Official ROH Discussion Thread

[gadge]

Boiling Point - Edison, NJ - 7/11/09

 

First things first, as the main part of this DVD is just 2 hours 11 minutes, there's three bonus matches taken from those that didn't make the Double Feature II DVD. So...

 

The Hunt Begins - Montreal - 17/4/09

 

Delirious & Necro Butcher vs Kenny King & Rhett Titus - This is actually not bad, and got reasonable reactions from a crowd that were DEAD quiet for most of the stuff that did make the Double Feature II DVD. I'm guessing it didn't make the cut because of the finish - Rhett knocks Necro off the apron by hitting him in the back with a chair outside the referee's line of sight. Titus then gets in the ring and helps work over Delirious, only for Necro to cut a hip swivel short and BLAST him with a vicious chairshot to the head for a DQ at 11:10. Delirious counts a three and the crowd pops, but it's still cheap.

 

Tag Title Classic - Markham - 18/4/09

 

Jimmy Rave vs Brent Albright - Rave spends more than the first half of the 10:15 this match lasts continuously stalling, which is tiresome to the extreme. There's some good stuff in the last 60-90 seconds, but not enough to justify watching the rest. Albright wins with the Crowbar. Neither man are missed in ROH right now, I'd say.

 

Necro Butcher vs Chris Hero - This starts just after the opening bell, but I don't think we miss anything. This match highlights how much Hero looks better now in trunks than he did then in the full body gear. Also, the crowd are hot for Necro in particular, but after a good six and a half minute brawl there's another DQ finish after Necro uses a chair. You have to feel sorry for the Canadian crowds for getting that two nights in a row.

 

Boiling Point

 

Kenny Omega vs Sonjay Dutt - This was like something off WWE Superstars - ten minutes or so of reasonable action, but they're not going anything like full pelt, and Dutt had the Chavo Guerrero thing going, in that the crowd were quiet when he was in charge and he never looked like he was going to win. Croyt's Wrath wins it for Kenny who retains his Pick Six spot.

 

Joey Ryan and Erick Stevens vs Necro Butcher and Mark Briscoe - At the beginning of this one, the facials of Stevens really made it look like he was anticipating enjoying his turn to the dark side. Unfortunately for him, joining the Necro vs Embassy feud is an even bigger black hole than the one he was already in. Unfortunately for us, after a fair start this degenerates into little more than a clumsy brawl. Stevens and Necro just seem to get the crowd going with a heated exchange of fists when Claudio runs in for the DQ at 10:20. Poor Erick. The Embassy start to get a beatdown going, then Jay Briscoe runs in and we move onto our next Pick Six match...

 

Jay Briscoe vs Claudio Castagnoli - Better stuff here, but at just 6:45 they can cram their stuff in fairly easily to keep things pretty exciting. Hero and Prazak talk about how Jay is the better singles wrestler of the Briscoes, and he does actually live up to that here, but he still loses his #6 ranking and drops out of the Pick Six at the earliest possible time when Claudio takes advantage of the obligatory Prince Nana distraction and scores the pin with a jacknife cradle out of the UFO.

 

Kenny King vs Tyler Black- I don't know if this is Adam Pearce booking Cornette-style angles, or Cornette booking himself, but this goes to a DQ at just 1:20 thanks to the ringside interference of Austin Aries and Rhett Titus. They're just about to hit Tyler with a spike piledriver when Colt Cabana and Grizzly Redwood make the save, and Cornette comes out to make a six man tag, with the heels having to get in the ring to start the match "before a count of ten".

 

Tyler Black, Colt Cabana and Grizzly Redwood vs Austin Aries, Rhett Titus and Kenny King - Of course, after what we've just seen there's only one way for this to play out, and that's a traditional Southern-style tag. The faces naturally dominate early, then Grizzly gets targetted by the World champ and his allies, setting up a hot tag to Cabana who then also gets beat down for awhile setting up another hot tag to Tyler. It's not a bad effort, it's just kinda predictable. Compared to the similar 2-on-2 that main evented the TV taping the night before, the bulk of the match is probably better, but the final five minutes aren't as exciting here. The finish comes as Tyler blasts Aries with the Buckle Bomb/superkick combo, then Cabana locks in the Billy Goats Curse, and Aries taps at 15:19, which sets up Cabana vs Aries in (where else?) Chicago in December.

