Kenny King & Rhett Titus vs Brent Albright & Erick Stevens

A better match than I expected. I'm loving King & Titus as a team, just about all of their matches are enjoyable and they're really entertaining. During this, Titus got caught with his tights down and his ass showing, something I can't believe hadn't been done already. Even more unbelievable is Albright spanking him. So glad no one walked in while this was happening, but the crowd loved it and this got a surprisingly huge pop. Another interesting part was Albright getting busted open on the back of his head somehow. I rewinded a couple times and can't figure out how, but it looked nasty. King's Michael Jackson dancing was great too. Good match, solid stuff and really fun.

***


Claudio Castagnoli vs Nigel McGuinness

I actually liked this quite a bit for what it was, probably more than most people. Nigel worked really slow and quite sloppy, which kinda forced Claudio to slow down too, but I liked the brawling style of it and the story it told. It's a crime we couldn't get an actual feud between these two before Nigel left. It had a great beginning, Claudio cut a fantastic promo explaining his actions, and we had this decent first match which gained some heat for upcoming matches. I would've loved to see one last match with these two, with Claudio finally going over on Nigel. The crowd wasn't really into this at first, but they really livened up when Claudio stole the London Dungeon and they started teasing the countouts. Already knowing the result, it worked better on me because each time they were outside for a long time, I thought that was it. I really liked the moment where Nigel slid in at 19 and just went crazy on Claudio, before trapping him in the submission outside. It's a totally different style for these two, but I think it worked and the only thing making this bad was Nigel's injuries forcing him to be sloppy.

***


House of Truth vs Kevin Steen & El Generico

I enjoyed this quite a lot. It was a simple match designed to make Steenerico look good without too much effort and that's what it did, while at the same time putting on a really fun match. Everything just went perfect. The crowd was into Steenerico, HoT were able to get some heat, no one messed anything up, and it had an exciting finish. The match was really at the HoT's expense - they hardly got to look like the next big team in ROH and they only got to hit like one big move, but they looked solid and I can see why they were brought back to lose in a few more low profile matches. I enjoyed the finish with Josh Raymond hitting a Lungblower off the ropes, then Steen countering his top rope twisting dive by lifting his knees. A little eye for eye there before the Package Piledriver/Brainbuster combo. Really good match.

***1/2


Six Man Mayhem
Rasche Brown vs Sami Callihan vs Delirious vs Joey Ryan vs Petey Williams vs Austin Aries

Pretty much a comedy match, but a decent one. Everyone played their part well and the crowd was loving this. The Aries/Joey Ryan interactions were hilarious, playing up the fact they look so much alike, then having a nice indy standoff sequence. Rasche Brown was much better to watch than the last time I saw him, but he was a face this time. Legit WTF moment when Sami kissed him. Have no idea why he did. Petey Williams was hella over and while he wasn't exactly being showcased, at least I'm liking him more than another former X Division wrestler who's recently come to ROH. There was barely any psychology or structure to this, just a bunch of moments and the awareness of Joey Ryan helping out Aries, plus a little buildup to the Canadian Destroyer. Fun match.

**3/4


D-Lo Brown vs Colt Cabana

Wasn't really into this much. I like D-Lo, but I'm just not digging Cabana anymore. It was going ok up until the finish, which I hated. Colt was just saying earlier that he was pissed at D-Lo for attacking him with a weapon in their last match, and guess what? Cabana hits him with the ring bell for the dirty finish. That surely makes Colt look good. Decent filler match, but I just don't see the logic in that finish.

**1/2


ROH World Tag Team Championship
American Wolves vs Roderick Strong & KENTA

Can't wait to see this, just look at the talent involved. Not to mention that Davey has big issues with both of his opponents. Well, this certainly delivered. This was a great match, pure and simple. Unlike Steve, I didn't think it was boring at any point. From start to finish, this had all of my attention. I especially liked things breaking down early because of all the tension there would be in a match like this. The only problem I have at all with this is that I don't think that in time it will stand out from the big matches the Wolves have had. They were pretty much doing their usual stuff. I think it could've been a few minutes less, because it got to a point where they were just repeating moves, particularly Roderick, and I didn't think it was completely necessary for Eddie to kick out of the Gibson Driver. I must say though, I loved the interactions with just about everyone. Eddie has improved so much that I love seeing him hold his own against Roderick and KENTA in standoffs. He may get his ass kicked most of the time and he's never in the ring longer than Davey, but it's just enough to show off his potential. He needs to face KENTA at one point, that match could make a real star out of him. I also liked him getting another win for the Wolves with the Half Boston Crab. Just a great match.

