Online World of Wrestling (original) (raw)

Appropriately titled "How We Roll" this DVD home release featured the ROH debut of NWA World Heavyweight Champion, Christian Cage. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter if you made a career in the sports-entertainment industry, as long as you have pure talent and natural ability, you will still be treated like a God in Ring of Honor -- this is one of many aspects that make ROH so popular. Christian's match tonight would be against ROH Champion American Dragon, but it would be a tag team match where both men got to choose someone on the roster to be their partner. Fans were in for something special tonight, as it was a rare opportunity for the NWA World Champion and the ROH World Champion to be in the ring together.

The opening bout was a fast paced encounter between Jimmy Yang and Matt Sydal. This was shortly after Yang has resigned with WWE and at least one fan verbally pointed that out to the audience. Matt Sydal scored the victory and continues climb the ladder in ROH -- I'd like to see him get a shot at the ROH World title soon. ( 6.5 / 10 )

Christian Cage made an early appearance to cut a promo and said he had been watching the ROH DVD's and the man he was most impressed with was Colt Cabana. So you can't have Christian Cage and Colt Cabana in the same ring without having some comedy involved. When Christian explained that he was supposed to choose a tag team partner, one clever ROH fan yelled "pick Gangrel!", which Christian quickly acknowledged and pointed out that Gangrel wasn't there. They made a few more jokes and eventually agreed to team up in the main event against American Dragon and whoever he chose as his partner. American Dragon then showed up and convinced Christopher Daniels to be his partner, but only by promising him another ROH title shot if they won.

So the scheduled match was Delirious vs Colt Cabana vs Christopher Daniels vs Nigel McGuinness. Cabana and Daniels left to prepare for the main event, so it was down to Delirious and McGuiness, and they were joined by a replacement opponent --- Kikutaro! If you've ever seen Kikutaro (formerly known as Ebassan) you know not to expect a five star wrestling match but you do expect to laugh your butt off. This hilarity was compounded by the antics of Delirious. Kikutaro and Delirious did a very funny "slow motion" spot inciting a sarcastic "holy sh*t" chant from the crowd. Meanwhile, Nigel McGuiness tried to inject some wrestling into the match but Delirious ended up pinning Kikutaro to win the match. ( 6.5 / 10 )

The Embassy combination of Jimmy Rave and Alex Shelley had a heated tag team match with The Rottweilers team of Homicide and Ricky Reyes. Homicide was extremely popular with the fans but Ricky Reyes not so much. It came down to which team was able to cheat the best without getting caught. Prince Nana jumped in the ring and interfered behind the referees back, but when Julius Smokes did it, he was caught and the Rottweilers were abruptly disqualified in a very controversial decision. ( 7 / 10 ) -- During a pre-show interview, Adam Pearce had called out to Homicide to join ROH in the war against CZW. Homicide felt like ROH had screwed him at the end of his match so he shouted "F&%# ROH" after the match -- not a good sign!

CZW's Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli invaded the ROH ring and hijacked the microphone to make scathing remarks about Ring of Honor. This brought out ROH's knights in shining armor, BJ Whitmer and Adam Pearce, for a vicious inter-promotional match/fight. It was interesting to see two referees in the ring, one from ROH, and one from CZW, and this would factor into the finish. The ROH referee got squashed by the CZW referee, who conveniently allowed Necro Butcher to freely interfere and help the Kings of Wrestling score the victory. ( 8 / 10 ) -- Samoa Joe showed up after the match wanting to get his hands on Necro Butcher, but instead set up a match for the next show between the two hard-hitting monsters.

Samoa Joe didn't have the night off, but he did have it easy. He had a squash match with a Calgary-based wrestler named Apocalypse. Guess who won ( 2 / 10 ). After that there were two singles matches in a row featuring each Briscoe brother taking on either Austin Aries or Roderick Strong. Mark Briscoe beat Roderick Strong ( 7.5 / 10 ) and Jay Briscoe beat Austin Aries ( 8 / 10 ), setting up a Tag Team title match the following night and making the Champions (Aries & Strong) major underdogs.

Finally it was time for the much anticipated main event. Christian Cage was actually a perfect fit for the ROH style and meshed well with his opponents, especially American Dragon. Christian Cage downed Christopher Daniels with an Unprettier and got the 1-2-3 while American Dragon backed out of the ring, choosing not to break up the pin, but rather to screw Daniels out of his title shot. It was a perfectly logical finish to the match and left Cage save face and pressed several other future storylines. ( 8 / 10 ) After the match, Christopher Daniels shook hands with both of his opponents and cut an important speech encouraging fans to stop being so negative about TNA because TNA and ROH are both about professional wrestling.

Final Thoughts: If you would like to purchase this or any other ROH DVD, please check out ROHwrestling.com ---- if you need some convincing, you can check out streaming video of various ROH matches for free at www.ROHVideos.com