Post by Agent Kev on Jul 5, 2007 23:18:50 GMT -5
ROH All-Star Extravaganza III
Detroit, MI 3/30/07
They open up showing Bruno Sammartino at the autograph table and then cut to Rebecca Bayless who interviews some fans that have traveled from around the US and the World to be at the shows this weekend.
Next up is a Dragon Gate hype video showing footage of the wrestlers who will be competing tonight.
Colt Cabana vs. Chris Hero w/Larry Sweeney and Tank Toland vs. Adam Pearce w/Shane Hagadorn vs. Matt Sydal
This was a great opener. Really fun and had the crowd the whole time. Chris Hero was borderline brilliant in this match with his showboat shtick and Cabana really looked good as well.
Erick Stevens vs Alex Payne
GREAT 15 second squash. Stevens comes in and he's thick, has a Mohawk and doesn't look like a typical ROH wrestler. Then he squashes Payne (who is an ROH student) with 3 power moves. Great stuff.
The Briscoes are backstage and are talking about their match and says that they will get their titles back from Doi and Shingo tonight and make an open challenge to anyone in the World who wants to come and ROH to wrestle them.
Masaaki Mochizuki vs Davey Richards
This was decent to good. Pretty good flow and it was all about the kicks. Davey is doing a much better job morphing into a heel now and it's helping him since he is moving away from being just a generic indy wrestler.
Dave Prazak is in the ring and he welcomes Bruno Sammartino. Sammartino cuts a pro ROH promo and has he is finishing Super Agent Larry Sweeney comes down flanked by Chris Hero and Tank Toland. Sweeney runs down Bruno's accomplishments putting him over but then says that the only reason that Bruno is a legend is because Chris Hero was born 50 years too late. During this Tank Toland is doing push-ups and squats (his gimmick is that he is Chris Hero's trainer). Sweeney challenges Bruno to an arm wrestling match against Hero. Bruno says that he can still wipe the floor with someone like Sweeney. Sweeney says this is between Bruno and Hero and then Nigel McGuinness hits the ring and throw Hero to the floor before destroying Toland with a short-arm clothesline and taking out Sweeney. Sweeney and his group retreat as Nigel cuts a promo putting over Bruno and leads the fans in a standing ovation for Bruno and a "Bruno...Bruno" chant. Really solid segment all around.
Christopher Daniels, with face paint, cuts a solid promo hyping his match tonight versus Homicide. Mentions that last year in this building he beat Samoa Joe.
Anything Goes Match: Jimmy Jacobs and Lacey vs BJ Whitmer and Daizee Haze
Man the women look hot in their t-shirts and jeans. OK, now onto the match. This was solid. Good brawling from the guys and really solid wrestling/brawling from the gals. Haze and Lacey really have a good chemistry together as do BJ and Jacobs. This match was a little hard to follow as there was a lot of out of the ring action but ROH did a good job by putting the action in the ring on the main screen and the outside of the ring action on a picture in picture in the corner of the screen. Great finish. BJ gets Jacobs up in the corner and it looks like he's going to powerbomb him into the crowd again but Lacey comes from behind and crotches him. Lacey and Jimmy then double team Daizee and Jimmy spears her out of her shoes! Fantastic move as he shoes actually went flying into the crowed and it looked great on camera and got a huge pop from the crowd. Lacey pulls Daizee up and then hits an implant DDT for the win. Good stuff. Post-match Lacey gets on the mic and tells Jimmy that she's been really hard on him and that she is really proud of him for his performance tonight and says that she is going to give him a surprise. Jimmy looks very pleased and ends up getting a hug and he looks like he is in heaven. Lacey says that if he does good in the Cage Match against Whitmer tomorrow there will be much more where that come from. BJ finally comes to and runs them off with a barb wire bat.
Jack Evans cuts a promo on Roderick Strong.
ROH Tag-Team Title Match: Shingo and Naruki Doi (c) vs Jay and Mark Briscoe
This re-match (from when Shingo and Doi won the titles in the UK) was going really well until a horrible spot went awry. Mark jumped up to the top rope and did a Shooting Star Press to the floor onto Doi but Mark didn't get full rotation and he was upside when he bounced off of Doi's chest and went crashing to the ground. The crowd was really hyped and popped huge for the SSP until they realized what happened and then they were really quiet for the rest of the match. Students, EMTs, Refs, Gabe and Whitmer came down to check on Mark. Jay continued to wrestle while being obviously distracted. Finally Jay goes outside of the ring to check on Mark and then comes back into the ring on fire and takes on Doi and Shingo. Gabe (or shall I say Jimmy Bower) comes on and gives an update on Mark and says that he can move all of his extremities but is busted open and looks to be concussed. Shingo and Doi have some miscommunication at the end (not the first time during the match) and Jay grabs Shingo and nails him with the Jay Driller to win the tag-titles. Shingo was an absolute beast in this match and I am really loving his 2007 ROH run. The Mark SSP to the floor was really sick and definitely makes me want to see Jay do less high risk moves like that to the outside.
