Official ROH Discussion Thread

[The Cum Doctor]

Don't they have a "Relaxed Rules" match this weekend ?

[gadge]

Yes, on Friday in Dayton.I can't be arsed with full reviews, but I've recently watched the completely excellent 2-disc Driven DVD set, the Race to the Top Tournament (both shows are enjoyable, the second especially is worth tracking down), and night 1 of Death Before Dishonor V which has lots of good stuff including an excellent World title match in Morishima vs Claudio and an insane non-sanctioned Streetfight between Steenerico and the Briscoes in the main event.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

Fifth Year Festival Review - Philly - 17/02/07

 

What

Edited November 27, 2007 by Dearly Devoted Dexter

[chris1289]

Woop Woop i recieved all my black friday dvds 2day........1 whole week and didnt get charged by customs

[Pete Scott]

Another good review DDD. I quite enjoyed the show also, again the tag match was strong, the street fight was enjoyable and I felt it advanced the feud well. Aries/Castagnoli disappointed me, I really like both men and was expecting a belter but sadly I didn't feel the match delivered. Quite liked the main event even though I have gone off Homicide recently, the less said about Joe/Rave the better.

[GlennCullen]

My Black Friday order also came today, very impressed with the service.

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

My Black Friday order also came today, very impressed with the service.

Still waiting for mine - then again, it does contain 7 DVD's and a hoodie. Glad people are enjoying the reviews - when I used to post them on the ROH board the ROHBots just used to crap all over them. Castagnoli at the moment reminds me of Homicide circa 04/05 - very inconsistent, capable of having both a storming match or an inconsequential plodder.

[chris1289]

just ordered myself a grab bag of dvds, worked out to be under

[Pete Scott]

My Black Friday order also came today, very impressed with the service.

Still waiting for mine - then again, it does contain 7 DVD's and a hoodie.

Mine hasn't arrived either but that's because I ordered SOTF 07 which isn't released till the 3rd and they'll only ship it as one complete parcel. Did you do similar? Edited November 30, 2007 by Pete Scott

[Pete Scott]

The show results from last night:

Tonight's ROH show was a mixed bag with some pretty good matches and some pretty bad ones. Before the report, I'd like to note they had to set up additional bleachers for the GA crowd and I'd like to thank every one who helped to do that, thus meaning I didn't have to stand for the duration of the 3 1/2 hour show.1.) Claudio Castagnoli defeated Seth Skyfire - this was maybe the worst ROH match I've ever seen. I don't know is Skyfire was just nervous or this was why he was cut from WWE but he botched a ton of stuff and even when he wasn't working ultra-loose, he looked lost. Claudio didn't look a lot better either frankly. Claudio won with the Ricolla bomb.2.) Delirious defeated Adam Pearce in a Falls Count Anywhere match - this was probably the worst ROH match I've never seen. Because it's FCA, the never got in the ring and brawled all over the arena, meaning maybe 20 people at any one time could see what was happening. Occasionally there'd be the smack of a chair or a small "tap, tap, tap" chant that I could kind of gage what was going on. Anyway, eventually Pearce climbed one of the scaffolding with the spotlights and got stuck between the rungs after a chair shot, so Delirious climbed above and choked him out, then dove off the scaffold onto Shane Hagadorn. Best part of the match was seeing the guy who runs the lights holding on for dear life, while the wrestlers shook the unstable contraption.As a side note, why does every ROH show have a big brawl in the crowd match. As noted, 85% of the audience has no idea what's happening. I suppose it'd be acceptable if they got decent footage of it and the match was viewable on the DVD's, but the crowd footage on the DVD's is just as bad and you still can't tell what's going on most of the time. What's the point?3.) Chris Hero defeated Jigsaw. Hero turned the show around, playing to the crowd. He is such a great cocky heel he's turning himself face. His whole entourage is great to observe too, always keeping at it, even when the camera isn't on them. This played for a long time like an extended Hero showcase, but Jigsaw finally got in some good offense. Hero won with this weird choke-drop and his arm bar submission.4.) ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoe Brothers defeated Davey Richards and Rocky Romero in a match taped for the 4th PPV. Fantastic match, probably match of the night. The best compliment I can give this match is their were several point I thought we were going to see a tag title change, and I am fairly cynical about such things. Briscoes won after their springboard Doomsday Device on Rocky (I think).5.) Brian Danielson defeated Necro Butcher in a relaxed rules match. I don't get the cult of Necro but I thought this was a pretty weak match. More brawling on the floor, a few spots with a chair in the ring. Best part was Danielson getting pissed off and stomping on Necro's bald feet and shoving the ref away for breaking up a hold on the ropes. Danielson won with cattle mutilation. Match was really short too, less than 10 minutes.Intermission.6.) In a special "Bonus Surprise Match" Nigel McGuiness defeated Sylus Young. Crowd was psyched to see Nigel. This was not the squash I expected as Young hit a couple of high impact moves. McGuniess moved away from his "All Lariats All The Time" offense, saving the lariat flurry until the end. Nigel won with his arm bar submission, which I'm sure has a clever name. Afterwards Nigel made a nice speech about entering the wrestling biz in the Dayton area and wanting to fight here. He promised when ROH returned, we'd get a title match. Chris Hero et al then interrupted, hurled some insults, and Nigel challenged Hero to a fight. Toland and Bobby Dempsey took Hero's place and were each quickly dispatched with Nigel's arm-bar, but finally the number game was too much. Hero tried to Pilmanize Hero's arm, but Claudio Castagnoli made the save. McGuniess said he'd fight Hero at ROH's next Dayton show, Jan 25.7.) Davey Richards defeated Human Tornado and Erik Stevens. This match was supposed to be Stevens and Tornado but Stevens so wanted revenge on Richards, Tornado offered to make it a three way. Note to Tornado: This was a bad idea. Match was fantastic. Tornado showed a lot of personality as a high flying comedy wrestler, sort of like Colt Cabana. Highlight was Stevens throwing Tornado in the air and HT landing in a splits in such a way he kicked Richards in the crotch. Tornado hit a cross body block but Richards turned it into his arm-based submission for the quick, odd tap out. Note to ROH: You have too many arm based submission finishers. There were four on this show tonight. Doesn't anyone work the leg anymore?8.) Austin Aries defeated Roderick Strong 4-3 in a 30 minute iron man match. This match was weird. It wasn't bad, per se, but it had no intensity and a lot of the crowd really turned on it as a result. I know iron man matches are hard to work, but Aries and Strong didn't make it look like they were fighting the clock much and so the match dragged. Aries went up 2-0, which was weird as he was the face and it kind of messes up the psychology of the match when the heel is chasing the face. Strong then took the lead, scoring 3 straight. With about five minutes left, Aries was knocked out of the ring and Strong kept keeping him out. Finally Aries got back in the ring and hit a quick pin, then got a chokeout win with 2 seconds left. The knockout victory was flat.9.) The Vulture Squad (Jack Evans and Ruckus) defeated The Briscoes, Age of the Fall (Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs) and The Hangmen 3 (BJ Whitmer and Brent Albright) when Evans pinned a Briscoe. Super fun finisher with guys just hitting crazy dives and moves non-stop and all semblance of order gone. Ruckus looked to hurt his knee legit but kept going. Evans won with a 630.A middle of the road type show, with some good and bad. Unfortunately the best match won't be on the DVD, so I'm afraid this will ultimately be for completists only.

