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Post by recklessjack on Mar 23, 2008 23:00:04 GMT -6
Alright, now that we have a straight up wrestling section, I'm gonna be posting my single match reviews or full show reviews up in here.
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Post by recklessjack on Mar 23, 2008 23:02:09 GMT -6
Full Impact Pro Fallout Part One Fallout Part One comes after Emergence where FIP held a tournament to determine the first champion of the promotion after the relaunch with Gabe Sapolsky as the booker. Homicide was able to beat CM Punk in the finals of the match after a brawl that supposedly took place during a hurricane. The show date is November 11th, 2004. Opening Match: Sal Rinauro vs. Vordell Walker. The Backstory: None. Outcome: Vordell Walker via pinfall after a Jumping Roundhouse Kick to the face. Analysis: This is about as basic as a show opener can get. There is really nothing major to talk about with this match. Vordell Walker is the bigger of the two men and uses the advantage as you would imagine. When he has the advantage in the early going, he uses a lot of double handed chops and some power moves. Vordell also manages to throw in a Standing Moonsault as well. During the few times Sal gets any offense, it's chops in the corner or something largely unimpressive. He is a pretty small guy but he just gets hardly anything in this match as it's just Vordell steamrolling over him for the most part. Like I said though, this is about as basic as a match can get basic. No flashy moves, nothing that's overly impressive. Pretty dull but it's mainly geared towards getting Walker over. 1/4*Second Match: Mikey Batts vs. Roderick Strong The Backstory: None. Outcome: Roderick Strong via pinfall after a Spinal Shock. Analysis: If anything, this should have opened this show. Strong is from Tampa where this show is taking place. He is also the bigger of the two. The opening gets the usual indy opening. Near misses, armdrags, all that sort of thing. Batts gets the first advantage of the match using his quickness. He gets Strong into the corner a couple of times and tries to wear him down with punches but the whole thing goes sour once Strong gets control and that's where some of the fun begins. Strong, while not huge, he is probably one guy who could paste your chest with chops. Make ya bleed. Roderick gets his advantage following blocking a Batts springboard. He sets up Batts on the second rope, stomach first. Roderick grabs the ropes and jumps, DOUBLE STOMPING THE BACK OF BATTS! I mean, there is painful looking and then there is painful looking. The stomp to the back sets the basis for what is normally part of his offense, backbreakers. He doesn't take that route as he rather just paste poor Mikey Batts with vicious chops. I want to cry for Batts. But Strong mainly toys around with Batts. Allows him a few hope spots here or there. Every time Batts tries something, Strong just comes back with the chops or something involving power. Finally Strong gets going on the back after he dumps Batts on the floor. Once he tries to attack, Batts keeps on trying to get something going on Strong. Once Batts does get things going, he tries a backslide and then a Lifting DDT in order to turn the match is his favor. Once he does though, Strong finally uses one of this backbreakers to get Batts back under control. It doesn't work as Batts nearly wins the match with a Code Red. After trying it again... Strong takes advantage that gives us the outcome. A pretty decent match. It basically took the same style of the opening match and gave it more time. Strong looked more impressive then Walker in the role of ass kicker by leaps and bounds. Same match as the opener, just longer and better. **Third Match: BJ Whitmer vs. Antonio Banks The Backstory: BJ was bad mouthing Tampa and Florida in general. Banks took offense to that and challenged Whitmer to a match before Whitmer's title shot tonight at Homicide. Outcome: BJ Whitmer via pinfall after a Wrist Clutch Exploder. Analysis: BJ Whitmer pretty much kicks the future MVP's ass all over the place. It's not a whole lot. Just an exhibition to get Whitmer built up for a title match later on in the night. Banks does get the early control but it hardly goes anywhere as Whitmer pokes him in the eye, playing the first defined role of a heel tonight. Just the normal fare from both men until the finish. I wasn't impressed with it much as you don't see me going on about it. The only notable thing about this match is the first face/heel set up. *Fourth Match: Azrieal vs. Rainman The Backstory: While not part of the match, Azrieal is part of the CM Punk stable called "The New Dawn" which basically was a society of misfits that were outcasts. Punk rocks the mic before the match, no surprise there. Punk says that Azrieal doesn't need Punk's help to beat Rainman tonight. So there you go. Outcome: Azrieal via pinfall after CM Punk helpage. Analysis: Azrieal is the smaller of the two. Just thought I'd clear that up. Rainman has a gangsta gimmick it seems but I don't know for sure. Not huge on either man but I'll try to be fairly biased on this match. But this is just a horribly boring match. I'm sorry. Neither man excite me during this match or make me care. Rainman uses his power to take the advantage which seems to be the cliche of the night so far. Azriael tries to use his speed and cheat to get the win. The most impressive move of the contest is yet another Double Stomp. From the top rope to the back of Rainman's head, that's how Azriael gets some order in this match. I mean, he's a fairly decent worker but nothing sets him apart from other indy spot merchants. This should be skipped over for the most part as there is no real constant enjoyment to this show yet. *1/4 Fifth Match: "Fast" Eddie Vegas vs. Jimmy Rave The Backstory: None. Although I'd like to point out that Eddie Vegas is blind. Outcome: Double Countout. Analysis: Finally, a decent contest not involving Roderick Strong. Eddie and Jimmy are bad here but they just throw out moves for the most part, more so on Rave. Sure it's weird watching current/future Embassy members in a non heel role as both men really don't do anything to establish that they're heels or anything. Naturally though, it's strange that when the commentators say "high fliers" to describe the two wrestlers, they start with wrestling. Why not just bust out of the spots from the git go. I guess they need to establish the fact that they know more then moonsaults and planchas. Whatever. But as you could imagine, both men get a control segment with the mat wrestling part until Fast Eddie takes advantage with a Backbreaker/Reverse X Factor combo. Pretty nice. So after that Backbreaker, you'd think Eddie works over the back, right? Well, he actually tries to but it mainly consists knee strikes and weak looking backbreakers. It's nice that Eddie shows some personality in this. He shows that he has that natural charisma to be a decent heel, which he would become. But once Rave gets in the control, he completely forgets about the few moments of back work done by Eddie which negates part of this match. This shows that Rave wasn't quite there yet. He goes for his usual offense you've seen in RoH a bit... like the Ghanarea, not yet named that. But at no point do they attempt to sell the work done to each other but they do show some continuity going after the back in Eddie's part and the neck in Rave's part. It's just that the selling isn't there of it. The finish was pretty lame as I personally hate any form of a countout. I'd rather see a time limit draw or a double knockout in the ring. But as it stands, it was a pretty decent match. Both men showed what they were able to do and everything but that's the jist of it. **1/4 Post Match: Dave Prazak comes out and offers both men a spot in his newly formed stable called Dave Prazak Association. Or DP. Get the joke? Eh? They accept the invitation and we have our first angle in the mid card ranks. Weeeeee!!! Although it's nice to see Jimmy Rave reading the stuff to Eddie. Sixth Match: Insane Dragon vs. "Mr. 630" Jerrelle Clark Backstory: None. Outcome: Jerrelle Clark via pinfall a Backbreaker Slam? It looked weird. Analysis: This is like the match before it only it's just a total throw out a move and hit it for no reason. They do the whole mat wrestling thing and then Jerrelle Clark basically kicks Insane Dragon's ass for a good deal of time. So much so it feels like a squash match at certain points. Then they do a double KO spot and Insane Dragon gets control until the finish. Both men are just doing anything to win without a rhyme or reason and for that reason, I extremely dislike that match. I just can't find a good thing to say about it other then the moves they threw out were pretty clean. But just generally skip over this match as well. *1/2Post Match: Dave Prazak offer both Dragon and Clark a spot in DP Association. They turn him down. So Rave and Vegas come out and beat them down. See, this is a good angle and it progresses. And I found myself rolling on the floor when Prazak yells "You'll be sorry you turned down DP!" Clark does make a challenge to them for the next night. Seventh Match: Don Juan w/Angel Williams vs. Jared Steel Backstory: None. Outcome: Don Juan via pinfall after a Super DDT. Analysis: I love Don Juan's gimmick. He has that whole "ladies man" thing as you could probably tell by his name. He fricken dances with a woman in the crowd before the match. It was great. But this match has that face/heel dynamic in effect, something not seen much in this show. But much like the theme of this show, it's unimpressive. Jared Steel doesn't show me anything remotely interesting in the way of a personality. The deepest moveset doesn't mean anything if you don't have a personality. Still, Don Juan spends most of his control segment either stomping on Steel or jawing at the crowd. But when Steel has the advantage, it's just, there. Still, seeing Don Juan, who was a favorite of mine for a while, was fun. This match as a whole, was lacking. Nothing more to say. 3/4*Post Match: Jared Steel spanks Angel Williams. . Eighth Match: CM Punk vs. Dan Maff in a No DQ, No Countout Match. Backstory: CM Punk is the top heel thus far in FIP. He wants the World Title and needs to make a statement before facing Homicide the next night. So why not go after Homicide's then friend. Also both of these men feuded in Ring of Honor in the Second City Saints vs. Prophecy angle. Outcome: CM Punk via pinfall after using the ropes for non cheating purposes. Analysis: This match is fun! Seriously, Punk as a cowardly heel is probably the best thing ever. The first thing to notice is when Maff wants to shake his hand. Punk does and Maff squeezes it. Punk sells it like death! I don't like the crowd chanting much during shows but "Punk's Got An Owwie" is fantastic. Maff does work on the hand a bit too, evening biting it. Then the next fun thing about this match is Maff using the old Three Stooges Nose Slap Of Doom!!! Words can not do the beginning of this match justice. It's that much fun. Notice this is the first time I've used that word so far. Fun. While this match isn't gonna be a MOTYC or anything, it's just a barrel full of laughs for the most part. I mean, at one point, Azrieal runs in to help his leader. Heel powder gets involved and it goes in Punk's face. The ref gets knocked out. Punk accidentally Piledrives Azrieal and covers him. Maff drops down and makes the three count. Punk gets up and acts like he is the best of all time. Then it dawns on him Maff was just screwing with him. Following that, we settle into a more of a normal match for a while with both men having a control segment in the ring. Kind of generic as it's a No DQ match but when people think of No DQ, they think of chairs. Still, it wasn't that bad. After Punk manages to throw Maff out of the ring, the fun starts again. They brawl and my god is it fun. First, Maff gets control back and hits Punk with a bucket full of condoms and well, let's say a parking cone was used for purposes it wasn't made for. Another humorous fan yelling something was when Punk was thrown into a moving truck. So a smartass fan just yells out "The driver is gonna be pissed!" While it's a small crowd, they're pretty fun. Once they get back into the ring though, it settles back into a normal match. So basically, this match is put into two parts. The fun sections and the normal match segments. The normal segments are by no means bad but after the fun start, the match doesn't know if it wants to be a wild brawl or a normally structured match. But this was very enjoyable and a very fun match for the most part. **3/4Ninth Match: BJ Whitmer vs. Homicide (c) for the Full Impact Pro Heavyweight Title. Backstory: The first defense of the title. BJ was just named the contender for this night. I have no idea why and it really doesn't matter much. Outcome: Homicide via submission after putting Whitmer in STF. Analysis: While this match is the best of the night, it does have it's faults to it. First, the generic mat wrestling to start. Now, I'm all for mat wrestling but when they do those deep arm drags and it doesn't lead anywhere, it tends to annoy me. And I get annoyed a lot. But everything is crisp in this match. The story is very little as it's mainly both men just doing what they can to put the other away. When Whitmer is in control, he wrestles like the heel, which is what he is being booked as in this show so it only makes sense to have him the weardown holds to get the face sympathy for Homicide but at no point did I think Homicide was in danger of losing the title. But for his credit, Whitmer does his best to try. As far as Homicide goes, you don't see him acting like an arseh*le like in RoH during this time period. He is a face down in FIP. So his offense is different. His control is pretty good though. He uses different Suplex types and his knee like faanother wrestling organizationash to wear down Whitmer. But the home stretch of this match is what makes it worth watching at all. Whitmer tries everything he can think of to end the match but there was just no chance for him get that three count because the dangerous Wrist Clutch Exploder, as demonstrated earlier in the show, didn't make an appearance. So while Whitmer lost, his finisher didn't get killed. Homicide on the other hand, only attemps the Cop Killa once and that was it. He does use his Ace Crusher twice though which devalues the move a bit seeing as how the second time he just transitioned to a Piledriver afterwards. Regardless, this was match of the night despite not ever having me think for a second that Whitmer was going to win because the big money feud for FIP at the time was going to be CM Punk and Homicide. Good match but they had better. ***Final Thoughts: This is a ho hum DVD. There isn't anything to go out of your way to see but it's fun in a way to see the cowardly CM Punk or Homicide as a face again. While this show ended on two good matches, there is just too much bleh to go through in order to get to those two matches. And even so, Punk vs. Maff and Whitmer vs. Homicide had better stuff in Ring of Honor. Thumbs down for Full Impact Pro Fallout Part One. While it does set the stage for some of the early angles, it's just too mediocre. I mean, when my analysis is only a paragraph for more then half the matches, it means that I just can't find anything to really say about the match. You're better off skipping this one kids.
