Paid Members Dearly Devoted Dexter Posted May 25, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted May 25, 2011 In other words: EVOLVE's tag division is shit  Pretty much!! Any tag division where Up In Smoke is the top team is clearly struggling. I have to say I think SSB are really underrated - they've done some really good stuff in Chikara in 2010. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dil|kid Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Just watched Manhatten Mayhem 4, the first ROH show Ive watched in one sitting in some time and definately one of the best shows they've put out in a while. (I started watching Defy or Deny a few nights before but got too tired, will get round to watching it one day) Â The first three matches are decent enough, although Ciampa/Redwood went too long and didnt do Ciampa any favours. I like Bennett, I think he could be a very good heel in ROH. Â Briscoes/ANX is great fun, perfectly booked double turn, and as a huge Titus fan, Im one will be glad to see more ANX in the tag title picture. I think its been a few years since we've seen the Briscoes really heel it up and hopefully will freshen them up a bit. This fued has the potential to be as good as Briscoes/Steenerico from 2007. Â El Generico and TJP was short and entertaining which will do for me as this was a pretty insignificant match-up, but enjoyable never the less. Â LAX/KOW was great, especially as I didnt have much expectation going in. Hernandez impressed and I loved his little duel with Claudio, and the lauching of Homicide onto the Kings was spectacular. Crowd was really into this, which made the match even more exciting. Â Richards/Daniels was excellent, having the Pure rules definately help give the match an extra edge and I enjoyed this more than their match from last year. The botched SSP was a fail of epic proportions (there's missing and there's missing so badly that you hit the ropes!) but thankfully doesnt take away from the quality of the match. Â Strong/Edwards was fantastic and is my MOTY in ROH so far. I loved this and the crowd was into it too. The closest you could get to Joe/Aries from 2004 in terms of crowd reaction and definately the best executed title switch in ROH in a very long time. The match itself is brutal, typical Strong bout and Edwards does a cracking job and doesnt look out of place in the ROH main events. Â Definately the best show ROH have put out in 2011. The 9th anniversary show beats it for match quality but MM4 is so much more enjoyable mainly due to the two tag matches and the main event. Im actually looking fowards to watching the Atlanta shows, something I havent felt towards ROH shows in a while, Im excited to see Edwards as champ, as much as i like Strong his title run was a bit lacklustre. I also cant wait to see where the Briscoes/ANX fued goes either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted May 30, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted May 30, 2011 Man, I really can't wait to get to that show then rewatch the Atlanta shows. The trouble is I also want to polish off DGUSA from 2010, and I've been watching these that I thought merited inclusion here... Â Dragon Gate Invasion UK: SHINGO vs Yokosuka 2 - Broxbourne, Herts - 10/9/10 Â Some of my live thoughts on this caused some debate, I was still eager for the DVD though, and now it's here... Â IPW:UK Tag Team Championship - The All Stars defeat The Leaders in 16:50 to become the new IPW:UK Tag Team Champions - Well, there's a lot to comment on watching this one back, that's for sure. Broxbourne looks great, the venue is lit wonderfully. At the time, I was disappointed by this match. On DVD, I was pleasantly surprised - to start with. The early parts of the match are really good, especially the early singles exchanges between first Zack Sabre Jr and Mikey Whiplash, then Marty Scurll and Robbie Dynamite. The All Stars then start getting heat on Zack, both with their actions and words. Towards the end of the match though, they focus less on the characters and more on attempting Dragon Gate style sequences, which doesn't feel natural. The Leaders look to have the match won with See Ya L8R, but it gets broken up in a way that isn't caught very clearly on camera. Robbie Dynamite then destroys Marty with a brainbuster on the apron, whch gets a big "Oooh" from the crowd, but when they then hit a double team Zack for the title change, there's barely a reaction. It's a solid match overall, but it didn't achieve it's potential on the night. Still, the rematches in IPW:UK (and those were clearly in the planning) were satisfying... Â The DVD intro to the main show, with footage from last year then the line-up for this show, is TREMEMDOUS. Â Cyber Kong beat Joey Hayes in 8:19 - Having first watched the bonus match with footage from all three cameras, it was a bit of a shock to the system when, after we got footage of the entrances, there was only hard cam footage for the match itself. The reasons have been covered in depth, and you have to feel for the efforts of all those involved in the show when things like this happen. The match does what you'd expect really - Joey is good in his role, especially as it had to be tough to be in the underdog face position when the crowd was behind the DG star. I