Corino actually tears an ACL in his knee during that match with Shelley, which is why it's somewhat less awesome than you were likely expecting.

The Shelleyb defence was really great. The Rave defence just bored me for some reason. It could get better from a rewatch. Seemed like a lot of the stuff was really random and unfocused, like Dragon putting on the Full Nelson about 3 times.

According to Chris Heros Livejournal the kings of wrestling will challange Austin Aries and Roderick strong for the ROH tag belts in september

Wasn't he mocking The Embassy pose with that?

He may have been. I didn't get that connection when I watched it though.

Just seemed the match was Rave stealing a bit of offence, Dragon hitting his trademark spots in between striking and holds which meant nothing. It's a good match with some neat touches, but it isn't on the level of the Shelley defence or the Romero defence and the first match against Strong.

Watched ROH Supercard Of Honor and thought I'd do a mini review.

Shane Hagadorn v Flash Flanagan v Ricky Reyes v Delirious

Who the hell picked this to open the show? Why was this even on the show? Nobody could care less about Hagadorn or Flanagan, and this match is pretty awful. No legal man rules, no action of note except for maybe two Delirious comedy spots, which make this just above a train wreck. 1/2*

Alex Shelley/Jimmy Rave v Claudio Castagnoli/Jimmy Yang

Thanks god for Shelley and Rave, who manage to make a match with the abysmal Yang and the nondescript Castagnoli interesting. It helps that a lot of the match is spent throwing Yang about who, to his credit, takes a couple of nice bumps. Worth a watch for the Embassy's heeling, it really isn't all that good, just a pleasant suprise given the participants on the face team. *3/4

First Blood Match Ace Steele v Chad Collyer

On the surface it looks like they do everything right. Both spend the entire match trying to bust each other open, making the stipulation mean something, both bring the hate, it should be a compelling battle. Problem is, it isn't. Collyer is awful most of the time, so nobody cares, Steele is a little less awful, if still a completely boring character, whose promo before the match was one of the worst I've ever seen. So yes, the match itself is good, it just makes you wish the participants were different, and actually had some character. *1/2

Austin Aries/Jack Evans v Matt Sydal/AJ Styles

The action here was really good a lot of the time. There was just too much of it. They did some nice work around each character's interaction with others at the beginning- but I didn't need to see every character facing off against every opponent. The face in peril segments were nicely done- just I didn't really need to see two of them. You get what I mean. But I'll give them credit, between the 4 of them they produced some good action, which the live crowd ate up, and did a good job of furthering the friendly Sydal/GN rivarly, even if it isn't that good of a feud. Finishing sequence stood out as being excellent, some good character work, Styles didn't really shine here, and if anyone let the side down it was him. **3/4

Blood Generation v Do Fixer

Well this isn't 5*, or even close, but it is fun. The lack of selling hurt the match, as did a complete lack of reason to care. Some of the offence was really sloppy as well. But the action flowed seamlessly along, building to an insane finishing sequence, which was nearly marred by the ridiculous chants. Not much I can say, it's been discussed to the end. It definately falls victim to its own hype, and while it's a good multiman, and probably a high end match in the style they wrestled, it wasn't really my cup of tea. ***

Daizee Haze v Allison Danger v Lacey v Rain v Cheerleader Mellissa v Mischief

This really wasn;t the best use of these ladies. Maybe they'd get over a bit more if used in a singles match or even a tag, and to be honest, I think ROH should start using the Shimmer girls a lot more, and maybe book them in some actual feuds, since they're better than a lot of the men on the roster. The match wasn't anything to write home about, but there were a few neat moments, although the action came accross as a bit too contrived. *

Homicide v Mitch Franklin

As squashes go, I've seen a lot better. Nothing much to say, but I much preferred the Reyes squashes to this. 1/2*

Brawling was OK, both the Cabana/Cide brawls andf the ROH/CZW brawls had enough stuff in them to make them worthwhile.

Samoa Joe v Jimmy Jacobs v Christopher Daniels

Jimmy Jacobs must be the revelation of the year. His character is suddenly brilliant and he's turned it up in the ring as well. No content with the 'Ballad Of Lacey' being the best thing on this entire DVD, he is the star of the match, and makes it great fun with some humorous touches. Even Daniels is less offensive than usual, though I could do without him using almost his entire high end moveset in the first 5 or 6 minutes of the match. Great fun. **1/2

ROH World Championship Bryan Danielson© v Roderick Strong

This was really average, and on many accounts a failure. It failed to hold my or the crowds interest. It failed in getting Strong over as Dragon's equal. It wasn't all bad....

The Good

- Some really nice sequences

- Actually liked quite a bit of the opening matwork

- They set the building blocks nicely in the early stages

- I felt that Strong was desperate to win the title at times

The Bad

- The length of the match was all wrong. The crowd was already worn out, it was midnight, why did they have to go so long? It didn't hold my interest at all

- Strong has a total lack of charisma. Therefore, stuff like the stealing of Dragon's moves in a revenge spot wasn't good at all, as he didn't have the facials or character to carry it off.

- Selling was really negligent throughout. Strong sold too much, and looked like he was trying too hard to be some sort of indy god. Dragon didn't sell enough, and blew most of Strong's high end stuff off.

- The action was far too similar to their previous matches, except Dragon was less of a dick, which made it even worse

- A lot of the offence became predictable. Plus, Dragon insisted on dominating 90% of the match, when he wasn't all that entertaining doing it.

- Dragon was wrestling the same match 50 minutes in as he was 5 minutes in. No sign of desperation, no nothing.

I'd have to say the match was average at best. The MOTY talk is really misguided, and while it's solid action, it lacks anything that makes it exciting, compelling viewing. The commentator gag about how people who don't like this will like the Cena match at ONS II was ridiculous as well- especially since Cena/RVD was better than this, and especially due to the fact that Cena has 20+ matches in his career better than this dull bout. **

This was a show that was decent for the most part, and had two matches that stood out as being good, but the problem is you have so high expectations coming into these shows that you can't not be disappointed. It isn't the best ROH show ever, it's a solid all round show that's very fun at parts.

I'm watching Chi-Town Struggle at the moment. Will try and put up a review tonight or tomorrow.

You need to see some Sid promos if you thought Steel was THAT bad.

I don't think the Supercard main event was that bad. It had it's downturns, but actually I thought it was Wodewick who was selling badly. He just FORGOT about the massive amount of leg work for a stretch, which kind of invalidated nearly twenty minutes of work preceeding it. Then afterwards he starts limping. Whatupwitdat?

Yeah, to be fair to Ace, it wasn't that bad. It was the 'heavy breathing to show intensity' at the end I hated the most.

Sorry if I seem a bit negative in my reviews of these shows. I actually like Ring Of Honor- they must be doing something right or I wouldn't keep coming back to watch the shows. Problem is, the matches get too much hype, and there's often not enough quality on the undercard. Usually a ROH show is better than a WWE PPV.



It wasn't terrible, it was just pretty average and I often found my mind wandering as I watched it.



See, I felt the exact opposite. I also hated his selling of the leg, but that's because he insisted on selling it after most moves, when Dragon's work on it hadn't really been all that extensive. I was glad when he stopped selling it. Just felt like overselling to me.



I'm sure Dragon only worked on the leg for about 5 minutes?

He kept going back to it. There was this period where Wodewick kept hitting him but he constantly went back to the leg to take him down. Either way, he started limping when it was over so it was obvious they were planning on him selling the leg, which made forgetting about it really weird.

If you want to see bad INTENSE promos watch anything by Dan Maff ever. That guy on the mic made me cringe, he thought he was good.

I agree with the Blood Generation vs Do Fixer match not being a match of the year contender. Fun is the best way to describe it, alot of nice moves, but I didnt really care who won and I dont feel compelled to check out more Dragon Gate because of it. I quite liked Danielson vs Strong III, but feel their match at 'This Means War' is their best match. I thought Danielson's match with Lance Storm was incredibly boring for some reason though, and I thought I would enjoy that much more than his match with Strong on the show before.
I think that Danielson should drop the title soon because I think he has defended it too many times and is running through the same challengers.

I ordered 'Ring of Homicide', 'Destiny', 'Chi-Town Struggle' and 'In Your Face' earlier today. Also definitely going to order Death Before Dishonor IV as soon as its available. I will post my thoughts on the shows once I have watched them.

Have to agree the This Means War match was easily the best Dragon/Strong.

It's no coincidence it was the shortest either. Their matches have got progressively worse since then.

Going to watch the Storm match tomorrow so I'll see if I like it.

I could see Danielson dropping A title in the near future, probably back to Nigel McGuinness, but the problem is there aren't that many legit title contenders in ROH, as in people who can carry the company. Danielson, regardless of estimations of his overall talent, does at least have a complete package.

Barring Austin Aries, who is likely to be holding the tag titles well into the next century at this rate (I can't think of ANY team barring the Briscoes who could take the belts of them, and they've beaten the Briscoes three times already. Or is it four?), and Nigel McGuinness, I can't think of anyone who would work.

If they have KENTA for a decent length of time, a short KENTA title reign would probably go over well. Although, if you ask me, they're grooming Davey Richards to be the next true contender.

I've already commented that ROH's title situation is beginning to stagnate, in that HHH title-damaging manner rather than building. However, there's been one title change this year. There could be another before the end. I reckon Gabe's going to have either GenNEXT or Bryan Danielson hold their titles all year long, but not both. Time will tell.

The Briscoes either need to win the titles soon or lose their heat. You can only lose so many times, competitively or otherwise, before the fans see you as a loser.

I agree with all of this. It seems like they are padding out the title defences by giving them a load of challengers who you no will not win the title. It seems like RoH are determined to book long term champs just for the sake of it.

And The Briscoes are starting to look a joke, they also lost three times in their feud with AJ Styles & Amazing Red, and three times against the Second City Saints. They also lost numerous times to Samoa Joe in their feud with him (Although to be fair they did defeat him in a couple of tag title defences)

I thinka Kenta reign would work, would bring something different into the main event mix and an air of unpredictability.

I diagree, he's a good worker, but some of his heel act looks, well, just an act. A lot of his character work isn't believable- hus 'aggression' in the third Strong match just looked so fake. When I watch Steve Austin I believe he's a violent bastard, with Dragon it's the opposite. His look doesn't help him, as he really doesn't look all that threatening.

Plus, he needs to start carving out a style of his own. When he wrestles Strong, he wrestles as the cocky heel against the hungry upstart. Yet when he wrestles Rave he wrestles as the face against the dastardly heel. When he wrestles Romero, he starts wrestling a semi-shooty type sort of match, going for things that he's never gone for. He needs to get his own match style. And he needs to sort out his match content- some of his heel stuff works for a while, but 'I have until 5' quickly gets boring if I hear it every match.

He's a very good worker, but I'm not sure if he'll ever get to the next level.



I think the Kings Of Wrestling will be champions in a month or so.



It's pretty likely, but I think the guy needs todevelop a character first, as he really isn't all that interesting to me. Look what a decent character has done for someone like Jimmy Jacobs, or Jimmy Rave.

I think with the ROH Title situation, Gabe's done most of the matches too quickly. Every show Dragon is defending against some undercard guy, problem is he'll give a Steve Corino or Chris Sabin as much as a AJ Styles or Austin Aries. There doesn't appear to be that much of a hierachy- the Top 5 is meaningless, since everybody seems to get a shot at the world title regardless.

The Briscoes really aren't that good, so I wouldn't complain should they lose the belts.

Well, I disagree, but at least he HAS an act, which is more than can be said for a lot of his theoretical contenders.



Not quite. Against Rave he plays tweener, playing up the cheeky bastard side. There's no way he plays face, though. He still cheats with impunity, he just gets cheered for it because ANYONE would get cheered against Rave.




You think? I can't see it. I've seen nothing from Claudio or Chris Hero to suggest they'd have a CHANCE against Aries/Wodewick. Without proper build up a sudden title change would get shat on by the ROH faithful. The Briscoes have the heat from the crowd, they really do think the Briscoes could do it (for now, though how long that lasts is anyone's guess). The Kings would be mega-heat champions, though, no doubt.



Meh. Wodewick's gone without one and he's part of GenNEXT's title reign. I'd prefer it, but I think Gabe's more interested in what happens between the ropes than out of it, although his recent booking suggests he wants to have people with all the tools at the top. You might not like what Danielson does, but at least he's COMPETENT in all areas. Most members of the ROH locker room couldn't cut a promo if their lives depended on it.



They've stopped doing the Top 5 videos, I think for this reason exactly. It became obvious it was meaningless and there was no logic to the positioning. I've said it before, they could do with booking one or two LEGITIMATE squashes for the champs, to properly gradiate their locker room. The fans already know who is and isn't a contender, so it's not like it's going to hurt anyone, but it WOULD build the champs up.

That, or go a few shows without title defenses, and have the wrestlers visibly do something to earn a title shot.



That's not the point. The Briscoes are over, beloved by the crowd, and pretty much GenNEXT's only legitimate challengers at this point. Irish Airborne seem to be getting built up to have a go, but apparently the reaction to them eliminating the Briscoes in the last scramble tag was pretty negative, so that's not going to work yet. Plus they've got history, and I think the fans are ready for a change.

It's a pity they lost Shelley, because The Embassy would and by all rights should have been the ones to dethrone GenNEXT. Wonder if he got sick of essentially going nowhere in the company?

We move on, now, to Throwdown, a rather reliable but perhaps slightly disappointing show. A couple of matches looked better on paper than they turned out.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sodom and Gomora, the DVD program isn’t being a fool at me. And like Mr. T, I pity the foolish DVD player, that doesn’t play DVDs.

What?