****


Steel Cage Match
Jimmy Jacobs vs Tyler Black

Eh, was hardly into this at all and didn't seem like the crowd was either. Could be because there's been very little heat to this feud and I just wanted it to be over. Dissapointing, because this feud had so much story behind it and potential, but it was as if they thought they could live totally on just those two things. Jimmy has been booked terrible. He's not the best wrestler on the roster and he can't be totally over on just his character alone. A win over Bryan Danielson once a year is not going to help him if it's not followed up on. He's looked bad in this last three feuds - Necro, Delirious, Aries, now this. I mean, look at Tyler. He's bigger than Jimmy, has been booked so much better, has gone over Jimmy a few times in this feud. Jimmy didn't get to look like a threat at all. Within this match he didn't get to look that strong either. The heat portion of the match was like a minute of Jimmy on offense, creating little support for Tyler. The only things I really liked about this was the callbacks to their history. From pre-AOTF, Jimmy doing that spinning headscissors that I haven't seen him do since they tagged as DIFH in WSX. And him also coming to the ring in the infamous bloodstained white jacket from AOTF's debut. Tyler barely has a character, so he couldn't do anything like that, unless there's some Misery Signals aspect of their relationship I've forgotten about. I also quite liked that sick Frogsplash off the cage, through the table for the win. Dissapointing end to a dissapointing feud that's done little for either man.

***


The aftermath was a LOT more interesting. It was a great visual of like 30-40 guys in black tearing apart the cage, surrounding the ringside area and beating up Tyler while Jimmy's screaming "...FOREVER!!!". Moments like these always made me like the AOTF, except for the dissapointing countless tag matches and brawls that came in between.

Kenny King vs Petey Williams

Pretty good match, quite enjoyable. It was solid and didn't really make either guy look great, but the crowd was into this. Even though Petey seems to be really lacking in the personality department (mocking heels by dancing doesn't count), I'm finding him quite enjoyable so far. I don't like the Canadian Destroyer as a move, but crowd was begging for it here and the teasing towards it was done well. I hope he's not really the one-trick pony everyone says he is and that I remember him to be, because judging by his ROH matches so far and the live results, his matches all seem to be built around that move, so I'm hoping that's not the only thing he can bring. Decent match, not much more.

***


Tyler Black vs KENTA

This I'm looking forward to. I've heard nought but good things and, even though Tyler has gotten really stale, KENTA will surely bring out the best in him. Great match, liked it a LOT and I'm not sure why. The action was quite typical of what you see from these two, but it must've been the psychology of the match. Tyler trying to hold his own against someone as dangerous as KENTA - getting destroyed by kicks early on, making a comeback but getting cut off early by a devastating and long series of big moves and strikes. The crowd seriously loved KENTA and popped for just about every move he did and KENTA knew that well enough, which is probably why that situation worked. The buildup to Tyler's next comeback was done really well and had a great payoff, despite there not being a lot of fire from Tyler. I can hardly say this was either guy's greatest performance, but something just worked between these two and I think they had good chemistry, despite the obvious botch at the end that kinda ruined a nice little sequence. The Go 2 Sleep kickout was a nice touch, but I felt quite unnecessary. I don't see the need for much more Tyler pushing, since in my opinion, he is already at a main event level and doesn't need such a rub like beating KENTA's main finisher. Worth seeing, for sure, but I don't think it will be loved by all.

****


Street Fight
Claudio Castagnoli & Joey Ryan vs Colt Cabana & Brent Albright

Wasn't into this much. They're doing a real bad job of making The Embassy seem like a real threat and it's quickly becoming Sweet 'n' Sour Inc. 2008 v2. The majority of Claudio and Ryan's offense came only when Dirty Ernie and Nana interfered for them. Nana even took a bit of a beating, something which was rare and special when done to Larry Sweeney, but I think it's already been done a couple times to Nana. This just didn't make The Embassy look good at all. A good example is the Moustache Ride. Isn't that Ryan's finisher? Cabana took that onto a pile of chairs and kicked out, yet won the match with a Flying Asshole - a minor move of his - through a table. Hardly makes Ryan look good in defeat to me. The crowd was into this, but I wasn't. Pretty average match, despite the weapons.

