-DVD is hosted by Dave Prazak & Lenny Leonard
-Cage Match for the RoH World Championship: Samoa Joe [c] VS Jay Briscoe [At Our Best 3/14/04]
-Weird to see Jay with hair. Joe stops Jay from escaping, and applies a wristlock before delivering several headbutts to Jay's hand. Joe lands a chop, but Jay gets a drop toe hold, and tries to escape, but Joe stops him again. Jay hits a big boot, then declines the chance to escape. Joe comes back, and blocks another escape attempt by Jay, then hits a German suplex. Joe rams Jay into the cage, then locks the cage door to prevent Jay from escaping. This also buys time for Jay to blade.
Joe works on the cut, mashing Jay's face against the cage, then throwing him into it. Joe hits the facewash, then dances as the crowd sings "ole" before hitting a second one. Jay manages to avoid being rammed into the cage again, and hits a running big boot. Jay climbs, but gets caught by Joe, who hits a belly-to-back suplex off the top, drawing a "holy shit" chant. Joe gets two off that. Joe pounds away in the corner, but runs into a boot, and Jay hits a belly-to-back suplex.
Jay climbs, and Joe meets him on the top turnbuckle. Jay hits an Ace Crusher off the top, but can't make the cover. Jay wins a slugfest, blocks a full-nelson suplex with a low blow, then hits a big clothesline. Jay climbs again, and Joe meets him again. They exchange chops, but then Jay kicks Joe down, but loses his footing and falls down himself. Joe hits an Ole kick, which rams Jay into the cage, and actually breaks the cage wall open. Mark Briscoe helps open the hole wider, but Joe prevents the escape, hitting a powerbomb and locking on an STF.
Jay almost goes out, but he does manage to make it to the ropes. Joe hits several knees to the face followed by slaps, but Jay comes back, and hits the Jay Driller. Mark Briscoe tries to climb in, but he's cut off by AJ Styles, who hits Marl with the Styles Clash on the floor. Jay climbs, but gets caught yet again, and Joe hits a sloppy muscle buster for the pin to retain. Match was decent. I've yet to see a really good RoH Cage match.
-Chicago Street Fight: CM Punk & Ace Steel VS BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff [Death Before Dishonor II Part 2 7/24/04]
-The Saints won't let the Prophecy in the ring, so Maff & Whitmer pull Punk & Ace outside, and work them over. Prophecy get Ace alone in the ring, so Punk pulls Whitmer out, then the Saints work Maff over. Punk hits Whitmer with an exploder, but when Punk goes for a suicide dive, Whitmer meets him with a chair. Big brawl on the outside, where both Saints get busted open. Back in the ring, the Prophecy take off their belts, and take the Saints to the woodshead.
The Saints fight back as Steel gets a hold of one of the belts. Steel works on Maff outside while Whitmer & Punk go at it inside. Whitmer slides a table into the ring, but gets cut off by Steel. A ladder is introduced. Punk holds a chair in front of Maff's face, and Ace hits a running dropkick. Then, they wedge Maff's head in the ladder, then Ace hits the ladder with a chair. Punk hits Whitmer with a facewash. The Saints trap Whitmer in the corner by sliding the table right up to his neck, then Ace holds a chair in front of Whitmer's face, and Punk slides the ladder across the table, right into Whitmer's face.
Whitmer is busted open, and Punk whips him with a belt. Punk gets a hold of a barbed wire 2x4, and hits both Maff & Whitmer with it. The Prophecy turn the tide, and Maff hits Punk in the nuts with the 2x4. He then does the same to Ace. Maff slides a barbed wire covered board into the ring. Punk & Whitmer fight over a suplex, but neither get it. Punk goes for a tornado DDT, but Whitmer throws Punk off, right onto the board. The Saints try to suplex Whitmer onto the board, but Maff moves it out of the way.
The board gets set up in the corner, but Punk can't knock Maff into it. Punk ends up getting sent into it via a cannonball by Whitmer. Steel whips Maff into the board, then hits a Tiger Driver for two. All four grab chairs, and exchange chairshots, waiting to see who falls down first. The Saints win that battle. A whole bunch of chairs get launched into the ring by the wrestlers and some of the fans, in an obvious attempt to re-create a famous scene from ECW.