Okay. Recap-o-thon. Prediction: Nothing new barring a recap of the brutality of KENTA getting killed last show. Oh no, I’m wrong. Shot of Jimmy Jacobs getting murdered by BJ Whitmer. Little advert that Whitmer and Jacobs will both get a shot at Daniels, with a plug wonder of how far they’ll go in the main event. Sure enough, recaps of the happenings last show, tag title match and World Title match. Good video package. Nicely cut together. Points out that there hasn’t been a single title change in 2006 so far. Then it moves onto a highlight of the three champs in ROH.

So, I’m wrong. Entirely new stuff.

Finally, we have a promo with Colt Cabana cutting a promo about how he’s climbed his way up from the bottom and he beat the best ROH has to offer. Um.... when? I seem to remember him beating hardly anyone in a bunch of comedy matches, then getting beaten by GenNEXT. Hardly a sterling rise to the top of the pack, and what does it say about ROH’s talent depth if it really takes just over a month to go from the bottom to the top? Good promo, but Cabana the performer isn’t even remotely worthy to hold a title in ROH. They then advertise that the next recap is going to be all about Homicide. Seems they are going to do stuff with these recaps. This promo builds the match well, but the whole theory of Colt working his way up from the bottom is laughable since it was just six shows ago (or seven depending on how you count it) that he got beaten by Danielson.

Anyway, we’re into the actual show now. And Shane Hagadorn has a promo with the other students standing around behind him looking... erm... crap. Thankfully, Shane sends the three losers off. Okay. He’s not a brilliant talker but at least he’s unlikeable and doesn’t stumble.

FIRST MATCH: Shane Hagadorn/Keith Walker Vs. Irish Airborne

Wheeeeeee, the Airborne are back. This is definitely going to be a high energy opener to the show, which is pretty much what you want to get the crowd all pumped up. Hagadorn’s got a good thing going with the ref taking off his entrance shirt. Irish Airborne are all spunky and energetic. It’s the Airborne, what else is to be expected? I hear they’re getting pushed pretty heavily of late, I don’t think that’s a good idea, although they are definitely well over with the crowd. There’s a sort-of handshake from all concerned, and we’re off. Apparently Keith Walker is called ‘The Human Massacre’. Errr... okay. Apparently he’s been touring with NOAH, so he can’t be that bad.

Lots of wristlock play to open with. Not very athletic or flippy, either, just back and forth technical stuff between Dave and Haggie. Not long before Dave’s pulling out all sorts of springboardy arm draggy stuff, as well as an absolutely beautiful quebrada from Dave Christ. Really high and hitting nicely. Keith, hee hee, he’s called Keith, gets tagged in and he does the power monster thing with a spinebuster and corner to corner belly to belly. Keith continues the massacre, battering Jake with lots of aggro power offence, very different to the usual ROH fare, which is a good thing of course. To be honest it’s the same thing Hagadorn has to offer. He’s got NOTHING that’s ‘beautiful’ or even ‘pretty’, just a lot of basic heelish offence, and it works. He’s got a way to go but Hagadorn could well end up with a permanent position on the undercard. Anyway, this short opener ends with Hagadorn’s death via jumping kick/DVD onto knees. Hagadorn bitches amusingly afterwards. “He pulled my tights. He pulled my hair.” Funny, especially since Hagadorn has hardly any hair in the first place.

*1/2

Embassy promo, Rave is still pissed about Richards, and he’s going to go for him in the four corners match it appears. Haze is there, too, which is excellent. Gotta love the Haze. If they can’t have the Shell maester they gotta have Daizee.

SECOND MATCH: Nigel McGuinness Vs. Conrad Kennedy III

McGuinness looks a bit rough here. Think Strong might have blacked his eye on that running kick from the previous show. I vaguely know Kennedy, but not well enough to think of him as more than a bowling pin for Nigel to knock over. Obviously the fans know him better, though, from the heavy ‘CKIII’ chant that starts. This is answered by a louder ‘LET’S GO NIGEL’ chant, which is rendered amusing by CK3 walking past the camera really close, looking out of the ring (at a fan, I assume) and saying simply “I hate you”. Well, I liked it. I mark for all kinds of random stuff. The dreaded duelling chants get going about a minute in, but it’s like the fans are on speed or something, as they just BARREL through these duelling chants. Hell, at least they’re doing it with energy. I do like Nigel’s hammerlock front face take down. Lots of the usual McGuinness technical stuff, playing around with headscissors, hammerlocks oh my and other stuff. He gets some heat for stealing Danielson’s ‘I have ‘til five’ shout. CK3 takes the early lead by forcing rope break number 1 off a sharpshooter. McGuinness nails the back kick/forearm to chest headstand counter again, seems he’s settled on that as his favourite in ROH, it definitely gets the best reaction and it’s my favourite, so I’m not going to complain. CK3 hits a frickin’ weird hammerlock and crossface double knees backbreaker thingy. The first ‘well I haven’t seen that before’ move of the night for me. Nigel’s bounce lariat is countered for the first time that I’ve seen, into Kennedy’s other weird hammerlock neckbreaker thingy for a near fall. As you may have noticed, CK3 has various ‘thingies’. Nigel finally nails the bounce lariat and gets a very close near fall on it. The fans definitely buy it as a legitimate finisher. Nigel goes for his headstand counter, but it’s countered, CK3 goes up, gets cut off, Tower of London ends the match.

Good stuff. Felt a bit short, though I don’t know the actual runtime. Action packed, never a dull moment. Very entertaining and a good second match on the card.

**1/2

THIRD MATCH: Briscoes Vs. Colt Cabana and Ace Steel

Hmm. Kinda random. I’m told that Cabana and Steel used to be part of the same group a ways back (thanks LL). Should be good. I like three of the four guys, at least. Introduced as representing the Second City Saints, and Ace does look completely insane tonight. I mean he really does look like he’s fucking lost it. Scary ass eyes. The Briscoes are as aggro-scuzz as ever, all punkish and pissed. They’ve lost the slogans on their tights and are just wearing nice black shorts now. Oh, match is on.

Cabana/Steel jump the Briscoes off the handshake and hammer them. Steel pulls a springboard missile dropkick. Holy shit. Had no idea he could do a move like that. Doesn’t seem the athletic type. Saints get some nice tag moves off, I guess they’re from the old playbook though of course I have no idea if this is so. Jay Briscoe has a good run off a hot tag before the SCS take over again. Blind tag gets Mark in charge for his offence. I agree with the commentators that the Briscoes look better than ever. Having watched the ‘Tag Team Excellence’ DVD, the improvements in image and ring work are pretty obvious. Cabana wrestles this one almost entirely serious. The slingshot double stomp always gets a good wince out of me. Eventually Ace Steel gets the hot tag for the patented ROH double dive spot. Okay it’s not patented but it’s something that ALWAYS happens in ROH tags. This time it’s a body press and suicide dive. Steel’s feeling athletic today, with diving knees and twisting sentons ahoy-hoy. Mark finally cracks his skull open with the saito suplex/exploder/uranage/whatever random name the commentators want to call it this week. The Briscoes oopsie and miss the springboard doomsday device, but Steel covers well, leading to hot tag and Colt hitting his flying assholes and swinging fisherman’s suplex for a near fall. Ace goes to powerbomb Jay, but he fights free, hits the Jay Driller, Colt breaks it up, gets dumped to the outside, and Steel gets wiped out by the spiked Jay Driller, which is probably the best tag finisher in the company for ease of use and immediate impact.

Good stuff. Pretty fast paced, mostly move based wrestling, helped by a hot crowd.

**1/2

Briscoes cut a promo about their general intent to be tag team champions. The time is coming, they say, for them to be tag champions again. Well, statistical probability suggests if they keep on trying they’ll win in the end. I’m really not sure how ROH can book them in such a way that they won’t seem like transitional champs until the rematch, though. Aries and Stwong have already beaten them twice, after all, and in successive nights, too.

FOURTH MATCH: Rave Vs. Richards Vs. Joe Vs. Delirious

Rave is out first, complete with toilet shower. Nana gets the mic and cuts a promo... and I’ve really got no idea what he’s going on about. Never mind. Richards is out second. His eye looks a bit better here. Out comes Delirious and he’s running around with toilet roll in his mouth and Rave is freaked out by him and Davey Richards doesn’t seem to know what to make of him. Then out comes Joe, and it’s like there’s no-one else in the ring. Of course, Joe’s status in TNA probably helps him out a fair bit here. Joe has fun handshaking with Delirious, Davey Richards doesn’t seem sure of what to do with him. Rave’s used to him by now so just shakes his fingers and walks off.

Opening bell goes and Delious crazies out, including grabbing someone’s hat and chucking it in the ring. It’s always great watching how the wrestlers react to Delirious’ antics. Richards wants Joe, but he starts out with Delirious. Richards knocks Delirious over on a shoulder block and Delirious just lies there on his back pedalling his legs in the air, which gets a bewildered frown from super-serious Richards. Joe tags himself in, and just as they’re getting hot for Joe vs. Richards Rave tags himself in and the fans rip him a new one. So Rave goes at Richards again... and promptly gets his head kicked in. Delirious tags back in, and Joe tags himself in at Richards’ expense. Oh, man, I fucking love Delirious. He’s especially golden here. When they finally do get going, Joe shreds him. Joe shakes the ropes when Delirious goes up top, but he doesn’t fall, and Joe says to him “you’re supposed to fall”, but Delirious shakes his head and isn’t having any of it. Yay. I wish I had a pet Delirious to go mad in one corner of my room. Richards and Joe finally face off against each other, and Joe comes out on top, since Richards’ big thing is strikes and Joe can just hit him harder. And does. They do some of the nu-Japanese action that Joe often does with strike heavy opponents, and it works nicely. A full one on one between Joe and Richards would be fucking brutal, of that there’s no doubt. Basic flow is as follows: Richards wants Joe, Rave wants Richards, Delirious doesn’t know where he is let alone who he wants, and Joe’s just after a fight, like usual. There’s some good pacing and interplay here. Joe fucking KILLS Richards with a barrage of right hand jabs, and Richards just collapses, then gets his head stood on and face washed. Talk about an ROH initiation. The fans call ‘ONE MORE TIME’, and Joe does indeed kick Richards’ face off one more time. One or two short dead periods, but the majority is very entertaining, and it isn’t the usual not selling anything fest that these matches often devolve into. It’s long and there’s plenty of time taken for them to sell things properly. Delirious gets some great offense on Joe in the endgame, countering the STJoe and soccer kicking him in the face and stuff. Rave nearly pins Delirious on spear/gutbuster/DDT, but Richards breaks it up and takes Rave out with his handspring reverse kick, Joe comes for him but Richards nails the missile dropkick to handspring power up, then nails Joe with the big elbow and suicide dive’s Rave into oblivion. Richards kills Rave with kicks back in the ring, including a Tajiri-esque kick to the back of the head, but Delirious breaks it up before Joe comes in to attack Richards. They exchange a bunch of strikes before Delirious saves Joe from a german, then Delirious takes out Richards and himself with a crossbody to the floor. Nana then gets death kicked by Joe, he goes to choke Rave, then Delirious nails Joe with his Shadows Over Hell back splash and locks the Cobra Stretch on Jimmy Rave for the tapout! DELIRIOUS WINS! Never saw that coming. Seems that Daizee fucked that one up, and she makes a sharp exit. Rave was gonna lose either way, though.

Joe is pissed about the outcome, but shakes Delirious’ hand nonetheless. I loved this. I might be slightly too kind on the star rating, but hey, I loved the match. Lots of great action, mostly brilliant pacing, nice storyline development and teasing for future single matches. Yes, it had a PURPOSE!

****

Briscoes have something to say in intermission, but I’m not sure what. I imagine they’re going to attack Wodewick in the main event.

Claudio Castagnoli and Necro Butcher ramraid at intermission. Claudio cuts a promo on... well, everything and everyone. Adam Pearce then charges the ring, and it’s Pearce vs. Necro Falls Count anywhere.

FIFTH MATCH: Pearce Vs. Necro

Pearce pulls a fucking nuts tope that nearly goes right over Necro’s head and threatens to send him sailing into the front rows. Fortunately, I guess, Necro’s head breaks his forward momentum. Necro sentons Pearce over the guard rail, the throws chairs at him and hits his signature chair-assisted bodyslam. Necro applies a figure four leglock, of all things, out on the concrete, which remains until Pearce gets ahold of a chair and cracks Necro with it. Out in the entrance ramp, Pearce fights back by blocking a chair shot and punching it back into Necro’s face. Niiiiice. Pearce piledriver is blocked and he gets body dropped on the concrete. Necro them collars Pearce with a chair and rams him into the ringpost, while Claudio Castagnoli stands around looking pleased and pompous. Pearce tosses Necro over the rail into a bunch of chairs, then drags him back over and throws him on the concrete. A couple of chairs get set up, and one or other is taking a sick bump onto them. It’s not Pearce, as Necro hits a belly to back suplex to get control. A big ‘NECRO BUTCHER’ chant starts off. Necro sets the chairs back to back, then tries to put Pearce onto them, only to be shot into the ropes, then sidewalk slammed onto both chairs. OW. That looked fucking SICK. In the manner of ‘not walking for a while’ sick. Pearce has a win on Necro, which results in CC running in to break up the count, resulting in a DQ. Bit of beatdown, then the lights die and Homicide’s music hits. DYING TIME.


