Official ROH Discussion Thread

[Big Benny HG]

ROH Survival of the Fittest 2009 (10 October 2009)

 

No, this isn't a competition run by FHM or Nuts, it's ROH's annual tournament which features 6 first-round singles matches, with the winners advancing to a 6-way elimination final. I think the winner may or may not guarantee themselves an ROH title shot too, but with title defences being handed out to just about everyone on the way round the ROH circuit, that is hardly a prestigious accomplishment. The first SotF was Austin Aries' breakthrough ROH performance, his epic battle with Bryan Danielson in the last two.

 

While I don't normally bother, since there is absolutely no point in doing so, I thought I would give the bonus match from the pre-show a try here, for some reason. On this occasion, it's Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Dempsey & Ricochet vs. Tommy Mercer & Aaron Scott & Shawn Schultz. There is no commentary or introductions for this. Luckily, I know everyone on the bayface team and, on the heel side, Tommy Mercer has "MERCER" written across his arse. He is also Crimson from TNA. I tell no lie, I knew who he was, but had to go look up his name before typing this. TNA: where nobody is anybody. Of Aaron Scott and Shawn Shultz, one of them has a really shit blonde undercut ponytail and the other is really, really, really trying to be Low-Ki. Like, to a ridiculous level. His moves, his mannerisms, his selling, his whole persona. Low-Ki. Anyway, Ricochet does some flips and flops before the heels take over. Heat on Ricochet. Blondie Shit Hair shouts - a lot - all throughout the match when he is in the ring. It is at this point that I notice the heels actually have an unnamed manager at ringside, doing a nerd gimmick. Bobby Dempsey is the fat fuck who won ROH fans over with his long-running storyline where he was the laughing stock in Larry Sweeney's group, only to finally get mad and get even...and then disappear back to the pre-show. Anyway, he receives the hot tag, clears house and blasts Blondie Shit Hair with a Death Valley Driver for the win in about 5 minutes. Hey, it's a pre-show...

 

The DVD starts proper with a recap video showing all the main important happenings from last night's 'Clash of the Contenders'. Needless to say, this was a very, very short package.

 

Show again begins with Executive Producer Jim Cornette coming out and delivering virtually the exact same speech as he did the night before. Same jokes and everything. Gets the same hot reception as he did down the road yesterday. House show. That out of the way, he then moves on to address the A-Double L-Double, basically calling bullshit. He also states that, as a result of Delirious' efforts last night, he has awarding him a bye into the 6-way finals of the evening's Survival of the Fittes tournament. WHAT?!? That would be the match that Delirious was handed directly by Cornette, and proceded to LOSE. Cleanly. Okay...

 

Before the tournament gets underway, the first bout is a tag attraction of House of Truth (Josh Raymond & Christian Able) vs. Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson). Since both teams are pretty new and unknown to ROH fans, HoT manager Truth Martini kicks off with a heel promo to establish them as the bad guys and give the audience a reason to give a shit about what they are going to see. Solid, standard tag team fare, with YBs hitting their flippy stuff early, HoT then controlling Nick, before a hot tag to Matt. Truth Martini ends up in the ring with his own boot in hand, but ends up whacking Raymond by mistake. To make matters worse, he then steps on his own unprotected foot and bails out, hobbling around. This guy rules. YBs hit More Bang For Your Buck to gain the victory. Decent enough.

 

Kevin Steen vs. Colt Cabana is the first SotF tournament bout. Match is all Cabana goofing around, but also based around Kevin Steen's bad knee (which caused him to lose last night). Steen goes for a senton from the top rope, but lands squarely back-first across Colt's knees. Cabana then scores an easy win. Not much of a match.

 

More SotF next, with Roderick Strong vs. Rhett Titus. Acceptable stuff, in the 8-9 minute range, but instantly forgettable. No-one thought Titus was ever going through. Strong hit a running/jumping kick, followed by a gutbuster, followed by a real nasty-looking Gibson Driver (underhook powerbomb, named after James 'Jamie Noble' Gibson) to advance.

 

SotF continued with Tyler Black vs. Kenny King, which Tyler predictably won in about 12-13 minutes with a superkick. Much like the last bout, this was decent enough but immediately forgotten. No man ever got any momentum going, since there were far too many quick back-and-forth changes in advantage to make any of it sink in or become meaningful.

 

Needless to say, Survival of the Fittest isn't setting the world alight so far. It did improve, however, as Claudio Castagnoli vs. Petey Williams was actually a good little match. Surprised me, since I've always thought that Petey has become this generation's Jerry Lynn, having the same match every single time out and relying on getting his same key spots in, in the same order. Castagnoli, accompanied by Mr Osiris, does this brilliant muscle-posing entrance in time to his classical music walk-out theme. The guy is a real star. Castagnoli vs. 'a littler flyer' usually yields good results, and this was no exception. Claudio was allowed to show off his strength by literally tossing and throwing Williams all around the ring in a series of impressive feats. "Mapleleaf Muscle" came back with his usual trademark spots, before CC hit the UFO (no-handed airplane spin into a jack-knife). Williams came back again but failed to complete his floatover Russian legsweep on the bigger, stronger opponent. So, in a cool spot, he broke Claudio down to his knees and then hit the move onto a kneeling Castagnoli. He went for the Destroyer, but Claudio grabbed referee Todd Sinclair to prevent it taking place. Williams suffered a low blow, followed by a European uppercut, and went down in defeat.

 

With Delirious inexplicably handed a bye to the final, the last 1st round bout was Chris Hero vs. Kenny Omeg. It should be noted at this stage that Hero was on commentary with Dave Prazak for this show but, as usual, fails to portray his character through the commentary in any way. For the rest of the show, Hero was replaced by some geek called 'Eric'. Technical wrestling between the pair early on, before Hero took over, slowly and methodically dissecting Omeg with well-timed strikes. Commentators mentioned that Hero won Survival of the Fittest last year. I have absolutely no recollection of that, despite seeing the show. Omeg made his usual wacky comeback, but Hero hit a rolling elbowfor the clean win in about 13 minutes. Like nearly all the first round bouts, it wasn't bad, but was nothing notable either. It just 'happened'.