Punk no-sells a half-nelson suplex onto the sea of chairs from Maff, then hits him with a German suplex. Maff uses the ladder to bridge the guardrails and places Ace on it, but Punk prevents a splash by Whitmer. Whitmer cannot do the same to Punk when Ace sets Maff on the ladder. Back in, Ace hits Whitmer with a tombstone off the second rope, through the table for the pin. Pretty good ECW-style street fight. Could have lived without the chair tossing though.
-Dog Collar Match: CM Punk VS Jimmy Rave (w/The Embassy) [Manhattan Mayhem 5/7/05]
-It's teased that Punk will have to wrestle Mike Kruel instead, but then Rave runs out and jumps Punk from behind. As Rave gets attached to dog collar, the time allows Punk to recover and take control. Punk does a Garvin stomp, and adds a kneedrop to finish. Punk ties Rave to the Tree of Woe, and hits a couple running knees. Punk grabs a chair, but Rave yanks on the chain, causing Punk to run into the chair and the ringpost, which busts Punk open.
Rave works Punk over on the outside. Back inside, Rave grinds the chain into the cut on Punk's forehead. Punk fights back, but gets cut off by Rave. Rave puts the chain in Punk's mouth and pulls back, transitioning that into a curb stomp for two. Punk fights off a Rave Clash, and hits a Shining Wizard. Punk pounds away, and hits a superkick for two. Rave fights off a powerbomb, and gets a chain-assisted Crippler Crossface, but Punk rakes the eyes to escape. Punk dodges a running knee strike, and locks on a single-leg crab.
Prince Nana distracts Punk, allowing Rave to crotch Punk with the chain, and hit the running knee strike for two. Rave sets up for the Pepsi Plunge, but Punk backdrops him out of it. Punk hits three powerbombs with the third getting a two count. Punk locks on the Anacoda Vice, but he has to fight off the Embassy. Punk hits Rave with the Pepsi Twist, then sees Fast Eddie coming with a moonsault, moving out of the way so Eddie hits Rave.
Punk fights off Nana and Jade Chung, but Rave gets a chair, and KO's Punk for the pin. I liked this more than I did the first time I saw it, but it's still nothing special.
-Steel Cage Warfare: The Embassy (Jimmy Rave, Alex Shelley, Abyss, & Prince Nana) VS Generation Next (Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jack Evans, & Matt Sydal) [Steel Cage Warfare 12/7/05]
-This is RoH's version of War Games. The cage door is left open, and there are eliminations. Aries and Rave start. Rave immediately leaves the cage, but Aries catches him on the outside, and goes to work. Back in, Aries crotches Rave on the top rope, then hits a flying elbow off the top. Aries stomps a mudhole in Rave. Aries keeps workig on Rave as Alex Shelley (with a chair) enters to give The Embassy a 2-on-1 advantage.
Aries catches Shelley coming into the cage and fights him off for a while, before Rave gets back in the match, and The Embassy starts to double team Aries. Aries comes back with a springboard double back elbow. Aries works both men over, hitting Rave with a Finlay Roll right on top of Shelley. Aries goes for the 450, but Rave prevents that, and Shelley and Rave hit a running clothesline/spear combo to regain control. Rave applies a camel clutch, then Shelley pulls back on Rave to make it worse. Rave then holds Aries in place for a low dropkick to the face. The Embassy try several times to pin Aries, but are unsuccessful. Rave rams Aries into the cage for two.
Matt Sydal evens up the odds. Sydal cleans house. Cute sequence as Sydal goes for a moonsault, avoids Shelley's knees, then hits Rave with a drop toe hold onto Shelley's knees, then adding a standing moonsault onto Rave's back and almost pinning Shelley underneath Rave. Sydal & Aries keep control of the match, but can't get any eliminations. Sydal hits Rave with a spinning heel kick for two. Sydal prevents Rave from escaping the cage, while Aries mashes Shelley against the cage before hitting a low dropkick to the face.