Great post-match angle happens when Jay goes to leave the ring and Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley hit the ring in street clothes. Shelley and Sabin say that they aren't doing anything on April 28th and challenge Jay to a tag-title match in Chicago. Jay accepts. They shake and then Shelley and Sabin attack Jay and heel the ROH fans. Good stuff.
Rebecca Bayless is backstage and it's intermission time. She gives a Mark Briscoe update saying that he has been taken to the hospital but Larry Sweeney interrupts and says that no one cares about Mark Briscoe, he doesn't care about Mark Briscoe and he cuts a promo on Nigel McGuinness saying that Nigel hasn't seen the last of him tonight. Becky no sells him and says that later in the show they will have an update on Mark's condition for everyone except Larry Sweeney.
YAMATO vs Pelle Primeau
This was a good after intermission match that pitted an ROH student versus a Dragon Gate student. They kept it real short, worked a fast paced match and looked pretty good in the process.
Nigel McGuinness vs. Brent Albright w/Larry Sweeney
Due to the earlier angle Sweeney comes out right after the YAMATO/Primeau match ends and says that he's hired Brent Albright for tonight and challenges Nigel McGuiness. This was a good back and forth match. It seems like Albright is still trying to adapt to the ROH style a bit but he looked pretty good. They had a couple of nice false finishes with Albright countering the Rebound clothesline (called the Jawbreaker here due to early match with Jimmy Rave in the UK) and Sweeney distracting the ref after a Tower of London. Chris Hero comes down and gets involved (continuing the angle from earlier) and Albright scores a surprise, upset victory that was aided by interference.
Christopher Daniels vs Homicide
This was so-so. Daniels tried to play more of a heel in this one and controlled the majority of the match. I was just kind of waiting for this one to end instead of waiting to see how it ended and that's never a good thing.
Post-Match Shane Hagadorn and Adam Pearce hit the ring and attack Homicide. Jim Cornette then comes out and as Hagadorn and Pearce hold Cide, Cornette gets some slaps in. Cornette takes off his belt and tells Cide that he hasn't forgotten but Cide breaks loose and is going to get revenge until Brent Albright comes down and Cide eats a half nelson suplex and then gets stretched by Albright. Cabana, Delirious and Pelle come to the rescue.
Roderick Strong vs Jack Evans
This was good. This one was all about Roderick controlling the pace of the match and Jack trying to withstand the punishment and somehow come out on top. Roderick pretty much destroyed Jack during this one- slamming him to the floor from the ring apron, giving him a fall-away slam into the ringpost, stretching him like a pretzel until his foot touched his head and many other examples. Jack fought the valiant fight but in the end Roderick was just too much.
Backstage with Rebecca Bayless and she gives us an update on Mark Briscoes condition. Said that he suffered a severe concussion but that he seems like he will be ok.
Austin Aries, Delirious, Claudio Castagnoli & Rocky Romero vs. CIMA, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito (Ring of Honor vs. Dragon Gate)
This was really fun. Really good set-up to the match as the Dragon Gate guys were announced by a Japanese ring announcer and the ROH guys by Bobby Cruise. This one started out really good and ended really hot. The middle was OK but overall the match worked and it was a good ride. CIMA was the star for his team as he really excels in multi-man matches and really stood out as he definitely knew when and where to pick his spots and had some really fun interaction with Delirious. Claudio and Dragon Kid also had some really fun sequences as they were the most mismatches guys based on size. Overall a really fun match and a great closing sequences that the crowd just ate up.
The show closes with a really good Jimmy Jacobs promo talking about the last year in ROH and his feud/upcoming match with BJ Whitmer.
Verdict:
This was just a really solid/fun show from start to finish. It started out good with the 4-way and then the Stevens squash and then Davey/Mochi. The middle was solid with Jacobs/Whitmer tag, Bricoes tag, Daniels/Cide and McGuinness/Albright and the finish was a good close to the show with Strong/Evans and the 8-man tag. Overall, a very solid show. Nothing that would classify as "must see" but a lot of fun stuff along the way.
2007 Show Rankings:
1. Fifth Year Festival: Finale- Liverpool, UK 3/4/07
2. Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool- Liverpool, UK 3/3/07
3. Fifth Year Festival: NYC- New York, NY 2/16/07
4. All Star Extravaganza III- Detroit, MI 3/30/07
5. Fifth Year Festival: Philly- Philadelphia, PA 2/17/07
6. Battle of the Icons- Edison, NJ 1/27/07
7. Fifth Year Festival: Chicago- Chicago, IL 2/24/07
8. Dedicated- Braintree, MA 1/26/07
9. Fifth Year Festival: Dayton- Dayton, OH 2/23/07
Detroit, MI 3/30/07
They open up showing Bruno Sammartino at the autograph table and then cut to Rebecca Bayless who interviews some fans that have traveled from around the US and the World to be at the shows this weekend.