 

In a break before the tournament final, the disc goes on to feature the weird tag team combination of Austin Aries & Davey Richards vs. The Briscoes. You see, this was originally advertised as Briscoes vs. tag champs American Wolves, but with Eddie Edwards out injured, lone Wolf Richards is now teaming with World champ Aries. It should be noted that both Richards and Aries have each had some great matches against the Briscoes with a variety of different partners in the past. Here, instead of those all-out action sprints of the past, the bout was more story-based. There was clear tension between Aries and Richards coming out, which was advanced by Aries in a pre-match promo. They were trying to sell it on Aries taking Richards as his tag partner to avoid having to face him in a singles title bout, keeping up the gimmick of Aries trying to avoid legitimate title threats. They tried to one-up each other throughout the heat on Jay Briscoe, before miscommunication between the two led to Mark hot-tagging in. It must be said that the crowd was absolutely dead for this, as they had been for most of the night. The signature moves of all 4 started coming out and the audience was awoken from their slumber by a kicking contest between Mark and Davey. More tension and arguments between Aries and Richards eventually led to Austin hitting his partner accidentally with the running corner dropkick, but not giving a shit and bailing on the match. On his way out, he was taken down by a Mark Briscoe dive, before skulking off. Back inside, Briscoes hit the Doomsday Device for the win. Match did a decent job of setting up Davey Richards as a potential future challenger for Aries' title and was a welcome change of direction from the usual Briscoes bout.

 

As is the tradition, the Survival of the Fittest finals main events the show in a 6-man elimination match, this year coming down to Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero vs. Colt Cabana vs. Tyler Black vs. Roderick Strong vs. Delirious. Hero, Strong and Delirious are all former SotF winners. Cabana and Lizard Man start things off with some British-style wrestling before it builds to a face-off between the former Kings of Wrestling, Hero and Castagnoli. The pair are reluctant to lock up (why? Although both are now heels again, Hero turned on Claudio and Claudio chased Hero and Larry Sweeney for months) but do get down and exchange technical-style on the mat, resulting in a stalemate. The two then blast out old Kings of Wrestling teamwork spots on their opponents, climaxing in the Giant Swing-Dropkick combination on Tyler Black. There are a series of simultaneous dives to the floor involving all, but then the match goes back in the ring and the pace slows back down again as if nothing happened, meaning the big dives were forgotten and left completely meaningless. Colt Cabana breaks out a brilliant 1 vs. 2 lucha libre technico sequence against Hero and Claudio, running them ragged, and pins Claudio after Hero's rolling elbow found the wrong target. Colt himself is pinned seconds later via a Delirious schoolboy. Delirious himself was then eliminated via a big boot from old blood rival Roderick Strong. In a repeat of last night, Black pinned Hero after the God's Last Gift, leaving Strong and Black to battle it out for the victory. A really hot, exciting finishing stretch which the fans were mega- into. Black hit GLG again, but only a brilliant desperately close 2 count. Strong fired back by hitting Black with a gutbuster from the top rope, dropping him across the top turnbuckle. Mental. Black fell out of the ring, but managed to beat the count. Strong scored a terrific near-fall of his own from his gutbuster/backbreaker/big boot combo, but Black rebounded with the buckle bomb and 3 consecutive superkicks. ONLY TWO. Crowd were losing it at this point, as Roderick fired himself up. Black hit a 4th superkick and went for the pin. Strong actually kicked out, but the referee still counted the three and the bell rang. Ah nuts, what the fuck happened there?!

 

Post match, SotF 2009 winner Black cuts a promo, trying to set the scene for a post-Danielson/McGuinness ROH, putting over the likes of himself, Strong, Aries, Richards etc as the new generation. He also tells Roddy that he owes him a rematch, and he slaps fans' hands as the screen fades to black (no pun intended).

 

Much like Clash of the Contenders, much of this show is worthless in terms of meaningful happenings and standout matches. Again, a house show, but one that was highlighted by a truly excellent closing 5-10 minutes of the 40min main event, but marred by that weird-ass finish. Again, like the previous night's show, there was nothing truly awful, but nothing worth going out of your way to catch either.

 

Next on my list is 'Boiling Point', from Edison, NJ...

Edited May 2, 2011 by Big Benny HG

[air_raid]

That was a terrible ending, to be fair. The crowd wanted to piss all over Tyler anyway, and that finish gave them yet MORE reason to piss all over him.

 

I'm stuck in a bit of a rut with ROH. I finished Final Battle 2009 and have the whole of 2010 just sat there, and I cant be bothered to watch it. Probably because Im rewatching 1997 Nitro, and it's better.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Well Rave only went to TNA after he got the boot from ROH; Homicide and Aries worked for both - and the latter chose ROH when TNA pulled them both; and McGuinness left to go to WWE but failed a medical. So it wasn't too hard to drive a coach and horses through your argument

[I Bent My Wookie]

My main argument to it was more about the leaving to become a star in TNA thing, he did a lot better in TNA than any of the names I mentioned (bar Daniels) and had mainstream exposure for 5 years, headed up the newer looking X Division after Joe and AJ went into the world title ranks and beat Ric Flair.

 

I just saw sarcasm in the leaving to become a star comment and figured I could drive a coach and horse through that too.

 

But personal opinion I guess, I'm just quite a big fan of his.

[Big Benny HG]

ROH Boiling Point (7 November 2009)

 

ROH returns to Edison, New Jersey, site of a few of their supposed 'bigger' shows over the years, but these days in a smaller venue for 'just another show'.

