wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Reckless Abandon
February 14, 2008 | Posted by
5
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
Your Grade
Loading...
| Ring of Honor — Reckless Abandon by J.D. Dunn The sound is out of sync on this one. He introduces Jason Blade as the newest YRR member. By the way, SoCal Val’s body is INSANE. Sal piefaces Dave Crist, so Dave dropkicks him while he’s trying to skin the cat. Blade cuts off Dave’s dive, so Jake has to do it instead. Blade somersault planchas on both of them, and then Dave hits a twisting plancha. Sal and Blade isolate Jake. Blade hits a suplex into a cover for two. Jake tosses Sal into Blade and leaps into the tag. Dave Crist cleans house and hits a Hammerlock Backdrop on Blade. Rinauro springs off the top turnbuckle into a backflip kick. Jake slingshots into a neckbreaker for two. The YRR team up for a flipping neckbreaker/Russian Legsweep combo. Jake makes the miracle kickout, though. Val breaks up the Irish Air Raid behind the ref’s back. Sal hits a Stunner for two, but the Crists tough it out and hit the Irish Air Raid for the upset win at 11:36. Val is apoplectic. Good, solid tag action. **1/2 Of course, Seth Skyfire is known as Jimmy Jetfire in Japan, for legal reasons. Yes, I’m kidding. Skyfire has some spiffy moves, such as the thing he does where he walks the ropes to get away from someone and the multi-rotation headscissors. Claudio nails him with a Bicycle Kick and the Crabwalk Elbow for two. Skyfire avoids an uppercut but Claudio knocks him into next week on a second try. Skyfire hits the doubleknee jawbreaker, but he slips trying to go up the ropes. Claudio presses him into another uppercut and finishes with the Ricolabomb at 7:49. *3/4 The brawl starts in the aisle. Delirious sunset flips Pearce and then goes after Hagadorn. Pearce is able to spinebuster Delirious into the barricade. The brawl continues through the crowd. Pearce suplexes him through a section sign and applies the figure-four leglock. Delirious reverses it, so Pearce tosses a chair at him. Pearce tries to drag Delirious up the cameraman’s scaffold, but Delirious nails him with a chairshot, crawls over him, and puts Pearce in the Cobra Clutch while he’s trapped in between the rungs of the ladder. Pearce submits at 8:59. The usual brawl. Seemed very short too. **1/4 Tank Toland is back with S&S, which is good. Not that he’s especially entertaining on his own or anything, but it was like there was a piece missing. New blue look for Jigsaw tonight. Jigsaw lets Hero run through his routine and hits him with a pair of dropkicks. A third one misses, and Hero handsprings to the floor. Jigsaw gives chase. We pause to check out Toland demonstrating some new exercises for Bobby Dempsey. Jigsaw gets prepped for a charge, but Toland trips him up. Hero hits a senton and mocks the Vulture Squad. Jigsaw comes back with a pescado into an armdrag. Back in, Hero powerbombs him and locks in the Hangman’s Clutch. Jigsaw makes the ropes and counters the Hero’s Welcome to a backslide for two. A superkick gets two more. Hero catches him in a Hanging Cravat and then an Elevated Hangman’s Clutch for the submission at 14:19. Extended squash. Hero’s just spinning his wheels, though. **1/2 Necro attacks before the music can get to that “Final Countdown” part, pissing off the crowd quite a bit. Danielson battles back and tries to rip Necro’s face off. Necro fights back and crotches him on the post. He hits him with a chairshot and sends Danielson back in. They work in the spot where Necro crotches Danielson on the chair and DDTs him. Necro peppers Dragon with punches and shoves the ref down. Danielson roars back with forearms and slaps the referee for chastising him. Necro punches him with a cheapshot, so Danielson takes him down into Cattle Mutilation at 8:33. Not a bad prep match for Morishima. **1/4 Young recently signed a developmental deal with the WWE. He gets a cool counter to a sunset flip, turning it into a Northern Lights Suplex in mid-move. Silas gives Nigel a little more trouble than he probably expected, so Nigel starts snapping his arm into the mat. Nigel stays on the arm. Silas hits a Stunner, which is no-sold by Nigel. Silas hits a dropkick, but Nigel rebounds for a lariat. Silas ducks and hits a backbreaker for a close two. A handstand into a slingshot press gets two. Nigel catches him on the top and hits the Tower of London. That sets up a lariat and the Stepover Armbar at 7:27. Solid showing for Young. ** See, now Tornado would have been perfect for the Vulture Squad. The fans call for a danceoff. Stevens tells Tornado that he wants Davey Richards and not Tornado. That leads to an impromptu three-way dance. Stevens and Richards brawl at ringside, so Tornado hits a somersault plancha on them. Stevens stomps a mudhole in Richards. Tornado makes a deal with Stevens, but neither man will let the other one get the pin. Stevens gets poked in the eyes and goes after Tornado by accident. Richards wraps Stevens’ arm around the post and prepares to hit it with a chair. Tornado shows there’s no hard feelings and saves. Back in, Richards ties Tornado in the tree-of-woe and lets him know what the capital of Thailand is. Tornado makes the comeback, but Stevens tries to sneak in with a Doctorbomb on Richards. Tornado stops him and reminds him of the accidentally punch on the outside. The set aside their differences when Richards charges back in. Stevens vaults Tornado into the splits low blow on Richards. Tornado seems to hurt his hammy on that one. Stevens and Davey do a brief brawl before Stevens returns to the