SIXTH MATCH: Homicide Vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Out he comes and he already looks pissed. It’s all Homicide as they open up, until CC ducks a baseball slide and slams Homicide into the guard rail a couple of times to get his first offense in. Homicide brings the hardcore first with a chair shot to the face. He rips off one of the ROH guard rail coverings, positions it against another rail and whips CC into it, sending him flying into the crowd. Smart. The fans grab it and use it as a makeshift banner. CC keeps getting the odd move in, but every time Homicide fires back and overwhelms him. The fans are getting a lot better at doing Homicide’s signature tongue trill. CC counters a throw into the ropes with a flip into the ropes (that looked weird) goes for a monkey flip but Homicide flips out. CC ducks a clothesline and rolls out, Homicide then rolls over him with the tope con hilo. Homicide gets mega pissed when a cross body only gets two, and nearly goes for the referee with a chair. Claudio gets the better of a spot in the turnbuckle with a reverse calf branding, then hits a seated tornado european uppercut and takes control. CC is a lot less spectacular and energetic than Homicide, as you might well expect, hitting him with a lot of technical moves and grounded offence. A sleeper spot leads to a brief counter from Homicide and a pair of sleepers, before CC goes for a flapjack and Homicide thinks its a backdrop, leading to him VERY nearly landing flat on his head. I think he got scared on that one, from the way he acts immediately afterwards. Homicide gets a proper move in with a top rope hurracanrana, then lays in the right hands and a much cleaner back drop. The fans seem to lose it, though, and just go very quiet. No idea why. They come back to life for a top rope DDT from Homicide, but it only gets a two count. Claudio gets back in with an enziguri while Homicide’s on the top, and an iconoclasm for a near fall of his own. Claudio hits the Asterbury Water Slide, which must be the LEAST effective finisher in the company, for a two count, then tries a crossed arms powerbomb. Homicide hits the 3 Amigos suplexes for a brief ‘EDDIE’ chant, then gets a near fall off a frog splash. Fortunately there’s no more ‘EDDIE’ chants, so I don’t get that unpleasant ‘cashing in on his heat’ feel that’s stained WWE TV for so long. CC batters Homicide with european uppercuts, Homicide hits the death lariat and it’s over. He is the CZW killer.

Weird match. Feels like it should have been better than it was, but a combination of slightly weird heat from the crowd and a couple of dead spots lessen its shine a bit, in my opinion.

***

SEVENTH MATCH: Danielson Vs. Jimmy Jacobs Vs. BJ Whitmer

Jimmy Jacobs is out and I mark like a bitch. Motherfucker. I know he’s got no chance of winning but damn I want him to. Of course, it can be said that this is a bad thing, as Jacobs is still nominally a heel. Unlike Whitmer, who is definitely a face. I’m not sure, to be honest. I like Jacobs, so who cares? Finally, out comes Danielson, he’s got a lot of fans in the crowd here. You can here someone loudly proclaiming ‘DIE, DIE, DIE’ over the music, which is fun. Danielson’s in a really bad mood today. He rips up someone’s sign, no idea what it was saying. Probably insulting him for being pale. Like Danielson’s entrance. Really simple, nice and effective.

Apparently, Danielson is ‘Surely the most heterosexual man in this ring’ tonight. What the hell? That was totally bizarro, if kinda funny. Coming in, Whitmer’s been pushed heavily, but he’s barely won a match in ages. Jacobs has been booked as a perennial loser for the most part. Odds are distinctly against Danielson losing here, but there is the wonder of how far the challengers will go to get the title. Can they possibly top the powerbomb into the crowd? This is an elimination match, we’re told. A rolling technical sequence to start, with a rather slick 3-way submission applied in the first minute or so. Lots of takedowns and chain wrestling, inevitably interrupted for more of the same from the spare wheel. Jacobs and Whitmer go face to face, and a couple of slaps lead to hard forearms, until Whitmer knocks Jacobs flat. Jacobs goes for his super fucking headscissors of DOOM, but Danielson blocks it before he can flip, then lifts him into a fireman’s carry spin, until Whitmer interrupts with a dropkick. Of course, Danielson lost his last match, getting his head smashed in by KENTA. For those keeping count, KENTA has now pinned the World Champ twice. When Danielson applies the surfboard to Whitmer, Jacobs runs in to repeatedly chop him on the chest, then hit a short sharp dropkick to the back of the head on the mat. Whitmer rolls out, and Jacobs goes on to attacking Danielson. Jacobs gets some decent offense before Danielson takes over, but on a corner spot Jacobs gets the edge and hits a lovely front missile dropkick. Lacey receives the lovely ‘SHE’S GOT HERPES’ chant. In the ring, Whitmer and Jacobs end up in the ring together, while results in a combination german suplex on Whitmer and Exploder on Jacobs. Danielson eventually ends up with Cattle Mutilation on Danielson, who then takes a top rope senton from Jacobs. Jacobs manages to hit a death valley driver on Whitmer, and he can’t believe that it doesn’t result in Whitmer getting pinned. Lacey’s going nuclear at ringside trying to get him to destroy Whitmer, but Danielson cuts Whitmer off and tries a big belly to back. Danielson goes on Whitmer’s shoulders, and Jacobs hits a hurracanrana out of the doomsday device position for a close near fall when both pin him. Apparently it was their old tag finisher, which is a nice touch. They can’t believe it. Whitmer hits a sick lariat and gets a near fall. Fans start chanting ‘PLEASE DON’T DIE’ as he goes up in the corner of doom. He goes to powerbomb Jacobs over the guard rail again, but gets cut off. Jacobs tries the super Contra Code, but it gets blocked and Whitmer goes for the bomb again, but Danielson cuts him off gets him in a powerbomb, allowing Jacobs to hit a Contra Code off Danielson’s shoulders, and then Whitmer gets double pinned out of the match. Cool! I thought Jacobs would take the first fall. Apparently Jacobs is in front of his home fans. Danielson doesn’t want to continue, even offers to double high five Jacobs. They do indeed, then handshake, and Danielson blindsides him with a kick to the gut and goes aggro all over his face. Jacobs gets massacred for an extended period, while Lacey becomes increasingly disgusted with her charge’s performance, or lack thereof. Jacobs eventually escapes Cattly Mutilation and hits a spear, then a series of forearms and elbows into an enziguri and sideways fisherman neckbreaker into cradle for a near fall. Danielson tries to come back with a double axe handle, but gets speared out of the air for a near fall. He tries Contra Code, but gets slapped across the face and taken down. Jacobs blocks a couple of Danielson’s major finishers, then Danielson blocks a super Contra Code, before Jacobs herts a near fall after sitting down on a top rope sunset flip. The fans are major into this, at least. Jacobs finally hits the Contra Code, but Danielson kicks out, and Lacey goes apeshit at ringside. The fans start chanting ‘BULLSHIT’. It was a pretty clear kickout, in all fairness. Jacobs uses Cattle Mutilation, for lack of his own options, but its a mistake as Danielson rolls out, then drives him back into the turnbuckles three times, arm drags him out of the turnbuckle and knocks him out with the roaring elbow into USB elbows and crossface chickenwing for the submission victory. Of course, Lacey is sickened by Jacobs.

Great stuff as always, but kept below the level it could have been due to Jacobs having no believable chance of winning. He looked strong in defeat, at least. Not one, or maybe two, of Danielson’s best defences, but three ways are always awkward territory.

***


EIGHTH MATCH: KENTA Vs. Wodewick Stwong

Hm. I’m not sure how good this will be. Since my first encounter with Wodewick at Supercard of Honour he’s dropped FAR down in my estimation. We’ll see. He gets right in KENTA’s face, because he’s hard, and that’s what all hard men do. KENTA couldn’t give a toss. How prickish will he be, though, that’s the question? Jesus Strong’s bland.

Open with a ‘BREAK HIS BACK’ chant, which KENTA’s not overly impressed by. They shake hands, though, and finally the bell rings. They dick each other about a little, before KENTA takes over with a little leg work and then a stiff kick to the chest. They start trading kicks and chops, an exchange Wodewick wins. Well, if anyone can get away with chops beating kicks, it’s Wodewick. KENTA quite blatantly steals one of Samoa Joe’s spots by countering a leap frog with a powerslam, then goes into some more ground control. Wodewick gets off another chop, and KENTA collapses. So far the chops are being sold well over the kicks. On the outside, after narrowly winning a strike rally, KENTA chucks Wodewick into the barricade so frickin’ hard that he visibly knocks it back about a foot. KENTA’s slinging prick kick gets the usual big response, before he applies a camel clutch, butch Wodewick breaks out of it. He fires back all hot and energetic, gets a near fall off a high and hard dropkick. Wodewick looks like he can keep KENTA down, but on a corner spot he ends up taking a big Ace Crusher. He then knocks him out with a big running boot to the face while he’s tied up in the turnbuckle, and dropkicks him RIGHT in the face (good angle on that one!). Double slingshot springboard missile dropkick hits, and Wodewick immediately powers up with a double underhook backbreaker through the ropes, then the uranage backbreaker and gibson driver for a near fall. The trademark move blitz stops with KENTA avoiding the fireman’s carry gutbuster, and they go into beating the living shit out of each other, which Wodewick wins again, only for them to both no-sell a big move in true Japanese style before knocking themselves out on a double clothesline collision. Half nelson backbreaker is converted into german suplex, and KENTA tries for the Busaiku, then dodges the gutbuster and counters into texas cloverleaf. Wodewick hits a frickin’ belly to back suplex right on the ring apron, which looks totally brutal. He goes for the cover but only gets a two, then hits a few miscellaneous moves including a superplex. Bad timing, I think. The fans were in the mood for a Stronghold attempt, I think. But he goes for it a minute later, and of course KENTA makes the ropes. Strong sits KENTA on the rop rope and chops him, then goes for the super gutbuster, but KENTA gets free. Wodewick blocks the leap up to falcon arrow and hits a flying knee for a near fall. Wodewick finally hits the super gutbuster, but KENTA kicks out yet again, much to his frustration. Stronghold yet again, KENTA gets the rollup that beat Wodewick against Danielson, then hits the abe crusher, kick combo and Busaiku Knee Kick, then Go To Sleep for the victory. Well, it beat fucking Bryan Danielson twice in a row, so it’s going to beat Wodewick, isn’t it?

Again, good match, but not great. Wodewick’s got very little fire, no matter how much energy he has. The exchanges just didn’t feel very heated. Pity, but not unexpected. KENTA Vs. Joe, and KENTA Vs. Danielson are the money matches (so to speak). Both should be incredible. Tomorrow: Aries is on the hit list, and that match should be great, because Aries is better than Wodewick in almost every conceivable way. Hell, his haircut’s even better.

***1/2

Briscoes charge the ring and beat the crap out of Wodewick, but KENTA doesn’t like that so he attacks the Briscoes and chases them off instead of, you know, getting his head kicked in since they’re fresh and a tag team while he’s fucking exhausted. Well that didn’t make them look like pansies at all, did it? What the hell was the point of that?

Cabana promos. He’s got a title match.

Promos from Lacey and Jimmy, Gen Next (STOP MOUTHING ARIES’ LINES, RODERICK!) and in ring from Whitmer, Cornette and Pearce open up the show with a lot of talking. Pearce gets made deputy commissioner while Cornette’s away, but then gets attacked by a Chinese pimp and busted open.

Irish Airborne Vs Colt Cabana and Conrad Kennedy III

I enjoyed the hell out of this match. CK3 is new to me, but I liked his old school style and wouldn’t mind seeing some more of the guy. He also has an identical build and look to Colt, which is weird, and they have the same Goofy guy/serious guy dynamic that Colt and Punk used to have, except this time Colt’s in charge. Also, I can’t hate a guy who does a Slingshot Suplex. This is probably the best match I’ve seen IA in, as they only almost killed themselves once each.
The opening was based around a headlock, with Colt being the king of chain and counter because he spends time in Europe, allowing him to wrestle circles around the Crist brothers. CK3 has a go as well, and I bet he and Colt could have a fun match based around headlocks. Colt does lots of chatty comedy, running down his partner and offering comedic suggestions. They really did seem to have good chemistry together.
Eventually, IA (still can’t be bothered to learn your names lads, sorry) get the hot tag and Harpo hits an insane moonsault onto both guys from the top, follows up with another, then the Crists hit stereo Ranas. Wow, maybe they aren’t so bad after all. Then they mess up an assisted dive and one of them almost crashes and burns, and the other goes for his Merosault to the outside and slips, only just saving himself from disaster. Keep it simple, chaps. Back inside, CK3 nails a cute Neckbreaker variation, the Crists pull out a spectacular Rocket Launcher type move, but it’s Cabana who gets the pin with a good old fashioned powerbomb. Nice match, Colt and Conrad should be a regular team.

Delirious Vs Chris Sabin

Man, I wonder who’s going over here? You just gots to love the Delirious, with his gibberish and his wacky mask with the streamers. On the other hand, I can’t stand the bland and uninteresting Chris Sabin, who should stick to having meaningless 6 way matches on Impact and sucking the life out of the only interesting thing Kevin Nash has done in years. I imagine the mentality of booking Sabin here is attracting the local fans who are used to Sabin as their hometown boy, but really no one gives a damn about him. Sure he gets the ‘Let’s Go’ chant, but who doesn’t nowadays? The rest of the time he’s wrestling in a vacuum, which quite frankly suits his vacuous style to a tee. Grrr.
Delirious is a great little gimmick, and I’m glad to see him getting a bit of a serious push in ROH. Can’t be as cringe-worthy as Cabana’s serious period. But yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of serious the lizard man gambolling around on the amt or running laps on the outside. Unfortunately, I got tired of Sabin and his twenty ways to work dropkicks into matches twenty seven episodes of TNA Explosion ago. I’ll give him credit for taking the Shadows Over Hell like a man, and the serious of reversals leading to the tap out win for Delirious was nice, but other than that he’s Vanilla all the way. And why does he have alien faces on his tights? Is he a visitor from a planet where they worship AJ Styles like a god, having recovered a copy of his NWA 53rd Anniversary match with Christopher Daniels from an earth space probe? Why are we sending that shit into space and ruining alien cultures, they should be firing rockets filled with Tully Blanchard matches out amongst the stars.

