wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — All-Star Extravaganza III
August 9, 2007 | Posted by
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| All-Star Extravaganza III by J.D. Dunn Pearce cracks me up by trying to pick a fight with Sydal because his music is so horrible. Well, it is. Hero one-ups him with the single goofiest escape from a wristlock ever. Colt uses the much more efficient sneeziegatame. Sydal has to swing back over to the babyface role for this match, and with Hero and Pearce in there, it’s not hard. He takes a beating from both Hero and Pearce, including a slingshot eyepoke from Hero. Sydal hits an awesome springboard off Pearce’s back into a Tornado DDT on Hero. Colt makes everyone look stupid with Bionic Elbows and then uses Sydal as a battering ram á la the Bushwhackers. Colt tosses Hero, and Sydal follows him out with a twisting press. That allows Hagadorn to sneak in the brass knuckles behind the ref’s back. Pearce nails Colt with them and picks up the win at 11:15. The fans are pissed. Fun match. Hero is so entertaining, he’s like Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and Tom Cruise all rolled into one. **3/4 Stevens has a Mohawk now, and you just know that if this were 20 years ago, he and Pearce would be paired together as a couple of evil Russians. He hits Payne with a Doctorbomb at 0:22. 1/4* Richards looks really grumpy tonight. He backs that up by calling Mochizuki a “peace-of-crap jap.” Mochizuki dominates the early going with a series of stiff kicks. It backfires, though, as he misses a kick and hits the ringpost. Back in, Richards continues to work the leg in between jawing with individual fans. He locks in a half-crab, but Masaaki makes the ropes. Mochizuki comes back with a knee to the head and blocks the handspring enzuigiri. Richards gets two off a German Suplex, but his Shooting Star Press finds the knees. Mochizuki gets two off a brainbuster and dares Richards to kick him in the face. He kicks Richards in the face instead, but Richards hits the Dragon Screw into a Stretch Muffler (Argentine Kneerack). They exchange clotheslines, and Mochizuki hits a series of strikes, including a kick to the back of the head, to knock Richards out for the win at 10:41. *** Jacobs involves the railroad spike early, but it backfires as Whitmer takes it away from him. The guys spill to the floor and brawl into the crowd. Inside, Haze gets two off a Northern Lights Bridge, but Lacey comes back by using her studded belt. We get a picture-in-picture and the odd editing choice of focusing on the women while most of the crowd’s attention seems to be on the guys. Lacey hits a rope-assisted neckbreaker, but she can’t put Haze away. Haze hits the heart punch, and they fall through the ropes. Whitmer sets up for a top-rope move, but Jimmy shoves him off. Haze and Lacey are brawling in the ring, so Jimmy comes off the top and hits Haze with a double ax-handle. Lacey holds Haze, and Jimmy SPEARS HER OUT OF HER SHOES! The Implant DDT is academic at 9:49. After the match, Lacey offers to give Jimmy a reward, prompting a classy chant of “show your tits.” Lacey gets down and dirty with – a hug. The fans actually crack me up with a chant of “dirty whore” after the hug. Lacey promises more where that came from if Jimmy is successful against BJ at Supercard of Honor II. This was a briskly paced match that suffered from bad editing or bad photography (or both). **3/4 The Briscoes lost the titles to Doi & Shingo so they wrestled each other in Liverpool in order to MAN UP and win the titles here. Doi is pretty manly himself until Mark yanks him down by the hair. The Briscoes work in a few doubleteams until Shingo gets the tag. Doi and Shingo hit their own doubleteams, including a somersault senton by Doi on Mark who was stretched across the ropes by Shingo. Mark decides it would be a good idea to hit Doi with an SSP…on the outside…while Doi is standing…and Doi doesn’t catch him…and Mark doesn’t complete the rotation. That’s what we call “a bad idea in retrospect.” Mark doesn’t move for the rest of the match. It was a scary situation, and even Jay is distracted. He goes out to check on Mark and comes back in full of piss and vinegar. He and Shingo slug it out, but the fans are still watching as they check on Mark. Jay has to go it alone for the rest of the match, but it’s a two-on-one. Shingo hits a superplex, and Doi drops an elbow. Jay no-sells a series of clotheslines and squirms out of a doubleteam attempt. Shingo accidentally takes out Doi, allowing Jay to hit the Jaydriller at 16:05. Jay wins back the titles in the most improbable of scenarios. After the match, hometown boys Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley storm the ring, returning year-long absences, to challenge the Briscoes for the titles. Shelley asks for a handshake to seal the deal, and they beat Briscoe down to emphasize their point. The match was good, but Mark’s injury overshadowed much of the action. **3/4 Both of these guys are trainees – Yamato from Dragon Gate, Primeau from ROH. Yamato is the size of a cruiserweight, but he wrestles like a heavy. He hits an Exploder and a spear. Pelle gets a small package, but that’s about it because Yamato finishes with the German Suplex Bridge at 2:22. 