ring for a Doctorbomb on Tornado. Davey dropkicks him out, though. Tornado has one last gasp with a small package on Richards, but Davey counters it to the Chimera at 9:08. I know that Tornado may be one of the casualties of ROH’s cutbacks, but it would behoove both sides to find a way to work together as much as possible. Tornado is everything that is missing in ROH, and ROH is the biggest promotion that is interested in him. *** First Fall: I was about to say that this was the first Iron Man match in ROH history, but I forgot about the Doug Williams era. It doesn’t even feel like the same promotion anymore. Lots of mat wrestling to start. Roddy trips Aries up and drags him down into an armbar. He hits a corner clothesline and belly-to-bellies Aries across the ring. Aries avoids a dropkick and hits the STO. That sets up the Pendulum Elbow for two. Aries puts him in a modified abdominal stretch and elbows Strong’s ribs. He tries for the Arieslock, but Roderick slips out of it. Roderick blocks a charge and hits a missile dropkick. He catapults Aries into the bottom rope. They fight to the apron where Aries clotheslines him back in. He goes for the Arieslock, but Strong quickly avoids and turns it into a Stronghold attempt. Aries kicks him to the floor and hits a suicida. Back in, Aries hits a corner dropkick. Roderick blows the press gutbuster, so Aries punts him in the head and gets the submission with the Arieslock at 16:13. Aries leads 1-0. Second Fall: Aries picks Strong up, but Strong quickly hits an atomic drop and backbreaker. Strong superplexes Aries, but Aries uses the Dynamite Kid small package to get two. Strong hits the press gutbuster and goes for the Tiger Driver, but Aries ranas him. Strong goes for the Stronghold, but Aries counters *that* to a rollup for the pin and another fall at 18:38. Aries leads 2-0. Third Fall: Strong quickly kicks Aries in the head. Aries goes for the Crucifix Bomb, which, it occurs to me, I haven’t seen him use in a long time. Strong blocks and hangs him out to dry on the top rope. That leads to a few backbreakers and the Tiger Driver at 19:58. Aries leads 2-1. Fourth Fall: Strong locks in the Stronghold and ties things up at 20:51. Tied 2-2. Fifth Fall: Strong goes right back to the Stronghold, but Aries makes the ropes this time. Strong takes him to the floor and nearly leaves him unconscious after a Stronghold on the floor. Back in, Aries seems to be out of it but kicks Strong in the chest and gets two. They slug it out. Aries goes for the shinbreaker, but his back is hurt. Strong takes advantage with a backbreaker. He picks him up, but Aries counters to the Crucifix Bomb. That sets up the Brainbuster. Aries comes off for the 450-splash, but Strong gets his knees up to knock the wind out of Aries. Strong is able to roll him up at 25:41 to take a 3-2 lead. Sixth Fall: Strong just tosses Aries and plays defense, trying to keep the match in the deep freeze. Aries makes it to the apron, but Strong hits a springboard dropkick. Aries makes it up again, but Strong dropkicks him into the barricade as we hit the two-minute warning. Aries circles the ring, getting fired up. He storms back up and elbows his way into the ring. He slingshots into an Oklahoma Roll and ties things up at 29:25. Tied 3-3. Seventh Fall: Aries immediately slips over into the Arieslock with :30 left. Strong tries to hold out but passes out with about :05 left, and Aries gets an anticlimactic submission just before time expires at 30:00. That was probably a better finish in theory because the crowd thought it was a draw until the ring announcer came across the PA and said, “Oh, by the way, Strong passed out, so Aries wins.” I’m not sure why, but this lacked a certain intensity, especially for two guys who spent the better part of a year feuding. There wasn’t anything wrong with the wrestling, though. Aries shakes Strong’s hand, so hopefully this feud is finally put to rest. ***1/2 The H3 and Vulture Squad start before everyone can be introduced. The Hangmen clear the ring, but the Age of the Fall storm the ring and brawl with them. It powders out to Jimmy Jacobs and BJ Whitmer for a big staredown. This would be the first time they’ve met since their year-long feud ended in the Spring. The Briscoes have to ruin things by jumping them before things get interesting. Everyone brawls on the floor, and Black hits a Fosbury Flop. Whitmer whips Albright into the 61Knee on Mark. That sets up the Dragon Suplex. Jacobs runs in and applies the End Time. Jack Evans goes up but gets yanked into a backbreaker by Black. Whitmer tries to suplex Jay, but Jay hangs on, and they both tumble over. Jacobs hits Albright with the Contra Code. He tries a tilt-o-whirl headscissors on Mark Briscoe, but Jack comes in and dropkicks him in the head. The Jack backflip kicks Mark, and Ruckus hits a coast-to-coast flipping dropkick. That sets up the 630-senton at 9:15, and the Vulture Squad gets the win. **1/2 |
The 411: The was the first leg of what wound up being a horrible weekend for ROH. They had to rework the next show, which was supposed to be a big one, into Unscripted III. This show just fell flat. The Iron Man Match is good, but it seems like they were putting all of their energies into a later show. For example, I'm not sure that they were paying attention when they booked the finishes because with the exception of the first and last matches, they all end in submissions. I appreciate that they're clean finishes, but it also makes the entire card repetitive. Thumbs down here unless you really like Iron Man Matches. |
|
| Final Score: 5.0 [ Not So Good ] legend |