wish Joey made more southern excursions, actually. Â Mark Haskins beat Lion Kid in 16:30 - I wrote a lot about this back in September. The crowd reactions -while I never said they were a cauldron of hate or anything- aren't great. Plus, "put him in the bin" may have been topical at the time, but no joke is funny on the third, fourth or fifth time in one sixteen minute match. Ugh. As much as I liked the in-ring side of this one at the time, the DVD playback reinforces my thoughts it went a tad too long. The match is still pretty good though, building nicely with a good clean finish for Haskins. It just would have been better if it had been condensed a little. The ringside cameras come back into use for the last ten minutes of this one, which is nice. Â SHINGO beat Susumu Yokosuka in 21:18 - Man, the thought of a tie-breaker between these two is mouthwatering. I was meaning to watch the Oxford match again before this to refresh my memory, but off the top of my head the only things I can nitpick about this rematch are SHINGO getting his win back here feeling slightly inevitable, and Cyber Kong distracting Chris Roberts overshadowing the action here and there. Oh, and it appears that the final few seconds and post-match reaction to this are back to hard cam only. Bummer. A worthy sequel, if not quite at the level of the first... Â Naruki Doi defeated YAMATO in 19:36 - I'd completely forgotten how much I enjoyed this one in the time since the live show, and boy is this one right up my alley. It's different to SHINGO/Yokosuka too - the analogy that comes to mind is it's like Doi/Danielson compared to SHINGO/Richards at DGUSA Open The Untouchable Gate- more mat-based and less overkill on the brutality, but still building to a cracking Bakatare-Doi 555-Bakatare combo for the finish. A sweet match. Â Pac, BxB Hulk and Masato Yoshino defeated Masaaki Mochizuki, CIMA and Dragon Kid in 20:31 - Live, I thought this was my match of the night, and having watched it back a couple of times now... I have to stand by my assessment. I think I've seen more insane action from DG six-man matches, but the character work here is excellent, with it being a joy to cheer World-1 and Pac in particular to victory. Just great stuff all round. Â Overall - a cracking live event becomes a really good DVD of top-notch wrestling lovingly pieced back together by Mark Sloan and his crew. Props to Stew Allen for his solo commentary work too, which is knowledgable and enjoyable to listen to, and is laid over the action without compromising the crowd audio or blatantly sounding like a studio post-production as ROH often is. Main show DVD run time is 2 hours, 9 minutes, and you get the pre-show match on top of that... Â Dragon Gate Invasion: UK 2 - St Ives, Cambs - 11/9/10 Â Unlike the previous night, I didn't attend this one live so thoughts here are purely on the DVD version... Â Stixx vs Xtreme Dean - This one is the prelim bout from the main show, but as I featured the prelim bout from Broxbourne in that review it only felt right to include this here. Both guys have plenty of experience on the UK scene, and it's no surprise that they cook up a tremendous crowd warmer here. Aside from the dodgy entrance mask, Stixx winds the crowd up pretty well, and Deano is an ideal opponent. All Star for adults, you could almost call this. Xtreme Dean hits a One Man Spanish Fly for the popular victory at 12:31. Â Marty Scurll vs Cyber Kong - I love the billing for this match, "Charisma Machine vs Wrecking Machine". This is similar but different to the previous night's 'opener', mainly due to Marty. Whereas Joey Hayes played a solid underdog face, and I've seen him play other roles well elsewhere, with Marty he can be a fan favourite or a villain, but underneath that he's still Marty, always. Entertaining stuff ending in a powerbomb for the Cyber Kong victory at 10:18. Â Masato Yoshino vs Lion Kid - Perhaps a better use for Lion Kid here, as the crowd accept he's got no chance of beating the Open The Dream Gate Champion, but get behind him having a good showing against Yoshino. There's some good stuff in this one, but Yoshino never quite hits top gear in putting Kid away after hitting Torbellino then locking in Sol Naciente for the submission at 12:49. Decent. Â Susumu Yokosuka vs Masaaki Mochizuki - Understandably, the card picks up in a big way here. Susumu is definitely one of the stars of the two DG trips over here and reinforces it in this one. There's some cool variations on Mochizuki's early match outside the ring apots, and they build nicely into a cracking finishing stretch. Susumu puts Mochi away with the Mugen in 16:49. Â BxB Hulk & Naruki Doi vs YAMATO & SHINGO - Simply put, a belting tag match. Sometimes, Hulk doesn't quite seem on the level as some of the other DG guys, but there was none of that here. Some six weeks later, Doi seems to have recovered from the injury he was carrying at the DGUSA show in the July, and has some particularly good exchanges with SHINGO. It's Hulk who is seeking revenge on SHINGO after losing his hair, though, and he gets some measure of it here with the H Thunder at 21:28. Great stuff. Â CIMA & Dragon Kid vs PAC & Mark Haskins - Realising the bar is set ridiculously high after the previous match, they go for a different feel to this