ROH Review: PPV Taping, Boston, MA – 09/19/08

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Chasyn Rance Vs. Grizzly Redwood
Despite leaving at 5:00 we still came in just a little after belltime, so we missed the early part of this match. Rance looked generically cocky, while the crowd absolutely loved the lumberjack and his axe handle-based offense. Nice little ice breaker match that ended when Rance caught the lumberjack in-between the ropes and gave him an utterly disgusting piledriver.
Chasyn Rance pinned Redwood with a piledriver variation

Austin Aries Vs. Delirious
This felt inevitable. On the one hand you don’t want Jerry Lynn to become just another AOTF flunky, but on the other you know Aries Vs. Lynn would have been great. Instead Aries demanded to fight Jacobs, Jacobs distracted him and Delirious attacked from behind to begin the match. It was somewhere in the ten-minute range, with Delirious getting a lot of offense but just being unable to convince the crowd he had a prayer. They only really reacted for Aries’s signature offense, but he plugged it in enough in the final minutes that it had a pretty satisfying ending.
Austin Aries made Delirious submit in the Horns of Aries/Last Chancery

After the match Jacobs and his crew jumped Aries and laid him out across a table on the outside. Jacobs wanted to Senton him through it from the top rope, and Black tried to talk him out of it. Jacobs jumped anyway. Both guys needed some help getting to the back.

Sara Del Rey Vs. A girl whose music was too loud
Under thirty seconds, Del Rey destroyed her and was told to go to the back and eat sushi. Hard to make any impression here beyond that Del Rey is better than random women. Didn’t catch the loser’s name.
Del Rey won with the Royal Butterfly Suplex.

Brent Albright & Erick Stevens Vs. Adam Pearce & Eddie Edwards
My friend and I concluded that Albright needs a new tag partner. Stevens got his butt handed to him for well over two-thirds of the match, and in much duller fashion than usual for him. In character, perhaps Albright would have been better served by tagging with a bagged salad. It’s kind of sad that Stevens went from such a potential breakout performance at Man Up, all the way through the Strong feud, to essentially become an uncommonly big whipping boy. When Albright finally tagged in the crowd erupted more out of relief than any build in the match, and then things got fun with Edwards hitting some beautiful offense, Albright kicking ass, and Pearce being a dork. The whole thing wasn’t particularly put together (I wasn’t sure why Pearce and Edwards could switch in and out whenever they wanted with the ref watching, but Stevens and Albright had to make an explicit tag just to help each other), but hey, it’s always fun to see Pearce get his in the end.
Brent Albright pinned Adam Pearce with a Half-Nelson Suplex.

Afterwards Jerry Lynn came out and chastised Hero for attacking his old ECW buddy and rival, Lance Storm. He said he’d begged the ROH offices to let him see if he “still had it,” and get some revenge for Storm.

Chris Hero Vs. Jerry Lynn
An okay match that wouldn’t have been nearly as fun if it had been someone other than Jerry Lynn doing the same things. It was just special to have Lynn with us for a night and we let him know it with “Jer-Ry!” chants and a standing ovation afterwards. Hopefully he rescinds that criticism about ROH fans being cold and giving him a golf clap, because they were enthusiastically behind him no matter what he did. They went back and forth working each other’s arms to no real direction, slugged it out a little, punctuating plodding wrestling with some exciting bursts from Lynn. People who love Lynn or Hero should just see this as the treat it was. Yeah, Aries Vs. Lynn probably would have been a world better, but it was worth it just to see Hero get caught in the Guillotine Leg Drop. When Lynn looked like he had it sewn up, Del Rey returned to ringside and S&S ran interference, enabling Hero to get a loaded elbow pad and hit another Roaring Elbow, this one knocking out the veteran.
Chris Hero pinned Jerry Lynn with a loaded Roaring Elbow.

Bryan Danielson Vs. Claudio Castagnoli Vs. Go Shiozaki
One of the moments of the night came with Castagnoli got sick of the ref telling him what to do, suplexed him, and proceeded to destroy anyone dumb enough to come near ringside. Bodies flew. He Ricola Bombed Danielson before returning to ROH officials and students, who he massacred in the ring and around ringside for several minutes. He looked as intense and dangerous as everybody really wanted him to be back at A New Level. Go held back early on, and again when Castagnoli went nuts, coming in to pick Danielson’s bones. What ensued was somewhat slow but very fun with Go trying to level Danielson with chops and lariats, including a few that looked like killer knockouts. Danielson, clearly hurting, used any opening to go straight for his finishing holds, knowing he couldn’t wrestle a slower match against a guy who was probably stronger and was a lot less worn than himself. Go has blossomed into a good bastard under Sweeney’s eye. They teased the ending well, going further than you might have expected, and not devaluing Danielson’s holds on the virtue that they were all he had and, well, the crowd loves him. Best part of the second fall was definitely Danielson rolling through an arm lock, the Cattle Mutilation and the Elbow Barrage multiple times in one chain, desperate to keep this guy down.
Bryan Danielson made Go Shiozaki pass out in a Triangle Choke.

Scary note, Danielson took one Lariat into a moonsault-like fall and landed on his braced knee. He limped to the back even though Go didn’t attack his leg during the match. My friend was afraid he was really hurt.

The Briscoes Vs. Jigsaw & Ruckus Vs. Kenny King & Jason Blade Vs. The Necro Butcher
Man, they love Butcher. They went nuts for his entrance, nuts for his goofy little jog to the ring, and cheered like he was a national hero when he dove to the outside. As expected, his role was to watch the other six guys do incredibly brave stuff, and then punch them in the mouth. The Briscoes were really low key for a lot of the match, letting Jigsaw, King and Blade shine. King in particular looked very crisp and had some nice tricks, like a standing leap from the floor to the apron into a Twisting Super Senton onto guys standing on the floor. Dang. Blade played whipping boy or a lot of the match, but did well at it. It came down to a fun barrage of offense with no tags and a lot to cheer for. These are almost always fun live, and should be a nice change of pace on the PPV.
The Briscoes won by pinning Jason Blade with a Springboard Doomsday Device.

