ROH "Night Of Appreciation" Review

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

(I'm putting this in the Smark Krew & Misc. Promotions folders, so if it doesn't belong in one, it'll be in the the other.)

 

You see, I want to review the newest tape to my collection, Ring Of Honor's third tape, "A Night Of Appreciation". However, due to three factors (I would have to write it out since my comp isn't anywhere near a VCR & TV, I get writer's cramp very easily, and I'm really, really longwinded with my PBP), I won't be doing PBP. However, if I think there's a cool spot that the world shall know about, it will be mentioned.

 

Now, if you're not too offended by that, on with the review...

 

RING OF HONOR: A NIGHT OF APPRECIATION

 

The tape starts out with a series of vignettes. First, H.C. Loc meets up with his new partner, Tony DeVito (of Da Baldies fame) before the show while the ring crew is setting up for the show. Just for the hell of it, they beat up a couple of ringboys, including throwing one into a row of chairs in what I thought was a nice-looking bump.

 

We then see a montage of the events between American Dragon, Low Ki, and Christopher Daniels leading up to tonight, where two new players will be added (A.J. Styles and Donovan Morgan).

 

Then, Divine Storm and Brian XL are ~STRETCHING~! Quiet Storm asks Brian, "Dude, let me try this sweet submission on you, dude!" or some other weird Saskatawan-esque surfer talk dealing with a submission. Brian denies the request, saying that since he's a high-flier, he doesn't need to mess with submissions.

 

Then we go outside, where The Christopher Street Connection are standing amongst the RoH fans from Boston & NYC. They claim not to be the hardest-hitting tag team in Ring Of Honor, but the "hardest-kissing", which leads to some tonsil hockey. Then, Da Hit Squad chase them off, and follow up with basically the same "rah-rah" promo they do every month.

 

Then, we see Quiet Storm walking up to American Dragon and asking him to show a buddy of his (Brian XL) "one of those tight submissions". Dragon says, "Sweet.", and let the stretching begin!

 

We then see Boogalou "chillin'" with Da Hit Squad, all sad and stuff about Homicide (Boogalou's regular tag partner in the Natural Born Sinners). Then, Tony Devito enters the room for two purposes: to call Boogalou "Booga-looga-looga-lou", and to warn Boogalou about The Carnage Crew (Loc & Devito).

 

Then we go back to XL & Chris Devine, and XL breaks out my new favorite saying, "He's a bey-bey-beeyotch!". We also get a close-up of what looks to be Devine's bad acne (though I could be wrong) as he tells XL that wrestling's all about different styles.

 

We then go to a meeting with PA State Athletic Commissioner Frank Talent with all of the guys working the show tonight. Spanky sneaks into the meeting a little late. Talent puts over Eddy Guerrero, and then yells at Spanky for listening to his Walkman and not paying attention. Talent is bizarrly charismatic.

 

We go back to Devine & XL. Before long, Devine sees AmDrag and Storm walking and walks off.

 

Then, AmDrag comes up from behind XL and locks in a ab-stretch/crossface combo while explaining how to lock it in and what he's doing at that moment in time. This whole "submission" vignette thing was very much enjoyable.

 

Then, we get to see a re-cap of the Christopher Street Connection-Hit Squad feud so far in RoH.

 

Steven DeAngellis is now in the ring, and Steve Corino & Donnie B. (Nova's twin brother) are on commentary. Da Hit Squad storm the ring, and chase DeAngellis out. They call out the CSC, and out they come. When they get close to the ring, a brawl ensues outside. Then, Alison Danger (the CSC's valet) gets on the mic, and announces that it's now a Three-Way Dance: Hit Squad vs. CSC vs. Prince Nana & his servants (Simply Luscious & Elax The Exploited Child)

 

DA HIT SQUAD vs. CHRISTOPHER STREET CONNECTION vs. ELAX/PRINCE NANA/SIMPLY LUSCIOUS

 

This was a plain and simple cluster. It starts out as five-on-two, but then the CSC and the Nana-led group get into it after Allison Danger hits on Simply Luscious. Then, Da Hit Squad destroy everyone, and get the win after a burning hammer on Simply Luscious. I don't think this was really a match, as much as wanting to get the comedy/gimmicky stuff out there early.

