BRM Reviews ROH Unforgettable

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Unforgettable (10/2/2005)- Philadelphia, PA

BACKSTAGE PROMOS- good promos by Nana and Claudio

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Tony Mamaluke & Sal Rinauro(c) vs. The Ring Crew Express- 4.75/10

JADE CHUNG PROMO- Good words, but a wooden delivery.

4 CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Davey Andrews vs. Claudio Castagnoli vs. Nigel McGuinness vs. Jay Lethal- 6.25/10

MATT SYDAL vs. JIMMY RAVE (w/Prince Nana)- 6/10. Sydal used what is possibly the coolest roll-up I have ever seen!

DEREK DEMPSEY vs. RICKY REYES (w/Julius Smokes)- Good, quick squash.
After this, the ref was checking on Derek when his brother Bobby comes out (looking ridiculously thing for Bobby Dempsey, further fueling my suspicion that Derek didn’t retire from wrestling as we were told, but rather that Bobby ate him). Bobby gets a mic and says “I think you killed him. Somebody call an undertaker.” I thought that this was remarkably cheesey. Then the lights went out and the Taker-style blue-ish lighting with the fog happened, and I thought it was REALLY cheesey, because there was no way in hell it was going to be Taker… Then I proceeded to mark out like a four year old in Disneyland because PAUL BEARER showed up!
Then we got a segment where Bearer claimed to be the new commissioner… then Jim Cornette came out, ranted a bit, taking a few vague shots at WWE and WCW, and claimed that he, not Bearer was the new commissioner. This was very campy, but also very fun.

RODERICK STRONG vs. JAMES GIBSON (w/BJ Whitmer)- 9/10. Love this match. A perfect sendoff for Gibson.
After the match we get an emotional goodbye speech from Gibson
JACK EVANS vs. COLT CABANA- 6/10, fun.
After the match Julius Smokes comes out and warns Cabana about something. I’m not sure what, though, because Smokes is rarely intelligible.

JIMMY YANG vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS (w/Allison Danger)- 7/10 Good stuff from both men. Allison Danger + Pigtails = NOT sexy.

LACEY’S ANGELS BACKSTAGE SEGMENT- This started off with a promo by Lacey that (to me, anyway) marks an important transition in the Lacey character: She started leaving out all of the general man-hating stuff (i.e. the general misandry), but took the best parts of it (her rants against “perverts” and “losers” belief that she was every man’s fantasy girl) and crafted it into the new Lacey character, who dressed like the same “business woman” that the old Lacey did, but had a different feel to her. This was a character that Lacey didn’t have to feel uncomfortable playing (like any racist/sexist character, man-hater Lacey seemed to suffer from the lack of heart because the person in question is not really the bigot that the character portrays, and bigotry is a very hard thing for non-bigots to act out). Props to Gabe for killing a bad character that didn’t make too much sense (see my Death Before Dishonor III review as to why) and turned her into something new and better, and props to Lacey for taking the switch and smashing a monstrous home run with it)!
This was also a historical segment because Lacey fires the current Lacey’s Angels, and introduces us to the new Lacey’s Angels; BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs, who beat the crap out of the old team.

KENTA KOBASHI & HOMICIDE vs. LOW KI & SAMOA JOE!!!!!!!- 9.5/10! WOW!
The one problem with this main event was entirely a kayfabe one. Occasionally during the show the announcers would comment on how weird it was for Cide to be opposing his stable mate Low Ki, and for Low Ki to be teaming up with Joe, whom he and Homicide were feuding with. The answer we were given was that “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so ROH just put the three best guys on the roster in their in the combination they thought would make for the best match. This, to me, kind of poops on kayfabe a bit, so it bothered me. From a booking P.O.V., it would have made more sense to have Kobashi tell Joe that after their match last night, Joe had earned his respect, then team those two up together against the Rottweilers. Instead, ROH just wanted to have Joe and Kobashi chop at each other a lot again. We just saw this last night, and I think that having Joe team with Kobashi would have allowed Low Ki to have more of a spotlight as Kobashi’s main chopping opponent in this match.

Overall this was a very good show. The main event and Roddy vs. Gibson make it worth buying by themselves. When you factor in that this was one of the only two shows that Kobashi was on, as well as that it was Gibson’s last show, I am surprised that this show is still in stock.