 

Bobby Dempsey vs Tony Kozina - Kozina sadly plays it much more straight here, failing to make much of an impression on Big, Bad Bobby before falling to his Death Valley Driver in 4:13. Slap the porpoise, you might say (if you're a bit mental).

 

Delirious vs Roderick Strong - Before this one starts, we get a graphic of the Pick Six Rankings as they stood at the beginning of the show, which tells us Strong is ranked #1 and Delirious #5. We're not told how the system works, or how it resulted in this match. I was actually dreading this a bit, as they showed basically no chemistry in the singles matches in their 2007 'feud'. Thankfully, this isn't bad at all, though the crowd doesn't have a clue who to cheer for and basically just claps politely as they chop each other silly, among other things. I thought Delirious might work subtle heel after biting a couple of times to gain respite from the chops, but he doesn't do anything else in that vein. The crowd start to become more responsive as they pick the pace up in the concluding stages, with Delirious coming up with some combos of his moves in a similar manner to Strong, and Strong busting out the Stronghold variation of the Boston Crab. In the end though, a simple small package out of nowhere gives Roderick the victory at 18:33 when Delirious was looking to put him away. Perhaps a bit long, and with Strong showing none of the character side he would need if he won the World title, but a decent effort overall.

 

After the match, we then get a run-down of the updated Pick Six standings. I like that. At this point, they look like this:

 

1. Roderick Strong

2. Tyler Black

3. Kenny Omega

4. Colt Cabana

5. Delirious

6. Claudio Castagnoli

 

There's no explanation as to how the qualifying six were ranked, but I guess the rankings accurately reflect what's coming up on future shows.

 

Kevin Steen & El Generico vs Davey Richards & Chris Hero - This feels weird after watching the edited versions of the TV shows showing Steen & Generico split. Stranger still is the booking of this match period - with Hero only in as cover for the injured Eddie Edwards - after the American Wolves already won the feud in the Ladder War. The other big problem with this one is that it's ten minutes longer than would be ideal, but with the show running pretty short, I guess they felt they needed a lengthy main event. So, while the match is reasonable, it's clear from the pedestrian first ten minutes that they are going long, and when they hit the sprint part of the match it's not at the same speed you'd expect from a 17-18 minute match. Multiple hot tags kind of take the steam out of things a bit, as well. Then, in the concluding part Generico seems to fall off the top randomly rather than hitting his big splash. The big stuff comes right at the end, with Generico hitting the obligatory turnbuckle brainbuster on Richards, then getting hit with the loaded elbow of Hero, but Generico isn't legal when Hero goes for the pin and Steen makes Hero tap out to the Sharpshooter at 27:53. Steen talks up a singles match with Hero in Toronto next week, while Generico is facing Nakajima. Oooh, tasty. And we're done...

 

Overall, there's two or three reasonable matches here, but as a spot show tacked onto two nights of TV tapings and with an out-of-date main event, Edison, NJ has never seemed more irrelevent to ROH, and the inclusion of the matches from Canada makes Boiling Point a DVD for completists only.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Good stuff as always. I have to say I'm finding ROH TV a bit of a chore to watch at the moment. Too many boring squash matches and mediocre main events I'm afraid. I'm guessing Pearce's philosphy is "we need to get TV back to the way it was in the 80's." The problem is you can't put the genie back in the bottle. Not only that, but what was the best wrestling show of the pre-90's era? Watt's UWF, which got rid of squash matches because in Watt's words, "I hated wathcing formula matches, particularly if I was going to have to sit and commentate on them." You reviewed episode 37, which for me is the best episode of ROH on HDNet to date - two blinding matches and a good in-ring segement. I recently watched episode 51, which had three squashes in a row!! Come on man.

 

Anyway, while I wait for the next batch of ROH to come in the post....

 

Evolve 2: Hero vs. Hidaka

[Wrestlingsnob]

40% off at the ROH.com this weekend if anyone is interested

[gadge]

Just ordered 3 DVDs in the buy 2, get 1 free they did leading into July 4th. Dammit. Thanks though. Anyway...

