1. Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly vs. The Bravado Brothers
***
I think that 2011 might be the year for the new breed of tag teams in ROH. With ANX really stepping up their game this means there's a spot lower down the card to be had and quite frankly both teams in this match deserve it. I've been pretty keen on Cole & O'Reilly from the beginning but The Bravados just didn't seem to really click for me straight away. They seemed to have the right style but not the personality and even the night before at Champions vs. All Stars I reiterated that sentiment. Here, once again, it's another baby step forward as Harlem and Lancelot have fun with a few crowd members plus the matches finish did well for their cause. Cole & O'Reilly on the other hand are just an awesome team that seemingly have good matches with everyone. I think the only reason I can label this as being just "good" is that it didn't get much time - about 8 minutes. I can't wait to see a rematch sometime!
2. Rhett Titus vs. Caprice Coleman
**3/4
Prematch, Rhett Titus informs the crowd, who are chanting HEPATITIS, that he gave hepatitis to each one of their mothers...ZING! He gets a little bit of cheap heat which leads to a quiet moment where one fan blurts out the line "I hate you" in such a funny tone as if to say "I actually don't want to see you wrestle". Caprice Coleman enters the ring and cuts a really nice little promo about this being his home town and how he's going to make a name for himself.
Caprice Coleman got a much better opportunity to show us what he can do in this match, as opposed to the previous nights encounter against Colt Cabana, and this time I can actually form some kind of opinion. He's pretty good in the ring, has some unique abilities (such as his leap up top rope hurricarana) but most importantly of all he had a good connection with the fans who are loud for him. This show is in his hometown though so I guess time will tell if that connection carries through to all of ROHs markets but I have to say he's certainly loaded with potential. The match wasn't perfect though and there were a few moments of awkwardness between Coleman and Titus which even with ROHs shrewd video editing was still detectable. Titus at this point has just shed any opinions I had on him and he once again steps up to the plate and plays his role as the regular roster guy who gets his shit in but still makes the other guy look great very well indeed. Decent match right here.
Backstage Colt Cabana and Grizzly Redwood have a friendly chat about their upcoming match. It's the most unintense hype for match I've ever seen but was pretty tongue cheek so that's fine.
3. Colt Cabana vs. Grizzly Redwood
***1/4
Whoa the fans in North Carolina love both of these guys and we got duelling chants to start! They told a nice little story in this match about how much Colt Cabana underestimates his opponent Grizzly Redwood and there's some really fun exchanges between the two of them as each man is on fine form in terms of their in ring work as well as their comedy. Probably one of the best comedy matches I have seen in ROH for quite some time.
In the gents toilets somewhere in the building The Bravados are super happy about their victory tonight. Weird promo right there.
4. "The Prodigy" Mike Bennett vs. Cedric Alexander
*3/4
Another match showcasing a local talent only this time Alexander get's neither much time nor offense to really show us what he can do properly. What we do get to see seems solid, if not unspectacular. Bennet on the other hand is the star of this match, or at least supposed to be but what really can you do with 5 minutes?
Post match Bennett sits down on a chair at ringside as Claudio Castagnoli comes to the ring with Hagadorn and Del Ray. Christopher Daniels then makes his way to the ring and it looks like we're having a match that's not advertised on the DVD...WTF?
4.A ROH World TV Title Match: Claudio Castagnoli vs. "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels
****
This was a fantastic TV title match! Claudio worked the strong man gimmick so Daniels picked off his arm to restrain some of his offense and it worked well. I actually think that Claudio, as well as Chris Hero, seem to have better matches nowadays with their scaled back offense than they did in their earlier days. Of course Daniels continues his immense run of quality matches and even manages to show us a couple of new tricks. The crowd were super into both men and added a nice atmosphere to the proceedings. This for me is one of those hidden undercard gems that people will no doubt forget about. A very solidly worked contest with a hot finish.
5. Steve Corino vs. Andy "Right Leg" Ridge
*1/2
Before we start the match Corino cuts a promo about not wanting to fight Ridge and wanting to team with him instead. He reiterates the points he raised the night before about wanting to change and be a good person before calling out a local tag team called Alabama Attitude consisting of Mike Posey & Corey Hollis.
So instead we get a pretty short tag match that puts over Ridge & Corino and local boys do a decent job of selling and bumping around. Ultimately this match accomplished what it set out to achieve.
6. Chris Hero vs. Davey Richards
****1/4
When you put a match together like this one, it's difficult to give the fans what they want without going down the obvious route. Here that would have been two stiff wrestlers battering each other however this match had a fairly slow pace and was more an all out war of attrition. The stiff strikes did come into play here and there throughout the first two thirds of the match but once we reach the finishing stretch it's just brutal strike after brutal exchange. Such a lot of good wrestling for the first 20 minutes, nice psychology with Hero trying to KO Richards after his concussion from Final Battle and of course the many well done false finishes. It's nearly 30 minutes long and with a long portion of the match being at a slower pace than your typical ROH match this will undoubtedly be one of those matches many will either love or hate. I personally think this is the first must see ROH match of 2011!
7. Four Corner Survival Match: Homicide vs. El Generico vs. Kenny King vs. Mark Briscoe
***1/2
This was a decent four corner survival match that didn't go into that usual thing of basically being a tag match between the faces & heels involved. Each individual got plenty of opportunities to showcase what they can do with El Generico looking the best of the four. Kenny King belonged in this one despite probably not technically being on the same level as the other three. Mark Briscoe, as with his brother Jay, are just so versatile and here is no exception as Mark shows he can go singles just as well as tag. Even Homicide, despite his slightly ropey run up until this point looks good. Overall this was simply a good multi-man match.
Post match Homicide cop killas El Generico because he can!
8. ROH World Title Match: Roderick Strong vs. Jay Briscoe
****1/2
On paper this match looked like a bit of a foregone conclusion. It seems every ROH World champion passes the Jay Briscoe test at some point but I feel this maybe the best of the lot. Both Jay Briscoe and Roderick Strong do so well at making Jay look like an extremely credible challenger and that the title could genuinely change hands at any moment. This match didn't have the slow technical start I was expecting; instead it was just straight into the all out war that this match would turn out to be. Jay Briscoes blade job is just ridiculous; I'm talking nearly At Our Best here. A lot of the action in this one was hard hitting chops and forearms mixed with high impact moves that included a Jay Driller through a table (!) and a back breaker on the top rope! They carried a tremendous amount of intensity throughout the bout and when it came to the final hurdles it was just drama after drama. In short, this was an excellent must see ROH World Title match and will probably be a low end match of the year candidate.
Only The Strong survive has its ups and downs but on the whole it comes out swinging. The two title matches plus Davey vs. Hero make this an easy recommendation plus there's some interesting undercard action to boot. What's not so great on this show is at least kept short and the best matches got the most time. One criticism of this release is the lack of backstage promos. I'd have liked 1 or 2 more maybe one with hyping the main event and one hyping the Davey vs. Hero match but that's just minor quibbling.
8/10
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