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Post by recklessjack on Mar 23, 2008 23:03:28 GMT -6
Total Nonstop Action Bound For Glory 2005 Since Bound For Glory is this Sunday... I'd figure I could review the first one. So I'll do the best I can with backstories and everything. But here we go. The date is October 23rd, 2005. Preshow Segment: Double J, AMW and Gail Kim are all around a hearse talking about killing off Team 3D and then say someone is leaving in a casket tonight. Whoopie. Preshow Match: Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries vs. Sonjay Dutt. Backstory: None. A showcase match. Outcome: Sonjay Dutt via pinfall after a DragonRana on Roderick Strong. Analysis: Spotfest and make no mistake about it. That's what the X Division is all about and that's about it. These four guys get about twelve minutes to showcase what they can do and it came out pretty well dispite having Sonjay Dutt involved. I won't lie about it, not all that huge on Dutt but everyone hit their spots clean and it really got the crowd pumped for wrestling on this night. It wasn't the best spotfest I've ever seen but it was enough to keep my eyes on the screen long enough for everyone to do a signature move or two. But as the normal with TNA crowds, THEY NEVER SHUT THE HELL UP! Honestly, they're always chanting something it seems. Ugh. Regardless, this was probably the best preshow match TNA ever held in their time of doing it. Let's face it, when one match has this amount of talent... and Sonjay, it's hard not to do something half way entertaining. If this was a main show match, it would have been a show stealer but since it was a preshow match, it was largely forgotten after it happened because the only regular in TNA at the time was really Sonjay so the whole thing of him going over in the match wasn't a huge problem. Fun match to get the crowd pumped and that's what it was done for. Good job guys. **3/4 Preshow Segment: Shilling from West and Tenay. Then we get those match screens that have everyone in that match on there. Fun. I know all the main matches of the show. I feel so special now. Then we get some stuff from Tenay and West about having every wrestler being ready to take the spot of the injuried Kevin Nash... SHOCK! Preshow Promo: Raven is in the ring and complains about Larry Zzzz and how he should put Raven in the main event. Although Raven does give an entertaining line, this is pretty dull. After some banter between Raven and Larry, Rhino comes down to the ring and talks crap about Raven and then goes on a GORE streak. Fun. I could see why this was on the preshow though. Pretty meh stuff from Raven however hearing Raven say he would trade this moment for "God's balls in a nutcracker" is probably one of the best promo lines ever in TNA. Preshow Promo: Backstage with AJ Styles who talks about his Ironman match against Christopher Daniels. He compares his rivalary with Daniels to Georgia/Florida for college football. I find it hard to disagree. Hype Video: Who cares. Just a bunch of clips from earlier 2005 PPVs. Opening Match: Samoa Joe vs. Jushin Lyger Backstory: A dream match. Outcome: Samoa Joe via choking out Lyger. Analysis: This was sadly disappointing. For one, it was the opening match. Two, it was less then ten minutes. Honestly, why would you want to bring in Lyger for less then ten minutes. Pretty pointless but the match itself wasn't anything special. Thinking that it has Samoa Joe and Jushin Lyger, it'd rock the house no matter how much time it got but that's not the case here tonight. I found it to be very dull and it just served to have Samoa Joe put another notch in his belt for beating people in singles match as he had lost a few multiman matches even though he was never beat in them. As hard as West and Tenay try to shill this match to me as something great, I just can't buy it. Lyger vs. Joe was put in a horrible slot and they just came out with a flat match. I don't know who wasn't ready for this or if neither of them were just not feeling it that night but this was a vastly disappointing match. Joe does get all his normal offense it seems as Lyger does moves that just get a pop out of the crowd. If anything, this match was just more so trying to get the name Jushin Lyger on their biggest show of the year and didn't give a crap what this match did. Still, this could have been so much better then it was. ** Segment: Clips of the TNA Fanfest. Backstage Promo: Simon Diamond with Diamonds in the Rough. Generic promo from a rather boring team. Second Match: Diamonds in the Rough vs. Sonny Siaki/Apolo/Shark Boy Backstory: No idea. I think it's just a match. Outcome: David Young via pinfall after a Spinebuster on Siaki. Analysis: This was just one of those matches to get people on the card so they can get a pay day. I just couldn't manage to get excited about this match. It's on the short side and it's just action. Typical face in peril segment but I couldn't care about this match because it's a payday match. Really nothing to talk about. 1/2* Backstage Promo: Double J is backstage with Gail Kim as Shane Douglas is flapping his gums about god knows what and Jeff gives an answer. Meh. Monty Brown comes in and talks about the Pounce and Lance Hoyt. Weeeee, I don't care!!! Third Match: Lance Hoyt vs. Monty Brown Backstory: No video package is shown so I have no idea. Outcome: Monty Brown via pinfall after a POUNNNNNNNCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!... period. Analysis: One of the pure power matches that TNA has. It's nothing wildly great and pretty dull overall. Lance Hoyt is a perfect cure for insomnia. He basically offers nothing at all in this match outside of a plancha and an attempted moonsault. On the other hand, Brown has charisma and isn't hugely horrible here. He looks to be focused on beating the hell out of Hoyt during the process of the match but spends far too much time pandering to the crowd at points. Then again, most power matches have a lot of showboating after hitting a move. At one point, Hoyt hits a big boot and celebrates before going to the top and using that moonsault. He doesn't get the win either following the move. The same goes with Brown at certain points. After the Alpha Bomb, he took to long and celebrated after hitting one of his signature moves. Didn't get the win after the cover. This is a largely pointless match other then trying to show how athletic Hoyt is but seeing fat guys do a moonsault, it's less impressive. The same could be said about this match. Not impressive. * Segment: West and Tenay talk about Global Impact. Backstage Promo: Shane Douglas is with 3 Live Kru... I wanna cry now. BG goes on about god knows what. I don't think he even knows. Kip James then come in and offers backup. Konnan gets pissy and walks off. Bleh. Largely unimpressive again.
Fourth Match: Team Canada (Eric Young/Robert Roode/A-1) w/ Scott D'Amore vs. 3 Live Kru Backstory: No idea. I guess 3LK hates Team Canada, like all the other faces. Outcome: Eric Young via pinfall over BG James after Roode hit James in the head with a hockey stick. Analysis: Do I really have to talk about this match? Simply put, you're better off skipping this match. Less said, the better. I'm sorry but I just can't... ugh. This is near the end of WCW stuff here. Just a total wreck to watch. Not fun. Generic to the max. DUD Backstage Segment: Douglas is now with Larry Zzzz. Douglas mentions all the people that could face Jarrett tonight. Larry makes some explains and that's about does it. Fifth Match: Matt Bentley vs. Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin in an Ultimate X! Backstory: The winner gets to be Number One Contender for the X Division Title. There is a cool hype package before the match with some clips of all three men talking about it. Outcome: Petey Williams after the X falls into his hands after a botch. Analysis: First of all let me say this... the whole giant X idea that hangs off the wire is all well and good but they had problems keeping it up this time around. It fell off one time and the ring crew had to put it back up. Then the second time, it happened to fall into Petey's hands which technically made him the winner. A less then perfect way to end this match. They wound up having a rematch on the next Impact that was even better then this match. Regardless now that I have that out of the way... let's talk about the match. The whole object of Ultimate X is to make your way towards the title or giant X in this case. But think of the opening match and just take away one person and put the X into effect. The structure of this match or any ladder match is simple, get your opponents out of way before you try and go for it. Most of the time, someone gets caught and is brought down. This makes every Ultimate X suffer in one way or another. In my opinion, you've seen one, you pretty much seen 'em all. This doesn't stop these three from giving it all they have along with hitting their signature moves. This is far from the best Ultimate X match but it's far from the worse. It's right in the middle of the road and largely unexciting which is quickly becoming the theme of this whole show. These three tried so hard to make this great but with the X falling off the wires all the time and just being so formula, it didn't succeed in making a show stealing match. **1/4 Sixth Match: The Naturals vs. America's Most Wanted (c) for the NWA Tag Team Championship Backstory: There is a hype video that pretty much lets you know what happened so I got no reason to explain a lot of the story. Outcome: James Storm via pinfall on Chase Stevens following a Death Sentence. Analysis: This isn't a horrible outing. It was pretty good actually. The whole structure of this match is simple. Naturals want revenge on AMW while AMV is willing to take any short cut to win the match. However, as good as it was, once it got into the ring after a lengthy opening sequence of the floor, it got to be a formula face in peril match. The brawling was a great way to get across the hate in a match like this were both teams know each other so well. Once Storm was taken out for a while following a Powerbomb onto the guard rail, it takes him out for a good few minutes which allows Stevens and Douglas to beat up on Harris for quite a while. The first turning point comes after Gail Kim gets involved in order for Storm to take control on Douglas which leads into the face in peril. Following a beat down, the normal hot tag is made and Stevens cleans house. A few nearfalls occur naturally as then Gail Kim gets invovled again. This allows the second huge advantage as Douglas gets handcuffed to the guard rail while trying to take Kim out of the match. This gives the AMW the second advantage which is all they need to win this match. They use a bottle on Stevens' face and that sets up the finish of this match. This was a really fun encounter. The Naturals thought they could have taken it but AMW had that factor of Gail Kim that was huge throughout this reign as champions. This is the first good match on the show that I really enjoyed that didn't have a three Ring of Honor regulars. These two teams knew what to do and went out and excuted what they wanted to do. *** Seventh Match: Sabu vs. Rhino vs. Abyss vs. Jeff Hardy in a Monster's Ball 2! Backstory: Hype video. I love these... makes my job a lot easier. Outcome: Rhino via pinfall on Jeff Hardy after a Rhino Driver. Analysis: This is a garbage brawl. Spots with weapons, hardcore, whatever you want to call it. But these four made it fun to watch at times. The brutality level in this match is pretty amazing for a national product like TNA. Sure there isn't a gory amount of blood or light tubes, they make due with what they're given. Chairs, tables, ladders, tacks and all of that good stuff make these four men seem like they went through hell in order to win this match. However, one thing I have to point out... the TNA fans chant E-C-DUB once Rhino is out in the ring. Although ECW was fun, there is zero reason to chant that another promotions show. Small gripe I realize but it's just something more that annoys me about the fans in the Impact Zone. And why is Jeff Hardy covered in alien spunk? Just wondering. If you have an answer, please e-mail me. But this is a brawl. Nothing in the way of mat wrestling. Almost "bowling shoe ugly" at a few points. But when you have Jeff Hardy and Sabu who are pretty well known for blowing spots numerous times in a match, it's hard not to expect them to do it in this match. But there is too much brawling and not enough weapon usage at time. As West and Tenay shill this match, it makes me wonder how they can manage to keep a straight face most of the time. But it seems like Hardy and Abyss are squared off too much and the same with Sabu and Rhino. In the start, it's pretty much like a tag team match that is a straight up brawl. But once they weapons start to come, the good spots do as well. But as much as there is spots, there is dull filler chair shots that don't mean anything in the long run. This whole match is just summed up in the typical word of the night... dull. Much like the Ultimate X match, it's got some great points to it but it's just mainly hardly anything memorable in the scheme of things outside of these guys beating the hell out of each other. But whatever. This starts the whole run of Rhino for the big ending of the show. That's just me. You'd be better off finding a CZW match if you want hardcore and violence. I know its TNA and everything but when you tell me blood and violence and huge spots, I want them all the match. Not just here or there. ** Eight Match: Christopher Daniels vs. AJ Styles in Ironman or the X Division Title. Backstory: Hype Video. Outcome: AJ Styles wins 1-0. Analysis: While I'll make it no secret that AJ Styles is probably