 

As is appears customary now, the disc starts with a recap of the last DVD, this time 'Survival of the Fittest', my thoughts on which you can read above. The key bits they picked out for the package were all about Tyler Black's victory and making him come across as the top contender for Austin Aries' World Title.

 

This is followed by a wacky backstage interview with Colt Cabana and Grizzly Redwood, ahead of their apparent tag team match against Aries and Rhett Titus later on. While Cabana speaks, Redwood is doing bicep curls using a block of wood...

 

Kicking off the show is Sonjay Dutt vs. Kenny Omeg in a Pick Six match. What the crap is that, then? Whatever it is, Omeg is apparently #3. The action is in full swing quickly as Dutt jumps Kenny before the bell.

 

While the match is underway, commentator Dave Prazak explains the Pick Six for those who aren't able to receive HDNet, in that Executive Producer Jim Cornette came up with it as a new way of establishing fair challengers for Aries' belt instead of the charade that was the A-Double L-Double. I think the jist is that six top contenders are in line for a title shot, but until they receive their chance they must defend their Pick Six spot against others. If you beat someone in the Pick Six, you take their spot. I think it is a bit like the old 'Contenders Ring' they had years and years ago. Sounds like a good idea to me, since it makes the challengers in title matches come across as having earned the shot (instead of the champ defending against seemingly the entire roster at random, as ROH have been guilty of for a while), while also giving all of those otherwsie meaningless mid-card singles matches a purpose and something to believe the wrestlers are actually fighting to win/retain.

 

Back to the match. Dutt tied Omeg's leg in the ropes, holding him in place for a lionsault. At some point, Kenny somehow ends up with a bloody nose. He fights through, however, and catches Dutt with the electric chair bridging German suplex for the win to retain his Pick Six position. A decent-enough 10 minute encounter, which built well, but never gained the fans' interest more than eliciting polite applause.

 

Another wacky backstage promo, this time from Prince Nana's heel Embassy stable, where they all look at each other and laugh like maniacal lunatics. Bizarre.

 

This leads straight into The Embassy (Erick Stevens & Joey Ryan) vs. Necro Butcher and Mark Briscoe. So, Erick Stevens has now turned heel and joined The Embassy. Prince Nana, accompanying his team, cuts a promo to the live crowd to explain and introduce his latest charge. Like the opener, this one was jump started and broke out in an all-out brawl. Commentator Prazak explains how Stevens turned on Necro by attacking him with a chain on HDNet. With control restored, the bout settled down into a regular tag match. Prazak goes on to explain that Mark Briscoe lost to his own brother/partner in the Pick Six on HDNet and, accordingly, Jay must now focus on his singles career, hence why Mark is now teaming with Necro. Why do I feel like I've missed out on a whole lot of pretty significant stuff? Mark hot tags in Necro, who hit a weak, over-choreographed-looking flip dive off the ring apron onto all the heels. All 4 then brawl all over the ringside area. Back inside, Stevens goes for his Choo Choo running splash in the corner, but is met by a straight Necro Butcher right hand. At this point, further Embassy member Claudio Castagnoli runs in and attacks, leading to an obvious disqualification. Saving the day is Jay Briscoe, and all of them get involved in a big-ass fight all over the place. Before the finish, the match wasn't all that much.

 

Referee Todd Sinclair suddenly rings the bell and it is announced that "This is now a one-fall singles match", Jay Briscoe vs. Claudio Castagnoli. We are also told that this is another Pick Six match. See what I mean? Gives just about every match on the card a reason to take place and a reason why it is actually important to win or lose. This match is mainly Castagnoli controlling Jay with his usual power- and strength-based offence and Jay having limited opportunity to get any offence in before being cut off. Prince Nana, still at ringside, interferes, allowing Claudio to set up the UFO spin for the win. With that, he supposedly takes Jay's Pick Six spot. I guess Jay's singles career is over already, then.

 

To the back, and the promo spot this time comes from Kenny King, who delivers an interview a lot more serious than usual from him. Real good delivery. This guy's going to be a top dog in this promotion in the future. He explains that, contrary to what everyone would have you know, this most certainly isn't Tyler Black's time to take the reigns in ROH. He says Tyler missed his chance. He compares his unit with champ Aries and Rhett Titus to famous heel stables of the past, stating that they would always back-up and protect the champion. As such, he promises to take out Tyler Black before he can get his shot at Aries' belt.

 

So, in another Pick Six bout, we have Tyler Black vs. Kenny King. This whole situation was entirely based around pointing towards Black vs. Aries. Indeed, Aries cuts a pre-match promo, reminding everyone about Tyler's recent neck surgery. Not two minutes into the bout, Aries and Rhett Titus jump in and attack; an instant DQ. The evil trio try giving Black a spike piledriver (we are reminded that this is what supposedly put Jerry Lynn out of ROH), but are prevented by Colt Cabana and Grizzly Redwood.

 

Jim Cornette comes out and turns it into an immediate 6-man tag team match of Tyler Black & Colt Cabana & Grizzly Redwood vs. Austin Aries & Rhett Titus & Kenny King. Did we not see this exact same DQ-finish-immediately-leading-into-impromtu-match-featuring-those-running-in earlier on in this same show?! Heels are threatened with the sack if they fail to comply. The bout is kickstarted with Tyler flip-diving onto all 3 opponents, and it's on. Cornette stays at ringside to observe and oversee procedings. Early, the faces make the heels look like follish goons. Redwood runs Titus and Aries into each other, even ending up with Aries giving a monkeyflip to Rhett. When they got on top, it was the heat on Grizzly, as you would expect. Hot tag to Colt, who then made a blind tag to Tyler, and the faces cleared out the ring. The main story of Austin Aries vs. Tyler Black got a lot of attention and focus, clearly being the point that the bout was built around. Austin Aries' character really is that of an 80s-style old school heel. He even broke out the old Midnight Express rocket launcher move. All six got a chance to hit their trademark stuff as it broke down toward the end, with Grizzly Redwood of all people given a good sequence where he was allowed to look strong against the World Champion for a while. Black took over and hit Aries with the 'buckle bomb-superkick combination, setting him up for the Billy Goat's Curse submission hold of Cabana. Austin tapped quickly, giving Colt a clean decision over the champion.

