411’s Instant Access 04.03.10: ROH Big Bang

• Scott Slimmer, author of Don’t Think Twice.
• Chris Lansdell, 411’s Games Editor and author of Lansdell’s Lair.
• Ari Berenstein, author of the Column of Honor.

Okay kids, enough with the explanations. Let’s get to the wrestling.

NWA New Beginnings Showcase Match
Zack Salvation vs. Phil Shatter
Match Result: Phil Shatter defeats Zack Salvation with the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Match Length: 7:26
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: This match may not have been advertised before the show, but it was definitely a smart choice to open the show. Shatter and Salvation are evidently well known indy wrestlers in the North Carolina area, and crowd support among the local fans seemed to be split right down the middle. Shatter and Salvation packed a respectable amount of action into a seven minute match, and I loved Salvation’s triangle choke into a guillotine choke combination near the end of the match. This match really go the crowd hot for the rest of the card and gave both Shatter and Salvation a nice bit of national exposure, so I have to say that it did its job and then some.
Lansdell: Nice little opener from the two local guys, and it was good to finally see the infamous Phil Shatter after reading about him in Matt Hardy’s Twitter updates for the last year. He’s got a good look and some strong skills, probably not enough for Ring of Honor but he might attract some attention from elsewhere. Salvation had some pretty sweet counters to get into some MMA submissions too. Not really much else to add, great exposure for the locals though.
Berenstein: Salvation and Shatter are not ROH regulars, but do appear in the area promotions and so they were given a spot here to warm things up. This was a solid enough starter, more of an ode to the NWA with some MMA influence thrown in at the end. A slight mess in the middle as neither man figured out where they wanted to go, but it was smoothed over and Shatter’s win looked credible.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ***
Lansdell: **½
Berenstein: **
Average Match Rating: **½

Pick 6 Series Match
(5) Kenny King w/ Rhett Titus vs. Davey Richards
Match Result: Davey Richards defeats Kenny King with the Texas Cloverleaf.
Match Length: 17:17
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: Ho. Lee. Crap. Holy crap. I’ve seen many pay-per-views in which the main event was nowhere near as good as this match, and yet here we are with a barn burner in the second match of the show. Richards and King both looked like stars, and a match like this definitely helps to sell the credibility of the Pick 6 Series. And then, on top of a flat out amazing match, we got the shocking return of “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. Having Daniels back in ROH is great for ROH, but having him challenge Davey Richards is even better for Richards. A show-stealing match plus a surprising challenge from a returning legend add up to one great night for Davey Richards.
Lansdell: Heck of a match between these two. King is ridiculously gifted at almost everything he does, but his matches can be hit-or-miss. Davey on the other hand has the ability to bring out the best in his opponents, and I think we saw that from King tonight. I’ve seen better matches out of Davey, and the finish didn’t do much for me, but it was solid all around. Bringing Davey into the Pick Six at 5 is a good idea, Tyler’s not ready to drop for a while yet and I think everyone expects Davey will be the next world champ. With that in mind, let him have a slow burn up the Pick 6 ladder. A feud with the returning Daniels (seriously, WTF???) will do wonders for him too. That post-match return was literally a WTF moment for me. I thought for a while it was Austin Aries using his old music, but when Daniels came out my jaw dropped. Awesome. THAT is how you do a surprise return.
Berenstein: A fantastic ROH style match that was maybe a few minutes longer than necessary but still exactly what was called for to open the show proper. Beautiful reversals and transitions in the end and the leg work Richards used on King paid off in the finish. Richards was put over like a monster face, while King looked cool under fire, but couldn’t overcome his injuries. Plus, there was the mark out moment of Daniels making his return to ROH after the match!
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ****¼
Lansdell: ***¾
Berenstein: ****
Average Match Rating: ****

