ROH"Road to the Title"

[Guest pete]

I thought this was another good show from the guys at ROH. I have now seen the first 4 shows and I have this one ranked as #3. I felt there were too many matches; and a lot of them didn't get the time they deserved. Their were a lot of good matches, but their was some matches that weren't bad they just didn't get the time to develope into anything.

 

 

 

They open the show with Low-Ki throwing forearms into a cement wall. They get over that Low-Ki is about honor,respect, and discipline. Low-Ki then cuts an intense promo on Chritopher Daniels that furthers the feud between the 2. They then go into a video montage of the workers in the tournament. They also show video clips of Philidelphia road signs with the caption of all roads lead to the title.

 

 

The first match is American Dragon and Bio-Hazzard. This match didn't get anytime. Donnie B tried to get Bio-Hazzard over as Dragons equal. All this did was lower Dragon's profile and lowers Donnie B's credibility even lower than it was.Bio had a weird look to him. Dragon was trying to get over as an intense individual by randomly yelling.It didn' work for him. Watch tapes of Malenko and Benoit and see how it is done.Dragon wins with Cattle Mutilation.

 

 

Rating= 1 1/4*

 

 

 

Second match has Spanky wearing boots and Paul London. I make reference to the boots because he actual looks like a wrestler now. Spanky is one of my favorite workers. Paul London I feel has the most potential of all the mid card in ROH. The match had a real quick pace with a lot of cool moves. The story was London was hitting Spanky with a high spot oriented offense. Spanky was bumping huge for him. London hit a huge dive to the outside. He also hit this reverse Tiger Suplex type move. ROH should get this move over as his finisher. Eventually, London takes a huge bump on his neck. This allows Spanky to work on London's neck. This lead to Spanky hitting Sliced Bread #2 for the victory.

 

 

Rating=3 1/4*

 

 

Third match was Williams and Bricoe. They kept up the Briscoe Brothers dissension. Their was a lot of great counter wrestling in the match. Briscoe worked over Williams neck in an attempt to set up the J-Driller. Williams had a lot of cool escapes. The finish was a roll through German Suplex by Williams onto Briscoe. They called the move the Chaos theory.

 

 

Rating=3*

 

 

 

Next up was Jody Fleisch and Johnny Storm. I hated this match. It was too choreographed with tons of missed spots for my liking. Their were a lot of hot moves throughout the match. Another problem I had was when they would blow a spot they would go right to the same botched spot seconds later. Your winner is Jody Fleisch.

 

 

Rating= 1 1/2*

 

 

They then show a backstge skit with Lynn,Nana, and the Christopher Street Connection. The Homo sexual references were really high during this match.

 

The 5th match was Low-Ki and Nana. Low- Ki defeats him with a roudhouse kick. Low-Ki wins via a KO. Ki was sporting Nike soccer shorts intead of his traditional gear.

 

 

Rating=1 1/2*

 

 

Up next was Red and Xavier. This match was another short one. What they did was good, but they did't have the time to build to a finish.Their were a lot of good moves, but lacked a story. The winner is Red .

 

 

Rating= 2*

 

 

Next match was Daniels and Scoot Andrews. Daniels introduces Simply Lucious as the 1st person to join his prophecy. The match also had no time given to it. The match was pretty much Andrews hitting big moves on Daniels. Eventually Daniels hits the STO and makes a comeback for the victory. In commentary Donnie B claims Scoot Andrews dropkick is Jumping Jim Brunzel like. That was such a dated reference. This allowed Corino to jump all over that.

 

 

Rating= 1 3/4*

 

 

Next up was a non tournament match. Sumie Sakai in a philly hat against Simply Lucious. This was a Dud.

 

 

 

Next match was Jerry Lynn and A.j Styles. This was a real good match. They really went at it. Lynn worked Styles back and neck, while Styles did some really good work on Lynn's arm.Lynn sold the arm really well early, but it disapeared towards the end. This match had a N.J jr. feel to it. They of course did the Guerrero/Malenko 2 count roll ups. Eventually Styles countered the cradle pile driver to the Styles Clash for the victory.