Abyss gives The Embassy the advantage again. Abyss fights off a double team from Aries and Sydal, hitting Aries with Shock Treatment. Rave gets two off that. Abyss hits a monster backdrop on Sydal, and Shelley gets two. Shelley & Abyss work on Sydal while Rave chokes Aries. Abyss lawn darts Aries into the cage, then Shelley adds a wicked chairshot. Abyss then tosses Sydal into the cage. Shelley hits Aries with the skullfucker on the chair, and Aries is busted open. Shelley gets two off that, then goes after the wound on Aries.
Roderick Strong evens the odds again. He hits a series of backbreakers on Shelley while keeping Abyss at bay. Strong hits some chops on Rave, then a knee to the back for two. Strong fights off a chokeslam from Abyss, but can't hold onto Death From Above. Abyss hits an overhead throw, sending Strong upside-down into the cage. Abyss hits Sydal with the Black Hole Slam, and Rave pulls him off the pin before hitting Sydal with Greetings from Ghana (Pedigree) for the pin. Rave and Strong go outside, where Rave whips Strong into the barricade. Rave adds another whip into the barricade, followed by a running knee. Rave got opened up at some point. Back in the cage, Abyss squashes Aries with an avalanche. Back outside, Strong (who is opened up) turns the tide on Rave. Abyss & Shelley choke Aries with the chair.
Prince Nana enters to make it 4-on-2 in favor of The Embassy. Everyone gets back in the cage as The Embassy dominate, with Nana adding the occaisional stomp. Abyss tastes Aries' blood (drawing a talking-to from Shelley) before stomping Aries in the nuts while Nana does a Nature Boy strut. Rave rakes Aries' face across the cage. Jade Chung makes her return after taking a Pedigree from Rave, cutting a promo on Nana. Nana & Abyss go after her as Jack Evans becomes the last entrant.
Evans immediately scales the cage and dives onto the entire Embassy on the floor, smacking the back of his head on the way down. Bet that felt WONDERFUL. Nana immediately crawls on top of Jack, perhaps to apologize for not catching him properly. Aries and Strong get back into it, and it's a brawl on the floor. Back in the cage, GenNext triple-team Abyss, with Strong hitting Death From Above. Evans climbs the cage. Rave climbs up to stop him, and Strong follows as the crowd chants "Please Don't Die". It all sets up Strong & Evans' Ode to the Bulldogs and a triple pin on Abyss to eliminate him.
Rave gets caught inside the ring with GenNext, who then go after Shelley when he tries to interviene. Evans hits Shelley with a fisherman buster, but 630 hits Shelley's knees. Shelley then hits Evans with an Air Raid Crash off the second turnbuckle for the pin. Aries powerbombs Rave as Shelley hits a low dropkick on Strong. Nana slides out of the cage, making it 2-on-2 for the time being. Strong fights off a Pedigree from Rave, but takes Shell Shock from Shelley, but Aries makes the save. Nana gets in, but misscommunication between The Embassy leads to Strong destroying Rave with a series of backbreakers while Aries hits Shelley with a brainbuster on a seated chair. Aries pins Shelley while Rave taps out, leaving Strong & Aries alone with Nana.
Strong & Aries have some fun with Nana, before Aries finishes with the 450. This was loads of fun. Hard not to be with the level of talent that was in this.
-Ghetto Street Fight: Colt Cabana VS Homicide (w/Julius Smokes) [4th Anniversary Show 2/25/06]
-Cabana & Homicide brawl through the curtain to kickstart the match. This is an "I Quit" match. Cabana dominates the first few minutes. They go outside, where Homicide takes control, and busts Cabana wide open. Back in the ring, Homicide launches a chair at Cabana's face. Homicide grabs a disposable razor and digs at Cabana's face. Homicide throws Cabana upside-down into a piece of barricade that's in the corner. Homicide hits a running kick to the face, but Cabana fires up, hitting the butt bump to the face.