**1/2


D-Lo Brown vs Roderick Strong

Exactly what I expected, in a good way. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Some solid, hard-hitting action with a lot of slams. I think D-Lo's a good heel, but to contradict myself, he has a problem with getting the fans to boo him. I think it's simply because he's pretty well-known and respected, but I think it's a problem when no matter what he does, he gets a face pop from the crowd. The crowd were more into D-Lo than Roderick, which is definitely a problem. Not much to say about the match, it was just typical stuff from both guys but it was enjoyable. It's a shame D-Lo's retiring, I'm liking him in his midcard role as a badass heel putting on quite consistant matches.

***1/4


Kevin Steen & El Generico vs American Wolves

Predictable outcome, but let’s see if the in-ring stuff makes up for it. Very good stuff, really liked it. It was similar to their other matches, but I didn't at all feel like they were going overboard on the big moves or getting trapped in submissions for an insanely long time. I still don't think they've managed to reach the next level, but I'm sure that's all saved up for Ladder War II. I thought the simple things were done well in this, like Generico selling better than he has been lately and not being so reliant on spots. I also thought they weren't too focused on big moves and told a better story. Davey still does face moves like trying the Shooting Star Press, which I really don't like because he's a great heel when he's not doing that. At least he wasn't doing that crowd dive again. I liked getting one of the belts involved in this, shows the Wolves doing something heelish besides doubleteams and post-match attacks. Plus, it was a good nearfall in an other-wise predictable match. I liked this more than their Submissions Match, but I'm sure others will feel differently. Very good match.

***3/4


ROH World Championship
Austin Aries vs Nigel McGuinness

Who's ready for a better match than their one at Rising Above? I KNOW I AM! I thought this was surprisingly good, given Nigel's condition. He was still pretty slow and didn't take many bumps aside from two Brainbusters, but he was certainly more agile than the night before, against Claudio. What they lacked in fast-paced, hard-hitting action, they made up in antics and personality. The promo they cut before this was hilarious and so was Aries continuously mocking Nigel for not being able to use the "McLariat". Aries was pretty great in this, despite those annoyingly obvious contrived spots he seems to do now where he gets caught in the ropes somehow. I'm glad Nigel was able to hit a Lariat in this, though it did seem to cause him pain, which leads me to wonder why he's even in this situation. Why bring him back when he's clearly not fully recovered? He needs the money? Sure. But why not give him some matches with lowcarders and jobbers to ease him into the process? Is anyone really expecting him to perform at the level he was last year? K, that's too obvious of a question, but I still wonder why he's wrestling big matches with the likes of Claudio, Tyler and Aries so soon. Really good match, but I don't think it should've been the main event.

***1/2

I think you are overating this quite a lot. This match was the same as a lot of KENTA's 2006 run where it felt like two guys just hitting their trademarks with not much story to it all. I also recall a few sloppy parts on key moves. At this point the Go 2 Sleep is such a whored out move Black would have looked bad had he NOT kicked out of it.

Rest of what I saw from the show was fun but I think my lack of interest stopped me from thinking of highly as you did. I thought Nigel looked bad, and he didn't wrestle smart enough or show enough personaliy to make up for his physical limitations. But whatever.

---

How often has the G2S been kicked out of in ROH, though? I see it happen quite often in Japan, but not there. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Nigel and Dragon kicking out. I dunno, the match just had a quality I liked. I think there was some more story than you give it credit for. While Tyler didn't do a great job in that match, KENTA did well in telling the story himself, I thought.