the most overrated wrestler in the United States, it won't bias me in this review in the least bit. Just thought I'd be honest and say that. West, the big goof, ends up stateing the obvious when he says you gotta win the most pinfalls to win the match. In the early going, they make it shown and Tenay renforces this... both men know what the other can do very well. In the first two minutes, they make it known when AJ attempts a dive and Daniels is quick to block him off. So AJ has to restort in trying a different way to make it through the defense of Daniels. But this whole match is structured like a normal match. It's a mix to start. Then after a few minutes, AJ gets the control by using the high flying moves of his. He manages to keep Daniels put in a side head lock for about a minute before it goes into a grounded head lock. Everything Daniels tries to do in a span of four minutes or so, AJ goes back to the side headlock. Even when Daniels tries to get AJ into a pin, AJ keeps the headlock in until Daniels finally reverses into an armbar. However, once Daniels tries to work the arm, AJ goes back to the headlock. Smart wrestling for once by Styles... this far. This first ten minutes of so of this match is AJ showing that he can outsmart Daniels in any turn. This isn't a bad game plan but but working that side headlock for so long, it makes AJ look dumb holding off on the big moves in order to get the first pin. But then Tenay and West have to point out that AJ is wearing him down. So that's what AJ wants to do and in the first ten or so minutes, it's exactly what he does. After those first ten minutes, Daniels finally gets his first real impact move in on Styles after an attempted top rope move in the Exploder Suplex. This turns the tide for Daniels as he starts to wear down AJ with anything he can think of much like the way AJ did to him. So as you can imagine, Daniels seemingly goes after the head of AJ. Once AJ tries for a couple of flash pins, Daniels gets him in the Koji Clutch which nearly beat him eight months ago at Against All Odds. But the main difference in this situation is that Daniels uses it way sooner then he did in their first iron man match. AJ knew how to get out of it and that's a sign of using that play off of the first Iron Man match and how well they know each other. After Daniels only gets control for five minutes, AJ regains it back and starts to bring out the high impact moves that would hopefully gain him the pinfall go one up on Daniels. The last fifteen minutes of this match is worked like a normal X Division match. A ton of moves thrown out at each other in order to get that meaningful first fall. During this time though, both men put it all on the line. Daniels even busts out a tope in order to get this advantage in the match. AJ does the same with a Somersault Plancha. So like I said, normal X Division fare right now with these moves. It's nothing bad though as they are hitting them clean and Daniels nearly kills AJ with a Backdrop Suplex off the apron. While it doesn't quite have the same effect as other moves off the apron seen as in Japan, it's pretty risky. Basically this match is divided into two parts. The mat worked part which takes up the first half of the iron man match and then the all out assault to end the match. That's something you usually see in X Division matches but this was given time to tell a story at times. That story being that both men knew each other's moves greatly and the finish plays off of the Unbreakable three way match where AJ is able to counter that Angels Wings into that pinning press and Daniels was able to kick out of it until they reverse moves and AJ finally gets the Styles Clash. Very smart finish considering what the X Division is known for. So basically, when you break down this match, it has nearly everything that means something to the X Division. The mat work, the high impact moves and flash pins. This was an excellent match. Probably the best match either man had in 2005 in TNA. While it's nothing near to what they could have done, they had to keep everything exciting for the Impact Zone fans which really haven't seen a whole lot of mat wrestling so they couldn't keep. For a comparison though, this is like Low Ki vs. American Dragon from Ring of Honor's first Round Robin Challenge. The first half of the match was the wrestling and the second was the high impact in order to put the opponent away. While that Ring of Honor match wasn't iron man, Styles and Daniels never made me believe that this was an iron man match until there as about ten minutes left in the match. Regardless, this was my "Match of the Year" in TNA for 2005. ****1/4 Ninth Match: Ten Man Gauntlet to face Jeff Jarrett right after. Backstory: They needed an opponent for Jarrett since Nash was unable to wrestle that night. Outcome: Rhino wins it. Analysis: I am unable to do it as the DVD always cuts out right after this match starts. I could watch it on fast forward but Gauntlets are hard to rate anyways. Main Event: Rhino vs. Jeff Jarrett (c) for the NWA World Title. Backstory: Rhino won Monster's Ball, he won the Gauntlet all in one night and now he has to wrestle a third time against Jeff Jarrett with Tito Ortiz as the ref. Outcome: Rhino via pinfall after a Gore. Analysis: This is basically a mauling. Jarrett is fresh and hasn't wrestled all night. While Rhino was beaten down. He was hurt, he was tired. So basically this match is Jarrett beating Rhino down a lot. However, Rhino refused to stay down. He refused to quit. Once Jarrett tried to introduce his guitar to finally put Rhino down, Ortiz took it away from Jarrett and that enabled Rhino to hit the Gore. That's about the whole match. So it wasn't as much of a match as it was a beating with someone going over Jarrett in order to make the fans happy. 1/2*
Final Segment: AMW comes down to the ring to help Jarrett beat down Rhino even more after the match. Jarrett basically got up after getting pinned to help AMW beat down Rhino. 3 Live Kru come down to help Rhino and then Team Canada comes down to beat down 3LK. The casket gets into the ring as Team Canada and Jarrett attempt to put Rhino in it. But before they could, TEAM 3D come back from the dead to clean house and take care of the bad guys. They put Eric Young into the casket as Rhino makes his way to his feet as all the faces celebrate to end the show. Final Thoughts: As being billed as their big show of the year, it was so lackluster and dull, it was pathetic. TNA continues to suffer from very weak Pay Per Views that usually have one to two good matches per show and thats it. That's all they could muster back then and now. If not for the pre show match, the Tag Team Title match and the Iron Man, this show would have been a total write off. But the only match to even track down from this show is the Iron Man match. This could be classified as a one match show but what are you gonna do? Thankfully I only paid $1.99 for this at a Gamestop because it was anything more, I would have been ripped off. Skip this show and just download the Iron Man match, it'll save you time and your sanity.
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Post by recklessjack on Mar 23, 2008 23:10:09 GMT -6
AJ Styles/Christopher Daniels vs. LAX © in a Tag Team Title Ultimate X Match at TNA No Surrender 2006 The Backstory: A lot of it which I hardly remember. It was a good feud and everything but LAX owned and beat Styles/Daniels in that Border Brawl on iMPACT to win the Tag Titles. This is the rematch and Cornette wanted to give Styles/Daniels a fair chance in an Ultimate X Match. Outcome: Christopher Daniels gets the belts to win for his team. Analysis: What I liked about this was that it was fresh from the old Ultimate X matches. It brought forth a new flavor in the most signature match Total Nonstop Action has come up with. One thing defines the good thing about this match, the spots. Ultimate X is a spotfest in the vain of a TLC or even a Scramble Cage. A lot of great double team moves from both sides but mainly LAX due to the powerhouse Hernandez. Probably one of the good bigger wrestlers in wrestling today in my humble opinion. He probably did better then Joe did in the Ultimate X he was placed in but he had Homicide to help him out too. Other then the spots is the cheating LAX tries to do to win this match like trying to use a ladder to get to the belts instead of trying to get across the X in order to win. Plus they added in the chairs and the tables to add even more danger to the Ultimate X match. Some of the better spots were: *Homicide's Tope Con Hilo on Daniels followed by AJ's Fozzybury Flop onto Homicide that looked to mess up his shoulder. *Hernandez's Border Toss on AJ Styles. That always gets a "Holy s**t" from me. *Then Hernandez's Cracker Jack on Daniels. Daniels flew across the ring. *Homicide's Ace Crusher from the top of the X. Amazing spot. *The Styles/Daniels combo of a Frog Splash-BME-Sprial Tap on Hernandez. *Styles Clash through the table to Homicide. *The Daniels Dive to grab the belts. That sums up everything remotely interesting about this match. What I didn't like about this match. It was far too plodding for an Ultimate X match. So much filler was involved. There was some good tag team moves like I mentioned but most of it was shrugged off due to the spots. I know that a match like Ultimate X wasn't supposed to tell a story with a body part but they got one when Daniels hit two moves to the arm of Homicide. If it had been Daniels or Styles getting the arm worked over, it would have made more sense. But this was just filler though. A lot of the filler offensive was due to Hernandez's size then anything else. He wasn't going to fly around the ring and when you have two brawlers with Homicide y Hernandez, you aren't going to see things you normally see in an Ultimate X match. Not like the one with Styles/Sabin/Petey Williams which was the best Ultimate X ever. However, even that one had its problems. In theory, Ultimate X is a great idea but much like a ladder match, there are so many ways you can mess it up. They tried so hard to make this a great match but they failed at some point and this just became a decent match on a pretty bad card. Probably one of the more overrated Ultimate X matches in TNA history but it was overrated because it was the first ever Tag Team version so they got a lot more credit then they deserved. **3/4Recommendation: It's worth a view for the historical importance of making Ultimate X difference but otherwise, you'd be better off finding another one to watch.
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Post by recklessjack on Mar 23, 2008 23:12:35 GMT -6
Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Lyger © for the World Light Heavyweight Championship at WCW Superbrawl II Backstory: It was a Title Match? I honestly have no idea.
Outcome: Pillman wins after a cradle pin.
Analysis: Both men bring the awesome in this match. To start the match, they do what nearly every indy match does anyone is the whole exchange thing with the near misses and double dropkick before stancing for the applause. This shows how much this match is respect as Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko would start their ECW matches like this. In the early going though, Pillman takes the advantage using his speed moves, mainly dropkicks. The main offense he brings to the match is high flying, hence why Jim Ross would call him "Flyin" Brian Pillman during his time in WCW. Pillman springboards, dropkicks and crossbodies his way through this match when he isn't trying to work over the midsection of Pillman with a Body Scissors or an Abdominal Stretch. He knows how to counter what Lyger tries to do at times like when Lyger goes for the Surfboard, Pillman gets to the ropes.
When Lyger is in control, he focuses on the leg of Pillman after Pillman made a mistake. Lyger uses kneebreakers, leg locks and a Figure Four to HUGE pop from the crowd. After Pillman reverses the Figure Four, Lyger keeps going after the knee, or tries to with stomps and a Single Leg Crab. But yeah, other then the knee control, this match is pretty back and forth with their moves, getting the crowd really into it. Both men use a dive to the floor at one point, making the crowd pop extremely hard. They weren't used to seeing this kind of action in the United States in the early ninties. This whole match outside of the small control segments is back and forth with counters to everything the other does.
One instance is Lyger going for a Crossbody and Pillman catches him with a Dropkick. Pillman tries to a Missle Dropkick but Lyger catches him with a dropkick. They're running so many counters with kicks for about a minute, it's very nice. The last third of this match is pretty much counters for anything they do or try. The huge downfall for Lyger in this match is when he goes for a Headbutt and Pillman moves out of the way and rolls him into a cradle to get the win.
Now, this match really helped getting the Junior Heavyweight Style recognized in the United States by the causal fan. Yeah, we all know about the hardcore fans but this match was vital I think. When you listen to the crowd pop for all these moves they are doing, it's insane. Anymore if someone does a Moonsault off the top rope, it's nothing. Ironic when Pillman wins though, a fan in the front row is giving him a thumbs down like he wanted Lyger to win. But yeah, this is a great early nineties match that showcases the ability of the juniors. Granted this doesn't hold up as well as some of the current stuff but this is a must see match mainly because it has Pillman and Lyger. They know what they want to do and they go out and do it but it just came down to that one last counter move that ended Lyger's title reign. ***3/4
Recommendation: Yes... now!
