wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Fate of an Angel
March 7, 2007 | Posted by
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Loading...Ring of Honor — Fate of an Angel
by J.D. Dunn
This would be Claudio’s debut. In fact, they misspell his name in the graphic. His gimmick is he’s a Swiss banker, hence “the Most Money-Making Man in ROH.” Claudio matches Nigel hold for hold, but he’s too self-congratulatory to capitalize. Finally, he starts rattling off the forearm uppercuts and hits a tope. Back in, Nigel snaps him down with an overhand-wristlock takedown. Nigel methodically goes to work on the arm before opening things up with a series of rollups. Nigel hits a lariat for two and goes for a Tornado DDT, but Claudio tosses him in the air and hits him with an uppercut in mid-air. Claudio goes up, but Nigel crotches him and hits the Rope-Assisted Stunner for the win at 8:11. Well, you didn’t expect Claudio to win in his debut, did you? The match was largely an exhibition to feed someone to Nigel while giving Claudio a chance to make an impression. **
Generico, if you don’t remember, is the gangly white guy who dresses and wrestles like a luchadore. This is very “first hour of PrimeTime Wrestling.” Aries showcases his stuff, but Generico comes back with his snappy lucha offense and dropkicks Aries off the apron. Aries avoids a missile dropkick. Generico kicks out of the jumping elbow but misses a running boot. Aries hits the corner dropkick for two, but he takes too long looking out at the crowd and takes a Sunset Flip Bomb. Generico hits a tilt-o-whirl backbreaker and a Michinoku Driver for two. Aries comes back with the corkscrew splash and the quebrada for two, but Generico hits a sloppy Tornado DDT and hits that running Yakuza kick he was looking for earlier. It gets two. Generico misses the 450-splash, but that’s Aries’ move, so it misses. Aries gets pissed, hits the brainbuster and finishes with the real 450-splash at 11:27. Generico got a lot of offense, considering he was in there with a former champ. Generico looked okay at points and sloppy at others. **1/2
Homicide goes right after Kevin Steen (they faced off at “New Frontiers”). The “Notorious 187” hits a tope, and they brawl on the outside. That leaves Dixie and Azrieal to go at it in the ring in a battle of former partners. Steen and Homicide get back in and clear out the others so they can go at it. Homicide goes to the eyes and tags Azrieal, though. Azrieal and Dixie do a nice little sequence before colliding for a double KO. Homicide tags back in and kills everything in sight (since he’s, you know, Homicide!). Steen drops him with a modified Schwein and moonsaults Dixie. Azrieal breaks that up with the double-stomp, but Dixie starts hitting snap German Suplexes. To the floor, Steen catches Azrieal and gives him the fallaway slam into the barrier. Back in, Dixie hits Homicide with a Roaring Elbow for two. Homicide blocks another one and goes for the Cop Killa. Dixie slips out and hits a German Suplex, but Homicide shows *fighting spirit* and hits the Cop Killa anyway at 8:40. This is the first time Dixie actually did anything memorable. He actually overshadowed Azrieal in the match. This was the second match in a row where they put a main eventer in there with guys that were just over scrub level, though. ***
Scramble Fall: The CC hit the Carnageplex on Cheech. The Embassy B-Team of Fast Eddie and Excess (although it’s probably something like X-sess just to be kewl). Deranged double-crosses Marcos and pokes him in the eyes instead of giving him the high five. They all hit dives out to the floor except for Cheech who is thrown out by Devito. Cheech comes back with a SPRINGBOARD…headlock. Deranged hits Fast Eddie with a Tornado DDT, but Eddie comes back with the Sawyer Slam. Devito breaks up the count with a moonsault (in theory). Excess puts Cheech in a Rope-Assisted Single-Leg Crab. Dunn breaks it up with a diving elbow, and the RCE finish off Excess with the Electric Chair Senton at 5:36.
Anything Goes: The RCE and the Carnage Crew brawl on the outside where Dunn gets suplexed on a trash can. Back in, the Angels hit a series of double-team maneuvers including the Doomsday Ace Crusher, but Dunn stops them with an Argentine Driver. The RCE goes for another Electric Chair Senton, but the Crew comes back in and plants Deranged on top of Cheech with the Splash Mountain Neck Breaker at 8:06.
