July 16, 2013
The main part of the first disc is a two hour plus shoot interview with Edwards, covering his entire career. Edwards tells stories from all parts of his career, including his fandom growing up, breaking in to the business, his entire ROH run, as well as Japan and PWG. He comes off as extremely likable and a huge fan of the business, and this is a very worthwhile interview to listen to.
MATCH #1: ROH World Title Match – Eddie Edwards vs. Christopher Daniels, Honor Takes Center Stage Chapter 1, 4.1.11
Edwards has been the Champion since 3.19.11, and this is his first defense. Daniels is the current ROH World TV Champion, and he won that title from Edwards so it makes perfect sense for him to be the first challenger to Edwards as World Champion. They take it down to the mat to exchange holds. Daniels scores a couple of near-falls with pinning combinations but can’t put Edwards away. Tempers start to flare but cooler heads prevail and they go back to having a respectable contest. Daniels uses the Achilles Lock and Edwards quickly reaches the ropes. They spill to the floor and Edwards hiptosses Daniels into the barricade. The idiots on commentary (Dave Prazak and Kevin Kelly) say that a World Title has only changed hands in Atlanta one time, when Dusty Rhodes won it in 1981, but the WCW Title changed hands in Atlanta three times itself – Ric Flair in 1994, Goldberg in 1998 (that’s kind of a big one), and Hollywood Hogan in 1999. While I get over my irritation with Prazak and Kelly, Edwards, is still in control of his challenger. Daniels fights back and hits the Blue Thunder Bomb. He tries to follow up but Edwards cuts him off and goes back on offense. Daniels then cuts Edwards off with a jawbreaker and an enziguiri. Momentum continues to shift between the two evenly matched competitors. They fight on the apron and Daniels hits a uranage slam through a table! Daniels obviously gets up first, and he bodyslams Edwards on a chair. He holds up the World Title belt as the morons in the crowd chant “Fuck TNA!” Back in the ring Daniels hits a slingshot elbow drop to the back for two. Daniels focuses on the back, keeping Edwards on the mat. Edwards tries to fight back but Daniels cuts him off with a spinebuster for two. Daniels hits a superplex for another two-count. He goes for another one but Edwards shoves him down and hits a missile dropkick! They do a modified Fish out of Water sequence with a series of near-falls. Edwards clotheslines Daniels to the floor and hits the tope suicida while managing to not injure himself this time. Back in the ring Edwards hits a high cross body block off the top rope for two. Edwards fires off a series of chops and hits a Tiger Suplex for two. Daniels fights back and takes Edwards down with a Koji Clutch. Edwards reaches the ropes. Daniels continues to put on the pressure, hitting a side suplex from the second rope for a near-fall. Edwards is able to cinch in the Achilles Lock. Daniels fights his way out of it and puts on the Koji Clutch but Edwards rolls that over into a cover for two. They trade strikes and Edwards wins the battle with a big lariat. Edwards hits the 2K1 Bomb for two. He brings Daniels up top and then knocks him down to hit a double stomp to the back. Daniels is able to reverse a powerbomb into the Angel’s Wings! Edwards kicks out at two! Daniels hits the uranage slam and the Best Moonsault Ever but Edwards kicks out again! He tries another BME but Edwards gets his feet up. Edwards puts on the Achilles Lock but Daniels is able to escape it. They fight up top again and Edwards hits a super 2K1 Bomb! Edwards hits a regular 2K1 Bomb and that’s enough to get the pin at 30:06. That match certainly didn’t feel as long as it was, which is always a good thing. Daniels had no shot of winning the title since he was also a featured player in TNA at this time, but he was an ideal first opponent for Edwards’ title reign and he went out of his way to make Edwards look credible. Not that Edwards is a slouch either, he wrestled a great match like he had something to prove. Daniels refuses to shake hands after the match.
Rating: ****
MATCH #2: ROH World Title Match – Eddie Edwards vs. Chris Hero, ROH Revolution: Canada, 5.7.11
Edwards has been the champion since 3.19.11, and this is his second defense. Hero is wearing pink gear in tribute to Larry Sweeney. These two have a connection from Sweet N’ Sour Inc., as both were members in 2008-2009. They start off slowly, feeling each other out early on. Edwards goes for an early Achilles Lock but Hero has it scouted. Shane Hagadorn and Sara Del Rey get caught interfering and Todd Sinclair sends them to the back. Hero recovers from that setback and targets the champion’s arm. That’s a good strategy because you figure Edwards would be expecting knockout and Hero goes more for a submission. Edwards stays in it and fights back with chops and strikes whenever he can. At one point Edwards looks to be going to the top rope but Hero knocks him down and the champion crashes through the timekeeper’s table! After more back and forth big maneuvers, Hagadorn and Del Rey come out to distract the referee and Claudio Castagnoli sneaks in the ring to deliver the Ricola Bomb but Edwards is still able to kick out at two! Edwards comes back with the Achilles Lock and Castagnoli jumps up on the apron until Davey Richards comes out to awkwardly fight him off. Both men continue throwing bombs at each other but can’t put the other away. Finally Edwards locks on the Achilles Lock (after multiple uses) and stomps on Hero’s head to knock him out and retain the title at 37:18. That actually didn’t feel as long as it was, and outside of the Castagnoli and Richards shenanigans was a tremendous match.