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Post by recklessjack on Apr 2, 2008 22:50:22 GMT -6
Wrestlemania X-7 Wrestlemania X-7 was the pinnacle of the Attitude Era in the WWF/E. Nothing needs to be said to hype Wrestlemania. Although I should note I will be using WWF, censors be damned! Date is April 1st, 2001. To start the show, there is a pretty neat video hyping up Wrestlemania and past Wrestlemanias. Great stuff as the WWE have always had a fantastic production team. Opening Bit: JR is welcoming us to Wrestlemania and everything. Interesting to note that "My Way" by Limp Bizkit has been replaced with that old Adrenaline Rush song that closed out TNA shows. Good stuff hyping it up. First Match: William Regal vs. Chris Jerico (c) for the Intercontinental Championship Backstory: Much like most WWF Pay Per Views, they handle the backstory. I don't have to explain anything! Yes! Outcome: Chris Jericho via pinfall following a Lionsault. Analysis: Best choice for an opener as far as a huge performer goes. Jericho gets reaction so why not place him in the opening slot of the show. But this whole match is based upon the bad shoulder of Chris Jericho that had been injured by Regal by using the Regal Stretch a few times or by using an object in order to make it bum. So that outta tell you the whole focus of this match. Other then a few miscues, this is a good opener. Jericho has to use the high impact style as JR would call it in order to keep Regal at bay while Regal is looking to injury that shoulder. While the shoulder work by Regal is good and it plays into the end of the match, it's very basic. He basically just throws Jericho into the ring post a few times and a couple of arm ringers, it's just stomping on it and arm locks. Being raised in the carny system in England, you'd think Regal would have been able to us a lot more painful looking submission moves instead of just being kinda boring on it. But they can't just use that kind of style on a global stage I imagine so they had to keep it basic and thus it does work out for most. For me though, he should have said to hell with the normal style and done the painful looking holds. To his credit though, Jericho sells the shoulder/arm like a true champion. Everything he does is designed to keep Regal off the shoulder. Even when he tries for the Walls, he can't lock it in because Regal had been working at that arm for quite a while. Even after the Lionsault, Jericho stops to sell the arm. I mean, he even SWITCHES the arm when he hooks the leg because that arm is just dead weight. You don't see that too often. So taking all of that in, along with a near total miss plancha, this is probably as good as an opening match that gets about seven minutes could do. I would have love to seen these two get double the time but they did the most with what they had and I loved it. ***Backstage Segment: Shane McMahon comes in to the arena in a limo. Backstage Segment: The APA are in their office. Bradshaw hypes the troops by talking about the history of the Alamodome. Second Match: The Right to Censor (Goodfather/Bull Buchanan/Val Venis) vs. Tazz/APA Backstory: I guess RTC had gave Tazz some guff over something. They need filler so that's how we got here. Outcome: Bradshaw via pinfall on Goodfather after a huge Burning Lariat. Analysis: This is one of those blink and you miss it kind of matches. The action is non stop as they hardly had anytime to work with. Didn't set the world on fire because it didn't have to. This got the crowd even more pumped up because the action is just fast and furious the whole four minutes or so they get. Nothing is wrong with it as they all got time in the ring. Tazz played the face in peril before Bradshaw gets the hot tag. Like I said, this is so fast and fun, there isn't anything I can really say about it other then it was best they got a short amount of time to keep the action going as if this would have gotten ten minutes, it would have gotten real boring. So that said, don't skip over this at all. *3/4Backstage Segment: Trish Stratus is wheeling Linda McMahon around until Steph McMahon stops them and acts like a total you know what. Third Match: Big Show vs. Kane vs. Raven (c) for the WWF Hardcore Championship Backstory: A match. I guess. Nothing to go along with it. Outcome: Kane via pinfall on Big Show after a divey thingy. Analysis: JR sums this match up before it begins, "It ain't gonna be pretty." But by gawd was it fun! This is probably one of the best hardcore matches the WWF did in this era. It had a few stories to it but the main one was pretty much said by Paul Heyman about Raven, get a shot in and run like hell basically. In doing so, these three men go all over the arena and just look like they're having a grand ole time. Tons of fun spots too. A couple were a bit strange but had me laughing such as the whole golf cart chase. Another instance is when they wipe out a Snapple table while JR and Heyman make smart ass comments about it. But this match is just a brawl and plunder spots. It didn't mean much in the long run or anything but jeez was this match tons of fun. **1/2Backstage Segment: Kurt Angle is watching a video of he who shant be named making him tap out. Edge and Christian come in all happy and fun going while Kurt is like "I never officially tapped out." Established that Angle is serious while E&C just wanted to have good times. In Crowd Segment: Coach is with a fan who said how far they came to see Wrestlemania. Backstage Segment: Rock arriving and is getting boo'ed. Fourth Match: Test (c) vs. Eddie Guerrero w/Perry Saturn and a pimp hat for the WWF European Championship Backstory: They give it to you. Outcome: Eddie Guerrero via pinfall after cheat to winage. Analysis: First of all, quite a reaction Test got from the crowd. It had to have been edited in. Anyways, this is another fun match. We all know about Test and his power advantage but Eddie really shines through here dispite being messed up during this time period. Probably his last good match before he got released towards the end of the year. But this match has a good structure to it. Eddie needs to chop down the tree of Test in order to have any chance in this match as Test would kill him in a fist throwing contest. So Eddie goes after the leg most of the match and does it in usual fashion, nothing outrageous. Test actually manages to do a good sell job for once on his end. Quite surprising as he usually just holds the body part and doesn't make a sound. Once Test makes his comeback though, Eddie had to change his gameplan again and this time, he cheated in order to try to win the title. Saturn ran in from ring side, Dean Malenko pulled the ref out, all of it contributed to Eddie's cheating cause. And in the end, it was all just too much for poor ole Test to handle. Eddie got a good match out of Test here. It's nothing mind blowing that'd you want to see on a daily basis but it was good enough as an undercard match at Wrestlemania when you're supposed to bring the "A" game and both men pretty much did. **3/4Backstage Segment: Michael Cole is backstage with Mick Foley, LIVE IN HOUSTON TEXAS! He gives the run down about the match he is reffing tonight. Backstage Segment: Austin arrives as the crowd POPS LIKE NONE OTHER! Fifth Match: Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit Backstory: I really can't remember but it started their great rivalry/feud that went on for years. Outcome: Kurt Angle via pinfall after cheating, holding the ropes. Analysis: Just because the WWE wants him to be erased from history doesn't mean I want him to be. This match was the start of probably one of the greatest wrestling feuds in WWF/E history, PERIOD! Think about the awesome these two managed to bring out in each other. This was their first match against each other on a huge stage and they put on a freaking clinic. The story is great. Angle wants to take Benoit to the mat to out wrestle him. In the process, Benoit manages to out wrestle Angle. Of course this doesn't sit well with Angle because of being a world class amateur wrestler. So Angle then says to hell with wrestling and then starts bring out the fighting skills needed to succeed in pro wrestling. This is where Angle starts to get the better of Benoit. He cheap shots Benoit a few times in order to get the advantage and take control of the match. Then everything settles down into as normal as match these two could manage to have. Both men have a signature submission hold that they keep going back to because they both know it would get them the win and in Benoit's case, Angle did tap out but the ref was bumped before hand and it never counted. But both wrestlers also went for their high flying move. Angle with his moonsault that missed and Benoit with his headbutt that connected and nearly got him the pinfall win. Most people hate the finish but for once, I like the cheap victory. Angle wanted to win, no doubt about it so he took any chance he could in order to get the best of Benoit. It was smartly worked. Cheap pins do work if they play into the context of the character and the match. And going back to that first cheap shot that turned the tide for Angle, it showed he would do anything to beat Benoit and he ultimately went back to it in order to win the match. But just fast forward to Unforgiven 2002 for a second. How did Benoit win that match? He beat Angle using the ropes, showing that during this feud, both men would do anything to get the win over each other. Now the one problem I had with this match was the ref bump but in a certain way of thinking, it was perfect in order to have Angle tap out and give Benoit the claim that he made him tap out again. So Angle knew that he had to take any road now in order to get the heck out of this match as the winner. This is probably one of the best Wrestlemania undercard matches not involving a certain opener where both wrestlers had the last name of Hart. I love this match. It started the best wrestling series in WWF/E history and made me a fan of the kind of wrestling where they do take it to the mat instead of the punch kick suplex stuff. If not for the main event, this would have been match of the night. ****1/2Backstage Segment: Cole is with Regal, trying to interview. Regal goes to his office to see Kamala on his desk. Haha, fun stuff. Forthood Segment: Kinda nice to see the WWF wrestlers at the US Army base in order to raise moral and everything. Good fun and all. Backstage Segment: Angle is backstage with KEVIN KELLY. What a blast from the past. Benoit attacks and puts him in the crossface and Angle again taps out! Sixth Match: Chyna vs. Ivory (c) for the WWF Women's Championship. Backstory: Hype video. Outcome: Chyna via pinfall after a Press Drop. Analysis: Uh, Chyna kills Ivory? Yeah, that about does it. DUD. Backstage Segment: Vince McMahon is backstage with Linda, Steph and Trish. Plans are being made and everything. Cole comes in and tries to get an interview. McMahonamania is running wild!!!! Seventh Match: Vince McMahon vs. Shane McMahon in a Street Fight with Mick Foley as the ref for it. Backstory: Hype video. Outcome: Shane McMahon via pinfall after a Van Terminator!!! Analysis: One word sums this whole "match" up and that is overbooked. And in this case, being overbooked is a fantastic thing. There is maybe a total of four minutes of wrestling like action and the rest is just good fun. Think about it, if this was a straight up match, it would have sucked. But since it had a no dq stip, a ref willing to bump and one of the wildest angles in WWF history, you got tons of fun. There are so many underlying stories that get taken care of here. Trish finally getting revenge on Vince for humiliating her. Steph getting hers from Trish. Linda standing up from the chair and kicking Vince in the grapefruits. Sure the wrestling is pretty much not there but all of those factors make for one wild ride that words can't describe at all. This is a must see on entertainment value alone. ***1/4 for everything involved with it. Backstage Segment: Triple H is looking ready and so is the Undertaker as they are getting ready to face off here tonight. Eighth Match: Edge and Christian vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz (c) in TLC II for the WWF Tag Team Titles Backstory: Do you really want to know? Outcome: Christian grabbing the belts with help from Rhyno. Analysis: Spotfest and make no bones about it. This match was designed to get the crowd to pop as many times as they could before the six would end up killing each other in order to entertain those fans as much as possible. There is more then enough going on in this match at some points while at others, all six and then later, nine are down due to the carnage that was taking place. It's hard to analyize a match like this because well, it's a collection of spots that are more then enough to entertain anyone to some point. Unless you're a true pure wrestling fan and you'll find yourself skipping this whole match in the first place. But unlike the first TLC match, this second one has run ins. Spike for the Dudleyz, Lita for the Hardyz, Rhyno for E&C. It added another level for TLC at this point because it all changed the way the match was going at the point where each of them ran in. Rhyno would end up making the most difference as you could imagine while Spike and Lita were handled with ease. There are a few repeat spots from their earlier matches such as Jeff's Swanton off the biggest ladder. Time hasn't been kind to this match though as the ladder match has just become a shell of what it once was with the advent of Ultimate X and ladder matches in other promotions where they really could probably kill each other. At the time, this was the ladder match and for some, it still might be. When I first saw this, I was blown away but now, it just seems like another TLC match with the repeated spots from the Triangle Ladder match at Wrestlemania 2000 and TLC I. Still, it's another one of those fun matches. ***1/2 Video Segment: Clips are shown of WWF Axxcess or whatever in the heck it was called. Just filler for cleaning up the ring after TLC II. Ninth Match: Gimmick Battle Royal Backstory: This is fun. Outcome: Iron Sheik wins it and he didn't make anyone humble either. Analysis: Do I have to? Just sit back and watch this. NR. Tenth Match: Triple H vs. Undertaker Backstory: Hype video. Outcome: Undertaker via pinfall after the Last Ride. Analysis: This was better then I'd thought it'd be. It had a basic set up to make the match which you'd see on the hype video. But this is a brawl, pure and simple. It takes the main event style that was used during this era and used pretty darn well. Both men got their control time and a wild brawl out in the crowd. Triple H wanted to use his trusty sledgehammer to get the job done most of the time. Undertaker had many moves to finish this one with. The best part of this occurs during the ref bump when they get wild and go into the crowd and just start throwing fists at each other and nothing more. The Chokeslam bump wasn't all that impressive once they switched camera views but hey, for the WWF, that's hardcore. But this match was just a basic set up of the heel vs. the face. It was a good match. I just don't know what to say about it. Maybe this would help. ***Backstage Segment: Rock walks with the title. Backstage Segment: Austin walks out of his locker room, determined. Eleventh Match: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs. The Rock (c) for the WWF World Champion Backstory: This is the best video package in WWF/E history. More so when it has "My Way" by Limp Bizkit with it. It sums it up all nicely when Austin says "I need to beat you Rock, I need it more then anything you can imagine." Outcome: Steve Austin via pinfall after a gazillion chair shots. Analysis: Paul Heyman sums this up. "This is the match both men need to win and neither man can afford to lose." But this is probably the single greatest match in the Attitude Era. And I'm not joking when I say that. It plays off of years and years of Austin's history and it builds to his heel turn. Think about this. Austin attacks before the bell. He uses his knee brace. He gets the ring bell in order to inflict more pain on Rock. Everything in this match pointed to his heel turn. He even tried to use the belt in the beginning stages of the match in order to give Stone Cold any kind of opening to beat The Rock in this match. Was it the wrong arena and place to do it in, you bet you ass it was. Just listen to the mega pop for Austin during his entrance. I can only imagine what that was like live. But this was just made for Austin's turn. Now, the history that these two used worked out great. Austin busting out the Cobra Clutch. Rock using the turnbuckles like Bret Hart did a few times when Austin had it locked in on him. This time Austin knew well enough to let the hold go to not get pinned like Hart did to him. Then you have the homage to Wrestlemania 13 when Rock gets Austin in the Sharpshooter and the blood is pouring down Austin's face. Keep in mind that Rock had never beaten Austin up to his point on a stage like Wrestlemania. So why not use that Sharpshooter in order to get a win because it was the move that forced Austin to pass out at Wrestlemania 13. Austin tries anything to keep the Rock down. The Rock Bottom, Cobra Clutch, the chair shot from Vince and even the Stunner itself couldn't put the Rock away because the Rock wanted to retain the title that much. When Rock tries to win after the People's Elbow, Vince comes out and pulls Rock right off of Austin, shocking the ever living hell out of the crowd. They didn't know why but once Austin told Vince to get the chair, it all became too apparent why Vince was down at ringside. Austin sold himself out in order to become the WWF Champion again. Austin always wanted to be the top dog and to see Rock taking control of the WWF while Austin was out just made him want it that much more, to show he was the best ever. To show that he was better then Rock despite Rock never beating him at a Wrestlemania in a title match. This match had so much going for it. The super hot crowd. The psychology of the years Austin had spent wrestling Bret Hart in order for Rock to try to use that game plan in order to beat his hated rival. But everything in this match built towards the moment when Austin knew the Stunner couldn't get it done and decided to turn Rock into mush after hitting with the chair again and again and again until Rock was able to stay down for the three count and Austin was finally champion of the federation he brought back from the depths of hell thanks to WCW. This was the swan song for the Attitude Era in my opinion and this was the only conceivable way to end it. But like I said, was it the best idea to have Austin's turn take place in Texas? Of course it wasn't. But I guess in the long run, they wanted to prove the point that Austin wanted to turn in front of people from Texas. The people who cheered for him through everything that had gone on during this match. Even when Stone Cold was shaking Vince's hand, they were still cheering as JR was exclaiming that Austin had sold his soul to the devil himself. But the title was on the line and that was good enough for Austin to sell out everything he believed in order to become the WWF Champion once again. And you better believe this was the pinnacle of both of their careers in my humble opinion because it cemented their legacies as the two greatest performers during the Attitude Era. *****Final Thoughts: This is probably the greatest pay per view this century. You can make the claim that Ring of Honor Driven was better pure wrestling wise. But that's catered towards a general area of fans. This shows had something for everyone. It had the main event style, it had the wrestling, it had the spot fest, it had the old timers in the Gimmick Battle Royal and it had Austin doing anything in order to become the WWF Champion again. I can not praise this pay per view enough. So do yourself a favor, watch this again. Watch it for the first time if you haven't seen it. You owe it to yourself as a wrestling fan to see what is probably even the greatest WWF/E pay per view of all time. Thumbs way up for this one folks.