Homicide quickly regains control with a swinging DDT, and applies a Tequila Sunrise. The fans chant for tables as Homicide hits another chairshot to the head. Smokes preps a ringside table, but Homicide misses a splash off the top. Homicide slides out of the Colt 45, but runs into a clothesline. Cabana chokes Homicide with Homicide's own arm, pulling on his injured shoulder in the process. Homicide comes back with a lariat and a camel clutch.
Smokes slides a coat hanger into Homicide, and Homicide chokes Cabana with it. Todd Sinclair stops the match before Homicide kills Cabana.
After Homicide celebrates his win, Cabana gets on the mic, declaring that he never gave up, and asks for the match to be re-started. Cabana rings the bell himself to restart the match. Homicide blocks a clothesline, and hits an Ace Crusher. Cabana goes after the injured shoulder. Smokes interferes, allowing Homicide to regain control with a chairshot to the back. Ricky Reyes helps Smokes tie Cabana in the corner while Homicide pounds away, then throws a chair into Cabana's face. Homicide adds another chair throw to the face, and Sinclair stops the match again.
Cabana gets on the mic again, telling Homicide to finish him off, and if he leaves now, Homicide's son is going to think his daddy is a pussy. They fight on the apron, where Smokes pours something into Cabana's open wound, allowing Homicide to hit a piledriver off the apron through a table, and Sinclair stops the match again. Homicide calls for a "Fight Without Honor" in Chicago. Match was good, finish was pretty weak, as it looked like it was building to Cabana continuing to fight and getting the win. No quitting in an "I Quit" match = no buys.
-RoH VS CZW Six Man Street Fight: Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, & BJ Whitmer VS Chris Hero, Super Dragon, & Necro Butcher [The 100th Show 4/22/06]
-Big brawl to start (shocking, I know). Joe hits Hero with a suicide dive. Claudio (in an RoH jacket) tries to provide a distraction, but ends up running away. Joe hits Hero with an Ole Kick before they go into the crowd. Necro & Pearce (who is busted wide open) brawl on the floor. Pearce hits an unprotected chairshot to the head. Pearce adds another, and Necro is busted open. Back in the crowd, Joe & Whitmer hit Dragon with a double suplex on some chairs. Joe whips Hero into the barricade, and Hero ends up kicking a fan in the face.
Close up shows Pearce has a nasty cut on the side of his head. Joe slugs Necro down on the floor. In the ring, Pearce hits an axe handle off the top on Necro for two. Dragon jaws with some fans, allowing Whitmer to hit him with a couple chairshots. CZW gains control on the outside, while inside, Whitmer hits Hero with a brainbuster for two. Dragon goes low on Whitmer. Dragon goes up top, but gets crotched by Whitmer. Dragon fights Whitmer off, and hits a senton for two.
Pearce grabs chairs from a couple fans, and mashes Necro in the head with them. In the ring, Necro tries to powerbomb Joe through two chairs, but Joe turns the tide, sets the back rests of the chairs together, and drops Necro onto them. That gets two. Outside, Whitmer runs Dragon into the barricade, but is then attacked by Hero. Joe hits Necro with a chair as they brawl through the crowd. Inside, Hero hits Whitmer with a cannonball and poses as Joe grabs a table and brings it through the crowd.
Hero hits Whitmer with a big boot for two. Pearce goes for a piledriver on Hero, but Necro breaks it up. Slugfest is won by Necro. Dragon digs a piece of wood into Joe's forehead. Pearce slugs Necro down as Hero launches a chair at Whitmer's head. Hero breaks up another slugfest between Pearce and Necro, and gets dumped for his troubles. Joe drops Dragon through a table, and goes after Hero.
Joe hits a running knee and sets up for the face wash, but gets cut off by Necro and Dragon. Necro takes his belt off, and whips Joe with it. Back inside, Pearce hits Hero with a splash off the top, but Dragon breaks up the pin. Dragon hits the curb stomp on Pearce, but is then knocked for a loop by a Whitmer clothesline. Whitmer adds an exploder suplex through a seated chair for two. Whitmer looks to send Dragon through a table, but is stopped by chairshots from Necro as Joe works Hero over on the outside. Necro wedges Whitmer's head in between the seat and back rest of one chair, then hits the legs of that chair with another chair.