1/4* Nigel dominates early but turns his back on Albright. Albright hits a Chaos Theory for two and kills a lot of time with a series of holds. Nothing of note, though. He blocks the Tower of London with a choke and counters another one to the Crowbar (reverse armlock). Nigel makes the ropes. Nigel rebounds with the Jawbreaker Lariat (so named because it broke Jimmy Rave’s jaw), but Albright ducks and takes him down into the Crowbar again. Nigel makes the ropes again and avoids Albright’s charge. Nigel hits the Tower of London, but Sweeney has the ref distracted. Albright clips Nigel’s knee and hits the 619 knee. Nigel sets up for the crotched lariat, but Chris Hero runs down and distracts him long enough for Albright to recover and finish with the released German at 11:34. Decent match. Albright continues to solidify his moveset and workrate. **1/2 Daniels is back to not shaking hands. I’m back to splitting infinitives. Homicide kind of stole Daniels’ win back at FYF: Dayton, which is the only recent backstory you could add to this match. It’s interesting that Daniels took time off from TNA after the end of the Phenomenal Angels and came back disillusioned, and in ROH, he lost the tag titles (much to the relief of the fans) and came back disillusioned. It’s two separate ways to arrive at the same character. Kind of cool. On the outside, Homicide whips Daniels to the barrier. Daniels uses a chair. He’s really heeling it up. Back in, Daniels refuses to do the Best Moonsault Ever, pissing off the fans. Homicide comes back with the Ace Crusher and a T-Bone Suplex. Daniels ducks out, so Homicide follows him with the rolling suicida. Back in, Homicide hits the triple verticals and a diving elbow. Daniels cuts off the Facewash and O’Connor rolls into the Koji Clutch. Interesting setup maneuver. Homicide makes the ropes. Daniels covers but gets caught using the ropes. Homicide comes back with an Ace Crusher and a lariat. Daniels slips out of the Cop Killer and hits the Angel’s Wings. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! They exchange counters until Homicide winds up on top with a jackknife rollup at 15:01. After the match, Adam Pearce, Shane Hagadorn and the returning Jim Cornette run in to attack Homicide. Corny says Homicide ain’t rid of him yet. Homicide fights back, but Brent Albright returns and suplexes him. Man, good payday for Albright what with Sweeney and Corny forking over the bucks. Colt Cabana and Delirious make the save. This was like every other Daniels match since late 2005. Yeah, it’s good, but “eh.” ***1/4 Evans tried to be the peacemaker between Strong and Austin Aries, but Richards and Strong attacked him at FYF: NYC. These two apparently had a fantastic match in FIP a year ago. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my list. Evans tries to act like a badass and then stops to breakdance. He really should get rid of that in feud matches because it makes him look like the old happy-go-lucky Jack. They trade mat maneuvers to start, and Jack gets in a chop. Roderick catches him on a handspring to take over. Now, Roderick hits a REAL chop. The crowd gets on Roderick with a mock chant. Jack counters a Tigerbomb but takes a uranage backbreaker. Strong just dumps him on the floor WITH NO REMORSE! Jack works in a great avoidance sequence where he cartwheels away from Roderick on the apron and hits a rana. Strong tosses him into the post, though, and works in a sick Tarantula stretch in the ropes. Evans hits a handspring elbow out of nowhere, but Strong kicks the ropes out from under him. Strong follows up with a SICK slingshot released suplex that plants Strong on his face. Who thinks of this stuff?! Evans comes back with a handspring stomp to the Strong’s back. Strong falls to the floor, so Jack hits the Space Flying Tiger Drop! Back in, Strong hits a Torture Rack Backbreaker and a super fallaway slam. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Jack hits a reversed rana, but his 630-senton misses. Jack gets a good-in-theory backslide where he floats his flexible body over on Strong. Strong avoids another 630-senton and finishes with the Stronghold at 21:44. Highly enjoyable stuff. Evans’ offense isn’t really built for a blood feud, and that’s okay in this case because Roderick barely sold it before going on offense. Plus, Evans’ bumping ability made Roderick look like a killer. ***3/4 Funny visual as Dragon Kid gets in Claudio’s face…er, chest before the match. Austin Aries is, what we in the recapping business call, OVER. Delirious freaks out, so Romero has to start. Saito lays down and dares Romero to come at him, but he pays for it as Romero grabs a Boston Crab. Dragon Kid and Claudio do a little “Mutt & Jeff” sequence with Kid sending him to the floor. CIMA acts badass until Delirious slithers into the ring. Aries takes out ALL of the Dragon Gate guys with a suicida but gets tripped up on the quebrada. It slows down into a normal North American tag match with Aries playing Ricky Morton. He hits a quebrada on Saito and CIMA, allowing him to get the hot tag to Delirious. The ROH guys all hit corner charges on Dragon Kid, including a Panic Attack from Delirious. Claudio Giant Swings Dragon Kid. Dragon Kid comes back with a 619 on Claudio as the match breaks down. Yokusuka hits an Exploder on Claudio, and Delirious accidentally legdrops Claudio while trying to make the save. Romero and CIMA do a nice little sequence ending when Romero kicks him right upside the head. CIMA goes up, but Romero shoves the ref into the ropes to crotch him and takes him down into the flying cross armlock. CIMA hits the Venus into the Iconoclasm, but Delirious catches him with Shadows over Hell. Dragon Kid swings into an Octopus Stretch on Castagnoli, but Aries yanks him off with a backdrop. Claudio makes him pay with an uppercut that sends him flying through the air. The Dragon Gate guys get one of their usual convoluted spots, which is no less awesome for being convoluted. Dragon Kid ranas Delirious, setting up a diving splash, but Aries saves with a good, old-fashioned kick to the face. He hits the 450-splash, but CIMA makes the save at the last possible split-second. CIMA hits the Schwein on Delirious and then finishes him with the cross-armed powerbomb at 27:55. Wow! Throw another mid-range Match of the Year Candidate on the burner, ma! It’s got all of the usual Dragon Gate action plus the humor of Delirious and the intensity of Austin Aries. Another strong MOTYC in a sea of them so far. ****1/4 |
The 411: ROH has settled into a nice little pattern of the undercard guys just doing what they can to maintain jobs and get themselves over with the crowd while the big stars put on great matches. The main event is a worthy successor to last year's Dragon Gate Challenge match between the Blood Generation and Generation Next, and it's just a shade below the vaunted Dragon Gate 2006 MOTY.
Thumbs up for All-Star Extravaganza II. |
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| Final Score: 8.0 [ Very Good ] legend |
