BRM Reviews ROH Hell Freezes Over

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Hell Freezes Over (1/14/2006)- Philadelphia, PA

STRONG & ARIES PROMO- Good. Aries cuts a promo saying that he and Roddy will defend the Tag Team Titles all over the world. Roddy says that he is coming after Dragon and the ROH World Title. Aries sends Roddy to the back, then calls out Ricky Reyes, who had been squashing ROH students (who are being trained by Aries), and challenges Reyes to a match, right here, right now.

AUSTIN ARIES vs. RICKY REYES (w/Julius Somkes)- 4.75/10 Not much going on, but a good finish and good aftermath, which, combined with Reyes post-match promo worked well to build to a tag team title shot for Reyes & Romero

COLT CABANA PROMO- okay

ADAM PEARCE PROMO- Great

ROH PURE TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness(c) vs. Tony Mamaluke- 5/10. More of Nigel being a good heel.

THE EMBASSY (Jimmy Rave & Alex Shelley) (w/Prince Nana) vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLE & AZRIEAL (w/Colt Cabana)- 6.5/10. Good tag team match. The crowd seemed to really get behind Azrieal at the end.

Before the next match, which was an FIP Heavyweight match, Gary Michael Capetta tried to get comments from both guys. Cide didn’t say much, but Roddy cut a promo that was good enough that I am certain it was some sort of Roderick Strong imposter cutting the promo.
Then Dave Prazak and Bryan Danielson came out and challenged the other two to make it a three-way match. In FIP the wrestlers make the matches, so both men said yes, making this a triple threat match.
FIP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Homicide(c) vs. Roderick Strong vs. Bryan Danielson- 4.5/10
Before anything could happen, Cabana attacked Homicide, concentrating on his injured shoulder. Cide had to be taken to the back, making this effectively a 1-on-1 match. Meanwhile, Dragon and Roddy started brawling through the crowd. Dragon even choked Roddy with a fan’s coat. They made it back to the ring shortly, and kept brawling. Then Cide came back out and tried to wrestle, but Dragon caught him in an arm submission and won via ref stoppage.

JAY LETHAL vs. CHRISTOPHER DANIELS (w/Allison Danger [no longer dressed like a skanky nun])- 7/10.
After the match, Joe tried to attack Lethal, but Lethal bailed. Then Daniels attacked Joe (they were feuding at the time). They brawled until Lethal snuck back in and hit Joe with a low-blow. Lethal and Daniels fought over who would get to stomp away at Joe until BJ Whitmer came out and hit Daniels with an Exploder Suplex. Whitmer then told Daniels that he hasn’t forgiven Daniels for walking out on him in 2004. Whitmer and Lethal left ringside, and Allison Danger started to help Daniels out of the ring, but Joe got up and took Daniels down with a clothesline.

SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH: Jack Evans vs. Adam Pearce vs. Sal Rinauro vs. Jason Blade vs. Kid Mikaze vs. Trik Davis- 5.5/10. Had some cool stuff, but was kind of sloppy at times.

SAMOA JOE vs. BJ WHITMER (w/Lacey)- 6.75/10. Good action on the outside- not as good inside.

JIMMY JACOBS PROMO- GREAT.

MATT SYDAL vs. AJ STYLES- 8/10. AWESOME. After the match, AJ puts Sydal over on the mic, and proposes that they team up and go for the ROH Tag Team Titles.

ADAM PEARCE PROMO- GREAT

Chris Hero showed up with a CZW referee and a couple of CZW guys, (Necro Butcher, Adam Flash, and Nate Webb). He gives someone a CD of his entrance music to put in the sound system (I thought this was a great touch). Of course, the “F*CK YOU, HERO!” chants started up strong. Unfortunately, there are also some people chanting for the CZW guys. Hero gets on the mic and proceeds to trash ROH as being “elitist.” Hero says that he is going to take the ROH Title back to CZW “and throw it in the G-d damn trash!” (I think this is also the only time that Gabe’s name is mentioned on-camera. This was a great promo.


ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Bryan Danielson(c) vs. Chris Hero- 8/10. A good, slow-paced technical match. Both men sold very well, and the atmosphere was absolutely electric the crowd was extremely into this match.
In a great moment, Hero (whose emblem is based on the Superman logo, and is billed as being from Metropolis) had a stare-down with the famous “Green Lantern Fan,” (causing Necro to exclaim “OH FOR THE LOVE OF G-D!)

A good touch on the DVD was them explaining the build-up to this at the two latest CZW shows, causing Dragon (with others as backup) to show up at the CZW show earlier that afternoon and attack Hero.
After the match, Prince Nana comes out and offers Dragon money in exchange for the ROH World Title. Dragon says no, so Nana slaps him in the face. Dragon goes after Nana, so Rave and Shelley come out and beat him down.

Overall: A solid show, and definitely worth picking up. It has both the beginning of the ROH vs. CZW feud and the first live Jimmy Loves Lacey promo, as well as the beginning of Sydal’s quest for the tag team titles. IMO, that puts this in the must-see category.