Butcher Rules Match
Necro Butcher vs. Erick Stevens w/ Prince Nana & Mr. Ernesto Osiris
Match Result: Necro Butcher defeats Erick Stevens with an O’Connor Roll.
Match Length: 9:00
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: I like Necro Butcher, I really do, and I know that he can put on matches that rise above the level of generic garbage wrestling, but unfortunately he simply wasn’t able to do that this evening. There was absolutely nothing in this match that we haven’t seen in literally thousands of forgettable pseudo-hardcore matches over the years, and finishing the match with an O’Connor Roll only served to cheapen the already watered-down action that had preceded it. I’ll give Necro Butcher and Erick Stevens credit for their effort, but ultimately their effort was for naught tonight.
Lansdell: I’m not a fan of brawls like this, but it was fine for what it was. Not as brutal as I was expecting and too much faffing about on the floor to be anything better than “fine” though. The finish was totally out of character for both Necro and the match, which is not a bad thing necessarily but is worth mentioning. This was just…there. The post-match beatdown suggests that the feud is not done, but Necro is so limited as a wrestler that it really needs to be.
Berenstein: This was a typical Necro Butcher brawl, but fun and well timed with nothing sloppy or blatantly choreographed, which is always a plus in this type of match. Typical non-hardcore Butcher finish as well, with the “unexpected” use of a wrestling move by the brawler to gain the surprise win.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: **
Lansdell: **
Berenstein: **¼
Average Match Rating: **

Lucha Estrellas
Cassandro el Exotico vs. Magno Rhett Titus
Match Result: Cassandro el Exotico defeats Rhett Titus with a roll-up.
Match Length: 8:54
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: You know those friends you have that make fun of professional wrestling because they say that it’s gay? Those friends that laugh at you because you like to watch a bunch of big sweaty men roll around and grope each other? Yeah, make sure that they never see this match. Cassandro el Exotico seems to be the luchador bastard love-child of Gorgeous George, The Fabulous Moolah, Adrian Adonis, Goldust, and Richard Simmons (and yeah, good luck getting the mental image of that orgy out of your head). This story of this match was all about Cassandro making Titus more than a bit uncomfortable, but really that’s nothing that we haven’t seen from Adrian Adonis and Goldust many years ago. The real shame here is that Cassandro seems to be quite a gifted technical wrestler, and I have the feeling that he and Rhett Titus could have put on a hot little wrestling match under different circumstances. Unfortunately the story of the match overshadowed the action of the match, and sadly that’s a story that hasn’t been new or intriguing for decades. (Addendum: It was announced during the tag title match that Cassandro actually broke his leg during a dive to the outside near the end of the match. Despite my reservations about his gimmick, I have to give Cassandro a ton of respect for finishing the match.)
Lansdell: Cassandro is bizarre. He makes Goldust look normal. Picking Titus as his opponent was an inspired choice because the gimmicks are so opposite, and it gave rise to some fun comedy moments. I think the injury to Cassandro really hurt the finish of the match, which is a shame because it was pretty good, even considering my long-standing dislike of lucha and the fact that Titus is still a little green.
Berenstein: They worked this as a comedy match with some athleticism involved and it paid off for the live crowd although I still don’t really get or care for this exotico stuff. Still, Titus played the best foil possible for Cassandro, so that was good change in booking. I loved Titus’ reactions at the beginning as if a guy in a pink bow tie should be surprised he was hit on by a cross-dressing luchador. The Latino crowd was super pumped for this and it served its purpose but Cassandro appeared to hurt himself at the end, so the quick roll up finish was somewhat telegraphed, but not too overtly abrupt.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: **¼
Lansdell: **¾
Berenstein: **¾
Average Match Rating: **½