Trik Davis Vs Spud Vs Jay Fury Vs Jimmy Yang Vs Flash Flanagan Vs Jimmy Jacobs

Yay! It’s Flash Flanagan! Kick ass! Fuck, he’s being wasted in a stupid 6 way nothing fest. Bollocks.
Jacobs needs a win here, or he loses Lacey. Poor little fella. He also rips his pants, in what may well be a planned spot, and would go on to be the most entertaining thing to happen all match.
This is what a meaningless 6 way match is always going to be; a bunch of spots ranging from the silly to the outright ridiculous, with varying degrees of contrived set ups. In between, not a lot of wrestling gets done. Still, most of the spots get hit OK and no-one almost dies. Finish comes when Jacobs gives the truly worthless Davis an Avalanche Contra Code. The visual of Jacobs standing in the ring, glowing with pride, his tights in rags around his ankles almost makes up for the abortion of a match. But not quite. Spud gets a chant as he leaves, proving that UK fans are even more concerned about making themselves look smart than their stateside counterparts.

The fans soon pick up on the presence of Claudio Castagnoli on the balcony, and the neutral bastard challenges Joe to come out and wrestle him, hold for hold, instead of just kicking his face off. Joe says he’s up for it, and the fans chant “Joe’s Going to Wrestle You” as Double C makes way to the ring. Aww, look at Joe, he’s all happy that he gets to inflict ABH on someone.

Samoa Joe Vs Claudio Castagnoli

This is worked by the numbers, with Joe being the indestructible face monster and Claudio having to resort to heel tactics to get ahead, despite it being ultimately futile. Joe has some fun with it by grabbing Claudio’s nose and fish hooking his mouth, then hitting him with his won trademarked Bolas as the crowd “hey!” along with him. Eventually Claudio gets an eye poke and can get a bit of offence in, but Joe keeps reeling him back and punishing him. Claudio gets to nail some hard as anything uppercuts only to get his teeth loosened with slaps in response, and is about to get drilled with The Muscle Buster when Necro Butcher and a tiny, 18th century swordsman run in for the DQ.

As is now traditional, the heels beat on Joe until Pearce and Steel make the save and begin to deliver the harshest ass kicking poor Indigo Montoya has ever received in his life, as he gets thrown over the barricades, Piledriven on the floor (which he doesn’t sell anywhere near enough) Release Dragon Suplexed into the turnbuckles and eventually powerbombed on a set up chair, crushing it two-dimensional. Necro doesn’t fair much better as he’s tandem powerbombed through two set up chairs standing back to back. Eek. Steel and Pearce look like fucking ass kicking gods and ROH seem to be getting ahead for a change. That is until Super Dragon runs in to save The Cavalier from an Avalanche Tombstone, and gives Pearce a Kevin Nash style DDT, bringing out BJ Whitmer, neck brace and all. Cool segment.

BJ Whitmer Vs Super Dragon

Dragon is on offence for the majority of this match, getting to show case his vast grab bag of snazzy moves as Whitmer’s pencil neck gets more and more brittle as the minutes pass. Why is Dragon doing Homicides Tope Con Hilo? ROH have a real problem with this, they need to be sat down and yelled at until they realise they can’t ALL do stiff chops and hard lariats on the same show. Honestly. Speaking of Lariats, Soup takes a Kikuchi level bump from one off Whitmer, landing entirely on his neck. He’s noticeably better on offence than defence though. They burn through big moves like crazy, this match is around ten minutes long and Dragon finds time for a Ohtani Springboard Spin Kick, the Curb Stomp on a chair and what I’m guessing was meant to be an Avalanche Blue Thunder Driver. And yet the most entertaining thing he did in the match was his hilarious commando style roll over the announce table, which was superb heeling. Less is more, indeed.
Crowd heat is on for this one, much more so than the Claudio match, in part because there’s more hate here and in part because Dragon is seen more as a genuine outsider. It all starts to look a bit grim for Whitmer as two tables get arranged on the outside, Dragon intent on testing the limits of Whitmer’s supernaturally hard head. It all falls for the forces of good in the end, and Whitmer nails yet another Puro reference into this review with an Akiyama style turnbuckle Exploder to the outside. Whitmer dies on impact, his back cut to ribbons, but rolls the Dragon back in the ring for a three count. That’s a good finish, no silly ‘kick out of the big move on the outside and then go down to one last head drop’, just a straight, we’re both dead, but you’re more dead, you lose. Not a bad match at all, great heat and it really made Whitmer look legit as an ROH Crusader, still a little too much big move killing for my tastes, but nothing worth getting upset about.
Post match, Steel and Pearce come back out to celebrate with Whitmer. Man, those guys really have improved, and they look fucking great there as a team. I never thought, six months ago, that those three guys would be so over, and so…good. They take Dragon, still selling the finish like death, and literally leave him on the pavement outside the building. Nice touch. As an interesting note, Dragon would soon get badly injured on a PWG show and wouldn’t play any further part in the ROH/CZW feud. But if you only watch the ROH shows, it just looks like Whitmer put him out for good, which works out quite well really.

Matt Sydal Vs Christopher Daniels

What the hell is this shit? Christ, I can’t remember the last time I found a match harder to sit through. Lacking all emotion, this was an insipid dance lesson rather than a wrestling contest. I used to find Matt Sydal kind of fun as a an underdog babyface, but recently (In particular, having watched him live so much over the last few weeks) I’ve come to see him as the geekiest, lamest, most effeminate wrestler in the states. He is the new AJ Styles. The only upside he has is how much fun it is to watch him get slaughtered in painful or amusing ways…so of course he spends the majority of this match on offence. This is the kind of shit that infests Indy wrestling now; ‘workrate’ has become a magic word, along with it’s girlfriend ‘psychology’ and now marks look down on high spots and instead get all excited about limb work and selling on offence. Unfortunately, just because you remember to shake your leg after you deliver a kick, doesn’t make you a great worker anymore than inventing a Package Piledriver did. So when Daniels can’t quite make the cover off the BME straight away because of Sydal’s work on his ribs, the fans get overexcited about his psychology and I’m left cold by the soulless nature of it all. I can’t get into Daniels and his social dance on offence, I can’t get into Sydal and his goofy face on offence, I don’t give a damn about this match or either guy and I can’t believe I’ve got two more matches between the two upcoming to review. This is wrestling hell.

Nigel McGuinness Vs Bryan Danielson

Hooray! This will do fine as an antidote to the previous matches excesses. Danielson is the most irritating man to watch wrestle in the world, in a good way. He’s also building an incredible series of title defences this year, just having great matches with everyone from Delirious to Chris Sabin to AJ Styles. He’s developed an amazing counter to the mindless two count fever that stinks up so many main event matches, by somehow getting around six different finishes over with the crowd for amazing amounts of legitimate heat in his defences.
On the other hand, Nigel is the ultimate shit kicker in ROH right now. I’d rather have to fight Joe than Nigel, he just oozes smash mouth violence and really looks like he knows a bunch of ways to beat the fuck out of you. He’s also put together a string of impressive defences, using varying amounts of trickery and cunning to put away just about everyone. The build towards this match has been very natural and organic feeling.
As you might expect, a lot of this is on the mat. In the last contest, you had ‘bad’ matwork, guys burning through wrist lock counters and leg sweeps as though they’d sat down and planned it all out on a whiteboard before hand. Because they probably did. In contrast, thought this match Nigel and Dragon look as if they are really fighting for holds and counters, and, you know…wrestling. Awesome. One sequence I always mark for in a match is one wrestler not releasing a hold despite many counters, here Danielson holds onto a Cravat for ever as Nigel has to try increasingly desperately to escape before admitting defeat and grabbing the ropes. Nigel immediately evens the score with some closed fists behind the referee’s back that infuriate AmDrag into relying and getting a break docked, THANK’S UNCLE DIXON!
Nigel and Danielson are really not afraid to beat the living shit out of each other, and just lay in the hard shots all match, not just the elbows, but really tight matwork as well, Nigel just pastes Bryan’s left arm until it hangs limply at his side. Nigel tries his damndest at another screwy win by choking Dragon with a table on the outside and trying for the count out, but Dragon slides in at 19, Puro style.
You know, one of the ‘principles’ of ROH when it was founded was ‘clean finishes to matches’, showing an absolute failure to comprehend the value of such things in wrestling. Luckily, the useless Code Of Honour is all but erased, and we get red hot finishes and angles like this one. Nigel spends a huge amount of time in the Cattle Mutilation before escaping and the crowd are heated up to insane levels. He eventually escapes to the outside and AmDrag uncorks a huge tope on him for the hell of it. Instead of taking what could have been a count out win, Danielson goes for his crowd killing dive to the crowd and gets pasted with a chair mid-air. Ouch. Nigel barely makes it back to the ring before the bell, and Dragon loses his first singles match in forever.
The fans think they’ve seen a bit of history, but it turns out that only the Pure Title changes hands on a countout, so Nigel retains but doesn’t win anything. The fans aren’t pleased, but it’s all heat on the rematch, not the promotion. I really enjoyed this, it wasn’t the blow away spectacular it could’ve been, but as this is the first in a whole series, you want them to build up. It was pretty fantastic all the same, and the finish was absolutely brilliant, not a let down at all. Danielson is worryingly close to living up to all his hype…

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong Vs Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley

For a few seconds, this place was Armageddon…I do like the idea of occasionally having the Tag Title defences on last as a way of building up the importance of the belts, but this was a bad choice to end the show. I imagine the office was concerned that the screwy finish of the previous match would send the fans home unhappy, but they really should’ve had more faith in Danielson and Nigel to deliver the goods. As a result, the fans are a little burnt out for this, and the match itself looks a little light in comparison to the title Vs title bout.
Rave and Shelley are still the most consistently entertaining piece ROH at this point, even without the awesome Prince Nana calling people fat at ringside they’re rocking goofy heels. The Haze is deliciously evil as always, hey, ROH, how about letting her WRESTLE occasionally? Strong and Aries are cool. No two ways about it. The WWE seem to have forgotten that a really strong face team in matching gear who actually win matches is something that always works really well. Strong and Aries are over as hell, especially Aries who is a special kind of worker. Strong relates to Aries as the jock who wanted to be a bit more ‘turned on’ in order to bang hippy chicks, so he made friends with the school rebel and started borrowing all his awesome CDs and smoking weed. He still looks kind of awkward at the dope parties and listens to his Dads country albums when he’s on his own, but gets to be cool by association when he’s hanging around with Austin.
The match manages to be both under whelming and incredibly watchable. The finishing stretch is surprisingly muted and the fans were not feeling the upset at all, but I still think the Embassy were left with enough to warrant a second chance. The Briscoes are obviously the team that ROH wanted the long feud with, but I think a few months reprising the Gen Next/Embassy rivalry would really have been great for the titles. Instead, we get a kind of low key match, and I’m left wondering if Shelley’s increasing loyalty to TNA had effected how much he’s given here. I’m certainly going to miss the little fella, a genuine heel not worried about looking great, he begs off, spits at people and grabs Aries’ balls with a shit eating grin. Rave doesn’t try and look good either, but he’d have a hard job to. Instead he joins in with the baseline offence of Shelley, spears, kicking ropes, pummelling; all making a nice contrast to the timed destruction of Gen Next.
Aries shows why he had more than enough charisma to carry the whole Gen Next stable after Shelley left every night. We didn’t get the rewind knee drop this time, but he did work in a truly stunning baseball spot with Roderick that put tears in my eyes with it’s sheer awesomeness. The old choppy-choppy spots with Rodders are never getting old either.
At the end of the day, this would’ve made a fine mid card defence against a mid card team, but it was a poor main event and a poor match when you consider the workers involved. I think it’s wall to wall Briscoes from now on as well. Arse.

Kind of a one match show, with only the title Vs title being vital, and even that is going to be surpassed soon by it’s own rematch. The CZW stuff is a riot and Dragon Vs Whitmer is cool, but nothing on this show is essential.

NOt sure what you were referring to on the 'baseball' spot.

Aries hit Shelley with an overhand chop in the corner as if he were throwing a baseball, ran round the ring tagging the turnbuckles as if they were bases then slid into 'home' with a low dropkick to his nuts. Then Strong got in the ring and called the SAFE! to general hilarity. Great spot.

Watched ROH Better Than Our Best.