 

WINNER: Da Hit Squad

RATING: DUD

 

A re-cap of Jay Briscoe's losses so far in Ring Of Honor is shown, followed by a promo with Jay & Mark Briscoe where they argue about Jay's win-loss record so far.

 

TONY MAMALUKE vs. JAY BRISCOE

 

This match was the best of the undercard IMO. They did a hell of a job with the mat work in this one. They meshed really well together, and I wouldn't mind seeing a re-match between these two. It'll be interesting to see how damn good Jay Briscoe is in 5 years, considering he's only 18 now, and he's fricking awesome. Mamaluke may be the most underrated guy on the indies right now, but hopefully word gets out soon that he isn't just a monster bump machine and is a hell of a technical wrestler. Oh, Briscoe wins the match after reversing a backslide into The J-Driller, which was a cool finish. Like I said before, this was some damn good stuff.

 

WINNER: Jay Briscoe

RATING: *** 1/4

 

We follow Jay & Mark Briscoe backstage, where their parents congratulate Jay on his victory. Mark acts all jealous and stuff, and says that despite Jay's victory, Mamaluke almost beat him. Funny stuff. The Jay vs. Mark feud looks to have some promise, inside and outside the ring.

 

The camera then zooms up the stairwell, where James Maritato catches up with Tony Mamaluke, and tells him to stop doing the FBI gimmick.

 

DIVINE STORM (Chris Devine & Quiet Storm) (w/ Brian XL) vs. CHRISTIAN YORK & JOEY MATTHEWS

 

This was an enjoyable little match. The work was especially strong when Quiet Storm was in the ring. Out of all the Whipwreck students, he looks to be the only one with potential to be more than a one-trick pony. He's the only one who has taken the time to learn more than the quasi-lucha highspot style that the S.A.T. over-use. Joey Matthews looked better in this match than most of his ECW run. Devine was there to be there. Didn't disappoint or impress. York wasn't very good in this match, though usually he's bad-horrible, so it's a step up for him. The only real purpose of this match on the show was to establish that XL was an annoying little guy who disrespected the Code of Honor for his own gain (by hitting a moonsault from inside the ring to the floor onto York without touching the ropes), and Divine Storm wouldn't put up with it (by sending XL back to the locker room after his little highspot). Near the end, York & Matthews hit another one of their "innovative" double-team moves that are so special that the announcers have to give it a stupid name that makes little to no sense, this being the "Full Effect" (double torture rack into a double DDT that it looked as if they almost botched it). However, Storm picks up the win with a leglace into a cool-looking anklelock variation on Matthews.

 

WINNERS: Divine Storm

RATING: **

 

We then get interviews from James Maritato & Scoot Andrews to build up their match.

 

XAVIER vs. JAMES MARITATO vs. SCOOT ANDREWS

 

There are two ways a three-way-dance can come out: the American Dragon-Chris Daniels-Low Ki way, or a big cluster leading up to a bunch of broken-up pinfalls going into the finish. This went the way of the latter. Just a bunch of spots thrown together for the sake of having a match. And to make matters worse, Maritato, who usually can work well to make a cluster look better than it is, looked a little off. Scoot was, well, Scoot. Not too bad, yet not too good. Xavier was alright, and for the most part was the one who the other two got their heat on. Finish came when Maritato reversed a top rope flying move from Xavier into a Fujiwara armbar.

 

WINNER: James Maritato

RATING: * 3/4

 

AJ Styles cuts a short promo, promising Low Ki that their match would be a battle.

 

A.J. STYLES vs. LOW KI

 