Rating: ****
~Disc Two~
MATCH #3: ROH World Title Match – Eddie Edwards vs. Roderick Strong, Supercard of Honor VI, 5.21.11
Strong is accompanied by Truth Martini. Edwards has been the champion since 3.19.11, and this is his third defense. Strong attacks right away and takes it right to the champion. The fight quickly spills to the floor and Edwards fights back. The offense comes fast and furious throughout the early going, with both guys using some big moves, including the Stronghold from Strong and the Achilles Lock from Edwards. They also both use each other’s submission moves but neither man will quit. Strong uses the Gibson Driver on the ring apron, and as soon as Edwards barely recovers, Strong joins him on the floor and hits him with another Gibson Driver! Man, Strong can be so awesome when he wants to be. From out of nowhere Edwards grabs Strong in the Achilles Lock and stomps on his head to get the win at 23:36. These two have tremendous chemistry together and they went almost non-stop the entire time.
Rating: ****¼
Michael Elgin and Christopher Daniels come out to attack the Champion, and Davey Richards comes out to make the save. Edwards reiterates that he needs to fight Richards for the title, and threatens to quit if Richards won’t face him. They jerk each other off a little bit and then agree to fight.
MATCH #4: ROH World Title Match – Eddie Edwards vs. Davey Richards, Best in the World 2011, 6.26.11
Edwards has been the champion since 3.19.11 and this is his fourth defense. They waste no time taking it to each other with hard strikes and submissions. Richards focuses his attack on the arm, and Edwards naturally looks for the Achilles Lock. They fight in and out of the ring, delivering big moves and stiffing the hell out of each other along the way. Edwards puts Richards through a ringside table but the challenger will not stay down. They wrestle exactly the kind of match the audience is expecting them to, and I have to give them credit for going all out with it. Richards continues using kicks, even on the apron, but Edwards ducks one and Richards kicks the ring post. It’s quickly forgotten though and Richards is throwing kicks again like nothing happened. In fact, Richards unleashes a series of kicks to the head but Edwards perseveres. Finally Richards DRILLS Edwards in the head with a running kick to keep him down for the count and become the ROH World Champion at 35:59. I’ve seen this match gets tons of praise, while my friend Kevin Ford found it vastly overrated. I actually land somewhere in the middle, where I thought it was really good and certainly delivered the kind of action they had promised in the buildup. There was a ton of “movez” and “no-selling,” and that’s what keeps it from being an elite match, but it was still a lot of fun to watch and the crowd was eating it up like crazy. Even though this is an Eddie Edwards DVD, they include Richards’ post-match circle jerk promo, tears and all.
Rating: ****
MATCH #5: Eddie Edwards vs. Kyle O’Reilly, Glory By Honor X, 11.19.11
O’Reilly weighs 204 pounds and hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Edwards is 211 pounds and is wrestling out of Boston, Massachusetts. This is a big singles match for O’Reilly. Tonight’s match stems from a tag team match back at No Escape, when Edwards continued to abuse O’Reilly after the bell because he didn’t hear it. The match was great, by the way. They start off on the mat and chain wrestle back and forth. The crowd supports both men, but the chants for Edwards are definitely louder. Both men try to out-Wolf each other with hard strikes. O’Reilly hits two rolling Butterfly Suplexes but Edwards blocks the third one and drops O’Reilly directly on his head. Wisely, O’Reilly rolls to the floor to regain his sense. Edwards follows him out and throws him into the barricade. Back in the ring Edwards looks confident as he works O’Reilly over. O’Reilly is able to counter with a hard DDT and both men are down. He runs at Edwards and gets hit with a hard chop, but is able to persevere and grab a cross armbreaker. O’Reilly turns that into a Crossface and Edwards is able to reach the ropes. Edwards fights back and goes for a double stomp off the top rope and misses, and O’Reilly drills him with a kick to the head for two. O’Reilly unleashes with kicks to the chest and Edwards gives it right back to him. They each throw superkicks at each other, and this is getting heated. Edwards hits a couple of brutal chops to the face and gets a two-count. He goes back up top and this time hits the Double Stomp. Now Edwards tries a powerbomb and O’Reilly turns it into a guillotine choke. Edwards turns that into the Die Hard, and then hits a second one. He locks on the Dragon Sleeper and O’Reilly has to tap out at 15:21. These two have good chemistry together, and O’Reilly has been booked really well on his way up the card.
