ROH 127 – Dethroned – 25th November 2006
The title of this show along with the garish cover art leave the result of tonight’s Tag Title match in little doubt. That’s not actually the main event though, and the rest of the line-up for this show is good too so don’t let it put you off. It’s taken me a while to get around to this. Tonsilitis and learning to play the bass guitar have really distracted me from my reviewing commitments recently. Anyway, the card is good with Strong/Shingo for the FIP Title, Jacobs/Whitmer in a grudge match, McGuinness/Rave, a Richards/Aries Glory By Honor 5 rematch and another Homicide/Joe vs Briscoes tag to main event. The Bitter End and Black Friday Fallout were disappointing shows so once again the pressure is on to deliver a good one. Edison, NJ is your setting with Dave Prazak and Jimmy Bower on commentary.
ROH VIDEO WIRE (16/11/06) – See Black Friday Fallout (ROH126) review for details.
Julius Smokes cuts his usual annoying promo whilst Homicide and Joe promise the Briscoes a world of pain in the Street Fight main event tonight.
El Generico vs Brent Albright
I’m not entirely sure when this was announced but Generico has worked his way into another ROH opportunity. It’s been well over a year since he was last here. He’s fun though and a big deal elsewhere on the indies. I think his performance in the gauntlet match last night was Albright’s official arrival onto the roster. I know he’d already debuted but the matches with Daniels and Davis felt more like try-outs. He’s here now and will look to start advancing up the roster.
Generico looks to test his strength with Albright and naturally he gets dropped to his knees like a little pasty Mexican b*tch. He tries increasing the pace with armdrags and that’s a lot more successful. His intelligence is again found lacking though, as he accepts a handshake from Brent only to be tossed across the ring with a suplex. Brent hangs the Generic Luchador in the middle rope for a SWINGING KNEE STRIKE! Keep that spot man – think 619 except just kneeing a guy in the head. Double springboard plancha gets Generico a 2-count but Brent pops right back up to smother the comeback attempt. Generico goes lucha with a rope-run tornado DDT then a YAKUZA KICK in the corner for 2. Albright grabs him. GERMAN SUPLEX…HALF NELSON SUPLEX…CROWBAR! That’s his finishing combo and Generico taps at 06:41.
Rating – ** – Functional opener mixing a few touches of Generico comedy and the impressive dominance of Brent Albright. I don’t think a guy has come in to Ring Of Honor with more potential in sometime. Hopefully he gets a few more higher profile matches in the remainder of 2006. I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing El Generico back. In promotions like PWG and JAPW the guy is a main eventer. He’s easily good enough to be a midcard act in ROH I’m quite sure. I think it’s inevitable you’ll start seeing more unsigned indy stand-outs creeping into ROH. Guys like Generico, Kevin Steen, B-Boy, Ruckus, perhaps some of the Chikara guys too (with Hero and Claudio on the roster I wouldn’t be surprised). With the WWE and TNA watching ROH increasingly closely and snapping up the best talent, as well as Japanese tours for most of their top guys, the need for fresh blood on the roster will be felt intently.
Shane Hagadorn vs Bobby Dempsey – Top Of The Class Trophy Match
Shouldn’t this be on the pre-show? Not that I mind seeing Hagadorn too much. In terms of in-ring ability he’s still limited (especially when he’s in with other former wrestling school students), but the guy is an effective heel and his role as Adam Pearce’s sleazy crony is perfect. Bobby is the fat Dempsey brother. He’s been screwed over trying to win the trophy (which Hagadorn has held for ages) before as Shane used brass knucks to beat him.
Dempsey gets the jump on Hagadorn with big fatty forearm shots. HEAD DROP SUPLEX nailed and Shane rolls to the floor to escape. He recovers with his step-up stomp to the head then uses his bath robe to choke on Bobby. Dempsey channels Dan Maff with a cannonball senton for 2. Hagadorn goes for brass knucks but the ref sees it. Shane just pulls out a second pair and clocks Dempsey with those instead. That’s enough to retain the trophy at 02:14.
Rating – * – That was pretty good for a 2 minute match. I was particularly impressed with Bobby Dempsey. It’s easy to make jokes about him because, lets face it, he looks like an absolute joke. But he won the crowd over with his intensity and a couple of great spots (the suplex and the cannonball), and the disappointment when Hagadorn pulled out the knucks was audible. Shane is over, regardless of whether it’s ‘X-Pac heat’ or not. These days I have no problem with him being on the roster.