Tag Team Grudge Match
Kevin Steen & Steve Corino vs. El Generico & Colt Cabana
Match Result: El Generico & Colt Cabana defeat Kevin Steen & Steve Corino by disqualification.
Match Length: 10:05
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: I normally have no patience for disqualifications on pay-per-view. If I pay to see a wrestling match, then I damn sure want there to be a finish to that wrestling match. However, this is one of those rare exceptions to that rule. I was really intrigued by the story of El Generico not being able to bring himself to strike his former tag team partner, and I was impressed by how Generico’s frame of mind was worked into the entirety of the match. It meant that Cabana was left to suffer the brunt of the damage from Steen & Corino, and it meant that Generico was unable to prevent the chair shot to Cabana that ended the match. However, much like Kevin Steen & El Generico’s match at Final Battle 2009, a large part of the story of this match actually occurred after the match had ended. Generico finally realized that even if he couldn’t defend himself, he also couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t defend his friend Colt Cabana. This all sets up the confrontation between El Generico & Colt Cabana and Kevin Steen & Steve Corino in a Chicago Street Fight in a few weeks, and I would expect that match to fully live up to our expectations. That means that this man was ultimately the means to an end rather than the end goal itself, but in this case I think that strategy actually works.
Lansdell: I thought the story of this match was handled masterfully. With the exception of one superkick from Steen to Generico, they two never once faced off during the match. It took a brutal post-match beatdown of Cabana by CorSteeno to snap Generico out of his emo funk, and snap he did. They teased the brainbustaaa on Steen then had him nail it on poor old Grizzly Redwood while CorSteeno watched from the aisle. The match itself was nothing amazing in terms of in-ring work, but it was solid and the story they told pushes it up a few notches.
Berenstein: I hated the DQ finish but understood why it was done to continue the feud and build to the post-match where Generico finally let loose and blasted Kevin Steen with the Ole boot and then took out EVERYONE, including students and even Grizzly Redwood. Some real good action in the beginning making sure Generico and Steen were kept separate and everyone was very over with the fans. Great comebacks by Generico and a massive powerbomb to the apron highlighted the match, but the best was for afterwards and the Smackdown from Generico onto Steen and Corino.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ***¼
Lansdell: ***
Berenstein: ***
Average Match Rating: ***

ROH World Tag Team Championship
Jay & Mark Briscoe (Champions) vs. The Kings of Wrestling w/ Shane Hagadorn
Match Result: Claudio Castagnoli defeats Jay Briscoe after a loaded Rolling Elbow from Chris Hero.
Match Length: 30:20
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: Okay, first things first. I have to give my respect to four guys that can go bat-shit crazy on each other for thirty straight minutes. That’s a talent, and it’s amazing to watch. However, I thought this match suffered from the fact that the only real story here was the fact that four guys were going bat-shit crazy on each other for thirty straight minutes. At times it seemed that all we had were move after move after move, and in the end this did devolve into something of a spotfest. I can’t take anything away from the athleticism or tenacity displayed by the Briscoe Brothers and the Kings of Wrestling, but this match simply lacked the integration of action and storytelling that we would see later in the ROH Championship match.
Lansdell: Looking at the card prior to the show, I kind of figured this would be the best match. Now to be fair it was a very exciting match with some tremendous action, great moves, lots of lovely bumps and spots…but that’s it. There was no story, no psychology, and most of all no selling. My recap may seem jumbled and confused, but that’s pretty much how the match went down. Move after move, momentum constantly changing with nobody seeming to be affected for more than a few seconds by anyone else’s offence. Somehow this match managed to show off the best and worst that ROH has to offer at the same time. The action is unrivaled and you might see something to match it 3 times in a year from WWE and TNA combined. It kept you on the edge of your seat because you never knew what was coming next. That’s not all that’s required for a great wrestling match though. It was just moves. Good moves, exciting moves, but the stuff they were doing looked so weak and pointless because a chop was being sold as much as a Death Valley driver. For that reason I cannot go above my normal spotfest maximum.
Berenstein: Awesome mash-up of Hero and Claudio’s music by the way. This was almost as great a tag match as their excellent Final Battle 2006 affair. The fans did seem to love it a great deal by the end, chanting “Match of the Year”, but I wouldn’t go that far. The Briscoes and KoW provide some excellent tag team combinations from their arsenal and then ramp it up for the nearfalls. Lots of tags and no real elongated heat segments, but that’s a Briscoes match for you. Tons of great break ups of pinfalls with pulling off the body and all of that. I’m surprised The Briscoes kicked out of KRS-1, but maybe Jay was a bit late on the break-up. Great heel move of Hagadorn distracting and Hero using the golden elbow pad to win the titles. By the way I did not notice Jay hurling, but maybe I missed that on my feed.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ***½
Lansdell: ***¼
Berenstein: ****¼
Average Match Rating: ***¾

