Paid Members gadge Posted August 1, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 1, 2007 That's pretty big news, and well worked by ROH, saves them the expense of doing a fully fledged show on the other side of the country to their usual homes, but tests the waters to see how many they could draw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted August 1, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 1, 2007 This Means War II 13.4.07 Â Pelle Primeau vs Kevin Steen - basically a squash for Steen, but at six minutes, there's time for Pelle to get a good little attempt at a comeback about two thirds of the way through, before Steen murderises him, ending with a vicious overhead suplex into the turnbuckles and the package piledriver. Steen's character is shining in ROH this time around, and he's wrestling without a t-shirt, which makes him look proper. Really fun stuff. Â Daizee Haze vs Sara Del Ray - good SHIMMER guest match, and a rematch from ROH's Destiny show in June 2006. Del Ray suffers her first loss in ROH here, which triggers a storyline on the DVDs where she's after a rematch. Adding some backstory to the SHIMMER matches on ROH cards is definitely a good thing. Â Four Corner Survival: El Generico vs Eddie Edwards vs Jason Blade vs Erick Stevens - all-action four way to showcase some of the up-and-comers on the ROH undercards. The main focus here is on Generico (who's already over with the crowd) and Stevens (who is in his first proper ROH match after two victories in under a minute in Detroit, and already has his 'choo choo' thing over). Stevens gets the win, then Austin Aries comes out and asks him to join his new faction, The Resilience. Stevens accepts, and the No Remose Corps run out and attack, with 'M-Dogg' Matt Cross levelling the sides, and they have a wild brawl culminating in a Space Flying Tiger Drop by Cross. There's more from them later. Â Colt Cabana vs Delirious - a comedy rematch from their hilarious match at Fifth Year Festival: Finale, the result is the same as Cabana starts his final month in ROH with a loss. Not quite as good/funny as the Liverpool match for me, but still very entertaining. Â Claudio Castagnoli vs Jay Briscoe - with Mark on the sidelines due to his concussion from THAT missed springboard SSP in Detroit, Jay enters singles competition. Claudio seems to be getting a renewed push as a face, starting with him being invited to be on ROH's all star team at All Star Extravaganza 3, which I'm enjoying so far. This is another match packed with action, and Jay has always been the better Briscoe in singles, though I don't see it convincing anyone who doesn't like the Briscoes. Claudio gets the win with the Alphamari Waterslide, which is a good finisher, and challenges The Briscoes for a future tag title shot. This brings out Steen and Generico to also challenge for a future shot, and Steen hits Mark in the back of the head, and he goes down like a sack of potatoes. This is already a better concussion angle than Randy Orton's kicks to the head taking out Shawn Michaels and RVD in WWE. Â Homicide vs Brent Albright - I have to be honest, I haven't been that keen on Albright's ROH work so far, which has been disappointing having seen him in good matches and angles in OVW, and not getting a fair shot at WWE. Thankfully, I enjoyed this. He and Homicide have good chemistry, much better than Homicide and Adam Pearce in the storyline of Homicide vs those aligned with Jim Cornette. Shockingly Albright gets a clean win, obviously a sign that ROH management knew they were about to lose 'Cide when they announced their PPV deal. Homicide gets his heat back by destroying Shane Hagadorn afterwards when the Top of the Class Trophy holder tries for a cheap shot or three. Â SHINGO vs Jack Evans - this is based off them being the final two in a Four Way Fray at FYF: NYC and tearing the house down, albeit in a smallish period at the end of that elimination match. It's a Jack Evans type of match, with mostly everything he went for hitting nicely, and SHINGO hitting him hard in between. Evans wins with a 630. That makes no sense, as SHINGO has a title match with Morishima later in the month, but here on the DVD timeline, SINGO looking for a title shot isn't even mentioned until the next night's show. Whether you enjoy this probably depends on whether you find Evans excellent/good/unwatchable. I'd go for thumbs leaning up. Â Six Man Elimination: The Resilience (Austin Aries, Matt Cross and Erick Stevens) vs The No Remorse Corps (Roderick Strong, Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) - the first major encounter in faction warfare, which stalls at the end of the month while Austin Aries sorts his TNA contract situation out. Strong, Richards and Romero really start to look like a faction here, presenting a shared attitude in their beating down of the Resilience. Stevens