Jason Blade vs Delirious
You’d imagine this would be nothing more than another squash match. Blade is getting another shot at working his way onto the ROH roster this weekend. He was crushed by Albright in the gauntlet match yesterday in a solid but in the end pretty innocuous performance; will he fare better today? Delirious needs something to do now his post-SOTF victory title challenge against Danielson has gone.
Delirious’ mind games get the better of Blade before they even start to wrestle. When they start wrestling Delirious has the edge there too of course. Jason comes back with a few armdrags to show that he’s not totally worthless. Delirious camel clutches Blade into a toilet flush pin for 2. Blade comes back with a nice exploder suplex and a sidewalk slam. Suicide Flip from Delirious (that’s his flip-less tope suicida) takes the match to the floor temporarily. Jason tosses him back to the floor minutes later to nail a RUNNING SWANTON! That was absolutely gorgeous. He gets 2 with a powerslam but then botches a springboard crossbody. Delirious hangs him off the rope for a neckbreaker. Shadows Over Hell misses allowing Blade to hit rolling back suplexes. The Cobra Stretch makes Blade tap at 09:26.
Rating – * – Well, I’m still not impressed by Jason Blade. The guy isn’t too bad, but he’s just so bland. He looks like a million wrestlers on the indies, and he wrestles like them too. He’s such a generic American light heavyweight wrestler with nice armdrags, a dropkick and the token somersault senton to the floor (admittedly it was a damn good one). I still haven’t seen what’s so special about him that he keeps getting called back. Not a particularly good match either in truth. Blade was never in Delirious’ league but rather than work a full-on squash (like Albright/Generico) they tried to work a more even match and it didn’t get over at all.
Davey Richards talks about the tests he’s faced in ROH, opposing guys like Jimmy Rave and KENTA. He says he brought shame on his mentor KENTA when he lost the fall to Austin Aries in their awesome Honor Reclaims Boston tag match. He vows to avenge that loss to Aries tonight.
It’s scheduled to be BJ Whitmer against Jimmy Jacobs next, but the match never gets started as they throw the referee out of the ring and start fighting without any kind of bell. As you’d expect this quickly degenerates into a game of who can throw their opponent into the guardrail the hardest. Jacobs hits an AWESOME flying headscissors off the railing coming off that. How does BJ recover? Try an EXPLODER ON THE ENTRANCE RAMP! From there it turns ugly as Jimmy pulls a spike out of his boot and starts stabbing Whitmer in the head with it. SPIKE TO THE REFEREE TOO! Jacobs uses Whitmer’s blood as eye-liner! F*cking emos…HEAD DROP GERMAN BY BJ! That allows him to get a hold of the spike and start stabbing away as well. He then goes after Lacey but the distraction allows Jacobs to recover. Whitmer no-sells a crazy reverse rana to hit a lariat. Lacey gets in the ring to yell at Jimmy then get a few kicks in on BJ. Daizee Haze comes out and gets into it with Lacey, then she calls out some medics because both guys are so bloody. Eventually they’re separated and I guess they’ll come back to fight another day.
SIDENOTE – That was an awesome segment/brawl. BJ and Jimmy have been wrestling together (either as partners or opponents) for over two years and in one 10-minute brawl segment they just totally reinvigorated and re-energised their feud and made everyone desperate to see more. Top stuff.
Roderick Strong vs Shingo – FIP Heavyweight Title Match
Strong beat Bryan Danielson for the FIP Title in Florida recently, and he said in the newswire that he’d start raising the prestige of the belt by defending it on ROH shows. Shingo is the first challenger, and they have some heat after Shingo used a table to beat Roddy back at Irresistible Forces. He also cost Strong and Aries the tag titles by interfering in their match at Black Friday Fallout so the FIP Champion is desperate for some revenge. Remember it’s ANYTHING GOES in FIP, so Strong has decided that there’s a 20-count on the floor for FIP Title matches.