 

Post-match, Colt follows up his win by making a challenge to Aries for a title match on the December show in his hometown of Chicago. He promises Tyler the first shot after he wins. The match itself was loads of fun and very enjoyable. However, with all of the focus so clearly throughout the match being on Black vs. Aries, the Colt Cabana victory and subsequent challenge kind of made the Black scenario look secondary and not as important. Not how they should have been pushing their top program at all.

 

I do like what they are doing with Aries, however. They are making him come across as a 'weak' champion, who has only been able to retain his belt by using the interference of his buddies and through using gimmicks like the Lucky Lottery to avoid the genuine legitimate challengers. They are strongly giving you the sense that, when you take all those things away from Aries, he is very much beatable and will likely lose the belt. As such, you are paying to see him lose the title when he finally runs out of schemes and places to hide. There's two ways to draw money in wrestling: a) by people either paying to find out what will happen in a situation they are interested in, or b) by people paying to see something they believe is pretty much GUARANTEED to happen. With the Aries situation, from what I have seen so far, he is being booked very much at this point towards b), a guaranteed handover of the belt when he is finally locked into a fair fight.

 

Coming back from what I presume was the interval at the live show, the DVD continues with Bobby Dempsey vs. Tony Kozina. One of those pointless matches that usually screams interruption or run-in monster heel destruction job.....except that didn't happen and, yes, this bout that NO-ONE IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD could give a shit about was actually presented (and included on the DVD) as a serious bout. After several minutes of nonedescript action which the crowd couldn't care less about, Dempsey hit the Death Valley Driver for the win. Pointless in every possible way.

 

Before Delirious vs. Roderick Strong, we were shown a wacky video of Daizee Haze training her man to be ready for the bout. Cue a montage of Delirious taking chops from a whole load of (quite frankly, odd-looking) trainees in the ROH Wrestling Academy facility. I LOL'ed. They explained that Delirious was replacing the injured KENTA here. The bout itself was another Pick Six'er. Now, I'm not sure how this works, since the mentioned that both men were currently held a spot. How does this work, then? Wasn't explained what the consequences of the various outcomes was, and so I had no idea. Of course, these two did have a fierce and bloody rivalry in ROH a year or so previous, back in the days of the No Remorse Corps (including Delirious donning his red mask only reserved for bitter grudges). Now 'face vs. 'face, there was absolutely no hint of the past hostility between the pair, nor was it even mentioned in commentary. As such, this was more reminiscent of the dull all-babyface singles bout these two put on over here in the UK back at Indypendence Day 2008. So then, Strong and Delirious went back-and-forth, and back-and-forth. The audience was dead, and with no reason to be any more involved than that, their reactions were limited to that dreaded quiet 'polite applause' for certain movez. It was all very fair, very sporting, and pretty dull. Delirious locked in the Cobra Stretch, turned it into a suplex, then managed to hit Shadows Over Hell (splash from top across his opponent's back). Only 2. A follow-up Panic Attack sent Roddy down and out to the floor. Delirious went for another Shadows Over Hell from the top to the floor, but Strong got a boot up. Back inside, Strong hit a backbreaker and locked in the Stronghold. The advantage was traded a few more times, signalling the end was probably near. Delirious hit Chemical Imbalance II for a nearfall. He then went for the Bizarro Driver (just how many named signature spots can one guy have?!?), but was blocked. ANOTHER Cobra Stretch->suplex combination set up 3 consecutive Panic Attack runing knees, again for only 2. Strong then caught him in an immeidate inside cradle for the victory. More polite applause. Not a bad match by any means, but just one that, given the way they it was presented, I could not possibly ever have a reason to be interested in.

 

An on-screen graphic summarised the Pick Six standings after tonight's events. 1=Strong, 2=Black, 3=Omeg, 4=Cabana, 5=Delirious (who just lost a Pick Six match. Don't ask me) and 6 now=Claudio Castagnoli.

 

Main event on this show, as indicated by the DVD cover, is Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Davey Richards & Chris Hero. Prazak explains Hero steps in to team with Richards here while his regular partner Eddie Edwards is sidelined. So, that final, climatic, blow-off feud-ending last-ever Ladder War between American Wolves and Steen/Generico at 'Glory By Honor' settled that scenario... for 2 months.... Richards was left frustrated in the early exchanges with Generico, leading to them both tagging out to their bigger tag team partners. Early, much of the action was the babyfaces taking it in turns to work over the EAR of Richards. That's a new one. Heat on Steen, which was different (Generico is one of the best dramatic sellers and 'babyface in peril' performers in the entire world). Hot tag to Generico, who cleaned house, but was quickly cut off by a Chris Hero spinning elbow. So, another long heat spot, this time on the other guy. All of this was actually really good and pretty engaging. The second big hot tag of the match brought Steen in, and it broke down to all 4 in the ring. Generico with a flip-dive on Hero. Steen went up for a senton bomb from the top, but Richards got his knees up for Steen to land across. Does Steen ever actually hit that move anymore? It's like Kota Ibusho, who never, ever, ever hits his first moonsault... Hero and Richards had some good, innovative double-team moves based on combinations of their own individual signature moves. By the way, Hero's rolling elbow is now being called the Death Blow. Okay. Finish came when Davey went up for a shooting star press, but Generico cut him off and wasted him with a top-rope Brainbustaaa on the buckles. Big pop for that one. Hero snuck back into the ring with his suspicious Golden Elbow PadTM and blasted Generico with the Death Blow, but it turned out that the masked man was not the legal man. I'll take the referee's word for it - I'm not about to to rewind the DVD to check. Steen capitalises on Hero's miscalculation by locking in the sharpshooter for the tapout victory. Match was probably just short of 30 minutes, and was a really good and worthy main event.