 

 

Aries vs Richards - Novi, MI - 13/11/09

 

Sad to see ROH forced to change venues in Detroit, as the travel along 8 Mile Road to and from the old venue is the scariest trip I've ever done as a wrestling fan and the whole show experience there is a fond memory of mine. Anyway...

 

The Briscoes vs The House of Truth - The main thing I realised in this one is that even at ROH level, most wrestlers are fairly distinctive, but I could walk past Josh Raymond and Christian Able in the street without recognising them even after seeing them probably a dozen times in ROH. Credit to them for a decent match here, with their double teams seeming much smoother and more impactful than a couple of months back. That said, The Briscoes still pick up an obvious victory with the Doomsday Device at 10:35.

 

Pick Six match: Tyler Black (2) vs Claudio Castagnoli (6) - More of a brawl than a technical match compared to what I was expecting, this is also decent but wrestled very much as a second match on the card. Prince Nana and Mr. Ernesto interject themselves a couple of times, but are made to pay in a cracking finishing sequence where Tyler ends up countering the UFO with a victory roll for the win at 11:53.

 

Joey Ryan and Erick Stevens vs The Super Smash Brothers - No entrance is shown for the SSB, so they appear jobbers from the outset even though they get 9:15 vs The Embassy here. Once again - and I'm even bored of saying this now - Joey Ryan is just dull, while Player Uno appears off his game in the faster sequences in the later part of the match. Erick Stevens, who does have his moments, takes Player Dos' face off with a lariat for the victory.

 

Pick Six match: Kenny Omega (3) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - Our boy Kenny sure takes a pasting in this one, but in what can only be a positive, holds his own against Nakajima as well when it comes to the offense and doesn't look outclassed here. This is a really good if not great match, sadly let down a bit by a couple of slightly awkward moments near the end including the finish. After three countered attempts earlier in the match, Omega hits Nakajima with Croyt's Wrath for the pin at 18:29, but Nakajima doesn't take the move well at all and as a result the finish falls a bit flat. Nakajima obviously isn't happy wth that, but after slapping Omega about a bit asks for a rematch then does shake his hand after the match.

 

Kenny King and Rhett Titus vs Colt Cabana and Delirious - A big chunk of comedy here, especially as Delirious and Cabana cut a pretty funny pre-match promo then dominate the opening minutes. Titus and King look good in their period of control during the second third, but the two Pick Sixers take the victory when King is nailed with Shadows Over Hell then taps to the Billy Goat's Curse at 11:10. Entertaining stuff to kick off the second half of the show.

 

Pick Six match: Roderick Strong (1) vs Chris Hero - Despite a couple of minutes of hold-for-hold at the beginning, this soon becomes the obvious battle of Strong's chops vs Hero's elbow strikes (in more ways than one, I guess). For the second time in as many DVDs, Strong's lack of personality kinda sticks out as he doesn't have anything to get the crowd behind him other than hitting Hero really hard with his chops. Hero is much more outward with his personality, even if he could still do more to keep his opponents alive when he's beating them down. I was a little disappointed that they could have perhaps gone up one more gear in this one, but it's still a reasonable match. Two shots with the loaded elbow pad keep Strong down for the pin at 15:30. Hero leaps to #1 in the Pick Six, with everyone else moving down a place.

 

Kevin Steen and El Generico vs The Young Bucks - The first two thirds or maybe even three quarters of this, bar the odd flurry, are methodical at best, if not slow. I don't know whether it's his weight, his dodgy knees, a combination of the two or long-term booking towards the split with Generico, but Steen seems particularly lethargic. There's not one but two spots where Generico accidentally blasts Steen in the middle part, but no sign of Steen getting upset by this yet. Right near the end there's a hot last couple of minutes, but overall these teams have had much better matches than this one in ROH. While Steen has Matt in the Sharpshooter, Generico scores the pin on Nick Jackson after the turnbuckle brainbuster at 19:28. Nice finish, at least, though for the second show in a row this seemed too long for Steen & Generico's act.