Triple Threat Match for the ROH World Championship
Tyler Black (Champion) vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong
Match Result: Austin Aries defeats Roderick Strong with a Brain Buster at 26:23, and then Tyler Black defeats Austin Aries with God’s Last Gift at 31:17.
Match Length: 31:17
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: Hell of a match by Tyler Black, Austin Aries, and Roderick Strong. These three guys went balls to the wall for half an hour, and all three men were involved in the action for the vast majority of that time. There were countless near-falls throughout the match, and yet this never became the spot-fest that I felt the tag title match did. I found myself truly being drawn in to Roderick Strong’s story throughout the match, and I loved the show of defiance as he spit on Tyler Black and begged him for another super kick. It would have been all too easy for Roderick Strong to reconcile with Tyler Black after they teamed up to thwart Aries and Kenny King after the match, but I have to believe that Strong has become that much more interesting by refusing to place his trust in anyone other than himself. This match successfully combined insane in-ring action with a compelling story, and that’s really just about all you can ask from a professional wrestling match.
Lansdell: Before I get into the match itself, mention must be made of Austin Aries’ EPIC ring jacket, for which he clearly killed and skinned Elmo. Anyway, this match almost did what the previous one did, but they managed to at least work in something of a story of trust among the 3, as well as Strong being so determined to win his first title after going 0-12 in title matches that it took the Charge of the Light Brigade to put him down. Plenty of good stuff shots, spots that made sense in the context of the match and, heaven forbid, some selling! What is the world coming to? All three men worked themselves to the bone for this one, and although nobody pulled a Jay Briscoe and puked it’s hard to fault them on the way it came off. Not a perfect match, some spots felt off and there were places where planned spots caused delays while people got into position, but overall very solid and very enjoyable
Berenstein: Unfortunately my computer overheated midway through this match, so I missed about five minutes of action, but if it was as amazing as the action I did see before and afterwards then it probably only helped to enhance what was an epic title bout. These three spared no expense and threw everything at each other, almost to the point of overkill, but it was to prove the point that all three men wanted to win so desperately that they could withstand any pain and any suffering. I loved Aries playing Black and Strong against each other, but would have gone with Strong eliminating Aries and ultimately losing to Black so that we didn’t get yet another Black-Aries finale. Black’s superplex into a God’s Last Gift was sick, as were his front and back superkicks. I think the fans in attendance came across as a bit tired out by the back stretch, but all due credit for all involved in not shirking a bit from creating an aggressive finale.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: ****¼
Lansdell: ****¼
Berenstein: ****½
Average Match Rating: ****¼

Lucha Super Estrella
Super Parka & Misterioso vs. Blue Demon Jr. & Magno
Match Result: Magno defeats Misterioso with a springboard twisting body splash.
Match Length: 15:42
Match Analysis:
Slimmer: This match is incredibly difficult for me to evaluate, because I think I have to admit that I just don’t understand lucha. This was a fairly silly, almost nonsensical match by our normal US standards, but I also understand that the traditions and conventions of lucha are much different than those with which we are accustomed here in the US. However, I do think that it’s fair to question the decision to put this match on in the main event spot. There were certainly legends involved in this match, but ROH needs to do everything it can to highlight its own World Championship. ROH needs to use these internet pay-per-views to gain exposure and work on their branding, but jobbing an incredible ROH World Championship match to a showcase lucha tag match is not the way to accomplish that goal.
Lansdell: I’m trying to find the words to describe this match. it’s not a secret that I dislike lucha intensely. I find it flippy, boring and full of armdrags that mean nothing. However, I was prepared to give it a chance. I paid my $15.62 (damn exchange rates) and I’m darn well going to try and enjoy it. I failed. I don’t know if changing the match and putting in Magno in place of Solar was the problem, or if this is what you should generally expect in a lucha tag, but it was just BAD. Chair shots with no DQ, unmaskings, attempted unmaskings, wandering aimlessly around…it just failed on almost every front. Not until the end of the match did the non-Latino crowd get into the match, and that’s not a good thing. Please don’t do this again.
Berenstein: I have no idea how these guys could possibly follow that title match or why they would want to try. The only reason I can think of that this was decided to be the main event would be politics or attempting to appeal to the Latino audience (which seemed a good portion of the crowd). At least they were very vocal for this match, staying into it and probably rowdier in response to this match than the title match. For myself, I have to consider this the “after-dinner mint” of the show. They worked traditional lucha, with the arm drags and some comedy mixed in, flew a bit, mixed in the chairman of the board stuff etc. Most of it slow, sloppy and not interesting to me, but again, the crowd loved it for the most part. The use of the chair was stupid, especially since it didn’t draw the DQ and it confused and quieted the crowd. Then Misterioso’s mask came off and that wasn’t a DQ, so I was confused. Magno as usual, was the saving grace of a lucha match in an American wrestling promotion, and thank goodness for Kevin Kelly on the stick here who helped ease my pain with some funny comments.
Match Rating:
Slimmer: *½
Lansdell: ¾*
Berenstein: *¼
Average Match Rating: *¼