looks really good here, until being the first eliminated after a double team, which keeps him looking strong after his second match of the night. Cross and Aries are good at the underdog role with their powerhouse eliminated from the match, but that makes things one dimensional as the NRC just go on beating and beating - and then Cross is also eliminated. Aries then holds off 3-on-1 odds for as long as he can, before falling to a triple team. The booking makes sense with Aries' future unclear at the time, and the NRC look great, but the match lacks excitement, especially after the first elimination. Still, the signs are that there could be much to look forward to in the later parts of this feud. Â Takeshi Morishima and Chris Hero vs Nigel McGuinness and Doug Williams - a tag team main event to build heat towards Nigel's title shot the next night. I'm sure Hero had got some NOAH experience by this point, so it's not a surprise that it follows the NOAH tag match formula. Nigel and Doug come out to the England World Cup version of "Vindaloo", and get treated as babyface superstars by the Long Island crowd, which I find a little weird yet also satisfying. They start out with everyone in a ringside brawl, then settle into Doug getting beat down while Nigel waits for the hot tag. Of course, being a NOAH style tag, that's only the first portion, not the whole match bar the finish. When things kick into high gear, it really gets good, with the possible exception that Nigel hits too many lariats. I like him hitting one early on, and a couple of variations then the jawbreaker as a finish, but he uses double that here, at least. Sadly, Hero's OTT act is toned down a bit here, as he's been a riot under Larry Sweeney's management this year. Back for the first time since February, Morishima really starts to fill the unstoppable champion role here, then giving his opponents just enough to plant the seeds that he could be beatable. Thumbs up for his performance here. Doug is Doug, in the best possible sense, and his German suplex on Morishima stays in the memory. Nigel pins Hero with the jawbreaker lariat, after Hero is pushed into Morishima by Doug, which is a great finish as Morishima would have taken the jawbreaker otherwise. Excellent main event. Â Really good show overall, it hasn't had a lot of hype anywhere that I've seen, but I'd definitely recommend it. The first half is a lot of fun, and while the second half has less heat for the most part, the main event does, and is the best match on the show for me. Props to the crowd, who are hot but mostly unsmarky, and offer proper heel heat where appropriate. ROH finally get there in temrs of the Long Island market, and then the venue closed, making this the last show in this venue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted August 1, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 1, 2007 Yeah, I actually went and wrote a review, take that as a sign I really liked the show. 'Fighting Spirit' should also get a write-up, as it's really good as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Josh Jenkins Posted August 1, 2007 Share Posted August 1, 2007 I look forward to a Fighting Spirit review. I've heard Morishima vs. McGuiness is awesome, but the undercard doesn't really interest me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted August 1, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 1, 2007 (edited) EDIT: finished  Fighting Spirit 14.4.07  Chris Hero and Tank Toland vs Jason Blade and Eddie Edwards - a rare in-ring appearance for Toland, while Larry Sweeney is nowhere to be found. Blade and Edwards continue in the will they/won't they earn a roster spot role. The Edison crowd is completely backwards, cheering Hero more than ever before in ROH, whoch makes Edwards and Blade's efforts all the more difficult, as they get booed on offense early on. Hero and Toland are entertaining as an undercard team, but Hero is probably better off on his own with the entourage on the outside. Blade and Edwards do manage to win the crowd over towards the end, as they show some chemistry as a team and hit a couple of really nice dives, but the crowd aren't so happy when they score an upset pin, Blade pinning Toland. Nothing wrong with the match, really.  Top of the Class Trophy: Shane Hagadorn vs Pelle Primeau - this one has been building for a while. While neither man is that far developed, both have settled into good, naturally opposing roles, and the result here is a basic match with good face/heel characters, that goes just the right length of time, and after one of the Dempseys points out Hagadorn getting brass knuckles to the ref, has the big payoff for Pelle, as he rolls Hagadorn into a pin and wins the Trophy. The crowd pops nicely, and are kind enough to bodysurf him all the way around the ring, with a little help from a big security guy. I enjoyed this for what it was.  