one, with the Warriors team being dicks in an extended beatdown of Haskins that the crowd gets into. The hot tag to Pac seemingly inevitably leads to another really good finishing sequence, with more focus on flying moves than the more hard hitting exchanges in the prior encounter. Dragon Kid is pinned by Pac for the second night in a row after a Haskins tombstone followed by the corkscrew SSP at 22:50. For the first time, Haskins then deals with the end of show speeches, while Pac and Dragon Kid continue to niggle at each other ahead of their upcoming Brave Gate title match, which is a really nice touch. Â Overall - while I would say the final three matches the previous night are perhaps a tiny bit better than the final three here, this is the more rounded show as a whole, and of course there's none of the unfortunate production issues either. There's no excuse not to go out and get both DVDs, but if you really had to pick just one, I'd probably recommend this one. Roll on tour 3... Â In the bonus section, the pre-show match is complemented by Mark Haskins providing insightful colour commentary on a six-man match he was involved in for DG Japan, plus Haskins also features again in the third bonus bout, this time vs Pac in singles competition from IPW:UK Sittingbourne Spectacular 2010. DVD run time is 2 hours, 5 minutes, plus the three matches in the extras add an extra 58 minutes for your money. Go get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dearly Devoted Dexter Posted May 31, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted May 31, 2011 DG :USA : Freedom Fight 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted June 8, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted June 8, 2011 (edited) The Omega Effect - 14 November 2009 Â ROH returns to the Toronto area with the second show in the weekend, following AVR - Aries vs. Richards I reviewed above. Â Without any opening promos, videos or backstage skits, the disc opens with The Young Bucks vs. The Flatliners. Never heard of The Flatliners before, but to me it sounded like the ring announcer tells us they are called "Asylum" and "Burt". Listening to the commentators as the match goes on, it turns out it is "Barnes", not "Burt". Like why does one guy get a really coolsounding gimmick name and the other guy has to be "Barnes"? One of the Flatliners also looks the spit of UK wrestler Cameron Kraze. The team does have matching gear, however, which is always a plus. The FLs do get in some offence, but they are mainly there for the YBs to show off all of their flashy stuff on. Now it sounds like the guy is actually called "Burns". FLs took control and fans responded with generic booing, like that's what they know they are supposed to do, but don't buy the FLs as beating the YBs any day. Or, they could be saying Boo-urns. My earlier point still stands. Bucks hit More Bang For Your Buck for the win. Basically a Young Bucks showcase, nothing more, nothing less. Â I must say again, Chris Hero on commentary is really, really annoying. He always calls spots before they actually happen and there is never any hint of his in-ring character. Really stupid. Â Four corner survival with Claudio Castagnoli vs. Colt Cabana vs. Delirious vs. Grizly Redwood is next up. Didn't I just see this exact bout on another recent DVD, with Ace Steel instead of Grizzly? House show. PLays out exactly the same way as that bout, openeing with some daftness (shenanigans involving Double-C's glove, then lots of size-related fun between Claudio and Grizzly) before settling down and each taking it in turns to do stuff. Claudio does the UFO on Delirious, but Colt THROWS Redwood at Castagnoli and steals the pin. Fun match. Â Super Smash Bros. vs. Kenny King and Rhett Titus. Blurgh, the audio track on my DVD spazzes out during this one. Fortunately, as I fiddle with my DVD settings, I realise that ROH DVDs now feature an alternative audio track without commentary. Like, if they are goijng to the trouble of including these features on the disc, why don't they mention it somewhere or let you know? Bizarre. Anyway, both teams did stuff. King and Titus win with a springboard doomsday blockbuster. This bout did nothing to change my opinion that the Super Smash Brothers are soulless goons who do teh movez. Â Commentary track returns to normal for El Generico vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima. Fuck me, this should be a good match. Nakajima is having none of that hanshake bullshit at the start, immediately adding an edge and a level of intensity to what could otherwsie end up a pointless exhibition. Indeed, this was an ultra-competitive bout which kept the fans' in a big way. Generico's selling of his opponent's kick-based offence was wonderful, really drawing you in to his plight. Like Nakajima was killing this poor fucker. These dudes then started killing EACH OTHER with back-and-forth crazy shit, all in the sole name of getting the win. Nakajima got the victory with a bridging German suplex. Excellent match, probably **** region. Â Tyler Black vs. Roderick Strong in a Pick Six Series bout. Also, a rematch from the 2009 Survival of the Fittest finals. That one was pretty damn good, until the fucked finish. Here, it was all slow mat-based exchanges early as they tried to figure each other out. Built well to bigger moves and came across as a hard-fought, competitive match with the $2,500 on the line. True, much of the early mat work meant nothing to the match other than demonstrating the increasing pace and intensity of the bout. Series of reversals, with Strong kicking out of God's Last Gift. Naturally, as these things must, Tyler then got to kick out of Strong's gutbuster-big boot combination... and then THE BELL RINGS. 