Rating: ***½
MATCH #6: Eddie Edwards vs. El Generico, Southern Defiance, 12.3.11
The crowd is split down the middle in support of both men. Edwards has held all three titles currently offered by ROH and Generico has held two of the three, so there’s an impressive championship pedigree between these two. They take it down to the mat and Edwards goes after the arm. Generico fights back with armdrags and such, as both men are trying to set the pace of the matchup. Edwards works Generico over for a few minutes and Generico comes back with a low bridge to send Edwards to the floor. Generico follows him out with a dive to the approval of the crowd. Back in the ring Generico hits a cross body block off the top rope for two. A Blue Thunder Driver gets another two-count. Edwards comes back and hits the Backpack Stunner for two, and then rolls that into an STF. Generico reaches the ropes. Generico comes back with a running Yakuza Kick from out of nowhere, and then goes for a suplex and both men tumble to the floor. Both men barely make it back to the ring and pull themselves up. Generico hits a Michinoku Driver for two. Edwards responds with a Saito Suplex and goes up top. Generico cuts him off with a Yakuza Kick. He tries to follow with the Super Brainbuster but Edwards turns it into a pancake move down to the mat. Edwards hits a superkick and a back fist for a two-count. He goes up top to hit a double stomp and then hits a powerbomb for two. Edwards rolls that right into the Achilles Lock and Generico taps out at 18:01. Generico is pretty much automatic at this point. Edwards is just Edwards ya know?
Rating: ***½
MATCH #7: Eddie Edwards vs. RHINO, Border Wars, 5.12.12
Martini cuts a quick promo introducing Rhino as the newest member of the House of Truth and puts over his purpose as a stopper for Roderick Strong and Michael Elgin. Rhino only wearing one knee pad looks very awkward. Even with the one knee pad, Rhino overpowers Edwards to start. Edwards tries working the arm and has some success with it. They go back and forth with strikes and Edwards hits a hurricanrana to send Rhino to the floor. Edwards baseball slides Rhino into the camera man. He tries a slingshot move but Rhino pulls him off the apron. Back in the ring Rhino squashes Edwards with a shoulderblock in the corner. Edwards comes back with an enziguiri, and then Rhino press slams him and dumps Edwards straight to the floor! Rhino rams Edwards’ back into the guardrail. Back in the ring Rhino gets a two-count. Rhino works a bearhug now. Edwards comes back with a sick release German Suplex. Both men are down. Back on their feet Edwards wins a strike battle and lands a Shining Wizard for two. Rhino dumps Edwards to the apron, where Martini grabs Edwards’ foot. When Rhino goes for a Gore Edwards is able to avoid it and Rhino crashes to the floor. Edwards hits a moonsault off the apron. Back in the ring Edwards hits a missile dropkick for two. Rhino comes back with a belly-to-belly suplex. He goes for the Gore but Edwards dropkicks him mid-route. Martini tries to hit Edwards with the Book of Truth but almost hits Rhino instead. That gives Edwards the chance to snag a quick rollup to get the pin at 10:53. That was a good choice for an opener as the crowd was into both guys and their styles mesh well together.
Rating: **¾
MATCH #8: Eddie Edwards vs. Davey Richards, ROH TV, 6.9.12
This is the fourth singles match between the two in ROH. Edwards won the first to become the first-ever ROH TV Champion, and Richards won the next two to win and then defend the ROH World Title at Best in the World 2011 and Final Battle 2011, respectively. They start off cautiously, as they obviously know each other very well. Edwards scores the first big hit, knocking Richards off the apron and into the barricade. Back in the ring Edwards hits a Shining Wizard for two. Edwards tries the Chin Checker but Richards counters it into an armbar. That was cool. Edwards reaches the ropes. They fight on the apron and trade strikes. Richards pulls Edwards down by the arm, yanking on the shoulder. Time for a commercial. Back in the ring Richards zeroes in on the arm and shoulder. Edwards comes back and drops Richards on his chest. He dumps Richards to the floor and hits him with the tope suicida. Back in the ring Edwards hits a missile dropkick for two. Edwards hits a Tiger Suplex but only gets two. He goes up top but Richards brings him down with a superplex. Richards floats over into an armbar. Edwards reverses that to the Achilles Lock, and Richards counters that back to the Ankle Lock, which Edwards kicks out of. Richards puts the armbar back on, and they turn that into a series of pinning combinations. They trade some kicks and Richards fires off a lariat. Both men are down. They fight back on the top rope and Edwards hits the super chest slam thing that he does. Edwards hits Chop Your Face for a two-count. He goes up top and misses a double stomp. Richards puts on the Ankle Lock. Edwards kicks his way out of that but Richards flattens him with a kick to the chest. Jimmy Jacobs comes out to distract Richards, unbeknownst to Edwards. Richards goes up top but Edwards catches him in a missile dropkick attempt and rolls him up with a jackknife cradle to get the pin at 16:37 (shown). I liked that quite a bit, as they stuck to a pretty simple story and didn’t get too out of control with their circle jerk type spots they’ve been known to do.
