wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Stars of Honor DVD
June 8, 2008 | Posted by
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| Ring of Honor — Stars of Honor DVD by J.D. Dunn These two went to two epic 60-minute draws in 2004, so this was considered do or die for Punk. It occurs to me that, if Punk were to use his Money in the Bank title shot sometime soon, we could very well have these two as world champs in TNA and the WWE. Punk tries a lot of psychological tricks early, trying to ground Joe with a headlock and then trying to piss him off so he’ll make a mistake. He adopts his usual strategy with Joe, which is just to keep him in a headlock and force Joe to figure a way out of it. He hits Joe with a series of dropkicks, including a missile dropkick for two. Finally, Joe gets mad and hits a series of strikes. He knees Punk out to the floor, and Punk gets busted open. Joe zeroes in on that cut, ripping at the wound and clubbing him in the face. Punk charges but gets STJoe’d. Punk falls to the apron and tries to set up a sunset flip. Joe just punts him and hits a suicida. Olé Kick, but Punk blocks a second one and comes off the apron with a dropkick. Back in, Punk gets two off a crossbody. A Tornado DDT gets two more. Joe catches him with a snap powerslam and segues to the cross armlock. Punk rolls him onto his shoulders, though. Punk gets two off the Hammerlock DDT and turns him over into the Anaconda Vice. He drops that and hits a moonsault for two. Joe ranas him (!) and hits a huge lariat for two. Punk comes back with the Shining Wizard, but Joe grabs a sleeper (in a play on their earlier match). Punk fades, and the ref is about to call for the bell, but Ricky Steamboat keeps the time keeper from ringing the bell. Punk gets fired up hits a chinbreaker. Joe keeps the hold, though. Punk shoves off the ropes á la Bret Hart and gets two. A crucifix gets two more. Punk’s up and fires off a series of forearms. Joe scoops him up and puts his feet on the ropes for two. Joe misses a flying splash, but he recovers before Punk and hits a German Suplex into a Half-Nelson Suplex. Joe locks Punk in the sleeper, and this time it gets the submission at 31:32. A lot of people were surprised that they didn’t at least tease another draw. This was a bit slow in points, but what it lacked in pacing, it made up for with storytelling and psychology. Punk tried his best to stay with the same game plan he had in the earlier matches – draw things out and look for a flash pin – but once he got cut open, that went out the window. Not as memorable as either of their one-hour draws, but if you want to get the full power of the trilogy, you need to watch them all as one arc. ***1/2 You know Banks as Montell Vontavius Porter on Smackdown. I’m amazed that they decided to stick him in that suit to disguise his physique. Homicide has a hard time dealing with Banks’ power advantage until he hits a somersault tope on the outside. Banks didn’t really show much at all in terms of ring presence or ability to work. He was kind of like Kama Mustafa. Just good enough to keep a job for a while, but not good enough to excel. He does show a mouthy streak, foreshadowing his MVP character, though. Homicide has to dumb things down quite a bit, which shows why he’d be all wrong for the WWE. Banks no-sells three or four clotheslines, so Homicide goes low and finishes him with another one at 12:27. After the match, CM Punk runs in and steals the FIP title belt to further the Homicide/Punk FIP feud. **1/4 Lots of mat wrestling and reversals early as they test each other out. That’s a stalemate, so Gibson goes up-tempo with a tope. Back in, Gibson charges right into a backbreaker, forcing Gibson to roll to the floor. Strong hauls him back in and goes right back to work on Gibson’s back as Bower and Nulty wonder if Strong is softening up Gibson for Aries should Aries be victorious tonight. Strong applies a surfboard, but Gibson reverses to a backdrop suplex. A neckbreaker and brainbuster follow for two. Strong takes a rana, but he catches Gibson in mid-air and slams his back into the corner. A stiff lariat gets two. Gibson hits a DDT out of nowhere and rolls over into the Front Guillotine, but Strong actually powers out into a Boston Crab. Gibson then reverses that to a rollup for the anti-climactic win at 14:17. Gibson has to be helped