Man, this match was damn good. Not as good as the MOTYC's from the previous two shows, but damn good. Lots of cool spots, the action was back-and-forth, and it didn't turn into an all-out spotfest, which is always a good thing. A.J. was noticeably stiffer with his strikes here than anything I've ever seen him do in Wildside (Of course, he was working with Low Ki.) There were a lot of spots I enjoyed, such as A.J. rolling out of the Ki Krusher '99 into a cradle, A.J. hitting a quebrada, but instead just hooking Ki's head and hitting a reverse DDT, and A.J. hitting the Cliffhanger (crucifix powerbomb into a DDT) and Low Ki taking it like a man, head-first brainbuster style instead of the usual facebuster bump (which got a standing ovation after Low Ki kicked out of it), and Low Ki's cool Dragon Clutch Tarantula. There is one spot of Low Ki's that sort of disturbs me, though I really don't know why, seeing as if I've seen sicker stuff done before, and that's the spot where he bends the opponent over, grabs him by the head, and just repeatedly kicks him in the face. Anyway, the finish is Ki rolling Styles up into a small package, and getting what looked like a 2-count, though it was counted as a 3-count (in order to build A.J. up and build heat for a re-match in Boston). The thing about the finish, to me, was that if you really want to build someone up, you give them a clean win instead of a shady finish. They gave Spanky & Donovan Morgan clean wins to build them up on the same night. Why not A.J.?

 

WINNER: Low Ki

RATING: **** 1/2

 

Chris Daniels then cuts a promo, putting over Donovan Morgan, and putting down the Code Of Honor. Good stuff.

 

DUNN & MARCOS vs. CARNAGE CREW (Devito & H.C. Loc)

 

Squash filler. This was supposed to put Loc & Devito over as badasses, but they put them over two guys who look to be straight out of a middle school classroom in the mid-80's. They looked to weigh as much as one of the hubcaps that Loc & Devito carried around. Finish is Carnage Crew hitting a Black Tiger Bomb/neckbreaker double-team combo on one of the two skinny Poison fans. (by the way, Dunn & Marcos were trained by H.C. Loc, so that may have had a factor with them working this show.)

 

WINNER: Carnage Crew

RATING: DUD

 

Donovan Morgan then cut a bland promo.

 

DONOVAN MORGAN vs. "FALLEN ANGEL" CHRISTOPHER DANIELS

 

You know, for a guy who's being built up as the main ROH heel, Daniels sure is getting face pops. Anyway, this was tremendous. Everything looked good and made sense. One thing I noticed in both this match and the Mamaluke-Briscoe match is that the headlock is being put over strong now, as opposed to just being a resthold. The opening minutes of this match revolved around Morgan keeping Daniels locked in a headlock as Donnie B. & Steve Corino put over the headlock strong on commentary. After that, they break out a bunch of cool armbars, suplexes, and other stuff. The finish was nice, as Morgan hits his spinning fisherman's buster, but Daniels gets his foot on the ropes. So he does it again in the middle of the ring and gets the win. Extremely strong match, but then again, when you got guys who can work like these two, you shouldn't really expect much less.

 

WINNER: Donovan Morgan

RATING: ****

 

After the match, Daniels calls Morgan back into the ring for a handshake, but pulls his hand at the last second. Daniels then puts down the Code Of Honor again, calling it a "farce". But he does say that he'll watch Morgan's back in the locker room.

 

We go to a video montage of all the TWA students to hype the next match, the Heartbreak Gauntlet Series.

 

Then, we go backstage in a stairwell, where Rudy Boy Gonzalez has all of the TWA guys at, giving them instructions or something. Spanky walks in, and calls the TWA guys (and girl) "a bunch of DING-A-LING JABRONIES". Funny line. Then, everyone argues about Spanky being disrespectful, and who will win. Paul London gets in a hilarious line, where he just yells out "I break ankles" (referring to "The Round Robin Challenge" show, where he broke Chris Marvel's ankle doing an Asai moonsault), and then steps back and acts like he didn't say it. Rudy Boy says that he'll choose the order of who goes in for the Gauntlet match.

 

GAUNTLET MATCH: John Hope vs. Paul London vs. Michael Shane vs. Spanky vs. American Dragon

 

(Simply Luscious joins in on commentary, and Corino hits on her until she leaves mid-way through Spanky vs. Shane.)

 

JOHN HOPE vs. PAUL LONDON

 

Clipped heavily. Hope must have really sucked in order for the match to be so bad that it was clipped to five or so moves. London wins with the Shooting Star Press, which he does do well.

 

RATING: n/a

 

PAUL LONDON vs. MICHAEL SHANE

 

I don't see the big deal with Michael Shane. He has a nice looking elbow drop, but that's about it. However, I am really liking Paul London's work that I've seen so far. He just does everything so damn well, and he does a lot of stuff. Very solid stuff in this match, with nothing looking too bad. Finish comes when Shane hits his one cool move (the top rope elbow drop).

