ROH "Round Robin Challenge" Review

[Guest pete]

The show open up with a Christopher Daniel's promo putting down the ROH. Daniels claims that they are just another independant wrestling promotion. He says he is here to put his opponents shoulders down to the mat. He says that the code of honor is a farce.

 

They then go to a video montage of last months show. The purpose of this was to get the talent over along with the code of honor. In the video recap they show all the talent shaking each others hand. That is except Daniels refusing to shake Dragons and Low Ki's hand. They did a good job of making the code seen important. Then they went and showed all the talent appearing on tonight's show.

 

Da Hit squad came out to get the crowd psyched. It seems they got the job done.After that thet have the code of honor scroll down the screen. We cut to another vignette. This one has Divine Storm and American Dragon. Quiet storm is practicing submissions on Chris Divine. Dragon comes across them and puts Chris Divine in the submission to show Quiet Storm how to do it right.

 

The first match is American Dragon and Christopher Daniels. These guys had an excellent match. The story of the match was that Daniels was working on Dragon's neck. This served 2 purposes. First, it sets up one of Daniel's finishers, the Last Rites. The Last Rites is a swinging neckbreaker. Secondly, Dragon uses his neck as part of his finisher The Cattle Mutalation. This did come into play when Dragon couldn't hold the move because of the injured neck. Dragon's selling was great. After most of his moves he would sell the neck. The psychology was simply great. Overall excellent work, pacing, selling, and psychology. Eventually,Daniels hooked on the Cross face that caused Dragon to tap out. The winner was Daniels.After the match Daniels wanted Dragon to shake his hand. Dragon said he would because he has class.

 

Rating=4*

 

Next up are a pair of Vignettes. First was Prince Nana getting his shoes cleaned by the Towel Boy Eric Tuttle. The next vignette was C.W Anderson saying he wants a piece of Matthews/York; but the code of honor forces him to pick a partner. He says he'll pick anybody. So he chooses some guy from the ring crew.

 

The 2nd match is Prince Nana/Towel Boy(v)Da Hit Sqaud. This was a total squash. Hit Squad wins with the Burning Hammer on Tuttle. After the match The Christopher Street Connection shows up. Da Hit Squad throws Tuttle onto all of them to the floor. Problem was Tuttle fell short and looked like he killed himself. Then they threw Simply Lucious onto all of the aforementioned wrestlers. In the back the CSC attempt to do CPR in a homosexual way to Tuttle. Nana saved him from that experiance. So the CSC practiced it on each other.

 

Rating=DUD

 

Next up was a Boogie Night skit.Then came a Matthews and York promo.

 

Next match was Matthews/York against Anderson/and Elax the ring crew guy. Matthews and York do a lot of cool double team spots that we don't get treated to seeing too often. Elax was there to take bumps, and Anderson did most of the BUTT kicking. Anderson is so much bigger than the rest of these guys. Anderson hurt Matthews arm and worked the arm the rest of the way. So they did try to rell a story. The finish came when Anderson bumped into Elax ,who took the bump to the outside. This caused Anderson to fall back into an elevated dbl team DDT for the duke. The Winners York and Matthews. After the match Anderson destroys Elax.

 

Rating= 1 3/4*

 

Next we got a pair of promos one from Xavier, and one from James Maritato. Xavier pretty much says he's the best. While Maritato was trying to get over himself as a shooter. He mentioned his UWFI shooter group he worked in Japan for.

 

Next match was Xavier and Maritato. Maritato got a cool looking leg takedown. He followed that up with some of the weakest strikes that hurt the match. The mat wrestling was solid , and built the match well. Xavier wnt for some knee strikes that looked weak. One neat spot was when Maritato was on the top turnbuckle and Xavier went for a neck scisorrs. This reulted in Maritato reverseing it into a Boston Crab. Xavier went to the floor and Maritato followed up with a flying leg drop to the neck from the apron to the floor. Maritato started working the neck. In the ring he hooked on an Oriental Scorpion. That was really cool. The finish came when Xavier reversed a gut wrench into a roll up for the win.

 

Rating= 2 1/2*

 

Next, Frank Talent had a meeting with the wrestlers in the back. They had Spanky acting goofy in the back. They had a Natural Born Sinners promo.

