Post by Agent Kev on Jan 28, 2008 23:36:08 GMT -5
Man Up- Chicago Ridge, IL 9/15/07 (2 Disc Set) PPV/DVD
Man Up PPV:
We open up with Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak at ringside and Naomichi Marufuji is in the ring and Nigel McGuinness is making his way to the ring. The #1 Contender's 4-Corner Survival is up first and as Nigel, Claudio and Hero make their way to the ring they all come down and cut brief promos to the live and PPV crowd to get across why they are in this match. ROH also put up a graphic for each wrestler and stated what their goal was so that the PPV audience clearly knows some background and why to care for these guys. I think doing things like this not only on PPV but also on the regular DVDs would be a good thing and can only add to the product.
McGuiness: World Champ
Hero: Known as Best Athlete
Marufuji: Make name in US
Claudio: Revenge on S&S
Nigel McGuinness vs. Chris Hero vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Naomichi Marufuji (Four Corner Survival #1 Contender's Match)
Overall, this was a good opener. Hero was the real star of this match with his early taunts and then his avoidance of Claudio and just his general greatness in the match. All the other guys more than held their own. There were a few too many pin break-ups for my tastes as it kind of got a little repetitive but nothing that really took away from the match. Overall, a good opener that the crowd was into and two agendas were really furthered as a result of the match: Claudio/Hero beef and Nigel cemented as the #1 Contender to the World Title.
Bryan Danielson is backstage and he cuts a great babyface promo about his eye in order to hype his World Title Match tonight against Takeshi Morishima. Danielson brings up his mom, his sister and his dad and talks about how they felt about his injury and him continuing to wrestle. Just a great babyface promo.
Rocky Romero vs. Matt Cross
This is the first match of a "Best of 3" series between the No Remorse Corps and The Resilience. Pre-Match both teams are shown in their huddles outside the ring talking up their participant for the match. The "Goal" graphic is shown again. Romero's goal is to "KO opponents" and Cross's is to get his "First PPV victory". I really like how they set-up this match. The actual in-ring match GREATLY exceeded my expectations. It was very good and was worked in a quick brisk pace and worked to both guys strengths. Both guys came out of this match with me thinking more highly of them then I did going in. Cross looked really good and when I think about when I first saw him in PWG several years ago and the strides he has made it's almost amazing. Romero worked more of a shooter style and did it very well. Just a surprisingly good match.
Davey Richards vs. Austin Aries
Roderick Strong hits the ring and so does Austin Aries. They tease Aries vs Strong as the next match in the series. Aries is announced for the match and then Strong takes off and Davey Richards comes in as the participant for the No Remorse Corps. This was another strong match. Lots of back and forths and reversals. Davey was really put pretty much on an even keel as Aries throughout the match and coming out of the match. This felt a little long but the live crowd dug it and the crowd peaked as they went to the finish so it worked.
Roderick Strong vs. Erick Stevens
The third and final match of this series was probably my least favorite although it was still real solid and they tried to put Stevens over through a loss as Roderick just about had to kill him to beat him.
Next up they show the formation of the Hangmen 3 group and show highlights from a show in Hartford Connecticut where it happened.
Takeshi Morishima vs. Bryan Danielson (ROH World Title Match)
This was pretty fantastic. Danielson was hurt coming in some he really tried to take the fight to Morishima early but Morishima fought him off and pretty much dominated him early. Danielson eye patch got knocked lose early and he wore it messed up for the rest of the match as he didn't have time to adjust it because it was in for the fight of his life. Early Morishima dominated Danielson on the outside of the ring. Finally, Morishima threw Danielson into the ring and Danielson quickly hit a dive to the outside taking out Morishima. Danielson knew that he had to give everything he had to win this match and this was just one example of that. Crowd was really hot for the close of this match and just about came unglued when Danielson hit a small package late. Danielson was tenacious and hit the elbows to the side of the head but couldn't knock out Morishima. He clamped on Cattle Mutilation to no avail. Hit a Dragon Suplex for a 2. Clamped on a Triangle Choke on more than one occasion. But Morishima continued to outlast Danielson. Danielson went for stomps to the head but Morishima fought out. Morishima knew he was going to go down because Danielson was just too tenacious so Morishima did what he said he wouldn't and went after Danielson's injured eye with a forearm barrage after he had already hit two back drop drivers (on the first one Danielson got a foot on the ropes). Morishima went after the eye repeatedly and the ref had no choice but to call for the bell and give Morishima the bell via MMA style decision- which is ironically how Danielson wins a lot of his matches. Great story, great fight, tons of heart. MOTY so far for Ring of Honor.
Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico (World Tag Team Title LADDER WAR)
Another stand-out match as this one was really fun and had the fans on the edge of their seats. Lots of brawling in the crowd and chair shots early. Second half of the match focused on the teams trying to get the belts in the ring and using the ladders on each. A couple of moves that stand-out are Steen hitting the package piledriver through a ladder (which was being held up by a gigantic ladder and the turnbuckle) and Jay hitting a Jay Driller through a ladder. Steen also just destroyed one of the Briscoes with an Awesome Bomb from the ring to the outside through a table making one of the Briscoes feel a lot like Masato Tanaka. Another great spot was when the Briscoes did a Springboard Doomsday Device clothesline and the Briscoe who did the Springboard actually jumped through the ladder to hit the clothesline. Really fun match, got some "Match of the Year" chants afterwards.
Post-Match Steen walks out on Generico and the Briscoes celebrate. But the celebration is cut short as some fans in ski masks and bandannas start making a ruckus at ringside and then Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black hit the ring. They face of with the Briscoes and Necro Butcher, with his fist wrapped in barb wire, attacks from behind. Age of the Fall then tie up one of the Briscoes by the feet and then begin to hoist him to the ceiling by his feet as the PPV goes off the air.
Bonus Matches:
Mitch Franklin vs. Alex Payne (Top of the Class Trophy)
This was kept short, that's all I will say right now.
Lacey & Sara Del Rey vs. Amazing Kong & Daizee Haze
Decent match that went a little too long but had some really good stuff between Del Rey and Kong.
BJ Whitmer & Brent Albright vs. Chasyn Rance & Kenny King
I've like what i've seen of Kenny King but he botched a springboard move pretty badly in this one. I don't normally like Albright and Whitmer but they did a good job in this match as they pretty much squashed Rance and King.
Jack Evans vs. Tyler Black
Black got most of the offense in early and looked real good. He physically resembles CM Punk but is a bit more athletic. Evans gets the advantage and that brings out Necro Butcher and Jimmy Jacobs- who is still wearing his blood soaked white jacket. Necro nails Evans with a chair. The Irish Airborne come in and save Jack Evans and this leads to a six-man between Jack Evans/Irish Airborne vs Age of the Fall (Black/Jacobs/Necro). Necro and Evans pair off and have a nice little weird brawl like only Jack and Necro can. Match ends when Evans dies via Necro backbreaker off the second rope onto two chairs, one of the Crists eats a sick looking small package driver from Black and the other Crist gets choked out by Jacobs. Necro potatoes the ref and this is officially a "No Decision" although it's clear who won.
Matt Sydal w/Larry Sweeney vs. Delirious
This was OK but I wasn't really into it after seeing these guys wrestle so much. Larry Sweeney had a great spot towards the end that brought me back into it as he got into the ring and argued with ref Todd Sinclair and kicked imaginary dirt on him and then took off his jacket threw it on the ground and did the Garvin Stomp on it before pushing Sinclair and Sinclair putting him in his place with a push back.
Blood Edit: Age Of The Fall Debut
The sight of Necro literally eating the blood off of the Briscoes and Jay Briscoes blood raining down onto Jimmy Jacobs and his white jacket as he cut a promo was pretty great.
Verdict:
The bonus disc of about an hour and half worth of footage was real skip able. That being said the actual 2-hr PPV was great and the last two matches were borderline fantastic (especially Morishima/Danielson II). Lots of good wrestling on the PPV with the 4-Way, the Resilience vs NRC 3-match series (with Romero/Cross really putting on a surprisingly good match. Ultimately buy this match for Danielson/Morishima which at this point I have as my ROH Match of the Year- just too good of a story told and great execution and the Ladder War which was pretty intense. This show ultimately is not #1 with a bullet but it's pretty close and I think it was the best 2-hour PPV yet and thus gets my #1 spot of the year so far. I think this one just eeks out "Driven" due to Morishima/Danielson being a little better than McGuinness/Danielson. One thing that does stand out to me is that since ROH has started putting on PPVs (Respect is Earned 5/12/07) the 3 PPVs have clearly been a cut above the other shows with really on Manhattan Mayhem II (ranked 7th for the year) beginning to approach the PPVs. So right now I'd say stick with the PPVs, which in the long-run makes the rest of the shows more skippable so ROH will probably need to rethink this unless the PPVs really take off.