 

ROH World Title: Austin Aries vs Davey Richards - The third ROH match ever (by my count) to also become the title of the show it's on, this is certainly an epic - but not up to the standard of a Joe vs Punk II or Joe vs Kobashi. In it's favour, I'd say the time watching it went by pretty quickly and didn't feel anything like a chore, which could perhaps be said for the majority of the previous match on the card which didn't even get to 20 minutes. While Richards has had the hype (what there was of it coming out of ROH in 2009 anyway) for his string of recent matches, this match for me is a showcase of Austin Aries. A-Double is five months into his title reign at this point, and as much as his work was deserving, and the way he took the belt from Jerry Lynn made sense, as the first two-time ROH World Champion there hasn't been the sense that Aries is making waves for himself in wrestling like previous ROH champions.

 

Aries literally "sets the tone" for the match with his pre-match promo where he talks about the hype behind Richards, Richards attitude that "he doesn't believe in heel/face divide" (that is, he works face in his big singles matches even though the rest of his act - including his tag team championship team with Eddie Edwards - is heel) and that this will be a match where the best man - asshole or prick - wins. He then completely sets the pace in the early going, including a load of mock celebration and stalling that I bet translates directly into the draw with Tyler Black in NYC at Final Battle (damn knowing spoilers, and apologies to anyone who doesn't like me mentioning that, but it was relevent in my head when I watched this one).

 

As for Davey, well, he maintains his cool throughout Aries' shenanigans and sticks to his usual style of offense that has featured in his big matches with the likes of KENTA and Bryan Danielson earlier in the year. Aries again looks good in countering Davey's trademark stuff, so Davey comes up with a couple of interesting variations later on. For the most part though, he waits for his comeback moments as Aries controls the first half or so. I was a bit annoyed that after a long period of Aries working over Davey's leg, including a big spot where Davey misses the shooting star press and Aries capitalises, Davey suddenly goes into a comeback by running full pelt into that OTT dive where he ends up in the third row of the crowd. After that, the whole stretch of leg work is basically forgotten, with Davey moving around pretty much normally and Aries no longer targetting it either. Still, that dive then starts the match towards the gradual build to the home stretch, with the big offense from both men, one countout tease, and the crowd coming completely unglued.

 

The final touch in the Aries showcase comes at the finish, which also does a really good job of making Davey look good, as Aries needs to string together the Crucifix Bomb, kick to the face, the IED, a brainbuster, the Last Chancery, a second brainbuster, then he goes back to the Last Chancery for the referee stoppage victory at 44:35. Shane Hagadorn, who has actually developed a really good, understated role as ringside second for Richards' big matches, puts the finish over the top by immediately pointing out how Davey never gave up. Aries then takes a 'Best in the World' chant from the crowd as praise for himself, before putting over Davey for giving him the match of his life. It's certainly the best match of his title reign to this point.

 

The big question coming out of Aries vs Richards for me, is what does it take to recommend an ROH DVD in 2009? The main event here is really, really good, and you get plenty for your money. Nakajima vs Omega is a great little match for the most part, and Omega is certainly coming along nicely as one for the future. Most of the other matches are at least good. There, well, just isn't a vibe of essential storytelling that makes this whole event a must-see show, so overall I can only say there's plenty of good wrestling here so buy if the matches sound appealing to you. DVD runtime is a tightly edited 2 hours, 59 minutes with no bonus matches, which kinda takes me back to when ROH came on VHS and had to be edited into 3 hours. Maybe that's why I felt the need to compare this show so harshly to ROH's past...

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

It's interesting you bring up the divide between ROH shows past and present. Although I still enjoy watching the promotion, I can hardly think of a show from the post April 2008 period that I'd put in my top 20 shows of all time list. It's definitely a different product now from the 2002-07 one - unsurprisingly perhaps given that the booker changed. The other problem that Pearce has is that the indie talent pool has shrunk somewhat over the past few years, although ROH don't help themselves by not trying to add a couple more guys to roster. Hallowicked should have been given a better shake, lord knows what Chuck Taylor has to do to get a shot. To be fair the tag division is pretty solid, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Cutler Brothers or Osirian Portal get a chance. ROH in 2010 is somewhere in the midcard of its history - better than the dark days of late 2008/early 2009, but not looking like recapturing the glory days of 06/07

Edited July 11, 2010 by Dearly Devoted Dexter

[The Cum Doctor]

Death Before Dishonor looks like an absolute beauty of a top to bottom card, but for the life of me I cannot find the fucker. If it's anywhere as near as good as people have made out, it's probably one of the best ROH cards.