Claudio Castagnoli vs Rocky Romero - Another good profile singles match for Claudio, and Romero gels really, really nicely with him. I liked this a lot, probably more than the Jay Briscoe match. Some of the counter work with Claudio blocking Romero's kicks and Romero avoiding european uppercuts is a bit mental. After hitting the Riccola Bomb out of nowhere, there's some really good finisher reversals based around the Alphamari Waterslide, then Romero sneaks a pin with an inside cradle. Out of nowhere finish pin works well, it's been a good weekend's worth of shows for both men. ROH hater warning: there's a duelling chant early on in this one.  Jay Briscoe and Erick Stevens vs El Generico and Kevin Steen - I'd been looking forward to this one since reading results and seeing the video wire after the show, and it really delivered. This is non-title due to Mark Briscoe being 'in the hospital' after Steen hit him in the head the previous night. Stevens continues to impress as his substitute, not looking out of place at all with the more established names. Things go really nicely, until the No Remorse Corps distract the ref and take Stevens out. The match continues as a 2-on-1, and it's reminiscent of when Mark Briscoe suffered his injury, as Jay battles solo but can't be counted out. It's fun to watch Steen take particular pleasure in being a cocky bastard, though the 2-on-1 is starting to drag just a bit by the time Mark emerges from the crowd, as the crowd goes nuts, the staff and his mum screams at him to not go in (yes, you see the Briscoes mum for the first time since 2002). Mark is a hothead, of course, and takes the tag (which is somehow legal, but acceptable as it's so heated). Mark is a house of fire, until he sustains a blow to the head and sells it beautifully. He avoids Generico's running boot in the corner, as the announcers scream "NO!!!!", and the match goes on for a bit to rabid heat. Jay tags in as the ref loses control and all four brawl, but it's not until Mark tags back in that the crazy finish hits: Steen and Generico kill him with about half a dozen head drops for the victory. Awesome match/angle that sets up for what should be hot title matches.  Colt Cabana vs Doug Williams - this is Cabana's last match on the East Coast for ROH, and about as far from the previous match as you could imagine. Lots of streamers for Colt, to be expected really. The match starts with matwork, with lots of spots based around simple wristlock reversals, chatter/comedy from Cabana (with Doug playing the straight man nicely), more matwork, the odd spot, then Doug wins clean with the Chaos Theory. Entertaining, low impact wrestling, perhaps a couple of minutes long in the middle. Cabana cuts the obligatory speech afterwards. Good stuff.  The second half begins with Sara Del Ray vs Ernie Osiris - as part of her efforts to get a rematch with Daizee Haze, Sara squashes (the male) Osiris. This was a bit odd, as it was presented more or less straight, with Daizee watching from the aisle. Was there not a female competitor available, I wonder? I have no complaints about Death Ray's performance...  SHINGO vs Matt Cross - As far as I can remember, there's no backstory to this whatsoever. If there's one complaint about SHINGO's ROH run, it's probably the lack of proper storylines for him. Even his feud with Roderick Strong wasn't very well booked. Anyhow, as a standalone match, this looks similar on paper to his bout with Jack Evans the previous show. In execution, there's less flair to the early stages, but there's a gradual build to the hot final stages, and the concluding couple of minutes is very nice indeed. SHINGO killing the smaller guy with a lariat is much better here than the Evans match, and he puts Cross away with the Last Falconry. Thumbs up.  Davey Richards and Roderick Strong vs Jack Evans and Delirious - This feels a lot more advanced in terms of the feud between the two sides than the six man from the night before. Delirious and Evans both seem to have been chasing Roderick for a while now, in particular. Richards has also settled into his position, and now makes a good partner for Roderick, and is probably more dislikable as a heel at this point, for me. Once again, the match does have a problem: the NRC get a lot of beatdown time, and there's no real babyface-cleans-house spot, instead Roderick uses a chair and Davey capitalises with the DR Driver for the pinfall (on who, I can't remember). The NRC are dominant, which at least is the aim of the booking at this point. The action is good, though.  