Title Match: Devito taunts the crowd with a chinlock on Marcos. Marcos counters a backdrop suplex to a sunset flip and hits a weak enzuigiri. A second one allows Dunn to get the hot tag. Dunn comes off the top with a Fameasser, and the RCE hits the Assisted Sliced Bread #2. They hit the Electric Chair Senton, but Devito breaks up the pin. Marcos gets one final rollup, but the CC destroy Dunn with the Second-Rope Piledriver at 13:32. It was going well up until the final fall, and then it just died. The announcers tried to put the CC over as long-suffering veterans who deserve respect, but when has that ever worked? **3/4
This should be good. They take it to the mat early as AJ looks determined to have a good match this time out. That’s not always the case. Strong stops short to avoid a dropkick attempt, but AJ does a backflip and lands on his feet. I continue to be amazed at AJ’s athleticism. Strong looks out of his element for most of the match, being constantly behind AJ at every turn. It’s a thoroughly dominating performance by AJ for the first five minutes. Finally, Strong catches a break as they’re brawling on the apron and takes AJ down with a backbreaker to the apron. Back in, Roderick this a very AJ-ish dropkick and mocks AJ’s pose. AJ comes back with the enzuigiri and the Pele. OH, MY GAWD! THE PELEEEEEE! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! Oh. Wrong promotion. The Quebrada DDT gets two for AJ, and AJ hits the backdrop into the pump-handle gutbuster. Strong suddenly roars back with his series of backbreakers for two. AJ sweeps the leg but gets booted right in the face. The Spiral Tap misses, and Strong locks in the Stronghold. AJ squirms to the ropes. Strong goes for the Half-Nelson Backbreaker, but AJ counters to a sunset flip into the Styles Clash for the win at 16:40. A replay shows that Strong nearly broke his neck taking that move. This was pretty good, but it lacked the transitions to make it a truly great match. ***1/4
Two rolls of TP tonight, but we’re getting there. Some fan calls Rave a “stinker” on his way to the ring. That’s the kind of old-school trash talk I’d like to hear more of. You know, it’s not just for Bill O’Reilly anymore. Conventional wisdom says Jimmy is a dead man here. Rave grabs a wristlock but gets tossed through the ropes. Rave returns and slaps Joe in the face. OH, DEAR GOD! Rave gets knocked to the floor and stalls. Back in, Joe bitchslaps him and hits a running knee. The lightning leg lariat puts Rave down. Rave avoids a kneelift but stops to mock Joe and gets thrust-kicked to the floor. Joe hits a tope and the Ole Kick. He goes for another one, but Nana tosses Jade Chung in the way. Back in, Nana picks a fight with the referee, allowing Rave to go low on Joe and hit a lariat to the back of the head. Jimmy pulls out his hidden shoestring and chokes Joe out with it, disguising it as a chinlock and forcing Joe to use a ropebreak. Jimmy bites his way out of the rear naked choke and hits a swinging neckbreaker. Nana distracts the ref again while Jimmy chokes Joe out. Joe powers out but uses a closed fist and gets a warning. Rave hits Ghanarrhea, forcing Joe to use a second ropebreak. The ref catches Rave with the shoestring this time, and Joe gets pissed. Jimmy tries to crawl over the ropes to get away, but Joe catches him with the Muscle Buster attempt. Rave slips out and hits Joe with the Shining Wizard, but it only gets two. Rave floats over with From Dusk ‘Til Dawn (tilt-o-whirl into the Crippler Crossface). Joe makes the ropes for his final break. Rave goes for another Shining Wizard, but Joe sweeps the leg and hits a senton. Joe hits a DDT tribute to the late Hashimoto, but Rave gets his foot on the ropes. That’s Rave’s first break. The Muscle Buster finishes at 17:30. That was an out-of-nowhere finish. This was booked the only way it could be to make Jimmy’s offense credible. In fact, given Rave’s penchant for irritating his way to heel heat, you could make the argument that he should have pissed Joe off to such an extent that Joe lost his cool and used a closed fist to cost himself the title. ***1/4
Post-match, Prince Nana blames Jade Chung for the loss and demands that she act as Rave’s footstool as he exits the ring. Rave trips on his way out, which is also Jade’s fault. Nana threatens to slap her around, but the lights go out, and Matt F’n Hardy is in the ring when they come back up. Nana grabs Jade, and the Embassy clears out of the ring.
The crowd starts a “Fuck Edge!” chant. Matt announces that the “Sensei of Mattitude” is now in ROH. A few “boos” ring out, but nothing like Jeff got when he debuted. Matt puts over the ROH roster and calls Johnny Ace a dumbass. He says Vince should pop in a few ROH DVDs if he wants to find out how to put on a good wrestling show. He calls Edge a piece of shit and Lita a whore, but tonight is about wrestling, so let’s get it on.