20 minute time limit draw. They make a point of showing the actual timekeeper's stopwatch display showing 20:01, after the controversy which was the Black/McGuiness "hour draw" (also see Dave Mastiff vs. Takeshi Morishima in IPW:UK). Like SotF, this one built to a really good match. Both were reluctant to shake hands after, as if they know they aren't done with each other. Â More tag action next, with The Briscoes vs. Erick Stevens and Joey Ryan. A well-timed completed change of pace, as this one opens as a wild 4-man all-over brawl. Settles down into more standard tag stuff. Presumably, they are fighting over tag team rankings? Without over-doing it, they could do with something like the Pick Six-style format for the tag teams, giving them something to fight over that fans could recognise and understand why it matters and what the ramifications are of what they are seeing. Would be something else for people to have to remember, but could be as simple as a ranking. This one was now pretty much standrad tag team fare, with everything you'd expect. Briscoes go for springboard Doomsday Device, but Ernie Osiris (at ringside with his Embassy buddies) stops Mark Briscoe from ringside. Ryan grabs a handful of tights and rolls up Jay for the win. Briscoes get a measure of revenge by giving Osiris a spike Jay Driller afterwards. Â We go backstage and join a Kevin Steen promo, recalling him submitting Chris Hero in the tag match last week in Edison, NJ. Pretty good for the most part but, as Steen promos tend to, lost it by going all wacky, rambling on about STEALING EACH OTHER's LUNCH. I am not making this up. Â So, Kevin Steen vs. Chris Hero (w/ Shane Hagadorn) for Hero's Pick Six spot. What exactly is the former Sweet and Sour Inc., Hero, Richards, Edwards, Del Ray, Hagadorn stable supposed to be called now? Both go for their respective finishers right from the start - rolling elbow vs. Sharpshooter. What was noticeable about this one was Hero showing out, "heeling up" and interacting/engaging with the crowd more than usual for him and, surprise surprise, the fans were into what they were doing. In a rare event, Steen ACTUALLY HIT HIS SENTON(!), though admittedly from the apron to the floor. This was where Hagadorn got involved, and where I notice his awful, awful new haircut. Like a retarded Road Warrior Hawk. Just over 10 minutes in, Steen stays up for 2 rolling elbows and then reverses the Death Blow into the package piledriver for the win and the #1 slot in the Pick Six. And, presumably, $2,500. Yeah, I believe that one too.... Not really a good match. Didn't flow, didn't build - they just did stuff. I don't like babyface Steen singles matches. Â Main event time. As you might guess from the DVD title, it's an ROH World Title match with Austin Aries vs. Kenny Omega. Omeg gets the shot by virtue of being #4 in the Pick Six. With the show being in Canada and everything, they also pitch it as Canadian Omega fighting in front of "his" fans, in the same way they used to present those Steen title challenges. Aries starts with his usual heel promo, running down the audience, the local town and Canada. Omega dominates for a long time early. In a funny spot, Kenny holds Aries' arms to allow a little kid in the front row to get some punches in on the evil champ. Aries blocks a moonsault and goes to work. Vicious, methodical offence, much like the brilliant Aries vs. Richards match the night before. What was interesting was that Omeg was presented throughout as A-Double's equal and a credible threat, rather than a massive underdog or plucky young babyface hometown hero. Aries works on OMega's leg, which we see impact on Omega's ability to hit his signature moves in his comeback. The champ kicks out of a Super Blue Destiny (leg capture suplex, from top rope) and the electric chair German suplex. Yay/boo spot, then an Aries brainbuster for a 2-count. On nearly 30 minutes, A-Double hits another brainbuster, but this time holds on into the Last Chancery submission hold, leading to the referee jumping in for the stoppage as Omega goes out. Â Not as good as the Richards match the night before, but still really good and Omeg's best ROH showing to date. Aries comes out of the weekend looking very strong as champion, removing storyline doubts over the legitmacy of his reign (interference, avoidance, etc). Â BONUS MATCH TIME. What is it this time? Ah, the prelim bout of Alex Payne & Bobby Dempsey vs. Michael von Paton & Elton Page. Erm, no, don't think I'll bother, thanks...... Â All in all, a decent late-2009 offering from ROH. At a time when these "house shows" are coming across as unimportant, uneventful and insignificant compared to the TV and big showcase events, this weekend of "AVR - Aries vs. Richards" and "The Omega Effect" has produced some good stuff which you feel was worthwhile actually