---

"Well I'm asking nicely, but if necessary I could come and kidnap you. I do keep a balaclava and gaffer tape in my car. No I actually do, do you hear me?" - Jamie McDonald

"Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off". - Malcolm Tucker

Combo Pick'ems! - EVOLVE 5 and Glory By Honor IX

Sonjay Dutt vs El Generico

Great choice for opener but...FOR FUCK'S SAKE, GET SONJAY OUT OF ROH. He is so fucking irritating. Stop mimmicking other wrestlers randomly. Jarrett, Ultimate Warrior, Colt Cabana, nWo Wolfpac...RENE DUPREE! What is the point? He was still doing it when the 1 minute warning happened. All it is is irritating, even Leonard and Prazak seemed annoyed by it, and it just makes it look like Sonjay is incapable of having his own personality and seem bitter at losing his TNA gig. I think I said the first time I reviewed a Sonjay match that if he was going to keep this up, I don't want him around, and now I stick by it. It's not even heel heat, I fucking cannot stand him. Right now I find him more annoying than Daizee Haze and Necro combined. Ranting aside, this was a solid highflyers match that I didn't go too spotty and had a nice pace to it because of the 15-minute time limit. The hot crowd really loved this and were into it. Call me picky, but I really do have to take this down a notch for sheer annoyance of Sonjay.

***1/4


Super Smash Bros. vs The Briscoes

Solid match, nothing too exciting. Player Dos was impressive, taking most of the bumps for his team and selling pretty well, Player Uno was just...there, and The Briscoes were just The Briscoes. It's easy to see why Dos gets all the praise from this team, since Uno was quite sloppy and botched trying to do a fancy rollup a guy his size shouldn't be doing. Not digging this Briscoes' return so far. I really wish I got my dream of them splitting up, because Jay going over some established singles wrestlers during Mark's absence, only to just get back together as a team doesn't seem right to me. All it does is hurt some other guys and continue to make Jay look like the superior Briscoe. Ok match, nothing more.

***


Kenny King vs Kenny Omega

Good match, not their best, but good enough. I really like seeing both these guys in the ring together, because they mix well and it hasn't been a bad match yet, whether it's singles or tag. The only thing I didn't like this was the finish, with Omega hitting the Hadouken for the win. I just don't like it, it looks like a weak move that I'd have trouble taking seriously. Seemed really anti-climactic after the big moves that came before it. Not much to say here, if you've seen these two wrestle before, it was pretty similar to what you normally see, with lots of flashy moves and Titus interference. I think this is the first time there's been a decisive victory, though. Good match.

***1/4


Chris Hero & Davey Richards vs Lance Storm & Kevin Steen

Enjoyed this match a lot, everything just seemed to work well. Everyone was over, the crowd was very into it, and I thought it was a well-structured, well-worked match. Every man was fun to watch in this, especially Storm and Hero. Lance Storm, for what he lacked a lot in personality here (although, who really cares at this stage in his career?) I thought had an impressive showing. He took some good bumps and I'm sure I saw him do a couple flips during this. Not bad for a man his age. Hero was just as good as he's been lately, which is great. Prazak noted how he's in the best shape of his life, which could be true, Hero looks like a star right now. A few spots I particularly liked, the double Sharpshooter spot got a great reaction from the Canadian crowd, but once again it sort of demeaned Steen's submission finisher, because Davey was in it for a very long time without tapping. I can't actually remember the last time Steen beat someone with the move. I also liked Storm getting the Canadian Mapleleaf in, but unfortunately that was broken up rather quickly. Very good, enjoyable, worth-seeing exhibition-style match. It didn't do much to further Steen and Davey's rivalry, but it did a good job of setting up for Hero vs Storm.

***3/4


ROH World Championship
Four Corner Survival
Austin Aries vs Nigel McGuinness vs Tyler Black vs Jerry Lynn

Fourways for the world title normally aren't anything special, unless it's the one from DBD last year or the HDNet one, but I'm hopeful this will at least be solid. Unfortunately, Nigel is hardly back to full health, I'm bored of Tyler and Lynn in the ring, so it looks like it's up to Aries to make this match something interesting. Looks like Nigel's back to being a heel. Shame. There was great potential for a feud with Claudio. That really should've been one of his final matches. Roderick was already going over Dragon, so they could've replaced the match with Roderick with one against Claudio. This was good enough. It wasn't a dissapointment, but it wasn't anything special. I think they tried to make it seem important with all the finishers and big spots, but the fact pretty much everyone expected Aries to retain was against it. Also, how excited can you be for Tyler getting a title shot in a fourway anymore? I think this is the third world title fourway he's failed to win. I liked this match, but at times it just seemed like a bit of a mess and that they were doing their finishers and submissions early in order to make it more exciting than it really was. It's a good thing to make a match more exciting, naturally, but some of it seemed unnecessary. I liked Nigel quite a bit in this, he seemed to be able to do more stuff in this than his previous return matches, although his Jawbreaker Lariat was quite sloppy. He hardly left this better than we started though, as he took an awful Cradle Piledriver directly on the top of his head and the turnbuckle broke under Aries' 450, causing him only to do a flip legdrop right on Nigel's head as well! Poor guy gets some awful luck. Good match, some enjoyable stuff. They put in so much effort, but to be honest, I just didn't think it was anything special.