The 6-Man opener (Evans/Sydal/Crist/Crist/Steele/Jacobs) was pretty fun actually. Some good interaction between the various participants, I can't say I care for Steele or the Crist's a lot, but on the whole this was nicely watchable. *1/2

Reyes/Delirious was decent, if a little plodding. Reyes looked rather poor on offence, and he doesn't seem to have a lot of motivation since his push is seemingly over, but the crowd love Delirious and they really got into the match. OK. *1/2

The Embassy + Yoshino v Do Fixer tag is probably the match of the milestone series. Great heel work, strictured well, and combined it all with the awesome finishing stretch that the DG guys usually provide. Do Fixer are all great at sympathy selling, even if their long term selling is a little dubious, so the Embassy's control segment works well. It has some problems, but with great role playing, a believable and over face/heel dynamic and some great action, I loved this match. ***1/2

Joe/Styles/Daniels/Yang was good. I've seen about enough of Joe/Styles/Daniels to last a lifetime, and I hate Yang, so I was in fact suprised at how decent this match was. Joe was of course brilliant, the others were pretty much there. As you would expect, the finishing sequence stands out as being great. **1/2

The Aries/Strong v CIMA/Doi tag was the 3rd best match of the milestone series, and another top draw tag. It was going OK until Aries busted his nose, and then it picked up a whole lot. Blood Generation were awesome dick heels working him over, and they built fantastically to the hot tag. Thing was, everyone knew their role in the match, and with another awesome final run this is up there with any tag in the series and miles better than the more spot orientated 6 Man the night before. Aries selling towards the end could have been better, and if I never see a delayed vertical suplex again it won't be a moment too soon, bot overall this was another insanely fun tag. ***1/2

Dragon/Storm was like Lance Storm in a lot of ways. In that it was good all round, and very good technically, but did little to grip or excite you. They did some fair work around the veteran/youngster story, the action was perfectly good. Make no mistake about it, the second half of the match is far better than the first, and the ending is done really well. There isn't mch to say about this match, apart from that it was perfectly enjoyable yet totally forgettable. **1/2

Homicide/Cabana was a mixed bag. Much of the first half was filled with plodding, predictable brawling, and average strikes. They picked it up for the second half, and while a lot of the set ups for the weapons took too long and were contrived, what they did with the weapons was generally very good. Chair riot was fun, Cabana was really aggressive and brought the hate. Not sure about Cide here though, he looked a tad unmotivated at times, although his selling of the alchoghol was out of this world. I never did like this feud, but in the end they produce a good, if unspectacular match to end it. **1/2

This is an all round good show. It has no really bad matches on, even the ones below ** are perfectly watchable. Two awesome tags steal the show, and the two main events were fairly good in my view, and if you're a fan of any of the guys you'll probably like them even more. It might not be Better Than Their Best, but it's probably the best ROH show of 2006 up to that point.



Oh yes, definately. I'll take his act over other good but bland wrestlers who could really do with some sort of gimmick, however much Gabe doesn't want to appear like Sports Entertainment.

People always quote Chris Benoit in that situation, but fact is he has a gimmick- that he's a great, intense wrestler. It works because few in WWE have that gimmick, and all the fans respect him for being a great worker.



Exactly. It would get tons of heat onto the KOW, as if they didn't have enough anyway. Plus, it'll give us a lot of fresh matches.



I think you need to strike a balance. You can still have good wrestling with great characters.



But for how long? Seems to me they're riding on the wave of their comeback, and I really can't see it lasting. Maybe I'll be proved wrong though, who knows?



I think he saw that Gabe stopped pushing him after he became a bigger player in TNA, and they came to a mutual agreement for him to leave. Huge shame though, as he was usually one of the most entertaining parts of their show.

Plus, he has at least some name value for the company with his getting pushed in TNA.

He probably got sick of his going nowhere, and Gabe probably got sick of his having to work TNA shows instead of ROH shows when they clashed.

I'm sure he'll still get booked occasionally.

Certainly believable, but after three losses in succession to the champs they're STILL getting big pops and SOMEHOW are still thought of as Aries/Stwong's no. 1 challenge in the company, going by the fan reaction to Irish Airborne eliminating them (or so it goes, haven't seen the match meself). I think the Briscoes' style just clicks with the ROH fans, and that combined with the obvious improvements (it's very noticeable if you've seen the Tag Team Excellence DVD, which has not stood the test of time very well) and their historical significance to the company means they're just over.

However, I think it's safe to say that Gabe doesn't want them as champs. Yet.

ROH – How We Roll

Worst. Show name. Ever. I’m reviewing this instead of reading the Alan Moore erotic comics I just downloaded, the sacrifices I make for you people…

Show opens with Pearce calling out for Homicide to join the ROH army to fight CZW. He’s tired of getting his fucking head kicked in, apparently. Nigel then calls American Dragon a clam digger.

Matt Sydal Vs Jimmy Yang

I’m 100% fed up with watching and reviewing Matt Sydal matches. I can’t stand the little dweeb, he’s the least cool wrestler ever to lace up boots. Look at his opponent, Jimmy Yang. Sure, he’s pretty crappy much of the time, like here where he whiffs half of his kicks, but at least he knows how to be cool. Plus he cracks Sydal with a really funny low blow by accident, then does it again on purpose. HA. Yang is a lazy cock who is welcome to return to the WWE where he will be an occasional bright spot instead of a Russian Roulette of either very good or almost unwatchable worker. Maybe he’ll wrestle Paul London a bunch more times. Matt Sydal on the other hand will continue to hang around being annoying in ROH, taking time off to fly all the way to Japan to ruin Dragon Gate where CIMA books him despite his innate shitness because he can do flashy moves like the SSP that ends this dreary match up. NEXT!

Delirious, Colt Cabana and ‘the utterly pointless without Alison Danger’ Christopher Daniels make their way out for the next match, but get interrupted by Christian, who wants Cabana as his partner for tonight’s dream tag, he says he’s watched a lot of ROH DVDs recently and was most impressed with Colt. You haven’t watched shit, Cabana has won two matches in seven months. They have some funny exchanges on the mike with each other, then with Danielson who comes out to pick Daniels as his partner. Suddenly I’m not looking forward to the main event. They then all troop out, leaving Delirious on his tod. Nigel comes out, as he was the fourth man scheduled, and the boys in the back manage to find Kikutaro of all people to make up the numbers. Handy!

Delirious Vs Kikutaro Vs Nigel McGuinness

Nigel jumps Kikutaro at the bell, possibly remembering how the former Ebessan made him look foolish the last time they met. Boo you, Nigel. Match basically works around either Delirious and Kikutaro doing comedy with each other or Nigel bullying one of the two and refusing to join in with the reindeer games. He gets good heat for that, because who doesn’t want to see the slow motion fight? It’s all stuff we’ve seen before from Kikutaro, either in one of his previous ROH outings or in many of his other matches, but the fella is so funny, charming and obviously in love with what he does that I find it impossible not to like his stuff. Eventually he gets DDT by the referee by accident (He does this spot in a match against Sonjay Dutt in NOAH of all the random things, and it’s much funnier thanks to the referee looking in wonderment at his arms as if he has developed super powers. That’s Sonjay Dutt’s best ever singles match by the way.) and Delirious puts him in the Cobra Stretch for the win. Afterwards they seem to agree to team up and go after the tag belts…which I’d just love to see.

Ricky Reyes and Homicide Vs Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley

Chaos! Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world! Prince Nana and Julius Smokes are involved in the same match! And Daizee Haze! This was nutty and quite fun in places, but ultimately disappointing.
Man, I loved Daizee Haze as The Embassy’s lady. Rave, Nana and Shelley are all chicken shit heels, but Daizee is a little spitfire, so she’s almost the de facto enforcer of the stable, getting into it with everyone and attacking men four times her size in a furious rage. I felt very envious of Shelley, who got far more contact with the Haze then is decent when he had to pull her away from Homicide.
So the Rotts are faces in NYC, or should I say Homicide is. Homicide is generally a poor heel and gets cheered most places, it’s just that in New York he doesn’t even try and goes all out as a blue eyes. The best moment is possibly the whole match is Homicide hitting his unbelievable Tope Con Hilo on Rave, landing on his feet in the crowd and immediately going crazy high five-ing the baying New Yorkers.
Most of the real entertaining parts of this arise from Smokes and Nana playing off each other. Smokes doing…whatever the hell it is he does while Nana riffs about food stamps and offers to buy his teeth. They do some chase spots and stuff and it’s all suitably chaotic and nifty without getting in the way of the match.
After some pretty nifty mat exchanges between the four guys and a display of stalling that was almost Zbyszko level in it’s level of irritation from Rave, we settle into the heel beatdown formula, with Homicide getting the sympathy. This works good in principle, as the fans love their hometown hero and hate the evil metrosexuals that are choking him with athletic tape. However, it doesn’t take into account the fact that Reyes is going to have to play Gibson, and while he’s a steady hand, he doesn’t have Homicide’s heat and he’s not really on the level of the other three in the match. So he hits his generic hot tag offence to a reaction of…Nothing.
The finish is also ludicrously flat. Reyes kills the heat in the building with his slow motion hot tag, he and Homicide fluff the jumping knee/lariat finish, Reyes locks on the Dragon Sleeper to zero reaction. Nana breaks it up and Rave returns the favour, but when Smokes goes to break it up the ref catches him and DQs the Rotts. Awful. I get that the idea is to ‘screw’ Homicide out of his win so that he refuses to fight with CZW, but it also screws me out of the match, and makes me refuse to watch the rest of the show…Well, not really, but I was pretty pissed off.

Almost immediately, The Kings Of Wrestling jump the guard rail to rub Homicide’s apparent defection in the faces of the fans. Pearce and Whitmer run out to answer and we get…

Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli Vs Adam Pearce and BJ Whitmer

One of the weaker ROH/CZW matches. Worked like a tornado tag, the Kings spend most of the match beating on Whitmer in the ring as Pearce is down on the outside. Hero and Claudio have a vast array of needlessly complex moves designed to piss off fans, and they bust most of them out here. Whitmer sells like a champ as always and Hero and Double C are cocks, but the crowd isn’t buying it for whatever reason. One spot I loved was Hero almost getting dragged out of the ring by Pearce, hanging onto the top rope for dear life and screaming “Clllllaaaauuuuudiooooooo!!!” Hero makes a convincing cowardly jerk.
Eventually Whitmer gets the break he needs by almost killing Claudio with an Exploder and Hero with the all pervasive lariat. From then on Pearce is back in and the revenge beat down begins, but again the fans are not that into it. Did this feud not happen here much or something? Eventually, horribly miss-cast heel ref Bryce Remsburg breaks up a three count on a cool Superplex/Superfly combo and the ROH ref takes a bump. Necro runs in, Whitmer is put the a table for the seventeenth time in this angle and Pearce gets pinned with a Tandem Hero’s Welcome. This wasn’t good.

Post match, Joe runs out to kill the Butcher and the CZW guys take to the hills. Tomorrow night…

Apocalypse Vs Samoa Joe

Some dude in the crowd shouts “Who the hell are you?” at Apocalypse. Quite. He’s certainly not En Sabah Nur, which is a shame because a dust up between Joe and the Immortal Mutant Darwinist might have pushed ***1/2 I hate ROH and the things they do sometimes. What is the point of booking a competitive ten minute match between the ace of your company and a jobber from Canada who will never be appearing again? It makes Joe look stupid to have to sell for this guy, regardless of how competent he is. And the fans don’t give a shit, they just want to see Joe beat on him like the Dark Riders took out that other Apocalypse at the conclusion of the X-Cutioner’s Song storyline in X-Force #18 (OK, I’ll stop now) ROH’s reliance on booking towards workrate really bollocks things up, sometimes.

Mark Briscoe Vs Roderick Strong

You know, over the last week or so I saw the Briscoes wrestle live three times, and I’ve come to the conclusion that if you want a tag team match wrestled at 100 mph with plenty of moments where you stop and say “OK, he’s really dead this time” then The Briscoes are a pretty good choice. Unfortunately, this match called for some wrestling, and exposed Mark as having the skill level of the shaved ape he closely resembles. Apart from nice strikes from both guys, including some decent headbutts from Zeke, this was a heatless, heartless display. Briscoe had his botching boots on as well, blowing a springboard clothesline and hitting a Hilo onto the floor…for no reason at all. Seriously, I couldn’t tell what he was going for, Rodders was no where near and Mark just yelled “Screw you, Strong” and catapulted himself back first onto the ground. Maybe he was channelling my desire to die and not watch any more of his wrestling, in which case my mental anguish at crap like this has reached levels high enough to breach time and space. An interesting side effect.
Strong gets his nose busted at some point and makes a good shake at some punch drunk selling reminiscent of his tag partner. Add that to the evil arm work he’s nabbed from Danielson and Strong seems to be progressing by absorbing bits of better wrestlers, not a bad idea.
After a lot of neat chops and his grade A Yakuza kick, Strong seemed to have survived the over elaborate move set of the younger Briscoe and was set to put him away with A Half Nelson Breaker, but the cheeky banjo player escaped and nailed the gross out that is the Cutthroat Driver for the pin on his rival. I hated this and I hate the Briscoe Brothers.

Jay Briscoe Vs Austin Aries

Jay is the slightly better Briscoe and Aries is far better than Strong, so here’s hoping this is better than the last shambles. Err, no. It’s just as shit.
You know, between them, The Briscoes have had four shots at the ROH World title? Including a Cage match? It worries me, as this night really shows up their limitations as workers, both try to work a more sedate, logical style, and not only kill off an already wandering crowd, but also manage to look like they have less than no clue about what goes on in a wrestling ring.
Concentrating on the positives for a bit, some of Jay’s arm work was nice, including a hammerlock vertical suplex which I have never seen before. Aries has a boat load of charisma to go with his flashy moves and pulls the crowd back into again and again with his facials and selling, only for Briscoe to waste it with a sloppy or mistimed exchange.
Jay gets put over huge here, taking the former world champs arm to pieces, avoiding all his heavy artillery, almost getting a pin (Austin needing the ropes to escape) and then winning by tap out seconds later. So why don’t I buy him as a credible challenger to the Tag belts? Perhaps because this, and Mark’s match, prove that neither man has the depth as a wrestler to take on the punishing schedule of defences that Aries and Strong have and produce the same quality of match. Jay and Mark may be over when they’re hitting hilarious double teams that would make the Maximo’s shake their heads and sigh, but Jay wins this match to zero reaction and walks away in almost silence. Aries stands up and is instantly greeted with cheers and chants. Star power can’t be bought with Falcon Arrows.

