wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Domination
November 9, 2007 | Posted by
7
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
Your Grade
Loading...
| Ring of Honor — Domination by J.D. Dunn Sydal thinks he has this in the bag because he dominates masked men. Quick series of reversals to start. Sydal starts shoving Hallowicked around and playing with his mask just to be an ass. Hallowicked hits a Shining Wizard in the corner and gets two of an Iconoclasm. Sydal catches him going up and hits a standing rana. The Sydal Clothesline sets up a top-rope move, but Hallowicked blocks with a dropkick. Sydal counters another Iconoclasm with a headscissors but nearly gets his head taken off by a big boot. Hallowicked blocks the standing moonsault and hits a Sky High (Rydien Bomb). He goes for a Fisherman’s Buster, but Sydal counters to a DDT and finishes with the Shooting Star Press at 9:20. Fun match that did everything an opener should: namely, getting the crowd involved. Post-match, Sydal says he can beat anyone in a mask. *** Before the match, Lacey asks Daizee to let bygones be bygones and just have a nice, normal match with her because Lacey has turned over a new leaf. The Haze is skeptical but gives her a nice technical match anyway. Mostly, it’s just hold-for-hold with no real flow or storyline, but Lacey does do a nice splits into a Boston Crab á la Lance Storm. She tries again but gets stomped like a narc at a biker rally (tm Dennis Miller). Sensing things aren’t going her way, Lacey rolls to the floor and goes back on her word, trying to use Jimmy’s cane to break Daizee’s neck. Back in, Lacey hits a series of running knees to Haze’s back (the Lacey Express?). Haze blocks one attempt but misses a swing and takes a Lungblower. Haze reverses a wristlock into the Heart Punch. Lacey rolls through the Mindtrip, though, and ducks to the floor, holding out for the time-limit draw at 10:00. I was just starting to get into it as the match picked up once Lacey reverted to a backstabbing bitch. This was an interesting way to rekindle the feud, especially since it appears Haze has moved on to Sara Del Rey. **1/4 Steen & Generico are suddenly one of the most over teams in ROH, which would have sounded like sheer lunacy earlier this year. Jigsaw and Quack are the young upstarts. Quack and Generico do a quick sequence. Steen overpowers Jigsaw until Jig learns to use his quickness. Steen adjusts and nails him from behind after tagging out. Generico doesn’t approve, making for an interesting dynamic for the team. Steen falls to his knees and mocks Quack by reaching for a hot tag. That is soooo “Stunning” Steve Austin. Steen counters a backslide attempt to a backbreaker and hits a senton for two. This is some good tag formula. Jigsaw hits a DDT on Generico and rolls into the hot tag. Quack cleans house on Steen but ducks his head and nearly falls victim to a packaged piledriver. Jigsaw blocks it with a kick. Quack runs right into a powerbomb and gets splashed by Generico. Jigsaw hits Generico with a Cradle Powerbomb, leading to a series of top-rope splashes from the underdogs. Steen makes the save and tags himself in. Quack puts Steen on top, but Jigsaw doesn’t have the weight to complete a huracanrana. Steen holds him up while Generico hits a flipping Van Terminator. Insane (even if it didn’t hit cleanly)! Quack…just makes…the save. Generico wipes out Quackenbush with a tope, allowing Steen to nail the Packaged Piledriver. That sets up Generico’s Brainbuster at 13:06. After the match, Steen shoves Jigsaw out of the ring, drawing the ire of Quack and even Generico. This had good formula and some great spots down the stretch. If some of them had been less contrived (or better executed) this might have been a classic. As it is, it’s just a very good match. Yes, I thought it was better than the Briscoes/Steen & Generico match. ***1/2 This is part of the thus-far disappointing Resilience versus No Remorse Corps rivalry. Richards goes for the Chimera early. Cross fakes him out with the faux suicida and then hits one for real. They take it to the mat where Richards dominates. Richards is entirely too methodical in this match. It’s all “hit one move, walk around, argue with the crowd, hit another move.” Cross picks things up during his comeback, hitting a springboard doublestomp and moonsault. Nice save from Richards who had to close the gap so Cross could make contact. Cross hits a DVD Neckbreaker and a Twisting Moonsault for two. SPACE FLYING TIGER DROP! Back in, the SSP misses, and Davey hits a Tombstone for two. Cross kicks out but winds up in the Chimera for the submission at 10:13. The NRC commence the beatdown until Delirious and Erick Stevens make the save. **1/2 Delirious goes for the Panic Attack early, but Romero blocks and hits a dropkick. They brawl out into the crowd where Delirious starts throwing chairs at him. The fracas continues up to the wall where Romero tosses him into the concrete. Back in, Romero avoids Shadows Over Hell and rides Delirious down into the cross armlock. Delirious is in the ropes, though. Delirious kicks his way back, but Romero ranas him down into another cross armlock. Again, Delirious makes the ropes. Delirious fights him off the top rope and hits SHADOWS OVER HELL! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Delirious rolls right over and applies the Cobra Stretch. Romero powers up and counters to the Tiger Suplex! He gets cocky, though, and goes for the Buzzsaw Kick, only to have Delirious duck and schoolboy him for the win at 8:57. Of course, we get the obligatory post-match NRC/babyface brawl. They did a nice job playing off the fact that they had scouted each other’s moves. The pacing was a bit better than the Richards/Cross match too. **3/4 Paul Turner is the ref again tonight after getting headbutted by BJ the night before when BJ got frustrated in a match with Albright. Albright and BJ do the big staredown, but Stevens is the one who starts with Albright. Albright hits an impressive delayed suplex. Rave tags himself in and begs off from Whitmer. BJ takes him out with a suicida but turns his back on Stevens, who knocks him off the apron. Well, that was smart. Albright wipes out the pile with a cannonball. Back in, Albright no-sells Rave’s forearms and nails him with a hard shot. Stevens tags in and goes up, but he stops to play to the crowd, so Albright casually shoves him to the floor. Things start to meander for a bit before getting chaotic again. The basic story is that Albright is a bad motherfucker, and no one guy can stand up to him, so they all take turns. Stevens saves Whitmer from a Half-Nelson Suplex and then gets BITCHSLAPPED! Albright adds the Swinging Knee to Rave and then goes back to what he was doing. BJ and Albright brawl to the floor, allowing Stevens to hit Rave with the press into a powerslam. He’s not legal, though. Whitmer comes in and hits an Exploder, but he’s not legal either. Whitmer goes after Paul Turner again, but that allows Albright to hop in and drop BJ right on his head with a Half-Nelson Suplex and pick up the win at 12:55. This one was up and down. They seemed to lose their way about half-way through the match and just start hitting random moves until the finish kicked in. The finishing stretch was quite good, though. *** First Fall: Hero entered ROH in the Winter of ’06 and broke up the team of Hero & Castagnoli by signing Hero to Sweet & Sour International but not Castagnoli. Hero opens with his usual stuff and takes a cheapshot at Mark, so Mark boots his head off. Claudio winds up taking the brunt of the Briscoe’s offense, though. The Briscoes hit a pair of double shoulderblocks. The Kings of Wrestling take over on Mark and hit some of the silliest offense you’ll ever see, but it’s never not entertaining. Yeah, it’s a double negative, so what? Mark nails them both with a springboard dropkick. Jay cleans house but gets jumped by Hero. Hero stops to do the duck walk and walks right into the Jaydriller at 10:38. Second Fall: For whatever reason, Claudio is allowed to start the second fall. He backdrops Mark over and picks Jay up into the Giant Swing. Cool spot as Mark has to jump rope his own brother and hit a kung fu chop to break it up. Claudio fends off both champs and finally hits the Swing on Jay. Hero finally recovers and breaks up a pin attempt. Claudio smacks Mark with an uppercut and tags in Hero. Hero hits a Cravate Neckbreaker, but his chokeslam is blocked. They go back and forth until Claudio tags in again. He hits the Apomari Waterslide, but it only gets two. The Briscoes set up for the Spiked Jaydriller, but Hero’s entourage breaks it up. Mark wipes them all out with a springboard moonsault and saves Jay after a Ricolabomb. The Briscoes finish the second fall and the match with the Springboard Doomsday Device at 18:46. ***3/4 One of the major complaints I’ve had about Strong’s group is that they don’t seem to be serious about winning any titles. Morishima charges and runs right through a chop. Strong knocks him to the floor and hits a WICKED boot off the apron. Back in, Roddy runs right into a sideslam. Morishima bowls him over with the buttsplash. As with Morishima’s earlier good match with Aries, this follows the Flair/Vader mold with Strong getting in an occasional strike, but mostly he’s just trying to stay alive. Morishima blocks a sunset flip bomb, but his buttsplash misses. Roddy hits a sideslam on the floor. Back in, Morishima shrugs off Roderick’s offense and cartwheels into an avalanche. That sets up the missile dropkick. BIG BOOT! Morishima punches Roderick down in the corner and shoves the ref aside. That distraction allows Roderick to come back with a Herculean Pump-Handle to a backdrop. Morishima goes up but gets SUPERPLEXED! ONE! Morishima kicks out at one. Oh shit. Roddy boots him in the face and hits a gutbuster – and when you’re gutbustering Morishima, you know it’s a big gutbuster. A big boot gets two. Strong can’t hit the Tiger Driver, so he tries a sunset flip and gets squashed. ONE, TWO, TH-NO! Morishima hits the Backdrop Driver, but Strong is in the ropes. A lariat gets two more. Now, Morishima is pissed. He hauls Roderick up and finishes with another Backdrop Driver at 13:12. As he proved with Austin Aries, Morishima can work a pretty good match if given an opponent who will work with his size and offense. Strong did a fine job of that here. ***1/2 |
The 411: Not long enough to overstay its welcome at just under three hours, this show doesn't have anything worth going out of your way for, but the good far outweighs the bad. Thumbs up for "Domination." |
|
| Final Score: 7.0 [ Good ] legend |
More Trending Stories
- Backstage Update on Status of WWE NXT’s Eddy Thorpe, Absence From Main NXT TV
- Bruce Prichard on Michael Hayes Wanting to Use Britney Spears for Kevin Federline’s Feud With John Cena
- The Undertaker Thinks WWE Is Testing the Waters With Edgier Content Elements
- Matt Hardy Says CM Punk’s WWE Promo Led To Jeff Hardy Joining TNA In 2010
