BRM Reviews ROH Manhattan Mayhem II

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews ROH Manhattan Mayhem II

Post by Big Red Machine » Aug 25th, '21, 18:45

ROH Manhattan Mayhem II (8/25/2007)- New York, NY

Welcome to BRM’s Monthly “This Day in Wrestling History” Review Series. We’re currently in the middle of a loosely-connected Summer of Sapolsky, and, to be quite frank, the whole reason we’re doing a Summer of Sapolsky is because shows like this are my pro wrestling happy place. Yup. We’re headed to the golden years of ROH for Manhattan Mayhem II.


HANGMEN 3 PROMO- meh
They’re shaving Shane Hagadorn’s head for some reason or another. Hagadorn is quite happy about it. Pearce cut an okay promo on Delirious and BJ Whitmer told us that he wanted revenge on Pelle Primeau. This was rather meh build to tonight’s six-man tag, and they came off as quite cartoonish with all of the evil laughing.

MIKE QUACKENBUSH & JIGSAW vs. THE RESILIENCE (Matt Cross & Erick Stevens)- 7.25/10
Lots of great action, making it perfect for an opener. Jigsaw being the one to eat the pin was a little weird, considering that he’s going to come in as a member of the Vulture Squad while Quack won’t be sticking around much.

JIMMY JACOBS vs. MITCH FRANKLIN- 4.25/10
Pre-Grizzly Mitch Franklin looks so weird. Jimmy got loud “WELCOME BACK!” chants for his second match back from the injury he sustained his big blow-off match against BJ Whitmer at Supercard of Honor II at the end of March. The fans booed quite loudly when Franklin went after Jimmy’s injured knee. Jimmy won clean with his new guillotine choke finisher.

JACK EVANS TEASES HIS NEW MANAGER- fine
I enjoyed the word-play turning Jack’s usual “and you know this, man” catchphrase into “and you know this man.”

ADAM PEARCE PROMO- great
This was some excellent diabolical heel stuff from Pearce, and it also served to get the crowd up to speed on the happenings of last night’s show, where not only did BJ Whitmer turn heel and join the Hangmen 3, but the Hangmen stapled Delirious’ mask to his face.
NIGEL MCGUINNESS, PELLE PRIMEAU, & DELIRIOUS vs. THE HANGMEN 3 (w/Shane Hagadorn w/the worst haircut EVER!)- 6.5/10
Delirious came out first for the babyfaces, and he charged right at Pearce and began headbutting him, which felt wonderfully poetic after what was done to Delirious last night. There was a lot of good action here without going overboard. I think they lost track of the who the legal man was for the babyfaces, but it’s possible that I lost track instead. Everyone played their roles well (the Hangmen as the heels, Delirious as Ricky Morton, Nigel as Robert Gibson, and Pelle as their high-flying but small friend). The heels won clean and BJ got his newfound killer instinct and hatred for Pelle over by beating on Pelle after the match. Poor Pelle was busted open and then absolutely destroyed by all three Hangmen until Nigel was finally able to make the save with a chair. We spent a good amount of time watching Pelle be tended to.

CARY SILKIN AND RYO MAKATA OF PRO WRESTLING NOAH COME OUT FOR A HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT- Bobby Cruise ran down the list of talent for Glory BY Honor VI weekend, ending with the announcement that Mitsuharu Misawa would be making a rare appearance in the US. The crowd popped huge for that.

DELIRIOUS PROMO- great!
It’s a Delirious promo, but he did an excellent job of getting the intensity across, including accidentally punching the camera, which I love that they left in.

DAVEY RICHARDS vs. PAC- 7.5/10
A good showcase for Pac’s athleticism.

JACK EVANS REVEALS HIS NEW MANAGER- good
Only Jack Evans can make laziness charming. The new manager is Julius Smokes, who dubs the new group that he will help Jack form the “Vulture Squad.”

RODERICK STRONG vs. AUSTIN ARIES vs. JACK EVANS (w/Julius Smokes)- 7.25/10
They did some good three-way stuff until we got a ref bump, at which point it turned into a segment. Dave Richards came out to help Roddy beat on Jack, so Julius Smokes called out a reinforcement he had brought along: Ruckus!
Once the heels were fought off, Aries exchanged a look with Jack, at which point Smokes told Jack “Don’t live in the past! Kick his ass!” and they started beating on Aries. This brought out the Resilience to help Aries, and we got a bunch of dives and brawling. Erick Stevens saved Aries from a Roderick Strong chairshot and hit Roddy with the chair to set up the finish of Aries hitting his big combo on Roddy for the pin. The match was great, but having people start talking over the mic in the middle of a match after a ref bump came off kind of awkward.

REBECCA BAYLESS INTERVIEWS JIMMY JACOBS- good
While rehabbing his knee, Jimmy Jacobs has discovered a new purpose, and the fans will find out what that is very soon. Yes, we sure would.

