wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Sign of Dishonor
March 1, 2007 | Posted by
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Loading...Ring of Honor — Sign of Dishonor
by J.D. Dunn
The Heartbreak Express are an FIP throwback to Buddy Rose & Doug Somers crossed with Rick Rude’s gimmick. Sean Davis (the hefty “Buddy Rose-esque” guy) gets a buttalanche. The match is interrupted by some “technical difficulties,” many of which involve close-ups of Matt Hardy. Lethal hits the Dragon Suplex on the thin one for the win at 3:07 (shown). The idea of doing mysterious Matt Hardy promos is a little silly, considering he would have already debuted by the time this DVD came out. [N/R]
This is a battle of the two guys who were breaking out in 2005. Azrieal starts out hot with a few quick moves, but Roddy takes over with his chops and ground moves like a demented tiny Chris Benoit. He scoops Azrieal up and hits a backbreaker. A superplex gets two for Strong. Strong tries another superplex, but Azrieal crotches him on the top rope and hits his version of the Ghetto Stomp (the Gahanna Stomp?). He ranas Strong to the floor and hits a tope con hilo. Back in, Azrieal tries a springboard somersault rana, but Strong counters to a backbreaker. Azrieal hits a sloppy Throwback off the top for two. Strong slips out of the Cradle Shock move and scoops Azrieal into the Stronghold for the win at 11:29. Azrieal looked very sloppy and nervous in there. After the match, Alex Shelley jumps Strong from behind and gives him the Shellshock. **
The Angels earned this shot by defeating GenNext at the last show, but Cheech is replacing Izzy. Deranged is pretty funny, playing “red light/green light” with Whitmer. Whitmer and Jacobs work in some double-teams on Deranged until Lacey hops up on the apron to distract the ref while Cheech jumps Jacobs from behind. Jimmy plays face-in-peril with Cloudy occasionally interfering. The Angels show good personality here, faking out the crowd with charges before doing something silly like an arrogant cover or chinlock. A heel miscommunication allows Whitmer to get the hot tag. The Hardcore Hillbilly picks up his own partner and swings him into the challengers. A Running Powerbomb gets two for Whitmer, and the champs set up for the Doomsday Rana. Lacey interferes, allowing Deranged and Cheech to hit the Springboard Ace Crusher. Whitmer saves Jimmy from another high-impact move, and the champs finish with the Doomsday Device at 11:23. **1/2
Styles took Rave under his wing two years earlier, but when AJ left, Rave started using his Styles Clash and called it the “Rave Clash.” AJ returned with revenge on his mind at the Third Anniversary Show, but Rave cheated and got an upset win. Styles is quite pissed coming in, of course. He tosses Rave overhead and takes it to the floor, tossing Rave into the barrier. Nana continues to abuse Jade on the outside. Back in, Rave hits a low blow headbutt to counter the Styles Clash and dropkicks AJ into the barrier. AJ gets a schoolboy, but Rave shoves him into the corner and hits a lariat to the back of the head. Another lariat loosens AJ’s tooth, and he gets fired up. AJ roars back with an enzuigiri and a brainbuster. He goes for the Quebrada DDT, but Rave holds onto the ropes, and AJ hits the back of his head on the canvas. Rave sprints into a running knee! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! They battle on the apron, and Rave charges right into a springboard shoulderblock. Rave drops AJ on the top turnbuckle and then spears him in the corner. Rave goes for the Rave Clash, but AJ twists his body and counters to a rollup for the win at 6:41. That doesn’t settle anything, of course, so Rave tries to suffocate AJ with a plastic bag. It was so much more hardcore when Terry Funk did it. This was actually a pretty good non-stip match for the two. ***
Lenny Leonard makes his commentary debut in this match, for those of you keeping track of your Lenny Leonard trivia. The match is interrupted for another Matt Hardy promo. I’ll say this about Matt Hardy’s promo – it’s better than Jay Lethal’s. Nigel frustrates Vordell with his European style. I could probably just cut-and-paste that for most Nigel matches. Vordell seems to get lost at one point, but he recovers and goes up. Nigel crotches him, though, and hits the Rope-Assisted Stunner for the win at 3:36. 1/2*
This is non-title because Joe has a match with Aries for the Pure Title the next night. All of these guys want a piece of CM Punk for their own reasons, and they all have issues with each other. Gibson and Aries start and resume their series. They go a lot quicker here, though. Homicide tags in and stares down Gibson before calling for Joe. He and Joe do a bizarre lucha-esque sequence, which looks so funny because Joe’s doing it. Homicide ducks under the ring to avoid a tope and then appears on the other side to try his own. Joe cuts him off with a chop, though. Homicide lets Aries get the advantage on Gibson, and then he tags back in. Smokes takes a shot at Gibson, prompting a tête-à-tête with Joe on the outside. On the other side, Gibson suplexes Homicide through a table. Back in, Joe sweeps Gibson’s leg and tags Homicide. Homicide grabs a butterfly lock on Gibson. Jamie’s really taking a pounding in there. Joe finally takes pity on him and tags Jamie. Joe cleans house on everyone, and they all start hitting dives to the floor. Homicide nearly takes out Green Lantern Fan with a tope con hilo. Joe finishes that with a cannonball on everyone. He hits the Ole Kick to Aries and readies for one on Gibson, but Homicide appears out of nowhere to spear him into the railing. Homicide tries an Ole Kick, but Joe just stands up and backdrops him over. The final five minutes are just wall-to-wall action. Everyone kind of targets Joe out of survival instinct. Aries can’t get Joe up in the brainbuster, so Gibson helps him out. Then, Gibson breaks up Aries’ cover. Homicide shoves Aries to the floor and hits Joe with a pair of lariats, but Gibson takes Homicide over the top to the floor with a clothesline. That leaves Austin Aries alone with a prone Samoa Joe. Aries finishes with the 450-splash at 25:48. Crazy match for the last few minutes, and a lot of fun. ****1/4
