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Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Fifth Year Festival (Liverpool)
July 18, 2007 | Posted by
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| Ring of Honor — Fifth Year Festival (Liverpool) by J.D. Dunn This was signed as an ROH World Title match, but Homicide lost the title to Morishima. Quick exchange of counters to start, which is fun but not entirely crisp in its execution. Richards finally gets tired of that and slings Homicide onto the top rope Benoit-style. Richards does entirely too many heel tactics instead of focusing on just being a prick. It doesn’t always come across as natural, ya know? Richards controls for a while and keeps trying to finish with the Inverted Cloverleaf. He takes to long going up, though, (actually stopping to call Homicide a “piece of crap Puerto Rican”) and Homicide is able to crotch him and hit the Ace Crusher. Richards kicks out of a lariat and hits a Falcon Arrow for two. Back to the Inverted Cloverleaf. Homicide makes the ropes and hits the Triple Verticals for two. The Cop Killa finishes moments later at 16:10. Quality opener from a wrestling standpoint, but I never really gave Richards much of a chance in there, so his time in control felt like FF time. *** THE DANGEROUS ANGELS EXPLODE! No feud here. This is just an exhibition to put over SHIMMER so the regular partners are just showcasing their mad skillz. They do some really nice mat wrestling to open before Del Rey goes heelish, stepping on Danger’s throat. They exchange stiff forearms and those All Japan Women boots to the gut. Things settle down as Allison locks in a 3/4-Cravat with a bodyscissors. Del Rey powers up (impressive…most impressive) and counters to the Royal Butterfly for the win at 8:31. It felt way too short, but it accomplished what it set out to do – make me want to check out SHIMMER. More please! **3/4 While I appreciate focusing on a feud, some combination of these four has been attached at the hip for months. Well, that’s not fair. They did work Nigel McGuinness in there too. Not that I’m complaining because it still feels fresh, but you have to wonder how long they can keep these guys together and maintain interest. Anyway, big brawl all over the building to start. Jacobs takes a hideous powerbomb on the edge of the guardrail. OUCH! The faces continue to dominate until Rave DDTs Whitmer. BJ plays face-in-peril as things settle into a traditional formula. The Jimmys keep things interesting enough until Colt gets the hot tag. Colt cleans house with his Dusty Rhodes-ish offense as the match devolves back into a brawl. BJ and Jacobs wind up slugging it out in the ring, and Jacobs hits the Contra Code to pick up the flukish win for the heels at 13:45. Not bad, but it felt like they were going through the motions in the middle of the match. **3/4 Well, it’s not exactly Flair-Steamboat, but these guys have been rivals throughout their careers, all the way back to their training. You may remember they debuted against each other all the way back at Reborn: Stage One and had a furious finish against each other at Survival of the Fittest 2006. And now, they renew acquaintances. First Fall: Damned if they don’t pick up where they left off, with a fantastic first fall. Lots of comedy, of course, with Sydal playing straight man in between rattling off high spots. He hits that running corner clothesline of his and gives Delirious a low blow. Delirious makes a comeback and punts Sydal in the face, but Sydal goes low and small packages Delirious to win the first fall at 10:13. Second Fall: Sydal really heels it up, ripping off one of Delirious’ tassels and strangling him with it. He tosses Delirious around by the mask just to taunt him. He tries to finish with a crossface, but Delirious takes it to the floor and whips Sydal into the railing. PANIC ATTACK! Back in, Delirious returns the favor, tossing Sydal around by the ears. The Bizarro Driver gets two, but Sydal sweeps the leg and hits the standing moonsault for two. Sydal calls for the Moonsault Belly-to-Belly Suplex, but Delirious shoves him to the mat and hits SHADOWS OVER HELL and the Cobra Stretch to take the second fall at 16:43. Third Fall: They trade chops, and Sydal counters a dropkick to a Jackknife. Delirious hits the Panic Attack, and suddenly all the comedy is gone. Nice to see they can shift gears like this. Delirious can’t hit Shadows Over Hell a second time, and Sydal DDTs him for a close two. Sydal hits that corner clothesline again, but this time he stops to play to the crowd and takes a neckbreaker. They boot each other for a double KO spot. Sydal recovers, and they go into an absolutely beautiful sequence where Sydal backflips into the legdrop cutter, but Delirious rolls him over into a crucifix which segues to the Cobra Stretch. Sydal makes the ropes, but he’s still groggy so Delirious goes up for Shadows Over Hell again. Sydal desperately shoves the ref into the ropes to crotch Delirious and finishes with the Moonsault Belly-to-Belly at 23:21. I LOVE IT! They really stepped up and showed they could do comedy and work in their spots in a way that makes sense. An all-around fun match, and one that seems to be overshadowed by the Briscoes match the following night. Show this one some love, though. ****1/4 Pac reminds me a little bit of Spanky. This match, btw, turns the FIP Title from regional title to World Title, although they really should focus on solidifying