 

RATING: **

 

MICHAEL SHANE vs. SPANKY

 

This was pretty damn good, though I would have rather seen London vs. Spanky (but I'll probably buy the next tape, so I'll see those two work each other), but this was the best Michael Shane match I've seen yet. Spanky is his awesome self (as usual), and Shane looked decent, too. Shane blades after falling off of the apron onto the floor, and it actually comes into play later in the match, when Shane goes for the top rope elbow drop, but he's lost enough blood that he gets really dizzy and falls off of the top rope. Nice touch. Spanky wins with the Sliced Bread #2 (I'd like to thank Spanky for using a "Mr. Show" reference for his finisher).

 

RATING: **3/4

 

AMERICAN DRAGON vs. SPANKY

 

This was awesome. A slight notch down from their KOTI 2001 match, but it was definetely better than the Super 8 match they had in 2001. They were damn stiff with each other. Dragon just tore up Spanky's chest with some wicked chops. And both guys came out looking strong, Spanky by winning the match, and Dragon by kicking out of the Sliced Bread #2 (unlike some promoters, Feinstein protects his guys' finishers well, which makes someone kicking out of a finisher that much more special). The (cool) finish comes when Spanky hits a SUPER Sliced Bread #2, with him on the top rope, and Dragon on the second rope.

 

WINNER: Spanky

RATING: ***3/4

 

Promo with about eight guys (Spanky, AmDrag, Chris Daniels, Scoot Andrews, Xavier, Jay Briscoe, Prince Nana, & Low Ki) to set up the ROH Title Tournament follows.

 

A re-cap of the S.A.T.'s saga going into tonight's main event follows, leading to:

 

EDDY GUERRERO & RED vs. THE MAXIMOS

 

Eddy gets a monster pop (which he deserves by far). This was a lot of fun. Eddy looked like a superstar, and the others didn't look too bad either. The Maximos played the Midnight Express to Red's Ricky Morton & Eddy's Robert Gibson. The locker room clears out to watch the match half-way through. Near the end, Eddy teases the frog splash, but doesn't get to hit it. The Maximos set up the Spanish Fly, which Red breaks up. One Maximo goes to the outside (I forget which Maximo is which), and Red hits a cool-looking no-touch hilo dive onto him, and Eddy finishes up with his old finisher, the Black Tiger Bomb, on the other Maximo. Fun match, and I dug it. Eddy looked like he was having fun, which is always a good thing.

 

WINNERS: Eddy Guerrero & Red

RATING: **3/4

 

The Maximos, Eddy, & Red do the handshake thing, and then Brian XL comes out to interrupt. Eddy says, "You that 'Lil' Bow Wow' guy that they told me about?", and then challenges him to a match, which he wins in seconds with a brainbuster and frog splash. Eddy then does his farewell speech. There were parts I couldn't hear because the mic was somewhat muffled. But it was still a nice moment, and a great way to end the show ring-wise.

 

We then go backstage again, where Low Ki & American Dragon talk about how cool it was to pay tribute to Eddy Guerrero. They catch Spanky serenading his pizza ("I love pizza! I love pizza! You're my only friend, pizza!"). Low Ki yells at Spanky, and he doesn't pay attention. So he breaks Spanky's headphones. Spanky says that the fans paid to see him, "The Show Stopper", not Eddy Guerrero, as Low Ki & American Dragon look at him in a confused way. Then, Daniels & Morgan come into the room, and accuse Ki & Dragon of "marking out for Eddy Guerrero." Apparently, them are fightin' words in Ring Of Honor, as a brawl then ensues. Atlas Security breaks it up, and Spanky then accuses Morgan/Daniels of getting him heat with Low Ki and American Dragon. The show ends with Daniels once again complaining about the Code Of Honor, and a "To Be Continued" graphic showing up on the screen.