Christian Cage and Colt Cabana Vs Bryan Danielson and Christopher Daniels

Man, it is seriously weird to see Christian in an ROH ring. As weird as seeing Matt and Jeff Hardy in there, this is stranger. I guess because I saw a lot of the Hardy Boys Indy stuff, but only ever watched Christian in Arenas or TV studios. It’s strange, but makes me eager to see how he does. Despite being the NWA Heavyweight Champion, he doesn’t have the most beautiful belt in history with him as Abyss has stole it in a TNA storyline. Irony. Maybe Abyss did that just to queer Christian’s debut in the promotion who fired him.
Speaking of…Nah, no-one’s going there. Suffice to say that a Christopher Daniels match with no Alison Danger is like dentistry without anaesthetic. Christopher Daniels is not one of the 326 best wrestlers ever. He’s the worst worker in this match by a country mile. The only thing he did I really liked was the comedy spot built around the “that’s how I roll” catchphrase.
Danielson mines a vein of pure evil during this match, from catching a streamer thrown in his support and hurling it back at the start to abandoning his partner to get pinned at the end and everything he does in between. In particular, torturing Colt Cabana is high on Danielson’s list of priorities here. We’re still running with the idea that Colt can’t hang with AmDrag, which allows him to snap in the middle of one of Colt’s wacky Euro moves and just elbow the piss out of the guy for daring to be likeable. He also wins my love and respect by tagging Daniels on his shiny, bald head and yelling at him for adding needless frivolity to his moves. “See what happens when you mess around he shouts!” he’s saying what we’re thinking.
Christian seems to spend a lot of time on the apron here, but when the hot tag comes and the match breaks down into a big rush of spots he holds his own. I’m surprised at how much he gives Danielson here, getting pretty much outwrestled on the mat and nearly tapped out until Cabana saves. He definitely comes off as inferior to the Dragon.
The ending is nice and hot, Daniels cuts an attempted Cage dive off with a stiff shotei and they exchange counters until the bald dance instructor gets dumped on his skull with the Unprettier, and the touch with Danielson not caring enough to break up the pin is brilliant. But the match itself was nothing particularly stunning, it kind of meandered and anything other than AmDrag being an asshole got old quickly. The post match mike work was nauseating.

All in all, a pretty shitty show from ROH. Everything was either badly booked or poorly wrestled apart from the main event, which rarely reached above random. One to miss out.

I think the problem with the Briscoes matches with GenNEXT, from booking rather than personal opinion (I rather liked them), is that the fans know they're pretty meaningless. After looking back, I've noticed that GenNEXT have lost almost any match they were in while not part of a team (barring a couple of matches such as Strong's against Yang), and as a team they'd already beaten the Briscoes by this point, unless I've horribly mixed up my timing on the shows.

Jay and Mark are definitely better as a tandem, though. I don't like their singles work much, though I think Jay's not half bad.

I'm sure they haven't had the first title match at this point. If I remember the ROH message board correctly (And sometimes I wish I couldn't) the general opinion was that the Briscoes would take the Tag belts, if not in the first meeting then definately in the second.

The reason Gen Next have tended to not many singles wins of late is that they get plenty of shots at the other titles as two of the top guys in the promotion. The Briscoes beating them in singles contests Should be a big deal, but the matches were so appalling (And I entirely blame the Briscoes for this) that the fans couldn't even get behind the upsets.

Just finished watchin Vendetta.

Ace Steel/Delirious v McGuiness/Collyer was a pretty bland opener. It was kept short at about 9 minutes thankfully. *

Sal Rinauro v Jimmy Jacobs was a passable match. Rinauro bores me stupid. *1/2

Bj Whitmer v Castagnoli was a decent big man match. It wasn't excellent but it was bad to watch for the 8 minutes it went for. **

Daniels v Joe was an excellent 25 minute match. Not quite up there with their TNA efforts but still an excellent wrestling match. ***1/2

Pearce v Andrews was a squash. Not worth a place on any ROH card. 1/2 *

Roderick Strong V Bryan Danielson was an awesome wrestling match. This is everything good about ROH.....the keyword is wrestling. For 50 minutes these two went at it and it must rank up there with 2005's matches of the year. ****1/2

The Embassy v Gen Next 8 man war was a very entertaining match. Even the introudction of Abyss didn't drag the match down. Daizee Haze's heel turn was shocking. ****

I don't remember the fans being silent after the matches. They seemed really quite into them. If the matches were that bad then why are the Briscoes still over? The ROH faithful can be guaranteed to do one thing at least, and that's turn on someone they legitimately think sucks.

You said yourself the Jay/Aries match was pretty good. I can't remember much of the Mark/Wodewick match but that's as much Wodders fault as Marks. I just find him very forgettable unless he's bouncing off Aries in the championship matches. He cleans house like almost no-one else, I think that's the one thing that's brilliant about him. Oh, and he does do exceedingly good backbreakers.

As it is they STILL seem to think the Briscoes are going to get the belts, and that's after... what, three, four successive defeats? Four including the scramble tags.

So this time tomorrow I am off out the door to travel to America to see some indy wrestling. First stop is ROH in Chicago (stop two is LA for PWG's BOLA). After watching the Colt v Am Drag match last night i am really excited to see their 2/3 falls match. The rest of the card looks pretty good as well. I'll post my thoughts in a few days (if I have any).

Colt and Am Drag are having a 2/3 falls match?

Ugh. Not sure I'll like that much. I'd love to see a McGuinness/Dragon 2/3 falls, though. Or a Joe/Dragon 2/3 falls match.

Nigel/Dragon two out of three falls is tomorrow night. If Dragon retains he has Colt in another two out of three falls match the night after. Crazy booking.

I think the fans have given up on the Briscoes as tag champs now that they've been sidelined into the expanding Homicide/Joe/Whitmer Vs Cornette's army feud. Most people now expect the Kings Of Wrestling to take the straps.

The Briscoes vs Gen Next singles matches were the night before their first title shot, like a preview, except neither singles matches were very good.

I thought Mark vs Roderick started okay in the sense of feeling out each other ahead of their first title match, but then Mark suddenly busted out this ridiculous springboard that missed by miles and it fell aprt from there, with the only thing I liked after that being the cutthroat driver finish.

Jay has always been the better singles wrestler, and I'm a big fan of his title shots against Samoa Joe at Tradition Continues and in a steel cage at At Our Best, two of the best ROH title matches from the pre-Reborn stage of ROH history. Add in Aries being so damned good and I hoped for much more out of him vs Jay than I did out of Roderick vs Mark. Shame I didn't remember anything about the match until I read Lantern's review, that's how much of an impression it made.

I liked the main event, it kind of reminded me of a rare few WWE tag matches from recent years in that when they started hitting the recognised finishers near the end, the crowd was molten. That and the "THAT's how I roll!!" comedy made it worthwhile for me, though the show overall was a let down, which is why I havent really bothered with a proper review (i think i did thoughts on some of the opening matches before I reviewed WOC night 2).

I'm in the middle of watching Ring of Homicide at the momemt, which looks the MUCH better show.

Finished the Milestone Series with ROH: The 100th Show

Christopher Daniels v Claudio Castagnoli

This was really bland and boring, and to be honest looked more like ballet than wrestling. Yes, it has well executed offence, good psychology and all the rest of it, but everything is hit with no passion or intensity, and the spots, instead of looking like they fit into the match, look choreographed. I'm sure they're not, but both guys look like they're going through the motions what with the static facials and limited character work. Some decent offence in there, and what they actually do would be rather good, if it was done by two characters who, well, have some character. *

Jimmy Jacobas v Jimmy Yang v Jimmy Rave v Delirious

Another one of these oh-so-annoying 4-Ways. Luckily for this one, it isn't a total waste, as it features three good characters, and a at least serviceable wrestler in Yang. That isn't to say it's any good though, as despite some good character work, the in ring action is pretty bland and poor. There doesn't seem to be any reason for the match, and therefore there's no reason to care. However, it is good at times, and Jacobs once again excels in his role. Finish was smart too. *1/2

Austin Aries/Roderock Strong v Homicide/Ricky Reyes

Talk about disappointing. What's up with Homicide in this match? He puts no effort in at all, messes up a couple of things, and is generally a shadow of his usual self. Unfortunately for him, his backup is Reyes, who while a decent worker, isn't capable of carrying his partner and making the match something good. I enjoy Aries here, Strong is so so. They try to tell a story around the Rotts brawling, but problem is the brawling in the match is pedestrian and lacking in much cohesion or intensity. It's OK at times, and Aries does his best, but not the match I was hoping for. *1/4

Bryan Danielson v Colt Cabana

This was pretty good. The interaction between Dragon and the fans made it what it was, but I was happy to see the end of serious Colt, and the ending was shocking and worked well. The action before that was pretty average, but purposely so, as they had to make the fans believe they were building to something longer. It didn't help that the fans didn't react to anything as they were so caught up in the duelling chants. More an angle than a match, but it was well executed. **

Derick Dempsey v Pelle Primeua

Pointless students match. They looked really green, and Primeua is surely never going to get over with that look, because it's horrible. 1/2*

Bryan Danielson v Delirious

The setup for this match was brilliant, and the match itself wasn't half bad. Dragon was decent taking Delirious apart, and bloody good at some parts, but the real fun came when Delirious started to look like he might have a chance. Strangely, the CZW fans added to this, although sometimes it seemed the match was less important than what was going on outside. Credit to Delirious for being such a good sympathy face, and the blood certainly did the match favours. A lot of fun. **3/4

Briscoe Brothers v Matt Sydal/AJ Styles

Man, I should have hated with. The Briscoes annoy me so much, with their mountain of high end offence, and spot based matches. I used to love Sydal as a great sympathy face with cool offence, but he had been grating on me as a goofy face recently, probably due to lack of quality heel opponents. Styles is hit and miss.

But somehow this is one of the best tags of the series. Had a really goos structure, some nice tag psychology by the Briscoes, and their offence was in fact excellent- high impact stuff but nothing over the top. The way they built to the hot tag was great, and when it came it got a great pop, leading into a great finishing sequence with, yes, some cool moves. This is no classic, but it's suprising how good it is, and it's probably the best Briscoes match ever, and Sydal's second best outing. ***1/4

Super Dragon/Necro Butcher/Chris Hero v Samoa Joe/Adam Pearce/BJ Whitmer

I don't love this as much as some, but this was a really good, hate filled brawl. Everyone on ythe CZW side was awesome, Necro was great at being crazy, Hero was a good chicken shit heel with awesome facials, Dragon was also a great heel, just a shame the camera didn't catch him Monkey Flipping a fan and attacking Xias. Oh well. The crowd was molten hot, and the brawling was intense as hell. Whitmer and Pearce, unfortunately, do nothing for me. Whitmer was good for a few big bumps, Pearce was good for a blade, but I don't even know why they're in this feud in the first place. Anything with Joe in was gold, with the other two, it wasn't so good. A slight complaint is that the brawling got a little repetetive. But it's actually a ton of fun, and if you've been into the feud, which I haven't that much, then you'll love it a lot more. Really good stuff. ***1/4

On the whole an enjoyable show. The last two matches were really good, the Dragon stuff was fun, and it was only let down by a poor beginning, which was at least bearable.

OK, my ten best matches of the milestone series...

Anarchistxx's 10 Best Matches Of The Milestone Series

1. Jimmy Rave, Alex Shelley, & Masato Yoshino vs. Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, & Ryo Saito ***1/2 (ROH Better Than Our Best)
2. Bryan Danielson vs. Alex Shelley ***1/2 (ROH Arena Warfare)
3. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe ***1/4 (ROH 100th Show)
4. Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, & BJ Whitmer vs. Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, & Super Dragon ***1/4 (ROH 100th Show)
5. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. CIMA & Naruki Doi ***1/4 (ROH Better Than Our Best)
6. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, & Jack Evans vs. CIMA & Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino ***1/4 (ROH Dragon Gate Challenge)
7. Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi, & Ryo Saito vs. CIMA, Naruki Doi, & Masato Yoshino *** (ROH Supercard Of Honor)
8. A.J. Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi *** (ROH Dragon Gate Challenge)
9. Austin Aries v Matt Sydal **3/4 (ROH Arena Warfare)
10. AJ Styles & Matt Sydal vs. Austin Aries & Jack Evans **3/4 (ROH Supercard Of Honor)

Now that's something I don't want to see. Not that they wouldn't make good, heated champs because of the allegedly over CZW war, but I found them spectacularly uninspiring on their one match with Pearce/Whitmer. Some of their moves are a million times more contrived than the Briscoes' double teams/offence, and I don't really get much joy out of Chris Hero except watching him get beaten up. He does have a nice cravatte, though.

I'd think its one team or the other. The only options are, now that The Embassy's best incarnation is dead:

Briscoes
Kings of Wrestling
Irish Airborne

The Briscoes have lost repeatedly and according to you are up against Homicide now, Irish Airborne haven't won the crowd over enough to have a chance yet.

That really does just leave the Kings. UNLESS Gabe's planning to have GenNEXT keep the straps for the entire year and build to a Briscoes victory in the new year. That, or he'll get ahold of Maru/KENTA and give them a reign for a month or two before dropping the titles back to someone else, but I can't see him doing that. From what I've seen of ROH that doesn't seem like his way of thinking.

For some reason I'm feeling a World Title change more than a tag title change. I guess it's the depth of competition in the World Division is somewhat better. I can see Nigel, Joe, Rave, and definitely Homicide as World Title holders. Guess we'll have to see.

EDIT: The double 2/3 falls is silly. What's the logic behind it? Surely it'd be far more sensible to have the second one a few shows down the line? Gimmick overkill never helped anyone.