Next up is a Dragon Gate hype video showing footage of the wrestlers who will be competing tonight.
Colt Cabana vs. Chris Hero w/Larry Sweeney and Tank Toland vs. Adam Pearce w/Shane Hagadorn vs. Matt Sydal
This was a great opener. Really fun and had the crowd the whole time. Chris Hero was borderline brilliant in this match with his showboat shtick and Cabana really looked good as well.
Erick Stevens vs Alex Payne
GREAT 15 second squash. Stevens comes in and he's thick, has a Mohawk and doesn't look like a typical ROH wrestler. Then he squashes Payne (who is an ROH student) with 3 power moves. Great stuff.
The Briscoes are backstage and are talking about their match and says that they will get their titles back from Doi and Shingo tonight and make an open challenge to anyone in the World who wants to come and ROH to wrestle them.
Masaaki Mochizuki vs Davey Richards
This was decent to good. Pretty good flow and it was all about the kicks. Davey is doing a much better job morphing into a heel now and it's helping him since he is moving away from being just a generic indy wrestler.
Dave Prazak is in the ring and he welcomes Bruno Sammartino. Sammartino cuts a pro ROH promo and has he is finishing Super Agent Larry Sweeney comes down flanked by Chris Hero and Tank Toland. Sweeney runs down Bruno's accomplishments putting him over but then says that the only reason that Bruno is a legend is because Chris Hero was born 50 years too late. During this Tank Toland is doing push-ups and squats (his gimmick is that he is Chris Hero's trainer). Sweeney challenges Bruno to an arm wrestling match against Hero. Bruno says that he can still wipe the floor with someone like Sweeney. Sweeney says this is between Bruno and Hero and then Nigel McGuinness hits the ring and throw Hero to the floor before destroying Toland with a short-arm clothesline and taking out Sweeney. Sweeney and his group retreat as Nigel cuts a promo putting over Bruno and leads the fans in a standing ovation for Bruno and a "Bruno...Bruno" chant. Really solid segment all around.
Christopher Daniels, with face paint, cuts a solid promo hyping his match tonight versus Homicide. Mentions that last year in this building he beat Samoa Joe.
Anything Goes Match: Jimmy Jacobs and Lacey vs BJ Whitmer and Daizee Haze
Man the women look hot in their t-shirts and jeans. OK, now onto the match. This was solid. Good brawling from the guys and really solid wrestling/brawling from the gals. Haze and Lacey really have a good chemistry together as do BJ and Jacobs. This match was a little hard to follow as there was a lot of out of the ring action but ROH did a good job by putting the action in the ring on the main screen and the outside of the ring action on a picture in picture in the corner of the screen. Great finish. BJ gets Jacobs up in the corner and it looks like he's going to powerbomb him into the crowd again but Lacey comes from behind and crotches him. Lacey and Jimmy then double team Daizee and Jimmy spears her out of her shoes! Fantastic move as he shoes actually went flying into the crowed and it looked great on camera and got a huge pop from the crowd. Lacey pulls Daizee up and then hits an implant DDT for the win. Good stuff. Post-match Lacey gets on the mic and tells Jimmy that she's been really hard on him and that she is really proud of him for his performance tonight and says that she is going to give him a surprise. Jimmy looks very pleased and ends up getting a hug and he looks like he is in heaven. Lacey says that if he does good in the Cage Match against Whitmer tomorrow there will be much more where that come from. BJ finally comes to and runs them off with a barb wire bat.
Jack Evans cuts a promo on Roderick Strong.
ROH Tag-Team Title Match: Shingo and Naruki Doi (c) vs Jay and Mark Briscoe
This re-match (from when Shingo and Doi won the titles in the UK) was going really well until a horrible spot went awry. Mark jumped up to the top rope and did a Shooting Star Press to the floor onto Doi but Mark didn't get full rotation and he was upside when he bounced off of Doi's chest and went crashing to the ground. The crowd was really hyped and popped huge for the SSP until they realized what happened and then they were really quiet for the rest of the match. Students, EMTs, Refs, Gabe and Whitmer came down to check on Mark. Jay continued to wrestle while being obviously distracted. Finally Jay goes outside of the ring to check on Mark and then comes back into the ring on fire and takes on Doi and Shingo. Gabe (or shall I say Jimmy Bower) comes on and gives an update on Mark and says that he can move all of his extremities but is busted open and looks to be concussed. Shingo and Doi have some miscommunication at the end (not the first time during the match) and Jay grabs Shingo and nails him with the Jay Driller to win the tag-titles. Shingo was an absolute beast in this match and I am really loving his 2007 ROH run. The Mark SSP to the floor was really sick and definitely makes me want to see Jay do less high risk moves like that to the outside.
