ROH The Last Stand Gradual Thoughts by Ki

[NewFnShow]

Ki, you never finished this, and I will not rest until you do!

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Open up with J Train. Homicide doesn't want to talk about his match tonight.

Move on to The Prophecy w/Allison Danger, Dan Maff, BJ Whitmer. Allison and Maff do a GREAT job on the promo. Whitmer just kind of stands there. They tease the heat between BJ and Maff and set up the 4-way for later.

FIRST MATCH: John Walters vs. Chad Collyer (Three rope break rule)

I REALLY enjoyed the first half of this match. Just great "pure wrestling". About mid-way thru this lost some steam and the guys didn't seem to mesh as well from this point on. I did enjoy the "3-rope" break rule and how that added a bit of drama to the match. All in all a good opener but about 5 minutes too long (looks like the SAT match didn't make the tape).

Rating: **1/2

SECOND MATCH: Chris Sabin vs. Hydro vs. Jack Evans vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Caprice Coleman vs. Slyk Wagner Brown (Six Man Mayhem)

Holy spotastic don't blink or you will miss something THRILL RIDE~! Dutt, Sabin and Evans ALL looked REALLY GOOD. Coleman and Hydro also looked good.

Rating: ***

Colt Cabana's "Good Times, Great Memories" with special guests Dunn & Marcos

Good stuff as usual.

THIRD MATCH: The Backseat Boyz vs. The Carnage Crew (Loc & Justin Credible) vs. Special K (No-DQ)

Quick short brawl. Good for what it was.

Rating: **

FOURTH MATCH: BJ Whitmer vs. Dan Maff vs. Matt Stryker vs. Xavier

This was decent but not what I have come to expect from ROH 4-ways.

Rating: **1/2

FIFTH MATCH: Alex Shelley vs. Jimmy Jacobs

This was a TON of fun. I always enjoy watching these guys work especially Shelley- every match Shelley is in he shows us at least 3 new innovative moves. VIVA ALEX SHELLEY~! Give him the Pure Wrestling Title~!

Rating: ***1/4

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You still got Punk/Cide and the Tag Title match to review. Let's get on with it

[Agent Kev]

SIXTH MATCH: CM PUNK w/Colt Cabana vs. Homicide w/Julius Smokes

Decent match but I was just expecting more. Both guys put forth a good effort and they did a decent job of involving the "corner men" in the match w/o the use of interference but I just wasn't digging this match overall for some reason. I thought their RRC2 match was much better (but I'm just going from memory on this one).

Rating: **3/4

Next Up: Jay & Mark Briscoe with Jim Cornette vs. Samoa Joe & Jerry Lynn

[DrPepperPlunge]

Kev......Would you suggest me picking up this show or the 2nd anniversary? I have not decided yet but am gonna place an order again soon! BTW I think I am gonna post a review on some of the ROH tapes I have gotten lately. Some are pretty old though but still the more reviews of tapes the better I guess!

[Agent Kev]

DrPepperPlunge said:

Kev......Would you suggest me picking up this show or the 2nd anniversary? I have not decided yet but am gonna place an order again soon! BTW I think I am gonna post a review on some of the ROH tapes I have gotten lately. Some are pretty old though but still the more reviews of tapes the better I guess!

1. I'm sure everyone would love to hear more viewpoints about ROH from another perspective.

2. I haven't seen 2nd Anniversary yet...it's in the mail.

3. This show looks middle of the road so far with one match to go. I would probably say to skip this one until a "sale" comes up and then you can pick it up.

[DrPepperPlunge]

Thanks for the tape advice!

I am probally gonna post my review on Glory By Honor 2, Main Event Spectacles, and Final Battle '03 first since I have those saved somewhere!

Question for ya.....How do you do your star ratings? I know different people go by different things and was just curious how you do yours? I think that came out right lol

[Agent Kev]

DrPepperPlunge said:

Question for ya.....How do you do your star ratings? I know different people go by different things and was just curious how you do yours? I think that came out right lol

I don't know how it is supposed to be done but basically in my theory every match starts out at **1/2 (which is the medium or average). From there it is all subjective there is no real science it's just how I feel about the match and the factors that go into a good match: storytelling/drama, match flow, technical ability, selling, crowd response, etc. And then you just end-up at what you feel the match deserves. That's kinda vague huh!

Anyway in order to rate something as **** or above then it has to be REALLY good. Almost a MOTYC if not. Anything from ***-**** is probably a MOTN contender and something that is REALLY solid and FUN to watch. **-*** is still a good match but kind of an average right in the middle of the road kind of way. *-** are reserved for match that while they might not be bad, just don't feel complete. Anything below is reserved for Goldberg, Konnan, Jeff Hardy and BG James. Hope that helps.

[NewFnShow]

That kinda sucks that Cide/Punk dissappointed. On paper it looks like an awesome match.