I know I’m reviewing this over a week since the show went down but its taken me this long to get my thoughts together on what I saw that evening. I think it’s no secret that the niche audience backing Ring of Honor has mainly evaporated for the most part. The company has gone from a rich oasis to a drying desert and the only thing keeping ROH afloat is its TV programming on HDNet.
Granted that the show in Edison was after two nights of television tapings but quite frankly this show was a waste of my time and I won’t be attending anymore Edison events. After the botched Nigel McGuinness vs. Tyler Black 46 minute “hour long” draw, the yawn inducing Jerry Lynn vs. Jay Briscoe World Title match, and the disappointment of a KENTA-less show, where the replacement ended up being the anemic Delirious, a guy who has wrestled the exact same match for the past two years, I’ve given up on the company in this market. They don’t give a damn about the market, so why should I?
The show opened up with Kenny Omega vs. Sonjay Dutt. Neither guy did anything interesting. Dutt relied on rest holds for heat and Omega would work towards hope spots but it was all a wash. Omega picked up the win with the Electric Chair German Suplex.
Grade: 3.5
Mark Briscoe & The Necro Butcher versus Joey Ryan & Erick Stevens was next and this match made no sense. Why were Mark and Necro teaming for this match? Anyone know the answer to this? The best I can assume that it was the same lazy, stupid booking that has plagued Ring of Honor for the last year. The crowd didn’t agreed with me on this and didn’t give a crap about a thing that happened here. Joey Ryan deserves better. The finish came when Claudio interfered and Jay Briscoe ran down to make the save which began their match.
Grade 3.0
Claudio Castagnoli was the first average match of the night. Claudio looked especially sharp here and looks to have significantly improve his psychology since his failed run at the World Title last year. His strikes looked especially good and Jay Briscoe seemed to have the sympathy of the crowd since Claudio blind sighted his brother. Nice back and forth between the two with Claudio picking up the win with his amazing UFO.
Grade 5.1
Tyler Black vs. Kenny King ends almost immediately when Austin Aries and Rhett Titus jump Black. Cabana and Redwood make the save and Cornette comes in to order a 6-man tag. He also does an admirable job of putting Black over as the “next world champ” which the crowd gets entirely behind. The match itself was very solid with Titus getting outclassed by the other team and tagging in Kenny King. The same happens to King who finally tags in Aries and tells Aries to take care of business. Aries does very well for himself while avoiding Black only to fall victim to the Billy Goat’s Curse from Cabana. Cabana then gets on the mic and asks Cornette to give him a title match in his home town of Chicago since he defeated Aries. Cornette obliges.
Grade 6.1
Coming back from intermission we got Bobby Dempsey versus Tony Kozina. This is where the best part of the show happened. Kozina entered to Salt N’ Pepper’s “Push It” and got the crowd was raising the roof. First fun thing the entire night. The match itself was a squash and Bobby left to his own music. Then a guy in front of me yelled to Pearce to play Kozina’s music again. Pearce responded with an overdramatic “OOOOKKKKAAAYYY!” – which made me think he was just screwing with the guy – but then next thing you know “Push It” is playing again. The entire crowd was raising the roof. Silly as it sounds, it was more entertaining than almost everything that night.
Grade 5.0
Finally come the worst letdown of the year in Roderick Strong vs. Delirious. Although I had some hope that Delirious would come through, I think I was just lying to myself. Anytime Strong was on offense, the match ruled. Anytime Delirious was on offense, the match suffered. Delirious went out of his comfort zone with his moveset, but the senseless use of rest holds added nothing to the match and showed just how badly the guy sucks in the ring. Strong with the victory with a roll-up out of nowhere. The Strong portion of the match deserves a 7.5 but the Delirious portion brings it down to a 3.5. The average is…
Grade 5.5
And the came in the only saving grace of the show in the form of Davey Richards and Chris Hero vs. Steenerico. Davey and Steen made this match. They did a “punch him in the ear” angle with Richards hilariously selling the ear that Steen and Generico were working over for the early portion of the match. It was GOLD. Hero and Generico didn’t contribute much but Steen and Richards showed amazing intensity. At one point Generico botched his legdrop and Steen yelled out hilariously, “That’s okay! I got it!” and proceed to hit a frog splash. In the end Generico killed Richards with a BRAAAAINBUSTAAA! on the top rope and Steen locked in the sharpshooter for the tap out victory on Hero.
Grade 7.1
In regards to buying the DVD, skip it. Buy the Chikara show from last month. It’s much more worth your money. And pick up the Dragon Gate USA PPV while you’re at it. This company is going down the toilet. Lets hope Cornette can make a difference.
