Ring Of Honor's "Era Of Honor Begins" review

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

RING OF HONOR's "The Era Of Honor Begins"

 

Like I stated in my "Night Of Appreciation" review, I don't do PBP (the reasons are in the other review, so I won't list them here.) Plus, I went to a doctor Monday afternoon for some back pains I've been experiencing, and he put me on some pain pills that've made me a little woozy. So some things may be a little out of order. Let the show begin!

 

We start with Da Hit Squad going to the NYC tour bus hours before the show, doing a "rah-rah" promo. Two notable things: Mafia (I think) stated that A.J. Styles would be at this show, and he wasn't scheduled to debut until April (it's sort of not their fault; RF sent out a press release a week before this show advertising A.J.'s debut at the April show), and this drunk idiot making an absolute ass out of himself. I was wishing that DHS would hit him with a Burning Hammer, or at least stiff him.

 

Then, we cut to DHS with the Boston bus crowd. Monsta Mack compares ROH to a new drug. That's really nice; compare your audience to drug addicts.

 

Now we're in the Murphy Rec Center, with Steve Corino and Eric Gargiulo (I probably mis-spelt his name, and I apologize) on commentary. Even though they've got entrance music, the Christopher Street Connection and Allison Danger are "crashing the party," according to Steve & Eric. One of them (I think Buff-E) gets to hug a male fan, who looks proud of himself after "gettin' his lovin'". The CSC hit the ring, and they've got the mic. They want to change Ring Of Honor before they even get started to "The Ring Of Homosexuality". So they kiss. And not just a little peck, there's a lot of tongue. And the protectors of all that is heterosexual and strong-style, Da Hit Squad, run in to break this up. This was the most brutal APA-style jobber beatdown I've ever seen. Buff-E gets dropped directly on his head with a BRUTAL German suplex. Just scary. Mace gets stiffed with some forearms and gets a hard spinebuster. Monsta Mack hits a Burning Hammer, and gets a "win", though I didn't know it was a match. Then, they pull out the Dudleys' gimmick, the table, and put Allison Danger through it. This "no gimmicks allowed" angle was fun the first time, but, looking back, it should have been left here and not continued into a feud.

 

We then get bad promos from Jay Briscoe & Red. They may have been the shortest promos I've ever heard. And that's a good thing.

 

JAY BRISCOE vs. RED

 

The handshake tradition starts here. This was a fun little "bully vs. underdog" match, with Briscoe "respectfully" bullying around the smaller Red. Like I said in the "Night Of Appreciation" review, it's going to interesting how good Briscoe's going to be in 5 years, as he carried Red, who has a tendency to do total spotfests (though I've heard he's had some real improvement in the story-telling department in the past 3-6 weeks), to a good opening match. One thing I didn't like was Red kicking out of the J-Driller though the move looks like it could kill someone. The underdog shouldn't be doubling as "Superman". Red gets the win with the Infa-Red followed up by the Red Star Press.

 

(By the way, is that Dames in the crowd on the side of the camera? If it isn't, it sure as hell looks like him...)

 

WINNER: Red

RATING: **

 

Low Ki cuts a promo about the main event with him, American Dragon, and Christopher Daniels, and uses one of my favorite lines in wrestling, "It's not the size of the fighter, but the size of the fight he will bring."

 

The Gangst....I mean the Natural Born Sinners then cut what I felt was a lame "we're from the streets" introductory promo in a dirty-looking area in the suburbs of Philly. The enviroment was great, but Homicide came off almost like he was trying to remember pre-written lines, not telling a story about a horrible youth. Boogalou just stood by with a rubber chicken (which is supposed to be representative of Homicide's mom cooking chicken in their apartment, or something).

 

Then, Xavier, being the nice man that he is, consoles "Towel Boy" Eric Tuttle because I guess he doesn't have a match tonight. Eric should not be weeping, since he's a towel boy, and towel boys don't get to wrestle (unless Terry Garvin is involved, but that's another issue that I'm not even touching upon...).