watching. That is satisfying.... Â Next up, as I approach the end of the year, is "Reverse the Curse" from Chicago in December, as Colt Cabana gets his last title shot against Austin Aries in a steel cage... Edited June 9, 2011 by Big Benny HG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dearly Devoted Dexter Posted June 9, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2011 Apparently it might be a while before you see young Kenneth back in ROH - apparently management weren't too impressed with him pulling out of FB '10 at the last minute, citing a dislocated ankle - only to wrestle a couple of weeks later for another promotion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted June 9, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2011 Reverse the Curse - 5 Dec 2009 (Chicago Ridge, IL) Â Remember when I praised those little recap videos they showed at the start of the DVDs, showing you anything significant that happened on the last one? Well, they've cut those. Even ROH admitting that nothing significant happens on these fucking shows. Instead, the DVD starts off with a SERIOUS Colt Cabana promo backstage with the pieces of the steel cage in which he will face Austin Aries for the title. He explains how the cage match came about and that he finally has Aries in a fair fight with no interference, no countounts and no run-aways. The title of the show, you see, is based around the fact Cabana has had various big matches and title shots in this, his hometown, but always comes up short. Â Alice Cooper's "No More Mr Nice Guy" plays and out comes Jim Cornette to greet the live crowd. Great entrance theme. Cuts the same promo as usual, about ROH being "real wrestling", fan-friendly and the alternative to all the corporate bullshit. I think he must be doing this same thing around the entire house show loop. Gets the standard enthusiastic good reaction from this loyal fanbase. Cornette goes on to promise us he was ensuring there would be absolutely no outside interference in tonight's main event title match. He then goes on to plug the upcoming Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries title match in New York ("Final Battle 2009", a week or so away), kinda telegraphing the result... Â Rasche Brown vs. Joey Ryan vs. Sami Callihan vs. Shane Hollister in a 4-corners affair opens things up. Typical ROH 4-way, all taking it in turns to do stuff. A dive train sequence ends in big Rasche Brown doing a huoooge jump. As this is going on, Ryan sneaks in and hits local boy Hollister with the Moustache Ride (contrived swinging neckbreaker from the ropes) for the win. Not much to this bout, not bad, it was what it was. Â Back to the Pick Six series next, with Kevin Steen vs. Claudio Castagnoli. First, a backstage interview from Steen, saying how beat up his knee is at the moment, and that his spot in the Pick Six (and impending title match that will eventually go with it) is all he has going for him at the moment. Better than the usual Steen babyface promos, really getting over his desperation. Of course, Castagnoli goes after his knee right from the bell with kicks and so-on, leading to a figure four. Steen comes back, limping heavily, but still hits a hilo dive over the ringpost to CC on the floor. Inside, Steen ACTUALLY HITS HIS SWANTON! YAY! Both end up trading signature spots, ending up in a half crab on Steen's bad leg. Double-C then manages to utilise a ONE ARMED/LEGGED GIANT SWING, then hooks on Steen's "own" sharpshooter for the submission win, taking Steen's Pick Six spot. The commentators make a point of questioning Steen's future in ROH, due to his injury setbacks. A down-in-th-dumps Steen tells us it might be one of the last times we see him for a while, and that he should take time out for surgery. Short, interesting match, which kept my attention due to the story surrounding Steen and how it played out in the bout. Â In a rematch from this year's "Survival of the Fittest", we are then presented with Young Bucks vs. House of Truth (Josh 'Jugg' Raymond & Christian Able). Like that bout, and every other one of their matches in ROH so far, HoT get in some offence and control, but ultimately they are just there to showcase their opponents. Sure enough, there is the hot tag and the Bucks started reeling off their highlight-reel offensive arsenal. WAIT, NO!! Manager Truth Martini stops More Bang For Your Buck, then a quick tights-assisted roll-up by Jugg on Nick Jackson leads to an upset win! Well, I wasn't expecting that; caught me. Maybe they are going to do something with the House of Truth after all.. Â Roderick Strong vs. Kenny Omega, Pick Six. Nice, gentle, polite exchanging of holds which elicits that damned "polite applause" from the audience since, well, how the hell else are they supposed to react? Strong starts chopping the bastard, but then it's back down to more friendly exchanging of holds. How very nice, very fair all of this was. Eventually they end up fighting on the apron, culminating in Omeg hitting Strong with a moonsault over the ropes to the floor. Applause. Silence. Omega started hitting headdrops inside, Strong then taking a turn to hit backbreakers and kicks. Roddy then caches Kenny with a running kick, gutbuster and Gibson Driver sequence for the win. Match was dull as fuck. Handshake