Dragon wedges Whitmer's head in similar fashion, but he hits a kneedrop off the top for two. Dragon hits Whitmer with a Psycho Driver off the apron, through a table. Back in the ring, Hero and Joe go at it. John Zandig, CZW owner gets involved, then the RoH and CZW refs argue before Necro lays out Todd Sinclair. Claudio Castagnoli throws Zandig outside, then holds Hero for Joe...but then attacks Joe before embracing Hero. Pearce hits Claudio with a missile dropkick, but gets laid out by Hero.
Crowd chants for Homicide, but no dice. Hero & Claudio hit Pearce with a double team Hero's Welcome for the pin. Technical classic it was not, but this was a FUCKING WAR. Tremendous streetfight that was total chaos. This was hard to recap at times because so much was going on. Wrestling needs more of that.
-Windy City Death Match: Colt Cabana VS Jimmy Jacobs (w/Lacey) [5th Year Festival: Chicago 2/24/07]
-Jacobs runs from Cabana to start. They go outside, where Cabana throws Jacobs into the barricade. Colt sets Jimmy on a table, but Lacey interferes to prevent Colt from driving Jimmy through it. Jimmy clips Colt's knee to take control. Jimmy holds Colt for a cheapshot from Lacy, but Daizee Haze runs in, and chases Lacey away. Colt sets Jimmy up in the Tree of Woe and grabs a ladder from under the ring, but Jacobs gets free, and hits a baseball slide into the ladder onto Colt.
Jimmy pounds away, but Colt comes back with elbows to the top of head, which bust Jimmy open. Colt pulls scissors out of his elbow pad, and digs them into Jimmy's wound. Colt misses a stab with the scissors, and Jacobs hits a chairshot to the back. Jacobs looks for his railroad spike, but can't find it. That's because Cabana has it, and he digs it into Jimmy's head. Colt hits Jimmy with a Chicago flag, but Jimmy turns the tide, and breaks the flag pole over Colt's back, before digging a piece of the broken pole into Cabana's head, busting him open.
Jimmy uses the flag to wipe blood out of his eyes, then chokes Colt with it. Jacobs grabs the spike, and nails Colt in the head with it, before digging it into his head. Colt blocks the Contra Code, then jabs Jimmy in the head with the scissors. Colt hits a big chairshot to the head. Colt goes for the Colt 45, but Brent Albright interferes, hitting Colt with a half-nelson suplex, then putting Jimmy on top for two.
BJ Whitmer runs in to even the odds, fighting off a double team, then taking Jimmy outside with a Cactus clothesline. Whitmer holds Jimmy & Albright in place for an Asai moonsault from Colt. Colt grabs the spike and a hammer, then tries to hammer the spike into Jimmy's head. He misses the spike, but hits Jimmy in the head with the hammer. Colt hits the flying asshole, then throws a couple chairs at Jimmy's head. Colt sets a chair on top of Jimmy, then hits a moonsault for two.
Colt preps a table, but that gives Jimmy time to recover. Colt jabs the flagpole into Jimmy's head, forcing him onto the table, which tips over. Colt bridges the ring and the barricade with a ladder, then tries again to set Jimmy on the table, but it collapses. Jimmy grabs a table, but then takes another flying chair to the head. Colt gets Jimmy on the table and goes up top, but Lacey returns, and crotches Colt on the ropes. Lacey helps Jimmy get Colt on the table, and Jimmy sets the ladder up inside the ring. Jimmy climbs the ladder, then hits a senton off the ladder, to the outside, driving Colt through the table.
Jimmy rolls Colt back inside, but only gets two. Jimmy sets a table up in the corner and goes for a spear, but Colt sidesteps him, and Jimmy goes through the table. Lacey tries to hit Colt with her shoe, but Colt gets it, hits Jimmy with the shoe, then the Colt 45. Colt then hits Lacey with the Colt 45, and sets Lacey on top of Jimmy and gets the pin. Decent enough street fight. Could have done without the violence against a woman though.