 

We go backstage, where Scoot Andrews cuts a promo for tonight's match with Xavier. Good enough, I guess.

 

XAVIER vs. SCOOT ANDREWS

 

This was decent. I've never liked Scoot Andrews outside of his match with Chris Daniels at the 2000 Super 8, and he didn't use this match to change my opinion of him. He's a slow-paced wrestler who tries to work at a faster pace than he should way too much. Xavier is probably the most bland of the Brooklyn crew (Low Ki, Homicide, etc.), but can usually have decent-good matches. I didn't expect too much, and I got a little more than expected. The opening was good, Xavier threw some good strikes and stuff in the middle, and the ending was good enough. Finish was Xavier escaping from Scoot's clutches after a Force Of Nature (pump-handle Rikishi Driver), and eventually gets the duke with a armbar neckbreaker (one of the Japanese guys, Kawada or Misawa or someone, invented it, I think. You can tell I'm not huge into Puro.). Fun, but bland.

 

WINNER: Xavier

RATING: *3/4

 

Then, the Natural Born Sinners scare the hell out of Mike Shane, Chris Krueger, and somebody else with their Halloween masks and chainsaw.

 

THE NATURAL BORN SINNERS (Homicide & Boogalou) vs. THE BOOGIE KNIGHTS (Danny Drake & Mike Tobin)

 

First off, whoever came up with letting Drake & Tobin use "You're The Best" from "The Karate Kid" is a genius. It's the Best. Entrance. Song. Ever. (Just trying to be hip with the board regulars) Anyway, I expected crap, and I got a decent match. Homicide really impressed me here; I had heard he was good, but at first, he comes off as a New Jack wannabe. However, he demonstrated some good matwork here. And the Knights are probably the best team ROH could have picked for this type of situation. They made the Sinners look like $1,000,001. I liked Tobin's work better than Drake's, but they both were good. Boogalou didn't get to show off a lot. The finish was lame. As in WWE-lame. The Sinners got DQ-ed because of the RUBBER CHICKEN OF IMMACULATE DESTRUCTION. Fricking lame. Afterwards, referee H.C. Loc gets beaten down by the Sinners.

 

WINNERS: The Boogie Knights

RATING: *3/4

 

After that, we see The Boogie Knights running out of the building.

 

We then go to the Christopher Street Connection, licking each other's wounds, and doubting their involvment in Ring Of Honor. Then, Spanky comes strutting by (you can see American Dragon smirking at this whole thing at the side of the screen), and the CSC feel like they belong. This was pretty funny, and the best backstage skit of the show IMO.

 

Then, for no reason whatsoever, we get to see Eric Tuttle wipe down the ropes. It looks like a fun gimmick to watch live, but I don't care about it while I'm watching the tape of the show.

 

We get the entrances for the Ultimate Aerial Elimination match. Mikey Whipwreck grabs the mic, calls Brian XL "Lil' Bow Wow", says he's got the "cookie crisp revolution" or something like that (it's a rip Lil' Bow Wow's Twix commercials), and adds Red to the Five-Way, making it a Six-Way.

 

SIX-WAY DANCE: Brian XL vs. Chris Devine vs. Quiet Storm vs. Red vs. Joel Maximo vs. Jose Maximo

 

This was eh. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good. It was like a bad whack-off experience: you're sort of into it as it's happening, but as soon as the load is blown, you forget about it and move on. Quiet Storm was the glue (or should I say chewed-up gum?) that held this match together. Like I said in the "Night Of Appreciation" review, Quiet's the breakout star of this clan, and should be getting so much more attention than he's getting now. Him and Jay Briscoe should be the guys who break-out in Ring Of Honor. Brian XL just blew spots left and right. He blew his first big spot (a springboard turn-around hurricanrana) twice, first by missing his springboard, then he mis-timed the 'rana and sort of just rolled it. The Maximos were there just to be there, and Red was there because he's the crowd favorite of all the Mikey students. I did like the story of the two regular tag teams (Divine Storm & Maximos) turning on Red & Brian XL. Order of elimination: Red, Brian XL, Jose Maximo, Chris Devine, Joel Maximo.

