1. El Generico vs. Kevin Steen
****
flog ME! Is there any better way to start a show or more specifically a PPV than with a red hot grudge match. They bring INTENSITY at high levels and just pack so much into the match. If this had a 5 or maybe even 10 more minutes this would have been MOTYC material for sure!
2. The All Night Express (Rhett Titus & Kenny King) vs. Up In Smoke (Cheech & Cloudy)
**1/2
Eh I have little interest in either team. What they do is fine and ultimately the name team looks best however Up In Smoke hold their own just about. At least this match didn't take up too much of the show.
3. Austin Aries vs. Delirious
**
ROH continues to punish me by having ANOTHER match in this seemingly never ending feud between Aries and Delirious. We get Red Poison Delirious which is meant to be a sign that Delirious is gunna kick all kinds of ass. It's a shame here that basically apart from spitting mist Delirious just seems the same as usual. What happens at the end and after the match is way more exciting than the match itself.
4. 2nd Annual Toronto Gauntlet: Colt Cabana vs. Eddie Edwards vs. Roderick Strong vs. Tyson Dux vs. Shawn Daivari vs. Steve Corino
***
Gauntlets are a difficult thing to write about and review. Without spoiling anything all I can say is that the booking of this match was done well in the sense that the match never got dull and told a few good stories to boot. Tyson Dux also has a mild standout performance here.
5. Christopher Daniels vs. Kenny Omega
****1/2
OH YES! This match absolutely rocked! Omega's on a hell of a role in 2010 and Daniels to me had a little bit to prove as to wether or not he could truly keep up with Omega and boy did he ever! The match just flows brilliantly without any dull or dead spots and they just went out there and put on a DAMN GOOD match. Crowd was crazy into it too. Worth going out of your way to see.
6. ROH World Tag Team Title/No DQ Match: The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe
****3/4
When these two teams met at the Big Bang! I thought it was the best tag match I had seen anywhere since Tag Title Classic. It was a great example of tag team wrestling at its best and I thought at the time it was about ****1/2. Fast forward to this show and this was a NO DQ match that should go down as one of THE best tag matches in company history. A complete 180 on the match they had at the Big Bang! this match was INTENSE and pretty violent too with plenty of blood. What's great about this is how the match reaches a point where I literally could not guess what could be next and then they would do something which eye popping that would drag me further to the edge of my seat. It felt almost like an 80's NWA style blood feud match with the faces shining hard and the heels getting SO MUCH heat. As with the previous match the crowd is SUPER into this. Yet another reason to buy this DVD just for this match.
7. ROH World Title Match: Tyler Black vs. Davey Richards
*****
There have been many classic matches throughout ROH history. But if one was define the line between good and great with good being Danielson vs Morishima from Manhatten Mayhem II and great being McGuinness vs Danielson from Domination/Driven then this match would have to lumped into the great category. The fans chant MATCH OF THE YEAR several times throughout this and not in the kind of way fans do with THIS IS AWESOME etc. There's even a YOU CANT BEAT HIM chant at one point which was terrific to hear. Just the whole crowd being absorbed into the story being told in the ring and buying every nearfall and ooh'ing with every move was a reminder that at times ROH can deliver pro wrestling like no other. There's really nothing more I can say that hasn't been said before so all that's left is, for the third match in a row, I advise you BUY THE BLOODY DVD!!
To summarise in a nutshell this is the best wrestling show/PPV I have seen a very long time. SCOHV was very good indeed but it's not quite got the extra sizzle of the last three matches on this show nor has it got this shows fantastic pacing. The matches that are filler are perfectly watchable and did their job in the context of the show. Add to that possibly the hottest opener in ROH history and this made for a first half that flew by. The second half is just silly how enjoyable each match is in it's own way and what's great about the card in general is that it was varied enough to stay at a highly entertaining level. A nice little touch by ROH was the interviews they did with various roster members and fans asking them who was going to win in the main event. It's only a little thing but it added more of a big match feel to an already highly anticipated bout.
So in short this is most likely show of the year for 2010 and if you dont own it already GO AND BUY IT NOW!!!!!
10/10
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