***1/2

Super Smash Bros. vs Kevin Steen & El Generico

Very surprised by the result, which I don't see the point of. You've got a team that have lost all their ROH matches so far, who are also non-regulars going over the top face team who are currently part of the biggest feud in the company. I guess that's why this is an upset. Still think Steen was pinned rather easily and I don't think it was necessary for Dos to survive the Sharpshooter. I don't think I can even call that one of Steen's finishers anymore, the way everyone keeps beating it. It was a good match, easily the SSBs best ROH match, but far from Steenerico's best. I wouldn't even put this over the tag they had with the House of Truth. Good, fun opener with a result that baffles me but has some good action. Just gets the ***1/2 treatment from me.

***1/2


Toronto Gauntlet Match
D-Lo Brown vs Jerry Lynn vs Sonjay Dutt vs Jimmy Rave vs Necro Butcher vs Davey Richards

Interesting match. Worth watching for the concept, but not a great match. I don't think the booking really helped some guys. D-Lo was out in just a few minutes after taking about two moves, Davey came out as a super hot babyface to get the win on Rave who's been softened up by two previous matches. The latter isn't really a major issue, my problem is mostly that I hate badass heels who turn into a hot face for one night. As far as temporary turns go, this was really entertaining and I think Davey would make an excellent face, God forbid they turn him, as long as he stays the way he was here. This match should be how they book Rave. The guy is talented and still draws a lot of heat, so it's good he got a win over a guy like Jerry Lynn. It's just a shame the reason I feel he made it to the final two is so they could compare it to Davey's ROH debut. It was pretty sweet that Rave wore (I think) the same tights as he did then. Good match, fun stuff.

***1/2


European Rules Match
Claudio Castagnoli vs Brent Albright

So before this Ric Flair really pumps up the crowd and encourages them to give their support and cheer as loud as they can for ROH's guys. Flair meaning nothing of what he says, of course, it still works. But then this match follows it up? I kinda find that funny. I don't see a match that works in three minute rounds being anything other than a buzzkill to this crowd. That's coming from a guy who likes the Claudio/Albright matches. This wasn't much of a match. A lot of it was predictable and the crowd hardly took to the concept. Albright continued to play the dumb babyface when he countered Claudio's closed fists with a shot of his own while Todd Sinclair was looking, to earn himself a yellow card. In all honesty, the highlight of this match was everytime Prince Nana said "MR CASTAGNOLI! PLEASE HURT HIM, MR CASTAGNOLI!". Nana is awesome like that. I've seen matches where this concept actually worked, even outside of ROH, when World Of Sport was the only thing on The Wrestling Channel. That was back in the days when it was the only wrestling British people had experienced and were extremely passionate about it. This had the opposite effect.

**1/2


Tyson Dux vs Tyler Black

It's refreshing seeing Tyler in a singles match with someone who isn't a main eventer like Dragon, Nigel or Lynn, so let's see how this goes. This was surprisingly good. Easy MOTN so far. The crowd was totally into Dux and this had some good action in it. Did not expect Tyler to be falling off the apron ribs-first onto the guardrail. Tyson was certainly impressive in this and I'd like to see him return. Tyson was actually the best thing about this match as Tyler was his typical self, just running through all his moves predictably and not selling the two big bumps he took on his ribs. I also didn't care for the random German Suplex no-sell. Oh Tyler, how he has fallen. It's not even just the way they've dragged out his title hunt for over a year, he's become incredibly stale in the ring and no one is as high on him anymore. The guy needs to be taken out of the main event scene for a while. Really good match, much better than I expected.