 

Next up was Boogie Night and Natural Born Sinners in a squash. The winners are Natural Born Sinners. ROH is doing a horrible job of booking the tag scene.

 

Rating=DUD

 

We got the pleasure of a Low-Ki promo. He did a really good job of getting respect and honor over as being really important. He has a real Bad Ass vibe to him.

 

Another great match was next. Daniels and Low Ki had a very execellent match. This match was better than their KOTI 2001 match. These guys were both working on each others neck. Daniels selling was great as always. Low Ki was kicking the heck out of him. Low Ki hooked on a lot of cool submissions. One in particular was when he hooked a cross arm breaker and neck breaker while he's in the ropes.The finish came when Low Ki reversed the Angels Wings into the Dragon clutch. The Winner is Low Ki.After the match, Daniels refused to shake Low Ki's hand. He then said he won't face Low Ki unless its for the ROH title. Daniels goes to the back where he gets a lot of heat from the boys for not following the code of honor.

 

Rating= 3 3/4*

 

The do a vignette with the SATS playing basketball really bad. They argue with each other. They were trying to get over the fact that they don't get along.

 

Next up was Paul London and Chris Marvel. They didn't get a chance to really show much but they seemed solid. London went for an Asai Moosault that caused Marvel to shatter his ankle. The match ended at this point. The ankle looked sick. Corino made some sick jokes at Marvel's expense.

 

Rating=N/A

 

Next we had the Briscoes cutting a promo teasing more dissension.

 

The Nexrt match was Spanky and Briscoe. They were doing some swank chain wrestling. This is a Spanky specialty. That is why his matches seem to flow well. Briscoe did a flying Oklahoma roll for a cool spot. Spanky was working the neck to soften it up for The Slice Bread # 2 his finisher. Briscoe sold the neck well. Another cool spot was when Spanky had a caveat on Briscoe and through him with the caveat. Spanky eventually got busted open that looked hardway. The blood flowing would make Flair envious in his prime. Briscoe worked the cut by doing high impact moves to the head. Another part of the story of the match was Spanky kept going for Sliced Bread #2 , and Briscoe kept countering to get away from it. Another great spot was when Spanky did a dbl springboard top rope suicida to Briscoe on the Floor. That spot was total Misterio in execution. Eventually ,Spanky hit the Sliced Bread # 2 for the victory. They teased more Briscoe sibling problems.

 

Rating= 3 1/2*

 

Next they show an online poll that named Dragon the best wrestler out of the TWA students.

 

Next match was Red and Brian XL/Maximos/Divine Storm. Total spotfest, with a lot of blown spots. Fun match to watch though. It had the firework element to the match. The first team elimiated was Divine Storm. The next team eliminated was Brian XL and Red. That made no sense because they argued over who was going to get the pin. They never teased any dissension in the match. Your winners are the Maximos.

 

Rating= 1 1/4*

 

We get another Low Ki promo which is excellent again.

 

The final match is American Dragon and Low Ki. They had Shamrock come to the ring. He put over the talent in the ring; and asked if he could ref the match. This match was frickin awesome. The mat wrestling was great. They were shooting for submissions. It was a stiff strong style match. Corino almost killed the match in its tracks when he made a statement. That statement that Low Ki would never tap. That makes everything that Dragon does in the match means nothing. Eric did a good job of covering the mistake. He covered it by explaining why people tap. The strikes were brutal. The Kicks were stiff as hell. The worked the guard trying to get the advantage. This match was better than their KOTI 2001 match. Corino was getting over the headlock. Both guys were working the neck. Low Ki Got a cut above Dragon's eye and began working the cut. This match was ultra intense and it actually seemed real. Everything in this match made sense. All the moves lead to something else. Just a tremendous match. These guys were working everything for their finishers. Eventually Dragon hooked on the Cattle Mutalation and Low Ki couldn't answer Shamrock. The winner was American Dragon.Both guys sell exaustion, but still shake hands. The crowd is chanting their names. It had a real special feeling.