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Post by jlhfan69 on Jun 13, 2008 21:48:34 GMT -6
Final Battle is the last show Ring of Honor holds every year. There is usually something noteworthy on these shows. 2005 was no different as Naomichi Marufuji and KENTA from Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan made their debuts with Ring of Honor on this show. The date is 12/17/05.
Opening Segment: We have Low Ki talking about how he's improved in a year since being in NOAH. Various clips of Low Ki are played as pictures of KENTA are seen as these two are the main event into with the GHC Juinor Heavyweight Title being defended! Truly an honor.
First Match: Jimmy Rave w/Prince Nana vs. Milano Collection AT
Backstory: None. Outside of the crowd continuing to throw toilet paper at Rave pre match. God that's a great bit.
Outcome: Jimmy Rave via pinfall after Greetings From Ghana
Analysis: First of all, it's sad that MCAT never got more time in Ring of Honor. He was a fairly good talent but left for reasons that are unknown to me. Any help would be grand. Regardless, this is a fine choice for an opener. The crowd hates Rave thus the crowd would be hot to start the show. Fine wrestling in this one, sure it has that generic stuff I can live without but what are you gonna do? Milano Collection AT brings quite an interesting offense into this match. He is able to frustrate Rave at a few points here or there along with some good looking moves. One of which showed us his leaping ability as Rave was on the apron, down and MCAT jumped from the floor to dropkick him in the face.
Rave brings the typical Rave stuff. Nothing flashy, almost bore you to sleep. But at this point you know its coming so why bother fighting it and just accept that Rave as a heel while wrestling is just generally boring. Although it was great seeing him break out the From Dusk Till Dawn again. Been a while since it had been seen at this point. However, they do appear to botch a Northern Lights Suplex so that's not fun. But outside of that, there is nothing wrong at all with this match. It continues to show that Rave is a generally boring wrestler with the best manager in the world at ringside to help garner heat for him. This match accomplished what it was supposed to do. Get the crowd interested in the show and put on a good display.
Like I said though, I just wish MCAT would have been around longer. But as it is, great opener, good heat, good match. ***
Second Match: Azrieal vs. Colt Cabana
Backstory: This was supposed to end the Colt/Homicide feud but Homicide had an injured shoulder that forced him to not compete in this show. So we get this instead.
Outcome: Colt Cabana via pinfall after a Lariat complete with flip by Azrieal.
Analysis: This match is divided into two parts. Comedy and all out serious. Colt comes into this match, still messed in the head because of the feud with Homicide. Azrieal on the other hand, wants to have fun in the match like Colt wants to. So in the early stages, Azrieal tries to act like a mini Cabana. Would have been a great gimmick for him as he pulled it off really well. But Colt wants nothing to do with the fun and games. One of the things to notice is Azrieal chanting dance towards Cabana but Cabana wants none of it. So as you could tell, Cabana is business like. The second half of the match sees Azrieal take control for a bit but it's just too much Cabana for him. This whole match was just designed to show Cabana is still messed in the head because of Homicide. While it wasn't all that great in the wrestling aspect, it just put over that Cabana just wasn't himself. And he'd stay that way for quite a few more months until he ended his feud with Homicide. Fun stuff from Azrieal and great seriousness from Cabana.
However, these two didn't really click all that well once the wrestling portion of the match started. Mainly angle advancement as far as I am concerned as at one point, a fan told Cabana to show some mercy. Cabana responds with "Why show mercy?" See, it's the things like that that help out a character. But like I said, the wrestling was bland but just enough to be entertaining. **
In Ring Segment: Right after this match, the lights go out as Homicide's music hits. Homicide comes out with his arm in a sling and cuts a heel promo. He mainly talks about how much he hates Ring of Honor, Steve Corino for messing up his shoulder and that he plans on killing Corino tonight. Well, he isn't called Homicide for nothing yanno. He does tell Cabana to stay out of his mother-effin' business or he will eff him up. THIS IS A SHOOT! So you know what is gonna be coming on later.
Third Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Nigel McGuinness (c) in a Pure Title Match.
Backstory: This is the blow off match for a feud that's been going on for a while. A couple of clips are shown to know what is going on but there are two refs for this match as Nigel has cheated to beat a Double C a couple of times. Nigel loves using his iron.
Outcome: Nigel McGuinness via DQ as Claudio originally won after hitting Nigel with the iron but the second ref saw Double C use it. Dusty finish basically.
Analysis: This is a good Pure Title match. If you know the story behind the need for two refs, the whole thing makes sense. If you don't, look back on some of the shows they faced off in 2005. But the story of the match is Nigel getting frustrated because of the second ref on the floor that notices all the little things he does in order to get the edge in Pure Title matches. It's a good gimmick to put onto this match, it really is. It added to what they were going for in the way of story telling. Nigel likes to cheat, he can't because of that second ref. However, once the second ref gets knocked out, Nigel is able to go back to cheating to get the edge of Claudio after a fine wrestling sequence which is what the Pure Title is all about. But yeah, after the ref on the floor eats a tope, Nigel takes over Claudio and dominates him by manipulating the ref to his advantage to gain that edge. Smart right? I thought so. What I don't like though is Claudio's comebacks. His offense mainly consisted of European Uppercuts of all varities and while those are all well and good, it gets a bit tiresome.
Otherwise the only other thing I have a problem with is the finish. But it in a sense, it fit into the whole story pretty well. Claudio used Nigel's iron to knock him out. The ref in the ring was down but the ref outside just saw it in time but was still groggy. The crowd exploded for the win as it seemed for Double C but the rug was taken out under them. Now, a real finish would have been nice instead of this but you can't have everything all the time. That said, this is still a good match. Nothing wrong with it outside of the dusty finish and the two ref bumps. ***1/4
Fourth Match: Alex Shelley w/Prince Nana vs. Steve Corino
Backstory: None.
Outcome: Alex Shelley via pinfall after a roll up.
Analysis: Outside from some good arm psychology for the most part from Shelley, this isn't much to write home about. I've never been a huge fan of Corino's in ring work. On the mic, the guy is good but in the ring, not so much. Remember this are my opinions here. Regardless, Corino bring much to the match outside of some early ear work. You heard me correctly, Corino was working Shelley's ear. I just Corino is just a bit jealous over people who can use both. Whatever though, it doesn't really go anywhere in the long run and looks a little foolish. Shelley though, he uses a few different arm locks and kicks at the arm to wear it down. Nothing exciting about it but it still works to give this match something to base on. At one point though, it looked like Corino hurt his knee legit. But with the arm work started, Shelley just couldn't switch focus. Corino loses points for using an STO with the bad arm. That's just being lazy. Then again, looking at Corino... nevermind. The ending was a bit flawed as Nana attacked the ref and never got DQed. Bleh.
The whole match isn't that bad but it's not great either. It falls in between at okay. It just had a whole kind of basic feel to it which is quite alright but with Shelley and Corino, there should have been more to it. A roll up to win didn't make a whole lot of sense either. Some kind of arm submission would have been the better way to end it then a roll up out of nowhere for the three count. At Shelley tried. **1/2
In Ring Segment: Right after the match, Steve Corino gets attacked by Steve Corino. You know what starts to hit the fan, pardon my language, once Homicide gets a bottle of Drano. Cabana sprints down to save and he ends up getting beaten down and Homicide ACTUALLY PUTS THE DRANO DOWN CABANA'S MOUTH! JESUS CHRIST. Homicide does live up to his name. A bunch of unknowns come into make the save as Cabana throws up. Not something I want to on my TV but it gets the angle advanced.
Another In Ring Segment: Gary Michael Capetta is in the ring explaining a few things about Jay Lethal who has just turned heel. Lethal comes out and cuts a boring and dry promo about why he turned on Samoa Joe. It was all about the money. So Lethal declares himself to be the hottest free agent in wrestling today. Too bad a few months later, he would actually leave Ring of Honor to focus more on TNA and get a personality. Good for him.
Fifth Match: Jay Lethal vs. Samoa Joe vs. BJ Whitmer vs. Christopher Daniels
Backstory: Tons of it. Lethal had just turned on Joe recently. Whitmer hates Daniels for leaving RoH when TNA pulled him. Daniels and Joe are at odds because their old rivalry came back up. That's the short version.
Outcome: Jay Lethal via pinfall on Christoper Daniels after a Diving Headbutt.
Analysis: This is a really good Four Corner Survival match because all four had a reason to be in this match. As noted in the backstory, there is a lot of hate with most of these guys. This is when a four corner match shoud be booked, when they have people with reasons to dislike each other. Not just the jobber slot crapfest they were getting into the role of being. See some of the 2004 ones when Trent Acid would stink up the joint in the four corners matches. Anyways, now that little rant is over, this is a finely worked 4CS. Lethal wants to keep away from Joe the whole time. Daniels and Whitmer have a huge issue that never got settled in the long run I think. Daniels and Joe just plain out don't like each other because of what happened back in the day. The problem with this match is that it settles into a tag match like most of them do. In this case, the two "heels", Lethal and Whitmer, work over Daniels in order to gain sympathy for a hot tag. So why not book this as a tag match right? Well they couldn't because of the Daniels/Joe issue. So the tag formula worked in this case until everything went to everyone in the ring at once, hitting moves on one another.
The finish was pretty meh all things considered. I won't spoil too much of this match. But looking at this match, it was well booked and pretty well executed outside of the whole tag formula it settles into. Loads of fun, continues angles, good wrestling to boot. ***1/2
Intermission: Cappetta is backstage with The Embassy (Shelley, Rave and Nana.) The three talk about how bad 2005 was for them and how much better 2006 would be for them. Shelley thinks they should play by Ring of Honor's rules instead of beating everyone down. Fun promo stuff all around. Nana and Shelley both own hardcore. Rave isn't too bad but he was better with Nana as his mouth piece.
Sixth Match: Ricky Reyes vs. Davey Andrews
Backstory: Ricky beats up students. Davey is the top student. Good enough right.
Outcome: Ricky Reyes via submission after a Dragon Sleeper.
Analysis: I can't analyze this match as it cuts away to Corino talking about what Homicide did and why he is leaving Ring of Honor again. This is like the fifth time now.
In Ring Segment: After we get done with the previous "match", Ricky Reyes destroys the top of the class trophy which brings out Austin Aries, who was the head trainer at this time. Aries grabs a microphone and makes quite a few almost shoot comments that royally piss off Reyes, setting up a bit a feud between Gen Next and The Rotwillers.
Seventh Match: Austin Aries and Roderick Strong vs. Sal Rinauro and Tony Mamaluke (c) for the Ring of Honor Tag Team Championship
Backstory: Aries and Strong had earned this shot in a few different ways.
Outcome: Austin Aries via pinfall on Sal Rinauro after a 450 Splash.
Analysis: This tag match is divided into a great team, Aries and Strong, against a fluke team, Rinauro and Mamaluke. When Aries and Strong are in control, this is a good match. Both men know each other well and made a fantastic team. Then again, Strong could team with a monkey and they'd be awesome. When Rinauro and Mamaluke control the match though, it's just boring. Mamaluke does more of his shoot style in Ring of Honor then the high flying he did in ECW. Rinauro was still getting better at this point but was still nothing to write home about. But this is near a squash match that goes quite a while to make the champs look somewhat good before their reign ended.
That said, this whole match is only worth anything because of Aries being able to get great heat from the crowd while playing the face in peril and the double teams Strong and Aries pull off. They were probably the best choice to take the belts off of Mamaluke and Rinauro because they were over and a regular team, not just two people thrown together like Sal and Tony were. So all things considered, this isn't a bad match by any means, just a way to get the belts off of the champs and onto the Gen Next team. **3/4
Eighth Match: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Bryan Danielson (c) for the Ring of Honor World Championship
Backstory: Marufuji signed the open contract that had been sent out to Pro Wrestling NOAH for the shot.
Outcome: Bryan Danielson via pinfall after a pinning combination.