[gadge]

Presumably because it was an internet only PPV, you won't find it unless you order it or wait for the DVD to come out?

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

11 weeks worth of ROH TV for your delectation....

 

 

Taping 17

Edited September 7, 2010 by Dearly Devoted Dexter

[gadge]

Oh dear. Anyway..

 

The Omega Effect - Mississauga, Canada - 14/11/09

 

A new venue in Canada for ROH, I'm fairly sure this is the town ECW ran with big crowds back in the day. Suffice to say ROH doesn't draw in those numbers here, but the crowd is reasonably sized for ROH standards (but still less than they do when they run Toronto in the summer).

 

We start with a Kenny Omega promo shot after the previous night's show in Detroit. He doesn't have his usual wacky aura going, looking beat half to death, and at least partly doesn't make sense. Still, he gets his World Title shot at Austin Aries here, so we'll see how he does in the main event.

 

The Young Bucks vs The Flatliners - Canadian duo Burns and Asylum, aka The Flatliners, get a shot in ROH in our opener. They are physically quite thick set, with Asylum reminding me of Joe Legend. The Bucks still have them at sixes and sevens to start with their high flying, until Nick gets isolated for awhile. The Flatliners could use some more power moves to their offense to suit their look. The Bucks come back after Nick gets the hot tag at 7:30, and More Bang For Your Buck gets the job done at 9:41. A solid opener.

 

Claudio Castagnoli vs Colt Cabana vs Grizzly Redwood vs Delirious - In a pre-match promo, Castagnoli says he can win the Pick Six spots of Cabana (5) or Delirious (6) here by beating them, but there's no official indication of whether he actually can. In the actual match, everyone attempts to team up against him for basically the entire time and Claudio looks really good in throwing everyone around in response. There's shenanigans with Claudio's glove at the beginning, the odd comedy spot between Cabana, Redwood and Delirious as well, but it's mostly just action. It's Cabana who gets the duke in his last match before his title shot in Chicago, taking advantage of Claudio's UFO by tossing Claudio to the floor and pinning Delirious at 6:22. A short but effective Four Corner Survival.

 

Rhett Titus & Kenny King vs The Super Smash Bros - The SSB get their entrance on DVD this time, sadly the commentary track then breaks after a couple of minutes. Good job there's the commentary off option... A competitive tag team encounter, but even with their entrance making the cut, the SSB still fall to King and Titus after the springboard blockbuster at 9:33.

 

El Generico vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - This certainly could be an even better match than Omega vs Nakajima the night before, and could have been even better than it is, but unfortunately, this trip to the states seems cursed for Nakajima as he suffers an ankle injury doing a diving kneedrop off the top at about 12:45. He still kicks Generico with the injured foot more than once after that, but then pins Generico suddenly with a German suplex at 14:15. There had been nearfalls both ways from bigger moves before that, but the end was probably for the best as Generico then also has to be helped to the back as he seems knocked loopy. Yikes.

 

Pick 6 Series Match: Tyler Black (2) vs Roderick Strong (3) - This is the first singles encounter between these two as they try to discover who's the better man after the controversial finish to Survival of the Fittest. Wrestling another fan favourite helps Roderick here, as the momentum swinging one way then the other is a compelling enough story on its own in this one. This is reminiscent of Tyler vs Jerry Lynn earlier in the year as the action just keps building ang building and building, and in another similarity, the time limit expires at 20:00. Five more minutes and all that, but no, we're done, shake hands and get outta here.

 

Erick Stevens & Joey Ryan vs The Briscoes - A much better match than I expected here, with a hot pro-Briscoes crowd eating up a dominant performance from them in the early going. Jay then gets isolated but makes the hot tag before we even have five minutes on the clock, and it takes some time before the Embassy can then quell Mark's fire for awhile. The second hot tag comes before the ten minute mark, and there's some more evenly balanced action in the closing sequences, before the Embassy pull off a surprise win, Jay being rolled up by Joey Ryan at 12:31 after distractions from Prince Nana and Ernesto Osiris prevent the springboard doomsday device. Mr. Ernesto takes a post-match spike Jay Driller for his troubles. Ouch.

