wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Nowhere to Run
February 17, 2007 | Posted by
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Loading...Ring of Honor — Nowhere to Run
by J.D. Dunn
Gibson’s coming in with his arm taped up after the previous night’s title loss to Austin Aries. Jamie goes after Whitmer’s leg early, though, wrapping it around the post. He takes Whitmer down and works the leg further with an Indian Death Lock and then splashes it on the ropes. Whitmer is still powerful enough to roll through a crossbody into a stalling suplex, though. Jamie hits a crossbody for two, but Whitmer stays on top. Jamie just crumbles off a stiff forearm. Whitmer locks in a Cobra Clutch, but Jamie rams him into the buckle. Gibson gets two off a running knee strike, but he starts to get frustrated when the flying guillotine legdrop only gets two. Whitmer gets a Northern Lights Bridge for two, but Gibson rolls back over into the Guillotine Choke. Whitmer hits the Exploder for two and then goes up top for a Super Exploder. Gibson counters to a reverse DDT in mid-air, though, and finishes with the Guillotine Choke at 13:07. Nice little play off Gibson’s loss with him reversing something off the top rope this time. Fine opener. ***
In the previous match, the announcers were talking about Gibson possibly settling for going after the tag titles after his challenges to the world title were unsuccessful. But they wondered who Gibson might find as his partner. Well, Chad Collyer would seem to be the obvious pick, since they’re both Malenkies. Prazak and Punk make inside jokes about Punk nailing all of the valets in wrestling. Jacobs actually dominates this one early hitting the Huss Stomps. Collyer turns things around as Punk makes fun of one of his promos from a year ago. Collyer gets two off a German Suplex. Jimmy goes for the Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B+A, Start, but Collyer blocks and reverse to the Texas Cloverleaf. Jimmy slips out, but Collyer goes right back to it for the submission at 10:47. Collyer looked solid but, as usual, unspectacular. **1/2
‘Cide earned this match with his loss last night. Williams hasn’t done much in Ring of Honor recently, but he was one of the original big names that built the company in 2002. Punk wonders who would win in a match between Winston Churchill and Malcolm X. Homicide comes in frustrated and gets even more so when Williams uses his technical abilities to stay one step ahead. Eventually, Homicide suckers him into a lariat to take over. You know why I love Homicide? He acts like one of those demented Frank Miller supervillains where he’s crazy but dangerously intelligent and his insanity is just bubbling under the surface waiting to overflow. Williams goes for the Chaos Theory, but Homicide backflips out of it and dropkicks Williams to the floor. He follows with the tope con hilo, but Williams suplexes him on the floor. Back in, Homicide’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic as he rips at Williams face and then gives him a piledriver for two. Williams catches him going up and delivers a Super Gutwrench suplex for two. Williams gets a few high knees and goes hard and fast after the pinfall with a series of rollups. ‘Cide tries to counter a clothesline to an Ace Crusher, but Williams tosses him aside and hits one of his own. The kneedrop gets only two, and Homicide hits a Super Ace Crusher to set up the lariat. It only gets two. Williams comes back with the Chaos Theory, but Homicide rolls to the floor to avoid getting pinned. Williams gets out of his comfort zone and comes off the top to tackle Homicide on the floor. Back in, Williams gets a Tiger Suplex but can’t hold the bridge. Williams reverses the Cop Killa and goes for another Chaos Theory, but Homicide squats down on him to pick up the win at 18:58. While I love the match, this is a spot where Homicide should have just come out and killed Williams (perhaps literally) just to show that he’s even more dangerous now. As it is, it’s just kind of “eh, back to winning.” Great work between the two, though. ***3/4
Strong and Shelley start out. Well, actually, Delirious starts running around the ring screaming, but Strong and Shelley actually do the wrestling. They open with a little chain sequence before spitting on each other. Oh, that’s lovely. Delirious and Evans actually have a bit of an issue because Evans pinned Delirious in the four-way match. Delirious gets a little revenge by trying to eat Jack’s hand. Delirious and Shelley show some nice teamwork before Shelley starts bending Evans like a…piece of licorice. Thought I was going to say pretzel, didn’t ya? Delirious winds up playing lizard-face-in-peril as GenNext cheats to gain an advantage. Strong and Evans display their usual Brainbusters 2K5-ish offense with Strong doing the bulk of the damage and Jack providing the personality and high spots. Strong nearly kills Delirious with a backdrop suplex. It looked like Delirious tried to backflip