and big hugs afterwards, while everybody claps about how fair it all was. Urgh, makes me feel sick. Absolutely no reason to care about anything in this bout. Even the supposed lure of the Pick Six spot/money didn't give it any intensity or determination. Bullshit. Even more so after Omega's great match with Aries on the last show. Â In a change of pace/style, Necro Butcher vs. Erick Stevens (w/Prince Nana and Ernie Osiris) starts off as a wild and uncontrolable brawl all over ringside. Already better than the last match since it looks like they want to hurt each other and, you know, WIN. Stevens hits a pomerbomb on the steel entrance ramp. Back inside, it's more of the same: choking, gauging, headbutting. Stevens takes over. Goes for the "Choo Choo", buinstead he now calls "Screw You". I LOL'ed. Necro stops it, though, with a big straight fist, then comes out swinging. Osiris passes Stevens a chair, from which Necro takes a big unprotected headshot. He NO SELLS this, instead coming back with a flurry of fists. Referee calls for the disqualification for the use of the chair, but they continue to fight until staff/refs/trainees come out to split them up. Stupid chairshot aside, this was much fun. Â Deva vu time, with Tyler Black vs. Kenny King once more time (rematched from "Survival of the Fittest 2009" and "Boiling Point"). Pick Six spot on the line, with the added story of King trying to take out Black ahead of the title match against his buddy Austin Aries at the next show. Tyler controls King for a good while, until King uses ref Todd Sinclair to hit a spinebuster (that sounds like a weird description, but it wasn't that wacky). KK takes over, working on Black on the floor using the posts, the barriers etc. This is where Tyler reversed, hitting a tornado DDT on the floor. Back inside, the pace quickens. Tyler hits an F5 over the ropes to the floor (which sounds ridiculous as a non-finish), followed up with a hilo dive. Inside again, King responds with a Northern Lights into the buckles, following up with a Royal Flush. Black kicks out, uses the buckle bomb-superkick combination, but this time King kicks out. A series of reversals ends up with Tyler hitting the God's Last Gift for the 3 count. A decent enough but otherwise unremarkable match, for which the crowd was dead. Â Just one more match before the main, with The Briscoes vs. The Dark City Fight Club (Jon Davis & Cory Chavis). Opens as a 4-man brawl in the ring. Like the last match, the babyfaces then completely controlled large portions of it, giving the crowd no reason to get involved beyond sitting and watching. Dave Prazack mentions in commentary how these two teams fought to a wild double-DQ on HDNet and how the Briscoes have earned a tag title shot against the American Wolves by beating El Generico and Kevin Steen.... on HDNet. Nothing like blatently reminding you that there is absolutely no fucking point watching these shows. DCFC land powerbomb/neckbreaker combo on Mark (their finisher) but Jay saves. Briscoes go for the Doomsday but it is broken up. Mark then uses a sunset flip on Chavis for the win. The end was presented and put over as an out-of-nowhere fluke victory and DCFC attack the Briscoes after the decision. Jay brings a chair into procedings and the Fight Club bail. Jay gets the mic and tells them "they aren't done", before calling them "a couple of pussies". A bit crap, really. Â Main event for the ROH World Title, inside a steel cage, Austin Aries vs. Colt Cabana. Actually an exact rematch of a cage match very early in Aries' first ROH title reign. My memory wants to tell me it was part of the "2nd Anniversary Celebration", but I can't be arsed to look it up to confirm. This one starts by being fought like a normal, regular non-cage match, which sounds strange but is exactly the point of the cage gimmick here: keeping it a fair wrestling match for Cabana's final shot, without outside factors or shenanigans allowed to get involved. Various "Coltisms" early, including an airplane spin. They briefly fight on the top rope as Aries tries to escape, but it goes back to the mat as they fight over a figure-four. A-Double then slowly starts to take over, working Cabana's leg and turning the cage environment to his advantage. Great storytelling, as babyface Cabana wants to use the cage to keep things fair while baddy Aries wants to use the cage as a weapon to gain the upper hand. They do a spot based on the finish of their first cage match back in 2004, but Cabana blocks Aries' dive towards the door/floor. Cage comes fully into play as the champion grates the face of his challenger across the metal. We have blood, adding to the drama. Various climbing/excape spots, leading to hitting big moves off the ropes/cage for nearfalls. Cabana locks in the Billy Goat's Curse for a near-submission. Traditional cage match by this point, with near escapes and saves. Cabana unleashes a fucking fantastic bloodied, vengeful, passionate babyface comeback, with everyone realising the sneaky heel was finally about to get what was coming to him. Aries ends up trapped between the ropes and the cage, allowing Cabana to fire up and hit the Flying Asshole buttbutt....which breaks though the cage....sending Aries to the floor....FOR THE WIN VIA "ESCAPE". The live audience