Online World of Wrestling (original) (raw)

Match #2 - Gauntlet Series - Brent Albright, Nigel McGuinness, Pelle Primeau, Jason Blade, B.J. Whitmer, and Jimmy Jacobs: The one thing that jumped out at me here was that Whitmer and Jacobs might actually lock it up at some point during this series. Brent Albright dominated Pelle Primeau in the first match to advance ( 3 / 10 ). Brent Albright steam-rolled through Jason Blade to advance ( 5 / 10 ). Then it got interesting when B.J. Whitmer came out to face Albright. Albright worked over Whitmer's rehabbed ankle, but was ultimately too exhausted to secure a victory. Whitmer pinned Albright after a pair of German suplexes ( 7.5 / 10 ). Jimmy Jacobs ran down and rolled up Whitmer for the cheap 1-2-3 victory ( 1 / 10 ). Damn! So Nigel McGuinness was the final entrant and we now have two fresh competitors involved in the final match of the gauntlet. McGuinness won by crotching Jacobs on the top rope and giving a brutal leaping Lariat off the second rope ( 7 / 10 ). Gauntlet series matches are meaningless but they eat up about 45-minutes of the show.

Match #3 - ROH World Tag Team champions The Kings of Wrestling vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong: The Kings of Wrestling scored a tainted DQ victory over Austin Aries and Roderick Strong at The Bitter End earlier this month when Aries got a little carried away using the King's briefcase as a weapon. Aries and Strong got their rematch for the ROH Tag Team titles in a No-Disqualification match against Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli. It started out wild and crazy, pairing off and brawling everywhere except inside the ring. After a few minutes of craziness the Kings wrapped Austin's legs around the ringpost and duct taped his ankles together and started double-teaming Roderick Strong. The Kings set up two chairs in the ring and placed a piece of the steel barricade on it to make a deadlier version of a table. The Kings set up Roderick Strong on the structure but Austin Aries freed himself from the duct tape and saved his tag team partner. Aries and Strong made an intense comeback and it really looked like they were going to recapture the tag team gold. Hero tossed the briefcase to Claudio, but Aries intercepted it and the weapon started being used by everybody. Hero brought the ring-bell into the ring but Aries and Strong knocked it out of his hands and were in firm control of the match. Aries and Strong were about to finish off Hero when Shingo (Takagi) ran in and power-bombed Roderick Strong through a table! The King's finished off Strong with the Hero's welcome to retain their ROH World Tag Team titles ( 7.5 / 10 ).

Match #4 - Shingo vs. Mark Briscoe: Good solid match, won by Shingo ( 7 / 10 ). Roderick Strong respected the code of honor and waited until AFTER the match to run in and attack Shingo.

Match #5 - Homicide vs. Jimmy Rave: Jimmy Rave has new entrance music; it's a popular old song but I can't remember the name of it. When he came out he had this look on his face as if to say "don't mess with me," and the fans surprisingly did not shower him with toilet paper - seriously not a single roll! When the match got underway, the commentators explained that after the "incident" at the last show they have banned toilet paper from the building (except for the bathrooms). Jimmy Bower (aka Gabe Sapolsky) said the toilet paper gimmick has run its course and it's time to move on. I agree... give Jimmy Rave a serious PUSH too! Santa got my letters, cause Jimmy Rave scored a pinfall out of the blue to pick up a much needed victory in ROH ( 7 / 10 ). After the match, the Briscoe Brothers attacked Homicide and Julius Smokes until Samoa Joe made the save -- leading to.....

Match #6 - Samoa Joe vs. Jay Briscoe: This is a rivalry that goes back a couple of years to a brutal and bloody feud between Joe and the Briscoes which spilled over into 2006 when Joe sided with Homicide against Cornette's Army. It was certainly a the stiffest match of the night and saw Samoa Joe finish of the older Briscoe brother with a Muscle-buster ( 7.5 / 10 ).

Main Event - Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal vs. Davey Richards & Delirious: These two teams were fighting for the right to have an opportunity to dethrone the Kings of Wrestling the following night in Edison, New Jersey. A lot was made of the high profile rivalry between Sydal and Delirious, plus the first time matching of Daniels and Richards. After about 25-minutes of main event action Daniels hit the Best Moonsault Ever on Delirious, followed up by a Shooting Star Press from Sydal to win the match ( 8.0 / 10 ) Best match of the show by far.

The DVD came to a close with Lacey yelling at Jimmy Jacobs for losing tonight and walked away as he muttered, "I love you!".

Final Thoughts: For the first time in a long time the DVD ended a couple of minutes shy of three hours. Usually they go around fifteen minutes over that mark. Fans of Jimmy Bower will be happy to know that he made his return to the broadcast booth along side Dave Prazak for at least one night. As is the case on many double-shot weekends, this first night was lost in the shadow of the following night's hype. It was a solid night of ROH wrestling but nothing stood out as something you'd want to go out of your way to see. It goes without saying; even ROH's worst shows are damn good wrestling shows. They have set the bar very high for themselves.

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