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Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Escape From New York
March 3, 2007 | Posted by
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Loading...Ring of Honor — Escape from New York
by J.D. Dunn
Cheech is in there for Izzy once again, spelling doom for this version of the Angels. Cheech is insanely over with the crowd for a guy who barely wrestles. Dunn & Marcos tie up Cheech for a little Air Guitar action, AND THEY FUCKIN’ JAM, DUDE! The faces hit a wild combination of moves. Walker blocks the Wheelbarrow Rollup and boots Dunn in the gut. Dunn plays face-in-peril as Deranged works in the SPRINTING CHINLOCK~! Deranged chokes Dunn out in the corner and reminds the referee he has until five. So can Deranged take credit for Danielson’s great heel run in 2006? Deranged gets two off a handspring moonsault. Vordell gets Rolling Germans for two. Dunn powerbombs Deranged to get out of trouble. HOT TAG TO MARCOS! The RCE hit the Assisted Sliced Bread #2, but the Angels team up for a Springboard Ace Crusher. Dixie cleans house but get hit by the Vortex (Tornado Uranage). Dunn & Marcos make the save. Cheech charges into a corner rana, and the RCE finish with the Electric Chair Senton at 11:25. Hot opener! ***1/2
The Kliq pose from Whitmer and Jacobs is pretty funny. Anyway, this is one of Gabe’s bi-annual booking brainfarts. Feeling out process to start, which is odd because both teams are essentially hardcore teams. Whitmer outwrestles Devito, prompting the crowd to call Devito a “fat bastard.” Devito calls out Jacobs and then tosses him out of the ring by the hair. See, the crowd loves Jimmy, so Devito is taking out his frustrations with them on Jacobs. The CC takes Whitmer out of the match for a bit with a suplex on the ramp. They actually work in a Doomsday Dropkick. Jimmy starts to fight back but gets hit by the Rock Bottom. Devito misses a moonsault, allowing Jacobs to spear Loc and make the hot tag to Whitmer. The CC puts Whitmer in a double-Boston Crab, but Jacobs saves with a double DDT. Jacobs gets backdropped to the floor, allowing the CC to hit Whitmer with the spiked piledriver. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! They set up for the second-rope spike piledriver, but Jacobs makes the save. Whitmer and Devito brawl on the top rope, and Loc sneaks in and shoves Whitmer through a table. Jacobs jumps in and goes for the Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B+A, Start, but Devito blocks, and they finish with the Spiked Piledriver at 11:14 (with the crowd shouting “NO!” the whole time). The Crew celebrates in the ring and gets pelted with garbage and chants of “bullshit!” The match was not bad at all for an ECW-ish brawl. ***
This would be Gibson’s third consecutive Four-Corner Survival. Gibson gives Strong a pep talk as Roddy leaves to get ready. Alex Shelley replaces him in an important plot point. Rave jumps Gibson from behind as everyone questions what Shelley is doing here. We get another cheap Matt Hardy promo in the middle of the match. Shelley and Gibson do a test of strength to a stalemate. The crowd is all over Rave the whole match with “Die, Jimmy, Die!” “Jimmy likes balls!” and “Jimmy swallows!” chants. The toilet paper gag makes its debut here, but it’s only one roll at this point. Mostly, this match is okay, but nothing worth recapping move-for-move. Shelley and Rave form a partnership ([suspicious]hmm[/suspicious]) and isolate Azrieal. They even work in a false tag spot, which would normally be nonsensical in a four-way match, but with the new dynamic, it works. Gibson finally gets sick of watching Azrieal get beat down, so he walkls in, hiptosses Azrieal to his corner, and tags him. That’s one way to do it. Gibson cleans house and puts Rave in the Guillotine Choke. Shelley breaks it up but gets taken out by Azrieal. Rave hits Ghanarrhea on Gibson, but Azrieal breaks up the Rave Clash with a springboard clothesline. Shelley sneaks in with a frogsplash on Azrieal for two. Gibson blocks a double backdrop attempt and DDTs Shelley into the Guillotine Choke. Rave breaks it up with the Shining Wizard and hits Azrieal with the Rave Clash for the win at 30:14. Another good match in a series to open the show, and it teased a future alliance that will carry ROH through the end of 2005. ***1/2
After the match, Prince Nana makes Jade Chung kiss Jimmy’s sweaty, infected foot. That’s it! She’s had enough! She’s going to slap Nana! Except she chickens out at the last second and gets dragged to the back.