Analysis: This was a match of two halves. In the first ten to twelve minutes in this match, it seemed that Marufuji didn't wrestle with everything in it. Almost kinda lax if you will. Danielson on the other hand, he was just starting to get into his role of being a huge arseh*le, something he plays very well. But the biggest downfall of the first half of the match is that there is nothing that sets Danielson apart from Marufuji. Every time Danielson would try to use a dirty-ish tactic, 'Fuji would just fire back with something. Then when they go onto work the leg of Marufuji, it's nothing really out of this world but enough to make it try to be a hindrance on Marufuji. So during his comeback segment, he completely no sells every single bit of leg work done by Danielson. Rather frustration if you ask me when that happens. But the finishing stretch to this match is just so hot, it more then makes up for the first half of the match. There were so many believable near falls done by both men. The finish was perfect as both men had been exchanging roll ups and Danielson just got the better of the whole thing.
So when you put the two halves together, you get a good match. But this should have been way better then what it was. It's one of those matches where each time I watch it, I like it less and less. That said, it's still something to see because it is Naomichi Marufuji's first Ring of Honor appearance and puts on a good match with Danielson. It's just all how you think wrestling should be with this folks. ***1/4
Ninth Match: Low Ki vs. KENTA (c) for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship
Backstory: Low Ki had been wrestling for NOAH for a year now and is getting a title shot. It says something that he is getting the shot in the States instead of Japan about how much they value him. Still, this is KENTA's first Ring of Honor match.
Outcome: KENTA via pinfall after his knee kick (I can't spell it.)
Analysis: STIFF KICKS! Those are two words to mostly sum up this match. Both men kick the ever living crap out of each other for quite a spell of time. Each strike is just so hard hitting, it's amazing that either of them could walk. That's half the fun in this match alone is watching them stiff each other, in my opinion anyways. It shows that both men are equal as far as wrestling ability goes (and when Low Ki is playing more a face then a heel.) But as much fun as the kicks are, that's about the only thing that they do other then plant each other with good moves or combos like the KENTA combo that you sometimes see CM Punk do now a days. This match would have been match of the year if it wasn't for one thing and one thing alone.
The whole problem with this match is the finishing stretch for the most part. These two unload the big moves on each other after they felt like they had kicked each other enough. Take the Pop Up Falcon Arrow for instance. That could have very well been the finish easily but Low Ki was still able to kick out of it and keep on going. You could make the argument that they were using the junior style of Kobashi's top this move for a pop which effectively killed Strong Style from what I've read. It's fun to watch but still, there are only so many moves a guy could take, more so at their size, before hauling it in for the day.
All of that said though, this was the best match of the night and a lot of fun to watch. I'd love to see this again someday but I'd highly doubt that as Low Ki did leave NOAH to go back to TNA. Big mistake on his part. Regardless, this caps off a very good show and made Low Ki look like a true challenger for the belt at Stateside instead of in Japan. I should track down their Japan match... oh yeah. Here is the rating. ****
Recommendation: This is a good show. Every Final Battle show always has something to go out of your way to see. 2002 had that 4 Corner Survival. 2003 had the AJPW vs. RoH series. 2004 had that huge match between Aries and Samoa Joe that has now become folklore. 2005 had KENTA and Marufuji debuting and putting on some good/great matches. This show is a very solid recommendation as it gets the viewer caught up on some of the early angles for 2006 and ends some of them that took place in just 2005. What are you waiting for? Go get it now! Ten dollar sale right now... it might be on there!
Too bad it's sold out the last I knew.
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Post by jlhfan69 on Jun 13, 2008 21:50:16 GMT -6
Ring of Honor Manhattan Mayhem Review
Yeah... a DVD review. This show happened on May 7th, 2005.
Segment: The show opens with Good Times, Great Memories LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY!!! Colt Cabana starts talking about his history with Nigel McGuiness. Colt asks random people on the street about what they think of Nigel. Hilarious way to open the DVD.
Segment: Now we go to Samoa Joe standing the ring before the show waiting for Jay Lethal. Lethal comes down to the ring and thanks for Joe for helping him along in his career. They both exchange some heated words and get in each others grills. Another good segment to start the DVD off with. To the show!
Opening Match: Ring Crew Express vs. Izzy & Deranged vs. Dixie & Azrieal
Right after the Ring Crew Express get to the ring, the CARNAGE CREW come back after a 90 day suspense at the hands of losing to the RCE at one of the third year anniversary shows. Carnage Crew beat them down pretty hard and then cut a heel promo that sounded exactly like their face promos. Just with more yelling if that was possible. So now the match is changed.
Opening Match: Izzy & Deranged vs. Dixie & Azrieal
Backstory: The former Special K members find themselves on the opposite sides. Izzy and Deranged are part of the Lacey's Angels while Dixie and Azrieal are becoming more serious. The losing team has to disband. Aw... This whole match is going to be filled with spots. There isn't going to be any meaning behind them but oh god will there be spots.
Outcome: Izzy via pinfall after a SICK Reverse Rana on Azrieal.
Analysis: I can't tell Izzy and Deranged apart. Until Jimmy Bower tells me that Deranged and Azrieal are in the ring. Wooo. Basic start as you could probably expect. Face bitchslaps heel, heel gets pissed, crowd chants. "Mat wrestling" to start this whole match off. Pretty clean. Izzy and Dixie then find themselves in the ring as they start with the spots. The action goes so d*mn fast between these two teams here at the start, I can't type that fast. Although Dixie and Azrieal hit a very nice Leg Drop/Back Suplex combo to get the advantage. Azrieal needs a better name to spell because I keep messing it up. While he has the advantage over Deranged, he uses a couple of good power like moves and a bad looking Octopus Stretch. Deranged switches it into a DVD which turns the tide to Lacey's Angels.
The typical face in peril segment comes in now as Lacey's Angels use a huge variety of moves to keep Azrieal from making the tag. This includes one of my favorite double team moves... A Doomsday Ace Crusher. That is a great move and should be in every tag match so people can bow down to the awesome it manages to bring. They manage to botch a top rope thing for a minute as Azrieal Superplexes Izzy off for the big double countdown moment. Typical hot tag offense comes now. Nothing really fancy but the spots start to come now and they come clean for once. Considering these four guys, that's very surprising. The huge turning point is when Azrieal accidentally Double Stomps Dixie. More spots as we get the finishing sequence.
This was the perfect way to open the show. Even with the Carnage Crew taking out RCE before the match started this crowd was HOT! Everything these guys did got a response from the crowd. Even the botches went pretty much unnoticed... all two of them. This is probably the best straight up tag match any of these four wrestlers have had that I've seen. Great job guys and a great way to start this show. **3/4
Second Match: Colt Cabana vs. Nigel McGuiness
Backstory: They tagged together for a couple of shows but Colt was too goofy for the serious Nigel. But they remained friends and this is the first of the two friendly matches here tonight.
Outcome: Nigel McGuiness via pinfall after a kick to the groin and a roll up.
Analysis: What a fun match. These two men know each other and they both know how to use that Euro style of wrestling that is a lot more mat based then what you'd see in the US. Don't expect a whole lot of Planchas or Powerbombs here. This match is fun from the start when Colt kept on switching hands for the code of honor to be upheld. Great stuff. But as far as this match goes, it's pretty well divided into two parts; the comedy of Colt and the wrestling of Nigel. Both men use the wristlock to start before Colt takes the advantage use his... hilarious tactics for lack of a better term. Colt tries to pin Nigel about six different times at one point, lifting his leg up to force the shoulder of Nigel down. Then once he tries to pick Nigel up, he steps on his hand while Nigel screams. Colt claims innocent. Great stuff. This is why Colt could be a huge star in WWE. Otherwise, Colt spends his time dodging the Artful Dodger of Nigel McGuiness or other pinning moves.
When Nigel is in control, he focuses on the shoulder of Cabana with a lot of variety. He slams down Colt on that shoulder numerous times as hard as he can. Although Colt forgets about it once he starts in with the backslides and roll ups. In a perfect wrestling world, the shoulder wouldn't have held up that well after the offense Nigel used on it. Otherwise this match is spilt in control and a lot of fun to view. I would go into deeper analysis with this one but it's so much fun to watch I'd hate to ruin too much of it. Regardless, this was a very well worked match. The ending made well enough sense as they were dodging each others roll ups and Nigel accidentally got him down in man land before pinning him. They sort of make up after the match with Nigel claiming he didn't mean it. This served to further an angle between the two so everything worked out well. ***1/4
Promo: Alex Shelley talks about his history with Ring of Honor and Generation Next. Great promo from Shelley, one of his best.
Third Match: James Gibson vs. Black Tiger
Backstory: Gibson wanted someone from NJPW after what he thought was an embarrassing performance at Best of American Super Juniors.
Outcome: James Gibson via submission after putting Black Tiger in a Front Choke hold.
Analysis: Both men bring the awesome to this match out of nowhere. I thought they could produce something good in this match but they went above and beyond in my book. This whole match has a great style and a great feel to it. Gibson is so watered down in the WWE it would surprise you to see his Ring of Honor work like it did to me. I thought Gibson wasn't bad in the WWE but in RoH, he is godly. Seriously, he knows how to work a match like none other. Typical start like you'd see in most technical matches. Working into wristlocks, hammerlocks and that sort. Like I said, a start that you'd see a few times with Gibson. After a few back and forth minutes, things spill out for the floor where we get our first control segment of the match.
Gibson is able to pick up Tiger and RAMS him into the sheet over the guard rails as hard as he can. I mean, Gibson nearly sprints doing this to Tiger. Gibson then uses a lot of different kinds of offense to stay on the attack. Leg Drops, Headbutts, Suplexes, right hands, submission holds, anything to wear down Black Tiger. Only for a couple of minutes though as Tiger takes advantage of Gibson's aggressiveness. Tiger uses more of the same kind of attack to wear down Gibson but mainly focuses on the head to set up the Tiger Suplex. Smart thinking right? I know I'd want to wear down the head to use my finisher. Tiger keeps the attack until he misses a top rope move.
Now the fun begins. Both men start to go back and forth with submission holds. At one point, Tiger has Gibson in a Cross Armbreaker into which Gibson reverses to a Texas Cloverleaf. This gives Gibson a small advantage to take care of. More reversals as we finally get the double KO point for a rest. Tiger hits his Tiger Suplex after a couple of reversals for a near fall. And he gets some height on it. It was just... fantastic! That very could have been the finish. Tiger is shocked. Tiger unloads with kicks and tries to finish with a Fisherman's Suplex. Doesn't work. Then he sets Gibson in an ankle lock which plays in a few moments later. Tiger is on the top rope and jumps off with a Crossbody. Gibson sees it coming and puts out leg with the now bum ankle. Tiger lands on it and GIBSON SELLS THE KNEE! You don't see that hugely often. That leads into the finish.
This is pretty much could have main evented a show, it was that good in my opinion. Both men know how to work and they both bring a similar yet different style to the table and it meshed extremely well. I would have loved to see it again but I don't think it ever happened. Regardless, this is another great match. ***3/4
Fourth Match: Roderick Strong/Jack Evans vs. Jimmy Jacobs/BJ Whitmer (c) for the Ring of Honor Tag Team Championship
Backstory: Strong and Evans got number one contendership somehow to get this shot. So there we have it.
Outcome: Jacobs/Whitmer via pinfall after a Doomsday Contra Code on Evans.
Analysis: HUSS HUSS HUSS!!!! This is pretty much like the opening tag match... just longer and a bit better. Like the opener, there isn't much in the way of a story, it's just a bunch of clean moves that are painful. The control segments are about what you would expect from Strong and Evans once they get it. Great. Strong and Evans have been tagging for quite a while at this point as far as Ring of Honor goes. They work over Jacobs for the most part as he is the smaller of the tag team champions. One of the most interesting moves from Strong and Evans is when they get Jacobs in the middle buckle, stretched across stomach first. Strong basically lifts Evans up in a Powerbomb as Evans then flips onto Jacob's back with a Moonsault.
That's what most of this match is. Moves like that. Moves that make you want to cringe and wonder how Jack Evans or Jimmy Jacobs going to keep on living. More so with Evans. While I am no Jack Evans fan, he knows how to take a beating like a man. When Jacobs and Whitmer are in control, they work over Evans as one would suspect. Evans is the perfect person to play someone to get the crap beaten out of them and make it believable. Seriously, he'll do three flips for a simple dropkick when he sells it.
But yeah, it's the same formula as the opening tag team match. Just longer and better then it was. Crowd is still hot and love seeing Jack Evans. But this is one of the better tag team matches in Ring of Honor not having the word Briscoe in it. These two teams brought the awesome, much like everyone else has here tonight. Not too mention it has the best Dave Prazak line ever; "He's a tough little huss!" Good match, brutal finish, I love it. ***1/2
Fifth Match: Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal (c) for the Ring of Honor Pure Championship
Backstory: Quite an extensive one. We all know about Samoa Joe but Jay Lethal rose through the RoH ranks as Special K member, Hydro. In mid 2004, he switched to the name of Jay Lethal and Samoa Joe took him under his wing, his protégé. In early 2005, Lethal was able to capture the Pure Title. The Pure Title was never a favorite title of Joe while he was World Champion. Regardless, there was a vignette at the start of the Manhattan Mayhem DVD that showed Lethal and Joe in the ring way before the start of the show. Both men get in each other's faces and say they both want to win this match. Comes across that the Pure Title doesn't mean as much as the two men wrestling each other. Great set up.
