wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Double Feature, Night Two
May 5, 2008 | Posted by
7.5
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| Ring of Honor — Double Feature, Night Two by J.D. Dunn Richards tags Claudio with a spin kick while Claudio is playing to the crowd, but he slows the match down and stalls a lot after that. Richards tosses Claudio and lets Strong whip him into the barricade. Richards targets Claudio’s shoulder, but Claudio comes back with the Crabwalk Elbow. Davey blocks the Ricolabomb, but Claudio counters the Handspring Kick to a German Suplex. Richards reverses to a Chimera, but Claudio reverses *that* into a Giant Swing. That sets up the running European uppercut at 8:18. Decent WWE-ish opener. It seems like Davey was setting up for a longer match, though. **3/4 The Hangm3n attack before the bell, but Jiggy and Ruckus wipe them out with dives to the floor. They settle into a formula tag pretty quickly as the heels isolate Ruckus. Pearce leans over the ropes to yell at the ref and falls in. Prazak and Leonard wax rhapsodic about the duties of a man servant. Ruckus finally hits an enzuigiri and tags Jigsaw. Jigsaw cleans house and knocks Pearce to the floor. That sets up a Double Stomp/Jig & Tonic at 6:45. Pearce and Hagadorn were in control for about six minutes of that 6:45, and I can’t really tell you any memorable offensive maneuver they used. No worries, though, because this was largely just here to set up the next few segments. *3/4 The Briscoes clean house early and do double Flip, Flop & Flies. They dominate most of the early going, hitting double superkicks. Whitmer challenges Mark to a martial arts duel and then chickens out. Finally, the Hangm3n sucker Mark into their corner and cheapshot him to take over. Lots of suplexing follows. Jay gets the hot tag but takes even more punishment. The Hangm3n hit a knee decapitation move. Albright tosses Mark, but Mark lands on the apron and hits a springboard dropkick. Mark hits a Finlay Roll on Whitmer, setting up a T-Bone suplex. Jay returns to the ring, and they hit the Spiked Jaydriller for the win at 13:22. The Hangmen 3 are about as bland as you can get (although Albright’s starting to get over with the John Belushi thing). The Briscoes just kind of did their thing, which involves taking a beating and then coming back with crazy moves. Whatever works. **3/4 Danielson and Aries use TEAMWORK~! to take over on Go. Prazak and Leonard talk about whether or not Nigel does too many lariats. Things turn around, and Danielson plays face-in-peril. People get pissed at Nigel pretty quickly because he uses the lariats. Danielson comes back with a flying clothesline and tags Aries. Aries EXPLODES with offense, hitting the IED Dropkick (yes, I’m aware that it’s redundant). Danielson wipes out Nigel with a plancha. Aries follows him and nails them both with the Mach 5.0 suicida. Go lands on everyone with a pescado. Back in, Nigel destroys Danielson with a lariat. He tries a rebound lariat on Aries, but Aries cuts him off with his own clothesline. Go hits Aries with the German Suplex, but it only gets two. That leads to Danielson putting Nigel in the Cattle Mutilation while Aries slaps the Horns of Aries on Go. Nigel taps, but he’s not legal. It doesn’t matter because Go taps soon after at 18:43. Took a little while to get going, but once it did, it rocked. I was hoping they’d showcase Go a little more, but this was more about getting Nigel over as a heel. ***3/4 Matthews attacks Steen during his entrance and beats him around the ring. Matthews calls for the FIVE-STAR CHINLOCK, but Steen blocks. I thought it might have been over right there. Matthews finally gets the chinlock, which he proclaims to be the best he’s ever done, but Steen weathers it. Wow. He *is* getting a push! Steen comes back and misses the Swanton, but he hits the Cannonball in the corner. Matthews blocks the Packaged Piledriver and hits a double-arm DDT for two. Joey puts Steen on the top rope for a superplex, but Steen knocks him off and hits the Packaged Piledriver at 9:41. I like the solid wrestling style Matthews brings, but his personality in the ring doesn’t fit in with the emo Age of the Fall. Lacey has the same problem. Joey would be a better fit in Sweet ‘n’ Sour. Say… **3/4 Black tries to get under Stevens’ skin early, but that proves to be a mistake because Stevens can wrestle pissed off. He catches Black with a Samoan Drop and slugs the crap out of him. Black resourcefully catches Stevens with a knee to the gut and stomps his face. Black avoids the Choo-Choo and snaps Stevens’ throat on the top rope. He tries to springboard back in, but Stevens catches him with Uncle Slam. Powerslam, and Stevens is filled with rage! That leads to a diving shoulderblock, and he gets two off a Jackhammer. Black elbows out of the TKO and counters to a crucifix for two. Black hits the Paroxysm for two. Black goes up for the Phoenix Splash, but Stevens rolls out of the way. Stevens hits the full-rotation German Suplex and looks to finish with the lariat, but Black ducks and gets the pin with a leg-sweep cradle at 9:56. Stevens is showing he can be a great wrestler with the right opponent and a pretty good wrestler with anyone competent. Both of these guys should have bright futures. ***1/2 Because when you hear “main event,” you think Eddie Edwards. He’s shaved his head, making him look like Davey Richards. He makes the mistake of getting into a chop battle with Roderick Strong and then gets into a brawl with Necro and nearly gets his eyeballs ripped out. He grabs Necro’s beard as a defense. Back in, Necro starts kicking Roderick in the head. Delirious hits Edwards with the Panic Attack and clotheslines him over the top on top of Lacey. Lacey makes him pay by crotching Delirious on the top rope. That brings out Daizee Haze to attack Lacey. Goofy spot as Necro sets Roderick on a chair and shoves him down the entrance ramp into Delirious and Edwards as they’re brawling. DANGEROUS! Strong makes him pay by suplexing Butcher on the ramp. Lacey and Haze continue to brawl. Back in, Edwards hits a quebrada on Necro, but Strong saves and hits the press gutbuster. YAKUZA KICK! Delirious comes back in and cleans house. He goes for Shadows Over Hell on the Necro Butcher, but Butcher gives him a shot to the midsection and finishes with the Tiger Driver at 10:47. This was just a crazy good time, and they didn’t take it too seriously. Not a lot of narrative. They just went out there and started beating the crap out of one another, and it worked on that level. ***1/4 |
The 411: Another brisk show on DVD. The wrestling was a little better than the first night, and the show flowed much better than many of the previous shows in late '07-early '08 (one of the bigger problems with ROH). I still say integrating the ROH Video Wire footage into the regular program and cutting back on match times would help tremendously. Thumbs up. (note that the 7.5 rating reflects both nights) |
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| Final Score: 7.5 [ Good ] legend |
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