ROH Round Robin Challenge
DANIELS PROMO - A good promo that did a perfect job as exposition, explaining the company’s major angle for someone who might not have seen the first show, and establishes the major angle for this show (the Round Robin between Daniels, Low Ki, & Dragon)
DA HIT SQUAD INTERACT WITH THE FANS - Not bad, per se, but definitely unnecessary and tedious. This is the sort of thing that, IMO, should be DVD extra bonus footage.
DIVINE STORM & BRYAN DANIELSON BACKSTAGE SEGMENT - kind of awkward, but I guess it establishes Dragon as being both dangerous and a bit of both a badass and a jerk.
ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE MATCH #1:
Great aftermath, too.
Nana talks for way too long, and no one cares. Then Da Hit Squad come out and save us from this crap. The most entertaining part of this whole thing was the various bits of back and forth between Gargiulo and Corino about Simply Luscious (Corino’s legit girlfriend). Then The Christopher Street Connection come out and Da Hit Squad toss Tuttle, and then Luscious onto Nana and the CSC (it looked to me like they only tossed Luscious because Tuttle botched the bump- she hit it perfectly, though). Then we get some backstage stuff as the CSC try to give Tuttle mouth-to-mouth, but Nana pulls him away.
THE BOOGIE KNIGHTS BACKSTAGE - I have no f*cking idea what happened here. Something about chainsaws.
We got two good backstage promos to set this match up, which really helped give it a story going in, which the wrestlers told very well.
XAVIER PROMO - Good (and, with hindsight, about 6 shows later, it is great)
JAMES MARITATO PROMO - Great stuff, explaining why he wants to get away from the FBI gimmick (which would set up his feud with Tony Mamaluke)
SPEECH BY THE STATE ATHLETIC COMMISSIONER - He tells them “no blood and no cursing.” LOL.
Basically a glorified squash that only went as long as it did to give the announcers on the tape time to put over this angle where, apparently, one of the Boogie Knights pooped in announcer Eric Gargiulo’s bag.
LOW KI PROMO - Good.
ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE MATCH #2:
AFTERMATH - AMAZING! So many little things that would become important were established here (some of which would wouldn’t understand until half a year later). All of this is proof that Gabe always has a grand plan of some sort.
Ouch. You really couldn’t even see the injury… but you just knew it was bad.
Great match. Good stuff with Mark on the outside afterwards, too.
BACKSTAGE SEGMENT - Gabe and two or three other people go and show us an online poll on the ROH website on Gabe’s desktop, and they put Dragon over a bit. This was kind of awkward, but wasn’t too long.
ELIMINATION LUCHA RULES TAG TEAM MATCH:
LOW KI PROMO - Okay
ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE MATCH #3 WITH KEN SHAMROCK AS SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE:
JUST PERFECT! This is one of the most “real” wrestling matches I have ever seen in my life. Absolutely amazing! Brilliant submission wrestling, hard striking, great technical wrestling and psychology. Probably cracks my top 10 favorite matches of all-time. Just plain PERFECT!
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was an AWESOME show from ROH. The bad stuff is quite bad, and the commentary is terrible (imagine having two Booker T’s doing commentary), but the majority of the show is great, with an absolutely INCREDIBLE main event. Absolutely worth buying. Go out and find it if you can!
1. Corino keeps insisting that the Angel’s Wings (a variation of a facebuster) targets the neck and the back of the head
2. One of the announcers (their voices are way too similar, making them hard to tell apart) says that the Coliseum is in Greece.
DA HIT SQUAD INTERACT WITH THE FANS - Not bad, per se, but definitely unnecessary and tedious. This is the sort of thing that, IMO, should be DVD extra bonus footage.
DIVINE STORM & BRYAN DANIELSON BACKSTAGE SEGMENT - kind of awkward, but I guess it establishes Dragon as being both dangerous and a bit of both a badass and a jerk.
ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE MATCH #1:
Bryan Danielson vs. Christopher Daniels - 7.5/10
Great aftermath, too.
DA HIT SQUAD vs. PRINCE NANA & “TOWEL BOY” ERIC TUTTLE (w/Simply Luscious) - No rating. Bad segment.
Nana talks for way too long, and no one cares. Then Da Hit Squad come out and save us from this crap. The most entertaining part of this whole thing was the various bits of back and forth between Gargiulo and Corino about Simply Luscious (Corino’s legit girlfriend). Then The Christopher Street Connection come out and Da Hit Squad toss Tuttle, and then Luscious onto Nana and the CSC (it looked to me like they only tossed Luscious because Tuttle botched the bump- she hit it perfectly, though). Then we get some backstage stuff as the CSC try to give Tuttle mouth-to-mouth, but Nana pulls him away.
THE BOOGIE KNIGHTS BACKSTAGE - I have no f*cking idea what happened here. Something about chainsaws.
CHRISTIAN YORK & JOEY MATTHEWS vs. CW ANDERSON & ELAX - 5.75/10
We got two good backstage promos to set this match up, which really helped give it a story going in, which the wrestlers told very well.
XAVIER PROMO - Good (and, with hindsight, about 6 shows later, it is great)
JAMES MARITATO PROMO - Great stuff, explaining why he wants to get away from the FBI gimmick (which would set up his feud with Tony Mamaluke)
XAVIER vs. JAMES MARITATO - 6/10
SPEECH BY THE STATE ATHLETIC COMMISSIONER - He tells them “no blood and no cursing.” LOL.
THE BOOGIE KNIGHTS vs. THE NATURAL BORN SINNERS - 2.25/10
Basically a glorified squash that only went as long as it did to give the announcers on the tape time to put over this angle where, apparently, one of the Boogie Knights pooped in announcer Eric Gargiulo’s bag.
LOW KI PROMO - Good.
ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE MATCH #2:
Christopher Daniels vs. Low Ki - 7/10
AFTERMATH - AMAZING! So many little things that would become important were established here (some of which would wouldn’t understand until half a year later). All of this is proof that Gabe always has a grand plan of some sort.
CHRIS MARVEL vs. PAUL LONDON (w/Rudy Boy Gonzalez) - No rating
Ouch. You really couldn’t even see the injury… but you just knew it was bad.
SPANKY vs. JAY BRISCOE (w/Mark Briscoe) - 7/10
Great match. Good stuff with Mark on the outside afterwards, too.
BACKSTAGE SEGMENT - Gabe and two or three other people go and show us an online poll on the ROH website on Gabe’s desktop, and they put Dragon over a bit. This was kind of awkward, but wasn’t too long.
ELIMINATION LUCHA RULES TAG TEAM MATCH:
Divine Storm vs. Amazing Red & Brian XL vs. The SAT- 6.75/10
LOW KI PROMO - Okay
ROUND ROBIN CHALLENGE MATCH #3 WITH KEN SHAMROCK AS SPECIAL GUEST REFEREE:
Bryan Danielson vs. Low Ki - 10/10
JUST PERFECT! This is one of the most “real” wrestling matches I have ever seen in my life. Absolutely amazing! Brilliant submission wrestling, hard striking, great technical wrestling and psychology. Probably cracks my top 10 favorite matches of all-time. Just plain PERFECT!
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was an AWESOME show from ROH. The bad stuff is quite bad, and the commentary is terrible (imagine having two Booker T’s doing commentary), but the majority of the show is great, with an absolutely INCREDIBLE main event. Absolutely worth buying. Go out and find it if you can!
STUPID ANNOUNCER QUOTES
1. Corino keeps insisting that the Angel’s Wings (a variation of a facebuster) targets the neck and the back of the head
2. One of the announcers (their voices are way too similar, making them hard to tell apart) says that the Coliseum is in Greece.