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Besides the two squashes, this was a great show. The non-squashes were decent-great, with Ki vs. Styles as MOTN. The skits improving immensely, with Spanky's skits being simply awesome. Commentary was SO much better than I expected, seeing as if we basically got two color men in Donnie Bucci & Steve Corino. Donnie really impressed me with his color work, though he probably should speed up selling the effects of certain holds, as the match will move on as he's still in the middle of explaining a move. Simply Luscious's input in the commentary during the TWA Gauntlet was bad, though all she did was get hit on by Steve Corino. The one negative, though, is the CONSTANT shilling for RF Video and ROHwrestling.com. They advertise both on the box of the tape. If you need to, take five seconds out between matches to put up a shill graphic for both. But when it gets to the point where Steve Corino says to check out ROHwrestling.com to check out between Prince Nana, the Christopher Street Connection, Simply Luscious, & Allison Danger who's sleeping with who, then the shilling is getting a little extreme.

 

To paraphrase Kevin Nash, "Buy the tape!" Really, you'd be doing yourself a big favor if you bought the whole ROH series.

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

Correct me if I'm wrong (And I'm not) but the J-Driller isn't the Tiger Driver '91. It's a double-underhook piledriver, where the Tiger Driver '91, rather then being a sit-down move, actually just drops the attacker down to merely his knees.

 

Just sayin'.

[Guest Dace59]

You're right.

CZW and now ROH are trying to hype J's move.

It is just a doulber underhook piledriver, Kid Kash's Money Maker.

The Tiger Driver 91 is a Sheer Drop (as the op lands on their neck) Kneeling (as the attacker drops to their knees rather than sitting out) Tiger Driver.

[Guest Nezbyte]

Good review.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

You guys are right about the J-Driller. I've seen it twice, and I thought it was different that T.D. '91. Yet, I've gone on other sites and it was called the Tiger Driver '91. Thanks for correcting me. I edited that, and my goof on York & Matthews' finisher (it's the Full Effect, not the Side Effect).

[Guest Dace59]

That's what we're here for, to help fellow board members at time.

Blame CZW for the pimping of the move as a TD'91, they call a Falcon Arrow an Orange Crush

[Guest pete]

I have read Styles clash review was really good and we do agree on a lot of different things but thier also a lot of differences. So I am going to do mine for a different perspective.

 

The tape opens up with the carnage crew of Devito and H.C Loc throwing bystanders into chairs and the like for no apparent reason other than they're trouble.Then the tape goes into a series of flashbacks for all great matches they've had the previous 2 shows. Also with the opening they hype 2 new big players A.J Styles, and Donovan Morgan.They then go to Divine Storm and Brian XL talking about stretching out Brian XL. XL statesthat no one stretches him because he is a flyer and cals Storm a little Bitch. This leads to Storm to get American Dragon to give Brian XL a little stretching excercise later in the tape. We then go to the Christopher Street Connection as they go outside to get the crowd going. In the past the Hit Sqaud does this but since these 2 teams have been opposing each other The CSC thought they would warm the crowd up. The CSC play a homosexual duo. Of course they start to kiss in front of the crowd which causes the Hit Squad to chase them away to a huge face pop. They have a meeting with all the talent and Spanky sneaks in late. Everybody there puts of Guerrero leaving for the big time.(WWE) Frank Talent does have this kinda weirdo charisma. It is hard to explain you have to watch the tape to see what I am talking about.

Match #1 is a total squash between Da Hit Squad(v)Prince Nana/Elex/ and female wrestler Simply Lucious(V) The Christopher Connection. There were a couple of cool power moves like a 3 man german suplex. The teased a lesbian coupling of Simply Lucious and Allison Danger. Hit squad did a Brning Hammer to Simply Lucious for the victory. They also put Elax through a table.Da Hit squad is like a cross between Public Enemy and the Dudleys. None of there matches haven't been anything but squashes so I have yet to see if they can work. 1/4*

Match #2 is between Jay Briscoe and Tony Marmaluke. This was a really good match. The pace was extremely fast and had a lot of cool wrestling sequences. Throughout the match the commentary crew was pushing future feuds like the arguing between the Briscoe Brothers and also that James Maritato was furious that Marmaluke was still doing the FBI gimmick from their ECW days. The commentators were also trying to get Marmaluke over as a legit shooter. They worked a couple of Fujiwara arm bar spots on Bricoes arm that he sold well. The finish of the match came when Jay hit the Jay-driller for the 3 count. After they shake hands Marmaluke gives him the Italian gesture of F U to Briscoe.After the match Malmaluke is confronted by Maritato in the back for using a gimmick in a promotion that is based on no gimmicks.Jay Briscoes parents are backstage and they congratulate him and Mark begins to say things like he almost lost etc. The Briscoe parents tell Mark to stop riding his brother.3 1/2*