I’ve missed that entrance. CM Punk actually threw Colt in there to soften up Daniels, but Colt isn’t very happy about it. Colt tries to get Daniels to shake hands, but Daniels is still against it. This would be Daniels’ first match since January 2004 when Punk put Daniels through a table with the Pepsi Plunge. Colt is still in full comedy mode, trying throughout the match to shake hands and challenging Daniels to shoulderblock him down. This just frustrates Daniels further because he’s all business tonight. Colt finally does get serious, working over Daniels’ arm. Daniels comes back by working Colt’s ribs. He knocks Colt to the floor and sets up for a tope, but CM Punk appears in the aisle and distracts him. Cabana chases Punk around the ring and gets hip-blocked into the railing by Colt. Colt tells Punk to mind his own business, but Punk keeps trying to interfere. Back in, Cabana stays on top, even bringing back his Tornado Snap Suplex. He misses something off the top, though, and Daniels hits an STO. An enzuigiri puts Colt down again, but Colt comes back with a quebrada. To the corner, Daniels hits a pair of Shoryuken, but Colt comes off with a missile dropkick for two. Daniels snaps him down with the Flatliner and slips over to the Koji Clutch. Punk jumps on the ring apron, so Daniels drops the hold to go after him. Punk grabs a chain out of his tights, but he accidentally takes out Colt, who had tapped on his shoulder to talk him out of using it. Daniels tosses Punk and hits the Best Moonsault Ever at 22:14. Colt made the most out of what was basically a set-up for Daniels/Punk. ***
After the match, Daniels challenges Punk to get in the ring and defend the title if he thinks Daniels double-crossed him in 2004. Punk says Daniels hasn’t beaten anyone to deserve a shot and threatens to walk out with the title and cancel his title defense if they don’t get Daniels out of the ring. ROH officials finally convince Daniels to leave. Punk says he will defend the title…against Low Ki! Oh, but Low Ki isn’t there tonight. How about Bryan Danielson…who also isn’t there. He offers to defend the title in a handicap match against the Briscoes…who aren’t there either. Punk says he guesses no one wants to challenge him, so he’ll just take the title to the WWE. Finally, Mick Foley comes out to say he’s embarrassed by Punk’s actions. Foley objects to Punk saying Punk made ROH. Foley says it’s the other way around – ROH made Punk. He also says Punk can’t be champion forever because Gabe Sapolsky doesn’t have a daughter he can marry. OH SNAP! Punk says Foley is just jealous because he couldn’t live up to Triple H’s drawing power. In fact, Punk says, Foley couldn’t even live up to JBL’s drawing power. DOUBLE SNAP! Foley says it’s not about drawing power, it’s about doing what’s best for business. Punk is convinced and says he wants a bit of revenge against Jay Lethal for the loss at “Back to Basics,” but once he beats Lethal, he’s leaving with the title.
Lethal hits a Dragon Suplex off the handshake, but Punk rolls to the floor. Lethal follows him out and whips Punk into the barrier. Punk gets steamrolled in the ring and ducks out again only to have Lethal hit him with a tope. Lethal drags Punk back in and hits a snap suplex. Lethal just can’t seem to put him away, though. Punk catches Lethal and gives him a Snake Eyes on the top rope to take over. Lethal gets out of control running the ropes, so Punk just sidesteps him and throws him over the top. Back in, Punk slaps Lethal around a bit and mocks him. Lethal gets a crucifix for two, but Punk hits a neckbreaker to stay on top. Lethal shoves Punk off the top but misses the diving headbutt. Punk takes him up for a backdrop superplex, but Lethal counters in mid-air to save the match and his bad neck. Samoa Joe runs down to ringside to root on Lethal. Lethal gets fired up and hits a kneelift into a flying neckbreaker. Punk gets a crossbody and hits Welcome to Chicago, but it only gets one. Punk hits an enzuigiri for two and goes on offense, but Lethal comes back with a Fisherman’s Buster and the swandive headbutt. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! They take turns rolling each other up, and Punk hits the Shining Wizard. It gets two, but Punk locks in the Anaconda Vice. Lethal makes the ropes and hulks up, but Punk catches him going up and kills him dead with the Muscle Buster just to taunt Joe. ONE, TWO, THR-Punk pulls him up! Normally, that would spell the end for a heel, but Punk puts Lethal out with the Coquina Clutch at 20:58 just for more salt in the wound. After the match, Joe gets in Punk’s face. Foley tries to play peacemaker, but Punk shoves Joe into him and takes a cheapshot at Foley before being chased off by James Gibson. Foley gets on the mic and says he talked to Vince McMahon, and Vince said if Punk couldn’t do the right thing by ROH, how could he ever be expected to do right by the WWE. Foley says if Punk walks out without defending the title, he’ll be in OVW for the rest of his life. Punk gets pissed and walks out of the arena. This match actually wound up winning over a crowd that was half for Punk to begin with. I already knew who was coming out on top, and they even had me buying some of the nearfalls, so that should tell you something about the final stretch. ***1/4
The 411: I was set to go "thumbs down" after an uninspiring first hour, but once they hit the four-corner survival match, it was awesome. Punk made such an awesome heel champion that it's too bad his run in ECW has been so bland. Definitely check out his tête-à-tête with Foley because listening to them verbally spar is more entertaining than just about anything the two major promotions provide on a weekly basis. Thumbs up. |
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| Final Score: 7.5 [ Good ] legend |
