wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Good Times, Great Memories
October 19, 2007 | Posted by
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| Ring of Honor — Good Times, Great Memories by J.D. Dunn Oh boy. Just too much to recap here, but it’s a lot of fun. Very spotty, especially from the Chikara guys. Delirious and Hallowicked get in each other’s faces before teaming up. The Chikara guys work in a complicated spot where Hallowicked lands on Akuma’s shoulders on the outside and Quack wipes him out with a suicida. Delirious hits Pelle with Shadow’s over Hell, but Quack runs in and hits the Lou Thesz Knee Press. Everyone just starts rattling off move after move until Delirious hits Akuma with the Chemical Imbalance II at 10:28. Normally, I don’t like this type of spotty, “X-Division” match, but everyone showed good personality, and this was the right place to do a match like this. Good fun. Hopefully, the Chikara guys become a fixture in ROH. *** Daniels runs into Stevens a lot, displaying the fact that Steven is, in fact, a human brick wall. Stevens drops a few elbows but not the Choo-Choo Train Elbow. To the floor, Daniels uses treachery by slamming Stevens’ gut into the railing. Daniels continues working over Steven’s mid-section. Stevens powers out of an abdominal stretch, but Daniels stays on the ribs. Stevens hulks up and hits the Choo-Choo Train avalanche in the corner. A lariat gets two. Stevens continues his faux Dr. Death offense but can’t put Daniels away. Stevens presses him into a powerslam and calls for the Doctorbomb, but Daniels clutches Stevens’ leg like a baby and then turtles until the 15-minute time limit expires at 15:00. Like many of Daniels’ post-2005 efforts, this wasn’t great, but it was solid and entertaining with good psychology and well-defined roles. ***1/4 Homicide was on his way out too at this point, so he’s also just treading water. Looking back, TNA yanking their guys off ROH shows might have been a blessing in disguise because few of those guys were going to be major players with the possibility that TNA could pull them while they still had a title. This way, guys like Stevens and Albright get a chance to sink or swim. The issues here are that Rave upset Homicide late last year, and they faced off again at the FYF. Albright took payoffs to attack both Homicide and Whitmer. Like a lot of Four-Corner matches, there’s a lot of “hit one move, tag out” early on. Things pick up as Albright sets up for a superplex on Whitmer, but BJ shoves him back down to the tree-of-woe. That allows Homicide to bounce up and hit BJ with the Ace Crusher. Rave immediately jumps Homicide on the landing and applies the Stepover Anklelock. Albright unties himself and scurries over to ride Rave down into the Crowbar. Homicide saves and counters the Half-Nelson suplex with a roll. Homicide hits a lariat for two, but Whitmer makes the save. BJ winds up paying for it, though, because Albright finishes him with the Half-Nelson Suplex moments later (10:05). Lots of sound and fury signifying nothing. Well, it did continue Whitmer’s losing streak. **1/2 This is No Remorse Corps versus Resilience. Aries came up short as the entire Resilience was eliminated in a six-man war with the NRC back at This Means War II. Aries is also coming off a brutal ass-kicking at the hands of Morishima. They trade kicks and forearms early. Romero tries to headscissor Austin Aries, but YOU CAN’T HEADSCISSOR AUSTIN ARIES! Romero tries to block the dropkick but gets kicked in the head anyway. Aries hits a suicida, but Romero quickly takes over and works the back and neck. He applies the Octopus Stretch for a bit. A lungblower gets two, but Aries fires back with clotheslines and gets two off a quebrada. Aries blocks the Tiger Suplex but gets caught with a flying DDT. Romero kicks away at the shoulder and head in anticipation of the Diablo Armbar, but Aries fires himself up and hits the corner dropkick. Aries goes up, but Romeo cuts him off and takes him down into the Diablo Armbar! Aries forces him onto his shoulders, but Romero reverses to the Anklelock! The Tiger Suplex only gets two, and Romero punts him in the face for two more. Aries wakes up, kicks Romero right in the face, hits a brainbuster and finishes with the 450-splash at 12:27. The offense was all centered around their finishers, so this was pretty good. The NRC/Resilience hatred made it that much better. After the match, Roderick Strong runs down to attack Aries, but Delirious chases him away. ***1/4 Wow. Kind of far down the card for a title match. This is NOAH versus Dragon Gate. Shingo has vowed to return to Japan if he doesn’t win tonight. Shingo knocks Morishima to the floor and hits a pescado. Back in, Shingo hits a DDT for two, but Morishima suddenly hulks up and starts no-selling. He hits a butt bump and divebombs Shingo from the apron. Morishima uses more ass to stay on top. Shingo hulks up, and they fire forearms at each other. Morishima hits a buttalanche and asks the ref to count Shingo down. Shingo makes it up and goes for a suplex, but Morishima reverses to his own. Shingo catches him with an atomic drop and HITS THE SUPLEX! Big pop for that. Morishima rolls to the apron, but Shingo follows him out and hits a DDT on the ring apron. He follows that up with the DEATH VALLEY DRIVER ON THE FLOOR! Back in, Shingo hits a backdrop suplex for two, but Morishima just gets pissed and starts clubbing Shingo upside the head. Todd Sinclair tries to pull him off and gets shoved down. Morishima no-sells a superplex, but Shingo nails him with a lariat and hits the Wrist-Clutch DVD. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Shingo fires up and hits a lariat for two. More lariats. He can’t put Morishima away, though. Morishima explodes with his own lariat. Shingo gets fired up again and hits another lariat. He tries a piledriver, but Morishima backdrops out of it and squashes him with a buttdrop. That sets up another lariat for two, and the Backdrop Driver finally finishes Shingo off at 15:24. Call me crazy, but I liked this better than the match with Nigel. This match really did feel like Fighting Spirit rather than just rattling off big moves. Morishima’s second consecutive good match. ***1/2 Before the match can even get started, Tank Toland interrupts and makes fun of both men’s physiques. He tells Dempsey to pick his five chins up and offers to make Bobby “his project.” He also replaces Dempsey in the match. This was so “Kurt Angle” from Toland. If you’ve never seen Alex Payne, just imagine a shorter, scrawnier Major Brother. Or William Katt. Toland completely overpowers Payne at every turn. “Sugarfoot” hits a few moves, using his quickness to stay in it. Toland continues to overpower him, though, and finishes with the one-handed spinebuster at 2:41. Nice touch as Toland makes Dempsey do lunges all the way back to the locker room. 1/4* This is always a good match. Evans storms the ring and hits a cartwheel kick. He fires off more kicks and hits a somersault plancha over the corner. Roderick cuts him off as they’re getting back into the ring, though. Strong hits a few chops until the fans start to get into it, then he refuses to hit any more. Evans starts to make a comeback, so Strong bails. Evans follows him out with an over-the-top-rope dropkick. Strong cuts off a springboard move and wraps Evans around the ringpost. Sick bastard. Back in, Jack flips out of a slingshot suplex, but Strong catches him attempting a handspring elbow and drops him right on his face. Strong bends Evans back over on top of himself. Sick, sick bastard. He picks Jack up and just tosses him haphazardly on his head. It only gets two. Jack comes back with a handspring elbow and hits rolling suplexes (of the Northern Lights and Fisherman variety). Strong presses him into a gutbuster, though, to cut off his offense. To the outside, Strong just drops him right on the apron with a backdrop. Back in, Evans blocks a superplex and hits the tree-of-woe kneedrop. That only gets two, so Evans calls for the 630-senton. Strong cuts him off and hits a backbreaker into the Boston Crab. Jack makes the ropes. Strong argues with the ref over the ropebreak, allowing Romero to kick Jack right in the head again. That sets up the Crucifix Cutter from Strong at 15:10. Damn, these guys have great chemistry. Jack can take a great ass-kicking, and Strong can dish one out. After the match, the NRC try to take Jack out permanently as Romero kicks a chair into Jack’s face. Delirious, once again, chases off the NRC. **** Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin attacked the Briscoes back at All-Star Extravaganza III, challenging them for the tag titles. Good start as the Machine Guns play total pussies. The funny thing is that they have such a tough name, but they’re such cowardly heels. Sabin outwrestles Jay but gets cocky and gets bitchslapped right upside his head. Shelley refuses to tag in and prefers the role of “comforter” every time Sabin crawls over. Shelley eventually is forced to tag in and gets more of the same. He stops for some water and then dares, DARES, Jay to step across an imaginary line. When Jay does, Shelley spits the water in his face to take advantage. It doesn’t help much because Shelley winds up playing heel-in-peril for a while. He suddenly snaps off a Russian Leg Sweep to take over, though, and once the MCMG take over, things get really interesting. They rattle off a series of doubleteam maneuvers while Shelley constantly mocks the Briscoes. Their chemistry is incredible, something that doesn’t always come across in TNA. Sabin catches Jay in the Texas Cloverleaf. Mark tries to save, but Shelley jumps him from behind with the Border City Stretch. The fans sense a possible finish! Mark elbows out of the Stretch, though, and saves his brother from the Cloverleaf. The last five minutes are just wall-to-wall action with doubleteams, narrow saves, counters and counters of counters. Mark hits the SSP at one point, but Sabin just…makes…the save. Mark sets up for the Super Cutthroat Driver, but the MCMG block and counter to a Doomsday Dropkick. Shelley hits the Air Raid Crash! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! He can’t believe it. He sets up and hits the Shellshock, but Jay breaks up the tag at the very last second. Mark recovers and hits the Cutthroat Driver! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Shelley kicks out. Finally, the Briscoes have had enough, and Jay adds a legdrop as Mark hits another Cutthroat Driver to end an incredible match at 34:19. The best compliment I can pay the MCMG is that this is the first time in a long time that I felt like the Briscoes were facing a team that was on their level both as individual wrestlers and as a unit. The MCMG chemistry was off the charts here, as they hit everything crisply and perfectly. Sabin reminded me of Austin Aries with the snap he was putting into his moves, and Shelley was…well, Alex Shelley. All the Briscoes had to provide was their usual great match, and they certainly did that. Another easy MOTYC. ****3/4 This would be Colt’s final match in ROH, obviously. The ring fills with streamers before the match, so Colt uses them to tie up Pearce. Of course, this is all just Colt working in his usual material (and some new tricks too). Hagadorn trips Colt up, allowing Pearce to apply a leglock. Colt comes up with a new counter – he simply asks to be let out of the hold. And it works! Well, that makes everyone else look stupid for not trying it earlier. Colt heads to the floor and pretends to be hit by Hagadorn. The ref takes Colt’s word for it and ejects Hagadorn from the match. Hagadorn has to be carried, kicking and screaming, to the back. Pearce tries to take off Cabana’s boot and then cheapshots him as he’s adjusting it. The GOLD BOND POWDER SHOT backfires. Back in, Colt tries the butt bump, but it’s countered to a suplex. They go back and forth for a bit before Colt gets the Billygoat’s Curse to pick up the submission win at 13:32. **1/2 |
The 411: Colt leaving and giving his goodbye speech is enough to warrant a purchase, but you also get Daniels walking out on the promotion as well, plus a match of the year candidate. This one has a little bit of everything. Enthusiastic thumbs up for Good Times, Great Memories. |
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| Final Score: 9.0 [ Amazing ] legend |
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