Bonus Match: Daizee Haze Vs. Madison Eagles
Was that her name? I thought it was Madeleine L’Engle, but I guess that would be too much to ask. Don’t buy the DVD for the bonus matches. This was under five minutes and continued SHIMMER’s streak of having unimpressive matches that don’t even remotely represent the quality of their company. The highlight was Eagles hitting a couple of really nice suplexes at the outset. Haze took over, threw some of the worst punches my friend had ever seen, flubbed a reversal of an Electric Chair, and sent us to the next match.
Daizee Haze pinned Eagles with the Mind Trip.

Rhett Titus Vs. Josh Daniels
I love Rhett Titus, but this was not his best night. Not for Josh Daniels either. Daniels simply played a wrestler while Titus posed and constantly had things turned on for ten minutes. Titus surprised him with a roll-up and Daniels looked more disgruntled than anything to have lost. They didn’t hit a groove and didn’t build anything, but I don’t care. Titus is hilarious and ROH desperately needs somebody to bring the comedy.
Titus rolled up Daniels for the pin.

ROH World Title Match: Nigel McGuinness (c) Vs. Roderick Strong
The first ten minutes or so were straight out of Without Remorse, with cloyingly slow technical wrestling and strikes that didn’t mean anything. Strong would get the advantage and seem to hand it right back to McGuinness – not being out-maneuvered, but just giving it back over. When McGuinness hit his headstand into the corner, something he’s been doing for four years, and Strong ran right into it, I threw up my hands. For a solid chunk of time Strong was a complete chump.

Then McGuinness spilled to the floor and Strong hit a diving elbow off the apron. As soon as he got back in the ring he hit two nasty Backbreaker variations, and the match was never the same. Strong put together some brutal and fast combos, countered enough of McGuinness’s offense and produce some brand new stuff, like a straight-up Backbreaker on the top turnbuckle that would have crippled me. McGuinness fought back with Lariats and Towers of London, but even one on the apron couldn’t do. It’s becoming common to criticize McGuinness for going overkill with false finishes, but this was the only imaginable way for them to get over the hump of disbelievability. By mixing in kickouts to crazy offense from Strong and new potential match-enders by Strong, they even had me, and I’m happy to have been had. By the end everyone that I saw and heard in the building believed Strong was going to win, including an insane late kickout that earned a long “THAT WAS THREE!” chant. Even in defeat, Strong rose to a standing ovation that more than eclipsed the one Lynn had gotten.
Nigel McGuinness finally put Strong away with two Lariats and another Tower of London in short succession.

ROH World Tag Team Title Match: Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black (c) Vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico

For much of the night we sat in front of Kevin Steen’s family, including his infant son Owen. Now I finally feel like a jerk for chanting “F*CK YOU HERO!” We dubbed the baby “Son of Wrestling” and promptly forgave him for interrupting Hero/Lynn with his squeak toys.

So there was a match, and it was damned good. Early on the bad boys stomped Generico into the ground in a prolong control segment that nobody believed was going to end it and most people seemed to be waiting out, very similar to what Steen and Generico did to BxB Hulk at Supercard of Honor 3. Very similar to that match again, Generico eventually escaped and the match got red hot. Steen and Generico went with their greatest hits, teasing a top turnbuckle Brainbuster, the Yakuza Kick reversal of the End Times into a pin, and the Yakuza Kick/Super Senton/Splash nearfall combo. It was not the wild sprint some other top flight ROH tags have been, but rolled into higher and higher energy on meaningful moments, like Black being trapped by Steen in the Sharpshooter and unable to get help, or Steen tagging in to get revenge for his little buddy. Jacobs and Black wrestled complimentary duty, not defining the match but helping it along. It should play out famously on PPV, with the final minutes giving me a sore throat. I’m pretty sure some people needed a change of underwear on the last nearfalls. It became a struggle to dispose of one guy long enough to find what would keep the other down, such that all four guys came off like stars. Steen hit the Package Piledriver, rolled him through to Generico for a Brainbuster, and everyone went nuts for the new champions.

A final kudos to Nat Sylva, who proudly yelled “Ole!” every time Generico kicked out. He is a man of his word.
Steen & Generico pinned Jimmy Jacobs with the Package Piledriver/Brainbuster combo to become the new ROH World Tag Team Champions.

Some notes:
-Most of the show was serviceably fun, but sitting under the great one-two punch of the title matches it’s totally worth the money on PPV.
-Anyone who chants “U.S.A.” to insult foreign wrestlers embarrasses me. If you’re doing it to be ironic, you’re embarrassing me twice as much.
-Danielson, Aries and the Briscoes playing these undercard roles was interesting, because it forced other guys to ascend. Even McGuinness still feels like he has a little way to go before he’s an ROH Godfather, but stuff like this is helping all the time. Steen, Generico, Jacobs and Black closing the night was perfect on its own, but also a great sign of ROH’s faith in newer stars.
-I was almost killed by trains twice and passed a public sexual exhibition. It’s an interesting trip, that Boston one.
-ROH returns to Boston on May 8th – eight freakin’ months away. They did a PPV here only to ditch for 2/3’s of a year? Ouch. But since the bleachers were only 2/3’s full at best, it’s understandable. But ROH is a blast live, and the General Admission bleacher seating is great. Every seat affords a good view, it’s actually cushioned and you don’t have to worry about Austin Aries flying into your lap. Shame for those who missed out, and ROH continues to struggle with New England.

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