2007 Show Rankings:
1. Man Up- Chicago Ridge, IL 9/15/07
2. Driven- Chicago Ridge, IL 6/23/07
3. Fifth Year Festival: Finale- Liverpool, UK 3/4/07
4. Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool- Liverpool, UK 3/3/07
5. Respect Is Earned- New York, NY 5/12/07
6. Fifth Year Festival: NYC- New York, NY 2/16/07
7. Manhattan Mayhem II- New York, NY 8/25/07
8. Good Times, Great Memories- Chicago Ridge, IL 4/28/07
9. Supercard of Honor II- Detroit, MI 3/31/07
10. Death Before Dishonor V Night 1- Boston, MA 8/10/07
11. Death Before Dishonor V Night 2- Philadelphia PA 8/11/07
12. Live In Tokyo- Tokyo, Japan 7/16/07
13. All Star Extravaganza III- Detroit, MI 3/30/07
14. A Fight At The Roxbury- Boston, MA 6/8/07
15. Domination- Philadelphia, PA 6/9/07
16. United We Stand- Dayton, OH 6/22/07
17. Fighting Spirit- Edison, NJ 4/14/07
18. Fifth Year Festival: Philly- Philadelphia, PA 2/17/07
19. Survival of the Fittest 2007- Las Vegas, NV 10/19/07
20. Honor Nation- Boston, MA 10/5/07
21. Race To The Top Tournament Night 2- Edison, NJ 7/28/07
22. Battle of the Icons- Edison, NJ 1/27/07
23. Fifth Year Festival: Chicago- Chicago, IL 2/24/07
24. Caged Rage- Hartford, CT 8/24/07
25. Race To The Top Tournament Night 1- Deer Park, NY 7/27/07
26. Live In Osaka- Osaka, Japan 7/17/07
27. The Battle Of St. Paul- St. Paul, MN 4/27/07
28. This Means War II- Long Island, NY 4/13/07
29. Dedicated- Braintree, MA 1/26/07
30. Motor City Madness 2007- Detroit, MI 9/14/07
31. Reborn Again- Hartford, CT 5/11/07
32. Fifth Year Festival: Dayton- Dayton, OH 2/23/07
Man Up PPV:
We open up with Lenny Leonard and Dave Prazak at ringside and Naomichi Marufuji is in the ring and Nigel McGuinness is making his way to the ring. The #1 Contender's 4-Corner Survival is up first and as Nigel, Claudio and Hero make their way to the ring they all come down and cut brief promos to the live and PPV crowd to get across why they are in this match. ROH also put up a graphic for each wrestler and stated what their goal was so that the PPV audience clearly knows some background and why to care for these guys. I think doing things like this not only on PPV but also on the regular DVDs would be a good thing and can only add to the product.
McGuiness: World Champ
Hero: Known as Best Athlete
Marufuji: Make name in US
Claudio: Revenge on S&S
Nigel McGuinness vs. Chris Hero vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Naomichi Marufuji (Four Corner Survival #1 Contender's Match)
Overall, this was a good opener. Hero was the real star of this match with his early taunts and then his avoidance of Claudio and just his general greatness in the match. All the other guys more than held their own. There were a few too many pin break-ups for my tastes as it kind of got a little repetitive but nothing that really took away from the match. Overall, a good opener that the crowd was into and two agendas were really furthered as a result of the match: Claudio/Hero beef and Nigel cemented as the #1 Contender to the World Title.
Bryan Danielson is backstage and he cuts a great babyface promo about his eye in order to hype his World Title Match tonight against Takeshi Morishima. Danielson brings up his mom, his sister and his dad and talks about how they felt about his injury and him continuing to wrestle. Just a great babyface promo.
Rocky Romero vs. Matt Cross
This is the first match of a "Best of 3" series between the No Remorse Corps and The Resilience. Pre-Match both teams are shown in their huddles outside the ring talking up their participant for the match. The "Goal" graphic is shown again. Romero's goal is to "KO opponents" and Cross's is to get his "First PPV victory". I really like how they set-up this match. The actual in-ring match GREATLY exceeded my expectations. It was very good and was worked in a quick brisk pace and worked to both guys strengths. Both guys came out of this match with me thinking more highly of them then I did going in. Cross looked really good and when I think about when I first saw him in PWG several years ago and the strides he has made it's almost amazing. Romero worked more of a shooter style and did it very well. Just a surprisingly good match.
