The Card:
-Delirious Vs. Go Shiozaki
-Kenny King, Chasyn Rance & Sal Rinauro w/ lots of arm candy Vs. Bushwhacker Luke, Dingo & Alex Payne
-FIP Title Match: Roderick Strong ( c ) Vs. Erick Stevens
-Relaxed Rules: Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black Vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe
-Kevin Steen & El Generico Vs. Shingo Takagi & BxB Hulk
-ROH World Title Match: Nigel McGuiness ( c ) Vs. Austin Aries
-Dragon Gate Rules Match: CIMA, Ryo Saito & The Dragon Kid Vs. Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi & Genki Horiguchi
Intro:
ROH continues its Wrestlemania tradition of following WWE to wherever they go and running shows in the same town Friday and Saturday. It may be parasitic, but it puts them in a huge market for wrestling fans and provides something totally different than they’ll see at ‘Mania. As their second and last match of the weekend, this presented one of the most promising cards in company history. McGuinness and Aries would have their title rematch following perhaps the best match in the history of ROH on PPV. Generico & Steen would take on Shingo & Hulk in an interpromotional dream match of power and speed. The Age of the Fall looked to end their bloodfeud with the Briscoes by whatever means necessary. Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens took their war of the FIP title back down to the Florida, their home state. And the Dragon Gate guys returned for their third annual trios tag spectacular, an event that previously made many Match of the Year lists for 2006 and 2007. That’s a lot of promise, and a lot of pressure.
The Show:
Delirious Vs. Go Shiozaki
A fun way to start out the show with Delirious playing comedy off of Go’s serious approach. It’s an interesting because while Go has been treated as something very special since his debut at Eye of the Storm, he didn’t seem to try half as hard as Delirious. Delirious was exuberant, trying to connect with the crowd through humor (he tried to throw Go off his game by shouting “Go! Stop! Go! Stop!â€), throwing out all of his offense and generally making Go seem like a real force. Meanwhile, Go didn’t put much effort into the match in or out of character, sustaining the idea that he’s a great wrestler when his opponent can give him a great match (see the Sixth Anniversary Show with Austin Aries), but leaves much to be desired when he’s the focal point. Even a half-hearted Go is very talented, though, and the opening of the match was funny with a dramatic enough final few minutes, almost on par with the Delirious/McGuinness match from the previous night.
Kenny King, Chasyn Rance & Sal Rinauro w/ lots of arm candy Vs. Bushwhacker Luke, Dingo & Alex Payne
This might have been better suited higher on the card to break up some of the great matches, but I guess ROH didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the uppercard. It’s a difficult match to approach: it is either an overly choreographed piece of crap, or a bunch of guilty fun. Bushwhacker Luke waved his arm and did the battering ram and the YRR strutted and hit a bunch of impressive moves, but guys were visibly getting into positions and going through motions. The two highlights were Dingo and King. Dingo looked more creative and generally crisper than he’s ever done in ROH before, almost like a more agile and even smaller Bryan Danielson (dropped into a sprint match). King once again showed outrageous athleticism and a sense of cockiness that was compulsively entertaining. It doesn’t hurt that he’s built like a brick house, adding size and look to the roster. Even if the YRR don’t become regulars in ROH (and since they’ve fallen off the edge of the earth lately, that looks like the case), he belongs here.
FIP Title Match: Roderick Strong Vs. Erick Stevens
Not really a match, as Strong and Stevens knocked out the referee and essentially brawled after a no-contest a couple of minutes in. However they proceeded to brawl in a surprisingly wrestling-like manner for the next fifteen minutes, staying in or near the ring, using wrestling moves and setting up a chair in a way you don’t see anywhere else but big time wrasslin’. The curiously match-like brawl was undeniably intense, actually more passionate than several of their previous matches. Stevens stood out as a real force, looking more confident than usual. Fans of this feud will definitely enjoy seeing the two tear into each other without going for pinfalls. They were trying to make a point and, without giving away the ending, one of them definitely did.
Relaxed Rules Match: Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black w/ Lacey, Allison Wonderland & Milo Beasley Vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe
Jarringly better than their first two matches against each other, and in a whole other league of brawling compared to Strong/Stevens before it. It’s honestly shocking to see something this wild and creative this early on a show, and I had to watch it twice just to wrap my mind around it. It’s easily the best Age of the Fall Vs. Briscoes match up to this point in ROH, reminiscent of the Briscoes Vs. Steen & Generico match at Death Before Dishonor 5 Night 1 with fast-paced hardcore brawling all over the arena that feels cohesive and required the production crew to switch cameras every few seconds to keep up. The first half doesn’t even have commentary, again drawing on the raw feel of the Death Before Dishonor 5 Night 1 match. Jacobs was much more active than at Dragon Gate Challenge 2 and took several nasty spills onto rows of chairs. War crimes were committed against chairs this night, along with canes and a table that harkened back to the days of Public Enemy. The pacing, snugness and variety of offense came together to set this apart from normal hardcore brawls, as just when you might think this would become typical, they’d brawl into a new area and throw equipment cases at each other, dive from a trampoline or threaten to throw someone off the balcony. Throughout the guys were determined to punish each other, creating one of the best atmospheres of believability around something that should have hurt it. That energy carried over to when the guys finally got into the ring, not going too long, throwing out some phenomenal false finishes, and a conclusion that is going to drop some jaws. Easily one of the best tag matches I’ve seen this year.