Great post-match angle happens when Jay goes to leave the ring and Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley hit the ring in street clothes. Shelley and Sabin say that they aren't doing anything on April 28th and challenge Jay to a tag-title match in Chicago. Jay accepts. They shake and then Shelley and Sabin attack Jay and heel the ROH fans. Good stuff.
Rebecca Bayless is backstage and it's intermission time. She gives a Mark Briscoe update saying that he has been taken to the hospital but Larry Sweeney interrupts and says that no one cares about Mark Briscoe, he doesn't care about Mark Briscoe and he cuts a promo on Nigel McGuinness saying that Nigel hasn't seen the last of him tonight. Becky no sells him and says that later in the show they will have an update on Mark's condition for everyone except Larry Sweeney.
YAMATO vs Pelle Primeau
This was a good after intermission match that pitted an ROH student versus a Dragon Gate student. They kept it real short, worked a fast paced match and looked pretty good in the process.
Nigel McGuinness vs. Brent Albright w/Larry Sweeney
Due to the earlier angle Sweeney comes out right after the YAMATO/Primeau match ends and says that he's hired Brent Albright for tonight and challenges Nigel McGuiness. This was a good back and forth match. It seems like Albright is still trying to adapt to the ROH style a bit but he looked pretty good. They had a couple of nice false finishes with Albright countering the Rebound clothesline (called the Jawbreaker here due to early match with Jimmy Rave in the UK) and Sweeney distracting the ref after a Tower of London. Chris Hero comes down and gets involved (continuing the angle from earlier) and Albright scores a surprise, upset victory that was aided by interference.
Christopher Daniels vs Homicide
This was so-so. Daniels tried to play more of a heel in this one and controlled the majority of the match. I was just kind of waiting for this one to end instead of waiting to see how it ended and that's never a good thing.
Post-Match Shane Hagadorn and Adam Pearce hit the ring and attack Homicide. Jim Cornette then comes out and as Hagadorn and Pearce hold Cide, Cornette gets some slaps in. Cornette takes off his belt and tells Cide that he hasn't forgotten but Cide breaks loose and is going to get revenge until Brent Albright comes down and Cide eats a half nelson suplex and then gets stretched by Albright. Cabana, Delirious and Pelle come to the rescue.
Roderick Strong vs Jack Evans
This was good. This one was all about Roderick controlling the pace of the match and Jack trying to withstand the punishment and somehow come out on top. Roderick pretty much destroyed Jack during this one- slamming him to the floor from the ring apron, giving him a fall-away slam into the ringpost, stretching him like a pretzel until his foot touched his head and many other examples. Jack fought the valiant fight but in the end Roderick was just too much.
Backstage with Rebecca Bayless and she gives us an update on Mark Briscoes condition. Said that he suffered a severe concussion but that he seems like he will be ok.
Austin Aries, Delirious, Claudio Castagnoli & Rocky Romero vs. CIMA, Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito (Ring of Honor vs. Dragon Gate)
This was really fun. Really good set-up to the match as the Dragon Gate guys were announced by a Japanese ring announcer and the ROH guys by Bobby Cruise. This one started out really good and ended really hot. The middle was OK but overall the match worked and it was a good ride. CIMA was the star for his team as he really excels in multi-man matches and really stood out as he definitely knew when and where to pick his spots and had some really fun interaction with Delirious. Claudio and Dragon Kid also had some really fun sequences as they were the most mismatches guys based on size. Overall a really fun match and a great closing sequences that the crowd just ate up.
The show closes with a really good Jimmy Jacobs promo talking about the last year in ROH and his feud/upcoming match with BJ Whitmer.
Verdict:
This was just a really solid/fun show from start to finish. It started out good with the 4-way and then the Stevens squash and then Davey/Mochi. The middle was solid with Jacobs/Whitmer tag, Bricoes tag, Daniels/Cide and McGuinness/Albright and the finish was a good close to the show with Strong/Evans and the 8-man tag. Overall, a very solid show. Nothing that would classify as "must see" but a lot of fun stuff along the way.
2007 Show Rankings:
1. Fifth Year Festival: Finale- Liverpool, UK 3/4/07
2. Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool- Liverpool, UK 3/3/07
3. Fifth Year Festival: NYC- New York, NY 2/16/07
4. All Star Extravaganza III- Detroit, MI 3/30/07
5. Fifth Year Festival: Philly- Philadelphia, PA 2/17/07
6. Battle of the Icons- Edison, NJ 1/27/07
7. Fifth Year Festival: Chicago- Chicago, IL 2/24/07
8. Dedicated- Braintree, MA 1/26/07
9. Fifth Year Festival: Dayton- Dayton, OH 2/23/07
