wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: Ring of Honor — Battle for Supremacy
September 16, 2008 | Posted by
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| Ring of Honor — Battle for Supremacy by J.D. Dunn Videowire Recap – – Kevin Steen challenges Nigel McGuinness based on his submission victory over Nigel in a tag match. – Daizee Haze turns down Rhett Titus… again. – Roderick Strong turns down a $42 bajillion offer from Larry Sweeney, but Davey Richards is more than happy to accept the offer and join Sweet ‘n’ Sour. Davey turns on Roderick, thus dissolving the No Remorse Corps. – Sweeney also introduces the NWA Heavyweight Title to ROH. – Nigel accepts Steen’s challenge and challenges Adam Pearce. Nigel compares himself to Ric Flair. – Rhett Titus interrupts Delirious’ attempts to ask Daizee out again. This time, he’s dressed as a floor manager for Circuit City. He apologizes for his sexual innuendo and tells Daizee he respects her. Daizee agrees to go on a date with Rhett if they can take Delirious along as a chaperone. Great moment as Rhett gentlemanly holds the ropes open and then gives the crowd a big shit-eating grin. – Davey explains that he’s going to NOAH now, but he’s sick of being the butt of Roderick’s jokes. See, now that makes sense in retrospect. And on to the show… This was supposed to be Shane and Bobby Dempsey for Sweet ‘n’ Sour, but Sweeney announces Bobby is too fat, so he brings back Tank Toland. I know I always point this out, but Toland really, REALLY sounds like Kurt Angle. I’m surprised TNA hasn’t hired him just to do an angle where they’re long-lost brothers or something. Silas looks very crisp, as usual, and I’m curious as to how his WWE development deal didn’t pan out. He handles most of the wrestling duties, and Mitch provides the personality and flippy moves. The match is just a quickie opener, but Hagadorn continues to show improvement. Mitch hits Toland with a Tornado Suplex, but Toland slips out of a Fireman’s Carry and finishes with a One-Handed Spinebuster at 6:49. *1/4 It’s a back-and-forth until Wonderland distracts Delirious long enough for Black to jump him. That brings out Daizee Haze to neutralize Alison. Black dumps Delirious to the floor and inadvertently knocks out a ring attendant. The poor ring attendant takes a beating as Delirious suplexes Black on top of him. Back in, Delirious hits the Evan Bourne (Prazak’s smartass name for the Here-It-Is Driver). Delirious goes up but hits a Shadows Over Tyler Black’s Knee instead of Shadows Over Hell. Black goes low, drawing a protest from the Haze, but Alison yanks her off the apron and waffles her with her purse. That brings down Rhett Titus to carry Daizee to the back. Delirious is distracted, allowing Black to finish with the Small Package Driver at 10:23. This was a pretty good match, but it was really just to further the Rhett-Daizee-Delirious angle. **1/4 No real story here outside of battling for title contention. Imagine that. It’s the usual “I’ll roll him up, now you roll me up” sequence to show that no one can trust anyone else. Albright and Claudio do a neat clothesline/slingshot to send Jay to the floor. Albright and Claudio get into a shoving match, and Albright hits a uranage backbreaker. Great spot as Claudio grabs Albright in the Giant Swing and Jay plays jump-rope with him until he can get close enough to knock Claudio down. Albright hits an Oklahoma Air Raid Crash. Brent takes down his knee pad, but Claudio jumps him from behind and finishes Jay with the European Uppercut at 7:54. Some funny spots and Jay’s bumping lifted this above the average three-way. **1/4 Hey, Stevens really DOES look like Ben Stiller. Stevens upset Danielson in an FIP Title defense back at Transform, so Danielson is seeking revenge. Stevens is the type of wrestler to look for high-impact big moves with some wrestling in between until he finds an opening. Danielson is the type of wrestler who just whittles away until he’s decided he’s had enough. That’s the dynamic here. Stevens hits a few big-impact moves – the Samoan Drop and Protobomb – early, but Danielson zeroes in on the leg to take over. Dragon wears him down with the legvine, the half-crab, and even the figure-four (WOOOO!). Stevens catches him with a HARSH lariat that spins Dragon over, but Dragon goes back to the leg and locks in an anklelock. Stevens makes the ropes and small packages Dragon for two. Danielson gets powerslammed for two, but he turns the cover into a small package for two. Stevens hulks up, hits a lariat and finishes with the Doctorbomb at 18:14. Big boos for Stevens’ victory. Nigel: “The second-best wrestler in the world is now the third-best wrestler in the world.” This was a bit screwed up because the fans were so clearly behind Dragon while Stevens played sympathetic babyface, selling the knee. Yeah, uh, ROH fans don’t do the sympathy thing. Outside of that, it was marvelously wrestled. Had it been an FIP match, I think it might have come off much better. ***1/2 Necro is just a roadblock on Aries’ warpath toward Jimmy Jacobs. Necro attacks at the bell, but