Before the match, Prince Nana returns and offers Aries a spot in the Embassy. Aries rejects him in several different and humiliating ways. This a revisitation of the feud that kicked off the year. Aries defeated Joe for the World Title at Final Battle 2004 and successfully defended it at the Third Anniversary Show. Not only that, but he pinned Joe in the Four-Corner Survival Match the previous night. Now, Joe has the advantage of the rules. Aries hits his springboard back elbow early, but Joe slaps him in the face and uses the power of Joementum to hit a senton. Joe no-sells a few kicks to the chest and hits Aries with a high knee. FACEWASH! Aries takes a breather on the outside. Back in, Joe misses a charge and gets dropkicked to the floor. Aries hits a tope. He teases his own Ole Kick before flipping off the crowd. Back in, Aries gets a quebrada for two. Joe is forced to use a ropebreak. Joe fights back and takes him down with an STO. A knee sends Aries to the floor, and Joe returns the favor with a tope of his own. Joe actually *does* hit the Ole Kick. Back in, Joe goes for that powerbomb-into-an-STF combo that he uses, but Aries counters to a sunset flip into an STF. Nice. It makes Joe use another ropebreak. Aries misses the 450-splash and charges into a snap powerbomb. Joe makes Aries use up his last two breaks with a cross armlock and the STF. Aries comes back with the Crucifix Bomb, leading to the brainbuster and 450-splash! That’s the same combo that gave Aries the win at Final Battle! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! This time, Joe is able to get his toe on the bottom rope. Joe fires back but misses an enzuigiri. Aries goes up, but Joe recovers and catches him with the Muscle Buster for the win at 17:12. Sensational match that played off their earlier match while taking advantage of the Pure Title rules. Nearly as good as Final Battle. Even Mick Foley gives the match a standing ovation, and that’s good enough for me. ****
This is kind of like a two-out-of-three falls match where you can’t use a closed fist, you can get counted down, and it’s divided into rounds.
Round One: Nigel doesn’t give Colt a clean break, so Cabana uses a closed fist and gets a public warning. If he gets two more, Cabana gets disqualified. Nigel begs Cabana to hit him again, but Colt keeps his cool. Cabana slaps on a headlock, turns their backs to the referee, and plays like Nigel gave him a low blow. That earns Nigel a public warning, and Colt mugs to the crowd like Eddy Guerrero. Colt scissors Nigel’s hands, but that’s the end of the round.
Round Two: Nigel tosses his towel in Colt’s face and jumps him. They take turns trying to slam each other’s faces into the mat, and Colt succeeds. Nigel complains about it, so Colt sneaks up behind him and does it again, making Nigel think the referee did it. Nigel pushes the ref and gets another public warning. Colt sweeps the leg and gets the pin off a sunset rollup at 5:33 (total time).
Round Three: Nigel spits his water in Colt’s face and punches him in the gut. Colt gets another sunset flip, but Nigel bridges up. Colt can’t figure out how to break him down, so he just slaps Nigel in the nuts. That earns Colt another public warning although Colt tries to argue it was an open handed chop. Funny stuff. Colt hits a Tito Santana forearm (complete with “Arriba”), but the round comes to an end.
Round Four: We get a Matt Hardy promo in between rounds. Nigel brings his iron into the match, distracting the ref long enough for him to punch Cabana with a closed fist. Nigel locks in a modified Tequila Sunrise to even things up at 11:06 (total time).
