ROH Eye of the Storm
ROH Eye of the Storm (2/22/2008)- Deer Park, NY
We open with the announcement that due to the weather, the following wrestlers won’t be appearing:
Nigel McGuinness, Davey Richards, Brent Albright, Tyler Black, Erick Stevens, and Roderick Strong. Unfortunately, these absences kick the sh*t out of almost everything build up on the two video wires they provided on this DVD, so don’t watch those because they’re essentially useless (even worse, those video wires made me go on an ultimately vain quest to find a copy of FIP Redefined on so that I could see the amazing-looking Strong vs. Stevens title match they showed clips of). Instead, Bobby Cruise announced that tonight we would see an eight-man single elimination tournament fr a future shot at the ROH World Title.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero- 6.75/10
A GREAT exchange of submissions and hard strikes.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Kevin Steen vs. Delirious- 5.75/10
A fun little match.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Austin Aries vs. El Generico- 7/10
Aries worked on the neck all match. That backslide was probably supposed to be the finish instead of the roll-up right after it, but it worked almost as well the way they did it.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Go Shiozaki vs. Necro Butcher- 5.5/10
Mission objective: get Go’s chops over. Mission accomplished. I started to feel really sad for the Necro Butcher. I really didn’t like the fact that they used weapons in a regular match and no one seemed to care.
THE LARRY SWEENEY SHOW WITH SPECIAL GUEST SHANE HAGADORN- long and boring, but at least the one line where Sweeney gave Hagadorn a business card to give to Adam Pearce would actually lead to something.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL MATCH: Kevin Steen vs. Bryan Danielson- 7.5/10
Steen works over Dragon’s leg, just like Rocky did earlier. They had a GREAT match that build very well.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL MATCH: El Generico vs. Go Shiozaki- 7/10
REBECCA BAYLESS INTERVIEWS ROCKY ROMERO- Apparently Becky was not fired after unprofessionally blowing off work to go clubbing with the YRR at the last show. Apparently she’s not into Rocky, though, as he tried to get her to come back to his hotel room and she refused.
The actual content of Rocky’s promo let us know that Rocky didn’t seem to care about losing because he had injured Bryan Danielson’s leg, and he was suggesting that Nigel McGuinness offer him a title shot in exchange for this favor (part of the intended gimmick for this show was that Dragon and Nigel would choose each other’s opponents ahead of their world title match tomorrow night and while Nigel did face Rocky to pick Dragon, the second part of that was scrapped when the weather prevented both Nigel and Dragon’s chosen opponent for him, Brent Albright, from making it to the show). Unfortunately, this hint of a Romero vs. McGuinness ROH World Title match never lead to anything.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Human Tornado vs. Mitch Franklin vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Jason Blade- 5/10
I was quite amazed that Tornado didn’t win this match, as putting him in there with two students and a barely-known FIP guy seemed designed to showcase him. I guess Gabe had bigger plans for the YRR than it seemed.
HUMAN TORNADO PROMO- he says he isn’t here to win. He is here to bring more women to the shows and also â€"start a stable†of the female wrestlers. In particular, he wants to bang Lacey.
Lacey came out and yelled at him for objectifying winning and preached the Age of the Fall gospel that Tornado’s view of women was a symptom of something that was wrong with society. Lacey vowed to teach Tornado a lesson in â€"respect†and went to slap him, but Tornado ducked. Tornado made fun of her. She want to slap him again, but he ducked again. This made Lacey look like such a chump that I really felt bad for her. Jimmy Jacobs showed up to defend his woman, coming off like the world’s biggest babyface, and he didn’t waste a single second going immediately to his spike and threatening to stab Tornado in the eye. Tornado slinked off, making him look like crap as well. Tornado came off like SUCH a huge douche here, and not in the fun way that a guy like Austin Aries or Roderick Strong or Chris Hero can play it. In retrospect it was a good thing that Tornado’s injury forced ROH to replace him with Rhett Titus in the upcoming Rhett/Daizee/Delirious angle because with Tornado just being such an arrogant piece of crap, I just don’t see how it would be possible that Daizee would have anything to do with him.
Jimmy then introduced the newest member of the Age of the Fall: Zack Gowen.
THE AGE OF THE FALL (Zack Gowen & Jimmy Jacobs) (w/Lacey) vs. THE VULTURE SQUAD (Jigsaw & Ruckus) (w/Julius Smokes & Mercedes Martinez)- 6.5/10
A poorly-timed loss for the Age of the Fall because the earlier segment made me really want to see Jimmy get the win and celebrate happily with Lacey, but the Vulture Squad did need to win going into their tag title match tomorrow night, so unfortunately it didn’t happen.
REBECCA BAYLESS INTERVIEWS AUSTIN ARIES- He gives her one word answers. This was done to 1) tell us that Aries nose got broken during his earlier match, and 2) to remind us that the Age of the Fall has been trying to recruit him.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FINALS: Kevin Steen vs. Go Shiozaki- 7.25/10
Steen could have sold his knee better at times, but this was still pretty great.
KEVIN STEEN PROMO- decent
A decent show from ROH, but nothing you really need to see. This tournament win would lead to Steen having a series of matches with Nigel that would prove Steen’s viability as a main event singles star, so that gives this show some historic importance, but certainly not enough to fully recommend this show. You’ll enjoy it if you watch it, but I doubt it is one that I will ever rewatch unless I am rewatching a bunch of shows in order.