Some good sounding matches, the tag matches sound great as does Hero/Jigsaw.

[Philjax]

Ring of Honor announced last night that former WWE Million Dollar Tough Enough champion and MMA fighter Daniel Puder would be a "special guest" at the promotion's return to New York City on 12/29 and 12/30. Puder was backstage at the company's California debut last month and watched the entire show. Booker Gabe Sapolsky has had interest in using him for a long time, so I expect an angle here. Puder was best known for the shoot incident involving Kurt Angle while competing in what turned out to be the final Tough Enough competition, which led to his political downfall in the company. His lone PPV appearance on the main roster was a Royal Rumble 2004 spot where he was stiffly beaten by Hardcore Holly, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit before being eliminated. Although he won a "one million dollar contract", he was released after a year and has done some MMA fights in California and for Bodog Fight since.

Sounds promising.

[gadge]

 

Hero won with this weird choke-drop and his arm bar submission.

 

I'm guessing that's the Hero's Welcome into the Hangman's Clutch?Show looks ok, nothing more. The way McGuinness vs Hero is set up for Dayton on January 25th sounds to me like Nigel will have dropped the title by then...

[Dearly Devoted Dexter]

My Black Friday order also came today, very impressed with the service.

Still waiting for mine - then again, it does contain 7 DVD's and a hoodie.

Mine hasn't arrived either but that's because I ordered SOTF 07 which isn't released till the 3rd and they'll only ship it as one complete parcel. Did you do similar?

I ordered the 3 pre-orders seperately so they wouldn't hold the order up. Ah well. Hopefully it will be here Monday. SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read
It looks like Danielson vs Necro was a bit of a wash out - a semi-squash, as opposed to a balls to the wall cracker. Classic Gabe booking

[Pete Scott]

My Black Friday order also came today, very impressed with the service.

Still waiting for mine - then again, it does contain 7 DVD's and a hoodie.

Mine hasn't arrived either but that's because I ordered SOTF 07 which isn't released till the 3rd and they'll only ship it as one complete parcel. Did you do similar?

I ordered the 3 pre-orders seperately so they wouldn't hold the order up. Ah well. Hopefully it will be here Monday. SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read
It looks like Danielson vs Necro was a bit of a wash out - a semi-squash, as opposed to a balls to the wall cracker. Classic Gabe booking

Wish I'd done that, I wanted to save the extra shipping money, a move I now regret.

[Philjax]

"Man Up" was taped Setember 15th was it not. Are we to assume that it's release on DVD won't follow the usual code (eg ROHDVD157 or whatever) because there doesn't seem to be a gap in the numbering where that slots in? It led me to believe for a moment that it was already available but that would be stupid given its' PPV debut yesterday. I'm certain that Respect Is Earned and Driven slotted in where there were gaps alocated.