To further prove that ANYTHING GOES in FIP, Roddy decides that tables are legal in this match. That’s fine since Shingo rikes tables and hardcore. They spill to the floor where Shingo gets the advantage by driving a chair into the ribs. Strong recovers to get 2 with a falcon arrow. Swinging sleeper slam by the Dragon Gate star. That’s a cue for him to start choking at Roderick at every opportunity. Strong attempts a comeback but Shingo distracts the official allowing himself to hit a low blow – but since everything’s legal in the match that would’ve been fine anyway. STO into the Manriki but the champion gets to the ropes. Shingo decides that rather than wrestle he’ll just go and get a chair. HE RIKES HARDCORE! They go to the apron and Shingo thinks about another DDT through a table. This time Strong blocks it and nails a diving forearm to the floor. He follows that by positioning Shingo on the railings then going into the crowd to hit a clothesline. Shingo effortlessly lifts Roderick into a TURNBUCKLE BOMB! Inverted implant DDT scores but Rod catches Shingo on the top rope and superplexes him. Shingo NO SELLS it, so Strong hits an urinage backbreaker for 2. LARIATOOO by Shingo then a gutwrench Spiralbomb for 2. He hangs Strong’s feet up in the ropes for an elevated DDT into an open chair. But in the end he tries to use the chair once too often and Roderick ducks it to hit Death By Roderick. GIBSON DRIVER ON THE CHAIR! Strong wins at 10:43.
Rating – *** – That wasn’t exactly a pretty match, but I thought it was a pretty fun 10 minutes of two big guys lugging the sh*t out of each other. In terms of story-telling and execution the Irresistible Forces match was definitely better but this one got the point across that it was two bad ass dudes who wanted to beat each other up. In terms of match quality Shingo has had a mixed start to his ROH run (the matches with Rave and Mark Briscoe were totally forgettable) but I’ve enjoyed watching him and both these matches with Roddy have been good.
Kings Of Wrestling vs Christopher Daniels/Matt Sydal – ROH Tag Title Match
We’ve basically been waiting for this match since Motor City Madness when Daniels and Sydal declared they wanted a title shot, and Matt Sydal defeated Chris Hero in an impromptu match to prove that they’re worthy of one. At Honor Reclaims Boston Daniels also beat Hero in a singles match, with Sydal overcoming Claudio on the same night. The Bitter End saw things turn ugly though, as Hero basically punched Allison Danger in the face. Can the KOW see off these challengers in the same way they overcame the combined obstacle of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong?
Hero does his usual stalling routine which winds the crowd up and allows Jimmy Bower to drone through the history between these teams. Daniels armdrags both the Kings then mocks their pose. Hero and Daniels work wristlocks, Jimmy Bower is randomly talking about Paul London. Finally Hero slaps the Fallen Angel then runs off with a sickeningly cocky smile on his face. Daniels opts to slap Hero as Sydal comes in with a headscissors on Castagnoli. Matt is legal now, and he flips OFF Hero into a lucha armdrag on Claudio. Daniels gets caught going for a crossbody, but he rolls into an armdrag too. The Kings get sent to the floor and Daniels press slams Sydal out on top of them. Springboard elbow/back suplex combo gets 2 as the challengers have taken control of the contest approaching 10 minutes. Eventually Castagnoli comes in to uppercut Daniels into a Hero back suplex. Just like that it’s Daniels that’s isolated from his partner. The KOW are pretty methodical and have slowed the match right down as they work the Fallen Angel over. Daniels goes for a tag but gets caught with a Canadian gutbuster. He finds it hard to catch his breath, then harder still when he gets repeatedly punched in the ribs and choked on the rope.
Daniels manages to nail a desperation STO on Castagnoli and this time does dive into a hot tag. Sydal comes in on fire, rolling off Castagnoli for a headscissors on Hero. THEN HE STANDS ON CLAUDIO’S SHOULDERS INTO A DDT! That’s crazy sh*t! Hero cuts Sydal down with a release suplex. Big boot/Dislocator combo scores so Matt tags out to a refreshed Daniels. Fall From Grace nailed on Castagnoli. BME ON HERO! ARABIAN PRESS TO THE FLOOR! Sydal thinks about a dive too but Hero stops him. RUNNING CORKSCREW PRESS BY HERO! TOP ROPE MOONSAULT OUTSIDE FROM SYDAL! Back in the ring everyone just unloads on offence and they all end on flat out. Daniels tries a superplex on Claudio but gets caught. Doomsday Uppercut blocked by a Daniels victory roll. DOUBLE HERO’S WELCOME! SYDAL SAVES! He flips into the slice on Hero. SYDAL PRESS INTO A CASTAGNOLI UPPERCUT! KRS-1…BUT DANIELS SPEARS HERO AS SYDAL FLIPS INTO A RANA ON CASTAGNOLI! That’s three and we have new champions at 22:48.
