed it, but it was probably too long and in the long run it won't be remembered. **1/4

Whitmer/Daniels is a match that I don't think anybody wanted. And with good reason. The work they did was pretty uninspiring, and I found myself delighted when the bout was stopped for some excellent brawling. 3/4*

I actually liked Homicide/Cabana. Content wise it wasn't exactly great, but I loved the idea of the restars and thought they were carried out really well, and Cabana being willing to get killed for the sake of the feud certainly did the match some favours. More of a match to further storylines than anything else, it succeeded in that respect by getting me into the feud, and there was some nice action as well. Hate Cabana's selling though, and it's been said a million times, but the serious role does not suit him. **1/2

Rave/Dragon has been overhyped. It went on way, way too long, and I felt it did little for Rave. His periods of offence were really short, Dragon's selling of most of his stuff was average at best, and while they established he could hang with Dragon on the mat, it seemed irrelevant as for much of the match he was clearly treated as inferior. He never looked like winning. There was some nice stuff in the match. Dragon's offensive reportoire is somewhat repetetive at this point, but I dug Rave stealing his offence, among other things. It's hard to point to the good stuff in the match, as it was really forgettable, but it's in there, and the match is a decent title encounter, though admittedly one of the worst Dragon defences I've seen. And I have to say that was more down to Dragon then Rave. **1/2

Evans/Reyes was never going to be a classic, especially after Evans' late flight. It's fun seeing Jack get killed for a while, and they actually make a good job of the earlier portions, establishing the speed v power roles. I found it hard to watch after Evans landed on his head though. The botches didn't help the match at all, and Evans looked out of sorts. Still, wasn't a disaster, and it's too their credit they gave us something watchable. *1/2

Aries/Strong v Sydal/Styles was good. I'm not a great fan of Sydal constantly teaming with random guys against Aries/Strong, but him and Styles looked decent as a team, and in terms of tag team fundamentals, they both seemed to understand how to work the structure in their favour. The ending sequences were fun, but the match dragged in the middle, and the face/face dynamic didn't help the match at all. Good match, but not one that will live long in the memory. **1/2

Which pretty much sums up this show. It won't live long in the memory. After the opneing 2 disasters, the rest of the show was respectable, but I cared for little of it. Not one of ROH's better shows.

Surprised at your opinions of Rave/Dragon. I thought the two Embassy defences were among Dragon's best, with the Shelley one a good yard ahead.

That was the Generation Next show that was outdoors, they had a big marquee to wrestle under after a problem at the arena they booked.

And it was In Your Face I got...But anways, just finished Homicide vs. Hero and it's one of my favourite ROH shows of the year so far. Fun matches, hot crowd, great feuds and strong, hot storylines.

I'll attempt a proper review later.

No he's onabout the clip of Aries doing a 450 on Azreil in the ring on a high street which is from the clips from the newsreport on The Future Is Now.

Before I post, I don't do play-by-play when I review matches...

Just finished watching In Your Face and it's now one of my favourite ROH shows ever, it was so much fun from start to finish...

The Briscoes vs. Sterling James Keenan & Jason Blade

This is the perfect way to begin this show, the crowd is super hot and want to get things underway at a fast and furious pace and if there's one tag team in America who can go at that pace and get the crowd going it's The Briscoes. Keenan and Blade have essentially no chance here and it's a bit of a squash with the Briscoes absolutely destroying their opponents in suitable head-dropping, face kicking fashion. This New York crowd is loving it. Short match but fun all the way...**1/2

Jimmy Rave vs. Davey Richards

After calling dibs on Davey Richards his PWG matches are brilliant and this is his second appearance in ROH and his second ROH match vs. Rave, and Richards picked up the win in the first one. Rave comes out first and the most entertaining thing in wrestling (the TP shower) begins, gorgeous stuff. They actually break shards of glass off the chandelier on the roof from the TP shower. This was a really fun match, Rave works the heel style to perfection and controlled the match with Richards using his explosiveness and hard strikes and powerups at the right time. I like this pairing and Richards picks up the win out of turning a roll up into a submission and getting Rave to tap out quickly. The NYC crowd seemed to warm to the newcomer Richards, whilst both men leave the ring with shards of glass in their back. Nasty stuff... ***