Outcome: Samoa Joe wins after the Chimaira Combo to become the new Ring of Honor Pure Champion.
Analysis: For those that don't know the rules of a Pure Title match, it goes like this. You get three rope breaks. Once they are used, too bad. No closed fists. First time you get a warning, second time it happens, you lose a rope break. Finally, there is a twenty count on the floor. Title can change hands on a count out or DQ.
On to the match. In all of the Pure Title matches I've seen, this is probably the smartest one worked. The first thing you realize is that Joe has never been in a pure match before. This concept is totally new to him and it takes him about five to seven minutes to realize that he can't use a closed fist. He tries not to punch Lethal but during some of his trademark offense, the punch, chop, punch, chop combo, he forgets it and loses a rope break. The other times, it comes as second nature to Joe to counter whatever Lethal is doing with a closed fist. So within the first ten minutes, Joe has used up all of his rope breaks because he doesn't know how to use the rules of a pure match.
The second thing is how Lethal is able to keep chopping away at Joe without getting dominated like most wrestlers do. Lethal picks his spots most of the time. The first time this happens is at the start of the match when Joe drives him into the corner. Lethal shows no fear and slaps, HE SLAPS, Joe down to the mat. Lethal knows that other then picking his spots, he has to be aggressive on his offense so Joe gets beaten down. Almost the polar opposite of what CM Punk tried to do at Joe vs. Punk II. Referencing I realize but it's a different way of trying to beat Samoa Joe. Another instance of Lethal picking his spots is when Samoa Joe has him in position for the Faanother wrestling organizationash. Lethal knows it's coming so he gets to his feet, grabs the leg of Joe and throws it into the ropes. While Joe is hung, Lethal hits a very nice dropkick on Joe. Otherwise, Lethal tries to focus on the head of Joe to set him up for his release Dragon Suplex.
When Samoa Joe has control, you see his normal offense. The STJoe, the Big Joe Combo, many stiff chops and kicks that paste Lethal. But I love how at one point in the match, Joe wants to use a closed fist but thinks better of it. He switches to a forearm because he doesn't want to lose a rope break. Just right after that, Lethal bounces off the ropes and Joe uses that closed fist as a defense measure. See, Lethal knows Joe loves to use punches because he is much larger then anyone else on the Ring of Honor roster. Smart wrestling. Just like when Lethal had the Faanother wrestling organizationash scouted, Joe had a Crossbody scouted from Lethal and simply walked away from the move. Things like that friendly rivals need to use when they wrestle each other because they know each other so well. Another one of the Joe spots is the Forearm Sucidia on Lethal. The turning point in this match that shifts the, well I don't want to say dominance from Lethal... but his control. Lethal attempts to use a Sleeper on the apron and its legal because Joe was out of rope breaks. Joe was smart enough to realize that he needed to do something insane to get the hold broke. Joe runs backwards and jumps off the apron with Lethal still applying the Sleeper hold through a table.
The finish was pretty well worked. Lethal used the Dragon Suplex and it failed to put Joe away. So Lethal is frustrated and has no idea what to do next. Lethal picks up Joe and tries to give him the Dragon again but Joe knew it was coming. He moves it into the Chimaira Combo without ever having to use the Island Driver, Muscle Buster or Rear Naked Choke. Joe took advantage of a situation made by Lethal's overzealousness. In a nice touch though, "The Champ Is Here" plays after the match. Sure it has nothing to do with the match but it's just a cool effect.
But as far this Pure Title match goes, it's probably one of the best Ring of Honor ever had. Joe and Lethal were on that night with what they wanted to do and it showed. This is borderline fantastic match when you look at the history of both men. They know each other, they both know what they want to do but it's just Joe taking advantage of Lethal that makes all the difference in the end. ****
Promo: IT'S... IT'S... LOW-KI AND COMPANY! In an inaudible promo... for me anyways, Low Ki says he was the one who attacked Jay Lethal a few months back. It was a cool segment.
Sixth Match: Jimmy Rave vs. CM Punk in a Dog Collar Match
Backstory: Wow, where to begin. Jimmy Rave is part of the Embassy, the crown jewel according to the awesome Prince Nana. Rave had cheated to beat CM Punk twice at the third part of the Third Anniversary Show. Punk didn't like it because the Embassy then took out his girlfriend, Tracy Brooks of TNA fame (emphasis on the T.) So, in order to know what else is going on, they give you a few clips before the match starts to help you out. I liked it.
Outcome: Jimmy Rave via pinfall after five/six chair shots to CM Punk.
Analysis: While I am not a huge fan of a Dog Collar match as it's a pretty restrictive match type, this is a great one. The crowd was probably at their hottest here during this match. Punk vs. Rave was probably one of the better angles of 2005. Before the match starts though, Nana claims Rave is sick so Killer Kruel is going to take Rave's place. This is all just a ruse though as Rave comes running out after Punk is ready and blindsides him. That right there sets this whole match up. Rave needs the Embassy's help in order to beat CM Punk. Numerous times in the match, mostly towards the end, members of the Embassy would get involved trying to help Rave out.
Punk though, he's on his own and he probably has the best blade job since ever towards the early stages of this match. That gives another advantage to Rave, work over the head and cut of CM Punk which Rave does as best as he can considering he isn't the best worker in the world. He does well enough keeping me interested in what he does to CM Punk. The Curb Stomp into the chain was one of the more interesting parts of this match as well as the chain assisted Camel Clutch. Punk though, Punk has to work for everything in this match. He knows it's an uphill battle because of the numbers game on the outside. He does more then enough to keep himself in the match. Either it's countering Rave's Running Knee to a Single Leg Crab or wailing away with his fists because he knows this a straight up fight.
The finish was very nicely worked. Punk even said it himself in a promo after the match that it was smart to Jimmy to target his head because Punk had suffered a fractured skull at one point in his career. This whole match, this whole angle, the crowd was so hot, it's hard not to just sit back and be amazed at how good it came out being despite the hindrance of the Dog Collar. Even the massive interference by the Embassy added to the match because it gave to the illusion that they really wanted to end CM Punk. Great way to get everything ready for Punk's revenge at Nowhere To Run the next weekend. ***1/2
Promo: Punk cuts a promo after getting helped to the back due the blood loss. Very nice one again as this show has yet to not deliver.
Seventh Match: Alex Shelley vs. Austin Aries (c) for the Ring of Honor World Championship
Backstory: Another good one. Alex Shelley formed the Generation Next stable back in May of 2004 I believe. They would run through RoH until Final Battle 2004. Aries and Strong kicked out Shelley, taking over Gen Next. Shelley had to work his way back through the roster, trying to gain the trust of everyone but it never happened.
Outcome: Austin Aries via pinfall after the 450 Splash.
Analysis: This is great World Title match but for someone who is supposed to hate Austin Aries like Shelley should, it's just not there. This whole match is just a wrestling match. If Shelley would have tried to just pound Aries down instead of going with a wrestling route, it would have added to the match. But as it is, this is a great match. As you could expect, the crowd is spilt as Aries was billed as a heel but never acted like one. He spent way too much time in his reign pandering to the crowd and this match wasn't much different. Those two misgivings asides...
Back and forth to start before we get into the control segments. Both men are sharp like they usually are. Both men do what they know works. All the trademark offense, everything. But if anything, Shelley acts like the heel during this match. The way he slaps Aries, the way he puts the forearm in the face during covers, they all scream heel. Aries keeps on playing the underdog champion role which was starting to wear thin by this point. Once you hold a World Title for more then five months, you should be able to not be considered the underdog but he was. But this whole match was screaming average, average but the moves were so well done, so crisp, you have to respect it. But Aries targeted the neck naturally to set up the Brainbuster.
The finishing stretch was pretty well back and forth as both men were throwing out moves, hoping one of them would end it, much like the whole match. This was a fine wrestling/high impact match but I was expecting for something different. This was a great match all things considered but I was just hoping for a bit more. ***3/4
Eighth Match: Homicide/Low-Ki vs. Samoa Joe/Jay Lethal
Backstory: Earlier in the show. But after Shelley/Aries, 'Cide and 'Ki came out and looked like they wanted to fight Aries until Joe and Lethal came out, starting this impromptu main event.
Outcome: Low-Ki via pinfall after the Cop Killa/Double Stomp combo on Lethal.
Analysis: There isn't a whole lot to analyze here. Both teams go all out as Lethal and Joe had already wrestled a match earlier in the night while Low-Ki and Homicide were pretty fresh. Ki and Homicide kept control for most of the match due to Lethal being worn down from the earlier match. They don't do a whole lot of special things but the way Lethal is, it was enough. Joe played Mr. Hot Tag and cleaned house but only for a moment or two as Ki and Homicide got back in control. But the way this was worked was fantastic. Ki and Homicide had no remorse for either and it showed. They both just beat ass until the deadliest finish in wrestling history.
But this set up Lethal's big angle with Low-Ki. This whole match was to set up Lethal and Low-Ki. It accomplished its job and it was good little tag team match. The finish alone is worth watching this match for. ***
Final Thoughts: This is a great Ring of Honor show to get. Whether you are new or just haven't gotten it yet for whatever reason, do so now. There is nothing wrong with this show in the least bit. Everything advanced or ended something. One of the best RoH shows top to bottom ever and that makes it get the highest recommendation possible.
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Post by jlhfan69 on Jun 13, 2008 21:53:52 GMT -6
ROH Dragon Gate Challenge DVD Review
Dragon Gate Challenge was part of Ring of Honor's Milestone Series that lead up to the 100th Show. Tonight features three Ring of Honor vs. Dragon Gate challenge matches, hence the name of the show. One singles, one tag and one six man tag team match. Who will win the challenge? Read on and find out. The date is 3/30/2006. Oh and we're in Detroit, Michigan.
Backstage Segment: Prince Nana is backstage with Alex Shelley and Jimmy Rave. They talk about teaming up and if they don't get along, Nana will garnish their wages. Rave and Shelley shake hands as Nana brings the awesome.
Backstage Segment: Jimmy Jacobs is with Lacey. Lacey is talking about how she wants Jimmy to destroy BJ Whitmer tonight while Jimmy wants to talk about the video me made. Lacey wants none of it but then brings up if Jimmy goes take out BJ, he'll get a reward. Jimmy wants to rub Lacey's feet as his reward. Emo kids, I tell you, they're freakin' crazy.
In-ring Segment: Bobby Cruise, the ring announcer for Ring of Honor, is talking about the challenge series tonight. Before he can really get in depth, Colt Cabana comes out and talks on the microphone about how he needs to end his blood feud with Homicide. He doesn't want to wait to face Homicide, he wants him now! FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE! This brings out Homicide.
First Match: Homicide w/Julius Smokes vs. Colt Cabana
Backstory: Back at a 2005 show that escapes me, Colt said "my nizzle" at Homicide. Homicide took great offense and thus he wanted to beat Cabana. It all builds up and once I get Better Then Our Best, which is coming soon for me, I'll recap the entire feud.
Outcome: Homicide via pinfall after using a chair to force a ladder into the back of Cabana's head.
Analysis: This is a short, crazy brawl that just served purpose to the match they'd have at Better Then Our Best. Every time Homicide has beaten Cabana down in the past, Cabana refuses to stay down. That said, these two just brawl around in the crowd and it's extremely hard to see because of how dark the arena is. A spotlight tries to follow but it doesn't work too well. Once they get back towards the ring though, it's just more brawling and plunder shots. To put it simple, this is angle advancement. There just isn't a whole lot to say about this because of the length and how much they brawl. It's nothing horrible and you shouldn't skip past it but it's not gonna get a great rating because there isn't much to it. *1/4
Post Match: Homicide says it's over.
Backstage Segment: Do Fixer is backstage saying they're gonna fight you. Do Fixer is Ryo Saito, Genki Horiguchi and Dragon Kid.
Backstage Segment: Christopher Daniels is with Allison Danger. Daniels goes on about how many times Samoa Joe has beaten him. Tonight is the final singles match between Samoa Joe. That's the main event yanno. Daniels says tonight is going to be the night when he finally beats Samoa Joe in a singles match, might even shake his hand afterwards. It's all about wrath according to the Fallen Angel.
Second Match: Chad Collyer vs. Ricky Reyes w/ Julius Smokes
Backstory: None that I know of.
Outcome: Ricky Reyes via submission after a Dragon Sleeper.