We open with the announcement that due to the weather, the following wrestlers won’t be appearing:
Nigel McGuinness, Davey Richards, Brent Albright, Tyler Black, Erick Stevens, and Roderick Strong. Unfortunately, these absences kick the sh*t out of almost everything build up on the two video wires they provided on this DVD, so don’t watch those because they’re essentially useless (even worse, those video wires made me go on an ultimately vain quest to find a copy of FIP Redefined on so that I could see the amazing-looking Strong vs. Stevens title match they showed clips of). Instead, Bobby Cruise announced that tonight we would see an eight-man single elimination tournament fr a future shot at the ROH World Title.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero- 6.75/10
A GREAT exchange of submissions and hard strikes.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Kevin Steen vs. Delirious- 5.75/10
A fun little match.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Austin Aries vs. El Generico- 7/10
Aries worked on the neck all match. That backslide was probably supposed to be the finish instead of the roll-up right after it, but it worked almost as well the way they did it.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND MATCH: Go Shiozaki vs. Necro Butcher- 5.5/10
Mission objective: get Go’s chops over. Mission accomplished. I started to feel really sad for the Necro Butcher. I really didn’t like the fact that they used weapons in a regular match and no one seemed to care.
THE LARRY SWEENEY SHOW WITH SPECIAL GUEST SHANE HAGADORN- long and boring, but at least the one line where Sweeney gave Hagadorn a business card to give to Adam Pearce would actually lead to something.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL MATCH: Kevin Steen vs. Bryan Danielson- 7.5/10
Steen works over Dragon’s leg, just like Rocky did earlier. They had a GREAT match that build very well.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL MATCH: El Generico vs. Go Shiozaki- 7/10
REBECCA BAYLESS INTERVIEWS ROCKY ROMERO- Apparently Becky was not fired after unprofessionally blowing off work to go clubbing with the YRR at the last show. Apparently she’s not into Rocky, though, as he tried to get her to come back to his hotel room and she refused.
The actual content of Rocky’s promo let us know that Rocky didn’t seem to care about losing because he had injured Bryan Danielson’s leg, and he was suggesting that Nigel McGuinness offer him a title shot in exchange for this favor (part of the intended gimmick for this show was that Dragon and Nigel would choose each other’s opponents ahead of their world title match tomorrow night and while Nigel did face Rocky to pick Dragon, the second part of that was scrapped when the weather prevented both Nigel and Dragon’s chosen opponent for him, Brent Albright, from making it to the show). Unfortunately, this hint of a Romero vs. McGuinness ROH World Title match never lead to anything.
FOUR CORNER SURVIVAL MATCH: Human Tornado vs. Mitch Franklin vs. Pelle Primeau vs. Jason Blade- 5/10
I was quite amazed that Tornado didn’t win this match, as putting him in there with two students and a barely-known FIP guy seemed designed to showcase him. I guess Gabe had bigger plans for the YRR than it seemed.
HUMAN TORNADO PROMO- he says he isn’t here to win. He is here to bring more women to the shows and also â€"start a stable†of the female wrestlers. In particular, he wants to bang Lacey.
Lacey came out and yelled at him for objectifying winning and preached the Age of the Fall gospel that Tornado’s view of women was a symptom of something that was wrong with society. Lacey vowed to teach Tornado a lesson in â€"respect†and went to slap him, but Tornado ducked. Tornado made fun of her. She want to slap him again, but he ducked again. This made Lacey look like such a chump that I really felt bad for her. Jimmy Jacobs showed up to defend his woman, coming off like the world’s biggest babyface, and he didn’t waste a single second going immediately to his spike and threatening to stab Tornado in the eye. Tornado slinked off, making him look like crap as well. Tornado came off like SUCH a huge douche here, and not in the fun way that a guy like Austin Aries or Roderick Strong or Chris Hero can play it. In retrospect it was a good thing that Tornado’s injury forced ROH to replace him with Rhett Titus in the upcoming Rhett/Daizee/Delirious angle because with Tornado just being such an arrogant piece of crap, I just don’t see how it would be possible that Daizee would have anything to do with him.
Jimmy then introduced the newest member of the Age of the Fall: Zack Gowen.
THE AGE OF THE FALL (Zack Gowen & Jimmy Jacobs) (w/Lacey) vs. THE VULTURE SQUAD (Jigsaw & Ruckus) (w/Julius Smokes & Mercedes Martinez)- 6.5/10
A poorly-timed loss for the Age of the Fall because the earlier segment made me really want to see Jimmy get the win and celebrate happily with Lacey, but the Vulture Squad did need to win going into their tag title match tomorrow night, so unfortunately it didn’t happen.
REBECCA BAYLESS INTERVIEWS AUSTIN ARIES- He gives her one word answers. This was done to 1) tell us that Aries nose got broken during his earlier match, and 2) to remind us that the Age of the Fall has been trying to recruit him.
#1 CONTENDERSHIP TOURNAMENT FINALS: Kevin Steen vs. Go Shiozaki- 7.25/10
Steen could have sold his knee better at times, but this was still pretty great.
KEVIN STEEN PROMO- decent
A decent show from ROH, but nothing you really need to see. This tournament win would lead to Steen having a series of matches with Nigel that would prove Steen’s viability as a main event singles star, so that gives this show some historic importance, but certainly not enough to fully recommend this show. You’ll enjoy it if you watch it, but I doubt it is one that I will ever rewatch unless I am rewatching a bunch of shows in order.