Usually I give you all spoiler-free reviews of DVD’s. Since this aired on TV just a few hours ago, I thought I’d try my snap judgments. Comment at the bottom or drop me an e-mail to let me know how you like it.
Respect is Earned 2 aired tonight, the anniversary of Ring of Honor on Pay Per View. It costs $10-15 for a two-hour show, which means very little investment. There will be reruns throughout the weekend, and I believe beyond. But honestly this is their weakest PPV offering since Undeniable – a better show than that because the main event delivers enormously, but a show with a very weak first hour and a World Title match that isn’t up to par. In structure this is similar to Rising Above; Rising Above had a flimsy card that was saved by an amazing main event. Respect is Earned 2 is strikingly similar, right down to the huge secondary match with gimmicks (NRC Vs. Briscoes in 2/3 R.A., Stevens Vs. Strong in a Fight Without Honor for this show) that didn’t deliver the way it needed to.
A shout-out to Charter Cable. I ordered this in advance on the remote, was rejected with an error code I’ve never seen, called the company and got an automated voice that gave me a UFC show instead. I called again to order the show at 10:00 and the automated lady gave me a black screen. At 10:03 I canceled the order with the remote and called yet again to finally get the show. That’s Charter Cable, folks. Thanks.
Live to tape from Philadelphia, with Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard!
El Generico & Kevin Steen Vs. Jigsaw & Ruckus of the Vulture Squad
A nice little ten-minute opener that was more fun whenever Generico and Steen were on offense. Nothing out of the ordinary, just fun moves building to a reasonably hot climax for a ten-minute match.
Result: Generico & Steen win with the Swanton & Top Turnbuckle Splash combo that is ever so nifty.
Claudio Castagnoli Vs. Davey Richards
If I was running things I simply would have cut this match. There are better ten-minute matches. There are better Castagnoli matches. There are better Richards matches. There are better Castagnoli Vs. Richards matches (on Survival of the Fittest 2007 and Double Feature). This does no justice to either of them. They didn’t gel and neither man could hit an offensive groove, so it wasn’t even a fun struggle. The ending was neat, but they could do much better. McGuinness joining on commentary for a lot of lame insults, more focusing on “Daizee Richards†than Castagnoli, didn’t help. If they were trying to set up animus before McGuinness Vs. Castagnoli on an upcoming PPV, there has to be a better match to air to build the contender. I don’t know how much special equipment goes into filming ROH PPV (the production isn’t noticeably different), but it might have been wise to swap something else in.
Result: Castagnoli pins Richards with a sudden toss up into the air and a big European Uppercut on the way down.
Larry Sweeney introduces Sweet & Sour Inc.
Boy do they ever look goofy. Sara Del Rey in awful make-up, Dempsey without a shirt, Hero in the dumbest variation of his Superman shirt to date and Pearce in a robe – they remind me of the people who used to follow around Simon & Swinger in the old ECW.
Brent Albright in the back
Perhaps the longest promo in ROH PPV history, cut by Brent Albright, and it’s… actually really good. I love the guy and didn’t see that coming! He had energy, plainly explained why he dislikes Pearce and the rest of Sweet & Sour, introduced the motive for recruiting each member of his team for tonight, looked enormous next to his partners and interacted really personably with Primeau and Delirious. I thought he was improving, but damn boy. That was good, especially by ROH standards.
Chris Hero, Eddie Edwards & Adam Pearce Vs. Brent Albright, Delirious & Pelle Primeau
Fun for a throw-together trios tag. Primeau got bullied, Delirious was nuts and threw unorthodox headbutts in a fashion approximately 275% more entertaining than Vladimir Koslov, and Albright was a beast. He uncorked at the end in one of the best hot tags I’ve seen on any TV in a while. He is much more than just a push, and hopefully things keep developing for him.
Result: Brent Albright wins it for his team by catching Edwards in a double underhook and kneeing him into unconsciousness.
Fight Without Honor: Roderick Strong Vs. Erick StevensA feud that’s been around since before it was even a feud. Stevens first climbed the ranks in ROH by coming close against Strong at shows like Death Before Dishonor 5 Night 2 and the Man Up PPV. They had the best match I’ve ever seen out of FIP at Redefined. Unfortunately, this is not that match. This was a normal brawl with more weapons and far too little passion, especially out of Strong. Strong has a lot of good points, but his ability to emote is still atrocious, epitomized by him blankly staring at a table he’s going to setup. That’s not fatigue, and he’s not thinking about how he’s going to destroy this guy he hates. It’s just a blank stare. And for much of this match Strong was a just guy doing horrible things to another guy with no aura of malice like Davey Richards might bring or sense of character through violence like Jimmy Jacobs. To their credit they beat the Hell out of each other. The TKO on the ladder was sick. There is a great middle portion in this match where Stevens went to town on Strong’s head, but then the match slumped back into just being a match with horrible things happening. The Superplex off the tall ladder, which was about three times as tall as Strong, down through two tables, is one of the scariest things you’ll see on PPV all year. For people who just want to see scary crap, maybe this is great. But it did not flow and did not have the passion that made the physicality of Redefined so special. And even though they were almost equals in the end, in the non-PPV picture Stevens looks like a chump losing to Strong after all this time. All the beatings, all the punkings, losing the FIP title, losing his Mohawk – and now losing the blow-off. Sheesh. I hear that he beat Strong later in FIP, but that doesn’t help anyone following ROH, and especially not on ROH PPV, where the guy chokes a lot.