Final Thoughts

Match of the Night:
Slimmer: Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong (****¼)
Top notch action? Check. Legitimately compelling story? Check. This match blended the two most important aspects of a professional wrestling match – action and storytelling – and crafted what is undoubtedly the match of the night.
Lansdell: Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong (****¼)
Everything it should have been… almost. Certainly a thrill to watch.
Berenstein: Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong (****½)
This was everything the main event title match needed to be—hard fought and aggressive, near non-stop action. Maybe it was just a bit too much in terms of the wrestlers being put down and eliminated, but in a way it put over the wrestlers that much more that they survived all that punishment. Aries was brilliant here, Strong was put over on commentary huge by Cornette, Kelly and Prazak, and Black once again proved himself worthy of being the ROH World Champion.

Trash of the Night:
Slimmer: Super Parka & Misterioso vs. Blue Demon Jr. & Magno (*½)
I won’t go so far as to say that this was a bad match, because I’m not convinced that I’m qualified to make that sort of judgment. However, I will say that it was most certainly the wrong match at the wrong time, and having it close the show was absolutely the wrong decision.
Lansdell: Super Parka & Misterioso vs. Blue Demon Jr. & Magno (¾*)
Ugh.
Berenstein: Super Parka & Misterioso vs. Blue Demon Jr. & Magno (*¼)
I expected this to be bad going in and it pretty much met my expectations. It wasn’t world’s shatteringly horrible, but that doesn’t mean it was good either. Putting this on last would not have been my call.

Final Analysis:
Slimmer: This show was sort of all over the place. There was some great in-ring action (Richards / King, Black / Aries / Strong), and there was some impressive storytelling (Generico / Cabana, Black / Aries / Strong). However, there were also production issues (late start, microphone cut-outs, cameras rolling after the end of the show) and questionable decisions (the choice of main event above all others). I’d say that all means this show definitely falls above average, but it certainly doesn’t flirt with greatness. However, I also have the feeling that I’ll remember the good long after I’ve forgotten the bad, and at the end of the day I’m more than happy to have paid $14.95 for this show.
Lansdell: If you take out the last match, this PPV was a very solid effort. Nothing was actively bad and a lot of it made you want to see more of the people involved. There was a little something for everyone. The problem is that the final match would have left a bad taste in the mouths of people tuning in for the first time. Combined with the poor production at times and the 20-minute-late start…good wrestling, poor presentation. And the saddest part? Final Battle 2009 was worse.
Berenstein: It’s hard not to come away mostly satisfied with this show considering the three matches that were looking to be very good to excellent (Richards / King, Kings / Briscoes, Aries / Strong / Black) were exactly that, plus there was a title change, the surprise return of Christopher Daniels (MARK OUT CITY), Kevin Kelly and Dave Prazak providing entertaining and effective commentary, a half-time show and so on. The undercard served its purpose as it usually does these days in ROH as a warm up or cool down for the crowd to bridge into the main attraction bouts. The lucha bouts were what was expected and the last minute change of Cassandro’s match to face –off with Titus was probably for the best, despite the former’s unfortunate broken leg injury. The main event lucha match was a mind-boggle, but it wasn’t booked for me or the more hardcore ROH fan, but for the crowd in attendance and it worked plenty for them. As far as the internet aspect of the show, its clear ROH still has to work out some bugs to their system here and there (the feed froze or slowed down three times during my show), but the feed was much improved especially in regards to the audio (save for one match where it was really low, but hey this time they managed to have two and even three men speaking on the air and you could hear them loud and clear! Overall, ROH is making steps towards providing a more professional presentation for their internet Pay Per View, but I don’t know if I see these shows as effective a means of promotion in the long run as ROH hopes it will become. Still, I’d recommend checking out the show (stopping after the ROH World Title match) for all of the positives outweigh the negatives.