absolutely hated that finish, but I suppose that was the point. The sneaky heel champion yet again manages to find a way to slither out with his belt when it seemed he was finally out of options and finally about to get his comeuppance. Jim Cornette comes out, apologises and offering Cabana the route of the Pick Six if he ever wants to be considered part of the title picture again. Â Backstage, Aries cuts a bloody promo as he turns his attention to Tyler Black at "Final Battle". Really good, dramatic and engrossing match that I enjoyed immensely. For the third ROH show in a row, a tremendous main event has saved an otherwsie average and pointless event. Not sure what they are doing with Aries, though. They spent ages building him up and presenting him as a sneaky champion who tried to avoid legitimate threats, who you KNEW would lose in a fair fight, leading to the previous weekend where he dispelled that somewhat and fought off two strong challengers in excellent long, epic main events, showing that he can get it done. Now, they seem to have gone back again to presenting him as the sneaky champ who gets by by the skin of his teeth and sheer damn luck. Weird, but it will be interesting to see how he comes over in the Tyler Black match next. Â BONUS TIME!! Prelim bout of Pelle Primeau & Grizzly Redwood vs. Alex Payne & Bobby Dempsey. PELLE PRIMEAU!! There's a trainee name from ROH's past. Not seen or heard from him in years. Had an underdog gimmick on ROH main shows on his previous run here. Anyway, this match was basic stuff, formulaic, but perfectly acceptable 6 min TV-style tag bout. Fuck, I forgot who won. Don't suppose it matters. Â Next up, I finally reach ROH's last show of 2009 as my catch-up continues. Finally, a show where there is a slight danger of something worthwhile or significant actually happening. WHile I've seen a few decent matches over the past few months' worth of shows, the events have really missed that feeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted June 9, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted June 9, 2011 (edited) EDIT: As Benny posted that review while I was editing mine. Aries/Cabana was Third Anniversary Celebration Night 1, in the RexPlex, Elizabeth, NJ. Â And, Regarding D-Triple's point: To be fair, Kenny is almost certainly better off with his priorities where they are, in Japan etc. Â Dragon Gate USA: Untouchable 2010 - Chicago, IL - 25/9/10 Â The previous year's Open the Untouchable Gate was a cracking effort, this year DGUSA again gets lucky and gets Bryan Danielson for their September events. Can they top last year? Let's see... Â Arik Cannon vs Kyle O'Reilly - This is the only actual match in the extras, and the pre-show main event, so I thought it'd be sensible if I watched this first. Cannon and O'Reilly knock up a solid, pretty hard hitting match, but.. well, they could have been wrestling in an empty room, really, as the crowd are irrelevent to their efforts. Cannon hits the big punch, twisting brainbuster then the Glimmering Warlock for the pin at 10:51. Â BxB Hulk vs Akira Tozawa vs Mike Quackenbush - I hate it when the match listing on the DVD case isn't the way things play out on the show itself. Anyway, we begin the show with BxB Hulk doing his dance (don't tell the UK fans who didn't get the dance two weeks earlier!), but then getting low blowed by his dancer and attacked by KAMIKAZE USA, and Tozawa in particular. Quack runs in and the match begins immediately. Unfortunately, no hate carries over into the match, they have a fun but weird three-way spotfest instead. It gets a bit messy towards the end too, until Hulk wins this non-title match by pinning Tozawa after the First Flash then the EVO at 11:26. Hulk cuts a post-match promo threatening to take down KAMIKAZE USA one-by-one. Â Before the next match, CIMA takes Ricochet as his tag partner in a not very good backstage segment also featuring Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano. This is where Gabe-booked stuff is really suffering at this point. Â Brodie Lee vs Da Soul Touchaz - Brodie squashes three guys in just 1:57. He's still intent on beating up a Japanese man later on, apparently... Â Dragon Kid vs SHINGO - I like the quick recap of the events that set up this Grudge match. The action is good in this one, but you never completely get the sense that Dragon Kid really wants revenge for the split of their team. SHINGO spends a good part of the match soaking up cheers, which doesn't help. Kid does put up a valiant battle against the larger man, kicking out of Stay Dream and Made In Japan, before falling to Last Falconry at 15:23. A good, albeit standard, match overall. Â Chicago Street Fight: Jimmy Jacobs vs Jon Moxley - In contrast to the previous bout, there's a good sense of hate here. Jacobs even revisits the Barbaric Beserker gimmick, and generally seems really fired up. A really decent fight ends in shenanigans, though, as YAMATO breaks up the End Time just as Jacobs looks to have Moxley out, and despite Brodie Lee running YAMATO off, Mox recovers and scores the pin after a barrage of chairshots at 13:27. A naff finish to an otherwise worthwhile encounter. Â Four-Way Freestyle: Chuck Taylor vs Drake Younger vs Johnny Gargano vs Rich Swann - Not a great match, this. You can