1. Bobby Dempsey & Grizzly Redwood vs. The House of Truth (Michael Elgin & Zach Gowen)
*1/2
Oh this is not a good way to start a show! This was heatless for the most part and awkward feeling with no real rhythm. The only parts the crowd were really bothered by were the first confrontation between Elgin & Dempsey and the odd moment where Elgin threw Grizz around. Nobody was done any favours by this one and even more puzzling was the decision on who went over.
Post match Michael Elgin has had enough of Zach Gowen so he takes him out with an UMAGE-esque butt bump in the corner. I guess that's bye bye Gowen from the House of Truth.
2. Trial Series #4: Andy "Right Leg" Ridge vs. Mark Briscoe
**
Essentially this was an elongated squash but unlike the Reyes match, at least Mark Briscoe made this one entertaining. There's a fun sequence where Ridge gets dragged round all 4 sides of the ring and receives some of the loudest chops I've heard in quite a while! His chest begins to bleed and after some more chops in the corner, it goes all Joe vs. Kobashi. Yikes! Ridge did get some offense in and Mark Briscoe was more than complimentary, trying to make each one look as good as possible. Ultimately, much like the other trial series matches this did little to "make" Andy Ridge but the snippets of offense he gave looked impressive and it appears on the surface that his style would fit nicely with the ROH style.
3. Sara Del Rey vs. Jamilia Craft
*1/2
This was a shorter match than I was expecting and almost a squash. Craft shows glimpses of being interesting while Del Ray continues to prove why she's one of the top female wrestlers on the US indies. Ultimately there's not much to say about this one, stuff happened and then it ended. At least it was short.
4. World Tag Title Shot On The Line: Colt Cabana and El Generico vs. The All Night Express
***1/2
Interesting dynamic with the Cabana/Generico team in this match as El Generico has metamorphized into dark Generico and is nothing like what we're used to. He's overly aggressive and doesn't pander to the crowd which is great to show how focused he is on Kevin Steen and Final Battle. I'd like to say at this point that the ANX were a treat in this match. They both can have fun with Cabana, know how to get some good heat on a guy and pulled out some nice moves and combos towards the finish.
5. Kyle O'Reilly & Adam Cole vs. The Bravado Brothers
***1/4
This was quite the showcase for Cole & O'Reilly. Sure, The Bravados were not bad at all, even getting some great heat from the fans at times, but I don’t feel they got enough chance to really show us what they can do. It must be said that Paul Turner did a horrendous job keeping the match from losing track of who was legal, so much so that Kevin Kelly was shouting at him on the DVD. There's something to be said for just sitting back, being a fan and just getting lost on the match but at times this match was on the verge of becoming a bit of a clusterfuck. As it stands though, Cole & O'Reilly once again proved why they are one of if not THE hottest prospect in ROH.
6. Grudge Match: Homicide vs. Jay Briscoe
***1/2
The crowd is into Homicide HUGE! It has to be said that whilst that was still a good match, when you look at this on paper perhaps this could be considered slightly under par. The match has a good pace and is largely all about the back and forth action without much resting. The finish was a nice homage to the late Eddie Guerrero.
7. ROH World Tag Team Title Match: The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Kevin Steen & Steve Corino
***3/4
This was everything I expected it to be - a darn hard fought contest in a match that's incredibly simple but worked so well. Steen does a good job of crapping all over the crowd who would probably have partly been on his side due to his Canadian origins. It's Steen & Corino who take control over Hero early on and then later on in the match the Kings work over Corino but the match only really kicks into a higher gear when they begin building to the finish with several very close nearfalls. Credit where credit is due, Steve Corino belonged in this match just as much as the other guys. I know a lot of people don't think he's got it anymore, but here he shows that he can still go!
Of course, after the match Dark Generico runs out to attack Steen only to be held back security goons (or ROH students - whatever you wanna call them). He finally breaks free but then gets restrained again as Bobby Cruise announces that both men cannot engage in any physical contact before Final Battle or be within 50 feet of one another....oh and that their match at Final Battle will be a FIGHT WITHOUT HONOUR!
Backstage Roderick Strong is with Truth Martini where together they cut a promo stating tonight Christopher Daniels will discover what he's got left in the tank - it's running on E! An ok promo.
8. ROH World Title Match: Roderick Strong vs. Christopher Daniels
***3/4
This was a really difficult match to rate. Why? Well I appreciate that they wanted to go out there and give an epic main event title match (and in some regards they did that) but the first 10 minutes or so were not paced well and as a result they lost the crowd. So much so that later on they're kicking out of each others finishers and rather than the rumble and cheering the ROH faithful usually provide, instead we get a mild "meh" from the crowd. The biggest pop from the crowd during the entire match is when Strong shouts at some loud woman in the crowd "SHUT UP SLUT" and for that he's met with a "that was awesome!" chant. It honestly seems at times though that the crowd like Chris Daniels, but don't want him to win the title in fact they really don't support either man particularly. However it's not all doom and gloom and actually, after the initial 10-15 minutes are out of the way the match tells a fairly good story and there are some awesome moves from both guys being pulled out of the bag for this one. They tried so hard to get the crowd back but unfortunately, short of actually killing each other nothing would have sufficed. A good match nevertheless.
*SUPER DUPER BONUS CONTENT*
10 Questions with Steve Corino - A great little addition to the DVD. Corino with Kevin Steen answer a whole bunch of random questions such as
- who's your favourite ROH wrestler?
- who's the best wrestler you've defeated?
- who's the hottest lady in pro wrestling?
- what's your least favourite city?
- would you ever wrestle a bear?
What an odd show to put a score on this one is. On the one hand nothing jumps out as spectacular or must see and there's a few matches not even worth watching however all that is outweighed by the large portion of the show that's solidly entertaining and moves storylines along well. For some reason both Paul Turner and Todd Sinclair had issues keeping an eye on who the legal man was which is made even more odd by their usual high levels of competency. In conclusion I'm still bumping this release up by .5 just for the bonus content which was such a cool little inclusion that I hope they do it more often.
7/10