 

Pick 6 Series Match: Chris Hero (1) vs Kevin Steen - I don't know whether it's just the fact they're in Canada, but compared to current standards Steen seems a lot more motivated in this one. In fact, he enters as good a performance in a straight-up singles match as I can remember from him any time recently. The match is structured similarly to most recent Hero matches, with Hero controlling with his elbow strikes and flash kicks, and Steen absorbing most of them. It's no wonder the American Wolves took out Steen's knee, as his head is certainly not his weak point. Steen tries to force Hero to tap to the Sharpshooter like in the tag team match at Boliling Point with no luck, but instead gets the job done by pinfall when he counters the Death Blow into the Package Piledriver at 19:17. Steen surprisingly jumps to #1 in the Pick Six, and the Canadian crowd is very happy...

 

ROH World Title: Austin Aries vs Kenny Omega - A second straight long title defense for Aries here, but while the action here is good it never reaches the upper echelon. It's not that Aries and Kenny Omega have a problem with going long - they seem to have the wind for it. There's a couple of minor bits of miscommunication, but no real problems in the gelling of their ring styles. It just seems that they don't have a structure in mind to take a good, solid match twenty minute match and turn it into a great longer match. The goofiness of Omega's trademarks, the stop sign enzuigiri and the Hadouken, of which he likes to get variations into every single one of his matches, doesn't help things, and overall possibly devalues him as a serious ROH title contender. It's a shame, as Croyt's Wrath and the Dragon Suplex are good finishers, and when it comes down to it the final five minutes with the dramatic nearfalls are really good. Aries once again chains together a whole bunch of his trademark stuff for the finish, with Omega getting to kick out of the brainbuster on the way to a referee stoppage loss out of the Last Chancery at 34:55.

 

Another good card of action here, but the main event isn't in the same league as Aries vs Richards. DVD run time is 2 hours, 52 minutes. Bonus features include Bobby Dempsey and Sugarfoot in tag team action from the preshow (oh yeah!) and the November 24th VideoWire. I wonder when they started including the 'Wires from after the show on the DVD, instead of the one from before the show. Reverse the Curse is next on my ROH agenda, but I have a couple of other things to cover first...

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Apparently the May TV tapings were a vast improvement on March's, so fingers crossed. I should have the Pick Your Poison review up soon....

[gadge]

Dragon Gate: Open The Global Gate

 

2 DVDs featuring three cards of action from Dragon Gate's European Tour of October/November 2009. Well, two and a half cards...

 

Open The Spanish Gate - Barcelona, Spain - 30/10/09

 

Just three matches make the DVD from this show. The production isn't great, with picture quality a bit fuzzy and house lights used, but the actual camerawork is fine and it's great to have Lenny Leonard back on commentary after a couple of months of ROH without him...

 

The Young Bucks vs SHINGO and Dragon Kid - An all-action tag sprint to kick things off, this was pretty great. SHINGO and Kid are the crowd favourites, and though the Bucks have support as well, it still makes sense when they isolate Kid to set up the hot tag into closing stretch. More Bang For Your Buck doesn't quite get the job done, then SHINGO pins Nick at thirteen and a half minutes. A sweet start to proceedings.

 

Pac vs Mandrill vs Sean South vs El Generico - Add motion blur duing the faster sequences to the production issues in this one. This is elimination-style, as Spain's Mandrill and Irishman South do their best to keep up with Pac and Generico. Those two are as explosive as ever in the ring together, which takes me right back to the fondly remembered old days of IPW:UK in Orpington. South has a Sonic & Knuckles logo on the front of his ring gear, which is kinda cool, but a bit odd. Mandrill is the first eliminated, taking a combination of big moves from everyone ending in a standing corkscrew shooting star press from Pac. Oh well, he was the random skinny guy in the match anyway. South then takes refuge on the outside for the next part, giving us an extended period of Pac vs Generico until Pac eats a brainbuster and gets pinned. I wish I'd seen some of their PWG stuff, but I generally don't enjoy that promotion's DVDs. After a few minutes of good but not great action, South then pins Generico with a Jig 'n' Tonic for a predictable upset. This was watchable overall, but really just made me want to see Pac vs Generico some more.

 

Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino & BxB Hulk vs CIMA, Susumu Yokosuka & KAGETORA - World-1 vs Warriors-5 here in six man tag team action. This one has the usual smoothness you'd expect from a DG six-man, but the heat segment on Hulk is longer than usual and the mad final strectch shorter than usual. I'm not even going to attempt to cover much more - World-1 put KAGETORA away with a series of moves at 20:41.

