ROH Pheonix Rising - Pheonix AZ 3/27/10

1. Rocky Romero vs. Kenny Omega
***1/2
Good opener and they packed a lot in within about 12 mins. Omega continues to impress me after this time last year I wasnt sold on him at all. Romero was his usual cool & competant self.

2. Shawn Daivari vs. Human Tornado
**1/
Decent lower card match with nice action. It wasnt too long and was inoffensive. Nothing spectacular but was ok in my book.

3. Kevin Steen vs. Scott Lost
***1/4
Kevin Steens music is awesome! This was a great showing of how truly great Steen is at working a crowd and he knows we all secretly love hating him. It was almost a little too one sided for my liking but I must say I was impressed with unique offense by Scott Lost and would love to see him in ROH on a more regular basis.

4. Jay & Mark Briscoe, The Necro Butcher, & Rasche Brown vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Joey Ryan, Bison Smith, & Prince Nana
**3/4
Nice enough multiman tag match with the right people getting their signature moves in. At around 13-15 minutes it was a nice enough length for everybody to get some decent time in the ring. Some nice dives and spots with Nana as well.


5. Pick 6 Series Match: (5) Kenny King vs. Scorpio Sky
**
This match has been the worst so far but it's by no means horrific. I just didn't feel drawn into it at all or any urgency towards the end of the match. At times it felt very much like there were two guys in a ring just taking turns doing moves on each other.


6. Hardcore Match: Steve Corino vs. Jerry Lynn
****
Really good hardcore match with everything you would expect from a classic style ECW main event style match. One gripe I have is why on earth does the referee have to help out setting up plunder. To me that totally makes no sense. That aside these put on a highly entertaining brawl.


7. The American Wolves vs. Colt Cabana & El Generico
***3/4
Cabanerico? or Generibana?
Very fun match with, what was to me, a suprisingly large amount of teamwork between Cabana & Generico. Usual hardwork from the Wolves plus Cabana & Generico more than pulling their weight made for another highly entertaining match.

8. Personal Challenge Gauntlet Match: Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong
9. ROH World Title Match: Tyler Black vs. Austin Aries

In order to keep this review spoiler free i really cannot go into these matches. I also feel that because of what happens here and the clear purpose of what this had I don't really want to rate it either. what I will say is that the action and drama seen here, I though, was superb amounts of fun.

So all in all Pheonix Rising is very good show with four matches getting 4 snowflakes and over. Pretty much good all round but nothing absolutly outstanding like we have come to expect from WM weekend.

8/10