Official ROH Discussion Thread

[gadge]

I've done some catching up, and watched 'Destiny' and 'In Your Face'.

 

Destiny is ROH's return to Conneticut after having to move a show from that area when the venue that held 'Fate of an Angel' and 'This Means War' became unavailable for some reason, and is supposed to be loaded up as a result, though some of the undercard looks weird on paper. Adding to the oddness, there's no CZW prescence on the show at all, it's pure ROH.

 

There's two video recaps worth of DVD bonus covering the events of 'Ring of Homicide' and the main program starts with a particularly swish video on Homicide's repeated problems when he tries to win the World Title.

 

Davey Richards vs Jimmy Rave is the opening match and gets things underway very nicely indeed. Having seen the third of their matches first in Liverpool, going back to Richards' debut is a little strange. Rave does his usual heeling, which is a natural foil for getting over Davey's explosive striking and stuff, and things build nicely to Richards scoring the upset with a double underhook brainbuster. A promising start to the show.

 

A Top of the Class Trophy match between ROH wrestling school students Derrick Dempsey and Shane Hagadorn begins the undercard weirdness, I think it's basically here because Dempsey loses the trophy after a six month reign to Hagadorn, who isn't much of a wrestler but at least has some heel mannerisms going for him. Blah.

 

Sara Del Ray vs Daizee Haze is next. I'm no expert on the SHIMMER gals, but this is a pretty fun match. Del Ray is much larger than Daizee so uses power while the Haze heels it up Embassy style, and the wrestling is pretty good. Del Ray is apparently a student of Bryan Danielson, and after the match he comes out and puts her and the match over, and gets some hype in for his match with Homicide later. He also lobbies for ROH to never come back to Conneticut again, which is pretty funny.

 

This is where things get really weird, as a World Title shot is on the line in a Four Corner Survival with Adam Pearce vs Delirious vs Colt Cabana vs Jason Blade. Pearce has done nothing beyond brawl with the CZW invaders and get appointed Lieutenant Commissioner, Delirious has had two fun World title matches but lost both, Cabana was pinned in 6 minutes at the 100th show and has only worked openers since, and Jason Blade is a nobody, so the title shot stip is out of the blue.

 

The match itself is actually inoffensive though, especially as in 2006 these out of the blue four ways have often been a bit messy. Pearce and Cabana are portrayed as the main guys, and have some fun interaction with more seriousness near the end, Delirious does his usual routine and gets close at a couple of points near the end, and Jason Blade manages to not mess anything up, so his stock rises too. Cabana earns himself a title shot with a powerbomb into a folding press on Blade. Nice basic finish. Oh wait, the title shot's in Chicago? The pieces start to fall into place here.

 

Christopher Daniels vs BJ Whitmer leads into intermission. What was supposed to be a feud takes a bizarre turn as Daniels puts over Whitmer for his battles with CZW and Whitmer says that hating CZW has shown him he never hated Daniels and Allison Danger (who it should be added looks damned fine here). So, they instead have a competitive wrestling match. I'm scared to see what Lantern thinks of the whole turn of events.

 

Anyway, I liked the match. It plays up Whitmer's power and ability to take a beating too, Daniels does his thing without notably doing random bodypart stuff that I remember anyway, everything flows nicely but not too nicely and the crowd seems to like it. Whitmer kicks out of Angels Wings (putting him higher than Matt Sydal on the rankings as he kicks out of Daniels chosen finisher) and is pinned straight after with the BME. Funny how Whitmer gets hit in the head a lot and survives but gets pinned by moonsaults.

 

After an enraged Prince Nana and Jimmy Rave challenge Davey Richards to a rematch, Shingo Takagi vs Ricky Reyes is a disappointingly standard match. I haven't seen much of Takagi, so I'm blaming this on Reyes. He just doesn't do anything particularly exciting, in the end at least Takagi wins. I want to see more of the Dragon Gate-r, but I think most of this US mini-tour was FIP matches

 

Bryan Danielson vs Homicide

 

World Title match time, yay. I found the majority of the Best-of-5 series in 2005 pretty dull, thankfully this is much better, and the role reversal of having Danielson heel and Homicide face saves us any headaches like Homicide getting cheered when he's supposed to be heel (title match vs James Gibson and Spanky, I'm looking at you).

 

As well as the Best of 5, there was also a match between Danielson and Homicide back at Reborn: Stage Two, which until this was probably the best match between them. This match takes bits from that, some intensity from the best of five, and the World Title 'Destiny' scenario and makes a great encounter. This genuinely feels like a main event, where the title could perhaps change hands at any moment. Helping this, Samoa Joe comes out just as they're about to get introduced, and does guest ring announcing, then watches the match from ringside.

 

Unusually for a Danielson match, he isn't really the one who takes centre stage. Homicide's character drives the match. Can he fulfill his destiny? He has to restrain his wild side (he's been DQed in more than one Pure title match IIRC, which made everything feel meaningless), but from that puts in a fine babyface performance without losing his edge.

 

Of course, it would ruin things for Homicide to actually fulfill his destiny. So, after surviving the low blow/lariat that put him down at Reborn: Stage Two (which the COMMETATORS MISS. DAMN THEM.) Danielson wins with the elbows of death forcing a referee stoppage. Homicide is enraged afterwards, naturally, and goes after the referee. As a melee ensues, people fill the ring and as Joe tries to get in there, Danielson attacks Joe's bad knee and scarpers. Evil bastard. Homicide then 'walks out' on the company to chants of 'ECW', which is funny as that rumour went nowhere but created a stir at one point.