 

Open The German Gate - Oberhausen, Germany - 31/10/09

 

This isn't the same venue, but the set-up is very similar here to PWG's show from Germany in 2006 (which is about as far as my German wrestling venue knowledge goes). That is to say, there's a fairly high angle hard cam really close to the ring, and the crowd are standing right at the edge of the ring, which is different at the very least. Happily for my timing geekiness, the wXw side of the production for this show includes showing the result with match time in a graphic at the end of each match. Yay!

 

The Young Bucks vs Mark Haskins and Tommy End - Another Bucks tag sprint to kick things off for the German fans, at an almost identical length. The match doesn't quite stand up in comparison to the Spanish match what with the non-DG opposition, but it is still very good. Tommy End is a pretty big, heavyweight guy I haven't seen much of, but he performs just fine here. I've seen plenty of Haskins as he's gone from FWA Academy graduate, to regular Premier Promotions wrestler and star of the Thrillers in IPW:UK, and he deservedly got into Dragon Gate off the back of this tour. More Bang For Your Buck does earn the Jacksons the victory this time around at 13:28.

 

KAGETORA vs Bad Bones - The shortest member of the Warriors-5 faction vs another wXw heavyweight, Bad Bones just dominates the entirety of this one in strong fashion, until falling to a flash pin from KAGETORA at 6:27. The crowd like that, I did too. Good, short but effective encounter.

 

Susumu Yokosuka vs Dragon Kid vs Masato Yoshino vs El Generico - Unlike the four-way in Spain, this is one fall to a finish. Having the ring literally surrounded by fans means that every four-man hold and triple submission spot you've ever seen is used here as they are mostly restricted to the confines of the squared circle. This is still a pretty engrossing match as there are various short-term alliances between the Warriors-5, Kamikaze and World-1 members, usually at the expense of either Generico or Dragon Kid, that then dissolve. Things do step up to the faster DG pace you might expect in the closing minutes, culminating in Yokosuka rolling through a Dragon Kid 'rana for the pin at 16:10. Top stuff.

 

CIMA vs Mike Quackenbush - Ah, grappling, how much I enjoy your company. All the intricate work you would expect and enjoy comes here, followed by increased pace, then increased impact. Top stuff. CIMA wins with flying double knees onto the downed Quackenbush (Meteora?) for the victory at 21:13 as the German fans in attendance go nuts.

 

Genki Horiguchi, Ryo Saito and Emil Sitoci vs BxB Hulk, Naruki Doi and Zack Sabre Jr - Let me just get this out of the way to start with: ZACK~~~!!! This is Real Hazard vs World-1 with just a taster of Sitoci vs Sabre Jr thrown in for good measure to make me want to investigate that some more. Having a proper set of heels like RH and Sitoci really takes this to another level, especially as the crowd treat them as such and don't just cheer them anyway. BxB Hulk is the man isolated for the big heat segment for the second night in a row, which pleases me that it wasn't Zack. Eventually it's World-1 who win out, with Zack taking out Saito and Sitoci with a dive, leaving Horiguchi isolated for Doi to hit Doi 555 followed by the Bakatare sliding kick for the pin at 17:39. My favourite match of the set to this point.

 

wXw World Heavyweight Championship: Absolute Andy vs SHINGO - Well, to a non-follower of wXw, this is a weird choice for a main event. This is methodically paced at best, with Andy (the champion) wrestling in a robotic fashion with no spark or flair. SHINGO tries and gets a good nearfall or two near the end, but this is a far cry from his two DGUSA matches to this point, or to compare to another match he had with the champion of another promotion, him vs Morishima in ROH in 2007. Andy gets the win with a badly applied Sharpshooter at 21:35 when SHINGO's arm falls to the canvas three times.

 

Germany got a good show from Dragon Gate for sure, but I really didn't like the main event and would recommend ignoring it. Disc One ends here at 2 hours, 46 minutes.

 

Dragon Gate UK Invasion - Oxford, England - 1/11/09

 

I was at this show live, and already have the Mark Sloan produced DVD version, which has better picture quality, different commentary, more footage of the ring entrances, three extra matches and other extras (and it doesn't work properly on PS3s). That said, I was more than eager to watch the show again here. Oh yes...

