Ring of Honor Live Report: Rising Above 2008, PPV Taping, 11/22/08

Houseshows, News, Reviews, Shows, Spoilers

Thanks to Pulse Contributor Kyle Sparks for sending this in!

The Briscoes are out first to call out Steen & Generico claiming that in Toronto, the champs didn’t prove anything, and that they want a rematch. This brings out Steen & Generico and can’t they find some better public domain music for Generico than that? Ugh. It’s just the “Ole” portion over, and over, and over…anyway…Steen gets on the stick to answer the challenge, claiming that it wouldn’t mean anything beating the Briscoes at 50%.

(1) Kevin Steen & El Generico def. The Briscoe Brothers; Kevin pins Mark via Package Piledriver. Pretty much a paint by numbers Briscoes/Steenerico match, but without as much time. Felt kind of thrown together but these guys work well together. ***

–A pull apart brawl after the match. Can’t imagine why, I mean they beat you clean as a whistle, guys. But for pure comedy value nothing beats the combination of Grizzly Redwood and Todd Sinclair trying to hold back Kevin Steen.

(2) MsChif def. Sara Del Ray (w/ Larry Sweeney) to retain the SHIMMER Title via The Desecrator. **1/2

–Why is it that SHIMMER matches on ROH shows are always just average? This was solid, but it just felt really disjointed. I don’t know if it was a style clash between the two or what, but I noticed–and my fiancee did as well–that everything came off as very deliberate and calculated, which sort of drained the energy from the outing.

(3) Delirious (w/ Allison Wonderland) def. Rhett Titus (w/ Daizee Haze’s face on his tights) via Shadows Over Hell. It was really just standard Delirious fare, really, only with a heelish moveset and no antics. **

–After the match, Delirious destroys the Top of the Class Trophy on Titus. How many times HAS that thing been destroyed?

(4) Claudio Castagnoli def. Sami Callahan, Silas Young & Alex Payne; Claudio pins Payne w/ Riccola Bomb. **1/2

–The crowd was ALL OVER Castagnoli here, HEY-ing at every available opportunity, and even making some up out of the blue. As per usual, Sugarfoot was absurdly over with the Chicago crowd, which was only helped when Claudio went for the post-match beatdown bringing out Bryan Danielson for the save and the face off.

INTERMISSION – ROH is returning to Chicago Saturday, January 31, 2009 for ANOTHER PPV taping. Wow.

(5) Chris Hero, Davey Richards & Go Shiozaki def. Roderick Strong, Brent Albright & ACE STEEL; Richards pins Strong via Hero chairshot. **3/4

–Huge “Welcome Back” chants for Ace. This was an exceptionally peculiar finish, becdause everybody desperately wants to see the cage warfare at Final Battle. The Chicago crowd went crazy for Ace Steel, no pun intended. I’m not sure if this is a full time return or a regional gig, but I’d assume the latter. Ace played face-in-peril for the most part, but the match seemed to plod. The pace only really seemed to pick up for the heels when Davey Richards was in the ring. He just looks like a license to print money every time I see him. Roderick hit the Gibson Driver for a long two, and segued into the Strong Hold, which brought Sweeney to the apron nearly having a fit. The distraction allows Hero to come in, waffle Strong with a chair in the back and roll Davey on top for the three count.

(6) Austin Aries def. Jimmy Jacobs in the I Quit Match. ****

–This was just a sick, brutal way for Aries to finally overcome Jimmy Jacobs. Austin Aries revealed his second as…no one. He didn’t need anyone to watch his back like Jimmy did and doesn’t need anyone to throw in the towel because Jimmy will have to kill him. Well, he tried to do just that, after reintroducing the dog collar and chain to things and chaining Aries to a chair. This brought out the person who would act as Aries’ second, the lovely LACEY. Jimmy looked as though he’d seen a ghost, which makes you wonder just what exactly DID happen when the camera cut off that fateful day? She produced a towel and looked ready to throw it in to save Aries’ life, but between Aries pleas for her to not and Jimmy’s confusion, shock, anger and threats, Aries was able to free himself and unleash a holy beating on Jacobs. The two gave each other their best shots and Jacobs, true to form, was a bloody mess, that my fiancee had trouble watching. Aries couldn’t get Jacobs to quit via the Horns of Aries, so he transitioned to a crossface and spiked Jacobs in the head again and again. Black went to throw in the towel, but Lacey made off with the towel, forcing Jacobs to quit. After the match, Jacobs verbally dressed down Black, who just left.

(7) Nigel McGuinness def. Bryan Danielson via Jawbreaker Lariat. ****3/4

–This was virtually perfect. In fact, I’d have to be seriously nit-picking to find much wrong with it. The only reason I can’t go the full five in good conscience is because of the level of let-down when Danielson didn’t win the title. Stupid reason? So what, it’s my review. This had everything. Striking, counter-wrestling, submissions, high drama, GREAT nearfalls, everything. People in our section who claim to have never bought in before were buying nearfalls hook, line and sinker. They had everyone in the building convinced. A lot of people thought Danielson would win the title, but by the end of the match we were all CONVINCED that it positively was going to happen. Kudos to these two brilliant athletes for putting on possibly their best match yet.

(8) Samoa Joe def. Tyler Black via CHOKE. ***3/4

–It’s not the Coquina Clutch. It’s THE CHOKE. Now that that’s out of the way, this match was…not entirely what I expected. I think they wanted to put over Tyler as being on Joe’s level, and that’s great, but Joe’s a one time only ROH legend, and Tyler is on a one-way ride to the top. I don’t think it would have killed Black’s push at all to really put over Joe big and just hit the hope spots(a la Black/Nigel I). I was going into this thinking it was going to be shades of Joe/Aries. Unfortunately, it really wasn’t. It wound up looking like the exhibition that it was essentiailly supposed to be instead of a confrontation getting more and more personal as it was built up on ageofthefall.com and the Newswires. In that sense, it was disappointing, but taken in a vacuum, it was a solid affair. A particularly entertaining point early on saw a group of wise asses opposite the hard camera try to start a “Diesel beat you” chant. Joe’s response to them was absolutely priceless to say the least.

–Joe gets on the mic after the match and puts over ROH, the boys in the back, thanks the fans for their dedication and presumably TNA for letting him be here, but claims that it may well be the last time. On his way out, he kisses the ROH logo to a huge pop.

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.