 

WINNER: Quiet Storm

RATING: *1/2

 

We go to the Natural Born Sinners' locker room, where the NBS cuss a bunch and chase the cameraman out of their locker room.

 

Then, Feinstein makes his debut on-camera appearance, telling Prince Nana to go to the ring for a match. Feinstein then goes downstairs, where, in a scene reminescent of Tony Mamaluke's debut on ECW television, "Towel Boy" Eric Tuttle is "buffing up." Feinstein tells Tuttle he's got a match.

 

PRINCE NANA vs. ERIC TUTTLE

 

Squash sure is yummy, ain't it? Actually, it tasted like ass. After all, Nana's offense was based around Da Ass. Tuttle finds a way to goof up the coolest-looking move in Nana's arsenal that I've seen, the running ass to the face, by completely moving out of the way. Wimp. Anyway, as if it matters, Nana gets the win with a reverse Tiger suplex, and then shakes the hand of Tuttle's unconscious body.

 

WINNER: Prince Nana

RATING: DUD

 

Then, we see Mike Shane, Oz, and Iakaua Loa (I've butchered that name) talking about whatever happens in the TWA tag match for the Ring Of Honor contract. Spanky, of course, was goofing off on the side, pouring water in his hair and posing for the camera. I watched this with a female friend, and she said that Spanky should try out for the open spot with N'Sync while Lance (I think that's his name) is in space. I see the boy band connection, and it'd be hilarious if Spanky was in a boy band.

 

ROH Contract Match(Winner of fall gets Ring Of Honor contract): SPANKY & IAKIEUA LOAvs. OZ & MICHAEL SHANE

 

Spanky's back must be messed up after carrying this match. This is proof that Spanky is absolutely SWANK. Loa & Oz sucked besides a couple of nice spots. Shane is just a bland, interchangable junior heavyweight with a cool top rope elbow drop. He seems like a WWE-style worker, and could probably be thrown into the Cruiserweight division and no one would notice (or give a damn, for that matter). The finish was pretty good, with all the big moves, false finishes, and such. And the Sliced Bread #2 is one of my favorite finishers now, as it comes out of nowhere, and the impact looks big, though it's obvious that it doesn't hurt that much for real. Spanky came out of the match looking like a star, and Shane came out as Spanky's unofficial rival. The only problem I had with this is that Spanky is a really good heel, and for all intents and purposes, he played Ricky Morton in this match. I could see why they did this, as Spanky was supposed to go over, and the sneaky heel usually cheats to win. Still, this was real strong.

 

WINNERS: Spanky & Iakieua Loa

RATING: ***

 

We go to the Whipwreck camp's locker room, where everyone's arguing over the Aerial Elimination Six-Way. Mikey yells at his boys some, and then brings in Super Crazy to translate for him. This sets up the Maximos vs. Divine Storm vs. Red & Brian XL for the next show.

 

IWA Intercontinental Title: EDDIE GUERRERO vs. SUPER CRAZY

 

This was some really good stuff. Eddie was in full dick heel mode, though he got the loudest cheers on the show. And no matter how the crowd reacted, they stayed to Eddie being a heel, and Crazy as a face. They did some really nice matwork, and Crazy was surprisingly up to snuff on the mat. The outside the ring work was the best floor brawling I've seen in a while, Eddy's brainbuster on the floor was damn nice, and I liked how Eddy saw the obvious Asai moonsault that Crazy does EVERY match, and blocked it. The finish did come from nowhere, and sort of as a surprise, with Crazy hitting a victory roll for the pin.

