ROH Civil Warfare - Manassas, VA 5/7/10

1. Ten Minute Hunt: Eddie Edwards vs. Bobby Dempsey
*3/4
Oh man this is a soft way to start a show! This wasnt hurrendous and there were a couple of moments from Bobby Demspey that I simply had to rewind just to see again. Dempsey has come along quietly since his days as part of Sweet & Sour Inc. Not quite what you want from an opener and you can tell by the crowd being vocal one moment then deathly silent the next.

2. Jay Briscoe vs. Claudio Castagnoli
**1/4
I really expected more from this. Both of them didnt seem of their game or anything the match was just pretty dull and bland. Add to that a finish out of nowhere and as a stand alone match this is how they say "pretty meh".

3. Mark Briscoe vs. Chris Hero
**3/4
A better match than what both their partners put on previously. Hero with his usual offense and Mark Briscoe to me continues to be an underrated single comptetitor. Match was ok and I would be interested to see what these two could do with 17-20 minutes to play with.


4. Pick 6 Series: (1) Roderick Strong vs. Erick Stevens
***1/4
Remember how brutally awesome their feud was from the end of 07/08? Well this is nothing like any of those matches which is a shame because I feel given the right opportunity a guy like Erick Stevens can step up his game. This match was ok but then got better and better in the last 5 minutes. Another unexpected finish here but the match had a phase of an ending segment unlike the Jay Briscoe/Claudio Castagnoli match.

Whoa...were only an hour into the dvd and the bigger half of the card is done. Let's hope it picks up!

5. Pick 6 Series: (5) Kenny King vs. Colt Cabana
***
This match had some serious fun going on with the crowd at the start which is just an absolutely welcome addition at this point as the show is beginning to drag a little for me. Cabana and King seem to have a good chemistry with each other but more importantly they can both work a crowd really well. Kenny King is impressing more and more as 2010 progresses and I think he could be THE break out guy in 2011. Sadly when the match is building to a presummed nice crescendo we get ANOTHER finish out of nowhere. To me this hurt the match badly. I would love to see a rematch sometime.

6. Pick 6 Series: (2) Kevin Steen vs. Christopher Daniels
***1/2
Ah Christopher Daniels, how we have missed thee. This is his long awaited return match and it was fairly good. Steen, as I have said before is just awesome in his current role and here is no different. The Fallen Angel seems to not have missed a beat and this match was very competitive. And then because whoever booked this show seems to hate me, the fans in attendance and anyone who watches this DVD we get YET ANOTHER flogging ROPEY FINISH! That's right!

7. Tyler Black & Delirious vs. Austin Aries & Rhett Titus
**3/4
Well this is it. 1 hour 45 mins into the show and we have your main event. Before it started I knew this would have to be something special to save this show. Of course on paper this match looks like something which should headline an episode of ROH on HDNET. And that's basically what it is. It's entertaining but is not anything special. Neither team seems to click with their partners.

Bonus:
- Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli (The Kings of Wrestling) vs. The Set
- ROH on HDNet- Eddie Edwards vs. Kevin Steen- Episode #2
- ROH on HDNet- Chris Hero vs. Kenny Omega- Episode #7
- ROH on HDNet- The American Wolves vs. Orange Cassidy & Leslie Butterscotch- Episode #8
- ROH on HDNet- Kevin Steen & Jay Briscoe vs. Eddie Edwards & Chris Hero- Episode #6

Right, so to sum it all up the main show's had 3 finishes I disliked and even has 3 matches in a row that have managers interfere which is just lame in my opinion. Honestly I feel bad for the fans on Manasses, this show may have killed off some fans interest in going to live shows. Bobby Dempsey, Colt Cabana, Chris Daniels, Kevin Steen, all have promos throughout the dvd which I like because on a lot of the newer releases it seems the dvds contain just the matches from the relevant show. I guess they save the promos for the videowire however I like to have the shows broken up a bit by promos or segments.
The bonus matches are ok but nothing amazing (The Steen/Briscoe vs Edwards/Hero match being the best of the bonus material). One thing thats very noticable is the quality difference between a normal ROH show and the HDNET recordings.
There is some entertaining stuff on this DVD but I wouldnt have missed not having this in my ROH DVD collection.

Overall the show ranges from feelings of ambivelence to mediocrity to stirings of good before the booking shits all over it. Probably the worst ROH show of 2010 (though I have yet to see Gold Rush) so far and one of the worst ROH DVDs I have seen in quite a while.
5/10