 

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong vs Jay and Mark Briscoe closes the show. After a mess of a match at 'Ring of Homicide', this is an improvement, but from live memory the Liverpool match will smoke it.

 

I guess they didn't want to close the show with the Homicide 'controversy' and in theory making this the main event teases the title change that much more. It doesn't work though, as the crowd are pretty flat for a lot of the match. There's quite a bit to the match before they hit the predictable bit where Aries gets double teamed to build to a hot tag Strong then the closing stretch, but without the crowd behind it it, who cares? Then the predictable bit is well executed, but the Briscoes don't manage to win the titles, so it all just feels a bit blah. I found the tag title match at the next show much more interesting, and the Liverpool match between these teams is better than this one, so I have nothing more to say.

 

So that was 'Destiny'. A better show than the some of it's parts would suggest, and I recommend the World Title match, but if things like the CZW feud are driving you to watch ROH, there's nothing for you here. Good ROH fare, if that sounds like your thing, I'd say give it a shot.

[gadge]

And now onto In Your Face after a slight break where I discovered that edgecrusher's reviews of these two shows are way back on pages 22 and 23 of the thread. Damn. Still, I can watch Throwdown later, then I'll only have Chi-Town Struggle as I haven't got Death Before Dishonor IV yet.

 

Jay and Mark Briscoe vs Jason Blade and Sterling Keenan

 

Ugh. I dislike Keenan. Maybe it's the way he's been booked really strongly for 1PW when he's not a name anyone cares about. Thankfully, this is a Briscoes squash, though it goes long enough for management to say they had a look at Keenan and he didn't show anything. I hope. The Briscoes look mean as they do their reckless looking stuff and pick up the win with the spike Jay Driller, which is fun to watch.

 

Quick clips of Ricky Reyes vs one half of Irish Airborne (which one? I don't care) show Chris Hero running in from the crowd and taking out Julius Smokes, presumably in retaliation for the conclusion of 'Ring of Homicide', and 'Cide comes out and promises to kill Hero if he sees him again. That'll be a setup for later then. On a DVD that doesn't go three hours, even with an FIP bonus match, this must have been pretty bad to get reduced to clips.

 

Davey Richards vs Jimmy Rave

 

The New Yorker Hotel becomes one of the stars of the show from here on, as the cramped ringside area makes for one hell of an atmosphere, and the flood of toilet roll for Rave (seriously much bigger than the one at Destiny) breaks some glass off an overhead chandelier, so by the end of the match both guys are bleeding from their backs. Nasty. This is shorter than the Destiny match, but works on much the same principle. Rave heels it up, Richards gets his explosive offense in as a foil to that, the pace is quicker so the fans get into it more, and this time Richards picks up a somewhat out of nowhere submission win, which immediately adds some variety to what could happen in his future matches, and has the added bonus of causing a huge "YOU TAPPED OUT!" chant.

 

ROH Tag Team Titles: Austin Aries and Rderick Strong vs Nigel McGuinness and Colt Cabana

 

Nigel and Colt have a funny backstage promo before this, pointing towards them teaming without the problem of Nigel wanting Colt to be serious that lead to their 2005 feud. They also get one of those jammed together entrance musics, making them seem more like a team.

 

We get some clips of previous singles matches between the participants, including Aries vs Colt in the Cage from well over a year before and Roderick vs Nigel at Glory By Honor IV. It's nice to show they've faced off before, and while it seems irrelevent on the surface, it sets the stage for a really even match between four equally good wrestlers.

 

I really enjoyed this. Unlike the Briscoes' recent title matches, this felt like it wasn't saddled with any expectations of being a five star spotfest or any of that nonsense, and as a result they get to work a much better match. Nigel is the only one to show any signs of playing heel, and that's just blocking Strong's chops at the very start and then blowing snot on him to draw some heat for a hot tag when him and Colt have Aries isolated later on. Beyond that, it's 'straight' tag wrestling all the way, almost like something out of NOAH early on with build up to the traditional ROH style molten finish. Quite the molten finish it is too, to the point I don't want to give too much away, though the result leads to a Glory By Honor IV rematch down the line if I remember rightly.

 

Very very good stuff. And there's more to come on this show too.

 

Jimmy Jacobs vs BJ Whitmer

 

This is a rematch from 'Dragon Gate Challenge' where these guys were building a fine match then had a spot of death where Jacobs almost got killed, hence the need for a rematch. Jacobs promo earlier on sets the stage quite brilliantly for those who don't know that backstory, and really pushes his in-love-with-Lacey character though I was suprised there wasn't a clip of the spot of death thrown in there too.

 

Jacobs' entrance is a sight to behold as the crowd have completely got used to the idea of waving their mobile phones to the Ballad of Lacey music. Whitmer comes out and Jacobs CHARGES at him, and it's ON. Unlike the Dragon Gate Challenge match, which still resembled a match most of the time, this one is much more hate filled, with ringside brawling at the start, BJ using his size to hurl Jimmy around, Jacobs going for BJ's often injured head and neck in an evil "I want to maim" kind of way, then the brawl goes INTO the squeezed in crowd, and they again go to the spot of death route, as Whitmer powerbombs Jacobs off the top rope INTO THE CROWD where things end with neither man able to continue. In between all that, BJ managed to kiss Lacey to send Jimmy into even more of a rage, and she freaks out at ringside including spitting at Green Lantern Fan in the front row. Quality stuff.