out of it and only made it halfway. Shelley gets the hot tag and cleans house on GenNext with running double knees. He signals for Shellshock on Evans, but Strong leaps in and hits the Half-Nelson Backbreaker. Delirious hits Strong with the Panic Attack but misses the Shadows Over Hell (bodysplash to a man while he’s standing). Cool Spot as GenNext sets up Delirious for something, but Shelley sneaks up on Roddy and schoolboys him, sending Jack flying. Shelley locks in the Border City Stretch on Roderick, but Jack breaks it up with a standing corkscrew press (normally, I’d complain about that, but it’s so in character for Jack to do it that way). Shelley blocks Jack’s dive, and Delirious hits him with Shadows Over Hell. Strong makes the save, though, and launches Jack into that sickening backflip doublestomp that breaks Delirious in half. That sets up the Stronghold for the win at 16:34. I don’t really buy Alex Shelley “superface,” which is probably why it didn’t last, but you can’t argue with the fun matches these guys put on. ***1/4
This is the equivalent of the Homer Simpson versus Frank Grimes (or “Grimey” as he liked to be called) feud with Nigel demanding Colt become more serious about his job, even going so far as to do very unkind things to Colt’s genitals, and through it all, Colt just has this idiotic grin on his face. This is their usual combination of comedy match and European style chain wrestling with the added twist of Nigel heeling it up by cheating behind the ref’s back. Cabana apparently catches Nigel with an accidental low blow, but Nigel suckers him into a headbutt that busts Colt open. Colt finally gets upset and fires off a forearm. He tosses the European style away and hits a lariat. A missile dropkick gets two, and they get chippy with a scrum that takes out the referee. Nigel takes the opportunity to kick Colt in the balls and small package (tee hee) him for the win at 13:32. Another fun, entertaining match from these two that had the added bonus of escalating the feud above “friendly rivalry.” ***
Aries actually broke out against Danielson at “Survival of the Fittest” and used his 74-minute epic win over Danielson at “Testing the Limit” to vault to a title shot against Joe. Those were in 2004, though. Samoa Joe joins the commentary crew and dubs himself the real champion. Danielson, whose beard is seriously getting out of control at this point, gains an early advantage on the mat. Aries has his dropkick scouted, though. Beautiful counter there because I’m so used to seeing Danielson hit that sequence. Danielson tries a headscissors, but YOU CAN’T HEADSCISSOR AUSTIN ARIES! The announcers put Aries over as a fighting champion. Danielson gets a little gruff, taking issue with Aries’ Goku-Raku clutch and kicking Austin in the head. He works in a few new moves (for him): the Earthquake vertical splash and the Stretch Plum. Wow, a John Tenta reference and a Kawada reference (and yes, I know it was Plum Mariko, but most fans associate it with Kawada). Austin dumps Danielson all the way to the floor and hits a tope. Back in, Aries teases an Airplane Spin before hitting a TKO. Danielson’s shoulder is messed up, so Aries drapes it over the ropes and charges into it. A hammerlock slam gets two, and Aries stomps at the arm. Danielson counters another hammerlock slam to Cattle Mutilation, but he can’t hold it because of the bad arm. Aries hits the powerdrive elbow to the shoulder. Aries tries Danielson’s own Cattle Mutilation, but Danielson is able to roll through each time and hits an enzuigiri to break that up. Danielson gets really pissed about being insulted and slaps Aries in the face. That triggers a slapfight, and Danielson knocks him down. The Diving Headbutt gets two, and Danielson signals for the Airplane Spin, but Aries slips out and gets two off the O’Connor roll. To the floor they go, and Danielson hits a forearm off the apron. Back in, Aries misses the 450-splash but hits a pair of corner dropkicks. Danielson counters the brainbuster to a backdrop superplex and cinches in Cattle Mutilation. He can feel it starting to slip, so he segues to a Crucifix. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! So close there. Danielson brings back the Airplane Spin, but Aries reverses to a botched Crucifix Bomb. That sets up the brainbuster, which sets up the 450-splash at 24:25. Another fantastic match marred only by a bungled finish. Aries was on such a roll here. Danielson refuses to shake hands, foreshadowing a heel turn. ****
But it wouldn’t be an ROH show without Samoa Joe, so the Pure Champ comes out and assures Aries that Joe is the one, true champion in ROH. Aries doesn’t back down but offers a handshake and holds the ropes open for Joe. Then, when Joe is on his way out, he yanks the ropes up into Joe’s crotch. He dropkicks Joe in the gut and goes up, but Joe cuts him off with a slap and hits the Muscle Buster to leave Aries laying. This would be another reason Aries wasn’t taken that seriously as a champ.