Rating: ***¼
MATCH #9: Eddie Edwards vs. Homicide, Best in the World 2012: Hostage Crisis, 6.24.12
Homicide eschews the Code of Honor and here we go. Edwards hits an immediate Saito Suplex and Homicide bails. That does him no good though, as Edwards wipes him out with a dive. They continue the fight on the floor and Edwards is the aggressor. Back in the ring Edwards hits a missile dropkick for two. Edwards follows with a Shining Wizard for two. Homicide fights back and they trade strikes. They kick each other in the face and both go down. Homicide then hits a belly-to-belly suplex and then throws Edwards shoulder-first into the ring post. He then throws Edwards into the post again just to be a dick. Homicide goes o the floor and teases bringing in a chair but referee Paul Turner talks him out of it. Back in the ring Homicide keeps Edwards on the mat and works on his shoulder. Homicide hits Two Amigos and then Edwards reverses it and hits Two Amigos of his own, but Homicide cuts him off by attacking the shoulder again. They fight up top and Edwards hits a huge superplex. Both men are down. Edwards gets up and hits a Death Valley Gourdbuster and a Fisherman Buster for a two-count. He follows with the Boston Knee Party for another near-fall, and then floats over into an STF. Homicide reaches the ropes and then goes back on offense. He hits a tornado DDT for two. Edwards tries the Chin Checker but Homicide counters to the Ace Crusher for another two-count. Homicide hits a Lariat for two. He tries the Gringo Killa but Edwards slips out and cradles Homicide for two. Edwards is then able to cinch on the Achilles Lock. Homicide kicks his way out of it and grabs a small package for two. He then hits the Gringo Killa to get the pin at 12:45. Not only am I stunned by the result, but I’m stunned that I thought the match was as good as I thought it was. They worked well together and kept the action going for the duration of the match. Looks like Homicide might be a bit of player in ROH now.
Rating: ***¼
MATCH #10: The American Wolves vs. Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish, Final Battle 2012: Doomsday, 12.16.12
Referee Todd Sinclair calls for the bell, even though all four men are on the floor. That seems wrong. Back in the ring the Wolves double-team Fish and the crowd is loving them some Wolves. O’Reilly gets the same treatment. Fish and O’Reilly use some chicanery to take the battle back to the floor, where Fish subdues Edwards. Richards tries the kick from the apron, but Fish catches it and O’Reilly boots Richards to the floor. O’Reilly follows with the missile dropkick off the apron, knocking the wind out of Edwards. Back in the ring Fish covers Edwards for two. Fish and O’Reilly isolate Edwards and wear him down. Richards gets fed up and enters the ring illegally. The referee has lost control completely. The Wolves suplex Fish and O’Reilly over the ropes simultaneously and all four men tumble hard to the floor. Back in the ring Richards and O’Reilly exchange strikes. O’Reilly locks on a Dragon Sleeper, and Richards counters with an Ankle Lock! That was cool. O’Reilly escapes but gets blasted in the face with an Edwards kick. Edwards then hits a Super Boston Knee Party. Richards grabs O’Reilly for a Tombstone Piledriver and lets Edwards kick him in the head before dropping him down. Edwards covers for two. O’Reilly fights back and the momentum continues to shift. He locks Edwards in a Dragon Sleeper. Richards goes to the top rope and Fish knocks him down. Edwards rolls over into a cover but Fish is right there with a huge moonsault! O’Reilly kicks Edwards in the head and Richards has to break up the cover. Richards throws Fish to the floor and once again exchanges strikes with O’Reilly. This time Richards gets the better of it and hits a huge lariat. The Wolves hit the double-team lungblower and Edwards puts on the Achilles Lock. Richards adds a knee off the top rope and Edwards stomps O’Reilly’s head until Sinclair calls for the bell at 12:27. That was a lot of fun and a good choice to bring the Wolves back. The only bummer about this match is that Fish and O’Reilly had to lose pretty decisively, so they don’t really have a lot of grounds to ask for a rematch. Still, this was good stuff.
Rating: ***½
THE PULSE
This is a tremendous DVD release, with a slew of good to great matches and a very enjoyable two hour shoot interview. Edwards has been a major part of Ring of Honor over the last couple of years so it’s nice to see him get a chance to tell his story. Fans of Edwards will definitely want to pick this up, but even those who are not fans may find themselves converted after this. I know I gained a lot of respect and admiration for him after watching this. You can purchase the DVD at the ROH Shop.