Florida before they make any big claims like that. Strong pummels the poor kid with NO REMORSE, but Pac shows why he’s quickly gaining a reputation on the Brit circuit with amazingly crisp moves. Strong goes extra dickish, faking out the big chop and then poking Pac in the eyes. Pac scissors Strong to the floor and tries a moonsault, but Strong catches him and just flings him into the railing, nearly equaling Jacobs’ bump earlier in the night. Back in, he tries to rip Pac’s nose off and smacks him around like a bitch. Strong hits his first backbreaker of the match and bends Pac’s back over the railing. We get a good look at Strong’s handprints all over Pac’s chest. Pac comes back with a springboard dropkick and a quebrada DDT. Pac finally mounts some serious offense with a pair of dropsaults, and he rams Strong’s back into the guardrail. Strong gets knocked over the guardrail, so Pac climbs up and hits a Corkscrew Shooting Star Press. Well that’s just crazy. Back in, Pac avoids the Press Gutbuster and hits a moonsault senton for two. Strong has had enough and hits a superplex and press gutbuster. Pac fights out of the Tiger Driver and hits a Tornado DDT. 450-SPLASH BY PAC! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Pac tries to one-up himself with a Corkscrew Shooting Star Press, but Strong moves out of the way, boots Pac in the face and finishes with the Tiger Bomb at 18:09. At first, it looked like a Strong squash, but Pac fought through and hits some absolutely beautiful moves to turn things around. After the match, Strong tries to injure Pac with the Stronghold, but Delirious chases him off. ***3/4 The Briscoes are highly over in the old country for some reason. Not that they don’t deserve it based on effort, but it’s kind of strange. It’s all Briscoes early, with Mark and Doi doing some lightning-fast stuff, but Shingo headbutts a mudhole in Mark to take over. Mark isn’t in trouble long before tagging out to Jay. The Briscoes reestablish dominance with their doubleteams. Shingo tosses one Briscoe into the other and hits that DDT/Flatliner combo that’s so en vogue this year. Doi takes out Mark with a suicida, leaving Shingo to hit a spinebuster on Jay back in the ring. Shingo hangs up Jay in the tree-of-woe and lets Naruki hit a rolling senton. Shingo stretches Jay over the ropes, and Doi hits a swanton onto his exposed stomach. Mark furious dodges Shingo and makes the save. Mark gets the hot tag and cleans house, “hitting” Shingo with a SSP on the floor. Doi and Jay slug it out in the ring. The Briscoes hit their legdrop/splash combo, but Doi and Shingo come back with a slingshot/chop/senton sequence. Doi German Superplexes Mark, but Jay makes the save. Doi hits a flying elbow as Shingo holds Jay back! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! The challengers’ doubleteam backfires as Shingo clotheslines Doi silly and gets kicked to the floor. The Briscoes hit Total Elimination and set up for the Spiked Jaydriller. Shingo breaks it up and lariats Mark out of the sky. He turns his back on Mark but is able to counter a Cutthroat Driver to the Cradle Shock at 21:39. Amazing AJPW-style match with everybody kicking out of huge moves. One of the better tag title matches in recent memory. A disgusted Jay Briscoe says they need to MAN UP if they want to get those titles back, so he challenges his own brother to a match at FYF: Finale so they can beat some pride back into one another. ****1/4 You’d think Nigel would be the home-country favorite, but Joe gets a lot of heat too. Nigel makes the mistake of slapping Joe upside the head early, so Joe plants his face on the apron and slings him into the barrier. Rough night for the barrier. A pair of Olé Kicks knock Nigel silly. Joe tries to send him in, but Nigel bounces back and lariats him. Back inside, Nigel hits a mule kick and sends Joe into the post. Joe comes back with knees to the gut and jabs. He blocks the mule kick, but Nigel slips over him and hits that elbow cutter. They trade moves back and forth until Nigel tries to go for the Tower of London on the apron! Joe, thankfully, blocks, but he hits an even sicker move – THE MUSCLE BUSTER ON THE APRON! That appears to be too much for Nigel, so the refs come down to help him out. Joe tells Nigel that if he can walk out, he can damn sure come back and shake his hand. Joe finally gets sick of waiting and calls him a pussy, so Nigel staggers back in and slaps him in the face. Joe boots him in the face and slaps Nigel on the rebound. MUSCLEBUSTER! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Nigel kicks out! BURNING LARIAT! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Nigel tries the handstand, but Joe boots him in the face. COQUINA CLUTCH! Nigel rolls Joe onto his shoulder! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Joe rolls back over, and Nigel passes out at 22:52. After the match, Joe gets on the mic and says ROH will be in good hands with tough bastards like Nigel around. ***1/2 To be continued… |
The 411: Despite the technical snafu of having camera one out of focus for the last half of the show, this came off great. I was underwhelmed by some the Philly and Dayton shows, but the last two shows rebounded in a big way. Sydal/Delirious and the tag title match are must-sees. Probably the best show since FYF: NYC. Thumbs up! |
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| Final Score: 8.0 [ Very Good ] legend |
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