Davey Richards vs. Austin Aries
Roderick Strong hits the ring and so does Austin Aries. They tease Aries vs Strong as the next match in the series. Aries is announced for the match and then Strong takes off and Davey Richards comes in as the participant for the No Remorse Corps. This was another strong match. Lots of back and forths and reversals. Davey was really put pretty much on an even keel as Aries throughout the match and coming out of the match. This felt a little long but the live crowd dug it and the crowd peaked as they went to the finish so it worked.
Roderick Strong vs. Erick Stevens
The third and final match of this series was probably my least favorite although it was still real solid and they tried to put Stevens over through a loss as Roderick just about had to kill him to beat him.
Next up they show the formation of the Hangmen 3 group and show highlights from a show in Hartford Connecticut where it happened.
Takeshi Morishima vs. Bryan Danielson (ROH World Title Match)
This was pretty fantastic. Danielson was hurt coming in some he really tried to take the fight to Morishima early but Morishima fought him off and pretty much dominated him early. Danielson eye patch got knocked lose early and he wore it messed up for the rest of the match as he didn't have time to adjust it because it was in for the fight of his life. Early Morishima dominated Danielson on the outside of the ring. Finally, Morishima threw Danielson into the ring and Danielson quickly hit a dive to the outside taking out Morishima. Danielson knew that he had to give everything he had to win this match and this was just one example of that. Crowd was really hot for the close of this match and just about came unglued when Danielson hit a small package late. Danielson was tenacious and hit the elbows to the side of the head but couldn't knock out Morishima. He clamped on Cattle Mutilation to no avail. Hit a Dragon Suplex for a 2. Clamped on a Triangle Choke on more than one occasion. But Morishima continued to outlast Danielson. Danielson went for stomps to the head but Morishima fought out. Morishima knew he was going to go down because Danielson was just too tenacious so Morishima did what he said he wouldn't and went after Danielson's injured eye with a forearm barrage after he had already hit two back drop drivers (on the first one Danielson got a foot on the ropes). Morishima went after the eye repeatedly and the ref had no choice but to call for the bell and give Morishima the bell via MMA style decision- which is ironically how Danielson wins a lot of his matches. Great story, great fight, tons of heart. MOTY so far for Ring of Honor.
Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico (World Tag Team Title LADDER WAR)
Another stand-out match as this one was really fun and had the fans on the edge of their seats. Lots of brawling in the crowd and chair shots early. Second half of the match focused on the teams trying to get the belts in the ring and using the ladders on each. A couple of moves that stand-out are Steen hitting the package piledriver through a ladder (which was being held up by a gigantic ladder and the turnbuckle) and Jay hitting a Jay Driller through a ladder. Steen also just destroyed one of the Briscoes with an Awesome Bomb from the ring to the outside through a table making one of the Briscoes feel a lot like Masato Tanaka. Another great spot was when the Briscoes did a Springboard Doomsday Device clothesline and the Briscoe who did the Springboard actually jumped through the ladder to hit the clothesline. Really fun match, got some "Match of the Year" chants afterwards.
Post-Match Steen walks out on Generico and the Briscoes celebrate. But the celebration is cut short as some fans in ski masks and bandannas start making a ruckus at ringside and then Jimmy Jacobs and Tyler Black hit the ring. They face of with the Briscoes and Necro Butcher, with his fist wrapped in barb wire, attacks from behind. Age of the Fall then tie up one of the Briscoes by the feet and then begin to hoist him to the ceiling by his feet as the PPV goes off the air.
Bonus Matches:
Mitch Franklin vs. Alex Payne (Top of the Class Trophy)
This was kept short, that's all I will say right now.
Lacey & Sara Del Rey vs. Amazing Kong & Daizee Haze
Decent match that went a little too long but had some really good stuff between Del Rey and Kong.
BJ Whitmer & Brent Albright vs. Chasyn Rance & Kenny King
I've like what i've seen of Kenny King but he botched a springboard move pretty badly in this one. I don't normally like Albright and Whitmer but they did a good job in this match as they pretty much squashed Rance and King.
