wrestling / TV Reports
The ROHport: Ring of Honor — Driven
September 23, 2007 | Posted by
| ROH: Driven by J.D. Dunn Cross, disappointingly, breaks the color continuity for the babyfaces. Be a team player, Matthew! The NRC gets cleared out pretty early, and the fans are all over Roderick. Delirious somersaults onto the NRC. The Corps isolates Delirious soon after. Strong slings Delirious onto his knees, and Romero hits a springboard kneedrop. Prazak notes that Austin Aries bought a ticket, but he can’t appear because of obligations to “another wrestling company.” Delirious headbutts Richards and tags out to Stevens. The faces set up the NRC in the corner! HANDSPRING ELBOW! CHOO-CHOO AVALANCHE! PANIC ATTACK! Stevens hits the TKO, but he can’t get the pin. Richards sets up for the DR Driver, but Cross makes the save with a reverse rana. Stevens catches Strong with a one-handed slam. Romero comes in but catches a wheelbarrow stomp teamup from Stevens and Cross. Davey and Stevens slug it out, and Stevens ends it with a Full-Rotation German Suplex. SHADOWS OVER HELL! SSP! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Romero and Strong just make the save. Strong knocks Delirious out with the backdrop on the apron. Cross and Romero wind up in there together, and Cross hits a twisting moonsault for two. They exchange rollups until Richards can sneak in and hit Cross with the DR Driver at around 11:00 (no opening bell). Wall-to-wall action with a sizzling hot crowd. One of the best openers of the year. **** These two were teammates last time out, but Sydal blamed Claudio for that loss. Sydal opens with a lot of armdrags and headscissors. Claudio comes back with the GIANT SWING! Sydal starts to fight back, so Claudio gutwrenches him off the mat. Wow. Sydal knocks him to the floor and hits a twisting no-hands plancha. Back inside, Claudio reverses a whip and hits the Match-killer. That sets up the Apomari Waterslide for two. Sydal comes back with the standing moonsault and catches Claudio with a DDT for two. Claudio cuts him off with a European Uppercut and a springboard enzuigiri. BICYCLE KICK! EUROPEAN UPPERCUT! Claudio tries to press him but Sydal reverses to a headscissors in mid-air. Crazy! Sydal blocks a powerbomb and takes him over with a rana for two. He tries it again, but Claudio rolls through to the sunset flip for the win at 8:20! Fantastic action. Tons of reversals and reversals of reversals. Nothing blown, surprisingly. ***1/2 Stalemate early on. Marafuji knocks Whitmer to the apron and slingshots into a DDT. Nice. Back inside, Marafuji hits a crazy Butterfly Suplex into a cross armlock. Whitmer makes the ropes. Marafuji hits a corner elbow, but Whitmer catches him going up and delivers the SUPERPLEX! You wanna chop it out, bitch? Let’s chop it out. Whitmer hits a German Suplex rolling into a Dragon Suplex, but Marafuji slips out of his powerbomb. BJ boots him in the face for two, but Marafuji hits a flying jawbreaker. Whitmer catches him and slams him down for two. Whitmer blocks the Shiranui and gets two off a brainbuster. Marafuji crotches Whitmer and ties him in the tree-of-woe. COAST-TO-COAST DROPKICK! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! SWEET-OH CHIN-AH MOOSICKOHHH! Whitmer blocks the Shiranui once, but he can’t block the second try. That gets the win for Marafuji at 10:58, and Whitmer’s losing streak continues. Like a lot of Whitmer’s action, this was closer to “solid” than “spectacular.” Nothing wrong with that, though, and Marafuji provided his usual. *** Legalized slaughter. Albright tosses Pelle across the ring and then drops him on his head with the head-and-arm suplex. The Half Nelson Suplex looks even worse. ONE, TWO, TH-Albright wants to break Pelle’s arm. He presses Pelle overhead and catches him in the Crowbar on the way down. Pelle taps quickly at 1:41. 1/2* This is quickly becoming the rivalry of the year. The challengers took the Briscoes to the limit back in the spring, and then they gave Mark multiple concussions with their sneak attacks. For obvious reasons, you probably won’t hear that hyped too much. Jay outwrestles Generico early, and they do a lot of posturing. Mark gets the blind tag and springboards in on Steen. Steen tosses Mark into Jay, and the challengers isolate Jay for a while. Jay fights back, and the Briscoes kill Generico dead with doubleteams. They take him to the floor and do their MONSTER HIPTOSS, throwing him out into the chairs! Ho-lee shit! Steen tosses Mark over the top with a powerbomb into the other side of the chairs! Back in, Steen hits the swanton! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Steen sets up for the Packaged Piledriver, but Mark makes the save with Hick Fu! Generico nails Mark with a Tornado DDT. Steen and Mark battle near the corner, and Mark puts Steen through the table with a double-stomp. Back inside, Jay nails Generico with the press DVD. It only gets two, so the Briscoes hit the Spiked Jaydriller at 16:08. Not quite as dramatic as their Fighting Spirit match, but still an excellent brawl. ***3/4 Morishima mauls Rave before the bell and tosses the official aside. To the outside, Rave whips Morishima into the railing to take over. Back inside, Jimmy hits the SPEAR! He goes up, but Morishima catches him with a belly-to-belly. Morishima comes off the top with a missile dropkick. He hits a weak clothesline and misses a buttsplash. Rave nails the Shinning Wizard (want to get sued?!?). Morishima drops him with a Sit-out Bossman Slam and finishes with the Backdrop Driver at 3:58. I think Jimmy probably saw the writing on the wall here. Hello, TNA! Not bad for a squash. ** Virtuosity: the mastery of all technical elements of a performing art to such a degree that the ability to perform becomes nearly second nature. Artistry: the ability to transcend the technical conventions of genre, redefining the art in the process. Is this match either? Both? Lots of jockeying for position to start. They take it to the mat early, and we get our first little contest-within-the-contest as Danielson gets caught in a bodyscissors while trying to throw forearms at Nigel’s face. Nigel blocks at first and then takes him down into a keylock. Danielson gets out of it and offers a handshake, but when Nigel accepts, Dragon slaps him in the face. They trade uppercuts, and Nigel returns the slap. Nigel goes after Danielson’s arm, which was injured a year ago and put him out for months. Danielson turns it around into a Goku-Raku Stretch, but Nigel knocks him to the floor. The brawl continues on the outside, and Danielson slams Nigel’s face into the table. Then, he slams the table onto Nigel’s face! The ref admonishes Danielson to take it back in the ring, but Nigel rebounds with a STIFF lariat. Dragon falls into the crowd, so Nigel goes up and comes off with a crossbody! Nigel sets up for a running European Uppercut, but Dragon cuts him off and drops him on the top of the rail with a suplex. Sweet Baby Jesus! Danielson suplexes him on the floor and starts driving his knees into Nigel’s back. Nigel fights up and turns it into a slugfest. LARIAT BY NIGEL! Moses on a motorbike! That was stiff! Nigel thrust kicks Danielson and hits another stiff lariat. Dragon goes up, but Nigel cuts him off and sets up for the Tower of London. Danielson blocks but winds up in the Half-Crab. Nigel even puts his knee right in Dragon’s back. Danielson struggles to the ropes and delivers a BACKDROP SUPERPLEX! The Crossface Chickenwing puts Nigel down, but he fights back up. Nigel reverse suplexes Danielson into the Tower of London! Oh, but Nigel’s back is so buggered, he can’t cover. He is able to recover first, though, and set Danielson on the ropes. FLYING LARIAT! ONE, TWO, THRE-Dragon’s foot is on the ropes. Dragon clutches the ropes like a baby before hitting an enzuigiri. They both struggle to their feet and come face to face – literally. SLAPFEST! They take turns headbutting each other, and Dragon gets cut open. SICK! I love it! Danielson misses a swing and gets CLOCKED by a lariat. He does have the wherewithal to block the Jawbreaker Lariat and hit a Dragon Suplex. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Dragon tries to segue to Cattle Mutilation, but McGuinness rolls Danielson onto his shoulders. Dragon rolls through again, ties up Nigel’s arms and elbows him to oblivion. The Cattle Mutilation is a mere formality at 24:31. I have no problem calling this the Match of the Year. It’s certainly the best singles match of the year, eclipsing both Michaels vs. Cena contests, and probably the best match since Cage of Death last year. Maybe the Motor City Machine Guns/Briscoes match will give it a run for its money at the end of the year, but right now, today, this is the best match I’ve seen all year. Believe the hype! ****3/4 The 411: I said Respect is Earned was the third best PPV behind Backlash and WrestleMania, but Driven leaves them all behind, and by a substantial margin. With the exception of the squashes, everything was good to unbelievably fantastic. There was angle advancement with the formation of the Hangman’s Three. They set up future shows with Steen & Generico laying out the Briscoes again and Danielson earning a title shot. Plus, it had the big return of Austin Aries to ROH. |
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