THE RESILIENCE PROMO- great
Aries did most of the talking. Aries has decided that playing by the rules doesn’t work in faction warfare, so the Resilience will no longer be afraid to break rules when they think it’s necessary.

EDDIE EDWARDS vs. RUCKUS (w/Jack Evans & Julius Smokes)- 6.75/10
Ruckus won a good post-intermission action-match cleanly.

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. CHRIS HERO (w/Sweet N’ Sour Inc.)- 7.25/10
After Sara Del Rey got involved in the match, Daizee Haze came out to counteract to act as a check on her presence. Both guys worked the head and neck. Claudio won clean. After Claudio and Daizee left ringside, SnS abused Bobby Dempsey.

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI PROMO- good
He declares his feud with Chris Hero officially over.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Takeshi Morishima(c) vs. Bryan Danielson- 9.25/10
AMAZING!
The lack of handshake from Morishima before the match set the extremely nasty tone of this match perfectly. Knowing that Bryan’s detached retina could have easily resulted in losing his sight in that eye made this match was hard to watch at times, but it is still every bit the masterpiece I remember it being when I first saw it ten years ago. Morishima employed his usual strategy of putting a clobbering on his opponent, while Dragon became the first person to not fall into the trap of playing Morishima’s game and instead worked over his knee, playing either for the submission win on the knee or to keep him down on the mat so that Bryan could employ his head-stomps or the MMA elbows or the Cattle Mutilation. It seemed like a good strategy to me (other than the chairshot right in front of the referee, of course), but no one else really tried this on Morishima afterwards, either, so I guess it wasn’t.
In addition to the excellent execution, the interesting change of pace from Morishima’s other defenses, and the toughness Bryan showed throughout, this match also benefited from an insanely hot crowd. I mean INSANELY hot. Gabe had done a great job of keeping these two on each other’s radars while keeping them away from each other (they teamed together in the main event of Respect Is Earned and then were on opposite sides of a tag match at United We Stand), so them finally coming together was a big deal, and the crowd reacted to it as such.


BRYAN DANIELSON PROMO- This was after Morishima had left the ring and the crowd was chanting “BEST IN THE WORLD!” Bryan grabbed a mic and said that the real Best in the World was the person wearing the ROH World Title. The crowd responded by chanting “THANK YOU, DRAGON!” I’m not even sure if they knew he was actually injured at this point. Watching Dragon stay in the ring to cut a promo here when he knew he was injured was a little scary to me. Agree with it or not, I can at least understand the “finish the match” mentality, but sticking around to cut a promo when there is no angle is different. It’s quite scary to me how easily Dragon could have lost vision in his injured eye on this night. Thank G-d he didn’t.

LARRY SWEENEY PROMO- fine

2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Briscoes(c) vs. Kevin Steen & El Generico- 8.75/10
The Briscoes were in the middle of their streak of winning these matches in straight falls, and these teams did pretty much everything they could to convince you that streak was going to end tonight, including having Steen be the first person to kick out of the Springboard Doomsday Device. This was a tremendously intense brawl and was everything you’d expect from these two teams, but with the Briscoes now having successfully and decisively defended the tag titles against Steen and Generico twice this same weekend, I’m really not sure how they get to a Ladder War just two shows later.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- great!
Oh yeah. That’s how.
The Briscoes, feeling just like I did, assumed that the feud was now over and offered and Steen and Generico a handshake as a sign of respect. After much trepidation, Generico accepted it. Steen got angry at Generico but Generico yelled right back at him and eventually Steen shook first Mark and then Jay’s hands… and then pulled Jay back in and kicked him in the testicles before kicking Mark in the testicles as well.
Generico was angry with Steen for this but Steen ignored him and went to get a ladder. Steen hit the Briscoes with the ladder a few times, then ordered Generico to help him do the two-person ladder “clothesline” kind of thing. Generico resisted until Steen threatened to kill him, and then Generico just went along with it. Steen picked up the titles, shoved one into Generico’s arms and started posing with the other. Generico was a lot more reluctant, but as he stared at the thing he had worked so hard for, he dropped to his knees and you could see his mind start to change. Steen hit the Briscoes with snot-rockets (GROSS!) and Steen and Generico left with the belts.


This was an excellent show from Ring of Honor, with solid action all up and down the card, some big storyline moments, and one hell of a double-main event. Shows like this are why I fell in love with ROH in the first place.
As for next month, unfortunately, we’ll be covering something I might not love so much. Process of elimination means that our Summer of Sapolsky must eventually include FIP, so we’ve got to watch some FIP next month. On the bright side, the show I’ve chosen has what sounds like it should be a great of a double-main event. I’ll be shocked if it’s as good as what we got on this show, but the names on top there are not slouches, either.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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cero2k
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Re: BRM Reviews ROH Manhattan Mayhem II

Post by cero2k » Sep 2nd, '21, 19:44

This has always been one of my favorite ROH shows, not only for the two awesome final matches, but I remember marking out for the Chikara guys being on ROH
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