 

After an intermission promo from Davey Richards, complete with enormous purple lump on his eye, Shane Hagadorn vs Mitch Franklin sees the new Top of the Class Trophy holder Hagadorn make a successful first defense while the crowd get back to their seats, then we're off back to the good stuff...

 

Adam Pearce vs Claudio Castagnoli

 

Lieutenant Commissioner Pearce calls out turncoat Castagnoli, and I guess with his powers and Castagnoli in storyline still being under ROH contract, is able to make the match too. This is somewhere between a normal match and the CZW brawls of earlier shows, it's nice to have the proper structure of a match with good crowd heat too. I much prefer Claudio as a proper singles performer to being Chris Hero's lackey, so I like this for the most part. Claudio dishes out some lovely european uppercuts early on, but only in desperation at being battered before he'd even got his swanky excess entrance gear off. While Pearce dominates the brawling, that leads Claudio to go to the sneaky heel bag of tricks, which nicely encourages a big Pearce comeback, which the crowd gets right behind until Hero runs in again and clobbers him with the CZW title for the DQ.

 

Hero and Claudio stomp away and Hero grabs the mic, talking himself up for being on Homicide's turf and having no fear, then he mentions the upcoming Cage of Death and 'Cides music hits, and the crowd chants ''ring the bell'' then goes nuts when it actually happens...

 

Chris Hero vs Homicide

 

This is actually only Hero's second ROH singles match after the title match at 'Hell Freezes Over' that was supposed to be a one shot deal. This is much the better of the two. Anyway, as Pearce chases Claudio off, Homicide proceeds to destroy Hero around ringside for ages as the fans eat it up. The early stages are so one sided, it's even mentioned on commentary when Hero finally grabs a headlock and follows it an armdrag. Once again, things settle into a semblance of a match, which like say Super Dragon vs BJ Whitmer at 'Weekend of Champions night 2' and the Necro match at 'Ring of Homicide' makes it much more than just a random brawl, though there aren't much in the way of rules. The NYC crowd react to Hero resorting to wrestling by chanting "kill" though, so Homicide takes it to the floor once again. Hero finally manages to take control after a big boot, a move he throws pretty well and, unlike some of his technical nonsense, looks good because he has more size than the average indy wrestler and it looks like something he should be doing.

 

Hero then controls the majority of the in-ring action, working the crowd nicely and keeping things basic. 'Cide pops the already rabid crowd by shouting "Fuck You Cena" when he applies an STF, going for triple vertical suplexes ala Eddie and gets a great nearfall off a frogsplash, while Hero's closest moments to victory are after a powerbomb through a table and when he waffles Homicide with the CZW belt. In the end though, it's a devastating cutback lariat that earns 'Cide the win. Great match.

 

Post match shenanigans include Hero escaping the fate of Super Dragon in Ohio and avoiding being dumped on the street, and 'Cide cutting a promo that walks the fine line of appearing shoot-like just about right, as he promises to be the MVP of 2006 and win the World Title before the year concludes, or else he'll leave for elsewhere (presumably TNA though he's there anyway). Surely with ROH debuting in the Manhattan Center on September 16th, the follow up date there will be Final Battle 2006 and that storyline will conclude with a bang there.

 

Samoa Joe vs KENTA vs Bryan Danielson

 

This is like something out of a completely different promotion to the rest of the show. In the same building as the 'Best in the World' tag team match from March, this is like a direct follow-up to the storylines from that match, and is only really followed up in a select few positions in upcoming ROH shows.

 

This is also one of those matches where after the live reports and many varying reviews of the DVD I've already read, I didn't know quite what to expect, as on paper it could be great, from the live reports I know there were injuries suffered, and some of the DVD reviews have been pretty negative. Avoid at all costs, one post in this thread said, I think.

 

That's not a good idea at all.

 

Joe comes out first, and is definite crowd favourite. KENTA is next and gets a respectful reaction at first. Danielson gets mixed but mostly negative reaction, which is probably as it should be at this point. Like Danielson vs Homicide with Joe at ringside on the last show, there is a main event feel about things that even though the rest of the show has been excellent here, still makes this feel special.

 

First point of note is that KENTA still won't shake hands with Joe, and won't with Danielson here either. Joe and Danielson do shake hands, in spite of the fact Danielson got in a cheap shot on Joe's knee at 'Destiny' (which isn't forgotten, as we see later).

 

What we then get is billed at the end of the match as "stiffest three way ever". As if to highlight the point, there's some slow motion replays inserted at a few points, which are juddery but get the point across. Danielson plays dodge early on, then scores some european uppercuts on both men. I get a weird flashback to the very first ROH main event as the cocky one in the three way then takes brutal kicks from his two opponents. Dave Prazak on commentary mentions this is KENTA's first ever three way, which probably plays a factor in what happens soon after, as he does his rope jump into brushing his foot at Danielson, then walks into a slap from Joe which appears to KO him, putting KENTA in the realms of the mere mortals for the rest of the match.

 

This is where for some, Joe and Danielson working round KENTA's possible knockout supposedly ruins the match or something. When I watched it, I saw Joe and Danielson continue to go after each other as usual, KENTA still took a beating without blowing any of his spots, Joe sold his bad knee amazingly at one point when KENTA applied a Cloverleaf, Danielson got his prick heel persona over as usual, and the finishing moments with Joe elevating Danielson into a modified KENTA Go To Sleep, eating a busaiku (is that the spelling?) flying knee strike then KENTA pinning Danielson with a proper Go To Sleep were fabulous.

