BRM Reviews ROH Rising Above

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Rising Above (12/29/2007)- New York, NY

KEVIN STEEN PROMO- okay

ADAM PEARCE PROMO- good

DELIRIOUS vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT (w/Adam Pearce & Shane Hagadorn)- 4.25/10, ending in a brawl that leads smoothly (minus a great Jimmy Jacobs promo in the middle of the brawl) into…

TAG TEAM SCRAMBLE MATCH: Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Tyler Black & Jimmy Jacobs (w/Lacey) vs. Adam Pearce & BJ Whitmer vs. Jack Evans & Ruckus (w/Julius Smokes)- 6.25/10 crazy spotfest.

BRISCOE BROTHERS PROMO- standard Briscoes promo

DAIZEE HAZE vs. LACEY vs. SARA DEL REY- 5.75/10. Lots of good stuff from all three women

ERICK STEVENS vs. DAVEY RICHARDS- 5.5/10. Probably the worst match you’ll ever see between these two.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT WITH LARRY SWEENEY & DANIEL PUDER- AWESOME!

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. CHRIS HERO (w/Sweet N’ Sour Inc.)- 6.25/10
- If Hero wins, Sweeney gets control of Claudio’s contract

AGE OF THE FALL PROMO- good, although the split-screen also showing the Briscoes warming up in their lockerroom didn’t look good here, IMO.

RELAXED RULES MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima- 7/10. Great storytelling, and I absolutely LOVED the finish! Awesome aftermath, too. Dragon got busted open badly very early on, and bled a lot throughout the match.

HANGMEN THREE BACKSTAGE SEGMENT- okay

2 OT OF 3 FALLS MATCH FOR THE ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES: The Briscoe Brothers(c) vs. The No Remorse Corps (Roderick Strong & Rocky Romero)- 7.25/10. I LOVED the booking on the first fall, bt the rest of the match felt like it ended WAY too quickly. They set up for an awesome story, but then never told it.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Nigel McGuinness(c) vs. Austin Aries- 9.5/10. AMAZING!

PPV ENDING BACKSTAGE BRAWL- the music playing absolutely killed this. It took something that could have potentially been awesome and made it comical.

Bonus Material:


SUNNY SEGMENTS- these bookended the women’s match. Tammy put the company and the women over. Lacey then cut an AMAZING promo on Tammy! Lacey shot from the heart here. This promo makes the DVD a must for Lacey fans. The way this all played out worked perfectly with what the Age Of The Fall were trying to get over. Great booking by Gabe, and AWESOME stuff on the mic from Lacey and Tammy.

BUSHWHACKER LUKE APPEARANCE- Luke got beaten down by Pearce and Albright. It got some good heat, so it was a good segment.

FOUR WAY FRAY: Matt Cross vs. Mitch Franklin vs. Necro Butcher vs. Jigsaw (w/Julius Smokes)- 6/10

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. NAOMICHI MARUFUJI- 6.75/10

Overall an okay show propped up by an unbelievably amazing main event which is worth the price of the DVD alone. A must-by for fans of Nigel, Aries, and Lacey and still recommended for everyone else.

[badnewzxl]

I ordered this back when it was on ppv and imo, this was the best ROH ppv (excluding the ippvs) they ever put on.

I agree about Richards v. Stevens; and it was STILL a solid, good match. I esp liked the spot when Davey had Stevens in the tree of woe; great spot.

A bunch of matches had smooth transitions into others, the tag match was great (I love the Briscoes and the NRC was AWESOME!), Morishima v. Danielson was GREAT, and the main event was AWESOME (Aries' Heat Seeking Missile was crisp on this show)!

The only disagreement I have with this review is about the music at the end. I didn't think it made everything seem comical, but it was def pretty weird; would have been better if we heard what they were saying to each other like we kinda had been throughout the ppv.

[Big Red Machine]

I ordered this back when it was on ppv and imo, this was the best ROH ppv (excluding the ippvs) they ever put on.

Better than Driven? Also, I haven't seen the whole show yet, but I didn't think this was better than Rising Above 2008 (although that show does contain my all-time favorite match, so that my play a part in it).

[badnewzxl]

I ordered this back when it was on ppv and imo, this was the best ROH ppv (excluding the ippvs) they ever put on.

Better than Driven? Also, I haven't seen the whole show yet, but I didn't think this was better than Rising Above 2008 (although that show does contain my all-time favorite match, so that my play a part in it).

I just liked the flow of it; reminded me of ECW's ppv's where matches just flowed into one another so cleanly. I didn't get to see Rising Above 2008 (I saw the first one) or Driven, so I should have said "best roh ppv I'VE seen."

[Big Red Machine]

I ordered this back when it was on ppv and imo, this was the best ROH ppv (excluding the ippvs) they ever put on.

Better than Driven? Also, I haven't seen the whole show yet, but I didn't think this was better than Rising Above 2008 (although that show does contain my all-time favorite match, so that my play a part in it).

I just liked the flow of it; reminded me of ECW's ppv's where matches just flowed into one another so cleanly. I didn't get to see Rising Above 2008 (I saw the first one) or Driven, so I should have said "best roh ppv I'VE seen."

I recommend you see both. Both have a 10/10 match between Dragon & Nigel.

As for the flow, Gabe said that he did that purposely, and tried to do it on all of the PPVs, especially the early one for exactly the reason you said.

[badnewzxl]

the first Rising above had a better flow to it than any other show, ppv, etc in wrestling I've seen since; it was damn near flawless. I gotta get a new vcr so I can watch it again....