***1/2


No Disqualification Match
Joey Ryan vs Colt Cabana

Hilarious stuff, most likely ROH's Comedy Match of the Year. For the first time since Cabana returned, I was genuinely amused by him. Everything he did was over with the crowd and I found little of what he did lame for a change. It was probably the most tame No DQ match to ever occur, but that wasn't the point and was part of what made this funny. This didn't do much for either man, particularly Ryan since he was basically tortured the whole match physically and mentally by Colt's antics before being finished off by a single chairshot, but I give this it's ratings based on enjoyment despite the lack of good action.

***


Austin Aries, Kenny King & Rhett Titus vs Kenny Omega & The Briscoes

ROH has been on the ball with six-man tags this year and this one was no different. Sure, I can think of several off the top of my head that were more enjoyable, but this wasn't far behind. This had great action, supported by a great crowd and was spotty, yet smart at the same time. I enjoyed little things like Aries preventing Mark for doing a big dive to the outside early on, only for later on Mark attempts it again but goes ahead before Aries can push him down. I liked the simultaneous Doomsday Device and Powerbomb/Blockbuster to take out the main two guys, Aries and Omega, for a nice little showdown between The Briscoes and King & Titus. I wasn't very fond of the finish, with Aries definitely having the win but breaking his own pin to inflict more punishment on Omega. If you haven't seen this yet, you can guess what comes next. It was just plain silly and didn't make Aries look good at all. I don't think it much for Omega either. Couldn't he at least got the rollup out of his own skill, than by Aries' stupidity? Very enjoyable, very good match.

***3/4


Chris Hero vs Lance Storm

Really enjoyable match. I was kinda dissapointed, but I wasn't expecting anything epic either. Storm wasn't as athletic as he was the previous night, I thought and most of his strikes were very weak in comparison to the elbows he was taking from Hero. I know Storm has a reputation of being a very safe worker, but my goodness what a huge difference in their strikes. There wasn't much to complain about for this, it was just a really good match. The aftermath was far more emotional with Storm breaking into tears and thanking the fans. The great crowd reaction and just the idea of it being Storm's last match helped this quite a bit, I felt. Normally, I would hate it when someone cheats to win a match which is their opponents' last, but I thought they made it work quite well with Storm being able to survive the Loaded Elbow, first person to do so, I think. It's not the best match of the weekend, but it's certainly the most important and is still worth watching. The action was worth three and a half stars, but the aura surrounding this - the crowd, the emotion, Storm's possible last match in front of Canadian fans, bumped this up to the next level barely.

***3/4

Eddie Edwards vs Brent Albright

I'm kinda digging the new DVD production so far. The covers are lame, but I had a nice surprise when there was a little video package at the start to promote the main event. There was also new titles during entrances that I thought were nice, but I didn't think the graphic for the code of honour was really necessary. I hope these sorts of things are kept up. Enjoyable opener, I quite liked it. There's not much to complain about other than an unnecessary kickout of Albright's Half-Nelson Suplex. That was really random and doesn't help Albright's moveset if he's deciding to use that as a secondary move instead. What annoys me about him is that he keeps going for the Crowbar constantly, as if it's his only move, and it's quickly becoming that way. I liked Eddie getting the win, even if it was by Davey's interference because it is a mostly tag wrestler going over a strong midcarder here. Nice match.

***


Claudio Castagnoli vs Davey Richards

So Davey's gonna be wrestling like a face for the second DVD in a row. Hmmm...Yep, he's definitely turning or this'll all be pointless. If Davey is going to keep getting booked in these one-night face turns, I'm just going to go ahead and forget he's supposed to be a heel for the sake of enjoying a match. Because this was an enjoyable match, and I bloody loved it, so I don't want to have to mark down a match I loved. I really wish Davey would be more consistent, because he comes out to the ring and kicks some ringside attendant guy, then during the match he's playing to the crowd and is actually an incredible babyface. That does not make thense, as Johnnie Cochran would say. But anyway, this was a very enjoyable match. These guys just have good chemistry together and were able to put on some good technical wrestling, which the crowd just ate up. The fans were just so hot for this by the time it was over and who could blame them? Even though Davey does dangerous stuff like the crowd dive, I think Claudio actually got the bigger pop for his no-hands spinning Torture Rack. A move that gets a huge reaction and puts a smile on my face whenever it occurs, and I think I've seen him do it five times now. Davey is excellent in the face role, so he'd better not change when he makes his official turn. Unfortunately, that'll likely be after Final Battle. Watch this match.