You know, if Matt shaved his head and went with the soul patch, you couldn’t tell these two apart. Well, okay, Matt’s about four inches taller. This was just after Matt jumped Edge on Raw and announced he’d be in ROH, which is probably the most publicity ROH has ever received without statutory rape codes being involved. Daniels goes for the Angel’s Wings early, but Matt counters and goes for the Twist of Fate. Daniels counters that and rams Hardy into the corner. Jimmy Bower, notes that Daniels and Hardy are unfamiliar with one another. Ah, how quickly we forget Daniels run as a Conquistador in 2000. Daniels hits the Flatliner into the Koji Clutch. They exchange abdominal stretches, and Daniels hiptosses Hardy to the floor. Back in, Matt hits the Side Effect for two. Splash Mountain gets two. Matt tries a sleeper from the apron, but Daniels counters by snapping his neck off the top rope. Back in, Daniels hits the STO and the Blue Thunder Bomb for two. Daniels goes up for something, but Matt catches him and superplexes him for two. He sets up for a second, third and fourth superplex. They tease a double KO before Hardy rolls into the cover for two. Daniels sets Hardy up for a backdrop superplex, but Matt elbows out of it. His moonsault misses, and Daniels shows him how it’s done with the Best Moonsault Ever! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Matt kicks out and gets the knees up on a quebrada for two. Daniels catches him with a Death Valley Driver for two. CM Punk wanders down and punches out Allison Danger for fun. Daniels counters the Twist of Fate by pushing Hardy into the ref. Daniels goes after Punk, but Punk has his chain ready and BLASTS Daniels with it. Matt hits on Twist of Fate that only gets two. A second Twist of Fate sets up a Butterfly Lock for the submission at 20:13. This was a very WWE-ish match, which carries both good and bad aspects along with it. It was formulaic, but formula becomes formula for a reason. Matt looked good after a year out of action. Call it ***1/4.
After the match, Punk brags that Christopher Daniels’ loss has knocked him out of contention and James Gibson is too injured to wrestle, so he’ll just be taking the ROH Title to the WWE, thank you very much. Of course, James Gibson appears with his head bandaged and meets Punk in the aisle.
They brawl back to the ring, and Gibson hits a tope. Punk tears off Gibson’s bandages and rips off the turnbuckle pad. Gibson blocks the Snake Eyes and tosses Punk’s shoulder into the post. Back in, Gibson rides him down into a hammerlock and drops an elbow on the shoulder. More armwork as Gibson segues from an overhand wristlock to another hammerlock to a stepover armbar to just stomping on Punk’s shoulder. Punk’s back has been cut open and is bleeding all over the place from one of the guardrails. Gibson tries to skin-the-cat, but Punk sees him coming and clotheslines him back over. Back in, Punk comes off the top but gets ridden down into the reverse armbar. Punk makes the ropes and hits that hot shot he tried earlier. Punk dismantles Gibson and slams his chest on the apron. Back in, Gibson misses a dropkick, and Punk starts toying with him. Punk channels Flair with a chinlock with his feet on the ropes. He catches Gibson with a bearhug, but Jamie goes for the Texas Cloverleaf. Punk squirms to the ropes and uses his wrist tape to choke Gibson out. Gibson fights back on the outside and goes for the Tiger Driver on the apron. Punk fights out of it, but Gibson DDTs him. Back in, they fight it out from their knees. Punk goes for a backdrop, but Jamie shifts his weight and gets two. Gibson gets two off a Guillotine Legdrop. The running knee sets up a German Bridge. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Punk counters the Tiger Bomb with an enzuigiri. Gibson counters the Pepsi Twist to the Dragon Sleeper, but Punk rolls him over and hits the Shining Wizard. It gets two, so Punk locks in the Anaconda Vice. Gibson gets his foot on the ropes and starts to hulk up. He no-sells the Pepsi Twist and hits a brutal Tiger Driver. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Gibson sets Punk on top, but Punk fights for the Pepsi Plunge attempt. Gibson blocks and hits a moonsault bodyblock for two. Gibson locks in the Guillotine Choke, but Punk makes the ropes. Gibson rolls out of a uranage and comes up with the Guillotine Choke again. Punk powers into a suplex and pounces with an Anaconda Vice. Jamie powers up and elbows out, but Punk rolls him up and grabs the ropes for leverage to pick up the cheap win at 27:46. The announcers are aghast (again) that Punk retained the title. Anyway, this was another great Flair-ish performance from Punk that crossed great heat-getting with solid heel wrestling. Gibson was more than game as his babyface challenger, so Punk’s streak of excellence continues. ****1/4
After the match, Punk mocks Gibson and tells him better luck next time, and, in fact, Gibson would have better luck next time. Christopher Daniels runs down and brawls with Punk, knocking him silly with a belt shot. He steals the belt and says Punk will have to fight him if he wants it back.
The 411: The undercard was more focused toward giving future stars the rub with McGuinness, Aries and Homicide, so some of the quality was sacrificed. The usual suspects delivered, though, and Punk looked tremendous once again as an old-school heel. Another solid thumbs up. |
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| Final Score: 7.5 [ Good ] legend |