Rating – **** – Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination (in fact, I think I may have preferred Daniels/Sydal vs Delirious/Richards) but that was yet another great ROH tag match. The opening was really cool combining the usual KOW antics with a few flashier moments from Sydal. Then I thought the match dried up a tad. The isolation segments on Hero and Daniels seemed to drag a little with no real direction. Fortunately Sydal was ON tonight and from the second he decided to stand on Claudio’s shoulders to hit that DDT it was really enjoyable, with an unbelievable finishing spot. I’m not sure about the legal man rule interpretation for a couple of things, but that’s only minor. Again, if you enjoy the typical Ring Of Honor-formula tag match then you’ll get a lot out of this. It’s a shame circumstances (Claudio signing with the WWE) cut short the reign of the Kings Of Wrestling but Daniels and Sydal have grown into a decent team and should make solid transitional champions.
INTERMISSION – Gary Cappetta has the Briscoes, who tell Homicide and Samoa Joe to man up for their match tonight before they go on to beat Daniels and Sydal to become Tag Champions again.
Jimmy Rave vs Nigel McGuinness
This match stems from the altercation following a tag match these two were involved in at The Bitter End. After defeat in that match Rave went into the crowd to attack a fan throwing toilet paper, which provoked Nigel to admonish him for being the biggest joke in the promotion. Jimmy obviously didn’t like that, and seems to have changed his attitude. He’s got new music and picked up his first win in months last night by scoring a shock upset over Homicide.
Rave tries to convey his new serious attitude through his in-ring mannerisms too as he busts his ass trying to hang with Nigel as they trade a few holds. He definitely looks on a mission to prove to McGuinness that he’s no joke. Nigel has a hard time escaping a Rave headlock as we approach 5 minutes of pretty tight matwork. He manages to hit his wristlock takedown which is a cue to immediately target Jimmy’s arm. Making that point, Nigel gets 2 with a wristlock suplex. He breaks out that gross-looking bridging chickenwing stretch. Jimmy ducks a lariat and hits an STO. Then he takes a page out of the Alex Shelley selling playbook by switching his elbow pad to the injured arm. Rave seems intent on making it difficult for Nigel to get his breath – first with a grounded headscissors then by shouldering the midsection as set up for the abdominal stretch. That doesn’t get the job done and Jimmy descends into old habits by choking and raking the face in the corner. McGuinness hits a lariat out of nowhere and gets 2. Headstand into the kicking Final Cut gets the same near fall before he locks in a front guillotine with hammerlock. That goes back to the arm, but Rave escapes with a swinging neckbreaker. Pedigree blocked but Jimmy recovers with the Crappy Wizard. They go through the ropes where Rave hits an STO ON THE APRON! Jimmy initiates a brawl on the floor but ends up eating a MODIFIED REBOUND LARIAT with Nigel coming from the ring apron to nail it! Back in the ring Nigel gets 2 with a lariat from yet another position. TOWER OF LONDON for 2. Jimmy ducks the super lariat and slingshots into a swinging DDT. Rebound Lariat COUNTERED with a spear. PEDIGREE…but McGuinness kicks out. Nigel evades Ghanarea for a REBOUND LARIAT! He gets the hard-fought victory at 19:32.
Rating – *** – I use the word ‘solid’ a lot in my reviews but it’s very apt for this match. I totally dug it, and with a little more attention to the little things this match could’ve been pushing 4*. McGuinness’ reliance on lariats and ignoring his initial armwork again annoyed the hell out of me, and I thought Rave could’ve done a better job selling his arm (after the elbow pad switch he pretty much forgot about it) but the general theme of the match was excellent. The reinvigorated Rave with a new attitude and a determination to prove Nigel’s comments about him wrong came out and gave McGuinness a real run for his money. They put on a decent 20-minute back and forth match and won over an initially highly sceptical crowd. Hopefully this marks another turning point in Jimmy Rave’s career and he goes back to turning out good matches for fun like he was during his Embassy heyday.
Nigel tries to make peace with Jimmy and says he now respects him. Rave shakes hands and everyone seems happy. McGuinness has a bit of a joke by lobbing a roll of toilet paper…and that sets Jimmy Rave off. They have a “shoot” argument that draws Chris “wise old man” Daniels from the back. Eventually Jimmy Rave walks out. That was corny…but after that match I don’t mind the prospect of seeing more of those guys in the same ring.