Kevin Steen & El Generico Vs. Shingo Takagi & BxB Hulk
Speaking of the best tag team matches I saw this year, there’s this one. Confined almost entirely to the ring aside from a few mad dives and focusing on athletic competition with a little humor (largely Steen bullying Hulk), this was drastically different from the previous tag match while still being impressive. In terms of the ROH/DG sprint style, this didn’t off the ground as quickly as Steen & Generico Vs. Yoshino & Doi from the previous night, and one segment where Hulk was grounded and pounded was downright boring, keeping the match from hitting proper flow as quickly. The opening segment had a lot of entertaining exchanges and Steen saw how much he could dominate Hulk, and Shingo putting him back in his place. After the aforementioned grounding segment, the match hit a good stride with some exciting near falls, though again not as hot as those in Steen & Generico’s match from the previous night. Those hoping for a radical dynamic between the two teams will be disappointed, but the simple story falling into the sprint-style groove and all of the flashy offense made for a tag match well worth seeing for any fans of either team.
ROH World Title Match: Nigel McGuinness ( c ) Vs. Austin Aries
Their Rising Above match is the best I’ve seen all year as of this writing. It’s important to state that when you talk about these matches, because those who say this was better may not have loved the original. For me their Rising Above match is tied as the best match ROH has put on pay per view, neck-up with McGuinness Vs. Danielson from Driven (which I also hold in extremely high esteem – it was #2 on the Riren 100 last year). They wisely made this a different match, most noticeably emphasizing mat wrestling and their big holds (McGuinness’s London Dungeon and Aries’s Horns of Aries), spending a lot more time on teasing submissions rather than false pinfalls. McGuinness initiated the match style, which also makes sense as in their first match (at Unscripted 2) he really made his opening and won it with arm submission wrestling. This figured in along with McGuinness trying to play it sly and avoid Aries’s aerial offense, while Aries had to get creative and keep his cool. It’s very easy to drop that many elements in a match, but they rotated to keep everything just relevant enough to be recognizable and to keep elevating the excitement. It’s great to see such energetic grounded wrestling.
Like the best ROH series matches, this had several references to previous encounters. They made a big match-changing variation on Aries’s scary dive that concussed McGuinness at Rising Above that works brilliantly in this match and suggests that if they ever have a third title match, it may be swung by how Aries plans and McGuinness reacts to that one move.
Aries trying to be unpredictable and McGuinness changing up his routine to predict Aries mixed very well with the emphasis on bodypart-focused wrestling and the amazing talent of these two men. This all makes it a complex match, but McGuinness is such a prick and Aries is so aesthetically pleasing that it’s easy to appreciate as a simple match. If you loved the Rising Above match then you owe it to yourself to see this; if you didn’t but still enjoy complex wrestling matches then this will fit very nicely into the show for you.
Dragon Gate Rules Match: CIMA, Ryo Saito & The Dragon Kid Vs. Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi & Genki Horiguchi
The cast of the original Dragon Gate trios tag from Supercard of Honor 1 reassembled, with CIMA and Genki switching sides. It was more of that same frantic action we saw in the last two years, though it was a step slower this time. When Saito, Kid, Yoshino and Doi were chaining together it got pretty furious, but the overall performance showed that last year’s change-up with Shingo Takagi and Masaaki Mochizuki was a good idea. They simply could not go as fast as they once did; all these guys are two years older, and a few are seriously more banged than they used to be. Still they tried to put on that breakneck spectacle, almost too similar to the first two, with the major variation being ungodly overkill at the end.
It comes with the same Dragon Gate caveats. The first time I watched Dragon Kid have his arm Thunderbolted and stomped from the top rope multiple times in a row, I knew he wouldn’t acknowledge weakness in his arm ten minutes later. You ought to know he wouldn’t going in. If you are the type of fan who can’t overlook it, skip this match. It will lengthen your life.