to the back because of the injures sustained here. Strong actually did look like a future main eventer here, living up to the announcers’ hype for once. ***1/4 This is a puzzling choice for the opener, considering these two were one of ROH’s first big rivalries, were trained by the same guy, and they’ve improved since then. Even Nulty mentions this could be the jewel of the first round. Danielson shows the mean streak he’s developed in his feud with Homicide by grinding Spanky down and working the legs to counter Spanky’s aerial moves. Spanky fires back with his HBK-lite comeback moves but gets dumped off a Tornado DDT attempt. Spanky avoids a charge but misses a missile dropkick and gets ridden down into Cattle Mutilation. Spanky makes the ropes, but Danielson stays on top with a backdrop suplex. Spanky can’t get anything going as Danielson is always one step ahead of him. Danielson blocks a charge and hits the Airplane Spin. The Swandive Headbutt misses, though. SLICED BREAD #2! ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Danielson kicks out. FROGSPLASH! ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Danielson scoops up his legs and applies the Sharpshooter. Spanky fights against it and makes the ropes. Danielson takes him up and delivers a Backdrop Superplex. He goes for Cattle Mutilation, but Spanky reverses to a small package for two. Danielson counters Sliced Bread #2 and hits a forearm. See, they trained together, so Spanky knows all the counters. The Regalplex (Backdrop Suplex into a Cradle) finishes at 24:01. Fantastic opener. ***3/4 Matt’s already on his way back to Raw, so a large contingent of fans is behind Homicide. Prazak implies Edge offered Homicide some money to take Matt out. Yeah, I wonder how that conversation would have gone. They trade some basic stuff until the fans get the chants out of their systems. Homicide gives a clean break to the shock of everyone, and then he goes to the eyes. Homicide snaps off a headscissor takedown, but Matt counters another to a sideslam. They botch something pretty badly, and Homicide comes out with a leglock. Matt makes the ropes, and Homicide works in his tope con hilo. Back in, Homicide crotches Matt with the middle rope and hits a diving headbutt for two. A Tornado DDT gets two more. Matt catches Homicide going up and hits a superplex. Some women in the front row are rooting for Matt, so at least he has some support. Matt applies his Butterfly Lock. Homicide makes the ropes and kicks out of the Side Effect. Matt hits the second-rope legdrop for two. He hauls Homicide up for the Twist of Fate, but Homicide counters to the Northern Lights Suplex for two. The lariat also gets two, which is kind of ridiculous considering some of the guys he’s put away with that. Matt reverses the Cop Killa, but Homicide hits him with the Ace Crusher for two. Well, you gotta know he’s not gonna job to that. Matt hits Splash Mountain for two as Low Ki returns to ringside. He provides enough of a distraction for Homicide to hit an exploder. Ki tries to sneak a chain to Homicide, but Jay Lethal grabs it and yanks it away from him. Homicide is so shocked Matt is able to schoolboy him for the win at 17:40. Although it picked up a bit near the end, all this match did was expose how vanilla Matt’s offense really is. The two styles didn’t really mix well either. Still above average, though. **3/4 The Embassy tries to attack before the bell, but Austin Aries and Matt Sydal come out and chase them to the back. By now the bloom is off the rose for Matt as there are large chants of “Fuck you, Hardy!”, “Die, Matt! Die!” and “Fuck ‘im up, Roderick!” Matt grabs the mic and says people can say anything they want. Matt grabs the persistent headlock, but that’s countered to the persistent armbar by Roderick. The crowd starts a clever “Awkward silence!” chant. They take it to the floor where Roderick chops Matt’s nipple off before working in that spot where he chops the ringpost. Back in, Matt dropkicks Strong’s leg out from under him and applies the figure-four leglock. Roderick makes the ropes, so Matt hits Splash Mountain for two. Strong fires back with chocks and applies a Full Nelson with the legs. He follows that up with a delayed vertical suplex. Not a big fan of that since it doesn’t really play into the earlier psychology. Matt comes back with his usual WWE stuff, but