ROH World Title: Takeshi Morishima vs Nigel McGuinness - VERY good match, with the prospect of even better rematches. This one clocks in at just under 20 minutes, which is spot on. Morishima nicely plays both dominant champion, and smart wrestler, hitting all his big man spots, while also coming up with counters/dodges for Nigel's lariats, which nicely removes the lariat overkill. Nigel has to take to his technical style early on to try and make any headway, and rely on Fighting Spirit when taking a pounding (it's an aptly named show, that's for sure). Sadly, the Tower of London is absolutely destroyed as a finisher, coming really early here and getting minimal reaction to both a less impressive than usual impact, and an easy kickout. Nigel makes up with a good superkick flurry towards the end, and the closing sequence of finishers, especially Morishima's winning combination, is great. Morishima shows respect afterwards, which I'm expecting will be reserved for a select few challengers...  Fighting Spirit is getting a lot of pimping, and it's easy to see why, with the main event and the Briscoes tag being very dramatic indeed. I feel it's a little unfair on This Means War II, as this card is shorter (the DVD clocks in at around 2 hours 45 mins) and has less names (no Homicide, Albright or Aries), but both cards are definitely worth your time. This one has a similar structure to the previous night - very fun first half, SHINGO vs highflyer, NRC tag and really good main event in the second half. Both are worth checking out. Edited August 1, 2007 by gadgetboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted August 1, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 1, 2007 New video wire: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share Posted August 1, 2007 Some good build up for the title match there. Training segments and such are always good. Claudio's 'nice guy with bad English and great athleticism' character is pretty old school and awesome. I'm half convinced he might take the title... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Josh Jenkins Posted August 1, 2007 Share Posted August 1, 2007 Some good build up for the title match there. Training segments and such are always good. Claudio's 'nice guy with bad English and great athleticism' character is pretty old school and awesome. I'm half convinced he might take the title...I agree, but not about the title part. They wouldn't change the scheduled Morishima vs. Danielson match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted August 1, 2007 Author Share Posted August 1, 2007 Some good build up for the title match there. Training segments and such are always good. Claudio's 'nice guy with bad English and great athleticism' character is pretty old school and awesome. I'm half convinced he might take the title...I agree, but not about the title part. They wouldn't change the scheduled Morishima vs. Danielson match.You're almost certainly right, but the build up has put a seed of doubt in my mind that the title might change, which I haven't felt about any of the recent defenses. So it's some good build up. And Danielson/Morishima could still happen as a non-title match...In fact that would make it harder to predict who is going over.He probably wont win though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finlay Posted August 1, 2007 Share Posted August 1, 2007 Some good build up for the title match there. Training segments and such are always good. Claudio's 'nice guy with bad English and great athleticism' character is pretty old school and awesome. I'm half convinced he might take the title...I agree, but not about the title part. They wouldn't change the scheduled Morishima vs. Danielson match.That could be the "curveball" though.............................. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest "Sugar" Shane Helms Posted August 4, 2007 Share Posted August 4, 2007 Have they released a buyrate for the PPV yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 4, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 4, 2007 They haven't finished showing it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest "Sugar" Shane Helms Posted August 4, 2007 Share Posted August 4, 2007 They haven't finished showing it yet.I read somehwere (possibly the Raw tanks post Benoit thread) that ROH and TNA's PPV buyrates were bad recently Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 5, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 5, 2007 Yeah but ROH must know that their PPV will have low buyrates because there has been pretty much no promotion or advertising for it. But as the production costs for the shows are so low they won't need a large buyrate to make a profit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Psygnosis Posted August 7, 2007 Paid Members Share Posted August 7, 2007 (edited) Mouse over the whole site - Few hidden pictures laying around, Mike Johnson ruined it for pretty much confirming it was an angle Edited August 7, 2007 by Shockmaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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