see the beginnings of the Ronin faction here as Taylor and Gargano work together quite a lot, though Gargano turns on Chuck at one point. Overall, though, there's no sense that anyone is much of a star, and there's not much in the way of teh movez either. Chucky T pins Younger with the Awful Waffle at 10:26. Â Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi vs CIMA & Ricochet - A cracking tag match in the end, as Ricochet has his (well engineered) breakout performance here, taking a beating before scoring the pin on Doi(!) with the double rotation moonsault in 20:46. He probably takes too much of a beating, actually, as he somehow survived a Torbellino/Lighning Spiral from Yoshino and Doi 555/Bakatare kick from Doi as well. Still, the crowd go mental for the finish, and CIMA accepts Ricochet as a member of Warriors International afterwards. Â Bryan Danielson vs YAMATO - A great main event that, combined with the previous match, really pushes this show into need-to-see territory. It's a sign of how good it is that time just flew by when I watched it, and I could barely believe it when I noticed 20 minutes had elapsed. Credit to YAMATO for a really good performance filled with character, though the fact Lenny Leonard mentions Danielson is the WWE US Champion within the first minute of the match only highlights the fact YAMATO was never winning. Danielson even kicks out of Gallaria before forcing YAMATO to submit to the LeBell Lock at 23:24. Â Post-match, Jon Moxley runs in to beat down Danielson with some help from YAMATO, until BxB Hulk saves. Danielson then cuts an aggressive promo, promising to fight rather than wrestle Moxley the next night in Milwaukee, which really makes that seem a must-see match. Good work. Â Overall - I have to recommend this show in spite of some flaws. Some of the US talent are really suffering in direct comparison to their Japanese peers, though Ricochet got over massively in a spot that may not have worked. As already mentioned however, the top two matches make this a DVD well worth checking out. DVD run time is 2 hours, 21 minutes, plus the extras. Edited June 9, 2011 by gadge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cum Doctor Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 The next night's DG:USA show was damn fine viewing actually. Especially the last two matches, much like that release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dearly Devoted Dexter Posted June 10, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted June 10, 2011 Didn't see this posted anywhere, apparently Aries is done with DG:USA for a while  The weekend triple shot were the last events that Austin Aries will be a part of for a while. Aries finished up his current run with the company and will be taking some time off. There is no timeline for when he will return, and word is that Aries worked hard to "make" Johnny Gargano in NYC on the way out.  Source : 411 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobystag Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 So his whole retirement swerve and joining Blood Warriors is made redundant within months then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPC Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 In the last week i have watched Manhattan Mayhem IV and both Atlanta shows. Ring of Honor are putting together a string of great main shows. Final Battle 2010, Only The Strong Survive, 9th Anniversary, Manhattan Mayhem IV and both Atlanta shows are must have DVDs and i recommend them to anyone who wants to jump in and start watching ROH. Â The likes of Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, ANX and Michael Elgin are really upping their game this year and are brightening up the lower card matches. So instead of suffering through Grizzly Redwood, Andy Ridge, Bobby Dempsey etc, we are getting top quality undercard bouts. Â I even see potential in both Mike Bennett and Tommaso Ciampa. Bennett's chance to prove he fits in with the ROH style of wrestling is no doubt his match with Jay Lethal on the next iPPV and Ciampa could do with some high profile matches to raise his game. Â Also the Steve Corino angle has been brilliantly executed so far. Go watch those video wire's, they're superb storytelling. Â Looking forward to the Best in The World iPPV in two weeks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cum Doctor Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Bennett had a decent match with Steve Corino which I thought was impossible so the kid must have a bit of talent about him. Â The Best in the World show looks amazing on paper. I think we're gonna see a Davey Richards loss and then heel turn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dil|kid Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 (edited) The Embassy/Prince Nana have a new bodyguard Edited June 13, 2011 by joe mills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Dearly Devoted Dexter Posted June 13, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted June 13, 2011 Hmmm....I'm not against it, but for a show called "Best in the World 2" Jay Lethal and Rhyno as the bring-in talent isn't exactly making my mouth water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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