 

Much better than Danielson and Joe vs KENTA and Marufuji, which is the only thing really comparable, the pacing and length were spot on here, and the way all three men fought and set up the three possible singles matches in Joe vs Danielson, Danielson vs KENTA and KENTA vs Joe was exemplary. Not a match of the year, but if any of those singles matches end up as MOTYC, then this match could help a strong case for saying there was a feud (perhaps I mean rivalry) of the year there.

 

Post match, KENTA says he is home in NYC and issues a challenge for a championship match. Knowing the match is scheduled for the aforementioned Manhattan Center debut, I hope it goes ahead. Joe also issues his challenge.

 

The DVD then finishes with an FIP bonus match: Jay Fury and Jerelle Clark vs Chasyn Rance and Seth Delay. This is from the June 9th 2006 FIP show, which has actually been released on DVD the weekend I write this, so that's more up to date than usual from FIP. Commentary is a complete FIP hype festival, mainly for the Impact of Honor DVD (FIP June 10th 2006) which has Danielson vs Colt Cabana for the ROH World Title and Aries and Strong vs The Fast and The Furious (Fury and Clark), hence this choice of match.

 

The show comes across as something half way between when FIP started with crowds of 25 and when ROH started with crowds of 350-400. There might be 200 in attendance, and they're quite loud, though the camera doesn't show them much. The action is quite fast paced, though with the commentary hyping FIP in general it's hard to get into a match where 3 of the 4 are probably best known as jobbers on TNA iMPACT. It comes across as fairly entertaining on the surface, but means little in the long run. On a par with the Briscoes match that opened the ROH show, maybe a little better.

 

ROH In Your Face bottom line - four very worthwhile matches. Get it now.

[gadge]

Gabe's got the hype machine going again over on the ROH forums...

"Glory By Honor V Weekend" is about to get even bigger. We will have a special announcement for the 9/16 debut at the Manhattan Center in NYC on Monday. This event looks like it will be a sellout. We urge you to get your tickets now at ROHwrestling.com or by calling 215-781-2500. Here is the updated card:ROH World Title MatchBryan Danielson defends vs. KENTAThe Legendary BRUNO SAMMARTINO will make his return to Midtown Manhattan and he will be available to meetROH World Tag Team Title MatchAustin Austin Aries & Roderick Strong defend vs. Chris Hero & Claudio CastagnoliTag Team Grudge MatchSamoa Joe & NYC's Homicide vs. Jay & Mark BriscoeROH Commissioner Jim Cornette Will Be In AttendenceSpecial Attraction MatchNigel McGuinness vs. new GHC Heavyweight Champion Naomichi MarufujiSpecial Challenge MatchJack Evans vs. Davey RichardsNOAH's Morishima, Sugiura & Yone will be available for autographsPlus more with Christopher Daniels with Allison Danger, Colt Cabana, Jimmy Jacobs with Lacey, Adam Pearce, Delirious, Prince Nana and others!!!Tickets are almost gone so act now at ROHwrestling.com or by calling 215-781-2500 to be there when ROH goes big time at the Manhattan Center.As an added bonus, we will have a new song and promo from Jimmy Jacobs with some shocking news about Lacey early this week at ROHvideos.com.We can now give you a lot of hype. We can write cliche things that you have read before like the "atmosphere will be electric" or "history will be made." We aren't going to do that for this show. It doesn't need it. You will want to be able to say that you were there live for this one. ROH is going to draw over 1000 people in Midtown Manhattan. This will be remembered. We hope to see you in the Grand Ballroom of the Manhattan Center this Saturday.

Review of 'Throwdown' upcoming today or tomorrow...

[gadge]

I think I killed this thread. Anyway, the announcement was Marufuji defending his newly won GHC Title ahainst Nigel this saturday in NYC. Gabe says thanks everyone for making it possible...

As you know ROH is being given an incredible match this Saturday when new GHC Heavyweight Champion Naomichi Marufuji makes his first title defense at the Manhattan Center on 9/16 against Nigel McGuinness. This match is happening for one reason and it is because of all of you.Obviously the NOAH/ROH relationship is extremely strong. This relationship has grown since ROH was first able to host NOAH talent at "Joe vs. Kobashi" last October. NOAH is even pushing the ROH name in Japan. Why? Because of the atmosphere you create at the live ROH events.NOAH wanted its most prestigious belt to be defended in that atmosphere. They have given us Marufuji's first defense. This is a match that could main event the biggest shows in Japan and instead NOAH has given it to ROH.They did this only for one reason. They know that the ROH fans will create that incredible atmosphere that is worthy of the GHC Heavyweight Title.Thank you for keeping that atmosphere strong. We know it will be stronger than ever when ROH debuts at The Manhattan Center. Marufuji is bringing the intensity that only comes with a GHC Heavyweight Title match. McGuinness is looking to build on the momentum of his incredible Danielson series and Pure Title reign. They'll be waiting for the result from NYC to Tokyo. Thank you for making this all possible.

[alexander]

Aww, bless. He sure knows how to work his target audience.Man, have you seen the new Jimmy Jacobs video? Edgecrusher has got to be pissed at the prospect of the Jacobs/Cabana feud...

