BRM Reviews ROH Live in Tokyo

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Live in Tokyo (7/16/2007) Tokyo, Japan

OPENING SEGMENT- not much but it set up the first match.

JACK EVANS & KOTARO SUZUKI vs. DAVEY RICHARDS & ROCKY ROMERO- 6.75/10. GREAT opener

AKIHIKO ITO vs. SHUHEI TANIGUCHI- 5/10. The work was solid, but not too exciting.

BJ WHITMER vs. JIMMY RAVE- 5.5/10

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. GO SHIOZAKI-9/10. AMAZING!
At the beginning of this match, you can hear about six Americans in the crowd start Dragon’s traditional “YOU’RE GONNA GET YOUR F*CKING HEAD KICKED IN!” chant, which is amusingly weak, but then some Japanese fans join in with the clapping, possibly having no idea what is being said, which is just hilarious.

FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR: Delirious vs. Roderick Strong- 7.75/10. Felt very lacking for a Fight Without Honor, especially in terms of the hardcore stuff, but they did manage to get the Japanese crowd to chant “HOLY SH*T!”

NIGEL PROMO- Awesome

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI & THE BRISCOE BROTHERS vs. MATT SYDAL, RICKY MARVIN, & ATSUSHI AOKI- 8.25/10. Lots of great action here.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Takeshi Morishima(c) vs. Nigel McGuinness- 7.75/10. The end of the match felt like finisher-overkill.

AFTERMATH- Good stuff. It helped differentiate between the attitudes of Dragon and Nigel as challengers to the ROH World Title, and would set the tone for Morishima’s relationships with them. With Nigel, everything was respectful. With Dragon… it ended in a Fight Without Honor.

NRC PROMO- awesome!

BRENT ALBRIGHT PROMO- good, but the camera angle and Albright’s facial hair combined to made Albright look extremely sketchy here.

Overall, this was a pretty good show from ROH, and had some very good production values to do some help they got from Samurai TV. Definitely recommended, especially if you like Puro, but nowhere near a must-buy.