 

Genki Horiguchi and Ryo Saito vs Marty Scurll and Jonny Storm - A fun, fun, fun opener. Scurll torments Horiguchi early on by working over his hair, with hair-wringers and a kneedrop... to the hair. The Real Hazard duo once again rile up the crowd nicely, and Scurll and Storm are readily accepted as fan favourites even though Scurll is from Cambridge and the show is in Oxford. The transition from character-based work to all-action closing minutes is smooth, and the Brits 'look right' in there with Dragon Gate's most despicable. Saito pins Scurll after two low blows with an inside cradle at 16:02. Better than every undercard tag in ROH in seemingly forever.

 

KAGETORA vs Mark Haskins - Another convincing performance from Haskins here, even if he has to put up with us chanting "hobbit" at him on a regular basis. Good junior heavyweight action, with KAGETORA distracted by Haskins' unnamed valet (Kelly Adams?) then falling to a cradle tombstone piledriver at 11:17.

 

Dragon Kid vs Masato Yoshino - In comparison to their two encounters in DGUSA to this point, this is deliberately paced, with periods of selling after every big spot and nearfall and the top levels of pace strangely absent for the most part. Live, this was a strange match to watch due to the unexpected tempo, and while on DVD it's more engrossing, as there's nothing wrong with the actual wrestling, there's still the feeling that something is missing. They do hit most of the big moves, but Dragon Kid's most spectaular 'ranas are missing. Dragon Kid then picks up the win with a tight cradle to finish a sequence of roll-up reversals at 18:08. The crowd give both men a standing ovation, little knowing what awaits them in the next two matches...

 

SHINGO vs Susumu Yokosuka - The match so good, they're naming this year's Broxbourne show after the rematch! </hype> In reflection, I'm not sure I like this *quite* as much as SHINGO's match with Doi at the debut of DGUSA, or as much as the six man main event here (though that's a completely different beast). That said, this is still a great match, and the fact SHINGO wrestled here with severe flu is still amazing. After minutes and minutes of both guys just completely pounding each other, Yokosuka scores somewhat of an upset with Jumbo No Kachi! at 18:50. The crowd get on their feet for a standing ovation once again, and much quicker this time.

 

The Young Bucks and CIMA vs BxB Hulk, PAC and Naruki Doi - It's funny - after the live show my memory of this was kinda fuzzy (read: alcohol ruined my mind) - and when I watched it back on the Mark Sloan produced DVD, I was more or less blown away by it all over again. I didn't quite get that feeling this time, but it was still enough to make me feel all warm inside, due to a combination of nostalgia and the fact this is the best six-man of the weekend by a distance. CIMA and the Bucks work the match as heels to a lesser degree, with the crowd willing to boo the Americans and CIMA outsmarting Pac early on. The combination of character, and a much longer production finish than the other six-mans on the tour are what really push this one over the top for me. Matt Jackson takes a series of big hurty offense leading to Pac pinning him with a corkscrew shooting star press at 23:11, and it's standing ovation #3 from the crowd in Oxford. The post-match in-ring gathering is shown in full, as Pac promises the UK fans the return of Dragon Gate which, of course, we now know is happening in September in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

 

A fabulous main event to round out a great show. Disc 2 ends at 1 hour, 49 minutes. Buy this DVD set now (or the Mark Sloan produced one, if you don't rely on PS3s for DVD playback), and get yourself to the live shows if possible too.

Edited July 18, 2010 by gadge

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Pick Your Poison

[Tuna Taco]

I need to pick that show up, the next night's outing "Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies 2" is great especially Richards/Strong (their best match to date), Black/Hero and the Street Fight.

 

Supercard of Honor 5 is also strong, though I was a little disapointed with the main event.

Edited July 19, 2010 by Tuna Taco

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

I'm actually dreading watching KOW vs MCMG because of the finish. Apparently KOW were booked to go over, then a couple of days before the show TNA nixed it, but surely a 30 minute draw would have been better than a no-contest?

[Oliver]

I would say Austin Aries is too small for WWE. Recently WWE have put aside their limitations on wrestlers, as we have seen with Bryan Danielson and Low Ki, er, Kaval on NXT.