 

WINNER: Super Crazy

RATING: ***1/2

 

LOW KI vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. AMERICAN DRAGON

 

This was SOOOOO good. Probably the best three-way-dance I've ever seen. Ki's work is usually real strong, Dragon may be the best indy worker in North America today, and Daniels is the type of veteran that could hold a three-way together well. They had some brilliant spots, like the spot where Dragon has Daniels in the reverse Indian Deathlock, and Low Ki kicks him in the face twice making him fall back and bending Daniels's knee, and then Dragon hitting a Northern Lights suplex on Ki while bridging Daniels's leg, and the one where Daniels had Dragon in the Camel Clutch and Low Ki in a Boston crab at the same time. Also, even though I've of the school of thinking that you should make your strikes look real, not actually connect with them for real, I enjoyed the stiffness in this match, especially the spot where Dragon & Low Ki went back and forth kicking Daniels's back, yelling, "That's not how you do it!" between each kick. Also, they timed things out well so, as CM Punk said in a recent interview, you wouldn't have two guys fighting and the third just standing around with his thumb in his ass. I did notice that there was some lack of selling, but if you can get a three-way-dance to be this good, I can look past it. Finish came when Ki hit a Phoenix splash on Dragon while he had Daniels in the Cattle Mutilation, and then hit the Ki Krusher on Daniels.

 

WINNER: Low Ki

RATING: ****1/2

 

These three got a well-deserved standing ovation after the match. Dragon & Ki shake hands, but Daniels refuses to shake either man's hand. A promo between the three sets up the "Round Robin Challenge" next month.

 

We then go backstage, where Eddy Guerrero cuts an awesome promo about how he needs to step up his game in order to keep up with the guys in Ring Of Honor. Great intensity.

 

A highlight montage of the events on this tape follows.

 

The tape ends with Christopher Daniels leaving the building very unhappy, both at Ki & Dragon and at Ring Of Honor itself.

 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: This was a great debut show. Nothing real stupid was done, the work was tight, and the angles made sense. The crowd was noticably more respectful to the wrestlers than at the April show. Everyone at this show respected the workers and the angles, while at the April show, there were jackasses yelling stupid stuff out for no reason (Case in point: during the promo at "Night Of Appreciation" to set up the Title Tourney, Low Ki ranted about Chris Daniels not respecting the Code Of Honor, and some guy immediately yells out, "Honor equals shit!"). The commentary was really good. Eric & Steve made an awesome commentary team, with Eric being the geeky know-it-all, and Steve being his smart-ass counterpart who added his "ring veteran" insight. Eric did seem to come off as an almost snobby know-it-all, throwing out all types of crazy Japanese and Mexican move names, and even rubbing it in when he knew that Eddy Guerrero & Super Crazy worked a match in Puerto Rico previous to their ROH match and Steve didn't know. But, I liked Eric better than I like Donnie B. as play-by-play guy. The backstage skits were alright, but they have gotten better, so I have to congratulate them for that. I could have done without the "Towel Boy" Eric Tuttle rope-rubdown crowd warm-up thing; it looks to be a hell of a way to get the live crowd back after an intermission, but it doesn't make much sense on tape (though I thought it was clever that "Towel Boy" tried the towel rubdown thing to get away from Prince Nana during their match). The work on the undercard was decent, nothing below *, but nothing above ***. But, the last three matches were pretty good, especially the main event. So, if you haven't already, buy the damn tape!

 

Next time (if you guys want), I'll review "Best Of AJ Styles Vol. 2: Rise Of The Phenomonon".

[Guest Retro Rob]

Another good job. I haven't seen the show yet, so I can't comment on your ratings.

[Guest BigTim2002]

I had the Main at ****1/2, too...and damn right it was a sweet match.

 

This just in: None of those guys weighed more than 210 pounds. Vince...the future might be in the smaller guys...that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...

[Guest goodhelmet]

i just watched the show and i have to agree with the styles clash rating system. i don't know if i would give the main that high of a rating but i'm not offended by it by any means. and knowing dames, the camera whore who attended that show, it was probably him.

[Guest BigTim2002]

I was just going to say...that move you were talking about...it was invented by Kawada...and me thinks it's called...

 

DA STRETCH PLUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you, have a nice day.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

I thought the Stretch Plum was a submission, but I guess I shouldn't be questioning since I'm not a huge follower of Puro.