wrestling / TV Reports
The ROH: New Horizons 2008 Breakdown
September 29, 2008 | Posted by
| Ring of Honor — New Horizons by J.D. Dunn The jobbers are the Briscoes’ standby opponents, even though the Briscoes weren’t supposed to wrestle. Hey, whatever gets Silas Young out there. Franklin and Young offer little resistance as the Briscoes run through their usual cache and finish Franklin with the Springboard Doomsday Device at 1:42. Franklin takes a good beating. * Delirious goes nuts at the bell, of course, chasing Hagadorn around the ring. Stevens and Delirious start, though, and Stevens hits the Samoan Drop. Hagadorn tags himself in and jumps Delirious. Ruckus tags in, so Hagadorn quickly tags out. Stevens belly-to-bellies Ruckus, so Hagadorn tags himself back in. What a weasel. He gets his, though, as he tries to tag out to avoid Stevens only to have Delirious drop down. Hagadorn tries to run away, but Ruckus and Delirious track him down and toss him back in for a HUGE chop from Stevens. Everyone hits moves on Hagadorn, but Ruckus goes for the pin, causing all hell to break loose. Delirious hits Stevens with the Panic Attack, but Ruckus jumps him and hits the moonsault legdrop. Hagadorn German Suplexes Ruckus, but Stevens knocks him silly with a lariat and finishes with the Doctorbomb at 4:46. Not even a moment to catch your breath between moves. **1/4 Necro attacks from behind, and they brawl all the way around the ring with Steen busting out the Rock’s old ringbell spot. Steen slams Necro on the ramp, and they brawl back to the ring. Necro tries to rip Steen’s face off. Steen fights back and goes for the Sharpshooter, but Necro fights him off and hits a straight right. Steen falls to the floor but hits a low chairshot. SLAM ON THE CHAIR FROM THE APRON! Back in, Necro goes for the Tiger Driver on the chair, but Steen fights out and hits a MICHINOKU DRIVER ON THE OPEN CHAIR! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! That should have been the finish, but instead, Steen finishes him off with the Packaged Piledriver on the chair at 9:03. Necro is like a zombie at this point just taking move after move but shrugging them off and slowly coming after his opponent. Not a big fan of the no-selling – usually – but it kind of works for Necro like it used to work for the Undertaker. **1/2 Lots of chops between Strong and Shiozaki early. Nigel McGuinness joins the commentary crew as Strong gets caught in the wrong corner after a cheapshot. Strong tries to chop his way back but gets jumped by Go. Storm keeps S&S from interfering. Go knocks Marafuji off the apron, but Storm chops his way out of trouble, hits an enzuigiri, and hot tags Marafuji. Marafuji cleans house and hits Go with a lariat. SUPERKICK! He goes for the Shiranui, but it’s broken up. Go gets a Fisherman’s Buster. Strong tags himself in, and the faces hit a gutbuster/facebuster doubleteam. Superkick to Go. Hero hits a roaring elbow on Marafuji, but Strong catches him with the backbreaker for the win at 12:03. Strong played a good face-in-peril. If the match had goofy Hero instead of serious Hero (who got overshadowed for most of the match), this probably would have been better. He’s actually *too* credible here. *** Claudio hits a Bicycle Kick off the bell, no-sells a lariat, and hits the Ricolabomb. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Nigel bails and catches Claudio trying a tope. That sets up the Tower of London on the outside. Back in, Nigel grabs a headscissors and skullfucks Claudio into the canvas. He keeps mocking Bryan Danielson’s catchphrases while working over Claudio on the mat. Claudio uppercuts his way back but misses a flying crossbody. Nigel goes for the Jawbreaker Lariat, but Claudio blocks and reverses to the GIANT SWING! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Nigel sets up for the crotched lariat, but Claudio counters with an enzuigiri. He hits a German Suplex and the Apomari Waterslide. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Nigel falls back for the lariat, but Claudio cuts him off with the press uppercut. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! RICOLABOMB! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Fans thought that might be it. Claudio counters another Jawbreaker Lariat attempt to a backslide for two. Nigel rolls through an O’Connor Roll for two (with a handful of tights, of course). Claudio kicks out, allowing Nigel to use the momentum to hit the Jawbreaker Lariat at 19:21. Much better than their match at A New Level, which tended to lag. This one started out hot and never really let up. Nigel was appropriately dickish while he was working over Claudio on the mat, setting the crowd on fire when Claudio got in his nearfalls late. ***3/4 In order to get another title shot, Danielson has to defeat all of the people Nigel defeated on PPV. Jimmy distracts Danielson just long enough for Black to jump him from behind. Black tries to wrestle with him, but that leads to Danielson bending Black in horrendous ways that the human anatomy is not supposed to bend. Romanian contortionists are wincing. Tibetan yogi’s are shifting in their chairs… assuming they use chairs. Dragon goes for a suplex, but Black is able to reverse and throw him to the floor. Black sandwich boots Danielson’s head against the post. Back in, Danielson gets fired up but runs right into a sleeper. Danielson hulks up and kicks Black in the spine. STAMPEDE DROPKICK~! Black bails and then avoids a tope! You’d think you’d see more of that. Black hits a moonsault from the top rope to the floor. Black misses a charge and gets nailed with the lightning legline. That sets up CATTLE MUTILATION! Dragon lets it go and paintbrushes Black in the face. He sets up for the Tiger Suplex, but Black lands on his feet and ranas him. Danielson rolls through *that* into a sunset flip. Tremendous sequence there. Black grabs a sleeper hold, but it’s reversed. Danielson slips over into a cross armlock. Black powers up and TOSSES Danielson into the corner, snapping the turnbuckle. Todd Sinclair even freaks out at that one. Black whips Danielson to the corner and catches him trying to flip off the top. That sets up an F5 for two. GOD’S LAST GIFT! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! The top rope is broken, so he can’t go for the Phoenix Splash. Black looks lost, which is a great moment for the match. He gets in a slugfest with Danielson, which Danielson easily wins and enables him to finish with the trapped elbows at 24:28. Black continues to step up his game against the top-level talent in ROH, and the loss doesn’t really hurt him because of the condition of the ring. It makes it look like Black was on the way toward victory if not for equipment failure. ****1/4 |
| The 411: The last two matches really made the show, and they made it in spades. The brawl at the end tended to drag, and it only makes sense if you have the DVDs, not if you’ve been watching the PPVs. They really need to come up with more video packages to explain those kinds of things.
Still, pretty easy thumbs up, considering the last half of the show. |
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