[gadge]

Some quick (very quick by my standards) thoughts on ROH Throwdown

 

The show opens with a Shane Hagadorn promo of all things. The Top of the Class Trophy holder gets to pick a tag team partner tonight, but the rest of the ROH students aren't good enough for him. We go straight into the match in question...

 

Shane Hagadorn and Keith Walker vs Irish Airborne

 

I didn't recognise Walker until the commentators mention Pro Wrestling NOAH, I *think* I recognise him as one of their random undercard gaijin. Elevated into non-student competition, Hagadorn shows off his heel mannerisms but doesn't offer anything much in the ring and loses the fall too. The Detroit crowd are hot for Irish Airborne, and rabid for much of the rest of the show, which makes an average looking card come across much better than I expected...

 

Pure Title match: Nigel McGuinness vs Conrad Kennedy III

 

CK3 gets the title shot by signing a Detroit area open contract ala Chris Sabin challenging Bryan Danielson for the World Title at 'Showdown in Motown'. Having just a couple of undercard ROH matches under his belt at this point, this gives him a chance to prove himself, and while Nigel gets the victory it's a reasonably good match. By this point in my DVD watching though, I'm dying to see the rest of Nigel's series with Danielson and this obviously wasn't up to those.

 

Jay and Mark Briscoe vs Colt Cabana and Ace Steel

 

The Briscoes vs The Second City Saints is sooo 2004. That said, the Briscoes need some regular victories under their belts to justify the third title shot they get in the Liverpool. This is a decidedly average midcard tag match, though the concluding bits are decent, and Ace Steel pays for a botch by eating a Jay Driller AND a spike Jay Driller for the finish. Ouch. Next...

 

Jimmy Rave vs Samoa Joe vs Delirious vs Davey Richards

 

I liked this a lot. There's been some dodgy four ways in ROH this year, but this one was lots of fun. The main theme is Jimmy Rave trying to get revenge on Davey Richards, and failing miserably. Rave can't get revenge on Richards until he's weakened, and when he does get weakened (mainly in some very hard hitting exchanges with Joe which the crowd ate up), Joe gets pissed off at Rave taking shortcuts. Delirious meanwhile does his usual stuff, except when Joe is in and he can't really get anywhere, then when things break down at the end the masked man makes Rave tap to the Cobra Stretch. Poor Jimmy can't get a win for anything this summer and is basically dead as a top line character.

 

Falls Count Anywhere: Adam Pearce vs Necro Butcher

 

This actually starts with Necro coming through the crowd during intermission, with the house lights up, and Jimmy Bower 'interrupting' an ad for FIP to call in the regular commentators. Usual ROH production bizarreness. Pearce comes out to his music and they start the falls count anywhere match with a huge brawl through the crowd, sensibly leaving the lights on so the cameras catch everything. They continue brawling in a decent, intense manner until when they get back in the ring, when Claudio runs in to help Necro and we basically switch straight into...

 

Homicide vs Claudio Castagnoli

 

They turn off the house lighting with Homicide's entrance, which gets a huge pop. Homicide is being billed as the CZW killer now, after killing Necro at 'Ring of Homicide' and Chris Hero at 'In Your Face', both of which were awesome brawl-matches. This... isn't nearly as good. After continuing with the brawling to start, somewhere things turn into a proper match, with Claudio eventually having a control segment that kiills the crowd, and when they moved towards the finish with wrestling holds and nearfalls, it failed to keep my attention. 'Cide wins with a lariat to keep his CZW killer moniker intact.

 

World Title: Bryan Danielson vs BJ Whitmer vs Jimmy Jacobs

 

This is elimination style, so Danielson can't lose the title without being pinned. The commentators mention how he was pinned by KENTA in a three way match at the last show as a sign that he's better off in singles matches and could still lose here. Whitmer and Jacobs had their first near-death spot in the same building back at 'Dragon Gate Challenge' so the crowd know to look out for some insanity from them here.

 

The three way part of the match is all action, but lacks the flow of Danielson's normal title defences. While Whitmer and Jacobs go after each other, they also break out the doomsday rana they used as a tag team for a VERY hot 2-count on Danielson. Whitmer is surprisingly the first eliminated after he is caught in the corner by a combination Danielson powerbomb/Super Contra Code.

 

That leaves Danielson vs Jacobs, and from there the match is more like Danielson's title defenses against Delirious, with Danielson dominating for the most part, and Jacobs getting some very close nearfalls that are made much more dramtic by the nuclear heat from the Detroit crowd. Having pinned Whitmer with it, Jacobs tries for Contra Code repeatedly, but Danielson always had the better of Sliced Bread #2 when Spanky used it, and Jacobs' variation is much the same. Danielson then makes Jacobs pay for using Cattle Mutilation against him by using the elbows of death as a mere softening up move to set up the Crossface Chickenwing for the KO. Evil smug bastard Danielson then takes extra time in mugging to the crowd on the way out. Nice.

 

KENTA vs Roderick Strong

 

Blimey, this was a lot better than I expected, mainly because both guys kept it simple. Instead of going for extravagant technical exchanges, they chop (Roderick) and kick (KENTA) the crap out of each other, and mix that up by working over each other's backs for possible submissions, until KENTA wins with Go 2 Sleep. I won't do any further elaboration, as the match was worthy of you (yes, YOU) checking it out yourself.

 

In spite of the loss, Roderick comes out looking better than before, as in the early exchanges KENTA was getting the better of the striking but by the end KENTA was doing a great job of looking knackered as Roderick went after him.