 

Afterwards, Steen grabs the mic and explains that he hadn't been feeling the same since losing Ladder War 2 months ago, but that tonight "felt pretty damn good". He proceded to make a wanking joke about Eddie Edwards and plug his upcoming singles match with Hero in Toronto (Steen is Canadian).

 

With more story-based focus than "Clash of the Contenders" and "Survival of the Fittest", some decent build to a few upcoming matches as well as the Pick Six giving added meaning to otherwise worthless midcard singles matches, "Boiling Point" is a much more enjoyable effort than the previous two events. Having said that, you could still have skipped this event entirely and not missed out on anything whatsoever. Like I've said before: 'house show'.

 

It was always inevitable in the age of a national weekly TV show and building towards a few key 'big' events each year (Anniversary Show, Death Before Dishonor, Glory By Honor, Final Battle) that the top matches, title changes, key angles, significant happenings and important storyline advancements would be featured, showcased and restricted to those presentations. That's how it should be. What that does mean, however, is that the rest of ROH's touring schedule has been reduced to simply being 'house shows'. While you mght get some decent matches here and there, you know that nothing of any significance whatsoever will happen on these events and that, as stated above, you could easily skip the show and not be any worse off.

 

EDIT: Bonus match time!

Kyle O'Reilly & The Bravado Brothers vs. Gino Giovanni & Tony Nees & Tommaso Ciampa

From the pre-show. My first time seeing any of these guys, with the exception of O'Reilly. The Bravados are an old-school matching tag team. I have no idea who is who on the heel team, since there were no introductions and no commentary featured. Audience reacts with complete silence. Not even 'polite applause'. High spots, hot tags, nothing whatsoever. Although the match had to be rushed (clocking in at around 4 minutes), no-one stood out, looked impressive or showed any kind of personality or presence. O'Reilly got the win with 2 rolling chickenwing throws into a chickenwing facebuster on a skinny, greasy Guido-looking fuck. That wasn't a racial slur, by the way - he actually does look like a skinny, greasy Little Guido. Urgh - I shouldn't have bothered.

Edited May 4, 2011 by Big Benny HG

[Big Benny HG]

I should also point out that not all of my reviews will be as lengthy as these 3; I'm just getting across my thoughts/opinions on the promotion/characters/storylines as a whole in these initial ramblings and will naturally cut down as I go...

[gadge]

My plans to watch Fate of an Angel II have been delayed by the arrival of Dragon Gate UK Invasion: SHINGO vs Yokosuka 2 on Friday. In the mean time, here's results from the shows in Dearborn (Detroit area) and Toronto this weekend. Interestingly, no return dates were announced at the shows...

 

ROH Revolution: USA - 5/6/11 - Dearborn, MI results

 

1. Grudge Re-Match

"The Project" Tomasso Ciampa w/ The Embassy of Prince Nana, Princess Mia Yim, Barrister R.D. Evans and Ernesto Osiris over "The Notorious 187" Homicide

 

2. Challenge Match

Michael Elgin w/ Truth Martini over Andy "Right Leg" Ridge

 

3. Challenge Match

"The Prodigy" Mike Bennett w/ Brutal Bob over Grizzly Redwood

 

4. First Blood Tag Team Match

Jay & Mark Briscoe over The All-Night Express of "Pretty Boy Pitbull" Kenny King & Rhett Titus

 

5. The Bravados Brothers of Harlem & Lancelot over N8 Mattson & "Sik" Rik Matrix

 

6. Non-Title Grudge Match

ROH World Television Champion "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels w/ Truth Martini over Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana

 

7. Non-Title Tag Team Challenge Match

ROH World Tag Team Champions Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team of Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas over Kyle O'Reilly & Adam Cole

 

8. No Disqualification Match

Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini over El Generico

 

9. The Re-Match - Wolves v. Kings 2: Tag Team Challenge Match

The Kings of Wrestling: "That Young Knock Out Kid" Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli w/ Shane Hagadorn & Sara Del Rey over The American Wolves of ROH World Champion Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards

 

ROH Revolution: Canada - 5/7/11 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada results

 

 

1. Claudio Castagnoli pinned Kyle O'Reily via Ricola Bomb

 

2. Mike Bennett pinned Steve Corino with a piledriver. Corino hinted at a Steen return.

 

3. Six Man Scramble Match- Ciampa pinned Adam Cole via Rollup for the first fall. Rhett Titus pinned Andy Ridge with a neckbreaker for the second fall. Michael Elgin pins both Cole and Redwood after slamming both together for the third fall.

 

4. Davey Richards beat Kenny King with an ankle lock after a big botch on a top rope german. Said to be good. Davey left the ring immediately.

 

Bravados out for a promo. BIG heat. Put down Cole and O'Reily. CoReily come out and beat down Bravados.

 

5. Colt Cabana defeats Delirious with a flying elbow. Funny Match.

 

6. El Generico defeated Christopher Daniels with a Brainbuster. Match of the night so far. Elgin comes out but Corino neutralizes him. Generico and Corino stand off. Post match Elgin beats down Corino.

 

7. Wrestlings Greatest Tag Team over The Briscoes after ANX distract The Briscoes.

 

8. Eddie Edwards retains over Chris Hero after Hero passed out while in Achilles Lock. Match went about 40 minutes(Guessing). Hero is wearing purple and pink for Sweeney. Sara Del Rey and Shane Hagadorn ejected from ringside.

Edited May 8, 2011 by gadge

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

9th Anniversary Show

[air_raid]

I don't mind a bit of ROH, I really don't. I've got a decent number of the DVDs, I've got all of 2010 left to watch. But lord above, going on their board to read the results and generally whatever else news pops up can be a real chore sometimes because of the self-aggrandisizing bullshit that gets posted.