 

Rating=4 1/2*

 

We go to the back that sets up a lot of the matches for next months show. They set up an angle with Mikey Whipwreck saying he will find a partner he can trust for nexrt months show. They also had a great angle featuring with the TWA boys. Spanky is just great at these things.

 

My thoughts are this is a great show. Some of the stuff was just phenomenal. I can't put over the main event over any more than I did. The booking was solid. This is a great promotion to get behind.

Buy the tape, you won't be dissapointed.

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

Another good review. I'm really cheap, so I haven't gotten this yet. I may, but I'll probably get the June review first. One thing I'll beg to differ with you on here is "chain wrestling being a Spanky specialty", or something to that effect. I won't say I've watched a bunch of Spanky stuff (I've seen two ROH matches, the KOTI, one match from UPW which was really a bunch of spots, some match from SoCal which I didn't recognize the opponent, the 2001 Super 8 match, and his work in Memphis), and, while he's excellent at the psychology, the mat work's not something Spanky's big on in his matches. Jay Briscoe, on the other hand, is tremendous at it. Still, good review.

[Guest DRAWMUH]

Great review...but a couple questions since I haven't seen a lot of work from a couple HBK students.

 

What is the Cattle Mutilation?

 

And what is the Slice Bread #2?

[Guest pete]

Both moves are kind of difficult to explain, but I'll try. Cattle Mutalation causes pressure to the neck and shoulder. Dragon gets his opponent on the mat belly down. Then he hooks his opponents arms flips over him and bridges up on his neck. This move is difficult to explain, because I am haveing a hard time visualizing it. So let me try another way. Picture Dragon's opponent laying down on his stomach. Now visualize Dragon being laying on his back, with his head touching his opponents head. Then he hooks his opponents arms so he is pulling up and then he bridges up. Sliced bread # 2 is similar to a buff blockbuster. Spanky gets his opponent in the Diamond Cutter position(how DDP would hook his opponents head before delivering it). Then he runs up the corner turnbuckle and pushes back and flips back over his opponent holding onto the head and slams his head and back to the mat for the 1,2,3.

I hope this helps a little. I appreciate the feedback.

[Guest TheyCallMeMark]

Where can yeh find RoH tapes and how much are they?

[Guest pete]

You can go to Rfvideo.com since they are the promoters of the show. They are also $20.00 a pop. You could also try to find them on the net somewhere and find them much cheaper. You can usually find them 2 for 20.00 or somewhere in that area. You can go to the Deathvalley Driver web site and look at there tape links one of those guys could probaly help you.

[Guest razazteca]

of the TWA guys were Fast Eddie or Don Juan featured? I saw them at a ETW indy show and enjoyed their work. Or were American Dragon and Spanky the only Shawn Michaels students featured? I also think that Jermany Sage has potential as a heel.

 

Is Slice Bread #2, funny name, a running Diamond Dust?

 

ok Rudy Gonzales mark rant over

[Guest pete]

I have only seen 2 of the shows. I should have 2 more coming by the end of this week or beginning of next week. The TWA talent that has appeared has been Dragon,Spanky,Paul London,Michael Shane,Chris Marvel, John Hope. Rudy Boy hasn't worked there but has been a spokesman and has escorted some of the guys to the ring. They also had a TWA gauntlet match which Spanky won.

[Guest DRAWMUH]

I get everything up to the "bridged" part. explain the bridge part in more detail...or give examples of other moves...beacuse there are different type of wrestling bridges

[Guest Phoenix Fury Legdrop]

The Sliced Bread #2 is also known as the Shiranui, if I'm not mistaken, and can be found in the No Mercy game.

[Guest goodhelmet]

no, the shiranui is NOT in no mercy but you are right that it is the sliced bread #2. the moves are one in the same.

 

as for the review, just when i feel comfortable with a show, someone has to review the damn thing forcing me out of my comfort zone, requiring me to go watch it again to compare thoughts and ratings!!!

 

*runs off to watch the show*

[Guest pete]

By bridge,Dragon's back is toward the mat so he bridges up so he puts the weight of the move on his neck. He also lifts up sp he isn't in a pinning situation.Another example is when someone does a hold on German Suplex and takes his opponent over and bridges up so he isn't pinned also. That is kinda what Dragon does with his bridge.