 

Post match, Roderick then gets jumped by The Briscoes, and with Austin Aries not on the show (I have no idea why), KENTA actually makes the save.

 

Really good main event to round out a better show than I was expecting, though the crowd was so rabid for everything else, they were actually quieter during the main event. Presumably they were either burnt out, as I don't think a conscious decision was made to act like a NOAH crowd just for the one match.

 

Next up, I'm going to precede a look at Chi-Town Struggle with some highlights from FIP Impact of Honor.

Edited September 14, 2006 by gadgetboy

[Oliver]

I saw Death before Dishonor last night and holy shit what a damn show!Delirious vs Seth DelayNothing special, Delay hit a couple of impressive moves off the top, the second being a rather odd reverse 450 (backflipping) which he never had a chance with connecting with in the first place. After that he staggered to his feet slowly doubled over which sets up a top rope move that might just top his for being shit. Delirious's Shadows Over Hell, urrrrgh! Delirious applies submission, I hate Delirious and he wins. boooo.Jimmy Rave & ????? vs Colt Cabana & Jay LethalJay Lethal's second appearacne for ROH after leaving and then returning for ocassional appearances like his turn on Samoa Joe never happened. Rave's partner is, Sal Rhinaro, who gets on all fours and is the new ring step for Jimmy Rave. The Embassy don't get it together for a while but suirprisinglky Rave & Rhinaro hit a double team Spear and something else combination on Cabana for the win! Interesting. Lethal looked great and Rhinaro looked quite good in this.Nigel McGuinness vs Roderick StrongI really hate McGuinness, his recent promos have been so forced and some of his moves, like thge headstand in the corner and swinging backwards and rebounding off the ropes in to a clothesline are ridiculous. In the end he wins with a count out, I swear I've seen almost this exact match before? The Briscoes vs Irish AirbornNow we're talking, tremendous match. The Irish Airborn really showed what all the fuss was about regarding the live crowds reactions to them. One of the Crisp brothers (I'm afraid I haven't memorised them singally yet) hit a very impressive springboard jumping backwards in to a headlock takedown perfectly and another one of them (or the same one) hit a supurb springboard head scissors. The commentary team should have emphasised how good The Crisp brothers are at making such quick adjustments in mid air, it was all very impressive. But it didn't end there, along with all the cool moves and double team moves from both teams, there was also 2 shooting star presses to the outside hit simultaneously by Mark Briscoe and, errrrr, Crisp. Irish Airborn actually hit their double stomp DVD in to a drop across the knees (you really have to see it, impossible to explain) but luckily one of the Briscoes made the save, and soon enough they picke dup their expected victory, but Irish Airborn shows an unexpected competativeness against The Briscoes, I wasn't expecting this match to go so long.AJ Styles vs Davey RichardsAnother great match, one slight slip up where one of the guys simply stood there waiting to get hit by the move but that aside, supurb. Good near falls for Davey, felt like he could have taken it via roll up. Davey hits his handspring enziguri, but then makes the crucial mistake of trying it later on a 2nd time. Very nice counter by AJ, as he hand sprung off the ropes, AJ cauight him on his shoulders and hit his Rack bomb! Tremendous. AJ hooked the legs and did his roll thropugh with a bridge, 2 count and AJ deliberately rolls back to his feet, urrrgh, he almost didn't make it, but he does, STYLES CLASH! And that's 3. AJ often screws up on that, but seeing how he perfected his backflip in to reverse DDT, I'd say he'll probably be hitting this variation in to a Styles Clash without any mistakes in the future.Bryan Danielson vs Sonjay DuttGood and loud 'your gonna get your fucking head kicked in!' chant and Sonjay antagonises everyone well, but I'm just not too interested, I wanna see the Cage of Death! Medium length match, Sonjay kept narrowly avoiding Danielsons finisher which frustrated the crowd. Of course in the end he did go down to Dragon with that Cattle Mutilation.Cage of Death!!!!!! ROH vs CZW.Claudio Castagnoli vs Samoa Joe to start things off. BJ Whitmer is the next entrant, at one stage Castagnoli takes control and sets both ROH opponents up in opposite corners which builds nicely to BJ reversing an Irish whip on Claudio right in to the STJoe. Hero's in next, things more or less get evened. Next in is Dragon who cleans house. He helps Joe get Hero set for a Muscle Buster but then clips Joe's knee and starts going to town on him. An irate Jim Cornette gets people to escort Dragon out, and it turns out Samoa Joe's out with an injury as well as Nate Webb comes in. Ace Steel, Adam Pearce and Necro Butcher make their enrances, Steal throws out some nasty cow bell shots but in the end CZW is ultra dominant. Hero gets on the mic and starts a 'CZW' chant. BJ gets back up and whacks him from behind with a chair, amusing. Hero gets back up and back on the mic screaming 'Its gonna take a hell of a lot more than that to put me down!' while stomping all over Pearce, Steal and Whitmer. Tremendous stuff. And then he announces the 5th CZW member, Eddie Kingston! I was hooping Kingston and Hero would go straight to blows having had one of the best rivalries I can remember outside of ROH. Though their disdain for one another was acknoledged, I really didn't like seeing them working together. Kingston holds BJ for Hero to chop, but BJ slips out and Kingston takes the chop and then goes ballistic. Hero and Kingston shout at each other but before they can come to blows, Homicide's music hits. Homicide runs in and cleans house, but also takes some blows from Hero. All the ROH guys take a fork each and stab at their CZW counterparts. Hero starts to climb the cage looking to escape, Homicide goes after him but fails to drag him back in. Hero's ready to get out, but instead he moonsaults back in on to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge 'THIS IS AWESOME' chant and after having this chant overdone at so many events, this is where it finally counts. In the end, Homicide hits a Cop Killa on Nate Webb on to barbed wire for the 3 count.Tremendous match. But, the show isn't over, we get on to Homicide's 3 favours he asked for, uh, I didn't explain this but I trust most people will know. Homicide gets himself a title shot, I forgot his first wish. His third wish was for Low Ki to get reinstated. I can't be bothered to type anymore, basically, Cornette turns on Homicide, Adam Pearce attacks