 

Some mong wrote this :

 

For the largest wrestling company of all time (and a 'global entertainment company') you have to laugh at the lack of stars in WWE. You realise that WWE has TWO bona-fide main-eventers left, Cena and Orton. If either of those two guys get injured what TRUE stars do they have left? CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio, Miz are and some others are stars but they are not true main-eventers like Orton and Cena yet, in terms of drawing power.

 

Now look at the supposed-minor leagues, ROH. If Eddie Edwards goes down you have Davey Richards. If Davey goes down you have Roderick. If Roddy goes down there's the Kings of Wrestling. If KoW are down there's WGTT. If they go down there's Christopher Daniels. Then there's still Homicide and the Briscoes. That's not including the young guys in ROH like Cole and O'Reilly who are not buried but a built as future stars.

 

One company takes in a net profit of millions each quarter, the other draws around 900 fans to most of its shows. One company constantly makes new stars and rolls with every blow, the other can't keep the best wrestler in the world over (or even give him a cool name). You tell me who the real minor leagues are?

 

That last paragraph made me throw up in my mouth a little.

 

Yeah, by their own standards WWE have had difficulty building new stars. But to even compare the two companies in the manner the bloke has is pathetic.

 

ROH is the minor league. That's not to say it doesnt produce a good product at times, but to even ask the question is pathetic.

[spotlightmagnet1]

Who said that? No offence to anyone in ROH as I still enjoy it, but there is still a world of difference between Davey Richards and say CM Punk or the Miz. ROH is a niche market within a niche market, WWE is still trying to make an impact on a worldwide level and please millions, ROH is pleasing people who habitually seek them out and may peek at say 2000 fans. I like that there growing (seemingly) but still, Apples and oranges.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Not sure if anyone picked up on this, but on one of his Twitter posts Silkin mentioned there were plans in motion for a return to the UK "soon"

[air_raid]

Not sure if anyone picked up on this, but on one of his Twitter posts Silkin mentioned there were plans in motion for a return to the UK "soon"

 

Cracking news if it comes to pass. Wonder who wil be helping with the organisation and promotion at this end?

[Dil|kid]

Not sure if anyone picked up on this, but on one of his Twitter posts Silkin mentioned there were plans in motion for a return to the UK "soon"

 

Cracking news if it comes to pass. Wonder who wil be helping with the organisation and promotion at this end?

 

Great news but wont believe it until I see it. Wonder if DVD sales have gone up, as it was always stated that low sales to UK was one of the reasons for not coming back over.

[Big Benny HG]

AVR - Aries vs. Richards (13 November 2009; Novi, MI)

 

No bonuses, no Video Wires, no prelim matches and no pre-show promos/interviews on this disc, it's straight underway immediately with Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. The House of Truth (Josh Raymond & Christian Able). HoT are, of course, accompanied by Truth Martini who, on this occasion, is modelling a rather spiffing yellow sports coat. What a trememdous man this is. Jugg Raymond is also sporting a new haircut. See, I notice these things. Anyways, this was an exact rematch of a bout held just a few shows ago in Collinsville, IL (Clash of the Contenders - see my earlier review) and this one plays out in a very similar fashion in terms of style, pace and direction. The corwd did not react to much as HoT worked over Jay, not buying into them as stars. Mark tags in and goes crazy with chops. Goes for 'Marking Out'/Cut-throat but Truth Martini interferes as usual. Briscoes go for springboard Doomsday Device on Truth, but he is saved at the last minute. Instead, they hit the move on Able for the win. At about 10 minutes, this was short, standard, basic stuff.

 

After a quick cut backstage to watch Kenny Omeg lacing up his boots, it is on to what is described as the first-time ever singles bout of Tyler Black vs. Claudio Castagnoli , not that I'm going to check, in the Pick Six series. Double-C has Prince Nana and Mr Ernesto Osiris with him, and Nana opens up with a typically awesome promo on the local fans. As well as the Pick Six spot, it is explained that there is $2,500 of HDNet's money on the line in each of the Pick Six bouts. Like I said last time, the Pick Six is a good idea to make otherwise time-filling mid card singles matches have increased interest, meaning and consequence, even on these smaller 'house shows'. Match features back-and-forth, frequent advantage changes until Claudio takes control with a mini-giant swing into the barrier...erm, oh, no, here comes Tyler back again. My mistake. It is only when Prince Nana eventually gets involved that Castagnoli finally gains somewhat of a sustained advantage. Black comes back with an assortment of various kicks. Claudio goes for the UFO (Unidentified Flying Opponent - the no-handed airplane spin bomb I described on a previous show) but Tyler spins out and reverses into a prawn hold for the win. A very decent 15 minute match. A level below what you would expect from a singles bout between these tow on an ROH 'big' show, but that is understandable.

 

Nana and Osiris are back out again for Joey Ryan and Erick Stevens vs. The Super Smash Brothers (Player Uno and PLayer Dos). The DVD version of this match starts with SSB already in the ring, with no entrance, instantly telling us they are typical squash match fodder. SSB are, in fact, cack. They look absolutely terrible, they display zero charisma or personality in what they do in the ring, they just keep on hitting teh movez. This match was very much like a squash bout on one of the TV tapings, except with a slow pace and not particularly interesting. I'm completely unconvinced by Erick Stevens as a heel, too in my second time seeing it. Smash Bros get the hot tag, and instantly start hitting more movez, not selling a damn thing. Stevens hits Dos with a lariat for the win and not a moment too soon. Nana dances in the ring afterwards, which was easily the highlight of this one.

