ROH Unscripted III
ROH Unscripted III (12/1/2007)- Chicago, IL
OPENING SEGMENT- this was Bobby Cruise’s announcement that, due to the weather (a blizzard, I think), not all of the talent had made it to the building, and thus the card would have to be shuffled around, including cancelling Trios Tournament 2007. While this was happening, we got the standard crawl at the beginning of each DVD telling us to make sure we watch the Video Wire before watching this show. Don’t. All of the promos are either meant for last night’s show in Dayton or were meant to hype up a bunch of matches which aren’t happening tonight.
AUSTIN ARIES vs. TYLER BLACK (w/Allison Wonderland & Lacey)- 7.25/10
A great match which really surprised me by actually having one of these guys lose instead of going to a draw (which would have not only protected both guys, but also bought time for the rest of the roster to make it to the show). It did set up well for Lacey’s promo, which then led to…
SARA DEL REY vs. LACEY (w/Allison Wonderland)- 6.75/10
Lacey worked over Sara’s back. Sara played the babyface SHIMMER champion despite normally being a heel in ROH.
SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH: Trik Davis vs. Danny Daniels vs. Dingo vs. Silas Young vs. Seth Skyfire vs. Dan Lawrence- 5/10
Spotfest.
If the Silas Young of today could see his past self right now he would be very angry. After the match the Briscoes showed up and randomly attacked people. Then they cut a rather pointless promo.
CHRIS HERO PROMO- he furthered his angle with Nigel by demanding a title match, then bullied Bobby Dempsey and called out Claudio Castagnoli.
2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero (w/Sweet N’ Sour Inc.)- 6.75/10
Due to the weather on this night, Sweet N’ Sour Inc. consisted of Hero, Del Rey, and Bobby Dempsey. Shouldn’t Dempsey lying down on Claudio have constituted a DQ? The match meandered a lot before finally settling in on the story of Hero working over Claudio’s arm, and then didn’t get too much more exciting.
After Claudio won, Larry Sweeney came out and said he had been negotiating with ROH officials the whole time and had gotten the match made a two-out-of-three falls match, which came off as really dumb. You can’t change the stips in the middle of a match! Things did pick up after that and they continued the elbow story, and in the end had a pretty darn good match.
ERNIE OSIRIS & ALEX â€"SUGARFOOT†PAYNE vs. ADAM PEARCE & SHANE HAGADORN (w/the Hangmen 3)- squash
After the match, Brent Albright cut a good promo making an open challenge, which resulted in…
JIGSAW vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT (w/Shane Hagadorn & the Hangmen 3)- 6.25/10
After this match we had Whitmer cutting a similar promo to Albright’s, making an open challenge, which was accepted by Delirious, who the Hangmen 3 are currently engaged in a blood-feud with, so we got a…
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Delirious vs. BJ Whitmer (w/the Hangmen 3 & Shane Hagadorn)-
The finish saw Pearce hit Delirious with a steel chain, then the Hangmen 3 hung Delirious over the top rope. Some students tried to save Delirious (including future adversary Rhett Titus), but got destroyed by the Hangmen. We never got an announcement, but because the referee helped carry Delirious to the back, I’m assuming that means he declared Delirious unfit to continue. This was all done to set up a Dog Collar Match between Pearce and Delirious for ROH’s return to Chicago next month.
AGE OF THE FALL AND DAIZEE HAZE STUFF- interesting.
Jimmy Jacobs and Allison Wonderland came out. Jimmy said that the Age of the Fall was strong despite their earlier losses because they keep growing in numbers. He was clearly checking Allison out, and she offered to show him â€"how into the Age of the Fall†she was. They seemed like they were about to kiss, and I was left wondering what Lacey would think of that, but we’ll never know because Daizee Haze came out and dropkicked Allison into Jimmy. She started pounding away on Wonderland (I’m not sure what the issue between them is), but Daizee wound up eating a spear from Jacobs. Unlike the last time this happened, her shoes remained on her feet.
Jacobs then continued his promo, eventually saying that to further a revolution â€"sometimes we destroy the worst in the world, and sometimes we destroy the best in the world.†This did not sit well with the â€"Best Wrestler in the World†Bryan Danielson, who came out to face Jimmy. As Bryan jumped up onto the turnbuckle to sing the chorus to â€"The Final Countdown,†Jimmy jumped him from behind, kicking off…
BRYAN DANIELSON vs. JIMMY JACOBS (w/Allison Wonderland)- 8.25/10
Jacobs stabbed Dragon with his spike early on, causing Dragon to bleed, and they worked that over for the rest of the match. Dragon made a great comeback, but Jacobs eventually picked up the win with the End Time, leaving everyone stunned that Jimmy Jacobs had beaten Bryan Danielson by submission.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness came out and mocked Dragon for losing a bunch of times, saying Dragon will never get a title shot against Nigel without getting some wins. Nigel, who hadn’t even showed any overt shades of turning heel yet, came off like a huge dick.