This show has an ROH title match and a reasonable amount of ROH involvement, so I hope nobody minds if I stick this here. It's in spoiler tags in case a DG fan avoiding spoilers wanders into this thread.

They were against Pearce and Whitmer though, two of the least charismatic wrestlers I've ever seen.

I mean, why were these two even in the ROH/CZW feud? Pearce had been in ROH 5 minutes, was a heel when the feud started, and if anything, was against ROH. Yet he's suddenly in the feud. Whitmer has never been over, has never showed any real loyalty to ROH, and was similarly a heel when the feud started.

It was a good feud, but I got the feeling it would have been a lot better with two other wrestlers as the focal points.

I think the idea with the KOW is that they're a bit boring- it gets them good heat. Granted, Hero was working that style as a face, but that's why he sucked as a face and is actually a decent heel.

The feud got Whitmer and Pearce over and gave them some identity. It was the rub they needed to move up a level in ROH. And Pearce is fucking awesome.

I've just finished watching 'Ring of Homicide' and thought it was a good, but not great show. Dragon vs Delirious was a nice little match, Delirious is a great underdog face. Gen Next vs Briscoes was a really good tag title match I thought, the finish iwas great because it opened the door for a rematch. Main event is one of my favourite RoH match of the year in Homicide vs Necro. Much better than Homicide vs Cabana. Homicide was insanely over with the crowd and he and Necro had a fantastic fight.

Going to watch Destiny in a bit.

I need to get a couple of ROH DVDs. . . there's one with KENTA vs Samoa Joe vs Bryan Danielson and another with KENTA vs Davey Richards. . . whats the recommended source guys? The originals from the obvious sources cost far too much money. . . PM me if need be

Cheers!

Some great reviews, LL and Edgecrusher.

I was browsing through a few websites and came across ROH's First Anniversary Show, I haven't seen it before but I was thinking of picking it up. Was it any good?

Avoid Kenta Vs Danielson Vs Joe at all costs.

Over hyped to the max. Once Joe knocks Kenta out half of Kenta's offense looses that 'umph' it normally has & you can clearly see Joe/Danielson having to tell him what to do untill near the end.

LL addresses the rest, but in what way does the quality of the opposition affect the fact that the KOW's tandem moves are so contrived that even me, eternal defender of the Canadian Destroyer, found them annoying?

You don't need charismatic opponents to look good on offence. Look at the Briscoes. Love 'em or hate 'em, no matter the quality of their opposition their arsenal looks devastating. I just couldn't see anything to recommend the Kings from that match, not in a 'bastard heels' way, in a 'fuck I'd hate to watch another match involving these guys' way.

True Lol that Jimmy Rave even got toilet showered in Japan. I guess CIMA must have found that entrance hilarious and insured it was propogated in DG.

It was a really good show if you like early ROH which is littered with pomposity, Ki vs. London vs. Styles is great fun, Joe vs. AmDrag is never a bad thing, Mark vs. Jay is fun and Homicide vs. Corino was a decent brawl as well. It's a good early show.

Mark Briscoe Vs Jay Briscoe from this card may be my least favourite wrestling match ever.

ROH Ring Of Homicide 13/05/2006

Colt Cabana v Kikitaro

As you would expect this is mostly comedy, and it's mostly successful in its quest to amuse. To be honest it's just a relief to have relaxed cabana back- he's more comfortable in the role, and he's a whole lot better at it. You can only see Kikitaru's comedy spots a certain number of times though, before they start to get dull, and at the moment I'm pretty worn out on the guy. Here, luckily enough, they manage to incorporate enough fresh stuff and with enough style on the execution to make it worthwhile. Not much to say really, entertaining opener. *3/4

Homicide/Ricky Reyes v Dunn/Marcos

Basically the only chance this match had of success was if it was a full on squash. Bumping is about all Dunn and Marcos are good for, so I'm guessing it would have been great fun to watch the Rottweiler's destroy them. Unfortunately, I'll never know, as this is actually a plain and forgettable bout, where the despicable Ring Crew Express actually get a pretty good amount of offence in. Seriously guys, it al looks terrible, and I completely don't buy them going toe to toe with Homicide, however well he sells their attack. Reyes is where he usually is, just sort of there, but not actually doing a great deal to impress. Dunn and Marcos shouldn't last much longer, and their opponents shouldn't be wasted on matches like this. 1/2*

Jimmy Rave v Jimmy Yang

It's credit to Jimmy Rave that he managed to take Akio to one of his best matches in his ROH run. That really isn't saying a lot though, as Akio has been pretty dreadful, and in fact this match is helped by the overbooked nature along with the heat the Embassy generates. The quickly established that Rave didn't want to go one on one with Yang, and built the early stages of the match around that. The finish kept both guys looking strong, and the match as a whole was well put together. Yang's bumping and selling are his strong point, so Rave's attack on him is pretty good- Rave's heeling also never gets old, even with the average Yang as his foil. Finish was nicely done, and the interference from Haze was probably the highlight of the entire match. Back to WWE for Yang- to be honest, good riddance. *3/4

ROH Pure Title Nigel McGuinness© v Jay Lethal

In theory this looks pretty good. You have the hometown hero Lethal as the white meat babyface, a role in which he has excelled in before. The you have Nigel, one of the best heels in the world. And in practise, this is pretty good, though nothing more. It was hard for them to produce something really good, with a lack of any past history and no storyline to build from. But they used what story they had, and it worked well. Nigel was great as the sly heel, who knew the rules better than anyone else. Lethal was good as the local face making his return. It would have been nicer if the fans were all for Lethal, but instead we got the dreaded duelling chants. You can't win them all.

The offence was nothing out of the ordinary, but it did the job, and it was actually one of the better builds I've seen, which culminated in some nice and believable near falls, especially on the first Tower Of London. The opening goes a long way to making the match enjoyable; instead of starting with the British matwork which would have felt really out of place, they spend time establishing roles and even throw in a few tit-for-tat revenge spots. 14 Minutes was more than enough for this match, but they made good use of it and it didn't really drag. Could have done with a bit more heeling from Nigel, a bit more charisma from Lethal and a bit more heat from the crowd. It kind of lacked the 'it' factor, but it still wound up being a nice midcard bout. **1/2

ROH World Heavyweight Championship Bryan Danielson© v Delirious

I enjoyed their match at the 100th Show, and I enjoyed this even more. Dragon put on another one of his heel displays, and was actually rather mint working over Delirious here. This was Delirious' match to make though, and he put on an excellent performance as the underdog face who is driven by revenge and his quest for the gold. A little more hate wouldn't have gone amiss, especially as it started out so heated, with the vicious brawling and the attack before the bell as a throwback to their previous match. I felt they lost some of early momentum when Dragon went to the floor though, especially as when he got back in they started to wrestle, when they were supposed to hate each other. It isn't that the wrestling was bad, just given the past storyline and how it started out, a bit more violent brawling would have likely gone down better.

Dragon's altercations with the CZW fans were funny, and actually did a good job of giving Delirious openings, and making his comebacks a little more believable. That was a major issue here though- it was hard to buy Delirious as any sort of legitimate threat to Dragon, takinh their past records into account. The match also overstayed its welcome- ROH have to learn that every title match and every mid card match doesn't have to go long to be good. They could have taken 5 or maybe even 10 minutes of this and it wouldn't have affected what they were trying to do or the story they were trying to tell. It didn't feel that long., but by the time we got to the finish, I'd lost a lot of the interest I'd got from the build. But make no mistake, this is good stuff. It's a good example of the underdog challenger v cocky champion story working well and getting the crowd into a frenzy, but there has to be some sort of hierarchy ROH, because a guy like Delirious shouldn't be lasting 25 minutes with your unstoppable champion. ***

Matt Sydal v Christopher Daniels

It wasn't as bad as it could have been. This had the potential to be really horrible, and while they escape that, it's still really average. Daniels is Daniels, and if you've seen him before you've probably realised his matches look like something you'd be more likely to see at the Royal Balley Company. Emotionless, effortless and far too perfect. Buy I'm quickly doing another U-Turn on Sydal. I loved him at first, then I didn't like him much, but now, he's back in my good books. His great looking offence and superb facials and selling are what keep this match alive. His character work is also very good here, as his portrayal of the desperate guy trying to get his breakthrough win is actually very believable. A couple of the intricate spots get my attention, and though I don't care for anything Daniels does, Sydal makes this at least watchable. Don't expect anything good though as it's by the numbers stuff mostly. *3/4

ROH Tag Team Championship Austin Aries/Roderick Strong© v Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe

As with the world title match this was just too long. For the first 5 or 10 minutes of this match it's totally uninspiring stuff. It lacks structure and direction, there's no reason for much if any of the offence- in short, it looks like they're killing time. Which is a shame, because one the Briscoe's start working over Aries, who is a great face in peril, the match picks up dramatically. Whatever else you say about the Briscoe's, their tag psychology has been pretty great in the recent matches I've seen, and this is no exception. There's a good number of tag teases, great heel tag offence, and they cut off the ring like they're Arn and Tully. Don't get me wrong, it isn't anything I've not seen before, but in this day and age, solid tag team wrestling is something you don't see that often.

Once the match breaks down and they decide to throw the legal man rules out the window, it's also good. They bring a nice number of spots to the table, without it looking like overkill, and Strong is a ton of fun as the hot tag, given his high impact offence. In fact, tags are the best use of most of these guys, because, aside from Aries, they have little charisma but can work a good bout. The Briscoe's are so much better when they're not using high end offence for the duration of their matches. Aries is the real star once again though here, his offence could do with being a bit less generic, but he has improves in leaps and bounds, and even has somewhat of an aura round him now. First 10 minutes drag this down, but otherwise it's a really solid piece of tag action. **1/2

Samoa Joe v Necro Butcher

Not much of a match really, but what they do fit in is actually more fun then nearly everything else on the entire show. Both guys are insanely over and actually give the impression of being two stars, something guys like Yang and Whitmer could never achieve. The brawling is solid, and though it pales in comparison the the next match, it's enjoyable while it lasts. I just wish the CZW guys had been booked a little stronger, as Joe is booked as being stronger than both Necro and hero together, and unless they're at a numbers handicap the ROH guys nearly always seem to have the advantage in the brawls. **

Homicide v Necro Butcher

Just an awesome brawl and a load of fun. The Homicide face turn was executed to perfection, and it brought an insane pop which transcended into brilliant heat for this match. The brawling was really tight throughout, and felt believable and vicious. Some of it was a bit too repetitive, not within this match but within the entire brawls on the shows- there's only so many times I can gasp at a chair being thrown at someone's head or a suplex on a chair, as I seem to witness them every other show if not more. But that isn't there fault as much, and while the brawl isn't as intense in the middle stages, it would be a big ask for them to keep up the electric pace and action for the full 10 minutes.

The chair throwing and what follows is what makes the match, and the numerous moves performed on the chair filled ring are brutal and effective. Necro doesn't really sell being buried under chairs that well, as he's back on the offence a minute later, but I guess you could put it down to his character. As a match it's good, but as a spectacle it's superb, and if you're a fan of sick bumps and hate filled brawls, this is probably for you. ***1/4

Overall I felt the show was very solid. Only one really 'bad' match, the rest of it was either in and around average or better. No top class match, but the world title match and the main event are both a blast.

Lovely review of the show...when I watched it I basically watched the first couple of average ROH matches and then skipped to the brilliant main-event.

I loved Homicide's work in the match and Necro showed once again that he's one indy wrestler who can actually evoke a reaction from a crowd, and combined with Homicide's turn it made for a very well worked match. My favourite part of the ROH/CZW feud so far, I preffered it to the 6man brawl at the 100th show.

“Someone will be unmasked, and KILLED in the ring tonight!” Or a tiny Puerto Rican man might feature prominently. One or the other.

Kikutaro Vs Colt Cabana

Yeeessss, something right up my alley to kick a show off for a change. Kikutaro is one of the best workers in the world who has a niche and sticks to it, and Colt is a superb comedy guy. So if you’ve seen Kikutaro before you’ve seen him get a lariat from a ref, fuck up a wrist lock escape and trick someone into dancing…But it doesn’t really get old. Colt adds his own more Western comedy styling to proceedings and we get to hear Kikutaro call someone a homosexual. Funny Colt is too good to waste in a garbage feud. Entirely enjoyable comedy opener. Here’s a question – if you reviewed this and gave it a star rating, did you still feel like a human being afterwards? Discuss.

Homicide and Ricky Reyes Vs Dunn and Marcos

JUST BOOK A PROPER SQUASH MATCH YOU USELESS COCKS.

Post ‘match’, Adam Pearce comes out in his glittery bath robe to once again ask Homicide to help repel the CZW invaders. Pearce says he knows Homicide cares about ROH. Actually, Homicide’s gimmick for about two years now has been that he hates ROH, but thanks for coming.