The 3rd match opens with Matthews/York doing a promo.Their opponents are Divine/Storm with Brian XL. The start the match doing a lot of athletic arm drags and nio ups. The had the oldfashioned tag ropes in place that had a cool nostalgia look to them. There were a lot of cool double team moves that you don't see anymore since tag team wrestling in the U.S is not pushed. This match had a quick pace with a lot of quick tags that had a feel of like old Rockers or Fantastics feel to it. One of those cool dbl team moves was the full effect. Brian XL got invo;ved but Divine Storm was furious with him. The is against the code of honor.(no outside interferance) Storm hooked on a really cool looking leg lock to get Matthews to tap. I did enjoy the match but I felt the match was more of spots being worked into a match. The match had a lot of things going for it but it sorta lacked a story.2*

 

The 4th match is a 3 way dance between Xavier/ James Maritato/Scoot Andrews. They show a video montage of how lead to this match.Maritato cut just a really bad promo, Scoots was entertaining. Pretty much I thought the match was suited all wrong for what they're trying to do. You don't get shooters over in 3 ways. This loses credibility for them. Maritato wasn't going for submissions he was basically working a regular match. Xavier did a neat looking flip DDT onto Andrews with an assist from Maritato. Xavier was using some cool knee strikes to the head which I feel is really effective. Maritano wins with the Fujiwara arm bar. I felt the finish is out of place in a 3 way. 1 1/2*

After this match Simply Lucious confronts Feinstein.Then it goes to a A.J Styles promo. He sounds quite a bit like Jamie Knoble with that Southern accent. He is a better worker than a promo man.

The 5th match was Low Ki and A.j Styles. This was match of the night. They open the match with some brutally stiff kick more so on Low Kis part. They went tothe mat where Low Ki was trying to work the guard to his advantage. Another cool spot was when Styles went for a single leg take down and missed. This resulted with Low Ki kicking the back of Styles head when Styles was on the ground. That was vicious. The other wrestlers were coming from the back to watch. Low Ki hooked on the bite of the dragon which is just a brutal move in the ropes. The crowd throughout the match was chanting A.J and Low KI with neither wrestler having the crowd on there side. This match had a ton of hot near falls and innovative moves. Low Ki was just kicking Styles in the face. I mean that was nasty looking.Styles busted out an inverted brain buster which got a Holy Shit chant going. Styles did a German Suplex that he rolled through into a face buster. The finish came when Low Ki countered a Styles Clash into a roll up for the 3 count. The crowd didn't take to the finish but still apllauded the match. 4 1/4*

Daniels cut a great promo. His promos are really strong. His and Low Kis work are really getting the code of Honor over as being important.

The 6th match was between the Carnage Crew and Dunn and Marcos. Total squash with the jobber team taking some brutal head bumps. Dud

Donovan Morgan cut a promo and his was solid. He reminds me a lot of Dean Malenko.

The 7th match was Daniels/Morgan. This was a really good match. They start the match off with hold and counter hold for the first few minutes. The commentators are really putting over the headlock as an important weapon.For example they would say it took Daniels 6 moves to escape the headlock, Or man look at Daniels head turning purple from that headlock. The are really trying to get the headlock over. Hech just look at Steamboat and Flair they could work 10 straight minutes off headlock spots. Eventually Daniels got the advatage and worked the neck area. Eventually Morgan got the advantage and he too worked the neck area. This is telling 3 stories. One Daniels is softening Morgans neck for his finisher, Morgan is softening Daniels neck for his finisher, and 3 rdly they both think alike and respect each other. Flahback to the promos they cut putting each other over as world class wrestlers. The finish came with what I could only call a Fishermans Swinging Neckbreaker. Your winner is Donovan Morgan. Daniels cuts another promo where he invites Morgan back to the ring to shake his hand. He says he won't shake it in the ring because the code is a farce, but will do it in the back. 3 3/4* Just a really solid match.