 

Somewhat of an eagerly anticipated bout this set next, with Kenny Omeg vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima. This one is also in the Pick Six, so it has potential championship rankings ramifications and isn't just a pointless exhibition "because it will be a good match". Kenny comes out in PINK tights with the word DEATH written across the front. Indeed. The 'dream match' nature of this one seemingly sees more live fan interest and excitement in it than seen on the show so far. They trade both trikes and attitude early, getting rough with each other as they sort-of feeling out process, setting their mark and seeing what ech other is all about. Good intensity to this early, which is often lacking in this type of thing. Battle around ringside, with Nakajimi hitting a DDT on the steel ramp as the first major spot of the match. Inside, he works over Kenny's leg, meticulously picking him aprt. Very much a NJPW junior heavyweight style and pace of match. Omeg comes back with his usual high-flying wacky offence. They trade big moves, big strikes and near falls, with the fans crazy into it. Nakajima no-sells a dragon suplex, and then kicks out at '1' for another. More kicks. More near falls. Kenny hit a 3rd dragon suplex, followed by his electric chair-bridging-German suplex for the win. He didn't hit it crisply, so the finish came off as a bit anti-climatic. Still a very good match indeed. If you were to hand out snowflakes (which this type of showcase match seeks), it would sit very firmly in a strong ***1/2 region. Afterwards, Nakajima is upset at the loss and attacks Kenny, seeking a rematch. That was a welcome change to the usual appreciation-seeking respectful bullshit thatb tends to spoil this type of thing.

 

A wacky, wacky Colt Cabana and Delirious promo backstage.

 

Kicking off what I guess was the second half of the live show is Colt Cabana & Delirious vs. Rhett Titus & Kenny King. This should be fun. Titus and King's entrance is very, well, gay. Heels jump the faces to kickstart it, leading into all-in clothesline-based comedy. Sets the tone for what is presumable going to be a match of wackiness. Should be worth mentioning that the bout does reprise the Titus/Delirious feud which was responsible for establishing Titus as a regular personality and star on these shows. It does settle down into more regular tag fare... and is actually, for the majority, a lot more serious than you would expect/hope. As such, it becomes "just another match" in a promotion full of them. Colt gets the win with the Billy Goat's CUrse on Kenny King. Way to put over your regular tag team, losing to the two mismatched comedy singles wrestlers....

 

Pick Six is back now, with Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong. With Hero supposedly leaving Dave Prazack in the commentary booth for his match, he is replaced by 'Eric Santamaria'. What a name. Early hold-for-hold technical wrestling makes way for more "oo", "ahh" stiff-looking strikes. Settles into a pattern of Hero picking Roderick apart bit by bit, Roddy firing back with chops, before Hero cuts him off and it starts all over again. Repeat......repeat. Strong fights back, but his backbreaker-style offence is hampered by the bad leg that Hero has worked on. Not the brightest spark, you see, our Roderick. Bless him. Hero hits a double-strike with the loaded golden elbow pad for the win. With the victory, Hero takes the $2,500 and Strong's No. 1 ranking. A good, competitive match and, again, a step below what you would see on a "big" show.

 

Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson). Two teams that have a skill in creating a certain type of all-action tag team sprint. During the early exchanges, I wonder when the Jacksons will have to stop being called the "Young" Bucks. Middle-Aged Bucks? Hmm, maybe not. Crowd was quiet for this, mostly, apart from that 'polite applause' for moves, since there was no reason established for them to care who wins. No existing issue between the teams, and none developed/intensified as the match wore on. I know it may be overkill, but maybe ROH need some form of tag ranking league or system to give meaning to all these otherwise pointless tag bouts. WOuld be just another thing for fans to have to remember, though, I guess. Anyway, Steen has recently added the Stone Cold Stunner into his arsenal. Steen powerbombs Nick onto the ring apron. That looked like it hurt. Probably did. Fans did come alive for the genuinely convincing false-finishes at the end. YBs hit double-team stuff, but then Steen locks Matt in the Generic Canadian Leg Lock while Generico blasts Matt with the top-turnbuckle brainbuster for the win. Standard, as-you-would-expect stuff for the most part, which was quite exciting by the end. With no reason to care about it, though, I, erm, didn't.

 

Main event time, and the show's titular Austin Aries vs. Davey Richards for the ROH World CHampionship. A battle of champions (Richards is one half of the tag champs), a battle of heels, but the crowd treated Richards as the big babyface fan favourite here, and that is exactly how it was played throughout the match. It strikes me at this point that there is A LOT of time remaining on the DVD. This one's going long. While I was just saying how much I like the idea of the Pick Six and how it craeted genuine challengers, this match seemed to make a mockery of that whole process just a few shows in by the fact that Richards, here receiving a title shot, isn't actually even ranked in the Pick Six at all. The commentator do actually later explain this by stating that "Richards had already qualified for a title shot before the Pick Six was instigated". Actually, I do remember mention of the fact that Richards was carrying around a future shot. This one evoked memories of Resistance vs. No Remorse Corps, from ROH's hilariously failed attempt to recreate Dragon Gate. Early stuff was an exchange of holds, one man coming out on top, the other breaking/bailing, then repeating with the other getting the upper hand. A very deliberate pace to it all, again indicating it was going long. With that said, they kept it interesting at all times and it was never boring at any point. Kept the attention very well indeed. 10 minutes in, Davey's lip is bleeding after a run-in with the guardrail. Aries works over the leg of Richards, deliberately and methodically retaining control. Richards misses a shooting star press at around 25 minutes, with A-Double immediately back on the leg, including trapping the leg between the guardrails and hitting his running dropkick to it on the floor. Uses half-crabs, figure fours, ringpost figure fours, etc. Have to say, this match is the in-ring highlight of Aries 2nd title reign so far. While the early booking was designed to make him look like a cowardly, evasive champion, this actually goes against this. At about the 30 minute mark, Davey comes back with his ridiculously stupidly sectacular tope into the crowd. Some fucker's gonna die. Back inside, the fans are very much into his comeback, jumping to their feet as he hits combos of movez strung together. Davey with a release German suplex off the top. At this point, they were strongly teasing a title change with Davey hitting big moves and earning near falls and near taps. Aies hit a BIG BRAINBUSTER, his finisher, ON THE APRON, and went for the countout win, dumping Davey over the barrier and running back inside for the 20-count. Richards back inside at 19.75 for a fabulous false. With the length they had been going, the big moves, the near falls etc, this one here DID feel like a "big show" main event world title match. Felt like you were seeing something significant here on this "house show". Aries hit the brainbuster again inside, holding on into the Last Chancery submission hold, then repeating again and again until the referee jumped in for the stoppage. A fabulous 40+ minute effort, ****1/4.

