BRM Reviews ROH Third Anniversary Celebration: Part 3

[Big Red Machine]

ROH Third Anniversary Celebration: Part 3 (2/26/2005)- Chicago, IL

AUSTIN ARIES PROMO- good

MATT SYDAL vs. FAST EDDIE (w/The Embassy)- 5.25/10

SAMOA JOE PROMO- good

ALEX SHELLEY vs. JACK EVANS- 7.25/10
For the second night in a row, Jack Evans gets stretched in ways that just make you cringe. If he and MsChif had a baby, it would be Gumby. After the match, Aries attacks Shelley and Jack hits a SICK 450 on Shelley’s arm, sandwiched between two chairs.

LIVE “GOOD TIMES, GREAT MEMORIES” WITH BOBBY HEENAN- great segment, which led into…

COLT CABANA & NIGEL MCGUINNESS (w/Bobby “the Brain” Heenan) vs. DAN MAFF & BJ WHITMER (w/Jim Cornette)- no rating. Fun segment. Lost of shenanigans here to let the managers shine.


BEST OF FIVE SERIES MATCH #3- FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide (w/Julius Smokes)- 7/10

SPANKY & GIBSON BACKSTAGE- good hype for the Trios Tournament.

SPANKY & JACOBS BACKSTAGE- okay. This is the sort of thing that comes really close to breaking kayfabe.

MICK FOLEY PROMO- too much comedy. The stuff with Ebessan Jack was funny once. After that it just becomes stupid.

JIMMY JACOBS vs. SPANKY- 6.5/10

JAMES GIBSON vs. PUMA- 6.5/10

CM PUNK (w/Traci Brooks) vs. JIMMY RAVE (w/The Embassy)- 7.75/10
Great heel antics here by the Embassy. The crowd was super-hot for everything, and the aftermath (Traci takes a Rave Clash) was excellent! I really liked the restart here, as it pulled the rug out from under you… then did it again when the heel winds up winning via cheating anyway.

ROH WORLD TITLE MATCH: Austin Aries(c) vs. Samoa Joe- 8/10
An awesome match with a finish that seemed tailor-made to set up for another rematch, but it never came.

PRINCE NANA PROMO- good.

Overall, a GREAT show from ROH. An extremely strong undercard capped off with an awesome main event.