The major differences from the first match? Horiguchi is a far better babyface in peril than he is a villain. He performed generically next to the highly athletic Doi and Yoshino. Where he could set up fiery tags to his heroic partners at Supercard of Honor 1, he was just a less impressive member of the evil team this time. Similarly, CIMA showed his age here. He was not active in a lot of this match and Dragon Kid spent more time than he really should have in the ring to compensate. CIMA was obviously in bad shape that weekend, not lazy but probably really hurting. It was a pleasure to see him in an ROH ring for one last time, and whenever he jumped in he gave it his all with some amusing antics and amazing offense that I couldn’t do at my best health. Thank you, CIMA.
Beyond that, the major differences were this match referencing offense from the previous two years, creating a bizarre pseudo-psychology where they disregarded so many things done in Dragon Gate rings, keeping to an ROH continuity. This is easy to watch if you’ve only seen the Dragon Gate guys in Ring of Honor. A difference between this and the rest of the card is that they mixed it up more than tag matches earlier on the show possibly could. Keeping it in the ring and without weapons, it was nothing like the Briscoes brawl. Playing off of six characters instead of four, it was different from the Shingo & Hulk tag. Given how much they put in at Supercard 1 and Supercard 2, this match isn’t nearly as fresh, and the artificial pauses between offense are longer, making this the least exciting of three pretty darned exciting trios tag matches. It left me wishing ROH would start doing more athletic trios tags itself, not just throwing feuding guys together. Surely Aries, Strong, Richards, Romero, Steen, Generico, Castagnoli, the Briscoes, Black, Jigsaw and Evans could be remixed into some trios tags of competing quality.
Afterthoughts: Skippable? Borrower? Wait for a sale? Buy it now?
If you’re still wondering, it’s a must-buy. You’ve got a huge title rematch that manages to stand out from its phenomenal predecessor, the best hardcore tag match ROH has presented in almost a year, a fun (if strangely-formatted) brawl between Stevens and Strong, a dream tag between two very dynamic teams and the next in the line of critical blockblusters of Dragon Gate trios tags. Not only does it boast great variety and a load of foreign stars, but many of these encounters are the highest quality examples of what they do. If you like ROH you are guaranteed to love at least one of these matches, and four of them are heralded as the Match of the Year from various people. What a wonderful problem for a show to have, when too many matches were too good and too beloved for people to agree which was the best.
It’s not necessarily the best show ROH has ever done. It’s too good not to bring up such an accolade, but I couldn’t watch this in one sitting. It’s like eating rich chocolate; few people can finish a whole bar. You savor a couple of matches and save the rest. I re-watched the Briscoes tag three times before wanting to move on. I watched the Hulk & Shingo tag twice before moving on, and did the same with the World Title match. The show doesn’t flow like Final Battle 2006 or Fifth Year Festival: Finale (my two personal favorite ROH shows), because its matches are so good that you’ll likely burn out watching them all at once. What makes it a must-buy keeps it from necessarily being the best show. It is the show with the highest quality selection of matches you’ll probably see this year, and so it’s even more of a must-buy for people who prioritize a few top matches over a whole show experience.
Results/Spoilers:
-Go Shiozaki pinned Delirious with the Go Flasher.
-The YRR defeated Bushwhacker Luke, Dingo & Alex Payne when Sal Rinauro pinned Dingo with a Springboard Spinning Front Kick
-Roderick Strong Vs. Erick Stevens was a no-contest after both men knocked out the referee and continued to brawl in a surprisingly wrestling-match-like manner. Eventually Strong knocked Stevens out with a brutal chairshot to the head, summoned the rest of the NRC, and shaved Stevens’s mohawk.
-Jimmy Jacobs & Tyler Black defeated the Briscoes when Jacobs countered the Spirngboard Doomsday Device in mid-air, landing in the Guillotine Choke position and forcing Mark Briscoe into unconsciousness while Black dragged Jay Briscoe to the floor. While clearly inspired by the ending of Briscoes Vs. Marufuji/Sugiura in Pro Wrestling NOAH, this was its own conclusion, was beautifully executed, and frankly, looked badass.
-Shingo Takagi & BxB Hulk defeated Kevin Steen & El Generico when Shingo pinned Generico with the Last Falconry pumphandle piledriver. Generico sold it like death and the commentators said the concluded the ROH Vs. DG challenge series, with ROH winning 3-2. That didn’t mention this would also make Shingo & Hulk 2-0 against ROH competition.
-Nigel McGuinness pinned Austin Aries with a Jawbreaker Rebound Lariat counter to the Crucifix Bomb. Aries was already out on his feet following missing a Suicide Dive and getting Lariated off the guardrail.
-Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi & Genki Horiguchi defeated CIMA, Ryo Saito & The Dragon Kid when they hit Dragon Kid with four straight finishers, concluding with Doi’s Muscular Bomb, and pinned the poor little guy.