Jack Evans vs. Tyler Black
Black got most of the offense in early and looked real good. He physically resembles CM Punk but is a bit more athletic. Evans gets the advantage and that brings out Necro Butcher and Jimmy Jacobs- who is still wearing his blood soaked white jacket. Necro nails Evans with a chair. The Irish Airborne come in and save Jack Evans and this leads to a six-man between Jack Evans/Irish Airborne vs Age of the Fall (Black/Jacobs/Necro). Necro and Evans pair off and have a nice little weird brawl like only Jack and Necro can. Match ends when Evans dies via Necro backbreaker off the second rope onto two chairs, one of the Crists eats a sick looking small package driver from Black and the other Crist gets choked out by Jacobs. Necro potatoes the ref and this is officially a "No Decision" although it's clear who won.
Matt Sydal w/Larry Sweeney vs. Delirious
This was OK but I wasn't really into it after seeing these guys wrestle so much. Larry Sweeney had a great spot towards the end that brought me back into it as he got into the ring and argued with ref Todd Sinclair and kicked imaginary dirt on him and then took off his jacket threw it on the ground and did the Garvin Stomp on it before pushing Sinclair and Sinclair putting him in his place with a push back.
Blood Edit: Age Of The Fall Debut
The sight of Necro literally eating the blood off of the Briscoes and Jay Briscoes blood raining down onto Jimmy Jacobs and his white jacket as he cut a promo was pretty great.
Verdict:
The bonus disc of about an hour and half worth of footage was real skip able. That being said the actual 2-hr PPV was great and the last two matches were borderline fantastic (especially Morishima/Danielson II). Lots of good wrestling on the PPV with the 4-Way, the Resilience vs NRC 3-match series (with Romero/Cross really putting on a surprisingly good match. Ultimately buy this match for Danielson/Morishima which at this point I have as my ROH Match of the Year- just too good of a story told and great execution and the Ladder War which was pretty intense. This show ultimately is not #1 with a bullet but it's pretty close and I think it was the best 2-hour PPV yet and thus gets my #1 spot of the year so far. I think this one just eeks out "Driven" due to Morishima/Danielson being a little better than McGuinness/Danielson. One thing that does stand out to me is that since ROH has started putting on PPVs (Respect is Earned 5/12/07) the 3 PPVs have clearly been a cut above the other shows with really on Manhattan Mayhem II (ranked 7th for the year) beginning to approach the PPVs. So right now I'd say stick with the PPVs, which in the long-run makes the rest of the shows more skippable so ROH will probably need to rethink this unless the PPVs really take off.
2007 Show Rankings:
1. Man Up- Chicago Ridge, IL 9/15/07
2. Driven- Chicago Ridge, IL 6/23/07
3. Fifth Year Festival: Finale- Liverpool, UK 3/4/07
4. Fifth Year Festival: Liverpool- Liverpool, UK 3/3/07
5. Respect Is Earned- New York, NY 5/12/07
6. Fifth Year Festival: NYC- New York, NY 2/16/07
7. Manhattan Mayhem II- New York, NY 8/25/07
8. Good Times, Great Memories- Chicago Ridge, IL 4/28/07
9. Supercard of Honor II- Detroit, MI 3/31/07
10. Death Before Dishonor V Night 1- Boston, MA 8/10/07
11. Death Before Dishonor V Night 2- Philadelphia PA 8/11/07
12. Live In Tokyo- Tokyo, Japan 7/16/07
13. All Star Extravaganza III- Detroit, MI 3/30/07
14. A Fight At The Roxbury- Boston, MA 6/8/07
15. Domination- Philadelphia, PA 6/9/07
16. United We Stand- Dayton, OH 6/22/07
17. Fighting Spirit- Edison, NJ 4/14/07
18. Fifth Year Festival: Philly- Philadelphia, PA 2/17/07
19. Survival of the Fittest 2007- Las Vegas, NV 10/19/07
20. Honor Nation- Boston, MA 10/5/07
21. Race To The Top Tournament Night 2- Edison, NJ 7/28/07
22. Battle of the Icons- Edison, NJ 1/27/07
23. Fifth Year Festival: Chicago- Chicago, IL 2/24/07
24. Caged Rage- Hartford, CT 8/24/07
25. Race To The Top Tournament Night 1- Deer Park, NY 7/27/07
26. Live In Osaka- Osaka, Japan 7/17/07
27. The Battle Of St. Paul- St. Paul, MN 4/27/07
28. This Means War II- Long Island, NY 4/13/07
29. Dedicated- Braintree, MA 1/26/07
30. Motor City Madness 2007- Detroit, MI 9/14/07
31. Reborn Again- Hartford, CT 5/11/07
32. Fifth Year Festival: Dayton- Dayton, OH 2/23/07