Jimmy Rave Vs Jimmy Yang

Ooh, Daizee Haze has princess hair. She’s just an ice cream scoop of evil sex.
Now, this is a damn good match. If only ROH would book more things like this and less competitive matches between one of the companies top guys and two jobbers who haven’t been seen in over a year and were ALWAYS A JOKE TEAM ANYWAY. Morons. Rave puts on a superb display here, his stalling to heat the crowd up after the shit display in the previous segment is great , really dragging it out to piss everyone off just that little bit more. He seems more on with his offence than usual, hitting everything with enough snap to look painful while still keeping up the angle that he’s really quite shit at what he does. It’s awesome to see him throw dropkicks and spear people in sheer petulance at being outclassed by everyone. Look! Even Daizee gets to show him up tonight, running in and hitting a sweet tilt a whirl reverse DDT on Yang, who really made her look great. Hey, ROH, how about letting Haze…Eh, forget about it. Go book the Outcast Killaz against Joe and Dragon for 15 minutes instead, you eggplants. Rave also gets props for his awesome baseline offence combo – Abdominal Stretch to Leg Sweep to Seated Abdominal Stretch, and for using the Pedigree as a finish. The move evokes a Pavlovian reaction of disgust from the ROH crowd, it’s brilliant.
Yang was doing OK here, he didn’t blow any of his big moves, he took great bumps (The finish where he gets crotched by Daizee was too the max, really painful to watch) and managed to not whiff any kicks for a change. In fact, he really creamed Rave once or twice. He even manages to bring a little fire and passion to his wrestling for a change, something really noticeably missing from many of his performances. Finally catching Rave at the end of the stall sequence and just battering him around ringside was good, hammering him with punches, thrusting his cock at his face and then decapitating him with a rolling back kick; even better.
All in all, great little heat based match with plenty of Daizee Haze looking like a million dollars. Evil sex dollars. Bliss.

Nigel McGuinness Vs Jay Lethal

Lethal back in ROH, even if it’s just for the Jersey shows, is a good thing. Lethal back as a babyface is a very good thing. This match was a very good thing indeed.
You know what Nigel McGuinness will do? Beat the shit out of you. For a guy who started off sucking as a Brian Dixon “SHALL I?” babyface, before going on to suck as a half arsed masturbator of matwork, he’s really found his niche by forgetting the nonsense areas of his British style in favour of the real secret of Euro Wrestling – stiffing the fuck out of everyone. So leaving the silly wristlock reversals to Chris Hero, Nigel can now just concentrate on hammering people with uppercuts, killing them with lariats and pinning them with elbows grinding little pieces of their faces off. It makes for a much nicer spectacle, and against someone who is custom built to take a kicking like Mr Lethal is, it makes him one of the most entertaining wrestlers in the world.
Lethal is enjoying a re-run of his ROH rookie babyface run in TNA at the moment, but he has a bit more scope to open up here where he can play Nigel’s equal. Never one to hold back on strikes himself, they play off a similar theme of their last match, where Nigel would try and be clever about an escape and Jay would just chop the piss out of him instead. He does fall for the headstand fake out though, and Nigel uncorks another hellish looking strike combo, hard kick to the back followed by a Final Cut. Nothing tops the lariat-to-opponent-crotched-on-top-strand-so-you-break-their-clavicle-and-then-they-land-on-their-heads for pure evil destruction though.
It’s kind of sad that Lethal is gone from ROH, but I understand that he couldn’t keep playing a fiery underdog for the rest of his life, no-one wants to end up with as much brain damage as Tsuyoshi Kikuchi after all. And he sucked at doing anything else, really. but he does great here; pulling his hometown fans into a match with no build and no issue with his spunky comebacks and nifty moves, including a devilish superkick that got an awesome two count. Legitimate nearfall from the most overused move in wrestling? Good match. Alas, his fate is sealed by the fact he’s only working Jersey shows, but at least Nigel makes him look good by taking two Tower Of London moves to put him away, although with the force Lethal got drilled with on the second he might have traded the rub away for a bit more feeling in his extremities. Nigel is a brutish ass kicker and Lethal is still the best young sympathy seller in the states. Get this match.

Bryan Danielson Vs Delirious

The first match between these two was a rare example of ROH booking something to be a good wrestling angle instead of a good athletic display, so let’s see how it shapes up. Danielson does a good job of turning the crowd against him to start off, and Delirious has a huge amount of crowd support at the start due to that, and his own incomprehensible promo.
I enjoyed an awful lot of this match, it started out great with Delirious being all vengeful about the bloody results of match one, and the ending was great, real heat and support for Delirious as he came so close before getting robbed by a small package. Danielson is freakishly good at laying out exciting finishes for his matches, I can’t think of the last one that fell flat.
Still, a bunch of this was a little drawn out and tired. I think I could’ve happily lost ten minutes from the middle section of this and still liked the hell out of it. At the moment ROH is on a big push to elevate some new stars and I guess they want Delirious to be a big part of that with a strong showing against the champion. He even gets Danielson to beg off for a while, which is great and all but might damage Danielson a bit. I mean, I like Delirious, but he weighs nothing and mainly works comedy, make him look good by all means, but the World Champ being afraid of him is a step too far. AmDrag is obviously channelling Liger in his blind need to make everyone look great no matter the cost.
I should point out that the dude doing the commentary with Prazak tonight is godawful. Thank the lord Dave isn’t letting him say much. I think Prazak is a bit off base saying that it’s CZW fans chanting “Overrated” and “Same Old Shit” at Danielson, I think it’s just the ROH fans who are actually reacting to him as a heel. Still, it gives Prazak the chance to slag off ROH’s retard fans with no comeback which I’m sure he enjoyed.
Still, smatterings of retards or not, the fans are pretty much into this all the way. When Delirious is trapped in the Chicken Wing, the feeling of elation as he makes the ropes is palpable. And the reaction for the hot nearfall off the Shadows Over Hell is great. It’s blatant that he wont be walking away with the belt, but you can feel some genuine suspension of disbelief here which is always nice to see. And when the Lizard man lays into Bryan with tow sickening kicks to the head, I’m almost out of my chair myself, and pretty deflated when Danielson gets the roll up win. Aww, poor little fella. Good match.

Christopher Daniels Vs Matt Sydal

Again?! Another one?! Another match between the bald headed Riverdance enthusiast Chris Daniels and Wrestling least cool man and full time Puro fed ruiner Matt Sydal? Without even the presence of Alison Danger at ringside to soften the blow (Not that the blows get much softer than a Christopher Daniels match)? ROH officially hate me, and I’m this close to not reviewing this at all. But I’ve made my bed with this project, and will lie in it, whether it contains Alison Danger or not.
This is, by far, the worst wrestling match I have seen in months. Absolutely god awful, no redeeming features whatsoever. I jokingly said “I wonder what part of the body they’ll be working on in order to create ‘psychology’” and sure enough, Daniels works Sydal’s back. And Sydal hits some big moves. And hits Daniels’ moves (Criminally ignored by the commentators. It’s not like they do live commentary, no excuse) The whole thing play’s out like a pair of robots doing Waltz in spandex and even the crowd don’t give a shit this time. AND THEY HAVE ONE MORE MATCH ON A MAIN SHOW TO COME! Unbelievable. Matt Sydal fucks off to Japan to crush the dreams of far better wrestlers and Daniels goes back to TNA to play AJ Styles’ significant other in a racist storyline. If only he’d stay there.

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong Vs The Briscoe Brothers

GOOD LORD the Briscoes are awful. This was the perfect illustration of why they should never be allowed the tag belts in 2006 ROH. The Briscoes in early Ring Of Honour got over in much the same way as the SAT and Red; they did a lot of ker-azy moves~ that wowed the fans, they did head drops, they hit people hard…It got over on it’s wow factor alone, like much of early ROH. In case you don’t remember, early ROH was unwatchably bad. They turn up again in 2006, and now they decide they want to be a ‘workrate’ team like everyone else, where upon people realise that they’re uninteresting, uninspiring and possibly untrained. One or two guys in the front row try to start a “New Fucking Champs” chant (It’s cooler if you swear) and thankfully they’re very, very wrong. At numerous points in this match I found myself almost saying out loud, “don’t just fucking stand there!” as one or other Briscoe seemed to forget where they were and what they were supposed to be doing. The most glaring is when Aries hits a dropkick on Jay from the turnbuckle that Mark is standing next to, having seemingly forgotten to bump to the floor. He watches, dumbfounded, as Aries takes the time to steady himself then launches from the top to kick his brother. Someone in the crowd shouts out “Why didn’t you trip him?” I’m sure Mark doesn’t know himself. The ‘heat’ section of this match is the most misnamed in history, being as it sucked the life out of a crowd already half dead following Matt and Christopher tripping the light fantastic. It’s clear that when the Briscoe’s are throwing themselves and their opponents around with no regard for anyone’s safety and seemingly no clue as to how to wrestle…They’re easy to get into as characters. When they’re trying to wrestle as a team in a real match environment you soon realise just how flat and dull they really are. So quite frankly, Briscoes doing double stomps and head drops = good crowd reaction. Briscoes trying to do anything else = fuck all.
Aries and Strong don’t have a lot to work with here, and try and pull something back by playing to their strengths. Aries works face in peril, even though their isn’t much ‘peril’ so to speak…The Briscoes look too inept to create any danger for Aries unless they accidently dropping him on his head…which thankfully doesn’t happen. Strong gets to clear house big style, which he’s great at, hitting hard chops, dropkicks, and the evil Shining Yakuza Kick type move that gets a close nearfall. NOW the fans are paying attention. Gen Next hit a few big double teams, such as the wicked Chopbuster, and the fans are feeling it, the old combo magic has them back into it. The finish comes out of nowhere a bit, as The Inbreds hit the Spiked Jay Driller on Strong, but Aries is legal and rolls up Mark for the pin. Aw, fuck. That sort of finish means rematch, bollocks.
This wasn’t at all good. If the Briscoes want to get the fans at all into their matches, they need to stick to what they’re good at – huge, complicated double teams, and spend less time standing around telegraphing moves. It’s about time for Gen Next to drop the belts, but who’s around who could carry them? ROH has never had a healthy tag scene, and at the moment it’s quite glaring. On the way out, Mark Briscoe gets punked out by two fat lads in glasses. He looks confused and walks away without saying anything. Says it all, really.

Samoa Joe Vs Necro Butcher

Christ, I loves me the Necro Butcher. He wanders over the rail, climbs in the ring, and knocks Booby Cruise out with a punch, seemingly at random. Awesome. The dead crowd are reawakened by the ROH body nazi’s hatred for Necro’s untoned flesh and a paradoxical love for Samoa Joe and his need to kill. Joe is in full god of war mode here, a special charisma boils off the guy and you just KNOW someone will be getting badly hurt. That’s the joy of the Necro butcher as well, whatever else is going on, if he’s involved you know either he or his opponent will be suffering horribly. Necro knocks out the ROH ref. Joe turns and stares at Bryce Remsburg…Magic.
The match is what you want from Joe and Necro, a high octane, believable scrap between two guys who love to dish it out and take it. It doesn’t take long for the now lukewarm crowd to be heated up to nuclear levels by Joe’s pretty deep angry face work and Necro’s bizarre personality. Joe getting ringside fans to hold the Butchers arms for an Ole kick is a great idea; smarks love to be in the show…more of that later. It’s a fucking exciting and heated few minutes, but it’s not to be as first hero, and then Claudio run out and take out Joe with a Chairshot. The crowd aren’t happy at the bait and switch. We’re back on familiar ground as Whitmer and Pearce again reprise the brawl they’ve been perfecting up and down the country. This time Necro gets powerbombed headfirst through two set up chairs and Claudio takes a sick Piledriver on the floor. It’s not enough to save ROH, as once again the numbers eventually catch up and Pearce and Whitmer are about to get killed. Until Homicide’s music hit for one of the biggest pops of the night. They made a half effort at making it look like he might side with CZW, before he opened up on Hero for…an even bigger pop. Shit, this is going well. Team ROH rally to remove the Kings Of Wrestling, and we’re down to…

Homicide Vs Necro Butcher

Man, the fans aren’t upset at all about losing Joe/Necro. This is as much spectacle as great match, but man, what a spectacle. After some energetic brawling around ringside, the madness begins. Homicide throws the Butcher in the ring, and incites the fans to throw their chairs in after him. Holyfuckingshit. That’s a lot of chairs. The similar thing in the match with Cabana kind of sucked, but this looked amazing, The ring is literally covered in chairs, and Necro is hidden form view. The match amazingly carries on for another seven or so minutes, with the ring now a very dangerous place to be. We see a Piledriver, a Tiger driver on the mess of chairs, Necro gets Suplexed from the apron onto more chairs, Homicide splashes him through a table on the outside from the top and eventually wins with a lariat of all things. It just looked great, the visual, the clash of characters between Homicide and Necro, the huge amounts of heat (Although why, when watching something so passionate and hate filled, you would feel the need to chant “This Is Awesome” and do duelling chants is beyond me) and massive feeling that the war is only going to get better from here…all adds up to something special. How can ROH persist in booking great things like this and shite like Sydal/Daniels on the same card? It’s a mystery.

The show is worth getting for the main event craziness, but Yang/Rave, Nigel/Lethal and Danielson/Delirious are all great little matches as well.

Yes. Next?

Speaking about the rabid Daniels hate, surely you realise that he works a certain style of wrestling that is very popular with a section of ROH's fanbase? That's why he's booked so much. And why do you rag on him constantly for working a body part? It IS psychology. That's wrestling psychology 101. Isn't that better than simply hitting random move after random move?

Enjoyed your review LL, agree with a lot of the stuff, but I thought you underrated the Sydal/Daniels match, which wasn't that bad.



Well, yes, he seems to be over. But that doesn't make me enjoy his matches anymore.



Well, personally, I don't have a problem with the idea of him working a body part, it's just the reason he does it, and the way he does it. He seems to be working the back not to set up anything in particular, but to appeal to the 'smarter' fans. Plus, he is so emotionless and uninspiring while doing it that it just comes acorss as him going through the motions. It bores me to tears.

Good body part psychology is Jimmy Rave worker over the ribs of Sydal at Final Showdown, to set up for the Rave clash, and doing it with aggression and focus.



Depends on the situation.

What did you give The Parrot Sketch?

Lex Luger's style of wrestling was very popular with WCW's fanbase and I never liked him either.

Psychology is something that is used in wrestling matches to make people care about them. It is not the point of a wrestling match.