Result: Strong pinned Stevens after a terrifying Superplex off of a huge ladder through two tables.
ROH World Title: Nigel McGuinness (c) Vs. Go Shiozaki
McGuinness does not have the matches against lesser opponents that a top champion needs to. Yes, he was great against Aries and Danielson, but his match with Erick Stevens at Bedlam in Beantown was disappointing, as was his cage match against Chris Hero at Breakout. Here he came short again with an opponent who needed elevation. McGuinness simply dominated too much and in too unimpressive a fashion. Pick up Supercard of Honor 3 instead to see him have great mat wrestling with Aries; here it’s uninspired. Go had too few comebacks, and most that happened were too short, making it a lopsided match that went too long. Go was also off on a lot of offense, completely blowing a German Suplex into the corner, which is a really dangerous move just to do, let alone to mess up. McGuinness eating that and still kicking out of everything finisher sadly just made this feel even more by-the-numbers, which is a bad sign for ROH title matches. If the goal was for some reason to make McGuinness look like a dominant champion, the match could have been far shorter – and would making him look dominant be necessary after his amazing title matches on the previous two shows where he won cleanly? It might have worked if they built to Go finally turning it around, but they didn’t. Now Go lost in goofy fashion, getting hit with a knockout finisher only to be put in submission hold and apparently submit despite not mouthing any words or tapping, even though the commentators claimed he tapped. Now I have no desire to see him ever wrestle for this belt again.
Result: Go apparently submitted in the London Dungeon arm hold.
Video: AOTF Vs. Aries
Get your girlfriend, your mom or your uncle and play this video for them, then ask them what happened. To me, who’s seen all the ROH DVD’s, I get that Jacobs became disillusioned after love didn’t fill his life, formed an anti-establishment faction, tried and failed to recruit Aries, Aries stole his girlfriend and Jacobs went on a mission to destroy him. There is no way that came across in this. ROH is worlds below WWE and TNA in production and they shouldn’t try to compete if this is the best they can do. It would have been better to pan over to the commentators and have them explain the angle for a minute or two, if for some reason Aries or Jacobs weren’t available for a promo.
ROH Tag Team Title Match: Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black © Vs. Austin Aries & Bryan DanielsonAs I said: the main event that saved the show. I have no regrets over losing fifteen bucks to see this. Starting off with Jacobs and Aries attacking each other with chairs for a DQ was a great way to express their feelings. Even better was Black and Danielson telling them that if they wanted to get at each other that they’d have to play it smarter. In three minutes they managed to make their guys look smarter and more mature than WWE and TNA’s rosters of supposedly unstoppable jocks who can do whatever they want without recourse. And after that Aries was an ass-kicking machine, not tagging in too often and thus becoming special whenever he broke up a pin (with some of the most personal pin-breaks I can remember) or tagged in to punk the other guys out or just go hog wild. Danielson was the competent standard for his team with lots of striking and mat wrestling that made sense and looked great, but also highlighted how gifted Black is in counters and mishaps. Black looked very capable throughout the match, more like a legitimate main-eventer than he did in the (still great) beating he took at Take No Prisoners. He can hang. Meanwhile Jacobs was less rational in his attacks, simple, brutal, and confused between winning the match (which mostly meant taking an advantage on Danielson) or attacking Aries. The interweaving stories on an athletic competition between Danielson and Black and a sometimes petty, sometimes incredibly intense feud between Aries and Jacobs made this one of the best tag matches I’ve seen all year. Unlike the other big matches on this show this hit an internal rhythm; in fact, it hit two internal rhythms and perpetuated both right up to the termination of each. When Aries and Jacobs finally piled to the back Danielson and Black so effortlessly switched into final gear, almost giving us the end to a great singles match. Black upsetting Danielson in that environment felt big. ROH is building this guy better than anyone they’ve built in a long time, and this goes up there with Rising Above and Take No Prisoners as far as an exciting main event goes.
Result: Black pinned Danielson after a second Small Package Driver and a Phoenix Splash.
Overall: The opener and trios tag were fun, but the tag title match is the only thing I’ll ever really want to watch again. If the Fight Without Honor had hit the passionate flow it needed those big moves could have made a great match, but as it is I don’t think I ever want to see those guys do that to each other again. The Tag Title match, though, was brilliant and a worthy main event to any PPV. If only other companies would give their talented tag wrestlers such a stage.