****


The Young Bucks vs The Briscoes

From two of my favourite wrestlers to two of my least favourite teams going at it here. What's not to love? Well, I wasn't expecting much, so I didn't get much. I didn't really like this at all. It was dull. They just went out there with a pretty dead crowd and did some doubleteams while beating each other up in between them. One thing I noticed about the Bucks here was that they are awkward with irish-whips. For example, one Buck took a very tame whip into the corner and did some dive outside, making it seem like it was Mark Briscoe's pure strength that did that. Even Shawn Michaels would say "What the fuck just happened?" if he saw this. Another odd Bucks/irish-whip moment was when one of them was on the top rope and the other got irish-whipped into him, but you could see him purposely push his own brother's legs away to cause him to crotch himself on the turnbuckle! The only part of this match I liked was the ending, which isn't as insulting as it sounds. I just like that I finally saw someone counter the More Bang For Your Buck and taught the Jacksons they should turn around before doing a top-rope move. It was an ok match, which some would like, but I'm a bit biased because I just purely dislike both teams.

***


Colt Cabana & Petey Williams vs Austin Aries & Rhett Titus

Surprised at how much I actually enjoyed this. I was expecting something skippable, but turned out to be a really good match. I do see a bit of humour in liking a tag between two makeshift teams more than one between "two of the best teams in the world". Apart from a couple sloppy moments, this wasn't bad at all. It was fun, in a serious way, not in a Cabana desperately trying to be funny by smiling and doing that thing with his legs. I think Rhett Titus may be cursed, by the way. This is the third time in under a year he's been in a match where someone is busted open hard way or by freak accident. I didn't even see what happened here, but Prazak said Cabana elbowed him hard. Let us not forget the flying knee he hit Erick Stevens with at Glory By Honor last year that opened up his nose, and when Brent Albright cut the back of his head for reasons I still don't know. As far as this match goes, it's not really required viewing, but it's likely to be third best on this show. It's enjoyable and I can't imagine anyone saying they'll regret watching it. Nothing special, but fun and competitive.

***1/2


Chris Hero vs Bryan Danielson

Great match, I enjoyed this so much. Despite the crowd not being as wild as it could've been (or that could be the commentary-crowd audio) they seemed really into it. There were a lot of little things I liked about this, such as Hero doing an inverted version of Dragon's elbow stomp, or the Roaring Elbow off the apron, or even Todd Sinclair accidentally blocking Dragon's view of the Flash Kick coming towards him and Hero thanking him for it. This was another great performance from Hero and another day, another great match for Dragon. The style these two work is very good to watch. They both start off with some smart chain wrestling, then by the end they're brawling and kicking and elbowing the hell out of each other. Hero's elbows were sick, but Dragon's kicks were pretty loud too. No, this was not as good as their final PWG match, but who really expected this to be? It's a different atmosphere. Not for a world title, not Dragon's (very) last match, and the finish wasn't as unexpected or took an epic amount of time to get to. I see this, and the Roderick match, as a preview of what's to come in the Final Countdown Tour, and if it gets better than this, we are in for a treat.

****

Rhett Titus vs Petey Williams

Solid stuff, I'm surprised this turned out to be a decent match. Titus may be the best ROH student, but he's still just average in the ring, and Petey Williams isn't that special apart from the Canadian Destroyer. Even Chris Hero was calling him a one-trick pony on commentary. This started off ok, but towards the end after a couple nearfalls, the crowd was getting a lot livelier and cared more about the result. I actually thought Titus had the win after he countered the Destroyer into a Reverse Piledriver-type move. I've always loved Titus as a personality, but he's growing on me as a wrestler. He keeps improving and is now showing he's capable of putting on an acceptable match, even without the aid of Kenny King as his partner.