So, after all of the running and stall tactics over the past three months, it comes down to this. Punk finally has Rave trapped in a cage with nowhere to run (hence the title of the event). This would also be the height of Punk’s popularity in ROH, and it comes in front of his hometown crowd, which is out for Rave’s blood tonight. The only way this could be better is if it were an “I Quit” cage match like Magnum and Tully instead of the lame pinfall or escape rules (Prince Nana’s lawyers ensured the “escape” rule was in effect). But then you’d have to believe Rave could hold his own without giving it up for longer than five minutes. Rave tries to escape twice in the first two minutes, but Punk drags him back to the center. Rave offers a handshake, but Punk ain’t havin’ it. He slams Rave into the cage and pummels his face. Rave gets one of the sissiest bladejobs you’ll ever see outside of Lex Luger. Punk helps him out a bit, grinding Rave’s face into the mesh. Punk simply walks to the door, but instead of going out, he calls for a chair. Punk wears him out with the chair and poses for the crowd. He goes for the door again, but Jade Chung provides just enough distraction for Prince Nana to toss powder in Punk’s face. Rave is up and has the chair. WHACK! Rave busts Punk open with the chair and goes for the door, but Punk grabs his ankle and drags him back in. They fight on the top rope, and both men crotch themselves in the brawl. They stagger to their feet and slug it out. Punk wins that exchange, and they go up again. Jimmy hits the Russian Leg Sweep off the top that he was looking for last time. Jimmy gets hardcore with a shoestring-assisted crossface. Punk digs deep and hulks up, though, powering up and kicking the crap out of Rave “Mr. White” style. Punk goes up, but Jade hops in the ring and grabs his ankle. Rave charges but accidentally spears Jade. Nice bump by Jade. Rave catches Punk with the Rave Clash, but he’s so exhausted that he can’t capitalize. Nana picks Jade up and carries her out of the ring…and then drops her on the floor like a sack of potatoes. Nana is so awesome! Punk catches Rave going up. Rave tries a Top-Rope Rave Clash, but Punk counters with kicks. Rave has to settle for a cool Shining Wizard off the top. They both go for the door, but neither guy can get to the floor. Punk finally drags him back in and chokes him out with the shoestring. Nana hops in the ring and challenges Punk to a brawl. Rave stops short before spearing Nana, but Punk gives Nana an enzuigiri and tosses him into the cage. Punk stops to pummel Nana while Rave scurries up the cage (in the corner next to the door!). Punk catches up with him and delivers a SUPERPLEX OFF THE TOP OF THE CAGE! That’s enough for the pin at 24:16. Punk finally gets a measure of revenge against Rave and the Embassy. The booking helped elevate this above Rave’s limitations, and Punk proved he’s quite the ring general (which is why he’s now in the WWE). Punk celebrates with Colt Cabana and Ace Steel. ***3/4
The 411: Yet another hot show with Punk finally besting Rave, Aries and Danielson putting on yet another clinic, and the undercard bottoming out at **1/2! While the wrestling was good, the historic value of Punk's last great babyface feud coming to an end makes this one that much more special. Thumbs way up. |
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| Final Score: 9.0 [ Amazing ] legend |
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