-Boston Street Fight: RoH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes VS Kevin Steen & El Generico [Death Before Dishonor V Night 1 8/10/07]
-Match breaks down before it even gets into the ring. Steen & Jay brawl in the crowd while Generico & Mark go at it at ringside. The announcers bail out, so the rest of the match is sans commentary. Generico tosses chairs into the ring, while Steen works Jay over on the outside. Generico sets a table up in the crowd. Mark dives off the top to Generico, but then takes a chairshot to the head, and a powerbomb through the table by Steen, who in turn takes a chairshot to the head from Jay. Steen whips Jay into a pile of chairs while Generico and Mark go at it. Generico ends up doing the same to Mark.
Jay fights back on Steen, hitting a superkick, then a moonsault off the barricade. Mark hits Generico with a chair, then suplex on the floor, followed by a legdrop with a chair draped across Generico's face. Generico dumps Mark face-first onto a chair. Jay goes after Generico, then Steen goes after Jay. Mark dunks Steen into a garbage bin and tips it over. Steen hits Mark with a fisherman buster onto a seated chair, then Generico hits Jay with a tornado DDT on the floor, using the barricade as a boost.
Steen brawls with Mark (as fans encourage "Jay" to fight back). Generico pounds on Jay. Jay blocks a running Yakuza kick, and hits a superkick. Steen steps on the guardrail, but pauses to ask the fans who the man is, allowing Mark to hit him with an Ace Crusher off the barricade, onto the floor. Jay got busted open at some point. Generico sets up for an Asai moonsault, but gets yanked off the apron and thrown into the barricade by both Briscoes.
Steen hits a cannonball on Mark into the barricade, but then takes a running kick from Jay. Steen grabs a section of the barricade and launches it at Mark, but he thankfully misses. Generico grabs Mark, and hits a Michinoku Driver onto a section of the barricade. Jay throws Steen through a ringside table. Generico DDTs Mark on the barricade. Steen blocks a suplex on the floor, and delivers the move to Jay. Steen sets up a table (which collapses because one of the legs is broken) and goes for the package piledriver, but Jay fights him off.
Steen & Jay slug it out in the ring. Steen bites Jay in the forehead. Generico hits a cross-body off the top on Jay, then Mark hits Generico with a missile dropkick, then Steen hits Mark with a powerbomb. Everyone grabs a chair, and everyone takes a chairshot to the head. Jay takes Steen outside, then Mark drops Generico right on his head. Mark goes for the cutthroat driver through two chairs. Generico counters and goes for a brainbuster, but Jay blocks that with a chair shot, then the Briscoes toss Generico high into the air, before he crashes down onto the chairs.
Steen breaks up the pin. The demolishes a seated chair by driving Mark through it, and that only gets two. Steen goes up top, but gets shoved by Jay and flies through a table. Generico hits Jay with a running Yakuza kick and goes for the turnbuckle brainbuster. Jay blocks it, and the Briscoes hit a splash mountain/neckbreaker combo off the second turnbuckle. Steen pulls the ref out at two, so Mark hits him with a dive. Briscoes hit Generico with the springboard Doomsday Device, but Steen makes the save.
Steen grabs a ladder and cracks Jay in the head with it. Steen sets the ladder up in the corner, but ends up getting backdropped into it, courtesy of Mark. Mark climbs the ladder (with help from the ref), but before he can do anything, Generico comes out of nowhere with a springboard Ace Crusher. Jay hits Steen with the ladder and goes for the Jay Driller onto it, but Steen blocks, kicks Jay in the nuts, and hits the package piledriver onto the ladder for the pin. Another pretty wild street fight. This isn't for you if you're looking for expert selling (or any kind of selling really), but it's what you'd expect from these four, for better or worse.
-FINAL THOUGHTS: This is a pretty good collection of matches, if a little exhausting to sit through, since they're all at least 20 minutes, and seeing the same type of match over and over can wear one down.
No comments:
Post a Comment