Homicide and chains him to the cage, Cornette whips the shit out of him. Wow, completely overwhelming. Shades of when CM Punk shockingly won the World Title and then turned heel,. and then Christopher Daniels returned. Overall, very very very good, this is wrestling at its best! In the United States anyway.I saw Death before Dishonor last night and holy shit what a damn show!Delirious vs Seth DelayNothing special, Delay hit a couple of impressive moves off the top, the second being a rather odd reverse 450 (backflipping) which he never had a chance with connecting with in the first place. After that he staggered to his feet slowly doubled over which sets up a top rope move that might just top his for being shit. Delirious's Shadows Over Hell, urrrrgh! Delirious applies submission, I hate Delirious and he wins. boooo.Jimmy Rave & ????? vs Colt Cabana & Jay LethalJay Lethal's second appearacne for ROH after leaving and then returning for ocassional appearances like his turn on Samoa Joe never happened. Rave's partner is, Sal Rhinaro, who gets on all fours and is the new ring step for Jimmy Rave. The Embassy don't get it together for a while but suirprisinglky Rave & Rhinaro hit a double team Spear and something else combination on Cabana for the win! Interesting. Lethal looked great and Rhinaro looked quite good in this.Nigel McGuinness vs Roderick StrongI really hate McGuinness, his recent promos have been so forced and some of his moves, like thge headstand in the corner and swinging backwards and rebounding off the ropes in to a clothesline are ridiculous. In the end he wins with a count out, I swear I've seen almost this exact match before? The Briscoes vs Irish AirbornNow we're talking, tremendous match. The Irish Airborn really showed what all the fuss was about regarding the live crowds reactions to them. One of the Crisp brothers (I'm afraid I haven't memorised them singally yet) hit a very impressive springboard jumping backwards in to a headlock takedown perfectly and another one of them (or the same one) hit a supurb springboard head scissors. The commentary team should have emphasised how good The Crisp brothers are at making such quick adjustments in mid air, it was all very impressive. But it didn't end there, along with all the cool moves and double team moves from both teams, there was also 2 shooting star presses to the outside hit simultaneously by Mark Briscoe and, errrrr, Crisp. Irish Airborn actually hit their double stomp DVD in to a drop across the knees (you really have to see it, impossible to explain) but luckily one of the Briscoes made the save, and soon enough they picke dup their expected victory, but Irish Airborn shows an unexpected competativeness against The Briscoes, I wasn't expecting this match to go so long.AJ Styles vs Davey RichardsAnother great match, one slight slip up where one of the guys simply stood there waiting to get hit by the move but that aside, supurb. Good near falls for Davey, felt like he could have taken it via roll up. Davey hits his handspring enziguri, but then makes the crucial mistake of trying it later on a 2nd time. Very nice counter by AJ, as he hand sprung off the ropes, AJ cauight him on his shoulders and hit his Rack bomb! Tremendous. AJ hooked the legs and did his roll thropugh with a bridge, 2 count and AJ deliberately rolls back to his feet, urrrgh, he almost didn't make it, but he does, STYLES CLASH! And that's 3. AJ often screws up on that, but seeing how he perfected his backflip in to reverse DDT, I'd say he'll probably be hitting this variation in to a Styles Clash without any mistakes in the future.Bryan Danielson vs Sonjay DuttGood and loud 'your gonna get your fucking head kicked in!' chant and Sonjay antagonises everyone well, but I'm just not too interested, I wanna see the Cage of Death! Medium length match, Sonjay kept narrowly avoiding Danielsons finisher which frustrated the crowd. Of course in the end he did go down to Dragon with that Cattle Mutilation.Cage of Death!!!!!! ROH vs CZW.Claudio Castagnoli vs Samoa Joe to start things off. BJ Whitmer is the next entrant, at one stage Castagnoli takes control and sets both ROH opponents up in opposite corners which builds nicely to BJ reversing an Irish whip on Claudio right in to the STJoe. Hero's in next, things more or less get evened. Next in is Dragon who cleans house. He helps Joe get Hero set for a Muscle Buster but then clips Joe's knee and starts going to town on him. An irate Jim Cornette gets people to escort Dragon out, and it turns out Samoa Joe's out with an injury as well as Nate Webb comes in. Ace Steel, Adam Pearce and Necro Butcher make their enrances, Steal throws out some nasty cow bell shots but in the end CZW is ultra dominant. Hero gets on the mic and starts a 'CZW' chant. BJ gets back up and whacks him from behind with a chair, amusing. Hero gets back up and back on the mic screaming 'Its gonna take a hell of a lot more than that to put me down!' while stomping all over Pearce, Steal and Whitmer. Tremendous stuff. And then he announces the 5th CZW member, Eddie Kingston! I was hooping Kingston and Hero would go straight to blows having had one of the best rivalries I can remember outside of ROH. Though their disdain for one another was acknoledged, I really didn't like seeing them working together. Kingston holds BJ for Hero to chop, but BJ slips out and Kingston takes the chop and then goes ballistic. Hero and Kingston shout at each other but before they can come to blows, Homicide's music hits. Homicide runs in and cleans house, but also takes some blows from Hero. All the ROH guys take a fork each and stab at their CZW counterparts. Hero starts to climb the cage looking to escape, Homicide goes after him but fails to drag him back in. Hero's ready to get out, but instead he moonsaults back in on to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Huge 'THIS IS AWESOME' chant and after having this chant overdone at so many events, this is where it finally counts. In the end, Homicide hits a Cop Killa on Nate Webb on to barbed wire for the 3 count.Tremendous match. But, the show isn't over, we get on to Homicide's 3 favours he asked for, uh, I didn't explain this but I trust most people will know. Homicide gets himself a title shot, I forgot his first wish. His third wish was for Low Ki to get reinstated. I can't be bothered to type anymore, basically, Cornette turns on Homicide, Adam Pearce attacks Homicide and chains him to the cage, Cornette whips the shit out of him. Wow, completely overwhelming. Shades of when CM Punk shockingly won the World Title and then turned heel,. and then Christopher Daniels returned. Overall, very very very good, this is wrestling at its best! In the United States anyway.