Davey Richards vs Austin Aries
After their original match at Glory By Honor 5 Night 1 I voiced my desire to see a rematch in a normal arena (as opposed to a rainy tent) with a healthier Aries, and now I get my wish. That night they had a decent match, but I felt they could do much better. Austin came out victorious that night via the Brainbuster. He also pinned Richards in the tag team main event at Honor Reclaims Boston. Davey said in his promo earlier that he wants to avenge that loss.
Matwork leads to Richards putting the headscissors on Aries. He smiles and evades the inevitable dropkick attempt though. Austin ends the respectful “I want to prove I’m the better man” wrestling by nailing a handspring elbow. He gets cocky because he knows Richards likes to handspring too. Davey tries his bridging kick but Aries catches the foot and kicks him in the chest. He has more of Davey’s offence scouted – blocking the handspring enziguri with a dropkick. ALARM CLOCK kick sends Aries to the floor. But he knows about Richards’ twisting tope and he slips back into the ring to knock Richards out. HEAT SEEKING MISSILE! The familiarity countering in the first 5 minutes here has been great. The guys that keep yelling ‘Austin Starr’ are pissing me off. Aries hammers on the neck region, but takes too much time preparing for the Power Drive elbow and Davey moves aside. It’s Richards up first to hit a Saito suplex for 2. Aries’ arm has taken some damage from all the kicks and his opponent takes advantage with a POWER DRIVE KNEE DROP TO THE ARM! That’s awesome, and the arm injury adds extra relevance to the usual chops/stepover kick sequence from Richards too. DR Driver isn’t successful so he goes for a cross armbreaker instead. Austin again tries a dropkick but again he can’t nail it. He elbows away from a German suplex but hurt his own arm in the process and runs into a belly to belly instead. Missile dropkick misses allowing Aries to hit the Finlay roll and a missile dropkick of his own. Running corner dropkick gets him a 2-count. Davey has too left to be susceptible to the brainbuster yet, but Aries avoids that twisting tope dive for the second time and scores with a corkscrew body press. HANDSPRING ENZI gets 2. I always mark for that move. Richards gets caught on the top rope but recovers with a tornado armbar DDT then a BRIDGING ARMBAR! KAWADA KICKS…SO ARIES SLAPS HIM! KAWADA KICKS AGAIN! ARIES’ SHINBREAKER BACK SUPLEX GETS NO SOLD! CRUCIFIX DRIVER GETS 2! Rings Of Aries applied but obviously with the injured arm it’s nowhere near as effective. Brainbuster blocked with an enziguri. HAMMERLOCK DDT for a 2! Still Davey can’t hit the DR Driver though. Aries flips out of the German suplex into a KICK OF DEATH! BRAINBUSTER…DOESN’T FINISH IT! That’s what won at GBH5. 450 Splash misses and Richards launches him shoulder first into the ringpost. DDT nailed and rolled into the 14:59. Aries taps out to give Richards victory at 17:09.
Rating – **** – I already know I’ll get heat for over-rating this but I thought that rocked. It was everything I really like to see in a wrestling match. It was physical, exciting and most importantly of all, it was wrestled intelligently. The whole thing was crammed with familiarity and counters for things they’ve learned from two previous matches with each other. I had a few complaints about Aries’ selling of the arm injury but at least it was relevant all the way through the match (*cough Nigel McGuinness cough*) and was utilised in the finish (the 14:59 works the arm). I think people would be raving about this match had it happened in front of a livelier crowd. Edison was remarkably quiet through a lot of it. I suppose it was a bit one-sided in favour of Richards, and given that Aries is a big draw in ROH these days that may have been enough to kill the live crowd. They give both men a standing ovation though.
Lacey runs down Jimmy Jacobs for not crippling BJ Whitmer tonight and will be getting someone bigger, stronger and smarter to finish the job. She also has words for Colt Cabana and Daizee Haze.
Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Homicide/Samoa Joe – Falls Count Anywhere Elimination Street Fight
What I don’t get is, it’s a street fight. Surely even if someone is eliminated the lack of rules means they can just hang around anyway? Oh well, Homicide’s road towards Final Battle 2006 continues here, as he aims to definitively beat the Briscoes and end his feud with them, much the same way as he did with Steve Corino and Jim Cornette at The Bitter End. Together with Joe he beat the Briscoes at Glory By Honor 5 Night 2 to officially earn his title shot, but the Briscoes got their win back in a wild street fight at Motor City Madness when Mark dived off the top of a truck and injured Joe, leaving Cide to fend for himself in a losing effort. That’s all the history between these four I can be assed to recap. Their issues date back to 2003/4. Read some of my older reviews if you want a more comprehensive picture.