Chris Hero then jumped Nigel from behind and gave him the Hero’s Welcome. Hero posed with the belt while Sweeney cut a short promo proclaiming Hero to be the real world champion (Hero had made Nigel tap at Glory By Honor VI: Night 1, but the decision was reversed and the match was restarted when the ref turned around and saw that Nigel’s foot was on the ropes).
As Hero and Sweeney left, FIP World Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong came out and claimed that HE was the real world champion. Roddy said he wanted a title shot at the next show in Chicago. In typical Roddy fashion, he stumbled over his words and expressed a desire to be the â€"ROH World Title Champion.â€
By this point Nigel was getting up and was ready to go after Roddy, but Dragon pulled Nigel out of the ring and they started to brawl on the outside. Roderick posed smugly with both the ROH and FIP world titles until his mortal enemy Erick Stevens came out and attacked him. Dragon and Nigel brawled to the back as Roddy’s No Remorse Corps pals came out to help Roddy beat Stevens down. Roddy then declared that not only would he win the ROH and FIP world titles, but his pals would win the tag titles, and â€"hell, I’ll even take the SHIMMER belt off of Sara Del Rey.†That had me bursting with laughter despite the two dirty heels beating th sh*t out of Erick Stevens in the corner. The Briscoes came out to put a stop to that (the beatdown, not my mirth), then Jay Briscoe cut a promo challenging the NRC to the match that would become tonight’s main event…
THE BRISCOES & ERICK STEVENS vs. THE NO REMORSE CORPS- 7.25/10
This was one of those matches where, after a point, they just ignored all concepts of making tags and decided to have a tornado match. I was extremely surprised that NRC lost the match, considering that the pre-match segment seemed to have been building to them facing he Briscoes for the tag titles and considering that there was no reason to take away any of Roddy’s heat in his feud with Stevens before their big match at Final Battle.
A very good show from ROH. You could really tell that the wrestlers were going all-out to make it up to the fans that they weren’t getting the big tournament that had been advertised. The open challenges helped with the â€"Unscripted†feel, and they did a very good job of setting up for the next Chicago show, Without Remorse, which would come late the next month. The fact that they were trying to buy time for the wrestlers who were still en route to get to the building meant that a lot of the matches on the first half of the card got a lot more time than they would have, which (mostly) helped those matches, giving us quite the solid card up and down.
That being said, this show still feels disappointing simply because of how much this Trios Tournament had been built up, and how much it hurt the overarching Faction Warfare angle that we didn’t get it. I would love to know how the tournament was going to play out.
OPENING SEGMENT- this was Bobby Cruise’s announcement that, due to the weather (a blizzard, I think), not all of the talent had made it to the building, and thus the card would have to be shuffled around, including cancelling Trios Tournament 2007. While this was happening, we got the standard crawl at the beginning of each DVD telling us to make sure we watch the Video Wire before watching this show. Don’t. All of the promos are either meant for last night’s show in Dayton or were meant to hype up a bunch of matches which aren’t happening tonight.
AUSTIN ARIES vs. TYLER BLACK (w/Allison Wonderland & Lacey)- 7.25/10
A great match which really surprised me by actually having one of these guys lose instead of going to a draw (which would have not only protected both guys, but also bought time for the rest of the roster to make it to the show). It did set up well for Lacey’s promo, which then led to…
SARA DEL REY vs. LACEY (w/Allison Wonderland)- 6.75/10
Lacey worked over Sara’s back. Sara played the babyface SHIMMER champion despite normally being a heel in ROH.
SIX MAN MAYHEM MATCH: Trik Davis vs. Danny Daniels vs. Dingo vs. Silas Young vs. Seth Skyfire vs. Dan Lawrence- 5/10
Spotfest.
If the Silas Young of today could see his past self right now he would be very angry. After the match the Briscoes showed up and randomly attacked people. Then they cut a rather pointless promo.
CHRIS HERO PROMO- he furthered his angle with Nigel by demanding a title match, then bullied Bobby Dempsey and called out Claudio Castagnoli.
2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Chris Hero (w/Sweet N’ Sour Inc.)- 6.75/10
Due to the weather on this night, Sweet N’ Sour Inc. consisted of Hero, Del Rey, and Bobby Dempsey. Shouldn’t Dempsey lying down on Claudio have constituted a DQ? The match meandered a lot before finally settling in on the story of Hero working over Claudio’s arm, and then didn’t get too much more exciting.
After Claudio won, Larry Sweeney came out and said he had been negotiating with ROH officials the whole time and had gotten the match made a two-out-of-three falls match, which came off as really dumb. You can’t change the stips in the middle of a match! Things did pick up after that and they continued the elbow story, and in the end had a pretty darn good match.