Strong counters a sleeper to a backdrop suplex. They fight on top, and Matt shoves Roddy to the mat. The crowd boos because they know what’s coming. Matt signals for the legdrop, but Roderick cuts him off and sets up for the Super Press Gutbuster. Matt elbows out of that, though, and hits a Tornado DDT for two. Matt signals for the Twist of Fate, but Roderick counters to the Half-Nelson Backbreaker for two. Roderick charges into a sunset flip for two but comes out of it with a Boston Crab. Matt makes the ropes and locks in the Butterfly Clutch he’s been using. Roderick makes the ropes, though. Strong misses a crossbody and gets hit with the Side Effect. Matt goes for another one, but Strong is able to counter to a rollup for the win at 23:53. The fans’ hatred of Matt actually worked for the match because Strong was also a babyface and an underdog. *** Feeling-out process early. They do a lot of mockery early. Daniels draws first blood with a leg lariat, though. The Arabian Press gets two. Christian knocks Daniels into the crowd barricade and works his ribs. The match kind of loses its way in the middle as they don’t seem to know what they want to do. Christian hits his Inverted DDT for two and then locks in the Texas Cloverleaf. Daniels makes the ropes. Christian starts smacking him around, but Daniels pops up and hits the STO. That sets up the Best Moonsault Ever for two and the Koji Clutch. Christian rolls out of that but eats a Flatliner. He comes back and hits the frogsplash for two. Daniels blocks a sunset flip and goes for the Angel’s Wings. Christian blocks and counters to the Unprettier, but Daniels blocks. He comes off the second rope, stops himself, and finishes Cage with the Angel’s Wings at 13:35. Nothing really wrong here, but Cage’s style just doesn’t fit in with the “quicker, faster, better” ROH world. **1/2 All you need to know is – they hate each other. Big brawl to start, of course. Joe hits a tope early, and Lethal clears the ring with a springboard dropkick. Joe gets caught in the wrong corner once the match settles down. Homicide hits a sloppy DDT, and Ki renews acquaintances with Joe. Lethal gets the hot tag and unleashes a flurry on Homicide. Ki kicks Lethal in the head, and the Rottweilers take over. Basically, it’s just a lot of testosterone-filled prick-waving from the Rotts as they tease Joe while working over Lethal. Lethal avoids the Ghetto Stomp and hits a flying kick. HOT TAG TO JOE! Joe cleans house on Homicide with the DVD and the powerbomb to the STF. Low Ki breaks it up with the double-stomp off the top. Homicide hits Lethal with the Ace Crusher, and Ki blocks a sunset flip with the double-stomp. ONE, TWO, THR-NO! Homicide takes out Joe on the floor while Ki hits the double-stomp to Lethal who was in the ropes. Joe makes it back in, but Low Ki hits a gun packet dropkick to knock him back into the corner. Lethal hits Ki with a beautiful Dragon Suplex. ONE, TWO, THRE-Homicide elbows the ref to draw the disqualification rather than lose by pinfall. Boo! (17:45). Joe and Lethal aren’t satisfied, so they toss Homicide into the crowd and dish out more punishment. Ki fights his way up the bleachers and hits Lethal with a double-stomp, prompting a “you killed Lethal!” chant from the fans. Joe retruns and starts tossing chair after chair at the Rottweilers until Homicide and Ki jump the rail and run out through the other side. Ki sneaks back in and hits Joe from behind then gives Lethal the Ki Krusher. The first 10 minutes were your standard Raw main event, but it picked up nicely once they started hitting the finishers. Great brawl afterward. *** |
The 411: It's clear they just wanted to piggyback on the name value of some of the big players who came through ROH at one point or another. That's all well and good, but it doesn't really give you an accurate representation of what ROH is all about, especially when the matches are shown out of order with the only context from Leonard and Prazak being that at least one of the participants was a big star somewhere else. I'll call it a mild thumbs up because the wrestling is good enough on its own merits, but if you're looking to get into ROH, get a few of the full shows instead. Mild thumbs up. |
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| Final Score: 7.0 [ Good ] legend |
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