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Cabana & Nigel

Aries and Strong are a brilliant tag team and Cabana and Nigel also make for suitable partners. I liked the story in this match with the tag champions facing the pure champion, it adds credibility to both belts and furthers the "Best Champion in ROH" thing that ROH are currently going with. This was decent stuff, but I expected more, strangely Cabana and Nigel controlled the match working over Aries for the majority of the match, and there was also a lack of chemistry in Nigel and Cabana, it should be the more experienced tag team controlling a match like this. That's how it would work in my head anyway. Still Strong gets the hot tag and destroys Cabana and Nigel and Strong and Aries pick up the win after a hot finish...***1/4

Jimmy Jacobs vs. BJ Whitmer

A nice feud is building here after this tag team won the belts in the same building a year ago and now they have disbanded with Jacobs falling in love with Lacey and Lacey's Angels finishing. Jimmy's entrance is superb and Whitmer's improving so rapidly in ROH it looks like their 2003 push they were so desperate to give him is finally paying off. I liked the chemistry both guys had during this match, Jimmy playing the folorn lover and BJ beating the crap out of the littler guy, it showed why their mis-mash tag team worked so well. The finish to the match was something to see, BJ powerbombing Jacobs from the top rope to the outside to a bunch of "fans" this caused me to freak out and was a great spectacle for the live crowd. The match was going very nicely and then the finish pushed it over the top, no finish but...***1/2

Notice how each match is building ever so nicely...

Mitch Franklin vs. Shane Hagadorn

Skip this match and keep the great flow of the show going, this shouldn't be on the show.

Claudio Castignoli vs. Adam Pearce

A short match between two guys who are impressing me so much in ROH. Pearce worked this match as a brawl (his strength) and beat Claudio all round ringside, much to the delight of the New York crowd, Claudio didn't get much in on this match, yet still worked in a good little bout. Didn't go long and was another no finish (I think), but it did lead to the next match which I adored...this gets **....

Homicide vs. Chris Hero

Homicide is in his home town of NYC and in his home of ROH and is pissed as Chris Hero trys to interfere in an earlier match, he calls out Hero and out comes the CZW invader. They start out with the brawling which goes all round the outside of the cramped arena and back into the ring, they are both lighting each other up. Then as the match progresses Hero starts to gain the upper hand on Homicide, using the cravate to expert affect, but Homicide has those burst of energy and the crowd is super red hot for this match and Homicides power-ups. Somehow Homicide gets powerbombed through a table, but manages to kick out and he keeps kicking out of everything Hero is doing, Homcide comes back and destroys Hero with a lariat 1-2-3. It's over. The place goes nuts, I fucking love Homicide and Hero is an awesome heel. Loved this match...****1/4

KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Samoa Joe - Non Title

This was a brutal, brutal match. KENTA got knocked out from a Samoa Joe slap and was useless for the first half of the match, then Joe fucked his knee up and was useless for the second half of the match. Danielson had to hold it together but HE fucked his knee up too. This was a really fun spot fest 3-way. It was super entertaining, just 3 guys hitting the crap out of each other for about 25 minutes. I was into it all the way, as was the crowd. KENTA got the win after a Go 2 Sleep on Danielson, all the wrestlers are fucked but this match was entertaining as hell. Not a classic, but just good fun...****1/4

All in all, one of my favourite ROH shows for fun matches, hot crowds and hot feuds. This should be in everyone's collection.

Right, this is going to be a relatively short review.

ROH - Final Battle 2005 - 17/12/2005 - Edison, NJ

So, we've reached possibly ROH's biggest show of the year, and as 2005 draws to a close will Final Battle live up the hype? Let's see...