Round Five: The announcers put over the fact that Colt gave up quickly so he didn’t use up all his strength getting out of the move when he had a one-fall lead. They come out hot. Colt hits a double-knee to the corner and then avoids Nigel’s attempt. Colt locks in a single-leg crab, and Nigel taps on his shoulder to make him think he’s won. When Colt turns around for a handshake, Nigel nails him with a forearm. They trade rollups, and Colt gets another sunset flip. Nigel blocks him Davey Boy Smith style and kneels down for the win at 13:46. Colt’s matches always teeter between the sublime and the ridiculous. This had a little more comedy and playing to the crowd rather than wrestling, but these guys can do both. **3/4
Homicide and Low Ki tried to cripple Jay the last time they were in NYC. The double-stomp/Cop Killa move they used is now banned in ROH as a result. Prazak calls this “relaxed rules,” which, I suppose, means they’ll call whatever is convenient at the time. Homicide rolls through a bulldog. They brawl on the floor for a bit. Back inside, Lethal hits a springboard crossbody. Homicide hits a spinebuster for two and knees Lethal in the head, sending him to the floor. Smokes clobbers Lethal with the baseball bat on the floor. Homicide rips at Lethal’s open wound before stealing a fan’s Red Sox hat and wiping his ass with it. Classy. Back in, Homicide uses the ghetto fork to rip at Lethal’s forehead. He drapes Lethal’s neck over the rope and gives him a legdrop. Lethal fires back desperately, but Homicide shrugs off his offense and drops him with a right. A Waterwheel Slam (Alabama Slam) gets two for Homicide. Lethal gets a belly-to-belly to buy time, and he hulks up. Lethal blocks a charge and hits a flying back kick for two. The swandive headbutt gets two, but Homicide counters the Dragon Suplex to a piledriver. He sets up a table and tries to superplex him through the table, but Lethal gets all “Patricia Arquette in True Romance” with the primal rage and fights out of it. Lethal counters with a DDT through the table! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Another thug runs down and gives Lethal a super sideslam, but it only gets two. Lethal reverses the Cop Killa to the Dragon Suplex. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! One of Homicide’s boys pulls the ref out before the three. Lethal goes after the gang member, allowing Homicide to pull out a chain and knock Lethal silly with it. The lariat makes things academic at 19:15. I had absolutely no confidence in Jay Lethal’s ability to deliver a convincing match, but damned if he didn’t prove me wrong. His plucky babyface act is usually out of place in ROH, but it worked well here. ***3/4
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Punk has started using “Cult of Personality” as his entrance music for his heel run. Samoa Joe and James Gibson have taken seats in the balcony to watch this match. Punk stalls a lot early. Most of his early offense consists of grounding Roddy and frustrating him into making mistakes. Punk slips out of the Stronghold, but Roderick clotheslines them both to the floor. Back in, Punk goes back to the headlock. Finally, Strong unleashes the Benoit-level chops. Punk busts out the Flair Flip and runs the apron, but Strong knocks him off the apron. Can you guess which feud they’re paying homage to yet? Punk is bleeding from the chops. Back in, Roderick hits his first backbreaker, prompting chants of “Break his back!” from the crowd. Strong hits a running forearm, but Punk catches him with a hot shot to quell his momentum. Punk slowly dismantles Strong while talking trash to Joe. Roddy fires back with chops but misses a dropkick. Punk goes back to taking him apart while getting heat, but Roderick gets a sunset flip and yanks down Punk’s tights. When Foley said he needed to show ass, I don’t think that’s what he had in mind. Strong hits the press gutbuster and fires back with a dropkick. Strong doesn’t have much left, though. He does hit that running forearm in the corner again, and follows up with the Billy Robinson backbreaker. Strong rolls him up for two, but Punk counters to the Shining Wizard. Roderick counters the pinfall attempt to a crucifix for two. Punk gives him the Tornado DDT into the Anaconda Vice, but Strong makes the ropes. The Pepsi Twist puts Strong down, but Punk takes too long going for a springboard legdrop. Strong scoops him up into the Stronghold, but Punk makes the ropes. Punk counters the Half-Nelson Backbreaker to a Divorce Court DDT. It gets two. Punk takes off the elbow pad and readies for the lariat. He charges…right into the Half-Nelson Backbreaker. Another backbreaker sets up the pump-handle backdrop. ONE, TWO, THRE-foot on the ropes. Strong gets an O’Connor Roll, but Punk rolls through and puts his feet on the ropes for leverage to pick up the win at 26:30. Strong can’t believe it. Bower can’t believe it. Lenny Leonard can’t believe it. This was a very WCW 1994-ish match, and I mean that in a good way. Punk did an excellent job getting heat, and Strong played the part of determined babyface challenger to a tee. ****
After the match, James Gibson, Samoa Joe and Mick Foley all hop in to kick Punk’s ass and teach him a lesson. Jamie hits the Tiger Bomb, and Foley counts three. The crowd turns on Gibson with a “You’re not champ” chant, so Jamie drapes the belt on Punk and challenges him for next week.
The 411: Probably the best show they did all year. This one had a little bit of everything from wild brawls to spotfests to angle advancement and hot blowoffs. The worst match didn't even fall below **3/4, and it had a lot more than just good wrestling. One of the better shows they've done. I guess New York City just brings it out in them. Thumbs way up. |
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| Final Score: 9.0 [ Amazing ] legend |
