ROH: "Unified" Thoughts~!

[Agent Kev]

Matt Sydal vs. Colt Cabana vs. Spud vs. Jonny Storm

Really fun opener. Cabana came out first and got a huge pop and he was super over this entire match and pretty much ruled the match. Sydal and Storm were solid in their roles and Spud did a decent job in his role as well. Just a bunch of fun to start off the show and the crowd ate it up.

Davey Richards vs. Jimmy Rave

This was solid with a little lag in the middle and maybe a little too much high impact moves for just being the second match on the card but this is a fued and it was Rave's third try to beat Davey so they really had Rave try pretty much everything to try and beat Davey and still come up short. The double-underhook brainbuster is just a sick, sick finisher. Overall this was solid but would have probably benefited from being a little shorter.

BJ Whitmer vs. Claudio Castagnoli

Claudio attacks Whitmer during his entrance and we are off! This was a good change of pace from the last two matches as this one focused more on brawling and had a lot of out of the ring activity. Claudio dominates a good portion of the match but Whitmer scored the victory with a flash roll-up. Post-match Chris Hero hits the ring but then Colt Cabana bursts through the curtain to even the odds. Claudio and BJ pair off and they are never heard from again and Colt cuts a promo challenging Hero to a match.

Colt Cabana vs. Chris Hero

I liked this a lot. Not a great match, but really a great mid-card match. When Cabana was on offense the crowd was totally into him and when Hero was on offense he played the perfect "showboat" heel. Good stuff here and about the perfect length for what it served.

More to come...

[Samoa JOWNED~!]

Where is your review of my marking out?

[Agent Kev]

reeeeeesh said:

Where is your review of my marking out?

What were you wearing?

[Agent Kev]

Doug Williams & Jody Fleisch vs. SUWA & Go Shiozaki

Great to see Doug Williams back in ROH and great to see SUWA and Go in ROH! Overall, this was a good tag-match but didn't really have all that much flow to it. I did enjoy seeing SUWA in ROH as he just has a ton of charisma without really even trying to show it. Fleisch was doing pretty good but then blew a spot in the middle of the match and at the end. Overall, it didn't effect the match quality that much.

Robbie Brookside vs. Chad Collyer (FWA Title Match)

This match has gotten pretty much universally panned and while I don't think it was great I thought it was decent. It did have the least amount of crowd heat of any of the matches thus far as it was the back from intermission match and it didn't have any high impact moves like the matches before it had.

More to come...

[Samoa JOWNED~!]

A red ROH shirt. I was at the hard camera's right in the second row right next to the entrance ramp.

[Agent Kev]

Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe (ROH World Tag Team Title Match)

This was definitely my favorite of their 3 tag-matches so far in ROH. This was a really fun tag-team match and overall just a great "big moves" match. The teams were familiar with each other so they didn't have a long feeling out process and instead had a real fast paced hectic tag-team match. Great execution in the match and all guys really brought the stiffness. You will want to see this.

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness (ROH World Title vs. Pure Title Unification Match)

This was pretty great. One of the things about Danielson's matches during his reign is that they consistently build throughout the match to the point where the contender has the crowd in the palm of their hands and everyone is cheering for the upset and this is no different especially with Nigel challenging in the UK. They used the pure rules very well in this match without having them be the focal point of the match and they did focus on the countout rule of the Pure Title which made sense because Nigel's won so many of his recent defenses that way. Once the match went out to the floor and Danielson posted Nigel like 4 or 5 times with Nigel's head making a sick thudding sound and then spewing blood the match picked way up and from there it was golden. Easily one of the best match in ROH this year and probably on my Top 2 list so far this year along with Danielson vs Strong. Great match and the visuals with Nigel in the ring "hulking up" after getting posted are pretty great. If Nigel wasn't made in ROH before this match then this made him.

Verdict:

Just a tremendous show and one of the best in ROH this year. The only slow part of the show was the middle but it started really nice and ended with 2 great matches in Aries/Strong vs Briscoes and Danielson vs Nigel.

2006 Show Rankings:
1. Supercard Of Honor- Chicago Ridge, IL 3/31/06
2. Unified- Liverpool, UK 8/12/06
3. Better Than Our Best- Chicago Ridge, IL 4/1/06
4. Death Before Dishonor IV- Philadelphia, PA 7/15/06
5. In Your Face- New York, NY 6/17/06
6. The 100th Show- Philadelphia, PA 4/22/06
7. Generation Now- Cleveland, OH 7/29/06
8. Fight of the Century- Edison, NJ 8/5/06
9. Time To Man Up- Long Island, NY 8/4/06
10. Best In The World- New York, NY 3/25/06
11. Weekend of Champions Night 2- Cleveland, OH 4/29/06
12. Tag Wars 2006- Dayton, OH 1/27/06
13. Dragon Gate Challenge- Detroit, MI 3/30/06
14. Arena Warfare- Philadelphia, PA 3/11/06
15. Destiny- East Windsor, CT 6/3/06
16. Fourth Anniversary Show- Edison, NJ 2/25/06
17.Chi-Town Struggle- Chicago Ridge, IL 6/24/06
18. Throwdown- Detroit, MI 6/23/06
19. Dissension- Cleveland, OH 1/28/06
20. Hell Freezes Over- Philadelphia, PA 1/14/06
21. Ring of Homicide- Edison, NJ 5/13/06
22. How We Roll- Long Island, NY 5/12/06
23. Weekend of Champions Night 1- Dayton, OH 4/28/06
24. Unscripted II- Long Island, NY 2/11/06
25. War of the Wire II- Dayton, OH 7/28/06