Analysis: This is a pretty good little technical encounter. Chad is well known as a mat wrestler and Ricky isn't that bad himself. Reyes goes after the head of Collyer, setting him up for that Dragon Sleeper. Makes sense to me and it should to you. But there isn't anything that's remotely exciting about this match. It's pretty basic and nothing fancy. That's all well and good but you gotta establish something more then what they did. It seems the only thing Collyer would do is rattle off moves instead of working on the legs for the Cloverleaf. One of the better things of the match though is Collyer's attempted Scoop Slam into an Armbar by Reyes that gets countered into the Cloverleaf. It's a good thing Reyes didn't tap because that would have royally pissed me off. But this is one of those matches where you watch it once, that's good enough for the rest of time. It wasn't anything offensive or horrible but it was just kinda there and bland. **
Backstage Segment: Blood Generation talk about Generation Next being second to Blood Generation.
Backstage Segment: Samoa Joe. He's on main event hype as well. According to Joe, everything is gonna stay the same. Joe is gonna beat Daniels and force him to shake his hand.
Third Match: BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs w/ Lacey
Backstory: At Dissension, BJ turned on Jimmy after he started paying more attention to Lacey then their matches. Then on a WB Morning Show, BJ attacked Jimmy once again. This is the first match in what would become one of the best Ring of Honor feuds ever in my opinion.
Outcome: BJ Whitmer via pinfall after a Lariat.
Analysis: First off, I am a sucker for Whitmer vs. Jacobs. That aside, this is a damn good match. It's a big man vs. little man match but these two have such great chemistry together, it's awesome. BJ uses his power early on to take advantage of the smaller Jacobs, more so on the outside when he is throwing him into the guard rail. That should be expect though and Jimmy takes his beating like a champion. But focusing on the head works on many levels for this match as BJ's Wrist Clutch Exploder usually forces his opponent to land on the head. Plus Whitmer knows he can just overpower Jimmy when he needs to. However, once Jimmy takes advantage because of BJ's aggressiveness, it gets a bit more interesting as Jimmy alternates between focusing on beating on BJ and looking at Lacey. Lacey is usually heard screaming instructions towards Jimmy about what to do to BJ.
Still, Jimmy isn't able to do anything all that impressive on BJ as far as high impact moves go, he just wears down BJ with dropkicks, double stomps or just general cheap tactics. It's almost keep it simple and stay on BJ so he doesn't kick your ass kind of deals. What does kind of piss me off though is BJ no selling a top rope back senton. Regardless, the match even more interesting thanks to one of the sickest botches I've ever seen. BJ and Jimmy are on the top rope and BJ is looking for a Superbomb. To me, it's kinda foreshadowed when BJ suplexes Jimmy out of the ring. Anyways, on the top rope, BJ's leg goes out from underneath him and he slips. He does powerbomb Jimmy but it's on the DAMN RING APRON! That botch set the stage for the rest of this feud, very sick spots. But even after getting a near death experience, Jimmy refused to stay down. The toughness is why BJ Whitmer chose Jimmy Jacobs as his tag team partner back in 2005.
But the payoff for this match is when Jimmy had the match won after hitting the Contra Code and Lacey told him NOT to pin BJ but to rather put him through a table. That directly lead to the finish of the match basically. See, Jimmy loves Lacey so much, he passed up the chance to beat BJ in order to make Lacey happy. Then once he had BJ in a position to do some damage, he paid too much attention to Lacey and that cost him the match. This whole match had some great story telling to it. BJ knew he could overpower Jimmy at every turn and he pretty much did. Jimmy on the other hand, wanted to make Lacey happy instead of winning the match. Good story, great match. ***3/4
Post Match: BJ wants to shake Jimmy's hand. Jimmy refuses because Lacey tells him not to. Then once Jimmy leaves the ring, he comes back to tease the handshake but quickly leaves the ring. BJ gets on the microphone and starts to talk about Combat Zone Wrestling as Ring of Honor had just started an angle with them about which is the better promotion. He calls out Chris Hero and Necro Butcher but no one comes so BJ leaves the ring.
Fourth Match: Ryo Saito vs. Jimmy Yang
Backstory: This is match number one in the challenge series.
Outcome: Ryo Saito via pinfall after the Premium Bridge
Analysis: This is the the weakest of the three challenge matches because it wasn't all that much fun, for me at least. It wasn't for a lack of trying or anything, I just didn't like this as much as the tag team matches. I couldn't buy into Yang's offense, which is mainly kicks, attempted moonsaults and a small bit of legwork that didn't end up going anywhere. He hasn't changed much in almost two years. Saito at least varies his offense with more then three moves unlike Yang. Plus at one point, Saito brings a little bit on comedy into the match, frustrating Yang a bit. It doesn't do anything more then that though which is sad. If they would have picked anyone but Jimmy Yang for this match, it would have been a bit more exciting. Still, they both try to bring what they can to the table and make something of it. They didn't accomplish it as this was just there. I know that deep move sets don't make the match or anything but Yang just wasn't the best person to put against Saito. It's probably not as bad as I paint it out to be but it just depends on what you enjoy. **1/2
Post Match: The two shake hands.
Fifth Match: Alex Shelly/Jimmy Rave w/Prince Nana and Daizee Haze vs. Bryan Danielson/Delirious
Backstory: Shelly, Rave and Abyss won the Trios Tournament earlier in 2006. Shelley and Rave would both give themselves a shot at Danielson's Ring of Honor World Title. They both failed but they knew as a team they could beat him. Danielson accepted a tag team match and picked his partner, who was Delirious, to show he could beat Rave and Shelley at the same time.. Delirious was not on the roster full time during this match.
Outcome: Alex Shelley via pinfall after a Sliced Bread #2 on Delirious.
Analysis: What could have been. While this was a pretty good tag match, it could have been a great match considering who was in it. There are fun points to it but there are also some boring points to it. A few of the fun highlights is when Danielson has Rave in an Airplane Spin after Delirious had just done the same move to Rave. Delirious runs around Danielson the whole time. Great laughs. The finishing stretch was tons of fun too. It made sense for Delirious to take the fall because he wasn't the regular and Danielson had already beaten both Shelley and Rave in singles matches. So if Rave or Shelley would have pinned Danielson, they would have been in line for another World Title shot when instead they wanted to focus on the Tag belts.
Everything else though was either generic heel control segments or fun Delirious moments. While never boring, this match wasn't great either. It had a purpose of showing that the Embassy could function as a tag team after some hostility because Rave and Shelley both wanted the World Title. Fun little encounter although it might have gone on too long. It just could have been better then what it was. ***1/4
Intermission: Dave Prazak talks to Colt Cabana about Homicide. Cabana can't keep his composure at all.
Sixth Match: Shane Hagadorn vs. Claudio Castagnoli
Backstory: None... although I think I heard it was filmed for Ring of Honor's website.
Outcome: Claudio Castagnoli via pinfall after Alpha Mari Waterslide. Not sure on the spelling.
Analysis: This isn't anything great. It's a getting the crowd back into kind of match after intermission. They both get some offense in before Claudio ends it. Shane actually gets to control most of the match which shocked me a bit. But you knew Claudio wasn't going lose this one. Either way, not something you'd watch on a weekly basis. 3/4*
In Ring Segment: Chris Hero and Necro Butcher rush into the ring. Hero talks about how he is best friends with Claudio and that how Claudio makes him sad because he won't side with himself and CZW. After a bit, BJ Whitmer runs into the ring and attacks Hero and Butcher. They get the best of him as Claudio watches. Claudio then takes out Hero and Butcher and stands tall with Whitmer. Hero is pissed.
Seventh Match: Genki Horiguchi/Dragon Kid vs. AJ Styles/Matt Sydal
Backstory: Match two in the Ring of Honor vs. Dragon Gate series. Dragon Gate is up 1-0.
Outcome: AJ Styles via pinfall after a Styles Clash on Horiguchi.
Analysis: This is a nifty little spot fest. While not the greatest, it's pretty fun. AJ looks pretty pissed for some reason. He had this look his on face this whole match. Don't know what was up. Anyways, as you could imagine, there really isn't a story to this as it's just both teams unloading on each other for a good amount of time and it had an early mat wrestling sequence going on to establish everyone in this match are equals. It's hard to me to talk about spot fest matches, I apologize. But everything was hit pretty clean for the most part. They had some very cool looking dives at some points. Just the whole thing with AJ at one point not letting Dragon Kid hit his Deja Vu move was a little strange as AJ literally forces him off a couple of times before Dragon Kid just gives up. Plus, AJ worked a bit stiff at points. A fun match regardless. You'll find yourself watching this one quite a bit because it's mindless fun. ***1/2
Eighth Match: Blood Generation (CIMA/Naruki Doi/Masato Yoshino) vs. Generation Next (Austin Aries/Roderick Strong/Jack Evans)
Backstory: This is the third and deciding match in the challenge series. This is tied 1-1.
Outcome: CIMA via pinfall after the Schwein on Jack Evans.
Analysis: This is just insane how fast this match goes by. Seriously, it's hard for me to find anything to say about this because the action is so fast and frantic. Basically, both teams get a control segment. Then it breaks down into an awesome sequence of match ending double/triple teams that were stopped by opposing team members. Even in some of the control segments, the stuff is awesome. Aries does his knee drop which is fast. Then he does it again IN SLOW MOTION! Moves like that are why this is a very, very fun match to sit down and watch. Plus it's great seeing Jack Evans getting the crap beaten out of him. Regardless, if you've never seen a Dragon Gate style six man, this is a great introduction. ****1/4
Ninth Match: Christopher Danielson w/Allison Danger vs. Samoa Joe
Backstory: Okay, back in 2002, Daniels brought in Samoa Joe as his paid hitman to beat up Low Ki. Daniels then though he could use Joe for other things but Joe didn't have that in mind. They have a bunch of past wrestling clips with this on the DVD, so that'll help a bit. But then at Redemption, Daniels cost Joe his shot at the RoH TItle. That kicked this feud off again. Daniels had managed to pin Joe in a four corner survival at one point but not in a singles. This is their final singles match in Ring of Honor.
Outcome: Christopher Daniels via pinfall after three Best Moonsault Evers.
Analysis: Feel the hate! There is one constant about this match, hate. Usually you don't see brawling before the match begins in Ring of Honor, well you do with this one. This whole match though was designed with that one word I said earlier. Hate. Both men unload bombs on each other from the get go basically. I mean, once they get into the ring, Joe attempts the Musclebuster. That gives you the sense of how much both men want to beat the other. We all know Joe is a heavy hitter. Daniels has to use his speed and knowledge to keep Joe on the defensive because once Joe gets going, it's hard to stop him. But nothing lasts for long in this match it's basically all back and forth. One man would get a few moves in but then make a mistake.
Those kind of exchanges work nicely into the context of this match because neither man would allow the other to give a beating. Seeing as how this was their last singles match against each other, it made sense for Samoa Joe to attempt the Musclebuster on more then one occasion without much success. Daniels knew that if Joe would have hit it, that would have ended the match because back at Vendetta, Joe pinned him with the Musclebuster. See, that's smart. When Joe tries for the choke the first time, Daniels counters out of it. When Joe tries it the second time, Daniels counters out of it. Daniels knew he couldn't allow that to happen either or he'd lose this match.
The finish made perfect sense. It takes a lot for Joe to stay down for three most of the time. After Daniels had hit the Angels Wings an only got two. He knew one BME wouldn't have ended it. He hits three in a row before finally getting his singles win over Samoa Joe. This was a great way to end this singles feud between the two. Daniels had tried for so long to beat Samoa Joe in a singles match and couldn't do it because Joe had those two match ending moves that beat Daniels. Daniels stayed away from them in this one and it made all the difference between winning and losing. Another fantastic match. ****
In Ring Segment: Chris Hero and Necro Butcher hit the ring. Daniels wants to fight them but Allison Danger tells him not too. Daniels leaves the ring. Hero talks about him stealing the show instead of Dragon Gate and basically calls Daniels a bitch because Danger is holding him back. Hero starts to run his mouth again as it's a bit inaudible. Joe gets into the ring and looks pissed off. Hero attacks Joe and pays for it. Necro hits Joe from behind as Hero helps beat him down. BJ Whitmer hits the ring again and chases off Hero and Butcher. Samoa Joe recovers and gets on the microphone. Basically, he says that Hero and Necro messed up big time because they pissed off Samoa Joe. Joe declares war on Combat Zone Wrestling! He wants them to bring light tubes, weed whackers and everything else because it won't matter. Samoa Joe is the baddest man alive. He goes on like this for a few minutes. We get the point Joe. He ends with "Ring of Honor is pro wrestling!" I honestly though it was professional gymnastics...
Backstage Segment: Lance Storm wants to be a part of Bryan Danielson's Ring of Honor Title reign.
Backstage Segment: Jim Cornette is talking to someone on a cell phone about who knocked his tooth out. But that pretty much says it all.
Final Thoughts: This is a good show. It's show four of the Milestone Series. It's highly recommended because of the final three matches. Whitmer vs. Jacobs is great. Everything else has its good points and it's low points. I'd pick this one up for the novelty of Dragon Gate vs. Ring of Honor. I've seen it on ten dollar sales quite often. So I'd wait to pick it up on one of those to sale yourself some money. Pay full price if you want to though. Just get it either way.
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