[gribbo2001]

1st wish was a match with steve corino

[Oliver]

1st wish was a match with steve corino

Ah yes that was it. Ah no, another Homicide vs Corino match.

[gadge]

The first two Corino vs Homicide matches were awesome. They need to do I Quit rules as their final match.

[HBAndy]

Aww, bless. He sure knows how to work his target audience.Man, have you seen the new Jimmy Jacobs video? Edgecrusher has got to be pissed at the prospect of the Jacobs/Cabana feud...

It was adorable.I love Jimmy Jacobs and his EMO WARRIOR stuff is a million times better than HUSS. I'm looking forward to the feud and the potential matches between the two if they are kept relatively unimportant.

[edgecrusher]

Aww, bless. He sure knows how to work his target audience.Man, have you seen the new Jimmy Jacobs video? Edgecrusher has got to be pissed at the prospect of the Jacobs/Cabana feud...

It was adorable.I love Jimmy Jacobs and his EMO WARRIOR stuff is a million times better than HUSS. I'm looking forward to the feud and the potential matches between the two if they are kept relatively unimportant.

I'm not thoroughly thrilled with the idea of Jacobs/Cabana, but hey, at least it gets JJ on the show. I was beginning to think they were abandoning him.

[HBAndy]

Aww, bless. He sure knows how to work his target audience.Man, have you seen the new Jimmy Jacobs video? Edgecrusher has got to be pissed at the prospect of the Jacobs/Cabana feud...

It was adorable.I love Jimmy Jacobs and his EMO WARRIOR stuff is a million times better than HUSS. I'm looking forward to the feud and the potential matches between the two if they are kept relatively unimportant.

I'm not thoroughly thrilled with the idea of Jacobs/Cabana, but hey, at least it gets JJ on the show. I was beginning to think they were abandoning him.

Jacobs has been great recently, his matches vs. Whitmer were superb and he's totally underrated in the grand scheme of things in ROH.

[edgecrusher]

Aww, bless. He sure knows how to work his target audience.Man, have you seen the new Jimmy Jacobs video? Edgecrusher has got to be pissed at the prospect of the Jacobs/Cabana feud...

It was adorable.I love Jimmy Jacobs and his EMO WARRIOR stuff is a million times better than HUSS. I'm looking forward to the feud and the potential matches between the two if they are kept relatively unimportant.

I'm not thoroughly thrilled with the idea of Jacobs/Cabana, but hey, at least it gets JJ on the show. I was beginning to think they were abandoning him.

Jacobs has been great recently, his matches vs. Whitmer were superb and he's totally underrated in the grand scheme of things in ROH.

It's more that he just doesn't fit in. He's a singles wrestler with no title to believably go for, no really appropriate enemy, and absolutely no tag team prospects. I really can't see what his prospects are, sadly.

[HBAndy]

Aww, bless. He sure knows how to work his target audience.Man, have you seen the new Jimmy Jacobs video? Edgecrusher has got to be pissed at the prospect of the Jacobs/Cabana feud...

It was adorable.I love Jimmy Jacobs and his EMO WARRIOR stuff is a million times better than HUSS. I'm looking forward to the feud and the potential matches between the two if they are kept relatively unimportant.

I'm not thoroughly thrilled with the idea of Jacobs/Cabana, but hey, at least it gets JJ on the show. I was beginning to think they were abandoning him.

Jacobs has been great recently, his matches vs. Whitmer were superb and he's totally underrated in the grand scheme of things in ROH.

It's more that he just doesn't fit in. He's a singles wrestler with no title to believably go for, no really appropriate enemy, and absolutely no tag team prospects. I really can't see what his prospects are, sadly.

True. As is the case with so many of those sort of guys on the ROH roster. Jimmy Rave could have done with a title run on his way, Davey Richards would be perfect for a secondary title too.Should they just reintroduce a secondary title and get rid of the Pure Title rules concept?I'm loving the idea of an Under-23 UK Unified belt, could ROH do with something similar for the BJ Whitmer's and Jimmy Jacobs' of the world?