If anything could be said to accurately define what the main theme of last night’s show was, the word “workrate” would be that key definition. Every single guy, except for one lone soul, brought everything they had in their tank and in the process gave us one of the best nights of independent professional wrestling on the east coast this year.
The first half of the show was among the best of the year, only behind the supershow that was Supercard of Honor 3. The crowd was on fire for the duration of the first four matches (Jerry Lynn vs. Kenny King, Adam Pearce vs. Brent Albright, Go Shiozaki vs. Kevin Steen, and Bryan Danielson vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima) as each match brought out exactly what it should have to the show. The key issue that came up with this show is that it started far too late (8:10 PM-ish) to effectively keep the crowd engaged to its duration. Had this show started at 7:30PM, or even 7PM, the crowd might just have stayed hot the entire night through but alas it was not to be.
As the second half started, the crowd had started already to fade a little and with each passing match gave more and more electrical resistance to the show. Granted there were sparks of great heat, but it was nothing compared to the “I’m lovin’ it” vibe the crowd had towards the start of Glory By Honor. The worst match of night was easily the Kensuke Sasaki/Claudio Castagnoli non-title bout that nearly put the crowd to sleep and wasn’t brought back wholeheartedly into the show until the heartbreaking finishing stretch of the Nigel McGuinness/El Generico world title match.
Overall, I’d say that Glory By Honor VII is slightly beneath Supercard of Honor 3, Death Before Dishonor VI, and Dragon Gate Challenge 2 as one of the best Ring of Honor shows of the year. With that said, let me now take a closer look at each of the matches.
Jerry Lynn vs. Kenny King – Good
Lynn had a ton of chants, including the vaunted “You still got it!”, that looked like they humbled the old man. King had a lot of charisma out there even though he didn’t get much of an opportunity to show of the goods. This match was all about Lynn and the crowd was hugely behind him. The finish came when Lynn nailed King with the cradle piledriver to one of the loudest pops of the night.
NWA World Title Match Brent Albright vs. Adam Pearce – Great
Granted, this match was not as good as their initial match-up at Death Before Dishonor VI, but it’s obvious that these guys bring out the best in each other and to its credit, this rematch was still head & shoulders better than the average Adam Pearce match. Hagadorn interfered like crazy throughout the bout and his effort finally paid off when Pearce managed to reverse the crowbar into a crowbar of his own to get the tapout win.
FIP “World” Title Match Go Shiozaki vs. Kevin Steen – Great
This match was the best singles match Kevin Steen has had in Ring of Honor and quite possibly the best singles match Shiozaki himself has had. These two guys beat the shit out of each other, including some of the absolute STIFFEST slaps to the face I’ve ever seen in my life. The crowd was solidly behind Steen who came quite close to becoming a dual champion. Alas it was not to be when Shiozaki nailed Steen with a Go Flasher for the win.
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match Bryan Danielson vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima – Excellent.
This was a wonderful match-up and arguably the match of the night. Stiff kicks, brilliant counter wrestling, and MMA elbows all amounted to a showcase of some of the best pure wrestling talent on the planet. It’s true this wasn’t the best match these two could have had, but to be fair, it was still quite delicious. I can’t wait to see it again on DVD. The finish involved the classic MMA Elbows, Tiger Suplex, Cattle Mutilation combo that I believe Dragon used to put away Nigel at Driven.
Rhett Titus vs. Erick Stevens – Good
Titus looked pretty good last night and Stevens came out to Audioslave’s “Cochise”. Titus was getting a number of chants during his “Addicted to Love (Rhett Titus)” introduction but he quickly cut a promo tearing down Daizee Haze and the Philly crowd (kind of). The match itself was actually pretty fun and actually made Titus look he might eventually get to explore some of his potential down the line (especially when he caught Stevens with a beautiful running dropkick as a counter to Choo-Choo). The finish came when Stevens caught Titus with the Doctor Bomb for the win.
Roderick Strong, Ruckus and Jigsaw vs. Shane Hagadorn, Chris Hero, and Eddie Edwards – Good/Great
Shane Hagadorn might just have been the busiest guy out there as he was physically involved in three different matches by this point of the show. This started off slow but picked up as it went on. The finishing sequence was awesomely done with the Yakuza Kick to an upside down, flying backwards through the air Edwards being my favorite spot of the night. The finish came as Roddy turned around into Chris Hero’s elbow for the win.
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Claudio Castagnoli – Okay
Claudio Castagnoli really needs some mic time to sell himself as an uber heel with-in the company. This match was ultimately as forgettable as his match-up against Kota Ibushi and went just as far to prove that Claudio is becoming more and more bland as time goes by. If it were up to me, I’d start to have him cut promos at the start of every match that would all concentrate on theme of “In my country…”. It would help him get major heel heat for any match that didn’t involve Bryan Danielson.
It didn’t help that nobody thought that Claudio could win. The fact is that it’s getting old that all these great wrestlers are being brought in from Japan but the writing is already on the wall of who will or will not win. That needs to change because otherwise there isn’t much of bringing them in to begin with. It’s called being “predictable/boring”. The finish came when Sasaki got Claudio with the Nothern Lights Bomb for the victory.
ROH World Title Match Nigel McGuinness vs. El Generico – Good/Excellent
God I really wanted Generico to win this. I knew with Generico winning the tag belts and Dragon/McGuiness being announced for the next PPV that the odds were more than stacked against the Generic Luchadore, but damn it if I wasn’t praying for a new champion. The first half of the match was good for what it was: Nigel dominating Generico. This set up for the second half of the match where Generico would work out his hope spots which had EVERYONE standing on their feets anticipating a new World Champion. There was electricity in the air as the crowd pleaded for Generico to nail the BRAINBUSTAAAAAH! but suddenly Nigel and Generico collapsed from the second turn buckle and Nigel rolled over Generico for the win….
:(
Steel Cage Warfare Match The Briscoes and Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Tyler Black, and Delirious vs. Necro Butcher – Great
Necro must be half retarded now by the way Aries and Jacobs were giving him chair shots last night. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! It was crazy! Overall this match was a lot of fun and had Delirious reborn in a manner more befitting him. This new Delirious is someone I can really get behind and the moment he gave Daizee the spike was nuts. I don’t know if he actually caught her with the weapon, but there was definitely some liquid red in her hair. There were a number of good spots throughout the match but I won’t spoil them for you. Buy the DVD.