Match 1 - Milano Collection AT vs. Jimmy Rave

When there is Jimmy Rave, there is Prince Nana, when there is Prince Nana, there is greatness! I love Nana. He's fucking great. Very nicely structured was this match, the pace was perfect, both men were composed for the majority of the bout and put on an acceptable opener. It felt as if it could go either way so all was good in this, except Rave's botched northern light suplex, although the commentator's did cover that up pretty well.

Match 2 - Azrieal vs. Colt Cabana

Fuck, what a shit match. Azrieal hurts my eyes when he wrestles, seriously he's a waste of space. Cabana isn't much better either, a pointless match in my eyes. Azrieal trying to get Cabana to do his comedy routine again was terrible too, he looked like a right pillock prancing around the ring as if someone shoved something up his arse.

Match 3 - ROH Pure Title Match - Nigel McGuinness © vs. Claudio Castagnoli

This match was all kinds of great. I think Castagnoli is entertaining and Nigel is a great heel, the two referee's stipulation added a nice little effect to this, too. They seemed to just blend together here, the styles work perfectly and the crowd were into this which helped it progress. Their feud has been decent, but I feel Claudio should have walked away with the strap. Overall it was a solid match for what it was.

Match 4 - Steve Corino vs. Alex Shelley

Uh, not the most gripping match in the world but these two wrestling is always going to be decent. Shelley is one of the best things in professional wrestling these days, he has the potential to be the future of this business. Yeah, overall it was a nice little bout, not either man's best work but it was acceptable. Oh, and let's leave it at this, Corino does not suit face. That man was born to be hated.

Match 5 - Four Corner Survival Match - Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels

Urgh, I hate 4 way matches. At least this one featured four decent competitors actually wrestling for a reason or two, and not jobber 1-4 wrestling for the sake of it. It was nothing special for the majority of it, but the pace picked up nearer the end and it actually became somewhat interesting. Also, leaving Joe not really getting his hands on Lethal was good and bad, bad because I wanted to see Lethal get mauled. Good because it leaves me wanting more of those two.

Match 6 - Davey Andrews vs. Ricky Reyes.

Squashes shouldn't be allowed in ROH.

Match 7 - ROH Tag Team Title Match - Tony Mamaluke and Sal Rinauro © vs. Austin Aries and Roderick Strong

Aries and Strong carried this, they really showed what they're made of in this. Great team overall, I'm not too impressed with Mamaluke and Sal though, I've never liked them but I didn't enjoy their work here at all, at other points their work has been tolerable. Anyway, the ending was huge, nice to see a shit hot tag team take the straps. Oh, and Mamaluke is meant to be heel? He couldn't generate heel heat from that crowd if he shot one of them!

Match 8 - ROH World Title Match - Bryan Danielson © vs. Naomichi Marufuji

Danielson's theme music sets the mood of the match straight away. Final Countdown~!

In my opinion, Danielson is the best worker in the world just now, he's fucking immense. But, in this match, he never really impressed me. Don't get me wrong, both men had a solid match, but I couldn't get into it at all. Apart from the hard hitting action, there was nothing more that shouted "HEY! THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!". It was lacklustre at times and there was nothing that would make me want to watch this again. Although, I'd love to check out more of Marufuji, first time I've seen him wrestle as it happens so I think I'll be checking more of his work out. It was a passable match but the way the ROH fans marked out over it you'd think it was a five star match.

Match 9 - GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title Match - KENTA © vs. Low Ki

Both men portray a style that is very similar and this is what made this match worth watching. Back and forth with stiff kicks made the atmosphere what it was. There was nothing in the middle of the match though, everything seemed to be sucked out and used at the beginning or end, so there really wasn't a lot of depth. But, it was a fantastic finish, when you're on the edge of your seat anticipating the win you know you've witnessed an overall good match. It was nothing like I expected though, with reviews I had read it was meant to be a match of the year candidate, it wasn't that good.

So yeah, overall it was a perfectly acceptable show, not the best card they've ever produced but it was decent all the same.