BRM Reviews ROH Race to the Top Tournament: Night 1

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Race to the Top Tournament: Night 1 (7/27/2007)- Deer Park, NY

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Pelle Primeau vs. BJ Whitmer- no rating, good segment.
On the outside, Whitmer pushes around a very young Rhett Titus who was working security. This led to Pele getting an upset and BJ beating him up afterwards.

Claudio promo- okay

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Davey Richards vs. Jigsaw- 5.5/10

THE RESILIENCE BACKSTAGE- Aries gives Stevens and Cross a good pep talk, then cut a promo on Roddy where he did a lot of uncharacteristic rambling.

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Hallowicked- 6.25/10
Lucha!

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Mike Quackenbush vs. Matt Sydal- 7/10
Sydal came out with Sweet N' Sour Inc. but before the match Sweeney cut a promo explaining why each of them had to go to the back. Larry made one big mistake here, though: he ordered Bobby Dempsey to guard the buffet he acquired for his stable. He should know better than that.

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Erick Stevens vs. Chris Hero (w/Sweet N' Sour Inc.)- 5.25/10
They told their story competently, but there was a lot of gaga with Sweet N’ Sour Inc., too, which interrupted the flow sometimes. Stevens' selling would also occasionally come across as looking very phony.

FOUR WAY FRAY FOR THE FIP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Roderick Strong(c) vs. Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Gran Akuma- 5.75/10
When Roddy came down the aisle, it looked like he was walking through a sea of middle fingers pointed his way. Then the camera shifted a bit you realized it was only one or two guys on either side of it, but the visual was still great. That should happen to every single heel.
The match was actually disappointing. Aries was eliminated first, which completely took the crowd out of it. They protected Aries by having everyone pile up on top of him to pin him, but this was Aries first match back and fans wanted to see him wrestle, so having him be the first one out killed it for them. The rest of the match after that was kind of eh. Akuma went out next, and after that Rave and Roddy told a decent story with Roddy working over Rave's back, but it felt like something we'd seen a million times before. Putting Akuma in with Roddy at the end would have at least been something new.

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: El Generico vs. Delirious- 6/10

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Matt Cross vs. Brent Albright- 4.25/10
Short.

RACE TO THE TOP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND MATCH: Kevin Steen vs. Jack Evans- 7/10

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness-7.75/10
Nigel and Dragon worked surprisingly well together until the finish. Jay played a good babyface and peril and they did some cool stuff, but I felt like this match should have been a whole lot more than it was.

Overall, a decent show from ROH. To put the tournament over, they had a lot of the guys cut short little promos saying that they would win. They did do decent job of changing it up a bit so that it didn't feel too repetitive (Steen & Generico cut theirs together, Becky Bayless interviewed Jack Evans for him to cut his promo, Cross and Stevens' came in the form of a pep-talk from their stable's leader, Austin Aries. That being said, I had hoped that making this a two night tournament would allow the wrestlers to go more all-out on the first night, but that really didn't happen, which was disappointing.

[badnewzxl]

this is my fav back-to back from ROH besides the SCOH, Dragon Gate Challenge, Better Than Our Best triple shot. The second night has my absolute favorite Claudio match, too.

[Big Red Machine]

this is my fav back-to back from ROH besides the SCOH, Dragon Gate Challenge, Better Than Our Best triple shot. The second night has my absolute favorite Claudio match, too.

Really? Night Two I can totally understand loving but as a favorite weekend there is just so many that are better!
Pretty much every time DBD or GBH has been a whole weekend
Violent Tendencies/End of an Age
Honor Takes Center Stage
Showdown in the Sun
Redemption/Punk: The Final Chapter
Both UK weekends

[badnewzxl]

I absolutely LOVED this tourny. I thought almost every match was pretty good ( except Cross v. Albright bc I don't like Cross much) and the final match is absolutely phenominal. Then, you have the Tag Titles match (GRET stuff) and the Nigel/Dragon stuff on the second night is priceless. The 8-man tag is great, too.

Honor takes Center Stage was pretty good, but I like this better. Some of the others you mentioned I haven't seen yet, so I'll reserve judgement. Still, nothing beats WM wknd 06....

[Big Red Machine]

I absolutely LOVED this tourny. I thought almost every match was pretty good ( except Cross v. Albright bc I don't like Cross much) and the final match is absolutely phenominal. Then, you have the Tag Titles match (GRET stuff) and the Nigel/Dragon stuff on the second night is priceless. The 8-man tag is great, too.

That's actually a good point. Quality-wise this tournament was pretty outstanding. I guess I was just expecting more from night one because everyone only had to wrestle once.

Honor takes Center Stage was pretty good, but I like this better. Some of the others you mentioned I haven't seen yet, so I'll reserve judgement. Still, nothing beats WM wknd 06....

You haven't seen Unified? Do everything you can to find it. It is one of the best shows I have ever seen, and Dragon vs. Nigel is AMAZING.

[badnewzxl]

I have Unified, just not the other event from that wknd.