 

While there was some filler on the undercard, Omeg/Nakajima, the other Pick Six bouts and the main event definitely made this a level above the standarad ROH smaller-show offerings these days.

 

"Tomorrow night's" show is The Omega Effect, from over the border near Toronto...

Edited May 18, 2011 by Big Benny HG

[gadge]

Fate of an Angel II - Mississauga, ON - 13/11/10

 

First things first, there's not much in the way of extra material on this DVD - 10 Questions with Steve Corino is the only bonus material, and there's just the one promo as the show goes along. The procession of matches begins with...

 

The House of Truth vs Bobby Dempsey & Grizzly Redwood - or Rewood, as it says on the on-screen graphic. Whoops. This starts out as a surprisingly effective opener by keeping things simple, the crowd particularly liking some basic big man exchanges between Dempsey and Michael Elgin. The problem is it goes 11:32, which is too long and the interest wanes way before the end. A big slam by Dempsey and a "TIMBER!" elbow drop off the top by Redwood are enough to keep Zack Gowen down for the three count, which is then also enough for Elgin to level Gowen with a post-match clothesline, ending his association with the House of Truth, presumably.

 

Andy "Right Leg" Ridge vs Mark Briscoe - Another beating for Ridge here, with Mark chopping his chest to ribbons, though giving Ridge a few hope spots in the second half before polishing him off with the cutthroat driver at 7:39. Ridge looked alright when he had the chance here.

 

Sara Del Rey vs Jamilia Craft - This is a lot like a women's version of the previous match, with Jamilia limited to rollups for the most part before being pinned with a piledriver at 4:22. Next...

 

El Generico & Colt Cabana vs The All Night Express - A future tag title shot is on the line in this one, for some reason. Cabana restricts his goofiness here, which always helps, while Generico is an angry, mean wrecking machine. The ANX play their part, but at this stage you're just waiting for the Steen run-in, and when it comes he's followed by half the jobber locker room so Generico can wipe everyone out with a big dive. That's the high point, the low point follows a minute or so later when the continued distraction allows the ANX to grab a roll-up victory at 15:26. No-one really goes over with that finish.

 

Kyle O'Reilly & Adam Cole vs The Bravado Brothers - The mixture of good and depressing continues here, the good being some splendid, crowd-pleasing offense from Cole and O'Reilly, the depressing being that the Bravados are booked as more or less their equals, and are subsequently booed for their comparatively weak-looking offense despite trying to play fan favourites. It's no wonder they came up with that heel video a couple of months later. Thankfully Cole and O'Reilly win with a combination of lungblowers at 8:46.

 

Jay Briscoe vs Homicide - This is billed as a grudge match, which allows for some perfectly fine ringside brawling during the first half of things. The rest is pretty dull, with a slow motion Eddie Guerrero tribute finish as the show was on the 5th anniversary of his death. Homicide hits the three amigos, slowly unties his boot, Jay recovers but then is bamboozled when Homicide's boot comes off and hit with an Ace Crusher and pinned at 16:59. Blah at best.

 

ROH World Tag Team Titles: The Kings of Wrestling vs Kevin Steen & Steve Corino - Just what the show doesn't need at this point is a bout between two heel teams. Oh. Steen does his best to make sure the challengers are booed with a long promo to set up the jobber squad to guard the entrance way in case Generico runs out. The Kings have a proportion of support from the crowd, as usual really, but don't embrace it here. As a result, the action level never gets above watchable, with highlights being the strikes and double teams of the Kings. Predictably, Generico tries to run in from the crowd on the opposite side of the arena, Steen tries to get to him and Corino is left to take a combination of elbows and uppercuts and get pinned at 19:04. Steen and Generico do get to brawl briefly in the crowd, and in a rare newsworthy moment for the show so far, Cary makes their Final Battle match a Fight Without Honor. Much like Generico and Cabana vs ANX earlier, this was okay but far, far from essential.

 

ROH World Title: Roderick Strong vs Christopher Daniels - Strong and Truth Martini get the only pre-taped promo of the show directly before this one. For some reason Strong still gets to talk, though. This is one of those matches where you can tell they are going long almost immediately by the deliberate pace. Sadly, they never ever get going. At the 20:00 mark, Daniels is trapped in a Boston crab having had his back worked over for a bit, and there isn't the slightest bit of heat for whether Daniels is going to tap or not. They're just wrestling steadily towards a conclusion with little dynamic between them - Strong kicks out of Angels Wings, so Daniels kicks out of the Gibson Driver, continue by numbers.

 

In the end, Strong counters the BME with boots, hits the Sick Kick, then, um, All The Landslides Birds Have Ever Seen for the pin at 35:20. This has to be about as bland a long ROH main event as I can remember, made even more annoying by Kevin Kelly saying at least three times in the second half how classic a title defense it is. This has to be the worst Kevin Kelly commentary performance of his ROH tenure as well, with at least one faux pas and a couple of stuttery moments, plus he keeps coming out with vaguely related factoids that badly cover for the lack of exciting action. I usually like his stuff, but he definitely excels when he has good action to call in the first place.

 

Overall - You have to feel for the Canadian crowd, they were up for the show but as a successor to the excellent Death Before Dishonor from earlier in the year, this was dreadful. A really dull event all around. DVD run time is 2 hours, 40 minutes.