Aries fights back and puts him through a table. Aries gets on the mic and tells Necro not to be Jimmy’s lackey. Aries admits he’s also a Dennis Kucinich supporter, and Kucinich wouldn’t approve. He says he doesn’t have a problem with Necro, so he’s not going to fight back. Necro continues to fight, but Aries just tries to talk sense into him. Finally, Necro hits him with a chairshot and pins him at 9:21. This was all angle and no match – not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m not going to rate it. [N/R] Jimmy now has Erick Stevens’ old hair style. Things get chippy early as Steen calls Matthews a “bitch” and dares him to get into a fist-fight with him. The AotF ducks out, but Steen and Generico drag them back in and throw them out. Generico adds the springboard somersault plancha to pop the crowd. Back in, the AotF take over on Generico for the bulk of the match. He gets out of trouble and hot tags Kevin Steen. Steen cleans house to a big pop. Cannonballs for everyone! A big splash only gets two, and Matthews slips out of the Packaged Piledriver. Jimmy Jacobs hops in with the End Time on Steen. Generico backdrops Matthews over, though, and Yakuza Kicks Jimmy in the face, knocking Steen over on him for the win at 10:51. Old-fashioned formula tag. Notice that Jimmy Jacobs continues to look weak while Tyler is starting to become a worldbeater. **1/2 Roderick Strong refused to sell out to Larry Sweeney, making him a target for Sweet ‘n’ Sour. This, of course, is the serious Chris Hero, so he’s more violent and less goofy. He actually outwrestles Strong early, but he makes the mistake of chopping Strong, and that just makes Roderick mad. Roddy chops his way back. Hero slips over his shoulder and nearly knocks him cold with the rolling elbow. Hero grabs a facelock for a bit. Sweet counter as Roderick avoids an armdrag, letting Hero drop on his face, and then Roderick falls backward over him and rolls him up into a crucifix for two. Hero catches him with an elbow but wildly charges to the corner and gets kicked. To the floor, Roderick chops Hero around, but Hero hops up to the barricade and comes back with a forearm. Hero wants a countout but realizes there are no countouts in ROH, so he goes out to picks Strong up. Well, that was his second mistake. Roderick chops his way back into the match from the apron and then suplexes Hero’s spine right on the edge of the apron. OUCH! Hero no-sells a chop but gets dropkicked. He blocks the Tiger Driver and hits his own powerbomb for two. Roderick kicks out of that, though. Roderick gets two off the Cradle Backbreaker, but Sweeney puts Hero’s foot on the ropes. Sara Del Rey reaches in and trips Roderick up, allowing Hero to hit a rolling elbow. Another knocks Roderick out, and Hero gets the pin at 21:20. Roderick is back to being a babyface, all is right with the world. This was booked just how it should be – a fair fight until Hero’s many surrogates got involved. ***1/4 How could you not know what was going to happen here? Pearce is the de facto heel, so he spends a lot of time arguing with the ref and stalling. Nigel has to fight from underneath throughout most of the match. Pearce’s offense is good for a lot of other promotions, but the ROH fans demand octane, baby! It picks up a little when Pearce hits Nigel’s own Tower of London on him. Pearce blocks the Jawbreaker Lariat and knocks Nigel to the floor. Nigel hits a rebound lariat, though, and goes for a suplex. Sweeney grabs his ankle, putting Pearce on top. Oh, but Todd Sinclair catches him and tosses Sweeney. Sweeney is irate. Bobby Dempsey climbs in and tries to attack Nigel. He gets caught by Nigel, though. Pearce shoves Dempsey aside and hits Nigel, but Nigel rebounds with the Jawbreaker Lariat at 21:26. New NWA Champion. Not surprisingly, the decision is immediately overruled by Cary Silkin and Dave Marquez because Nigel tossed Adam Pearce over the top in all the chaos, and that’s a disqualification according to the NWA. This was a really bad matchup at this point. Nigel had a lot of cred as a heel but was forced to go back to playing a babyface for this match. Not that I think that Adam Pearce should have been the babyface, but something just didn’t work here. At least they covered all the bases of an old-school NWA title match (stalling, heel in command, heel using the ropes, manager getting tossed, over-the-top Dusty Finish). It’s nice to know someone still has an knowledge (if not appreciation) for the classics. **1/2 |
The 411: Battle for Supremacy certainly isn't an actively bad show, but there's nothing to go out of your way for either. It's an okay time-waster. The ROH vs. NWA Title match is supposed to be a big event for both, but it comes off as nothing more than an insult to the old-style NWA main events (especially with the announcers decrying the use of the rules). I'll say thumbs down, but Stevens/Danielson and Strong/Hero are worth a look. Thumbs down. |
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| Final Score: 5.0 [ Not So Good ] legend |
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