 

 

 

Rating=3 1/2*

 

 

 

Next up was a really long tag team angle that had at least every team out at some point in the angle. The angle really went too long.

 

 

The next match was Spanky and Jody Fleisch. What they did was pretty entertaining. Fleisch did a Asai moonsault and crashed and burned into the guardrail. The sad part was he did't even sell the ankle. Spanky wins with Sliced Bread#2. They put Spanky over huge as undefeated in ROH.

 

 

 

Rating= 2 3/4*

 

Next match was American Dragon and Doug Williams. This was the best match so far. This match was very stiff with great strikes. They did some incredble mat wrestling, with really cool submissions. Williams did his usual cool escapes. The story of the match was Williams worked the back of American Dragon. American Dragon on the other hand softened up Williams neck. This was a rematch of their KOTI match. In that match they were laying into each other with forearms. They did this in this match too. Except in this match when Williams went for the big forearm off the ropes Dragon met him with a kick to the mush. The finish of this match seemed botched. Dragon went for Cattle Mutilation that Williams countered into a Ocean Cyclone Suplex. Then it looked like he was going for some submission that he slipped and just pinned Dragon with him laying on him. This came across as weak as Dragon kicked out of the Chaos Theory earlier. I felt that the body of the match was just as good as KOTI match; but the finish sucked. Thus, I grade it lower.

 

 

Rating=4*

 

 

Next up was Low-Ki and Red. The opening of this match was incredible. They went at full speed countering each others kicks, punches, and other moves. This got Corino to bust out the line of the night. He said, "Holy Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, what in the Sam Hell was that!" The crowd was totally into the action. The pace was so fast. This is one of those matches you have got to see. Overall a great match. Low-Ki wins with a top rope Ki-Crusher. Brian XL comes out to attack Red. The Sats make the save and eliminate Brian XL with the Spanish Fly.

 

 

Rating=4*

 

The final match was A.J Styles and Christopher Daniels. This was another good match. They start off with some great mat wrestling. This goes on for about 5 to 7 minutes. Then they transition themselves to a fast paced high spot oriented offense that Styles has the advantage. Eventually Styles takes a guard rail bump and blades himself. Daniels then works the next few minutes on the cut. They go to some cool 2 counts. Styles is working on Daniels neck after he takes a neck bump off the top ropes. Styles goes for Styles Clash that Daniels counters into a ankle lock. That was a really cool spot. Eventually Styles is going for his reverse DDT that Daniels counters into the Last Rites for the pin. Great match but the crowd was drained from the Red Low Ki match along with the heat at the rec center I heard was brutal.

 

 

Rating= 4*

 

 

They finish with them announceing ROH t.v. They were going to show off the belt, but was interruoted by Daniels. Low-Ki,Spanky, Williams,and Daniels fight as the show ends. Low-Ki hooks on the Dragon Ki Clutch onto Daniels and won't let go. They go backstage and Styles cuts a cool promo. Then they go to the outside. Two people are kissing, it's Corino and Simply Lucious. They do a close up and Corino says thanks Rudy Boy. This continues Corino's vendetta against Rudy Boy. Corino trashes Rudy Boy on commentary all the time.

 

 

 

 

I have some final observations to look at. Donnie B is horrid. I really miss Eric Gargulio on play by play. The product suffers with Donnie B. Donnie B is more suited for color commentary, but not in Corino's spot . Corino is just awesome as a color commentator. Donnie B sucks. He made one comment that I am sure Feinstein wanted to strangle him for. Donnie B said he hates watching video tapes, they bore him, he even fasts forward through them. Roh was created by people who make their living selling videotapes. I mean Donnie B shills the RF Video website at least 12 times throughout the tape.

 

Another observation to look at is the # of matches. They should have dropped the first round because a lot of the matches didn't get the time to get the match over. This caused both competitors not to get over.Overall, I liked the show with three **** matches. They offer a wide variety of styles. They offer a product that is diferent than what is out there.