Next up is the Texas Academy gauntlet challenge. The do an angle with all the particaipants. Of course Spanky just shined here because he is loaded with charisma. He has all the tools to be the headliner in ROH. I just hope they don't pigeon hole the guy as a goofball and not given the chance to shine. They settled that Rudy Gonzales will pick the order of the entrtrants.

 

First up was John Hope and Paul London. Total clip job. They show the finish.N/A

 

2nd up was Michael Shane and Paul London. They work was a fast paced quick match. Finish saw Shane hit the big elbow for the duke.

2 1/4* What they did was fine. They just didn't have enough time to build anything.

 

3rd up was Spanky and Shane. There match was pretty solid with Shane doing a couple of nice highspots to the outside. Rudy it looked like he bladed for him. Simply Lucious helped on commentary which had Corino hitting on her. Throughout the commentary Corino was working angle that he hated Rudy. They really pushed hard in the commentaries that these were HBKs students. 2 3/4*.Shane was clearly outclassed here.

 

The final matchup was Spanky and Dragon. They had there usual great match. This was really stiff. Spankys chest was beat red afterwards. One cool spot was Dargon was trying to escape out of Spankys front headscisorr. Each time he tried he would give Dragon a minature piledriver. That was just a really neat spot. There were a couple of botched spots that took away from the match. Another thing that took from the match was that Spanky split his pants. The show must go on. The finish was a sliced bread #2 from the top. The match was close to their KOTI 2001 match that I rated as 4 1/2 this gets 3 3/4*. the reason being were the 2 miscues. After the match Spanky taunted Dragon to shake his hand and proclaimed to be the new showstopper. Dragon replied this is the 1st time you have beaten me on a major show. Now everyone is coming out to enter the ROH title tournament. They were going for a N.J Skydiving J-Crown feel for it. They got the title over as something important but the segment dragged on because the p.a system sucked and it was hard to understand what they were saying.

The final match was Guerrero and Red(v)the Maximos this was a good match with a lot of cool moves. There was a ton of we will miss you calls. They really wanted to see Guerrero hit the frog splash to finish the match. But that didn't happen. They teased the spot and didn't deliver. Instead he won the match with splash mountain. Afterwards Guerrero did a speach with all the wrestlers watching. Brian XL came out and Guerrero beat him down and hit the Frog Splash. 3 1/4*

It was reminiscant to the time him and Malenko left ECW for WCW. After that Dragon and Low Ki wanted to know why Spanky wasn't showing Eddie the respect he desreved. Spanky said no cares about Guerrero that the people are here for the show stopper. Enter Morgan and Daniels;they call Low Ki and Dragon marks and a brawl takes place. Daniels and Morgan run upstairs and Daniels says the line that if he had any hair left it would be grey from all this ROH crap.

 

Overall a great show. The match quality was very high. They really offer a alternative to the WWE. The bottom line is you won't see these styles of matches anywhere in the WWE.The booking is done really solid with each show building to the next. The pesonalities are developing. Danilels is getting a pulp following as the non conformist. They better be careful because he might become a full fledged face from his heel tactics. Very SCSA like in that effect. They are trying to inject personality into Dragon by playing up his whitebreadness by stretching out people in the back. The 2 things I don't like is that sometimes the announcers talk over the match. This makes it harder to hear from the reactions from the fans which seem to be very hot for the product; though this comes from the splicing of the tape. Though what the announcers are aying is good, because they're getting moves and the workers, and the company over.

Two other things I don't like are how you can't understand the wrestlers on the mike, and the constant shilling of R.F Video and ROH tapes. The people whoe have the tapes know where to get them.Maybe its for all the people who have pirated the tape.If you can, definately get the tape. It really is worth it.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Nice review, you brought up some good points that I either didn't notice or forgot to not, though, (and I'm not trying to insult your intelligence or anything) but you may want to work on the paragraphing and punctuation.

[Guest pete]

You are right about the punctuation, and the paragraphing. Sometimes I just ramble my thoughts down on to the computer. I am really rusty with my typing. My job doesn't require me to do any typing. Thus, it takes me a while to to the review. Like the last one took me about 45 minutes. Plus it would help if I proof read. Thanks for the feedback though.