ERNIE OSIRIS & ALEX â€"SUGARFOOT†PAYNE vs. ADAM PEARCE & SHANE HAGADORN (w/the Hangmen 3)- squash
After the match, Brent Albright cut a good promo making an open challenge, which resulted in…
JIGSAW vs. BRENT ALBRIGHT (w/Shane Hagadorn & the Hangmen 3)- 6.25/10
After this match we had Whitmer cutting a similar promo to Albright’s, making an open challenge, which was accepted by Delirious, who the Hangmen 3 are currently engaged in a blood-feud with, so we got a…
NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Delirious vs. BJ Whitmer (w/the Hangmen 3 & Shane Hagadorn)-
The finish saw Pearce hit Delirious with a steel chain, then the Hangmen 3 hung Delirious over the top rope. Some students tried to save Delirious (including future adversary Rhett Titus), but got destroyed by the Hangmen. We never got an announcement, but because the referee helped carry Delirious to the back, I’m assuming that means he declared Delirious unfit to continue. This was all done to set up a Dog Collar Match between Pearce and Delirious for ROH’s return to Chicago next month.
AGE OF THE FALL AND DAIZEE HAZE STUFF- interesting.
Jimmy Jacobs and Allison Wonderland came out. Jimmy said that the Age of the Fall was strong despite their earlier losses because they keep growing in numbers. He was clearly checking Allison out, and she offered to show him â€"how into the Age of the Fall†she was. They seemed like they were about to kiss, and I was left wondering what Lacey would think of that, but we’ll never know because Daizee Haze came out and dropkicked Allison into Jimmy. She started pounding away on Wonderland (I’m not sure what the issue between them is), but Daizee wound up eating a spear from Jacobs. Unlike the last time this happened, her shoes remained on her feet.
Jacobs then continued his promo, eventually saying that to further a revolution â€"sometimes we destroy the worst in the world, and sometimes we destroy the best in the world.†This did not sit well with the â€"Best Wrestler in the World†Bryan Danielson, who came out to face Jimmy. As Bryan jumped up onto the turnbuckle to sing the chorus to â€"The Final Countdown,†Jimmy jumped him from behind, kicking off…
BRYAN DANIELSON vs. JIMMY JACOBS (w/Allison Wonderland)- 8.25/10
Jacobs stabbed Dragon with his spike early on, causing Dragon to bleed, and they worked that over for the rest of the match. Dragon made a great comeback, but Jacobs eventually picked up the win with the End Time, leaving everyone stunned that Jimmy Jacobs had beaten Bryan Danielson by submission.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- ROH World Champion Nigel McGuinness came out and mocked Dragon for losing a bunch of times, saying Dragon will never get a title shot against Nigel without getting some wins. Nigel, who hadn’t even showed any overt shades of turning heel yet, came off like a huge dick.
Chris Hero then jumped Nigel from behind and gave him the Hero’s Welcome. Hero posed with the belt while Sweeney cut a short promo proclaiming Hero to be the real world champion (Hero had made Nigel tap at Glory By Honor VI: Night 1, but the decision was reversed and the match was restarted when the ref turned around and saw that Nigel’s foot was on the ropes).
As Hero and Sweeney left, FIP World Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong came out and claimed that HE was the real world champion. Roddy said he wanted a title shot at the next show in Chicago. In typical Roddy fashion, he stumbled over his words and expressed a desire to be the â€"ROH World Title Champion.â€
By this point Nigel was getting up and was ready to go after Roddy, but Dragon pulled Nigel out of the ring and they started to brawl on the outside. Roderick posed smugly with both the ROH and FIP world titles until his mortal enemy Erick Stevens came out and attacked him. Dragon and Nigel brawled to the back as Roddy’s No Remorse Corps pals came out to help Roddy beat Stevens down. Roddy then declared that not only would he win the ROH and FIP world titles, but his pals would win the tag titles, and â€"hell, I’ll even take the SHIMMER belt off of Sara Del Rey.†That had me bursting with laughter despite the two dirty heels beating th sh*t out of Erick Stevens in the corner. The Briscoes came out to put a stop to that (the beatdown, not my mirth), then Jay Briscoe cut a promo challenging the NRC to the match that would become tonight’s main event…
THE BRISCOES & ERICK STEVENS vs. THE NO REMORSE CORPS- 7.25/10
This was one of those matches where, after a point, they just ignored all concepts of making tags and decided to have a tornado match. I was extremely surprised that NRC lost the match, considering that the pre-match segment seemed to have been building to them facing he Briscoes for the tag titles and considering that there was no reason to take away any of Roddy’s heat in his feud with Stevens before their big match at Final Battle.
A very good show from ROH. You could really tell that the wrestlers were going all-out to make it up to the fans that they weren’t getting the big tournament that had been advertised. The open challenges helped with the â€"Unscripted†feel, and they did a very good job of setting up for the next Chicago show, Without Remorse, which would come late the next month. The fact that they were trying to buy time for the wrestlers who were still en route to get to the building meant that a lot of the matches on the first half of the card got a lot more time than they would have, which (mostly) helped those matches, giving us quite the solid card up and down.
That being said, this show still feels disappointing simply because of how much this Trios Tournament had been built up, and how much it hurt the overarching Faction Warfare angle that we didn’t get it. I would love to know how the tournament was going to play out.