Joe and Homicide waste no time with a TOPE CON HILO/ELBOW SUICIDA COMBO! Its falls count anywhere so there’s no need for these chappies to get into the ring. There’s also no rule to prevent Julius Smokes getting a few kicks in on Jay. He still manages to save his brother from the lariat/back drop driver combo. STEREO SOMERSAULT PLANCHAS by the Briscoes. They drag Joe inside and hit a few boots on him but there’s no chance of an early elimination. Homicide and Joe do a nice double team version of Joe’s atomic drop/big boot/senton sequence before everyone hits the floor again. Joe takes Mark into the crowd and starts giant swinging him INTO rows of chairs. It’s a bit dark out there but it’s still not difficult to make out Cide and Joe giving Jay a Con-Chair-To. Jay blocks a piledriver by Homicide only to be crunched with a clothesline from Joe instead. Joe then dons some hockey gear for a SHOULDER CHARGE INTO THE HOCKEY HOARDINGS! He then uses his hockey stick to whack a chair into Jay as well. Where the hell is Mark? Oh, there he is. ON TOP OF THE ENTRANCE SCAFFOLD! SHOOTING STAR PRESS INTO THE CROWD! Mark Briscoe is totally crazy folks. Jay capitalises and suplexes Homicide into a heap of chairs. Elsewhere Mark continues the crazy by moonsaulting a chair into Joe’s abdomen. In the ring again with Cide trying the Three Amigos. Jay blocks the third with a falcon arrow for 2. Springboard knee drop/backbreaker combo on Homicide gets 2 as well…so Joe comes in practically kills Mark with a lariat. Homicide gives Mark a northern lights bomb but Briscoe is still aware enough to counter the Lariat attempt with his urinage. Smokes is smoking a cigar at ringside. He then hands it to Homicide who STUBS IT OUT ON MARK’S ARM! COP KILLA ON MARK! MUSCLEBUSTER ON JAY! Both Briscoes are eliminated together at 12:43.
Rating – **** – Dammit, I’m going to get flak for over-rating this one as well. But I thought that was perfect for what it was. I know some people will be disappointed because it’s pretty short…but they went balls to the wall for the 13 minutes they wrestled and did some wildly entertaining stuff. I questioned the viability of having “elimination” rules in a street fight so I’m glad the finish evaded any confusion on that score. I will say that this felt more like a good match than it did a feud blow-off, but a good match is still good right? How this differs from their previous matches and provides a concrete end to the Homicide(+Joe) vs Briscoes I’m not entirely sure. Still, it was a super-fun main event that sent the crowd home happy and rounded off a decent card. Homicide goes on towards FB06 and has Adam Pearce next on his radar. Samoa Joe has Bryan Danielson in a steel cage at the next show.
Homicide bops around the ring and promises a party on December 23rd at Final Battle. Joe gets on the microphone and promises him that he’ll be World Champion and it’ll be him that Homicide has to beat for the belt and to continue his Ring Of Honor career.
Rating – *** – After a slow start with students and squash matches, this card took off with the lively Jimmy Jacobs-BJ Whitmer brawl and never really looked back. Obviously the Tag Title match takes the headlines, and rightfully so since it was very good. But that’s not all this card has to offer. The main event duo of Richards/Aries and HomiJoe/Briscoes are both underrated matches, and I thought Strong/Shingo and Rave/McGuinness were highly watchable too. I’m quick to criticise ROH when they throw out a sub-par show, and likewise I will heap praise on this one. Nothing outside of the Tag Title switch sits up and screams WATCH ME but it’s a lot of fun and I think your money is well spent here. Definitely one of the better shows in the “Road Of Homicide” stretch to Final Battle.
Top 3 Matches
3) Homicide/Samoa Joe vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe (****)
2) Davey Richards vs Austin Aries (****)
1) Kings Of Wrestling vs Christopher Daniels/Matt Sydal (****)
Top 5 Black Friday Fallout/Dethroned Weekend Matches
5) Kings Of Wrestling vs Austin Aries/Roderick Strong (*** – Black Friday Fallout)
4) Homicide/Samoa Joe vs Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe (**** – Dethroned)
3) Davey Richards vs Austin Aries (**** – Dethroned)
2) Christopher Daniels/Matt Sydal vs Delirious/Davey Richards (**** – Black Friday Fallout)
1) Kings Of Wrestling vs Christopher Daniels/Matt Sydal (**** – Dethroned)