***


Dog Collar Match
Necro Butcher vs Jimmy Rave

Decent match, though I'm not sure what the point was in this being a Dog Collar Match. I was barely aware these guys were even having a proper feud, and it's been too lackluster to really be considered worthy of this stipulation. I was quite enjoying it at first, but it then it turned into the typical crowd-brawling rubbish that reminded me of most of Necro's stuff last year. The vast majority of it was Rave getting his ass kicked the whole time. Nana even landed a good chairshot on Necro, but that didn't stop Rave's beating for long. After Necro's comeback, I think Rave only got about two good offensive moves. A couple sloppy moments dragged this down a bit, mostly Necro gently tugging the chain sending Rave flying into a wall or the ring post, but there was one part where Rave sort of flopped onto a guard rail in a way that looked like he landed safely, but actually sold pretty seriously. Eh, it was good since I wasn't expecting much, but this really isn't the sort of match I like. It reminded me of the brawls I used to complain about a lot last year.

***1/4


The Young Bucks vs Dark City Fight Club

Decent match, liked it more than the Bucks' previous match against The Briscoes. I actually kinda dig the Bucks when they really tone down on the spots and constant highflying stuff. They do the simple doubleteams well and I can buy into them doing missile dropkicks and strikes when they're against a team this size. Instead of them doing so much at the start, I was hoping the DCFC would just start destroying them immediately and build towards an exciting comeback. Although I don't like the Bucks and I love the DCFC, I quite like this buildup so far for a future feud. This is the second time the Bucks have beat them with a rollup (and it was quite a sweet finish too, countering Project Mayhem). Mostly, I just want this feud for the DCFC killing the Bucks. Not much to talk about for this one, it was ok.

***


Claudio Castagnoli vs Colt Cabana

Several questions arise. How many more times is Claudio gonna be treated like Colt's bitch? How many more times is Claudio gonna lose to Colt ridiculously easy? How many more times is Colt, who is being built up as a title contender, going to win by cheating? And how many more times is Prince Nana going to be stuck in the Billy Goat's Curse? Hated this match. It was lame and I had already seen the exact same thing twice already. Nothing more to be said.

**1/4


ROH World Tag Team Championship
American Wolves vs The Briscoes

There were some good things about this match, but some bad things really brought this down from what it could've been. One is The Briscoes no-selling, which I still haven't gotten used and it still bugs the hell out of me. At one point, Davey hits Jay with a Capture Suplex on his head, and Jay's up right away to attack him. That's not fighting spirit, that's just pure awful selling. What's worse is that when Eddie struck him with a knee just after, Jay only remembered to sell that knee, not the fact that he just got driven on the back of his head! Second, is The Briscoes apparent refusal to be without offense for any significant period of time. The Wolves got very little offense in this, and they're the damn heel champions! This is what pisses me off about the tag division. The fucking Briscoes will never be booked lower than the fucking champions. It happened with Steenerico and it looks like it'll happen with the Wolves. The Wolves are lucky Mark was injured for most of their reign. It'll be a travesty if The Briscoes win at Final Battle. This could've been a great match, but The Briscoes hurt this quite bad. The only thing that really stood out I liked was Davey dropkicking the ref for the DQ. Even after that, The Briscoes were morons. "Oh hey look we won dem tag belts bah DQ!" "Oh what? You mean dey dont change hands bah DQ?" Ugh.

***1/2


ROH World Championship
Austin Aries vs Bryan Danielson

Enjoyed this match a lot. I'd say this is the best match of the Final Countdown Tour so far. Both guys put a lot into this, and while it's definitely not as good as their most famous matches, they fail to dissapoint as usual. Some nice chain-wrestling to start, but by the end they're hitting each other with all they had. Seriously, some of the forearm shots they did were much stiffer than I thought they would be. They all had that loud, sick, snapping sound, which you don't usually get from either guy. I liked the callback to their previous title match on HDNet, where Aries dropkicked Dragon's head into the exposed turnbuckle. Here, we had an equally good spot, where they did it on the apron with Dragon's head hitting the ring post and Aries having a tough landing on the apron. Then there was the classic no-frills Dragon crowd dive, a spot that doesn't ever seem to get old and is always a crowd pleaser. I loved the ending with Aries doing just about all of his big moves to finally put away Dragon, even a Super Brainbuster and two kicks to the head. I thought this was exciting stuff the whole way through and I think it is one of the best ROH matches this year. Not just for the action, but like all Final Countdown matches will have, he emotion factor. This is Dragon's last ever ROH World Title match, against a man he's had a competitive rivalry with for years, and was in a tag team with last year. That just has to be taken into account. Some may think I'm overrating this, but I honestly enjoyed it this much. Must-see match.

****1/4